Weekly News. — 1890-06-05 (Blandford, Dorset, England)

THE TERRIBLE PANIC AT A BALL. A New York correspondent furnishes the following additional particulars of the fire which took place at the exhibition of industries at Fort Worth, Texas, which resulted in the loss of several lives. In the evening, it appears, a grand ball was given in honour of the occasion, at which were present a large number of notabilities from Texas and other States, among whom was Mr. Russell Harrison, the sou of the President of the United States. The ball-room, a huge apartment, forming part of a two-storied building, known as the Spring Palace, and used as an exhibition building, was beautifully decorated with flags, festoons, and dried grasses. During one of the dances, when scores of gaily-dressed couples were whirling around the room, the draught blew one of the lights against a flag which at ouce flared up like muslin. Before the accident had been noticed the flames had caught the dried grasses and other of the inflammable decorations, and had spread several yards. The first intimation which the merry company had of danger was the shrieks of a frightened woman, and the alarm thus painfully given quickly degenerated into panic. A wild unreasoning rush was made to the door, and the exits were soon blocked. Infuriated, maddened men and women fought for precedence,and the weakest went to the ground. Meanwhile the flames had obtained complete mastery of the building, and for a while it seemed as though many lives must be lost. From the lower windows scores of men and women jumped, at the imminent peril of their lives, but, strangely, escaped with comparatively trifling injuries. 'Twenty thousand people were in the exhibition grounds at the moment of the outbreak, and from these rescue parties were easily recruited. The blocked passages were finally cleared /)efore the flames had reached them, and nearly all were safely brought out. Many had to be carried, having been injured in the panic rush. Some women had fainted, and did not recover consciousness until they had been medically attended to. Surgeons who had been summoned to the scene were kept busily at work for hours, for some 40 or 50 men and women had fractured arms or legs. Mr. Hamer, chief engineer of Fort Worth and Denver Railway, was so dreadfully injured that he died in the grounds. Mr. Croce and Mr. Everts, the well-known citizen of New Orleans, were seriously injured. The building was gutted, and the money damage alone will amount to 250,000d01. or more.  Arthur S. Mitrany, said to be the son of a wealthy Roumanian noblenian, arrived at Montreal last autumn. He said he had quarrelled with his people. He disappeared on March 10th, and on Saturday his body was found floating in the river, near Point DIIIIX Trembles. A coroner's jury has returned a verdict of found drowned. On Sunday Mrs. Schulz, a poor widow, residing in the Zimmer Strange, Berlin, was asked by her daughter, a girl of 16, for a small sum of money, as iibe was desirous of going to a dancing-hall. Mrs. Schulz refused, as she did not wish her daughter to frequent such places. This go enraged the girl that she took up a hatchet and crushed her mother's skull. The youthful murderess is said to show no BIM of omirriciom The Figaro iltuctre for the current month has an excellent coloured representation of Millet's picture of Women Gleaning, and a photogravure of M. Detaillo's work in the Salon, chewing a battery artillery advancing at full speed. Signor Blasco describes the daily life of the little King of Spain, whose portrait is given. - •  'Notes on American Schools and Training Collagen," by J. G. Fitch, M.A., one of her Majenty'n Chief Inspectors of Training Collegen, reprinted from the Report of the Englinh Education Department for