The Van Buren press. [volume] (Van Buren, Ark.) 1859-1914, 1904-01-02
Audience Stampehed and Most of the
Victims Were Trampled to Death.
Fire Started from Grounded Electric Light Wire
....1ost of the Dead Women and Chdren-
Stout Hearted Men Overcome With
Grief at the Awful Scene.


OF the stair 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 center Of
the doorways reached to within two
feet of the top of the passage way.
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 describe.
Only faint idea of its horror can
be derived from the aspect of the
bodies as they lay, Women on top
of these masses Of dead had been
overtaken by death as they were
crawling on their hands and knees
over the bodies OF those who had
died before. Others lay with arms
stretched out In the direction toward
which lay life and safety, holding in
their hands fragments Of garments
not their own. They were evidently
torn from the clothing of others
whom they had endeavored to pull
down and trample underfoot as
they fought for their own lives.
AS the police removed layer after
layer of dead in these doorways, the
sight became too much even for po-
lice and fremen, hardened as They
are to such scenes, to endure. The
bodies were in such an ineXtricabe
mass and so tightly were they jam
med between the sides of the door
and the walls that it was impossible
to lift them one by one and carry
them out. The only thing to do was
20 seize limb or some other por.
ton of the body 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 be-
low where this awful scene was be.
ing enacted.
A number OF the men were com
PEELED to abandon their task and give
II over to others whose nerves had
not as yet been shaken by the awful
experience. AS one by one, the bod
les were dragged out the watersoaked'
blackened mass Of corpses the specta.
Gle became more and more heartrend.
ing, 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 marred
beyond Identification,
Bodies lay in the first and second
balconies In great numbers. In some
places they were piled up in the
aisles three and four feet deep where
one had fallen and others tripped
over the PROSTATE forms, and all had
died wnere they lay, evidently suf.
located by the gas, Others were bent
over backs Of seats, where they had
been thrown by the rush OF people
for the doors. and killed, with hard.
ly chance TO rise from their seats.
One man was found with his back
bent nearly double. his spinal col.
umn having been fractured as he was
thrown backward a woman was
found cut nearly in half by the back
OF the seat she having been forced
over II face downward,
In the aisles nearest me doors the
scenes were narrowing In the ex.
IRENE, Bodies lay In every conceiv.
able attitude, half naked, the look
on their faces revealing In some
measure the agony which must have
preceded their death. There were
scores and scores OF people whose
entire faces had been trampled com.
pletely of by the heels OF those who
rushed over them. and In one aisle
the body OF man was found with
not vestige Of clothing or flesh on
the bones remaining above his waist.
The entire upper portion OF his body
! lad been cut In mncemeat and car
ried away by the feet OF those who
tramplcd him; a search was careful
ly made with u hope OF finding his
head, but az n late hour tonight II
had not been discovered, and all that
will ever tell his friends who he was
is the color and appearance OF the
clothing on the lower limbs and this
is IN such a condition as TO be hardly
recognizable,
The thcatcr had been erected hut a
short time and all It's cquipmcn, was
not yet In place. This was unIortu'
natcly the case with fire escape In
the rear OF the building, The small
iron balconies TO which the iron lad
dors were 10 be attached were up,
but the ladders had not yet been con
ncctcd, When the panic was at It's
height u great number OF women ran
for these fire escapes, only to find, M
they emerged from the doorwaya
upon the little iron platform, that
they were thirty to nifty feet from
the ground, n Are behind and no
method Of escape IN front
Those who reached the platform
first endcayorcd TO hold their footing
and TO keep back the crowd that
pressed upon them from the rear.
The effort was utterly useless, and IN
a few moments the iron lodges we're
damned with crowds OF women who
screamed and fought at each other
like manlacs This lasted but brief
interval, and the rush from the In.
terror OF the building became no VIC
lent that many OF them were crowd
cd on and fell TO the grani,epaved
alley below, Others loaped from the
platform, fracturlng lees and arms,
md Two wore nIcknd un III this nolnt