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+The Project Gutenberg EBook of Chicago's Awful Theater Horror, by Various
+
+This eBook is for the use of anyone anywhere at no cost and with
+almost no restrictions whatsoever.  You may copy it, give it away or
+re-use it under the terms of the Project Gutenberg License included
+with this eBook or online at www.gutenberg.org
+
+
+Title: Chicago's Awful Theater Horror
+
+Author: Various
+
+Release Date: March 27, 2012 [EBook #39280]
+
+Language: English
+
+Character set encoding: ISO-8859-1
+
+*** START OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK CHICAGO'S AWFUL THEATER HORROR ***
+
+
+
+
+Produced by The Online Distributed Proofreading Team at
+http://www.pgdp.net (This file was produced from images
+generously made available by The Internet Archive/American
+Libraries.)
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+[Illustration: IN FRONT OF THE THEATER AT THE TIME OF THE FIRE, December
+30th, 1903, 4 P.M.]
+
+
+
+
+  "LEST WE FORGET"
+
+
+  Chicago's Awful Theater Horror
+
+
+  By THE SURVIVORS AND RESCUERS
+
+
+  WITH INTRODUCTION BY
+  BISHOP FALLOWS
+
+
+  Presenting a Vivid Picture, both by Pen and Camera,
+  of One of the Greatest Fire Horrors of Modern Times.
+
+
+  Embracing a Flash-Light Sketch of the Holocaust,
+  Detailed Narratives by Participants in the Horror,
+  Heroic Work of Rescuers, Reports of the Building
+  Experts as to the Responsibility for the Wholesale
+  Slaughter of Women and Children, Memorable Fires
+  of the Past, etc., etc.
+
+
+  PROFUSELY ILLUSTRATED WITH VIEWS OF THE SCENE OF
+  DEATH BEFORE, DURING AND AFTER THE FIRE
+
+
+  MEMORIAL PUBLISHING CO.
+
+
+
+
+  Copyright, 1904, by
+  D. B. McCURDY
+
+
+
+
+[Illustration: HON. CARTER H. HARRISON, Mayor of Chicago.]
+
+[Illustration: LEADING ACTRESS IN THE "BLUEBEARD, JR.," COMPANY. MISS
+BONNIE MAGINN.]
+
+[Illustration: DOOR TO THE FIRE ESCAPE THAT COULD NOT BE OPENED; MANY DIED
+HERE.]
+
+[Illustration: FRONT VIEW OF THE IROQUOIS THEATER.]
+
+[Illustration: MEASURING THE EXIT WHERE HUNDREDS WERE KILLED AND BURNED.]
+
+[Illustration: FIREMEN RESCUING THE LIVING.]
+
+[Illustration: JEWELRY AND CLOTHING OF THE VICTIMS OF THE FIRE.]
+
+[Illustration: IN FRONT OF THE THEATER; LAYING DEAD ON THE SIDEWALK.]
+
+[Illustration: FRONT ROWS OF SEATS AND FRONT OF STAGE.]
+
+[Illustration: RUINS ON THE STAGE.]
+
+[Illustration: SKYLIGHT ON ROOF OF THEATER, WHICH WAS NAILED DOWN DURING
+THE FIRE.]
+
+[Illustration: BACK PART OF THE THEATER WHILE THE FIRE RAGED.]
+
+
+
+
+INTRODUCTION.
+
+By the RT. REV. SAMUEL FALLOWS, D.D., LL.D.
+
+
+When Chicago was burning, a little girl in a christian home in a
+neighboring city stamped her foot indignantly on the floor and said: "Why
+doesn't God put out the fire?"
+
+The cry of many an agonized heart, beating in children of a larger growth,
+has been: "Why doesn't a God of wisdom and love prevent such an awful
+occurrence as the Iroquois fire?" "I have lost all faith in God," said a
+dear friend of mine, as its full meaning began to break upon him.
+
+When we were carrying out the dying and the dead from that horrible
+darkness and choking smoke to the outer air, those of us who were wont to
+pray could only say, "O God have mercy! O God have mercy!"
