Year: 1876




The burning of the Brooklyn Theatre was
SO replete with incident and episode that.
apart from the awe and terror of the calam-
ity, the event will be long remembered on
account of the circumstances attending it,
The representation of the evening was near its
close. In another five minutes the curtain
would have fallen upon an audience impressed
only by the sorrows of the mimic scene
Some of the actors had already quilted the
theatre. The heroine lay on the pallet of
straw In the boatmans hut, and the other
actors were either on the stage or awaiting
the summons of the call boy. The attention
OF all was absorbed in the drama, when a
flash Of flame darted out from a border light
in the flies and soon wrapped the stage and
all its paraphernalia, the dome, the roof, the
entire edifce, in mantle of fire. There
was scarcely time for any one to escape,
while haste was death. The actors, dazed
by the suddenness of the danger, still pre-
served that rare presence of mind which
upon trying occasions is courage, and, by an
action which might well have been part of
the play, compelled a moderation which un-
questionably saved many lives. Never did
a company behave more nobly in the face of
imminent peril. They were the last to
leave the theatre, and even then they es-
capped as if by miracle. The fire had
closed the ordinary stage exit against them.
1t was only possible for them to save them
selves by the subterranean passages
which led into the auditorium and
the lobby. Through these they passed
in safety, some of them witnessing
part Of the agony which is related in
the HERALD this morning with SO much
detail, but most Of them were unconscious
Of the terrible tragedy which was then en-
acting. Indeed, this utter want of appreci-
alton of the extent of the calamity is its
marvellous feature. Even those who were
in the building and escaped both the crush
and the fame had no idea that many, if any,
lives had been lost. The scene on the stair
way which led from the gallery was not
imagined until the dead were discovered in
the morning. Those who saw it were APP
parently unconscious that they had seen
anything remarkable and the story of the





itself was revealed. Then was shown
scene heartrending and terrible. The
charred remains of human beings
were found in blackened and solid
mass in the debris, and the cries
of alarm and terror which gave to the
calamity SO much of the dramatic dread with
which its story is invested were changed
into sobs Of grief and ordinations Of sor-
row and despair. No event Of the kind was
ever so terrible in itself or in its conse-
quences. The calamity came as revelation,
unexpected, terrible, agonizing. Even this
morning many of our readers will hesitate
to read the list of killed and wounded which
fearing that among them will be the
name of some loved and lost one.
Then, too, there will be sorrow for
the two young actors whose lives were
sacrificed in the holocaust. They were
men Of promise, both of them, and were still
in the sunny glamour of their youth and
hopes. The sun Of their genius has set in
the agonizing calamity which is the talk of
the hour; but even their career thus cut
short when their fame was in it's bud is
only one Of the incidents of confagration
which has brought deep-seated grief to many
hearthstones and must bring sorrow wher-
ever its story is told. When the votaries of
the drama are thus sacrificed in the temples
of the art some stop to mourn and some to
reprove, but in most hearts grief for the dead
and sympathy with the bereaved are the
only sentiments which will find place to-
day.


Sherman's Louisiana Report.