Highland recorder. (Monterey, Highland County, Va.) 1877-1972, 1904-01-08
Men, Women and Children Burned and
Suffocated in Chicago Fire.
PANIC IS CAUSED BY FLAMES In THE SCENERY.
Many of the Victims Overcome BY Gas Which Filled
The Auditorium Were Trampled to
Death-Scenes of Indescrbable Distress
Attend the Great Catastrophe.

with the smoke curling about them,
everything plunged in absolute dark
ness, not even a friendly lantern to
show them the way out OF this dance
of death
The theatre, with its classic outlines,
beautiful plush hangings, the arched
windows, with their stained glass, and
the stately pillars became morgue II,
five minutes after the first little flame
made its way along the stage.
Women who had managed by
strength or terror to get into the alsles
{ found their awful ending in mingled
doom Of smoke and fire and tearing OF
; limbs in the aislcs and in the opcn!
space back OF the seats. Dozens OF
others, swept, carried, dragged or
thrown out 20 the stairways and even
beyond them to the landings i'll actual
sight OF the daylight that strcamed
through the big front doors in sight OF
the throngs outside, with fire wagons
and the smoking horses, died in great
masses 10 and IL feet high. limbs min
glcd fcarfully together, clothing burn
ed of and faces caught in their last
agonics all turned toward the doors
they could not reach.
From windows at the north and west
end of the building they streamed,
, blinded by the smoke and crazed beyond
any possibility OF helping themselves
farther or Of taking advantage OF the
aid extended to them from the upper
floors Of the buildings facing the the
atrc.
Ladders, planks, ropes, poles, every
thing that could possibly serve to as
sist these poor creatures in their battle
for life we're rugged and turned into
bridges, but few got across alive. Rap
idly one blackencd corpse after another
was passed along until every building
on the north and west side was filled
with them.
Barely FIVE minutes after the first
alarm was turned in hremcn were strug-
Cling into the theatre, making their way
| in some miraculous manner, though
the maddened mob was pouring out
OF the auditorium, doing what little
they could not only to check the hire,
which was fast turning the whole in
terror shell into a cauldron, but to res
cue the frantic hundreds in the upper
bacones by ladders stretched from the
main floor.
A fcw--3o at most-wcre rescued IN
this way. and then the fremen after
controlling the flames abandoned their
lengths of hose to go with the gather
ing police and make their way to the
horrors that waited for them on the
upper stairways and in the balcony
seats Here was no more struggling
no more frantic haste. Hundreds with
homes in every part Of the city still
showing at their windows Christmas
wrcaths. still filled with the decora-
tons OF the holiday season, lay be-
You'd all thought of worldly things in
silent heaps OF death.
And still outside the main entrance
to the building many passersby at
tracted by the presence OF the fire en-
gines had no knowledge of the fearful
disaster inside. Tens Of thousands
passed and repassed within block
without knowing it. Hundreds Of po-
lice officers stationed in the roadway
were asking one another if there had
been any among the audience badly
hurt.
But when from the inside began to
stream procession of hremen carrying
between them the charred bodies OIL
those who a little while before had
been happy in the enjoyment OF an al
ternoon's pleasure the scene without
changed as if by magic. From every
business street Of the city men whose
wives and families had gone to the mat
inee, came with white faces and eye:
blinded with tears to the theatre anC
screamed like madmen the names o
those they we're seeking. Many o
them found their loved ones safe bu
still half crazed in surrounding store:
and hotels. Others discovered then
among the dead by some particle o
dress, a half charred hair ribbon, a sho,
or a lockct.
Eyewitnesses OF the Iroquois fire de
clare that no words can begin to dc
scribe the pandemonium that occurred
nor the frenzy OF tie men and women
Among the hundreds OF persons whc
rushed to the rescue when the call O
fire was heard on the streets was Bish
op Samuel Fallows. who happened t.
be passing the theatre. Without fea
or hesitation he made his way through
the darkness that was intensified by tn
volume Of smoke which filled the audi
forum to the top gallery and assisted
.. in carrying out the victims.
God forbid that ever again Sc,
such a heartrending sight" said tn,
Bishop later Il have been in war
and upon the bloody field Of battle, BIZ
in all my experience have never seel
anything hall so gruesomc rs he sigh
that met my eyes. when. with the aid O
a tiny lantern, | was finally able to pen
citrate the inky backness OF that bal
cony.
There was a pile OF twisted AM
bleeding bodies 10 feet high, will
blackened faces and remnants OF char
red clothing clinging to them. SOM
were alive and moaning in their agony
Others, and by far the greater number
were dead assisted in carrying man,
! OF the injured down and minstered t.
them tho best | could"
Bullet In His Brain.