Wausau pilot. [volume] (Wausau, Wis.) 1896-1940, 1904-01-05


that has ever occurred in the United
States was that in Chicago last Wednes-
day afternoon Over 1000 people,
mostly women and children, were
crowded into the Iroqnois theater, the
newest, the largest, and supposed to b"
the safest theater of any in Chicago.
1t seated about 900 the balance
crowded the aisles, having been sold
standing room tickets.
The fire broke out during the second
act of the play, 'Mr. Bluebeard" +"
which was the first dramatic production
produced in the theater since its erec-
ton. The reports of the origin of the
fire are very conflicting, but it is be-
lieved that an electric wire near the
lower part of piece of drop scenery
suddenly broke and was grounded, or
the sparks from an arc Tight was the
cause. The fire, in nloment, was un-
der great headway, our many of the
lives of the spectators could have been
saved had the theater been supplied
with an abestos drop curtain instead of
an imitation, and it had worked per-
feetly. As it was, upon command of
Eddie Foy, (the one man who did not
get rattled) the curtain was lowered, |
but refused to go only about half way,
on account of distractions. In a
moment the immense amount of
scenery and the flimsy stage set
tings, were all on fire. With
roar and a bound the flames shot
through the opening over the heads of
the people on the first floor, and, reach
ing clear up to those in the first balcony
caught them and burned them to death
where they sat. Immediately following
this rush of flames there came an ex-
plosion which lifted the entire roof of
the theater from it's walls, shattering
the great skylight into fragments. As
soon as the flames first appeared beyond
the curtain man in the rear of the hall
shouted 'Firel Firep and the entire
audience arose as one person and made
for the doors 1t is believed that the
explosion was caused by the flames
voirs of the theater, causing them to
burst.
The tbeater is modelled after the Opera
Comique in Paris, and from the rear of
each balcony there are three doors
leading out to passageways to the exit
in the front of the theater One of
these door ways is at each end of the
balcony and one in the center. The
audience, in its rush for the outer air.
seems, for the greater part, TO have
chosen to flee to the LETT entrance and
to attempt to make its way down the
eastern stairway leading into the lobby
of the theater Outside of those burn
ed and suffocated by the gas, it was in
these two doorways on the first aud
second balconies that the dead were
found piled fifteen aud twenty deep
When the firemen entered the build
ing the dead were found stretched in
pile reaching from the head ofthe stair
way 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 doorway
reached to within two feet of the top of
the passageway. All of the corpses at
this point were women and children
The fight for life which must have tax
en- place at these two points is some
thing that is simply beyond human
power to adequately describe, Only
faint idea of It's horror could be derived
from the aspect of the bodies as they
lay Women on top of those masses of
dead had been overtaken by death as
they were crawling on their hands and
knees over the bodies of those VINO had
died before Others lay with arms out
in the direction toward which lay life
and safety, holding in their hands frag
ments of garments not their own
They were evidently torn from the
clothing of others whom they had en-.
deavored to pull down and trample
under foot as they fought for their own
lives.
la some places, the bodies We're piled
up in the aisles three and four deep
where some had fallen and others had
trampled ovr their PROSTATE forms. All
had died where 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 without chance to
rise from their seats. One man was
found with bis back bent nearly double.
his spinal eolum having been fractured
as he was thrown backward A woman
was found nearly cut in half By Ike