Evening star., 1908-01-15
GRUESOME SCENES
BRING A SHUDDER
BoyertoWn People Realize AW.
full Extent of Tragedy.
4 BUILDINGS FOR MORGUES
Hundreds Wait in Line Today to
Identify Loved Ones.
CALCIUM OPERATORS STORY
Woman's Premonition That Some.
thing Would Happen-Mrs. Nun.
roe Plunged in Grief.

One hundred and sixty-seven
bodies, dug. one by one. from the
ruins, tell the story of the Boyer
town, Pa, tragedy. Of these Io7
victims two-thirds are women
and children Only ten i'll all are
recognizable, save, perhaps, by
scraps of clothing and blackened
trinkets.
In a community OF only $500
persons for at least 10y TO be car
ried from the blackened ruins of
an amusement place in shapeless
masses means that scarcely any
one in the borough has escaped
the hand OF grief.
Coroner Strasser saws:
Among the bodies are no fe-
males, 43 males and II whose sex
is not distinguishable. Twenty
two Of these are children. The
ratio OF women and girls to men
and boys is nearly three to one."
Included in the remains recov-
cred are three sacks of skulls and
bones.
BOYERTOWN, Pa. January 15. = With
the opening today of the four improvised
morgues. in which lay the victims OF
Monday nights theater holocaust. the in
habitants of this little borough began to
1i1a tho rf,,l - %h
The hand of sorrow has touched probably
| every family in the town and in neigh
boring villages. Where families were
not directly affected by the terrible panic
| and fire through the loss Of relatives they
| were mourning for lost friends or ac-
auaintances. The gruesome scenes fol-
| lowing thee disaster bring a shudder to
| the stoutest heart. and many OF the thou
sands who have come as curiosity seekers
have gone away declaring they never
want to witness another sight like it.
The four buildings used as morgues COM
tain 162 bodies. The three undertaking
establishments of the borough were too
small to accommodate the large number or
victims, so the borough officials decided
to use the high school. Undertakers from
surrounding towns were pressed into serv-
ice to care for the bodies as they ar
attached a tag containing a number. and
with the corpse was laid any article OF
jewelry or clothing that might have been
in the posse ssion of the victim
Coroner StraSSer. who has been on the
scene since midnight, had expected to
open the morgues for the identification
of the dead yesterday afternoon, but the
number of dead grew so large that the
undertakers, even with the augmented
force from other towns. were unable TO
properly arrange the bodies. Most Of the
bodies were in such condition that few
of them will be recognized by the fea-
lures.
Upper Portions of Bodies Burned.
In nearly every case the upper portions
of the bodies were burned some Of them
to crisp Because of the difficulty OF
identification and the attendant confu-
sion the coroner decided to keep the
morsues closed until today. and during
the morning the doors of the buildings
were thrown open.
Hundreds Of people were waiting at
each place to get look at the bodies In
the hope of finding the remains OF loved
ones Perfect order was maintained. At
each of the morgues detail of the state
police was on duty TO keep the CROWDS
moving AS quickly as identiicationS
were made the bodies were turned over
TO undertakers for removal to the homes
of the victims
Jacob Johnson who was badly hurt in
the mad rush for exit from the burning
building, died this morning. Coroner
Strasser is making an investigation pre-
limnary to the official inquest.
1T was the saddest picture l ever looked
upon,'' he said. No living Soul can de-
pict the scene. 1t was simply indescrib-
able. | shall make a thorough investiGd-
tion leading ,,p TO what ! consider the
most horrible affair that ever occurred In
eastern Pennsylvania.
The coroner's attention was called 10
the fact that oil lamps were used Ier
footIights in the opera house in place OF q
stationary illumination. He said he would
make thorough inquiry.
A Woman's Premonition.
Rut two members of the cast. SO far as
can he learned, were killed. This Is due
70 the precaution taken by Mrs. Della
Maver. She had premonition that some
thing would happen. At luncheon given
IA the members of the cast in the hall
seyera, days ago she said she feared
Something There ought to be a means
of escape, she said. The rear entrance
was spoken of. and at her suggestion the
doors were taken of the hinges SO thal
in case of accident esieso eou'u eaSh' 10
accomplished.
Henry w. Fischer of Carlisle. Pa. the
onerator OF the calcium light which was
the original cause of the terrible disas-
ter made his escape iioiii 'lic ooi h,'o
n,,Iaing though not without first receiv-
ing severe burns, Mr.. Fischer said:
..The accident to the calcium iigh. was
caused by cap on one VI @ -
hlou,inp out This caused sharp re-
port and fash. which startled the people
In the audience. .,
81 stuck to my apparatus dho ,'"s
GOT the leak repaired and succeeded IN
auieting the alarmed people. Jus, as :
Nd them calmed the foolish action Q,
e,,e n thnrouchly frightened and "ild
nsrson na on the stage caused the over YER
setting of the footlight lamps sapes ana upinn in
o,bing could avert Not until then ulu
| desert my post and seek my own SAFETY
In flight.
Unclaimed Teams at Hotels.
That the victims were not confined 10
residents of Boyertown was shown by the
number of unclaimed teams at the hoteis.
Fully forty teams remained uncallcd for
i'm the stables yesterday. and the hostlers
said thew belonged to people residing