Eagle River review. [volume] (Eagle River, Wis.) 1890-1927, 1904-01-08
The classic outlines of the theater, the
= :, 'tplush hangings. the arched win
"c'rs stained glass. the state
The classi

Is, 'tpluSh hangings, the arched win
8 ~ stained glass, the state
Ie- Dlelary roc q morgue five minutes
y to partak" .sc.e ribbon of fame made
+ ~,,uy along the stage.
Women and girls in the gallery never
had a chance for life. They met the end
still seated in their theater chairs, their
poor, impotent hands burnt into one COM
mingled cinder with the sides Of the seats
they had grasped wlGen the panic came.
Others who had managed by the
strength Of terror to get into the aisles
found their awful ending in mingled
doom of smoke and fire and tearing of
limbs i'll the passages and the open
space back of the seats. Dozens Of 9th
ers, swept carried, dragged or thrown
out to the stairways, and even beyond
them down to the landings in actual
sight of the daylight that streamed
through the big front doors-in sight of
the throngs outside, the fire wagons and
the smoking norses-died in great masses
seven and eight feel high, IBIS mingled
fearfully together, clothing burnt OH ana
faces caught in their last agonies, all
turned toward the doors they could not
reach
From windows at the north and west
|
blinded by the smoke and crazed beyond
any possibility of helping themselves fur
Their or of taking advantage of the aid
extended to them from the upper floors
of buildings facing the theatcr. Ladders,
planks ropes, poles everything that
could possibly serve to assist these poor
creatures in their battle for life, were
rugged and turned into bridges, but few
| got across alive.
These things were utilized fifteen min
utes after the first alarm to drag the
| charred bodies across, and over them
passed rapidly one blackened corpse af-
ter another till every building on the
north and west end was filled with them.
Barely five minutes after the first
alarm was turned in firemen were strug-
Cling into the theater, making their way,
! in some miraculous manner, through the
maddened mob that was pouring out or
the auditorium, and doing what little
they could, not only to check the ire
which was fast turning the whole interior
shell into a caldron, but to aid the fran
tic hundreds in the upper balconies by
ladders stretched from the main floor.
A few-thirty at most-were rescued
in this way, and then the firemen, after
| controlling the flames, abandoned thelf
lengths, of hose to go with the fast gath
ering police and manfully reach to what
waited for them on the upper stalrWays
and in the balcony seats.
| Here was no more struggling, no more
frantic haste. Hundreds, with homes III
every part of the city still showing at
their windows Christmas wreaths, sun
filled with the decorations of the monday
season, lay beyond all thought OF worldly
things in silent heaps of death.
There were no men, even among those
most accustomed to scenes OF destruction
and mortality, who could a1pproach these
fearful, stilled masses calmly. Time anu
time again they started toward the upper
stairways, caught one another by the
arms and cried like little children, stun
ned by the horror of 1t all.
And still outside the main entrance 10
the building, passers-by, attracted by the
presence of the fire engines, had no
knowledge of the fearful disaster inside.
Tens of thousands passed ana repasseo
within a block without knowing IT. even
hundreds of men stationed IN the roau
way. were asking one another IL lheie
had been any accident, if any among lhe
audience had been badly hurt.
Rut when from the inside began 70
stream a procession of hremen' carrsliis ;
between them the charred remains "
those who a little while before had peeil
honpy in the enjoyment of an AFTERNOON
,,Inosnre the scene without changed as IL
by magic ~ o;+r
From every business street OF the CITY,
men. whose wives and familles hau sone
70 the matinee, streamed, with "hl'e
faces and eyes blinded with haiI-lro%ei :
toars over to the theater, anu screanieo
like madmen the names OF those they
were seeking. Many of them louhu
their loved ones safe, but sun nan claA-
cd in surrounding stores ana holeis
others discovered them among the oeiu'
identified by some particle OF oress' q
half-charred hair ribbon, shoe' VI q
locket.
Doctors and Nurses Arrive.
Soon from every hospital in the city
came ombulances, nurses and physicians
nr;osts and Sisters of Mercy stood sue
by side with surgeons and great panu'
IF women from st. Luke's, the frespy
terian and nearly every other nospltal
in the city. waiting patiently IKE SOL
i d;ars till the moment they Should De
called on. 80 pom
Two large restaurants, one Oh ran
dolnh and one on Dearborn street, nuns
+ba;r fables and counters on top Oh oi,e
another and laid out great heaps OF rape
l;nen TO be used for bandages ioI ,n s,
,,onnded and coverings for the deao. al Al
az groat State street stores threw theif
INC .o,, ord rpnt TO the theaIer