+
+But there must be no panic in our faculties. Reason must not desert her
+rightful throne. Blinded by tears, we must not in our consuming passion of
+resentment against the sickening catastrophe, attempt with our puny arms
+to strike against God. He did not cause the calamity. No responsibility
+for it can be rolled upon Him. God is law; and his laws had been palpably
+broken by human negligence and incompetency. God is love; and human greed
+and selfishness had violated every principle of love which "worketh no ill
+to his neighbor."
+
+God cannot coerce man, as one by sheer brute force can another. The savage
+father may break both the body and soul of his child. Not so God, those of
+his children. Man must render a voluntary obedience to the Divine command.
+By pains and crosses and sorrows and shame he may be led to that
+surrender. But he must say with a free, princely spirit at last, "I will
+to do thy will O God."
+
+It is the old problem of evil with which this terrible tragedy has brought
+us face to face. The generic evil, out of which all evils spring, every
+giant intellect of the ages has grappled with, and it has thrown them all.
+The question is not "Why should God permit this special evil to come to
+us, which has well nigh paralyzed our city and thrilled the civilized
+world both with horror and sympathy, but why did he create the world at
+all and put man upon it?" The finite cannot measure the Infinite.
+Imperfection belongs to the one; perfection to the other. Where there is
+imperfection there is always the possibility of evil.
+
+A reverent faith will bow before the mystery and yet master it with an
+undaunted courage. Evil must exist if the Universe is to be. The Universe
+is, and it is the best possible Universe God can create. If he could have
+given us a better one he would not be the God we revere.
+
+Evil is the vast, dark background against which He brings out the
+brightest pictures of beauty and life. From a "Paradise Lost" comes forth
+a "Paradise Regained" with its transcendent glory of progress, and
+allegiance to law and love.
+
+  "Calvary and Easter Day,
+    Earth's saddest day and gladdest day,
+    Were but one day apart."
+
+God did not forsake his son in that supreme hour of anguish upon the
+Cross, when he cried out "My God, My God, why hast thou forsaken me?" He
+has never forsaken his world, nor the sinning and suffering souls that are
+in it. "God in history," is faith's jubilant assertion. He is in its
+minutest incidents and in its mightiest events, "in the rocking of a
+baby's cradle and the shaking of a monarch's throne," in the fiery furnace
+of the Iroquois Theater and in the most joyous assembly of his adoring
+saints.
+
+God permitted this great evil in harmony with man's free will; he did not
+cause it. The evidence is overwhelming that human law, as well as divine
+law, had been consciously or unconsciously defied. Two thousand lives or
+more were brought together in a building professedly fire-proof, and
+warranted as the best, because the latest of its kind, in the city if not
+of the continent. It was not fire proof. The law forbade the crowding of
+aisles; they were filled from end to end, until almost every inch of
+standing room was taken up. The unusual number of exits was boasted of.
+Most of them were unseen or actually bolted and locked. The alleged fire
+proof curtain was a flimsy sham, and was resolved in almost a moment of
+time, into scattered fragments by the surging flames. The scenery was of
+the most combustible material, loaded down with paint and oil. Not a
+bucket of water was on the stage, and only one water stand-pipe without
+any hose. There never had been a fire apparatus of any kind in the balcony
+or the gallery. There was none in the auditorium except one small water
+stand pipe. There was not a fireman to answer the call for help. At no
+time had there been a fire drill by the employes of the theater. There
+were no notices posted to tell what to do in case of fire. There was no
+fire alarm box anywhere in the structure. Common prudence and common sense
+were completely set aside. Coroner Traeger in advance of the final finding
+of the jury, is reported to have said: "Sufficient proof has been already
+found to show that there was gross mismanagement and carelessness. There
+is no need of denial. Instead of being the safest theater in Chicago, the
+Iroquois was the unsafest."
+
+But He who "maketh the wrath of man to praise him," who is ever bringing
+good out of evil, will overrule and is already overruling this dire
+calamity for the well being of mankind.
