The Penn's Grove record., 1908-01-17

E4llS--Un Lamps BURST and b0dl6S bufnS'
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
May Have No Relatives to Trace Them t
Their Fate.
Boyertown, Pa. - When daylight
dawned the full extent of the night!
horror when the Rhoades Opera
House was burned became apparent
The list of dead is placed at 100 ant
the injured at seventy-five. How
many were killed may eve 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 tt
their untimely fate.
Out of the ruins of the Rhoades
women and children, had been taker
WhCh a hllSSS lSlt vi IAC udy w
ing the disaster.
Then, with at least forty more bod.
les in sight and perhaps more mixed
in the debris, the search stopped fal
the night.
At least 200 persons persisted by
fire, by trampling and by suffocatior
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 b~lackened trinkets.
Coroner Strasser said: Among the
bodies are 10 females, forty-three
males and twelve whose sex is not
distinguishabie. 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 IA be.
ing staged by Mrs. H. E. Monroe, Of
Washington, the authoress, and wher
the curtain rose at s o'clock the
| opera house was thronged with repre-.
sentative citizens.
The second part of the play, ii
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 theil
connr ond inoidnnfo1 To thn dro q C
number of pictures were shown by
moving picture machine. This was
operated by II. w. Fisher, of Carlisle
Pa, who used calcium lights. While
he was operating the machine there
vas a flash and a loud report, and the
people sitting in the rear of the
opera house near the machine arose
in fright and rushedtoward 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 an6
resume their seats, but the fright
ened spectators attempted to climt
upon the stage to escape the fiery
sp%luttering of the moving picture ma
chine.
Hcmmed 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 thai
were used as footlights for the stage
1t fell with a crash into the auditor
ium and exploded.
In an instant the stage in from
was ablaze, and the frightened people
surged toward the real again. The
youthful actors fled from the stage
and managed to escape, clad in theil
stage garments.
The crowd in the front of the audi
torium fed to the real as the flame!
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
in the rear. The mob became panic
stricken, and strong men beat dowr
women and children in their effor'
to get out of the building.
Frank Cullen, a blacksmith, seizet
his four-year-old son and made hi
way to a window. When he attempt
ed to return to get his wife she wa!
in a struggling mass of humanity
and it was impossible for him tt
reach her.
The flames spread rapidly, ant
many of the audience were caugh
and overcome beforethey could reacl
the fire escapes. The frenzied peopl'
fought with each other to reach tn,
front entrance. '
People Piled Against Doors.
The frenzied people fought will
each other to reach the front en-
trance, the principal means of ext
from the building, and a strugglin;
mass of humanity was quickly pilet
against the doors that led to tn
stairs on Philadelphia emu Her,
the flames soon overlook them, AM
they were burned to death almost il
sight of escape from the seething fur