Middlebury register. (Middlebury, Vt.) 1886-1937, 1911-09-01
TWENTY SIX DlEIN PANIC.
Moving Picture Machine Shows
Defect and Clicking Is thought
to Be Fire

10 oe ' lEts
Canonsburg, Pa, AUG. y. Twenty
six persons are dead from -uIocation, /
% are seriously injured and aJ:ra anf- /
fering from minor hurts as tie ,uilof
an ineXcusable panic at moving nic- .
ture show in the Caro- 4 opera
house last night The ..oyug picture
machine developed a slight defect and
clicked loudly. A small boy shouted
q fire and started for the narrow exit
Bolus Dubrowski, a foreign miner, a
giant in proportions, jumped from his
seat and ran wildly for the same exit.
In moment there was a fighting,
struggling mass after him. At the head
of narrow stairway which led to the
street the foreigner tripped, as he rolled
down the stairs he swept from their feet
other who were awaiting their turn to
enter the theatre, and soon there was
an indescrbable pile of struggling hu
mainly at the foot of the steps.
The management of the theatre gives
two or three performances each evening
and Saturday the moving picture ma
chine operator was about to compete the
first when a film parted. Some of the
audience had already begun to leave the
building and other persons were on the
stairway coming up. Dubrowski's wild
flight and his stumble down the stairs
was the beginning of the death jam at
the foot of the stairs. The bodies clog
ged the doorway. Men walked over
them and fought until, overwhelmed
by the moving mass behind they too,
were crushed down to death. When the
doorway had been filled still other per-
sons walked over the bodies Of those who
had been tramped down, and breaking
the glass transom over the door crawled
through and dropped into the street
Manager Ferguson of the theatre
started for the stairs when the first
alarm was given, but there was no
escape and 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 fully 300 es-
capped in this way.
An alarm of fire was sounded and fire
men and police hurried to the scene.
Physicians came from the town and from
nearby places until 30 were at work
The dead were carried into stores and
residences and the more seriously injur-
ed We're hastened to the Canonsburg
hospital
Volunteer fremen several policemen
and few level headed citizens untangl-
ed the human mass. The unhurt and
those slightly hurt We're pulled from the
top of the pile As they gained the
street, they ran screaming like maniacs
to all parts Of the small town. Next came
the more seriously hurt Then the res
cuers came to the silent forms of those
who had reached the fatal stairway
first. One after another the victims,
mainly women and small children, We're
carried to the sidewalk All had been
suffocated
OF the 26 dead IS were children,
seven of them pupils in the public
schools. To-day it was decided by the
school authorities to postpone for a
week the opening of the school,
Arthur McPeck was passing the build
ing when the bodies began to pile up at
the door, He rushed to the rescue and
was dragging body from the pile when
a man came hurting down the stairs.
He struck McPeck on the back, break
ing the young mans neck.
Sydney Rittiger was at the perform
ance with his fancee, Miss Lulu Fisher.
Before entering the building they had
stopped at a jewAlry store nearby and
Rittiger had bought the wedding ring.
Both We're killed.
Wilmer, a volunteer fireman, was
working at the pile of bodies at the en-
trance when he came upon the lifeess
forms of his two children, lying beside
his unconscious wife. Samuel Lane of
Morganza had entered the building a
short time before the alarm was given.
He rushed toward the stairs and was
making his way down when he saw
child almost under his feet. AS he
stopped to pick her up he recognized his
granddaughter, but at that moment he
was caught in the whirl and she was
swept out of his reach and killed. He
was seriously hurt.
1t developed during to-day that there
was no flash nor was there the slightest
sign of fire. Manager Ferguson of the
opera house explained that when the
film broke, bright light was thrown
upon the screen. The frightened boy
imagined it was fire and shouted out the
knell of more than a score of persons.
HOW'S This 4?
We offer One Hundred Dollars Re-
ward for any case of Catarrh that can