+
+As I looked upon the charred and mangled and bruised bodies of tender
+women and little children and once strong men; as I listened to the moans
+of agony, and the cry of the living, tortured ones for help and for loved
+friends whom they had left behind or been separated from as the fiery
+blast swept them onward and outward, I said in my haste, "you all are
+'martyrs by the pang without the palm'." I do not say it now. Martyrs
+indeed they were, by the criminal neglect of recreant men. But the palm is
+theirs. They have saved others, themselves they could not save. Thousands,
+perhaps millions, will in the future be secure in their places of resort,
+because these went on that fateful day to their inevitable doom. Mayors,
+architects, fire-inspectors, managers, stage carpenters, electricians,
+ushers and chiefs of police in every city have had their duty burned into
+their inmost consciousness by this consuming fire.
+
+Human law, which has been so flagrantly set at naught, demands punishment.
+The public conscience will be outraged if the guilty parties do not meet
+stern, inexorable justice. It is not vengeance that is sought, for
+"Vengeance is mine, I will repay, saith the Lord."
+
+But those who are immediately responsible, have not been the only
+transgressors, although they must suffer for their own guilt, and also
+vicariously for the sins of omission by others. For we have all sinned and
+come short of our duty. A common blame rests upon the whole community.
+Many a minister has been preaching upon the fire, but has his own church,
+perhaps crowded to the door, been safe while his eager congregation has
+listened to his impassioned utterances? Suppose the unexpected had
+happened, and the cry of fire had been heard and bursting flames been
+seen, would his hearers have escaped unhurt? Not if the church doors swung
+inward instead of outward; not if the means of escape were not abundant;
+not if camp chairs blocked the passages to the street. Who then would have
+been responsible? The clergymen, the church officers, the janitor, with
+the municipal or legal authorities would have had to share the blame.
+
+Nearly two score of our city school teachers perished in the theater. How
+many school buildings are in such an imperfect condition today that
+thousands of young lives are in constant danger? Suppose again the
+unexpected should happen and tragedies be enacted which might even surpass
+the Iroquois disaster, would the Mayor, and his subordinates and the Board
+of Education and the teachers be held guiltless? Yet that fearful
+contingency might have taken place.
+
+It is a question seriously to be considered whether or not the great
+majority of the apartment buildings in Chicago have the doors of the main
+entrance swinging outwards. I have climbed to the fourth and fifth stories
+of some of these edifices in which there are dark, narrow stair cases, and
+all the doors swing inwards. There is not a single element of fire
+proofing in them. I have gone up, in open elevators, in manufactories and
+office buildings where scores and hundreds of persons are employed, and
+have never felt safe a moment while remaining in them. They are fire traps
+of the worst description.
+
+There are hotels whose very construction invites the devouring flames.
+There are stores crowded literally with thousands of persons on special
+occasions, where the consequences in case of fire would eclipse by far the
+Iroquois holocaust. No coaxing, or pleading, or grafting, or business
+considerations should stand in the way both of speedy condemnation and
+renovation in all these cases by our city officers.
+
+Man is greater than Mammon. The sanctity of human life must be held
+supreme. The body is more than raiment and the soul than the body. A new
+civic spirit must pervade the people as the saltness the sea. Duty must
+tower infinitely above self-indulgence. Law must take the place of luck.
+
+The plain lesson for our whole country and the world is to be alert to
+meet the dangers which may menace human life in the home, the workshop,
+the manufactory, the hotel, the theater, the church. Let ample means of
+exit be provided and always known to audiences. The tendency to a panic is
+always increased when people are apprehensive of danger and believe that
+they are hemmed in. Fear is contagious. A crowd feels and does not reason.
+Self-preservation, the first law of nature, asserts itself the more
+vehemently when the way of escape is uncertain. Panics may not always be
+prevented, but their dangers will be greatly diminished if every
+individual knows that he may with comparative leisure get out when he
+wishes so to do.
+
+In the theater let it be known that every modern contrivance has been
+employed to secure safety. Let the curtain be of steel and so arranged
+that it will have full play to work in its grooves. Let automatic
+sprinklers be provided. Let the firemen in costume be in plain sight. Let
+the policemen be in full evidence. Let the aisles always be clear. Let
+there be ample room between the seats, and let the seats be easily raised
+to afford rapid departure. Let the ushers be drilled like soldiers to keep
+their places and allay confusion. All these and other things of like
+character appeal forcibly to the reasoning powers and tend to give an
+audience self command.
