Virginia citizen. (Irvington, Va.) 1891-1921, 1904-01-08
CHILDREN AND
WOMEN MANGLED.
A thousand Dead, Injured or
Missing in Most Awful Holo.
cauSt Of A Generation.
FIRE AT THE NEW IROQUOIs
Plunges A Scene Of Merriment
Into A Terrific Death
Grapple For 1900
Persons.
VICTIMS BODIES PILED TWELVE
DEEP IN TEN MINUTES.

w
DEEP IN TEN MINUTES.
By actual count 564 persons were
killed in fire panic at the new
Iroquois Theatre, Chicago, Wednes-
day afternoon of last week.
The panic, one of the most awful
which ever occurred in a theatre,
started while the second act of the
play, "Mr. Bluebeard." was being
produced. In the frightful mo-
ments which followed people per-
ished by the score. To add to the
horror, the gas reservoirs exploded,
lifting the entire roof from the
walls.
In the mad rush for the doors
women and children were the chief
victims.
Some of the killed were burned
to death, many were suffocated by
gas and scores were trampled in the
terrified plunge for the exits. About
1900 persons were at the matinee,
more than half of whom had their
mirthful enjoyment suddenly ended
in death. Only 800 escaped unin-
jured.
From pit to dome the house was
packed. Mothers and their little
ones had laughed themselves hoarse
at the antics of the chicf comedian.
1t was in the middle of the play,
and the chorus. smiling and frolic-
some, had just concluded singing a
moonlight song.
''There is the moon now!" cried a
little chap in the front row as q
curl of smoke and a tiny biz of
flame shot out from the wings to
the right of the stage. The chill
dren clapped their hands in glee.
Mothers laughed bit and the whole
audience was in fine humor. But
the flame reached out aud caught a
piece of infammable scenery that
hung over the center of the stage.
Instantly there was large ribbon
of flame. A calcium light on a
stand six feet above the level of the
stage had exploded and in a moment
everything back of the footlights
was broad wave of fire that lighted
the half-illuminated house with
weird effects.
Fear, uncomfortable and terrible,
reigned. Men and women fought
like wild beasts, filed only with the
desire for self-protection. Babies
slipped from their mothers up
lifted arms and in an instant their
lives were crushed underfoot, Girls
threw themselves from the balconies
and lay crushed and dying until
suffocation ended their misery. Those
In the orchestra seats, with easier
access to the doors, gradually made
their way to safety, but most Of them
threw aside wraps, pocketbooks, hats
everything that seemed to burden
them-in their rush for life and the
open air.
But in the balcony and the
gallery the demon of destruction
wrought his frightful work at will.
The hames and smoke gathering on
these upper floors caught the people
before they realized the full extent
of their danger. Then when the
full meaning of the disaster came
to frightened ones they fought and
battled with one another for safety,
battled like stampeded animals, with
the smoke curling about them, every-
thing plunged into absolute dark
ness, not even friendly lantern to
show them the way out of this dance
of death.
"There were but few men in the
audience" said an eye witness, "but
/ saw several of them pulling and
pushing women and children aside
as they fought like maniacs to reach
the exits. 1Isaw number of little
children otrampled under foot and
none OF them rose again. In the
balcony the scene was beyond nv
power to describe There was a bic
black crush of human beings. each
apparently fighting everybody else"
Women who had managed by
strength or terror to get into the
aisles found their awful ending in a
mingled doom of smoke and fire
and tearing of limbs in the aisles
and inthe open space back of the
seats. Dozens of Others, swept, car.
ried, dragged or thrown out to the
stairways and even beyond them to
the landings jim actual sight of the
daylight that streamed through the
big front doors in sight of the
throngs outside, with fire wagons
and the smoking horses, died in.
great masses 10 and s12 feet high.
limbs mingled fearfully together.
clothing burned of and faces caueht
in their last agonies, all turned to.
ward the doors they could not
reach.
And still outside the main en-
trance to the building many pass.
eFsby attracted by the presence of
the fire engines had no knowledge
of the fearful disaster inside. Tens.
OF thousands passed and repassed
within block without knowing it.
Hundreds of police officers stationed
In the roadway were asking one an
other If there had been any among
the audience badly hurt.
REscUERs BEGIN WORK.
Rapidly one blackened corpse after
another was brought out until it
seemed as if there was no place to
,ay them. The sidewalk of Ran.
doiPh street for 100 yards was cov-
ereo with these remains packed side
oy side and covered with white
blankets and tablecloths. Soon the
great entrance was choked with
them, and faster than morgue wap.
ons could take them away they were
deposited on the sidewalks and in
every building in the nelghborhood.