The Bennington evening banner. (Bennington, Vt.) 19??-1961, 1904-01-08
INQUIRY
AT CHICAGO
Fixing the Responsibility for the
HoFrOr-AwfuI Tales Tod
by the Survivors.

Of the lroquois theater disaster has be
gun in the city council chamber. The
corOner's Official list Of dead for use AT
the inquest contains go names.
Ella II. Churcher testified that at the
matinee she, with her mother and neph.
! cw, occupied seats in the fourth row
! from the front in the second balcony.
She said that she saw il shower of
sparks come down the . Il side of the
sage, and then the curtain came down
ana Eddie Foy, stepping in front of it,
urged the audience to remain seated.
! She kept her seat until the fire singed
chiffon boa about her neck and then
started to make her escape All three
| of them reached the street safely. Miss
Churcher was positive that the curtain
| which was lowered was not the ashes
tus curtain, but the curtain which had
been lowered after the first act. She
remembered distinctly, she said. that
| this curtain had painted upon il an au-
| tumn landscape scene. This curtain
and no other, she insisted. was the one
that was lowered after the fire started.
Frank Houseman, the next witness,
declared that he bought two seats in
an upper box for the matinee, the tick.
ct seller telling him that he had only
these two and three others left He
testified that there was no light in the
body Of the theater as he passed
through and none in the stairway
which he was compelled to ascend In
order to reach the box where his seats
were located. From where he sat he
could see the start Of the fire and wit
messed the efforts of the stage hands
to slap It out with their hands" He
remarked to his friend, "The outside
Of this place looks pretty good to me-"
And they left the box. He reached the
first floor before the fire started and
opened a door which. he was told by
an usher, was an exit Outside of this
door was another of iron which 1t was
impossible to open.
Lester Sackett Of Elgin. ILL.,, in com
pany with two ladies and little girl,
occupied seats in the third row of the
first balcony. He made his way out of
rear exit and down fire escape
taking the ladies and child with him.
In going down the fire escape he had
great trouble in closing an iron shutter
which projected across the stairway
at right angles and practically shut or
all escape. He managed TO close this
shutter after a desperate struggle
Eddie Foy. the comedian of the
"Bluebeard" company. was then sworn.
He said he went to the matinee with
his siX-year-old boy. whom he desired
to place in the front row of seats di-
rectly before the stage. lie sent him
out before the first act in charge OF
the stage manager, who brought him
back and said there were no seats. He
sent the boy downstairs and put him
in an alcove next to the switchboard
directly below the place where he first
saw the fire
During the second act. Mr.. Foy tes-
titled. he was In his dressing room and
heard a noise, to which he had at first
paid little attention. He said to him
self, Are they fighting again down
thereY thinking over a quarrel which
had occurred few days previous. The
noise grew stronger and stronger, and,
becoming anxious about the boy he
ran down the steps from his dressing
room to the stage, picked up the boy
right in front of the switchboard and
then looked up and saw a fireman
above him who was trying to put out
the fire.
At that time the two lower borders
running up the side of the canvas near
the edge of the proscenium arch were
burning. He ran with the boy to a
small door at the back of the stage, and
when he arrived there a number Of
people were trying to escape He threw
the boy to man, telling him to take
him out, and then ran back to the stage
and out to the fOotlights, The audi
ence was getting into a panic, as he
thought, and in order to quiet the peo-
pie he called TO the stage hands, Drop
the curtainr' and to the musicians,
Keep up your music" He urged the
audience repeatedly to remain quiet
anu NOT get excited. Wneu tne curtain
came down it stuck about three feet
above his head. The rest of Mr.. Foy's
testimony is as follows:
81. shouted for them to lower the cur
tain, and then | felt what | would de-
scribe as sort of cyclone. 1t was a
whirl of smoke, and when l looked
around the scenery had broken and
was flying all around me- There was
a heavy cold draft. evidently from the
outside, and there was an explosion of
some kind, as though you would light
q match and the whole box 90 off. l
did not know whether to 90 front or
back, as ii looked about an even thing
for my lie no matter which way I
went. Then thought of my boy and
that perhaps the man did not take him
out, so went for the back door where
the people were trying TO get out, and
then went out myself and found my
4.