The citizen-Republican. (Scotland, Bon Homme County, S.D.) 1???-19??, 1904-01-07
CHICAGO THEATER HORROR,
Death LIST REACHES 564z|.

to be lowered, ana it was immediately
lowered half way. Then it stuck.
The fire thus was given a hue.
through which a strong draft was
formed. aided by the doors, which had
been thrown open in the front Of the
tongue-shaped, through the opening
over the heads of the people on the first
floor, almost licking the faces OF those
in the first balcony, and smothering
many where they sat.
Explosion Starts Horror.
Immediately following the rush Of
flames came an explosion, which lifted
the entire roof of the theater from its
walls, SCATTERING the great skylight
into fragments. A hail of glass, the
tottering galleries, the quaking of the
building and a cry of fire" from sew
eral persons in the rear started the
panic. The entire audience rose as one
person n made for the doors.
1t is believed that the explosion was
caused by the flames coming in contact
with the gas reservoirs OF the theater.
Will j. Davis, manager OF the the
alter, said after the catastrophe that if
the people had remained In their seats
n had not been excited by the cry OF
fire and other noises not a single life
would have been lost.
This is, however, ~contradicted by the
firemen, who found numbers of people
sitting in their seats, their faces direct
ed toward the stage as If the perform
ance was still going on. 1t was the
opinion Of the firemen that these peo-
pie had been suffecated at once by the
flow Of gas which came from behind
the ASBESTOS curtain,
AS near as can be estimated about
1900 persons were in the theater. Three
hundred of these were on the first
floor, the remainder being in the bal
comics and in the aisles back OF them.
Architecture Of Theater.
The theater is medeied after the
Opera Comique in Paris. From the rear
of each balcony there are three doors
leading out to passaBeways toward the
front Of the theater. Two OF these door
ways are at the end OF the balcony, one
being in the center.
Most of the spectators, in the rush
for the outer air, seem to have chosen
to flee to the left entrance and to at
tempt to make their way down the
eastern stairway leading into the lob
by. Outside of the people burned and
suffocateG by gas, it was in these two
doorways on the first and second bal
comics that the greatest loss of life &C
Cured. When the hremen 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 a point about five feet
in the rear of the door.
This mass Of bodies at the center
doorway reached within two feet of the
top OF the hall. All the cerpses at this
point We're women and children. Here
a fight for life took place that dis
Tnantled many persons in death. This
Is shown by the aspect of the bodies
as they lay when found.
Women on top OF these masses of dead
had been ovartaken by death as they
crawled on hands and knees over the
bodies of those who had died before. 9th
ers lay with arms stretched out In the d.
rection of life and safety, holding in their
hands fragments Of garments net their
own. They had evidently been torn from
the bodies of others whom they had en-
.deavored to pull down and trample under
loot as they fought for lie.
Scenes Of Horror.
AS the police reviewed layer after. LAYER
of dead in these doorways the sight be-
came SO sickening that policemen and fire.
men. hardened as they are to horrible
scenes, turned away in horror. The bodies
were in such an ineXtricable mass. and
SO tightly were they damned between the
sides of the door and tie walls that it was
to lift them one by one and
carry them out. The only possible thing
to do was to seize a leg or arm or a piece
- otiiib AN pun WILL i1l0lut strength,
dragging several entwined bodies away
together.
Policemen and firenen worked at the
task with tears running down thv.r cheeks.
and the sebs of other rescuers could be
heard in the street.
A number of men were compelled to
abandon the work and seek the open air.
while others whose nerves had net as yet
been shak&n, proceeded with the untan-
Cling.
a Whited sepulcher.
There We're fears that in the base
ment, beneath ten feet of muddy wa
ter, would be found more victims of
the smoke and flames. The big fire en-
glnes that had deluged the place were
now being utilized to draw forth dozens
Of streams Of thick, murky water from
the basement, while a dozen flremen in
hip boots made a thorough search of
the basement for bodies.
The exterior of the theater presents
almost the same appearance as before.
but its interior marked it as a true
whited sepulcher. Among the thou
sands Of bits Of brilliantly colored glass
shattered in the figlls against the
flames lay many scorched bits of cloth
and occasional fragments OF
charred bodies.
From the upper galleries the view
was a reminder Of a burned tut vol
alter was guarded a huge pile Of gar
ments and furs gathered up in the the
ater after the fire.
Five bushel baskets were filled with
the purses, gloves and handkerchiefs
Of the fleeing mob OF terror-stricken
women.
Two barrels were needed to hold the
great center OF excitement was Roll
morgue, to which the majority