The Topeka state journal. [volume] (Topeka, Kansas) 1892-1980, 1911-08-28
DEAD PILED HIGH
Panic at a Picture Show Causes
26 Deaths.
Serious injury to 25; Thirty Are
Severely Hurt.
A BOY YELLED "FIRE''
When the Film broke With a
Swapping Noise.
Victims Lay in a Heap at Bot
tom of Stairway.

/ Canonsburg, Pa, Aug. 2S.-Twenty-
six persons were suffocated or tram
pied to death, 25 were seriously in
jured and 80 were less severely hurt
Saturday night in a senseless panic at
a moving picture show in the Canons-
burg opera house.
How foolish the panic was develop
ed fully when those involved returned
to their senses enough to relate Just
what occurred. 1t transpired that
there was no fire The fatal rush for
the exit was due alone to baseless fear.
1t developed that not even a spark
flashed. The film broke with a snap
ping noise and a bright light was
thrown on the screen A frightened
boy imagined it was fire and uncon-
sciously shouted out the death knen
of more than a score of persons as he
started the rush for the exit. Bolus
Dubrowski, a huge miner, jumped
from his seat and ran wildly for the
same exit. In a moment there was a
fighting, struggling mass after him.
At the head of a narrow stairway,
which leads to the street, the miner
tripped. AS he rolled down the stairs
he swept from their feet many per
sons who were waiting their turn to
enter the theater, and soon there was
a horrible pile of women and children
and few men at the foot of the
steps. Dubrowski probably was the
first person killed
1t was all over within a short time.
The stairway was iammed full from
top to bottom and those behind could
not get out.
Victims Piled on Sidewalk.
Firemen, several policemen and a
few Ievel-headed citizens untangled
the human mass The unhurt and
those slightly injured were pulled
from the top of the pile. As they
gained the street they ran screaming 3
like maniacs to all parts of the town.
The seriously injured were sent
home or taken to nearby houses. AS
the silent forms Of those who had
been SuffOcated or crushed were dis
women and small children, were piled
on the sidewalk
Measurements taken showed the
stairway leading to the second floor
of the building, the main floor of the
opera house, to be only six and one
half feet wide. while the doorway at
the bottom was not more than eight
feet high.
of the theater to give two or three
performances each evening, and Sat
urday the moving picture machine
operator was about to complete the
first session when film parted.
Some of the audience had already be-
gun to leave the building and other
persons were on the stairway coming
up.
DuDTOW5hi VIII l1ASIlt lllIOdSl tit6
theater and his subsequent STUN BILE
down the stairs into those entering
the building was the beginning of the
death struggling jam at the foot of
the sta irs When the doorway had
been filled up still other persons
walked over the bodies of those who
had gone down and breaking the
glass transom over the door, crawled
through and dropped into the street.
House Empty in 10 Minutes.
Manager Ferguson tried to stop the
panic Accompanied by his wife, he
started for the stairs when the first
alarm was given, but seeing there was
no escape there, he made his way to
the stage. Calling loudly to the
frightened people to follow him, he
led the way to the rear of the stage
and hundreds went out that way. In
ten minutes the opera house was