Vernon County censor. [volume] (Viroqua, Wis.) 1865-1955, 1904-01-06
DIAGRAM SHOWING CRUSH AT SECOND BALCONY ENTRANCES

robbed dead and dying in the midst Of
the fire.
Ten baskets of money and jewelry
were picked up from the main floor when
the FIRE was eXtinguished.
Hundreds of bodies were taken from
the building, their clothing gone. their
faces charred beyond recognition.
The theater had thirty exits. All were
opened before the fire reached full head
way, but some had to be forced open.
Darkness shrouded the theater with its
hundreds Of dead when the fire was an
der control that the building could be
entered.
Neither balcony fell. The seats are
ruined, the stage a wreck, and the full
loss it is thought, may be Sl50OO0 TO
100000.
As the first rush was made for the
foyer entrance to the balconies men,
women and children were thrown bodily
down the steps.
The crowds fought so in their efforts
to escape that they tore away the iron
ratings of the balconies. leaping upon
the people below.
Not since the fire of 1871, when $50
we're Killed. has Chicago been mantled by
such n universal tragedy; never has it
received a blow so instantaneously shock
ing.
me GOODNESS Of Foy, Of the orchestra
leader and Of other players, who begged
the audience to hold itself in check, prob
ably saved many lives on the parquet
! floor
There were 1000 persons or there
nhOuts iii the theater OF that number
| lao had seats. The rest were massed
/ in the rear of the seats on the main floor
and the first balcony.
| The newest theater In Chicago, the
playhouse declared to he ireproof from
| dressing rooms to capstone, burned till
! its stage was a steel skeleton and its
wrecked interior a chnrnel house.
| of the unidentified nearly all We're so
badly burned that recognition was impos-
/ siblc Only by trinkets and burned scraps
of wearing apparel could the bodies Of
/ hundreds be made known TO their fami-
| lies
/ From $50 o'clock, when the alarm
was sent in. 10 7:3O o'clock, when the
doors of the theater were closed, the
charred. torn and blistered bodies were
carried from the building at the rate Of
I tOUF n minute.
Perhaps the worst of the norror--if
horror can have superlatiye-is that
| great portion Of the dead are children.
! 1T was a holiday matinee II was vaca
! ton for the school children and the col
| leee boys. Not ia the 365 days of the
wear could there have been such an au-
dience.
Scores and scores died in the balconies
far from the exits Women and chill
drcn. fearful OF the rush and deciding
TO trust to their seats in the hope the
FIRE would not reach them, met death
when il was too late 10 fee. They died
in the ases and amid the wreck Of the
seats.
The stage loft collapsed and tons Of
fire poured over the stage The lights
went out in the theater with this de-
struetion Of the switchboard and all stage
connections. One column of fame rose
and swished along the ceiling of the the
alter. Then this awful illumination also
was swallowed up. None may paint from
personal understanding that which took
place in that pit Of fame lit darkness.
None lives TO tell IT,
Before the first fifty bodies had been
carried from the burning theater score
or more Of ghouls had commenced search
ing the piles Of dead for loot. They filed
their pockets. Rings, bracelets and
watches were taken from the dead. Ear