The Abbeville press and banner. [volume] (Abbeville, S.C.) 1869-1924, 1908-02-05

LILLE UQ6S UruSutu Ill MduutItu uaou "
EIitS--0il Lamps Burst and Bodies Burne'
in Heaps as Firemen Stood HelpleSS-Th
Exact Number Of Dead May Never b
known, For Among the Victims OF the AWfu
Disaster We're Visitors and Strangers Wh'
NAY Have No Relatives to Trace Them Il
Their Fate.
Boyertown, Pa. - When daylight
dawned the full extent of the nights
horror when the Rhoades Opera
House was burned became apparent
The list of dead is placed at 160 and
the injured at seventy-five. How
many were killed may never be
known, for among the victims of this
awful disaster were many visitors
and some strangers who may have
left no relatives to trace them to
their untimely fate.
Out of the ruins of the Rhoades
Opera House 167 bodies, mostly OF
women and children, had been taken
when darkness fell on the day follow
ing the disaster.
Then, with at least forty more bod
les in sight and perhaps more mixed
in the debris, the search stopped for
the night.
At least 200 persons perished by
fire, by trampling and by suffocation
in the awful tragedy. The list may
reach 230.
Of these 1877 victims taken from
the ruins two-thirds are women and
children. Only ten in all are recog-
nizable, save, perhaps, by scraps of
clothing and blackened trinkets..
Coroner Strasser said: Among the
bodies are 10 females, forty-three
males and twelve whose sex is not
distinguishable. Twenty-Five of these
are children The ratio Of women
and girls to men and boys is nearly
three to one"
Included in the remains recovered
are three sacks of skulls and bones.
For several months the Sunday
school pupils of St. Johns Lutheran
Church had been rehearsing The
Scottish Reformation" which was be-
ing staged by Mrs. H. E. Monroe, of
Washington, the authoress, and when
the curtain rose at o'clock the
opera house was thronged with repre-
sentative citizens.
The second part of the play, in
which the students from the Glasgow
University and the Puritans marched
to Leith to meet Queen Mary, had
Just been reached. The young people
taking part had just finished their
songs, and incidental to the drama a
number of pictures were shown by a
moving picture machine. This was
operated by II. w. Fisher, Of Carlisle,
Pa, who used calcium lights. While
he was operating the machine there
was fash anu loud report, and the
people sitting in the rear OF the
opera house near the machine arose
In fright and rushed toward the stage.
Their action caused a panic in the
audience, and many of the people,
thinking the building was, on fire,
rushed toward the stage. The young
people who were taking part in the
play motioned to them to go back and
resume their seats, but the fright
ened spectators attempted to climb
upon the stage to escape the fiery
spluttering of the moving picture ma
chine. ..
'Hcmnied in by Fire.
! One of the young. people on the
stage, more excited than the others,
made a motion as if to repel the au-
dience, and in his excitement he over
turned one of the coal oil lamps that
were used as footlights for the stage.
It, fell with a crash into the auditor
ium and exploded, -
In an instant the stage in front
was ablaze, and the frightened people
surged toward the rear again. The
youthful actors fed from the stage,
and managed to escape, clad in their
stage garments.
The crowd in the front Of the audi
torium fed to the rear as the flames
from the stage edged toward them,
and they were met by a crowd from
the rear, frantic to escape from the
peril of the burning picture machine
I'm the rear. The mob became panic
stricken, and strong men beat down
women and children in their effort
to get out of the building.
Frank Cullen, a blacksmith, seized
his four-year-old son and made his
way to a window. When he attempt
ed to return to get his wife she was
In a struggling mass Of humanity,
and it was impossible for him to
reach her.
The flames spread rapidly, and
many of the audience were caught
and overcome beforethey could reach
the fire escapes. The frenzied people
fought with each other to reach the
front entrance.
People Piled Against Doors.
The frenzied people fought with
each other to reach the front en-
trance, the principal means of exit
from the building, and struggling
mass of humanity was quickly piled
against the doors that led to the
stairs on Philadelphia avenue. Here
the flames soon overlook them, and
they were burned to death almost in
sight of escape from the seething fur
mace that surrounded them.
A number of people who were at
tracted by the cries of fire rushed
from the street to the entrance of the
opera house and up the stairs to the