+
+In many of our public schools the pupils are occasionally called from
+their rooms, during recitation hours, and promptly assembling are marched
+in an orderly way out of the building. This is an excellent plan.
+
+Two marked instances of superb self-control among children in the panic at
+the Iroquois theater have been brought to my notice. Two little daughters
+of a highly esteemed friend slid down the balusters from the upper balcony
+and reached the main floor unhurt. One of my Sunday School teachers met a
+young lad she knew, leading by the hand a girl younger than himself to her
+home. They were sitting together when the stampede took place. "Jump on my
+shoulders," said the boy. Then holding her fast by her feet, he said: "Now
+use your fists and fight for all you're worth." Bending his head he forced
+his way with his conquering heroine to life. Let every safeguard that
+human ingenuity can devise be furnished and yet there always remains the
+personal element to be taken into the account. Habitual practice of
+self-control in daily life will help give coolness and calmness in times
+of peril. Keeping one's head in the ordinary things prevents its losing
+when the extraordinary occurs.
+
+Samuel Fallows.
+
+
+
+
+TABLE OF CONTENTS
+
+
+                                                            Page
+
+  CHAPTER I.
+
+  THE STORY OF THE FIRE                                       33
+
+  WAVE OF FLAME GREETS AUDIENCE--FEW REALIZE APPALLING
+  RESULT--DROP WHERE THEY STAND--MANY HEROES ARE
+  DEVELOPED--DEAD PILED IN HEAPS--EXITS WERE CHOKED
+  WITH BODIES--SURVEY SCENE WITH HORROR--FIND BUSHELS
+  OF PURSES.
+
+
+  CHAPTER II.
+
+  FIRST AID TO THE INJURED AND CARE FOR THE DEAD              51
+
+  GREAT PILES OF CHARRED BODIES FOUND EVERYWHERE IN THE
+  THEATER--MOAN INSPIRES WORKERS IN MAD EFFORT TO
+  SAVE--NONE LEFT ALIVE IN GALLERY--DEAD AND DYING
+  CARRIED INTO NEARBY RESTAURANT BY SCORES--TERRIBLE
+  REALITY COMES TO AWESTRICKEN CROWD--ONE LIFE BROUGHT
+  BACK FROM DEATH--ONE HUNDRED FEET IN AIR, POLICE
+  CARRY INJURED ACROSS ALLEY--CROWDS OF ANXIOUS
+  FRIENDS--BALCONY AND GALLERY CLEARED--FINANCE
+  COMMITTEE OF CITY COUNCIL ACTS PROMPTLY.
+
+
+  CHAPTER III.
+
+  TAKING AWAY AND IDENTIFYING THE DEAD                        67
+
+  HEARTRENDING SCENES WITNESSED AT THE UNDERTAKING
+  ESTABLISHMENTS--FRIENDS AND RELATIVES EAGERLY SEARCH
+  FOR LOVED ONES MISSING AFTER THEATER HOLOCAUST.
+
+
+  CHAPTER IV.
+
+  SCENES OF HORROR AS VIEWED FROM THE STAGE                   77
+
+  STORY OF HOW A SMALL BLAZE TERMINATED IN TERRIBLE
+  LOSS--ORCHESTRA PLAYS IN FACE OF DEATH--CLOWN PROVES
+  A HERO--ALL HOPE LOST FOR GALLERY.
+
+
+  CHAPTER V.
+
+  EXCITING EXPERIENCES IN THE FIRE                            86
+
+  EXPERIENCE OF CHICAGO UNIVERSITY MEN--BISHOP BRAVES
+  DANGER IN HEROIC WORK OF RESCUE--WOMEN AND FOUR
+  CHILDREN SUFFER--LEARNS CHILDREN HAVE ESCAPED--FINDS
+  HIS DAUGHTER--MR. FIELD'S NARRATIVE--NARROW ESCAPES
+  OF YOUNG AND OLD--PULLS WOMEN FROM MASS ON FLOOR.
+
+
+  CHAPTER VI.
