The Savannah morning news., 1904-01-02
SHUTS UP THEATEUS
o,,cACO,s MAYOR DEMANDS THEY
lave ASBESTOS CURTAINS.
NINETEEN ORDERED CLOSED
,pRIsoN SEEKS SAFETY FROM
ANOTHER SUCH DISASTER.

AFTER the Terrible Catastrophe at
.be IrOquois Theater Mayor H"r-
-,soU Considers That Every Pos
..,Ie PrecautiOn Should Be OBJ
vad-He Ordered an Inspection
80 4be various Theaters and Mu-
seums-Curtains That Were FOUND
c,,io,eo Ian. Mayor Carter H.
11orrison to-day took steps to PROVIDE
&C far as possible against repetition
- Wednesdays horror at the lroquols
,r,oo+ar AS a result of an investlga-
49,, made at his orders and lasting
h,+ a few hours, nineteen theaters ana
,,,,seuns were ordered closed, some Oh
+ham being among the leading ana
,,,ost popular play houses OF the CITY,
Tho act of the Mayor was based on
single violation of the ordinances
.,.hicb are intended to protect the pa
.nons Of theaters from just such an
o,,rrance as that which cost so many
1;,as on Wednesday. This was that
o,arv one of these places had omitted
:. srnnlv an asbestos curtain. The the
alters ordered closed are:
towards, Sam r. Jacks, Marlowe,
New American, Olympic, Academy OF
D,,sic Alhambra, Avenue, Bijou, Chi
cago Opera House, Columbus Stock
rrbirtv-frst Street, Criterion, F1egen-
baum's. Milwaukee Avenue, Garrlck
ond clickman's. In addition to these,
4ba London Globe Museum and the
clark Street Museum were also COM
nelled to close their doors.
The Chicago Opera House and the
O1,,,,nic Theater are vaudeville houses
of the highest class, and probably 90
os much business in point of numbers
ss anv one of the theaters in the city
at single performances. They give
however. a matinee every day IN the
Wool, and it is seldom that seats can
no obtained for any performance at
the time of opening. In ADDITION they
have been accustomed to selling large
numbers of tickets for standing room'
and as a general thing more people are
within the places of amusement at an
average performance than can be
found at any other play house IN the
city.
The cerrick Theater which was OF
5ored closed, is a small playhouse on
the northwest side of the city, and
should not be confounded with the
larger theater of the same name sit
uated on Randolph street, one DUCK
west of the Iroquois.
Only Inspected Curtains.
The inspection ordered by the Mayor
to-day was carried out by Building
Commissioner Williams and Chief of
Police O'Neil. The scope of the inves-
tigation included no other feature than
asbestos curtains.
The Mayor instructed Commissioner
Williams to report to him promptly at
the conclusion of his investigation, de-
claring that it was his intention that
no theater should be allowed to open
is doors in Chicago hereafter unless II
was provided with an asbestos curtain
of standard quality that would work
at all times and under 1all conditions.
1T may not be possible" said Mayor
Harrison, ito prevent loss of life when
audiences rush for the doorways, but
] have determined to see that every
precaution is taken to prevent such
occurrences as will alarm the people
and start them on g rush for the ex-
its 1t is all very we'll to say that the
great loss of life in the Iroquois TheateI
was due to the fact that the people
lost their heads and crowded into the
doorways and aisles like maniacs, but
the Fact remains, and it cannot be de-
MED, that there would have been nc
panic if the apparatus in this theater
which, judged by al ordinary stand
ards, was the best equipped playhouse
In the city, had been in proper work
ing condition. There is no getting be-
yond that fact From all Me evidence
now in hand, it is clear that if the as
bestos curtain in this theater had been
IN the condition it should have been
there would have been no loss of life,
comparatively speaking"
Character of the Curtains.
The report of Building Commission
er Williams showed that the Academy
OF Music, with a seating capacity Of
1000, had curtain Of burlap. The
Alhambra, with a seating capacity OF
$500; the Avenue, 900; the Bijou. 1900;
Clark Street Museum, 270; Criterion
SOO; Marlowe, 1900, and New Ameri-
cam l,400, all had curtains of linen
The curtain in the Chicago Opera
House was of burlap, covered with
nreproof and paint; in the Columbus
STOCK Theater and in Sam T. Jacks
Oh canvas. The Olympic Theater, with
seating capacity of about 1000 peo-
PIE. has a curtain of canvas.
There were other glaring defects,
sald Building Commissioner Williams
which were noticed in some of the
houses, but we were not paying par
ocular attention to them to-day, al
though noted them and the theat-
Ilcal managers will be compelled *
IE0e0W fhnF1n