Bonners Ferry herald. [volume] (Bonners Ferry, Idaho) 1904-current, 1907-03-02
WAS NEARLY APAkIC
CHICAGO THEATER AUDIENCE
QUIETED BY SINGING.
While 1900 Persons Were Watching
Grand Opera in the Auditorium Two
Electric Wires Became Crossed,
Which Spit Fire From Ceiling
Wild Scene Followed.

ChlcagO-tOur thousand persons,
enc of the most fashionable audiences
ever gathered in the Auditorium
theater, were thrown into a panic Sat
urday night during the grand opera
performance, caused by crossed cleo
trio wires splitting fire from the cell
ing.
Alice Nielsen treasured the STAN
peding audience by singing The Star
Spangled Banner" but before the ter
ror of the the most timid had subsid-
ed hundreds of women and young girls
had been trampled and crushed. Faint
ing women were carried to places Of
safety.
The outlook was a seeming repeti-
ton of the Iroquois horror until the
big audience resumed its seats. Ter
rified women screamed and crowded
against each other at the exits. Men
battled with each other in their fran
tic efforts to get out of the building.
In the galleries, where the auditors
were in the most danger, they rushed
headlong down the steep floors in i'm
minent danger of topping over the
rails into the auditorium below
Two big policemen prevented the
boys and weaker persons in the panic
stricken crowd from the fatal results
of stampede by blocking the pas
sage of the leaders at the doors, and
calling to the audience to sit down
Their cries caused the people to stop
momentarily. The moments respite
saved the lives of the children who
we're being borne down the stairs.
One boy fell over the backs of the
seats and was rolling dOwnwards tc
he floor below when a man caught
MIN at the railing. A few feet more
and the child would have been dashed
to death in the pit, rs feet below
Two young girls were thrown to theil
faces and men seeking safety il
hight trampled and fell over them
Women attired in silks, satins an,
rich furs were rudely brushed asid,
or thrown down by terror stricken
men. Fine gowns and other valuablei
were ruthlessly sacrificed in the mac
rush to escape.
After the excitement subsidized a cen
sus of the audience was taken to as
certain the extent of the injury done
t No one was seriously hurt, according
] to the managers.
The opera being sung was Lucia d.
Lammermoor, by the San Carlos con
! rany, with Alice Nelson as the prim
/ donna. The performance was unde
the auspices Of the Bryn Mawr Eel
dowment association, which Is try
d ing to raise a fund of 100000, and
@ giving grand opera here for wee
5 tor that purpose.
: Miss Nelson was in the wings whe
the crossed wires gave forth a lou
explosion and sent showers of blu
and golden fire down on the heads {
5 the handsomely gowned women in I'll
{. seats reserved for the fashionable a
ditors. The singers voice was in
e mediately drowned in the screams
ie he women With the Iroquois horr,
L memory in their minds, the member
IS of the big audience rose and stampe
ed toward the door. The spaciousne'
Of the immense auditorium and Il
e presence of mind of a few in Il
g crowd averted a calamity. Miss Ne
sons presence of mind and coural
Quilted the frightened women. TT
music of the orchestra and the stroi
notes of the prima donna sound'
'e throughout the big building and 9
sured the fleeing people that the da
ger was over. After the panic near
e. 1000 persons left the theater al
a. would not return.