The daily morning journal and courier., 1904-01-01
ICHICAGo FIRE CATASTROPHE TOTAL DEAD NeT LIKELY TO
 EXCEED 575.

List Last Night 5eo-The Cause of the
 Fire-Theatricai People and Members
 of Audience Diner-Former Declare ts
 started wish an ExpIosion While
 Latter Say They Saw Flames some
 Time Before the Explosion Occurred
 No ventiiatiug shaft.
 Chicago, Dec. S1-For the first time since Chicago has possessed bells to peal. whistles to shriek, and horns to blow. the old year was allowed silently to take.its place in history and the New Year permitted to come with no evil dence of joy at it's birth.
 In an official proclamation this after noon by Mayor Garter H. Harrison, he made the suggestion that the usual New Years eve celebration be for this time omitted. The idea found ready response in the hearts bf the people and the mayors words in fact only gave utterance to the unexpressed Thoughts that had filled them all. The appalling. calapity of yesterday In the Iroquois theaer has cast Chi ago into the deepest grief and gloom,
 pd for the time being at least seems
 rGave chilled and dsadened all the oruln:ry ambitions of life. Business to-day was perfosp1e9 with the sole View te acs,al Necessity and even that much was Carried out in a perfunctory manner.
 For the second time in her life the city of Chicago has been stricken to the heart. Not only have many of her sons and daughters met death in a va riety of horrible and torturing forms. but the blow has fallen almost as heavily upcn the strangers within her gates. There is hardly a village or town within radius of one hundred miles of Chicago whose people are not directly or indirectly interested in the piles of dead or in the injured which Ill the hospitals, or in the fate of those Who seem to have passed from human knowledge in the fact that it is believed they were in the ill-fated structure and pr whom no word has since beer heard.
 The list of dead continues as it was given last nigth, in the neighborhood of oeo. It IS generally accepted at this lime that the most accurate estimate is
 At midnight the list of known dead
 increased to 471. TherA were still
 keen eighty and ninAty bodies
 Aing ide1tification in the various
 ales TSree hundred alSd thirty
 people Eere~ still reporteSd miss s t as Rber Is-lakgslx ip excess Sf the Gad that still await iden- tification mary of these must have re- turned to ther homes.
 This numbe, will be increased son1e- what as there are people in the hospi- tals who cannbt survive for any length of time. It il believed, however, that the total number of dead will not in any event exceed 575. Including the missing, it is estimated that the total number of casualties at the present time is approximately 1000 There are among the missing the names of many who are at tllsir homes and of some who were not at the theater at all. Tn the first excitement following the ca Iamity these psople were reported by their relatives as among the missing and numbers If them have since re- turned to their homes and no report of this fact has ben made to police head quarters. Thar names, however, still swell the list of the missing. When the names of the dead who are still to be Identified have been subtracted from the list os the missing it is probable that the extent of the catastrophe will be fully revealfl.
 There was esJnated discussion to-day among firYfnenl employees of the thea ter aszserchitets as to the cause of the-Sfire. Accents differ to-day as widely as they varied last night. The Theatrical peopl are practically a unit lin declaring tha the fire started with an explosion, an in this they are fatty contradicted by cores of people in the audience, who delare that they saw the fire creeping aloE the edge of the cur tain for several minutes before the ex- plosion took plae. These statements are substantiatet by the stories of a number of peopl, who left their seats after seeing the faze and were we'll on .<fheir way to the treet when overtaken by the frightened rush of those they had left behind tenn.
 Miss Anna Woodward, a IaIv who oc- cupied a seat in he second balcony. gave strong evience to-day on this point He said:
 T was in thesecond balcony. and plainly saw the fe. I am a large wo- man, weighing else to 1S0 pounds. and made up my nnd that if there was going to be q Daic, it would be wise for. me to beat tito the street. I left
 "A Seat in the bscony, went down the
 tairs to the tirt balcony and from there started to ass out through the Every door in whiclso many people were killed a eew minutes later. The door was closed and ahaan standing on the outside refused | open it so that I could pass out. Wether he was an em- ploye of the theaer or not, I do not know, but he had svidently determined that no one shoul leave the theater, and in so doing strted a panic. I was leaving quietly ui to this time, but when he refused toallow me to pass out sRceab1y, I deterriined to get out if l
 d to make all sots of noise. I went
 long the balcony bout ten feet to a
 Ass partition and mashed it with the
 sssrit Of my umbreh went out and
 -sSn the stairs. Vhen I was about r l,A-