The semi-weekly messenger. [volume] (Wilmington, N.C.) 1897-1908, 1904-01-01

As soon as the fire was discovered,
Eddie Foy, the chief comedian of the
company, shouted to lower thes cur
tain, and this was Immediately done.
1t descended about half way ana
then stuck The fire thus was given
practically a flue, through which a
strong draft was setting, added by the
doors which had been thrown open
in the front of the theatre. With a
roar and a bound, the flames shot
through the opening over the heads
of the people on the first floor and
reaching clear up to those in the first
balcony, caught them and burned
them to death where they were AS
soon as the flames first appeared be-
yond the curtain, a man in the rear
of the hall shouted Fire, fire." and
the entire audience rose as one per-
son and made for the doors. 1t is
believed that the explosion was caus-
ed by the flames coming in contact
with the gas reservoirs of the theatres
causing them to burst.
An Explosion.
Immediately after the rush of
flames there came an explosion
which lifted the entire roof of the
theatre from it's walls, shattering the
great skylight into fragments.
Will ]. Davis, manager of the
theatre, said after the catastrophe
that if the people had remained in
: their seats and had not been excited
, by the cry of fire, not a single life
would have been lost. This is, how
ever, contradicted by the statements
of the firemen, which found numbers
of people sitting in their seats, their
faces directed toward the stage as if
the performance was still going on.
- TT of fho 1rn, ~
that these people had been suffocated
at once by the flow of gas which
came from behind the asbestos cur
tain.
AS near as can be estimated at the
present time about 1900 people were
in the theatre. Three hundred of
these were on the first floor, the bal
ance being in the two upper balconies
and in the Railways back of them.
The theatre is modelled after the
Opera Comique in Paris and from the
rear of each balcony there are three
doors leading out to passage ways
toward the front of theatre. Two or
these doorways are at the end Of the
balcony and one in the center. The
audience in it's rush for the outer
air seems to have for the greater
part, chosen to flee to the left en-.
trance and to attempt to make its
way down the eastern stairway lead.
| ing into the lobby of the theatre. Out
side of the people burned and Suffo'
Gated by gas it was in these two
doorways on the first and second bal
comics that the greatest loss Of life
occurred.
The Fight for Life.
When the fremen entered the
| building, the dead were found
| stretched11n a pile at the head of the
| stairway at least eight feet from the
| door back to a point about five fee
| in the rear of the door. This mas
| of dead bodies in the center of tht
| doorway reached to within two fee
| of the passage way. All of the corpses
| at this point were women and chill
| dren. The fight for life which must
| have taken place at these two points
| is something that is simply beyonC
| human power. adequately to describe
! Only a faint idea of Its horror coulo
\ be derived from the aspect Of th'
/ bodies as they lay. Women on toI
| of these masses of dead had beer
| overtaken by death as they were
| Crawling on their hands and knee:
1 over the bodies of those who hat
] died before. Others lay with arms
| stretched out in the direction TOWARD
| which lay-life and safety. holding IL
1 their hands fragments of garment
| not their own. They were evidentl!
| torn from the clothing OF. other
/ whom they had endeavored to holC
| down and trample under foot as the!
| fought for their own lives.
Brave Men Break Down.
| AS the police and firemen removed
| layer after layer in these doorways
the sight become too much even fol
| them, hardened as they are to sucf
| scenes. to endure. The bodies 'wer'
| in such an ineXtricahle mass, and 81
| tightly were they jammed betwe.
the slides of the door and the wall
| that it was impossible 20 lift then
| one. by one and carry them out. Tn
| only possible thing to do was to seiz
| a limb or some other portion. of th'
| body and pull with main strength
| Men worked at the task with tear
| running down their cheeks and tn
sobs of the rescuers could be heart
even in the hall below where thi
awful scene was being enacted
number of the men were compellet
to abandon their task and give it owe
to others whose nerves had not as We
been shaken by the awful experience
4 AS one by one the bodies wer
dragged out of the water Soake,
blackened mass of corpses, the spec
tacle became more and more heart
rending. There were women who's
clothing was torn completely from
their bodies above the waist, who's
bosomss had been trampled into
pulp and whose faces were MARE,