The daily silver state. [volume] (Winnemucca, Nev.) 1903-1907, 1904-01-02
AFTERMATH OF IHL p.y1f0[
FIRE IN I(y!SG(GAGO IHEAER

surance men declare that the curtain
at the Iroauois never had worked pe
fectly and that the mechanism hae
not been repaired.
Never before in the history of Chica-
go has its people been so stirred as oS
the calamity of Thursday. 1t is, next tt
the Chicago fire, the greatest catas
trcphe that has ever occurred mere
and the speed with which 1t came ant
vent seemed for a brief period to ap'
pal the business section Of the city
rac news spread with great rapidity
anc in a short time hundreds of men
scmer and children were rushing TO-
ward the theater. The building II
which the calamity occurred stands
setween State and Dearborn streets
IN the north side of Randolph street
This disaster was vastly destructive
20 human life, more so than any other
play house fire in the history of the
country The fire next to 1t in poin.
If lives lost occurred Dec 5, 1876, In
,onway's Brooklyn theater. Brooklyn,
". Y, where 295 of the audience per-
shed in the flames. In the great Chi
,ago fire of 1870 the, largest confiagra-
ion of modern times. In which 2l2i
acres were devastated. but 200 lives
we're lost, so far as the most reliable
Information shows.
Although every available policeman
within call of the department was i'm
nediately hurried to the spot and men
placed in lines from the ends of the
block, allowing nobody TO enter RAN
iolph street from either Dearborn or
State, IL was found for a time almost
impossible TO hold back the frenzied
crowd that pressed forward. many OF
them having friends or relatives in
The theater, and being anxious TO
learn something of them. The con-
duct of the police was beyond all
praise. The officers held their ground
lrnly, and gently pushed back all who
fought to gain an entrance to the the
alter, although in several instances
rantic men, anxious to look for their
loved ones, actually beat the officers
with their fists in their rage at being
prevented.
THIRTEEN HUNDRED IN THE
ATER.
AS near as can be estimated at the
present time, about 1900 persons were
n the theater. Three hundred of these
we're on the first floor the remaindei
being in the balconies and in the hall
esys back of them. The theater is
modelled after the Opera Comique. In
Paris, and from the rear of each bal
sony there are three doors leading Out
| 20 passageways toward the front oi
he theater.
/ Two OF these doorways are at the
4 ma OF the baacony and one in tn,
oenter. The audience. in its rush fo'
The outer air. seems to have chosen
lor the greater part to flee TO the lefl
| entrance ard to attempt to make It's
way down the eastern stirway leading
.ntc the lobby of the theater.
Outside of the pepole burned anc
suefocated by gas. it was in these tive
ioorways on the first and second bal
comics that the greatest loss of life oc'
,urred. When the firemen entered tht
building the dead were found stretched
IN pile reaching from the head o.
che stairway at least eight feet daei
from the door back to a point abou
nfty feet to the rear of the door.
This mass of dead bodies in the cen
ter of the doorway reached to within
.wo feet of the top of the passageway
All of the corpses at this point wer'
80 airn and children. he fignt for lif'
which must have taken place at thes'
two points is something that is simpl.
beyond human power to describe. OnA.
a liant idea OF It's horror could be de
rived II om the aspect of tae bodies al
,ney lay Women on top of thes
.nass and so tightly were they jamme'
death as they Were craving on tnel
nanus ana knees over the bodies
.nose VINO had died before.
HELD FRAGMENTS OF GAR
MENIS.
Others lay with arms stretched ou
ia the direction toward wnien lay hi'
ana SAFETY, holding n their hand
fragments of garments not their own
Ihey were evldenuy torn from Tn
clolhing of otne4s whcm tney mad Ell
deavor.d TO pun down and trampie un
aer foot as they fought for their oWi
lNes. AS the ponce removed laye
alter layer of dead in those doorway
me slgut became too much, even 10
police and nremen, hardened as the,
are to such sights, to endure. Th
bodies wele in such an inextricabl
lmasss and so tightly were they jamme
between the sides of the door and wall
that it was impossible to lift them on
oy one and carry them. The onl
possible thing to do was to seize
limb or some POI ton of the body an
pull with main strength.
Men worked at the task with tear
running down their cheeks and u
sobs of the rescuels could be hear
even in the hall below where this aW
full scene was being enacted. A num-