The Bourbon news. [volume] (Paris, Ky.) 1895-19??, 1904-01-05
Scores of Persons Discovered in the
Ai>Ies With Their Faces Com
pIeteIy TrampIed Off.
The COrpses Hauled Away From the Play
House Piled On Wagons Like
Cords of Wood.
Some of the Audience Were Suffocated
BY Escaping Gas While Sitting in
Their Seats-Hundreds injur-
ed; Scores Will Die.

Chicago, Dec 31.-Hundreds of peo-
pie were killed in ten minutes We'd
nesday afternoon during a fire in the
Iroquois thcater, the newest, the larg-
| est, and as far as human power could
| make it, the safest theater in Chicago.
A few Of these people were burned
to death by fire, many were suffocatcd
by gas, and scores were trampled to
| death in the panic that followed the
mad plunge Of the frightened audi
ence for the exits.
There were bodies lying by the dozens
| Wednesday night in the undertaking
rooms, in the police stations, and in
the hospitals from which nearly every
thing that could reveal their identity
TO those who knew them best is gone.
Their clothing is torn to rags or burn
| ed to cinders and their faces have
been trampled into an unacceptable
pulp by the heels of the crowd that
trampled them down as they fed for
safety.
The fire broke out during the second
act of the play ''Mr Bluebeard," which
was the first dramatic production Civ
en- in the theater since its erection.
The company, which was very large,
escaped to the street in safety, nearly
all of them, however, being compelled
to fee into the snowy streets with no
clothing but their stage costumes A
few members of the company sustain
ed minor injuries but none were seri-
ously hurt.
AS soon as the fire was discovered Ed
die Foy, the chief comedian of the COM
this was Immediately done 1t de-
scended about half way and then
stuck.
The fire thus was given practically
a flue through which a strong draft
was setting. aided by the doors which
had been thrown open in the front of
the theater. With a roar and a bound
the flames shot through the opening
over the heads of the people on the
| first floor and reaching clear up to
those in the first balcony, caught them
and burned them to death where they
sat. Immediately following this rush
of flames there came an explosion
which lifted the entire roof of the the
alter from its walls, SCATTERING the
great skylight into fragments. AS
soon as the flames first appeared be-
yond the curtain man in the rear of
the hall shouted Fire! Firei" and the
entire audience rose as one person and
made for the doors. 1t is believed that
the explosion was caused by the flames
coming in contact with the gas reser-
voirs of the theater, causing them to
burst
The audience in its rush for the
outer air seems to have, for the great
er part. chosen to fee to the left en-
| trance and TO attempt to make its way
down the eastern stairway leading into
the lobby Of the theater. Outside of
| the people burned and suffocated by
gas, it was in these two doorways on
the first and second balconies that the
greatest loss Of life occurred. When
the fremen entered the building the
dead were found stretched in a pile
reaching from the head of the stairway
at least eight feet from the door back
to point about five feet in the rear of
the door
This mass of dead bodies in the cen
ter 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 de
| scribe. 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 over
taken by death as they were crawling
on their hands and knees over the
| bodies of those who had died before
AS one by one the bodies were drag
ged out Of the water soaked, blackened
mass of corpses, the spectacle became
more and more heartrending. There
were women whose clothing was torn
completely from their bodies above
the waist, whose bosoms had been
trampled into pulp and whose faces
were married beyond all power of iden-
LITIGATION. 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 other tripped over the
PROSTATE forms. and all had died
where they lay. evidently suffocated. by
the gas. Others were bent over backs