The L'Anse sentinel. (L'Anse, L.S., Mich.) 18??-current, 1904-01-09
AWFUL DISASTER
OCCURS IN CHICAGO
Fire Breaks Out During Matinee in Iroquois
Stricken the Audience
Attempts to Escape-Loss of
Life Placed at $50.

men working under his orders. In theil
first efforts to take out the dead. the
rescuing parties had much trouble
Numbers OF the dead were nearly nude
having been stripped of their clothing
in the rush for safety. The heat Of the
fire and the water thrown in extinguish-
ing 1t combined to make the bodies
Shiny and most difficult to handle.
There was less difficulty after q thou
sand blankets had been brought from
the store of Marshal Field & CO., half
b block away. Firemen and spectators
worked together in removing the last
200 bodies. which were taken from the
building in less than an hour. AS fast
as the blanketed forms were taken to
the street doctors examined them. The
dead were ordered taken away, the liv-
ing hurried to the temporary hospitals
in adjacent buildings.
Bodies Piled on Sidewalk.
When the dead became SO numerous
that the ambulances could not carry
them away as fast as taken. to the street
1t was the first thought of the rescuers
to carry the bodies to the shelter OF ad-
jacent business places. Twenty dead
were carried into Thompson's restas-
rant, east of the theater. There they
were piled beneath tables and covered
with tarpaulins and blankets from the
fire wagons. The crush of bodies final
ly became SO great that sheltering them
was impossible. Wrapped in blankets,
they were piled along the sidewalk for
a hundred feet. four narrow lanes divid-
ing the piles and affording passages for
the firemen and police.
Greatest Pm Country's History.
The Iroquois theater was vastly more
destructive to human life than any other
playhouse fire in the history of this
country. The fire next to II in point OF
lives lost occurred December 5. 1876. in
Conway's Brooklyn theater, Brooklyn,
N. Y. Here 295 of the audience persisted
in fierce flames. The day after Christ
mas in 1911, while the play. THE Bleed
ing Num-" was being performed in a
theater at Richs ond, Va, a fire started
that burned 10 persons to death, among
them the governor of the state, George
w. Smith. Only two European theater
catastrophes approach that of the local
playhouse. On December 9. 1891, the
Ring theater in Vienna burned and 875
lives were lost. In the destruction OF
Lehman's theater in st. Petersburg be-
tween GOO and 700 persons were killed
In the great Chicago fire of 1871. the
largest confiagration OF modern times
in which 2,124 acres were DEVASTATED
Managers Arrested.
Will J. Davis and Harry J. Powers
proprietors and managers Of the Iro-
quois theater. and George Williams
city building inspector. were placed un-
der arrest on the criminal charge OF
manslaughter. Warrants for the three
men, who have hitherto been unmolest-
ed by police and coroner Investigations
of the catastrophe. were issued Friday
night by Justice George w. Under
wood. at his residence. 1918 South Park
avenue. Arthur e. Hull. 244 lakewood
boulevard. who lost a wife and three
children, with their maid. In the holo-
caust, swore the complaint on which
the warrants were issued at the jus
tees house. my Office win prosecute
the cases and any similar ones when
they are brought to trial and we will
prosecute vigorously" said States At
torney Deneen when told OF the war
rants.
other ArrestS.
Eight stagemen and electricians of the
Inflated theater have been held in bonds
of 5000 each on charges of manslaugh-
ter due to criminal negligence. and 10
others, actors and chorus girls Of the
"Mr. Bluebeard, Jr." company are held
as witnesses for the coroner's inquest.
Dread Search Continues.
In the meantime the search of the
rows of charred dead at the morgues
by Borrowing friends and relatives con-
tinues. Over 400 of the 583 known dead
now have been identified Failing to
find scores of the missing in these
heaps of bodies, the search has been
turned to the private hospitals and
homes for more dead and dying. Coro-
ner Traeger has asked all citizens to
aid him in this quest Grief-crazed
friends and relatives of the missing
join In this appeal.
New Years day the black hearses
and the white began their slow way
through the city's streets. There are
not hearses enough to bury the dead; ;
to carry the charred. distorted bodies
from the sorrow darkened homes to the
waiting graves in the cemeteries.
Memorial Day.
Mayor Harrison in a proclamation
names to-day as q day OF mourning
throughout Chicago for the dead I'm the
Iroquois theater fire. The prociama-
ton follows: THE mayor announces
that the city hall will be closed all day
Saturday on account Of the calamity ~
the Iroquois theater. He respectfully
requests all business houses TO close
as a mark Of respect for the dead