The Montgomery advertiser., 1904-01-08
THE INQUEST IS BEGUN
CORONER PROBES INTO REsPoN-
 sIBILITY.
Eddie Foy, of the "Mr. Bluebeard" Company, and George Stetson Representing Asbestos Cur tain Firm Are Chief
 Witnesses.

| from the coroner. Even members of the City Council who applied for admission were turned away.
 The chief witnesses of the day were Eddie Foy, the comedian of the "Mr. Bluebeard" Company and George Stetson, a representative of the company that made the asbestos curtain. The evidence of MT. Foy did not differ materially from the statements published heretofore con corning his action on the day of the fire.
 MT. Stetson and Coroner Traegar be- came involved in a lengthy discussion as to the merits of the asbestos curtains, during whcih MT. Stetson admitted that asbestos curtains If subjected to an ex- tremely high heat would lose their ''iife' and crumble, M
 It is believed that the bodies of those killed in the Iroquois theatre fire now remaining in the county morgue will not be identified and in a short time will be buried by the city of Chicago. The bodies are four in number, two being women and two boys.
 The investigation into the safety of places of public assembly still continues and but few of them are able to meet the requirements of the law. Building Commissioner Williams today issued orders closing fifteen additional halls. The SOHSCum HI WulcH IHe HepuDucHu INd~ tional Convention will be held was today declared safe and entirely fire proof and was allowed to open.
 The coroner's inquest over the remains of the victims of the Iroquois Theatre fire began in the City Council Chamber today. The coroner's official list of dead for use at the inquest contains 565 names. Previous police reports indicating 591 dead are declared now to be inaccurate and due to the shifting of bodies from one morgue to another.
 Preparations were completed for the most searching inquiry into the causes of the greatest public. calamity that Chi cago has ever known. Coroner Traegcr presided over the investigation, with State Attorney Dineen, or one of his assistants, in constant attendance as the coroner legal representative, and the corporation counsel. the county attorney, score of lawyers representing private interests and numerous officials of the fire and police departments taking part in the inquiry.
 It Is estimated that it will require at least six days for the jury to hear the testimony of the 200 or more witnesses.
 The provision of the law that the jury shall view the bodies over which the inc quest is held having already been com piled with, Coroner rTaeger entered at once upon the OL LlC WlIlGSS- es to determine the cause of the fire and Technically the inquest is held over "the body of Miss Mary Edna Torney and 56i others
 Deputy Coroner Buckley knew Miss Torney and arrived on the scene of the fire few minutes after her body had been carried out. He was abss to locate the two policemen who handled the body. The check of her seat in the theater was found in her clothing. Precise evidence can therefore be adduced as to the cir cumstances of her death, and these cir cumstances will be interpreted to apply in general to the 564 others. Although some died of asphyxiation, some of the burns and some from confusion. the jury will find that death in each of the 5s5 cases resulted from .shoeks and injury" The Jury will sign separate verdict for each victim.
 For the task of fixing the responsibility for the great loss of life States Attorney Dinecn instructed Coroner Traeger to es- tablish the identity, if possible. of some person or persons who died at the end of the passage leading south from the entrance of the second balcony. There locked doors cut off the escape of hum dreds whose bodies were found against 
 succeeded in gathering this evidence.
 Mrs Strong of Chicago, and her niece, Miss Vera Goolsby of Montgomery, Ala, died at the foot of the stairway. The story of their death before the locked exit had been told to the coroner by James M. Strong, son Of the elder victim. Mir. Strong, who is a board of trade clerk, consented Lc testify.
 The arrest of William J. Maher and George Nagel which took place today, Is considered important by Coroner Ira ger in connection with the investigation. The men were employed by sub-con- tractor of the Fuller Construction Com pany. According to the police the men say they nailed down the ventiIators on the roof of the. theater over the stage and that an examination will show that the skylight's frame had never been re- moved. In other words, the safety vents for a fire on the stage were never oper- ated, even experimentally. and every au- dience' that ever sat in the Iroquots the- ater from the day the theater was open ed had been in imminent danger of roast ing to death wholesale whenever a fire broke out. The two workmen were at home in bed when arrested. The work men explained to the police that the nails were expected to be removed later and the skylights placed in proper work ing order when the theater was placed in the hands of the owners.
 Great stress is laid by the coroner upon developments during the inquest in re- lation to the stage ventilator and air shafts, the proper working of which, 1t is held, would have saved hundreds from death.
 The ventiIators and shafts were opened the next morning after the fire by Fore man David Jones, of the George Fuller Construction Company, and the two workmen, Maher and Nagel. According to the police, Maher said he had charge of the metal construction of the ventil- ator. The ventilator was to have been operated by a lever from the stage so that 1t could be thrown open at mo- ment's notice, but according to Maher, the lever was never fitted. Maher, &C., cording to the police, says he went to the theater the day after the fire and looked to see if the lever had been at- tached, but could find no trace of it. He saw several temporary scantiing still nailed to the wall in the way he had fix ed them when his part of the work of constructing the theater was finished.
 Mrs. Emma Scnweitzer, who occupied a seat in the main floor near the stage said that she was nearly the last person to leave the main floor alive. She stated there were three doors leading to the lob- by to the street and all but one were locked.
 Mrs. Josephine Petry said she occupied a seat in the next to the last row in the top balcony and that people were stand ing four deep back of her. When she saw the fire break out she immediately left the theatre. When she reached the bot torn af the staircase she fOIInd all hut