Custer County Republican. (Broken Bow, Neb.) 1882-1921, 1904-01-07

hospital The long tables offered ad.
mlrabie means of service, and upon
them the bleeding burned. and moan.
ing injured were laid.
Wlthln block are a dozen great
buildings occupied almost exclusively
by doctors, and in a remarkably short
tlme a great host of physicians came
to give voluntary service to those in
distress. They saved the lives of
scores OF women and children. fren-
zled with pain. who would have died
in the street or under the kindly shal.
ter OF the neighboring buildings.
Rush from Orchestra Seats.
Inc great majority of those who
occupied orchestra seats had ESCAPED
with. their lives, though scores were
badly hurt in the rush. Some were
Knocked down. and, with broken limbs.
were unable to rise. They had been
left to die with a number of women
who tainted from fright. With these
bodies were found the corpses of those
VINO had leaped from the balcony and
gallery.
In the exits of the balcony and gal
leries the greatest loss of life oc-
Cured. When the firemen went to re.
move the bodies they found 100 or
more piled in indescribable mass in
each place. The clothes were torn
completely away from some of the
bodies. Here and there a ieweled hand
protruded from the pile. All the faces
were distorted with the death agonies.
Moan from Heap of Dead.
From beneath this mangled mass of
humanity there suddenly came the
moan of woman. 1t was a cry of
anguish, not of pain. The cry. faint
though it was, pierced to the very
SOUL sounding above the yells of the
firemen, the means of agony from
within the smoke-filed auditorium.
and the shrieks of grief maddened
fathers and mothers, sisters and broth.
ers in the street without.
Trembling hands plunged their way
into the tangle of human forms. and
with a mighty effort pulled to the sur
face the woman-could such a thing
be human being?-from whose lips
ihUN NOiiN NhS VI y ne DldChtuGu lids
parted, and fireman bent over her
to catch the words.
Mother Love Is Uppermost.
MY child, my poor little boy!
Where Is he? Oh, do bring him to
me"
There in that awful hour her body
bruised beyond recognition in the mad
fight for life that followed the first
Hash OF flame across the stage-there
was mother love uppermost. Again
the trembling lips parted.
rs he safe? Tell me he is safe and
I can die"
He is safe the fireman muttered,
and all knew his reply was best.
She died, and her body was lifted
tenderly with those of the hundred
others in that one spot.
The calamity was so overwhelming
that the tiremen and the policemen
who were the first to reach the upper
part of the house could not realize it's
astounding extent. They began by
dragging body or two from the terri
Bile piles at the head of the stairways,
do IL lleS ulu not Know lne pies were
made of human bodies.
Gradually the full significance of the
catastrophe dawned upon them. All
the lights of the theater had been ex-
tinguished. The lanterns of the fire.
men cast only a dim glow over the
piles of dead. From the bodies arose
small curls of steam. The firemen had
drenched the piles before they knew
they were made up of human corpses.
Through the tiers of dead and dying
in the building all about men and
women searched with fren2ied faces.
Now and again searcher would find
one for whom he looked. One could
but turn the face from such scenes.