Webster City freeman. [volume] (Webster City, Hamilton County, Iowa) 1884-1946, 1911-08-29
FEAR COST
MANY LIVES
No Cause for Panic in Moving Pict-
ure Theater-Twenty-
six are Dead.
HUMAN MASS IS UNTANGLED
Film Breaks With Snap, Bright
Light Is Thrown on Screen, and
Rush for the Exit
Follows.
HUMAN MASS IS UNTANGLED

S6uOuoUulS, d.s aus. SO
Twenty-six persons were suffocated
or trampled to death, twenty-five
seriously were injured, and thirty
were hurt less severely Saturday
night in the senseless panic at &
moving picture show in the Canons-
burg opera house, according to the
revised figures compiled last night
How foolish the fatal panic was de-
veloped more fully yesterday when
those involved returned to their
senses enough to relate just what
occurred. It transpired that there
was no fire. The fatal rush for the
exit was due alone to baseless fear.
It developed that not even a
spark flashed. The film broke with
q swapping noise and bright light
was thrown on the screen. A fright
ened boy Imagined it was fire and
unconsciously shouted out the death
knell of more than a score of per-
cons as he started the mad 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 fighting, strug-
Cling mass after him. At the head
Of narrow stairway, which leads
to the street, the miner tripped. AS
he rolled down the stairs he swept
from their feet many persons who
were waiting their turn to enter the
theater, and soon there was hcr-
rible pile of women and children
and few men at the foot of the
steps. Dubrowski was probably the
first person killed.
It was all over within short
time. The stairway was jammed
full from top to bottom and those
behind could not get out. Fire
men, several policemen and few
level 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 like
maniacs to all parts of the Town.
The more seriously hurt were sent
home or taken to nearby homes. As
the silent forms of those who had
been suffocated or crushed were
disentangled, the victims, many Of
them women and small children,
were piled on the sidewalk.
Coroner James T. Heffran has be-
gun rigid investigation. He ar
rived at the scene early yesterday
and within short time had select
ed a jury. They were shown
through the opera house by Manager
c. X. Ferguson and John-C. Morgan,
owner of the building. Measure
ments taken by the jurors showed
tie stairway leading to the second
floor of the building, the main floor
of the opera house, to be only six
and half feet wide while the door
way at the bottom was not more
than eight feet high.
1t is customary for the manage
ment Of the theater to give two or
three performances each evening
and Saturday the moving pictul
machine operator was about to COM
plete the first session when film
parted. Some of the audience had
already begun to leave the building,
and other persons were on the stair
coming up.
Dubrowski's wild flight through
the theater and his subsequent
stumble down the stairs onto those
entering the building, was the be-
ginning of the death struggling jam
at the foot of the stairs. When the
doorway had been filled up, still
other persons walked over the bodies
of those who had gone down and
the glass transom over the
door, crawled through and dropped
into the street.
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 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 empty, and in half an
hour twenty bodies had been recoy-
cred. Physicians came from the
town and from nearby places until
thirty were at work.
Many of the slightly injured ran
about the streets until taken In
sharuo nv friends whiIo aufOYn0-