Custer weekly chronicle. [volume] (Custer City, S.D.) 1890-1931, 1904-01-09
THEATER HORROR:
Death LIST REACHES 564

--zE
walls, SCATTERING he great skyligh'
into fragments. A hail of glass, th'
lettering galleries; the duakihg Of thu
building and a cry OF fire" from sew
erai persons in the rear started the
panic. The entire audience rose as ONT
person and made for the doors.
1t is believed that the explosion wa:
caused by the flames coming in contac'
with the gas reservoirs OF the theater.
Will j. Davis, manager of the the
alter, said after the catastrophe that Il
the people had remained In their seats
and had not been excited by the cry OF
fire and other noises not a single life
would have been lost.
This Is, however, contradicted by the
firemen, who found numbers of people
sitting in their seats. their faces direct.
ed toward the stage as IL the perform
ance was still going or. 1t was the
opinion of the fremen that these peo-
pie had been s~uffocated at once by the
flow of gas which came from behind
the asbestos curtain.
AS near as can be estimated about
1900 persons were in the theater. Three
bundled OF these were on the first
floor. the remainder being In the ball
comics and in the aisles back OF them.
Architecture CT Theatef.
The theater Is modelled after the
opera Comique in Paris. From the rear
OF each balcony there are three doors
leading out to p~assageways toward the
front of the theater. Two OF these door
ways are at the end of the balcony, one
being in The center.
Most of the spectators, in the rush
for the outer air, seem TO have chosen
to flee to the left entrance and to at
tempt 10 make their way down the
eastern stairway leading into the lob
by. Outside of the people burned and
suffocated by gas. 1t was in these two
doorways on the first and second bal
comics that the greatest loss OF life oc-
CURED. When the hremen entered the
building the dead were found stretched
in a pile reaching from the head of
the stairway at least eight feet from
the door back to a point about five feet
in the rear of the door.
This mass Of bodies at the center
doorway reached within two feet Of the
top of the hall. All the corpses at this
point were women and children. Here
a fight for life took place hat dis
mantled many persons in death. This
is shown by the aspect of the bodies
as they lay when found.
Women on top Of these masses Of dead
had been overtaken by death as they
crawled on hands and knees over the
bodies Of those who had died before. 9th
ers lay with arms stretched out in the d.
fecti6i Of life and safety, holding IN their
hands fragments OF garments not their
own. They had evidently been torn from
the bodies of others whom they had en-
10 pull down and trample under
foot as they fought fo- !!fe.
Scenes Of Horror.
AS the police reviewed layer after layer
Of dead In these doorwoys the sight be-
so sickening that policemen and fire.
men, hardened as they are to horTibls
scenes, turned away In horror. The bodies
were In such an ineXtricable mass, and
so tightly were they jammed between the
sides of the door and the walls that ii was
to lift them one by one and
carry them cut. The emily possible thing
to do was TO seize a leg or arm or a piece
of clothing and pull with main strength.
dragging several entwined bodies away
Policemen and fremen worked at the
task with teais running down their cheeks,
and the sobs Of other rescuer could be
IN the street.
A nuintef OF mth *erc compelled to
abandon the work and seek the opcii air,
while others whose nerves had not as yet
DISIl SH'AhSip pIOI1NNGu w IA
Cling.
A Whited SepuIcher.
There were fears that in the base
meht, beneath ten feet of muddy wa
ter would he found more victims of
the Smoke and flaries; The big fire en-
that had delug&d the place were
being utilized TO draw forth dozens
Of streams of thick, murky water from
the basement, while IA dozen firemen in
hip boots made a thorough search Of
basement for bodies.
The exterior of the theater presents
alfiloBt the snme appearance as before,
but its interior marked it as a true
sepulcher. Among the thou
sands Of bits of brilliantly ColoTed glass
shattered in the fight against the
lily mahy scorched bits of cloth
.ng and occasional fragments of
bodies.
From the upper galleries the view
was a reminder of a burned out vol
crater. In a saloon near the the
lter was guarded a huge pile OF gar
nentS II furS gathered up in the the
'ter after the fire.
Five bustiel bb skets were filled with
he purses, gloves and haudkerchiefs
II the fleeing mob of terror stricken
women.
Two barrels were needed to hold the
,yershoes, and shoes were found. The
great center of excitement was Roll
morgue, to which the majority
# the dead were taken. All the
norgues were surrounded, but about
were massed hundreds of
men, and surrounding them, like a huge
spread hundreds of weeping wom-
n and children.
The Morgues Sesieaed.
The numerous ponce stationed there
.ould not begin to handle the crowds,
md extra details were hurried TO the
morgue. on a lesser scale the
anne fearful siege was in progress at
he various other morgues.
Il. C.. Frady, president of the Stroll
yer Piano company. today after un-
search found five dead Of a
heater party of six headed by his
wife. Each one was found at a differ
mt morgue. One is still missing. Those
were Mrs. Lillian M. Frady,
lrs. j. II. SpindJer, Frady's sister,
SpindIer, aged 10, Leon Frady,
.ged 10. Mrs. William Rise, sister Of
Trady, is Still missing.
One Of the most peculiar identified
ions today was that of the headless
,ody of Boyer Alexander, aged 8. The
ads father, DIR. w. u. Alexander, had
leeplessly sought his son all night
1na, and today in examining the head
ess corpse of a child tie physician
his own watch, a birthday
resent from the father, found upon
he remains.
A pitifui scene attended the identi-
of Marjorie Edwards. IA years
Id, OF Clinton, la. Her father, w. NJ.
EDWARDS, who had been in Chicago on
visit, identified his daughters ter
bly, burned body from a sample of the
10th in her skirt, which carried in
is pocket.
Search for the Dead.
CHIEF of Police 0'Neilf supervised the
,ork of helping friends and relatives
scoyer their dead. Hundreds of per-
ons, with grief and anxiety written on
heir faces, thronged about the chiefs
seeking information. The pres
ure grew so strong that Secretary
mounting IL chair, read off
ne descriptions to the multitude, who
stoned with strainitfg ears. Ere
,ootI, perSonS in the crowd recOg-