The citizen-Republican. (Scotland, Bon Homme County, S.D.) 1???-19??, 1904-01-07
OF THE HORROR
Scenes Described by People Who Took
Part in Them at the Burning
Theafer

Chicago, Dec. 31.-William G.. Sellers,
house fireman Of the Iroquois theater
who was severely burned in trying to
lower the asbestos curtain, describes
the scene on the stage n the cause of
the fire, as follows:
Il was standing in the wings when I
heard the explosion, and then immedi-
ately afterward a cry of fire on the
stage and all over the theater. Look
ing up, / say that the curtain was
ablaze, and at once ran for the fire
curtain. We got 1t half way down,
when the wind, rushing in from the
broken skylights, bellied it out so that
1t caught and we could not bulge it.
With h stage hands l climbed to
where 1t was suspended, and together
we tried to push it down. Our efforts
We're futile. and seeing that ne man
could move the fire curtain and that
the stage was a Of flames, I
turned my attention to warning the
actors and trying to save those who
were In trouble. The women were fran
tic, and the men not much better. T
stood at the stairway leading to the
dressing rooms where the chorus girls
We're. and kept some from geing up to
get their street clothes. AS the others
came down I forced them to leave the
building. I don't know how they ever
got out, all those girls and men, who
came crswding down the stairs, for the
slage entrance was blocked by a mass
of flames"
A Heroic Bishop.
Among the hundreds of persons who
rushed to the rescue when the call of
fire was heard On the streets was
BisaeP Samuel Fallows. wne was pass
ing the theater. Without hesitation he
made his way through the darkness
Il smoke to the top gallery and as
sisted in carrying out the victims.
Goo forbid that 1 ever again see
a heartrenGing sight" said the
bishop last night. IT have been in
but in all my experience I have never
seen anything half so grewsome as the
sight that met my yes when, with
the aid Of a tiny lantern. I was finally
able to penetrate the inlsy darkness of
that balcony. There was a pile of
twisting n bleeding bodies ten feet
high, with blackened faces and rem
nants Of charred clothing clinging to
them. Some We're alive and moaning
In their agony. Others, and by far the
greater number, were dead"
The presence OF children, hundreds
of whom We're In the audience, and the
efforts Of frantic mothers to save their
young caused much of the pandemon-
ium.
Alexander II. Revell, who had sent
ms little daughter Margaret with q
friend in charge OF a maid to see the
performance. heard of the fire soon af-
ter 1t started.
He drove hurried1y from his store to
the burning theater. One of the first
persons he encountered was the maid,
who Informed him tina the two chill
dren had been saved without injury.
MI. Revell then fastened into the the
alter and participated In the rescue.
Horrors of the Balconies.
4 worked In the upper balconies"
a he. The sight Of those ome
their little children, with their
clenched fists raised as though trying
TO beat their way to safety, and then
down in the very act, is too
to attempt to describe. I as
sisted In carrying down more than
bodies"
Sheriff Barrett and a score or depu-
ties assisted in carrying cut injured
geople and keeping order among the
moi of frantic relatives.
II have never before witnessed such
scene in all my life," said Sheriff
Barrett. "OH all sides were heaps of
mangled and charred humanity. We
out SO many injured and dead
we We're unable to keep count OF
them. Crazed men fought to get with
IN the corridors, thinking to find their
oved ones among the piles of D
Men stood on the sidewalk and called
the names Of wives and children,
as though the dead might hear them
q. Leavitt, ticket taker at the the
ater, was at the main entrance. He
burst open the three double doors and
ran to turn in a fire alarm.
= heard the cry and saw the crowd
rushing for the door, said he. Il
nnl1lH not Saa&fIne {1rn - vi r. J&..-
think 1t was SO bad as 1t really was.
When the first OF the frenzied audi
reached the outside door I tried to
calm them, 5u in less than q minute
1 saw that 1t was no use, and I burst
open the doors. Then l ran for a fire
alarm box. Coming back, I assisted in
rescue as much as I could. but was
overrun with the terrified crowd that
pushed and showed each other out of
he doorway, and l was caught / n the
mass Of struggling humanity and .ar-
ried out to the street,
Miss ~PIarnondon's Description
theater party given by Miss Char
,otte E.. P~laInondola OF Chicago had q
narrow escape. The party was made
women and Miss Elsie Fillmore Of AS
Loria, Ore, and Miss Mary Peters Of
Columbus, Q. Miss PIamonden was
the first of h~erspartysto notice the fire.
She called the attention il other mem
Of her party to the blaze, ana
hey watched II. Miss P1amiondosfs said
& could see little girls and boys III
she ore3lestsa chairs pointiilg upward
10 the Slowly moving line Of Dame.
One OF tie stage ands.EWeara over
alls.aPpearNa tsaoresthe foolligsata ana
requested thsSSaudlencs to q THAR
seatsYsaa ssWassuoSdaagsrss Edtsfe
Eoy Their arrtsG gNtfae frollg tila