The Denison review. [volume] (Denison, Iowa) 1867-current, 1904-01-06
OPERA HOUSE FUNERAL
PYRE FOR HUNDREDS.
Women and Children Perish in Fire in
Iroquois Theatre, Chicago. Bodies
Piled in Layers. Scenes found by
Firemen Inside Beggar Descrip-
ton.

fore Others lay with arms stretched
out in the direction toward which lay
life and safety. holding in their hands
fragments of garments not their own.
They had evidently been torn from the
bodies of others whom they had pulled
down aud trampled under foot as they
fought for life.
Bod es were Piled in Layers
AS the police removed layer after
layer of dead in these doorways, the
sight became so sickening that police
men and firemen; hardened as they are
TO horrible scenes, turned away 10 r.
ror. The bodies were in such an mex
tricable mass, and SO tightly were they
lammed between the sides of the door
and the walls that it was impossible to
lift them one by one and carry them
oat The only possible thing to do was
to seize leg or arm or piece of cloth
ing and pull with main strength, drag
,gng several enbwined bodies away
together.
Policemen ahd firemen worked at the
task with tears running down their
cheeks, and the sobs of other rescuers
could be heard in the street A num-
Der of men were compelled to abandon
the work and seek The open air, while
m a nj ho
been shaken, proceeded With the un
tagging. As the bodies were dragged
out OF the water soaked, blackened
mass of corpses more horrifying sights
were disclosed.
There we're women, whose clothing
was torn completely from the bodies
above the waist, whose breasts had
beet trampled into pulp and whose
faces had been marked beyond identi-
fcation.
In the auditorium there was no such
nun, 0er OF dead in any one spot. out
bodies la, - sno ifsv ana second oai'
coates in great numbers.
-
In some places corpsess were piled up
in the aisles three or four .eeep, where
one had fallen and others tr ppec over
the PROSTATE forms. These had died
as they fell, evidently sutfocated by
gas.
4 AWf,:l Sights in the Theatef.
Others were bent over backs Of seats
where they had been thrown by the
rush of people for the doors and killed
without chance to escape from their
seats One mAn WAS found bent back
wards nearly double, his spinal column
having been fractured by the rush. A
woman was found cut nearly In two by.
the back OF y seat over which she had
been forced, face downward, before che
could enter the aisles.
ln the aisles, as they approached the
doors. the bodies became more numer-
Gus Bodies lay in every attitude,
Some were hslf naked. with looks OF
agony and terror on their faces.
The faces Of dszens of people had
been trampled in by the heels OF scores
OF others who rushed over them. In
one aisle, the body of q man was found
with not . vestage Of clothing. flesh,
hair or bone remaining above the hips;
nothing but bones. Even the skull
was gone. The upper portion of the
body had been cut into mince-meat and
carried away by the feet OF those who
trampled him.
The skull at q late hour had not been
discovered. The clothing on the lower
limbs is in such condition as to be
hardly recognizable. The theater had
been open only short time, and all
had not been placed. fire
escape In the rear of the building was
not up. Small iron balconies to which
the iron ladder was to be attached
were in place, but the ladder had not
yet been attached.