The Tomahawk., 1904-01-08
AWFUL HOLOCAUST
IN Chicago THEATER
The New Iroquois Theater Burns
During Matinee and Over
@< 500 People Killed.
In a Fight for Life at tho Exits Men, Wo-
men and Children are Trampled into
Unrecognizable Mass. Many are Killed
vainly Fighting for Their Lives While
Others are SuffOcated.

|
"Bluebeard," presumably from defect
in the electrical display.
In an instant the draperies and finn
sy stage settings had burst into flames.
The actors and actresses ran wildly
about the stage as the audience fought
and jammed its way to the front doors.
In short time the interior was mass
of flames and smoke was issuing in
clouds from the front.
A dozen women and a number of men
with faces and hands fearfully burned
were soon taken into neighboring drug
store, where the worst injured were
hastily attended to.
Special calls and general alarm
had summoned an extraordinary num-
Der of fire engines Chief Fire Mar
shall Musham found the theater bal
comics still occupied by many persons,
and he promptly directed the firen1en
in raising ladders to the upper exits in
order to save the persons who were
there imprisoned.
Two little girls about ten years old,
were among the first taken from the
balcony, their hands and faces blistered.
The fire was apparently gaining on
the fremen. who were having the great
est difficulty in gaining entrance because
of the crowds
AS the fire proceeded four bodies
little girl about five years old; a woman
was also taken out with her face SO bad
ly burned that she could not be recog-
nized.
A man who jumped from the third
story window was taken to the emer
gency hospital in an unconscious condi-
dtion and was believed to be dead.
While the dead bodies were being re-
covered fifteen persons were stretched
on tables in Thompson's restaurant not
far distant, many of them believed to
be dying.
It was reported that twenty persorz in
the balcony were cut off from relief
and probably persisted in the flames.
Three dead women were carried
across the alley from the rear of the
thcater to the fremont building. Most
of the spectators who escaped from
the balcony were rescued in this man
ner.
Nine injured persons arrived at the
utes after the fire first broke out.
| At 40 p. n., it was estimated that
at least sixty dead bodies had been res
cued from the fire. The bodies were
taken to nearby stores and every possible
available place.
Fire Marshall Musham who has just
been up to the balcony says it looks to
him as if there were two or three hum
bred people piled up in the floors of the
two upper balconies. He could not say
whether they were alive or dead. In one
place there seemed to be over one hun
dred He is going up and down in front
of the theater urging his men for Gods
sake to go up stairs and bring the peo-
pie down.
Firemen are now bringing people
down, most of them unconscious, and
some crushed. Some of these people
were suffocated by the smoke, but most
were thrown down during the cry
Fire"
About all of the principal actors were
accounted for but a number of chorus
| girls were missing.
The school in the fremont building
and other surrounding places were
turned into temporary hospitals.
Chicago, Dec. 3o.-With over sixty
bodies recovered from the burning Iro-
uuois theater, a conservative estimate
was that there were at least 200 more
| persons inside, either dead or uncon-
scious. Firemen and policemen said that
inside in the balconies the bodies were
piled FIVE deep.
At D. m the police estimated that 500
persons either lost their lives or were
injured in the fire. Some of the per-
sons being carried from the building at
that hour were still alive.
Up to 5 p. m. forty-three bodies had
been carried out of one entrance of the
| theater Only one-a woman, showed
any signs of life The bodies taken
from the different entrances accumulated
so rapidly that they had to be piled up
two or three deep on the sidewalk. Po-
lice ambulances and other vehicles took
them to the hospitals and morgues as
rapidly as possible.
Chicago, Dec 31.-The police say at
midnight that 523 persons were killed.
That tells the story of the awful dis
aster.
As soon as the flames first appeared
beyond the curtain man in the rear
of the hall shouted Fire" and the au-
audience rose as one person and rushed
for the door.
For those in the front seats there
was no escape, and for those further
back the chances scarcely were better.
All from parquet to gallery were en-
yelopod in mad rush toward the
exits and were swept with it to escape
or to death.
| When the firemen entered the build
ing 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
rear of the door.