The Leon reporter. (Leon, Iowa) 1887-1930, 1904-01-07

Nm, knoxville
LAND, Knoxville
edar Rapids
Darlington
ARDS, Clinton
'TZ, Keokuk
Z, Keokuk.
severely hurt.
The accounts Of the origin of the fire
are conflicting and none of them are
certain, but the best reason given is
that an electric wire near the lower
part of a piece of drop scenery, broke
and caused short circuit setting fire
to the scenery. The fire spread rapidly
toward the front of the stage, causing
the chorus, which was on the stage, to
flee to the wings, screaming. The fire
in itself up to this time was not serious
and probably could have been checked
had not the asbestos curtain failed to
work. AS soon as the fire was discover
ed, Eddy Foy, chief comedian of the
company, shouted for the asbestos
curtain to be lowered, and it was i'm
mediately dropped about half way.
Then it stuck.
The fire thus was given f1ue through
which strong draft was formed, aided
by the doors which had been thrown
open in the front of the theatre. The
flames shot roaring, tongue shaped,
through the opening over the heads of
the people on the first floor, almost lick
ing the faces of those in the first bal
cony, and smoothered many where they
sat.
Immediately following this rush of
flames, came an explosion, which lifted
the entire roof of the theatre from the
walls, SCATTERING the great skylight
into fragments. A hail of glass, the
tottering galleries, the qualling of the
building and cry of "fire" from several
persons in the rear, started the panic.
The entire audience rose as one person
and made for the doors. 1t is believed
that the explosion was caused by flames
coming in contact with the gas reser-
voirs within the theatre.
AS near as can be estimated, at the
present time, about eighteen hundred
persons were in the theatre. Three
hundred of these were on the first floor,
the remainder being in the balconies,
and in the aisles back of them.
] Most of the spectators in the rush
for the outer air seem to have chosen
to flee to the left entrance and to at
tempt to make their way down the
eastern stairway leading into the lobby.
Outside of the people burned and suffo-
Gated by gas, it was in these two
doorways on the first and second bal
comics that the greatest loss of life oc-
CURED. When the firemen entered the
building the dead were found stretched
in pile reaching from the head of the
stairway at least eight feet from the
door back to point about five feet in
rear of the door.
This mass of bodies in the center of
the doorway reached within two feet
of the Intel. All the corpses at this
point were women and children. Here
a fight for life took place that dismem-
bered many persons in death. This is
shown by the aspect of the people as
they lay when found.
! Women on top of these masses of dead
had been overtaken by death as they
crawled on hands and knees over the
bodies of those who had died before
i 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 and
trampled under foot as they fought fol
life.
i 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 in
horror, the bodies were in such an in.
extricable mass, and SO tightly were
!, damned between the sides Of the door
and the walls that it was impossible tc
lift them one by one and carry then
4 out. The only possible thing to do was
I to seize a leg or arm OF a piece O
!, clothing and pull with main strength
i dragging several entwined bodies away