Virginia citizen. (Irvington, Va.) 1891-1921, 1904-01-08

mass TO penetrate and effect q rescu,
they labored, cursing and CRYING
Some of the still living victims wer,
rescued and taken out in time {,
be saved. Others died before the,
could be lifted from the heap o.
dead and others while they wer,
being carried down the staircases.
In and among them wandered in
cessantly frantic parents, brother,
and sisters looking for their rela
tives. The bodies were i'm such ar
inextricable mass, aud SO Tight,
were they jammed between the sides
of the door and the wallis that it wa,
impossible to lift them one by one
and carry them out. The only pos
sible thing to do was to seize limit
or some other portion of the bod,
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 enacted. A
number of the men were compelled
to abandon their task aud give 1!
over to others whose nerves had not
as yet been shaken by the awful expe-
rience.
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 trampled into a
pulp and whose faces were msrred
beyond all power of identification.
Bodies lay in the fret aud second
balconies In great nun bers. In some
places they were piled up in the
sisles three and four deep, where
one had fallen and Others tripped
over the PROSTATE forms, aud all had
died where they Law, evidently suffo-
Gated by gas Others were bent over
backs of seats where they had been
thrown by the rush of people for
the doors and killed with hardly
a chance to rise from their seats.
In the aisles nearest to the doors
the scenes were narrowing in the
extreme. Bodies lay in every con-
ceivable attitude, half naked, the
look on their faces revealing some
portion of the agony which must
have preceded their death. There
were scores and scores of people
whose entire faces had been tram
Piled OIL by the heels of those W he
rushed over them. In one aisle the
body OF man was found with not a
vestage of clothing, flesh or bone
remaining above the waist line. The
entire upper portion Of his body had
been cut into mincemeat and carried
away by the feet of those who tram
Piled him.
The conduct of the police was
beyond all praise. The officers held
their ground fiji mIy and gently push
ed back all who sought to gain an
entrance to the theatre, although in
some instances frantic men. anxious
TO look for their loved ones, actually
beat the officers with their fists in
their rage at being prevented.
A fireman and a newspaper man
crawled up the stairway leading to
the balcony, holding handkerchiefs
over their mouths to avoid suffoca-
tion. As they reached the doorway
the fireman, whose vision was better
trained in such emergencies, seized
Lis compan on by the arm, exclaim-
ing: "Good God, man, don't walk on
their faces!'
The two men tried vainly to get
through the door, W hich was jammed
with dead women piled higher
than either of their heads. Ali the
lights In the theatre were then
out and the only illumination came
through cloud of smoke that
hung between the interior of the
building and the street.
Although all the patrol wagons
and every ambulance owned by the
city was pressed into service, thew
were utterly inadequate to carry
away tAe dead, and in g short
time there was a line of corpsea
90 feet long piled two and three
nigh on the sidewalk il front Of
the theatre. =
One large truck. ordinarily used
for conveying freight to ldepots
was so heavily loaded with dead in
front of the theatre that the two
great horses attached to it were
unable to start, and the police
were compelled to assist by Juggling
at the wheels. ?.
1t was the presence of the chill.
dren, hundreds of whom were in
the audience, and the efforts of
their frantic mothers impelled by
their first thought to seek the
safety of their young, that caused
much OF the pandemOnium.
IL worked 10 the upper bslco.
nles, said one Of the rescuers.
"The sight of those poor women
and their little children with
clinched fists raised as if irving to
beat their way to safety and
stricken down in the very act. is
too horrible to attempt to describe.
There was a pile Of twisted and
bleeding bodies ten feet high, with
blackened faces and remnants of
eharred clothing clinging to them.
Some were alive and moaning in
their agony. Others, and by far
the greater number, were dead.
Piled up IL feet deep by the door
was the most awful mass of dead
and dying human beings. I grabbed
hold OF an arm and the burnt
skin peeled off in my hands. The
smoke was suffocating and the heat
was terrible. AS we pulled the
poor victims out it seemed to me
that l could not go on. There were
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