Gilpin observer., 1908-01-16

HOLOCAUST
ONE HUNDRED AND sIxrY.sEvEN
DEAD BODIES ALREADY
RECOVERED.
PEOPLE SEEM DAzED
NEARLY EVERYONE IN THE
TOWN HAS LOST RELA-
TIvEs OR FRIENDS.

Boyertown, Pa.-When nightfall put
a stop to the work of recovering the
dead from the ruins of the Rhoades
opera house, where Tuesday nights
holocaust occurred, the official roll OF
victims numbered 167.
Whether any more bodies are buried
beneath the ruins cannot be positively
stated, but it is the belief of those who
had charge of the gruesome work that
all OF the dead have been removed and
that the total list of victims will not
go over 10.
The ratio Of women and girls to
men and boys is about nine to one.
The population of the place is about
$500 and the disaster SO paralyzed the
town that the people are going about
.dazed. 1t is safe to say that every
body in the place either lost one or
more relatives, or was intimately ac-
quainted with those who died in the
fire.
In several cases whole families were
wiped out. 1t was almost daylight
this morning, before the flames were
extinguished and rescuers were able
to enter the ruins to remove the dead.
The morning was bitter cold and by
the time the benumbed and exhausted
firemen began the task OF disentang-
ling the mass of burned beams and
twisted iron the entire ruins were
coated with ice and there was danger
of the walls falling.
Coroner Strasser of Reading, who
reached the scene shortly after mid
night last night, had detail of men
ready to take the bodies and keep a
record of the description of every
corpse received.
The bodies were so badly burned,
however, that there was little to de-
scribe them by and not half of the vic
tins will be ever identified.
The Philadelphia & Reading Rail-
road company offered men to help,
and soon had two carloads of labor
ers and carpenters on the ground. The
work Of recovering bodies then moved
so rapidly that victims were being
taken from the ruins at the rate Of
two every five minutes.
The Rhoades opera house was To-
Gated on the second floor of three
story building. The first floor was oc-
cupied by a national bank and sew
eral stores and the third floor was
uSeu LOT lOuSe TOOluS.
The entertainment hall was a large
room about fifty feet wide and seventy
five feet long, 1t had no gallery.
There was a stairway at the front Of
the building and narrow exit in the
rear of tho stage. Fire escapes were
built on both sides and on the front
Of the building.
So far as can be learned, there were
about 425 persons packed in the room,
most of whom were adults.
The number of children present was
small. There were about sixty-five
persons, all local talent, on the stage,
who were giving a performance OF
"The Scottish Reformation"
The entertainment was nearly over,
the audience waiting for the curtain to
go up on the last part, when some
thing went wrong with the calcium
light apparatus that was perched on
small platform near the front en-
trance of the building and at the back
| of the audience.
The light was in charge of H. w.
Fischer and he says a rubber tubing
slipped from one of the tanks. At any
rate there was a loud kissing sound
which caused many in the audience to
turn their heads in curiosity to see
what 1t was.
Rev. Adam A. Weber of st. Johns
Lutheran church, for the benefit of
whose Sunday school the entertain
ment was being given, tried to pick
up the tank, with the assistance of
| others, but before they could do so
the oil flowed out and caught fire.
Then came the inevitable cry OF
fire" and what was impossible to ac.
curately tell. Eye witnesses say that
the audience rose en- masse and the
one impulse was to reach the front
door
Those who did reach the front en-.
trance found it jammed. One of the
double doors had been bolted shut so
as to better enable the ticket taker
to take up tickets.
While the frenzied people were fight
ing to get down the front steps, the
calcium light tank exploded and fire
was spread over the entire mass of
people.