Martinsburg herald. [volume] (Martinsburg, W. Va.) 1881-1920, 1911-09-02
% ARE DEAD
Seek MdnWhO Caused Panic
at Picture Show.
$500 REWARD FOR ARREST
Women and Children Were Crushed
to Death on Narrow Stairs at
hls. Canonsburg, Pa, When
Film Exploded.

CanonSeurE, Pa, Aug. 2S.--Canons
burg is hagiun.ng 10 realize the horror
oil its hotrcust. Twenty-eight men.
women aud children lie In the city
snorgne, victims, the officials say. to
the wanton lack of foresight of some
one when a broken film threw white
light on lie screen in Morgan's Opera
house, called Fire" and started a
hundred people toward the doors. to
be engGlied in a panic from which
only one out of four OF them emerged
alive.
Canon sburg wants TO find out the
tdentlty of the alarmist whose cry OF
IRE icsultee so fatally. The manage.
men, OF the .heater has offered re-.
ward .: $500 for his arrest and con
vict.on.
Then, too. the coroner and his as
sistants are preparing for the search.
Ing inquiry, which Is looked to to lay
bare al. the facts.
Two residents of Canonsburg are
said To have obtained the roll OF films
and to have placed 1t In safe to be
nsed as evidence when the inquest Is
held
Operator Fights Out Flames.
John Mccullough. operator of the
moving picture machine, had just
thrown the subject of the next series
OF pictures on the screen, entitled "A
Little Girl Shall Lead Them" when
the film exploded and the asbestos
cabinet was filed with flames. For
several moments the audience, mum.
bering upward of 1900, was totally
unaware of the accident. and the oper,
ator heroically fought down the flames
and succeeded in extinguishing them.
Then, his hands burned and al
most suffocated, he opened the door OF
the little box and staggered out With
the opening of the door dense cloud
of smoke poured into the auditorium.
At this moment some person yelled
'Fire!" The spectators turned in their
seats, saw the smoke, jumped to their
feet and then started the awful rush
for the lone doorway leading to the
marrow, eight-foot stairway.
At the stairway they collided and
damned into probably 200 other per-
sons who were awaiting the end of
the performance to take the places Of
those who had seen the show, Imme-
diately the narrow stairway was pack
ed and damned ten feet high with the
dead and dying, the shrieking injured
and the screaming unhurt, while the
crowds of townspeople rushed to the
scene and added confusion TO the din.
Whistles Arouse Town.
Within a few moments after the
film flashed and the panic started the
fire whistles were blown. Practically
sponded and packed in narrow Pike
street, from which the fatal theater
entrance led. All of them were APP
parently terror stricken and could give
little aid. The only cool persons were
the firemen and the several members
Of the police force.
The removal of the dead was the
In 1t the cooler ones of the spectators
Joined
Pathetic scenes followed the disas.
ter, when friends and relatives of the
twenty-eight victims sought to identify
bodies at McNary's and Hopper Bros.
morgues. Many of the mutilated and
all but dismembered bodies were gath
cred together at the main entrance OF
the building where grief stricken rela-
tive tried to identify them.
The bodies were later removed to
the morgue. While the room thronged
thicker and thicker with women alter
nately covering their faces. they wept
bitterly as they tried TO identify miss
ing loved ones. Men brok down as they
busted themselves about the same sad
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