Okolona messenger. (Okolona, Miss.) 1900-current, 1911-08-31
MANY BURNED AND
TRAMPLED TO DEATH
MAN SLAIN DEFENDING FIANCEE
AT MOVING PICTURE BLAZE.
Terrible Disaster in Which Twenty-six
Lives Were Lost and Sixty Persons
Injured.

Canonsburg, Pa.-Deeds of unbaliev-
able humanity during the moving pic
ture fire, which resulted in the loss of
twenty lives and the injury to sixty
Others in the ~Canonsburg opera house,
are told.
The terror-stricken man whose frantic
and unnecessary shrek of "ire" brought
about the disaster escaped by clambor-
ing over the PROSTATE heads of his VIC
Tins. A reward of $500 is offered by J..
R. Ferguson, proprietor of the film show,
for the Identification and apprehension
of this man.
Sidney Rittiger, a prominent young
man Of Canonsburg, was deliberately
killed by a panic-blinded fugitive as he
stood defending the lives of his fiancee
and her three small brothers. Rittiger's
~fancee, Miss Lillian Fisher, was crushed
to death.
AS Deputy Coroner McNary checked
off the names of the twenty-six victims
it became apparent that gaIlantry was
not conspicuous in most Of the men who
were present in the opera house when
the panic occurred, for nearly all of the
victims are women and children, tram
pied down by the stronger sex in their
frantic efforts to escape.
Like the Boyerstown panic in 1908,
the tragedy is another tale of stairways
that proved death traps. The film show
was on an upper floor. Fire escapes
were provided in front of the building,
but they were not practicable. Exits
leading to them, it is charged, were
closed in such a way that women and
children were unable to open them. The
stairways offered the only recourse, and
in these occurred frightful loss of life.
When the film entitled in bitter irony
"a Little Child Shall Lead Them" burst
into flames, the audience of 1000 per-
sons rushed like a herd of cattle before
a prairie fire for the stair landing lead
ing to the first floor.
One little girl screamed and tugged
at one of the doors leading to the fire
escapes. They would not yield. She
took her chance with the panicky
throngs in the stairway and lost her
life.
Stumbles Down Stairs.
One foreigner of massive physique
stumbled about ten steps from the bot
tom. The little children hurtled over
his PROSTATE form. A woman, Mrs.
Kelly, carrying her child, fell. The
stairway was closed to the panicky
behind. They piled in a high
heap, fighting and struggling until every
man, woman and child in that mass lay
dead.
The innocent were trampled like rub
Dish under the feet Of %maddened, light
ing, desperate men, who, in their excite
ment, forgot all sense OF manhood.
One hour before the tragedy, Sydney
Rittiger had Iaughingly slipped an en-.
gagement ring on the finger of Miss
Fisher. To celebrate the event,
Rittiger took three of his 1aneee's little
brothers to the picture show. When the
panic came he gathered the little chill
dren, fighting to save them and the
young lady. Survivors say that they
remembered seeing a man leap
high in the air and come down on the
head of Rittiger. Hours later
fremen pulled him out of the mass of
bodies. His neck was broken. By his
side lay the body of Miss Fisher. They
we're to have been married Wednesday.
Choked With Bodies.
Eye witnesses declare that the fatal
stairway was so choked with bodies that
many probably died under the mass
scores stood by unable to extricate
he victims who were yet alive. Arms,
egs and even fingers were so entwined
n a hopelessly tangled mass that re-
noval of any one body was an impos-
for nearly an hour.
Every dying victim, it seems, had a
grapple on some other body. Cloth
ng was ripped to shreds and the faces
# some victims were so terribly scratch.
d that at first they were unrecogniz.
BILE to dear ones who crowded into Nc.
Jary's morgue.
Deputy Coroner McNary declared to-
there will be an early inquest and
hat it will not merely be a matter of
fixing the blame" as is usual in such
asses. Every effort will be put forth
o find the man who started the ter
ible rush for the stairways that soon
ecame choked with dead bodies.
Denial of Fire.
In a statement issued Manager Fer
uson of the film show said:
"There was nc fire of any kind. The
anic started in the rear of the house.
fuse burned out, and what damage
'as done to the film was quickly re-
aired. The film broke and the light
through the wire screened cur
oin gave the appearance Of fire.
"All those who lost their lives were
lught in the crush near the foot of
ne stairs. Had they remained in the
eats and gone out in the usual manner
could have got through the regular
Kits, including the rear stairway and
re exits.
Shot Wrong Couple.