The News-Herald. [volume] (Hillsboro, Highland Co., Ohio) 1886-1973, 1904-01-07

y
at $3.50 o'clock. the time when the nre
broke out.
Twelve employees of the Iroquois the
ater were arrested Thursday night on
orders issued by Chief Of Police
O'Neill The charge against them is
at present that of being accessory to
manslaughter. They will be held
pending the verdict of the coroner's
jury. Five of the arrested men are
stage hands and scene shifters. After
being taken in custody by the police,
four Of them told Chief O'Neill that
they had been requested by people
connected with the theater to leave the
city. When asked who advised them
to do this they at first refused to say,
but later admitted that the advice was
given by Assistant Stage Manager
Plunkitt.
They said they were about to follow
Plunkitt's advice and all of them had
packed their trunks and would have
been out of the city had not the po-
lice arrested them.
Twelve members of the city council
Thursday inspected the theater and
after doing so returned to the city hall
and called on the building department.
They asked to see the plans of the
theater and Mr.. Stanhope produced
them. "How about sprinklers?" de-
manded Alderman Jones, who was one
of the investigating committee.
"The way the tbeater is built, they
can be left out" Mr.. Stanhope replied.
"And anyhow the flames spread so
rapidly that no sprinkling system
would have availed anything"
Alderman Jones then remarked that
the ordinance requires all exits to be
marked.
THAT will be looked into" Mr.. Stan.
hope said. Remember. however, that
the lights were out md that many Of
the people we're killed in their Seats
Pointing to the diagram Of the thea
ter Alderman Herman said:
Here Is a passageway on the south
side of the first balcony which looks
as though 1t led to a stairway. But
in the darkness the people scrambling
through it were caught like rats in a
trap. They could not get either way.
The confusion of exits was such that
no one could find his way in the dark
II those things are considered exits,
don't know what constitutes an exit
that would be of any use
Mr.. Stanhope told the aldermen that
he had made an inspection of the
building and that structurally It was
good.
You can not convince me-" declar-
ed Aldermen Herman, 'if you talk for
7 hundred years. that people could get
| ont Of that place. / do not care what
they call the exits, they did not work,
there were rot enough OF them open
and the people could not get out.
These plans show aisles at the end OF
the frst floor, but we were over there
and saw the seats run bang up against
the railing, leaving no aisle at all.
Now what | want to know is, did these
people in building this theater live up
10 the plans they submitted TO the city
building department? Here there
seemed TO be ample exits on paper,
but a number of friends Of mine got
badly scorched just the same"
"On the first floor they got out"
said Mr.. Stanhope.
"My friends were on the frst floor,
but they got burned on their backs
Just the same" Alderman Herman re
| joined.
Aldermen Frlestadt declared that In
the second balcony there Is not sufi-
ciert room when the seats are down,
to allow any one to walk between
them. Alderman Scully and Alderman
| Conery took from the floor OF the stage
bits of the stage curtain, none of which
was larger than the palm of a hand,
! for examination TO the store Of an as
beatos company. The bits we're shown
| to be Of asbestos, although the exam
liner pronounced 1t of low grade.
"They wanted a cheap curtain and
| they got it," an incautious clerk re-
marked. He was instantly hushed up
by one of the members of the com.
pany, who added that they did not
wish to discuss the matter, inasmuch
as they had bid upon supplying the
curtain to the theater and their bid
had been rejected for lower one.
Chicago. Jan. 2.-Up to Friday mid
night 5S2 dead bodies from the Iro
quois theater fire and panic Of Wed
nesday had been accounted for. This
is believed to be the total number OF
dead. or these 5s2 bodies. 361 have
been identified, leaving only 81 uni
| Identified at morgues.
Chicago, Jan. 2.-Chicago never wit
messed such day OF mourning as that
which ushered in the new year. In
every portion Of the city almost II
seemed as though there were funerals
going, or undertaken wagons arriving
with dead, taking them to their homes
for the last time.
While the funeral professions were
moving through the snow-coveret
streets to various cemeteries, the
throngs about the various morguei
seemed almost as large as ever. Tht
scenes here we're the same as those o
Wednesday night and of Thursday ant
Thursday night. Many men appeared
at the door of Rolston's and Jordan'l
morgues Friday afternoon who hat
been on their feet for 48 hours con
stantly searching for those they hat
lost The greater number of unidenti
fed dead are in these two places. ant
men who had viewed the ghastly row
Of corpses before and had gone ol
unavailing search to every othe
morgue in Chicago, went back ono
more to Rolston's and to Jordan's al
most in despair. but hoping agains