Rosebud County news. [volume] (Forsyth, Mont.) 1901-1906, 1904-01-07

believed that the explosion was caused
by the flames coming in contact with
the gas reservoirs of the theater, caus.
ing them to burst. VIII J. Davis,
manager of the theater said after the
catastrophe. that il the people had re
NAMED in their seats and had not been
excited by the cry of fire. not a single
Life would have been lost. This is.
however. contradicted by the state
ments OF the flremen, who found num-
bers OF people sitting in their seats,
their faces directed toward the stage
as II the performance was still going
on. 1t was the opinion of the firemen
that these people had been suffocated
at once by the flow of gas which came
from behind the asbestos curtain.
AS near as can be estimated at the
present time about 1900 people were
In the theater. Three hundred of
these were on the first floor. the bal
ance being in the two upper balconies,
and in the Railways back of them.
Dead Jam the Doorways.
The theater is modelled after the
Opera Comique in Paris. and from
the rear of each balcony there are
three doors leading out to passage.
ways toward the front of the theater.
Two of these doorways are at the end
OF the balcony and one being in the
center. The audience in its rush for
the outer air seems to have, for the
greater part. chosen to fee to the left
entrance and to attempt to make its
way down. the eastern stairway lead
Ing into the lobby of the theater.
Outside of the people burned and suf.
located by gas, it was in these two
doorways or the first and second bal
comics that the greatest losss OF life
occurred When the firemen entered
the building the dead were found
stretched in pile reaching from the
head of the stairway at least eight.
feet from the door back to point
about five feet in rear of the door. This
Mass Of Dead Bodies
in the center Of the doorway reached
to within two feet Of the top of the
passageway All of the corpses at this
point were women and children. The
fight for life which must have taken
place at these two points Is something
that is simply beyond human power to
adequately describe. Only faint idea
of its horror could be derived from the
aspect Of the bodies as they lay.
Women on top of these masses of
dead had been overtaAen by death as
they were crawling on their hands
and knees over the bodies of those
who had died before. Others lay with
arms stretche~ out in the direction
toward which lay life and safety, hold
ing in their hands fragments of gar
ments not their own. They were evl.
IDENTIFY torn from the clothing of others
whom they had endeavored to pull
down and trample under foot as ley
fought for their own lives. AS the pc.
lice removed
Layer After Layer Of Dead
in these doorways, the sight became
toe much even for police and firemen,
hardened as they are to such scenes,
to endure. The bodies were in such
an inextricable mass. and SO tightly
were they jammed between the sides
Of the door and walls that it was i'm.
possible to lift them one by one and
carry them out The only possible
thing to do was to seize limb or some
other portion of the body and pull with
main strength. Men worked at the
task with tears running down their
cheeks and the sobs of the rescuers
could be heard even in the hall below
where this awful scene was being en-.
acted. A number Of the men were
compelled to abandon their task and
give it over to others whose nerves
had not yet been shaken by the awful
experience. AS one by one the bodies
were dragged out of the water-soaked,
blackened. mass OF corpses, the spec,
tacle became more and more heart
rending. There were women whose
clothing was torn completely from
their bodies above the waist, whose
bosoms had been
Tramp!ed Into Pulp
and whose faces were marred beyond
all power of Identification. Bodies lay
in the first and second balconies in
great numbers. In some places they
were piled up in the aisles three and
four deep. where one had fallen and
others ia. tripped over the PROSTATE
forms. and all had died where they
lay, evidently sufocated by gas. 9th
erS were bent over backs OF seats
where they had been thrown by the
rush of people for the doors and
killed with hardly chance to rise
from their seats. One man was
found with his back bent nearly
double, his spinal column having been
fractured as he was thrown backward
A woman was found cut nearly in half