+
+  HEROES OF THE FIRE                                          94
+
+  PILES OF DEAD IN THE GALLERY--EDDIE FOY'S HEROISM--AN
+  ELEVATOR BOY HERO--TWO BALCONY HEROES--THE MUSICAL
+  DIRECTOR'S STORY--CHILD SAVES HIS BROTHER.
+
+
+  CHAPTER VII.
+
+  THE ORIGIN OF THE FIRE--THE ASBESTOS CURTAIN AND THE
+  LIGHTS                                                     105
+
+  ACCOUNT OF THE FIRE'S ORIGIN--WERE ELECTRIC LIGHTS
+  TURNED OUT?--STATEMENT OF MESSRS. DAVIS AND POWERS,
+  MANAGERS OF THE THEATER--FIRST RELIABLE STATEMENT AS
+  TO WHY THE CURTAIN DID NOT COME DOWN--ANOTHER STORY
+  AS TO WHY THE CURTAIN DID NOT LOWER--THE THEATER
+  FIREMAN'S NARRATIVE--THE STAGE CARPENTER--THE CHIEF
+  ELECTRICAL INSPECTOR'S TALE--ONE OF THE COMEDIANS
+  SPEAKS--ABOUT THE LIGHTS.
+
+
+  CHAPTER VIII.
+
+  SUGGESTIONS OF ARCHITECTS AND OTHER EXPERTS AS TO
+  AVOIDING LIKE CALAMITIES                                   116
+
+  ROBERT S. LINDSTROM'S SUGGESTIONS--THE ARCHITECT
+  SPEAKS--EXAMINATION BY ARCHITECTURAL EDITOR--PROPOSED
+  PRECAUTIONS FOR NEW YORK THEATERS.
+
+
+  CHAPTER IX.
+
+  THIRTY EXITS, YET HUNDREDS PERISH IN AWFUL BLAST           123
+
+  HORRIBLE SIGHT MET THE FIREMEN UPON ENTERING
+  AUDITORIUM--THE GALLERY HORROR--GIRL'S MIRACULOUS
+  ESCAPE--AN ACCOUNT FROM THE BOXES--INSPECTION AFTER
+  THE FIRE--A YOUNG HEROINE--A NARROW ESCAPE--FINDS
+  WIFE IN HOSPITAL--A MIRACULOUS AND UNCONSCIOUS
+  ESCAPE--LITTLE GIRL'S MARVELOUS ESCAPE--FOUR
+  GENERATIONS REPRESENTED--DAUGHTERS AND
+  GRANDDAUGHTERS GONE.
+
+
+  CHAPTER X.
+
+  HOW THE NEW YEAR WAS USHERED IN                            137
+
+  MOURNING IN EVERY STREET--NOISE SEEMS A SACRILEGE--
+  MAYOR ASKS FOR SILENCE--MERRIMENT IS SUBDUED--CITY
+  OF MOURNING--BUSINESS WORLD IN MOURNING.
+
+
+  CHAPTER XI.
+
+  A SABBATH OF WOE                                           143
+
+  SEVEN TURNER VICTIMS--SAD SCENES AT WOLFF HOME--
+  PATHETIC SCENE AT CHURCH--BURY CHILDREN AND
+  GRAND-CHILDREN--FIVE DEAD IN ONE HOUSE--ENTIRE FAMILY
+  IS BURIED--MRS. FOX AND THREE CHILDREN--MRS. ARTHUR
+  E. HULL AND CHILDREN--HERBERT AND AGNES LANGE--
+  SWEETHEARTS BURIED AT THE SAME TIME--FIVE BURIED IN
+  ONE GRAVE--BOYS AS PALLBEARERS--WINNETKA SADDENED--
+  MOTHER AND DAUGHTERS BURIED TOGETHER--HOLD TRIPLE
+  FUNERAL--WOMEN FAINT IN CHURCH--LIFE-LONG FRIENDS
+  MEET IN DEATH--EDWARD AND MARGARET DEE--MISS E. D.
+  MANN AND NIECE--ELLA AND EDITH FRECKELTON--MISS
+  FRANCES LEHMAN.
+
+
+  CHAPTER XII.
+
+  WHAT OF THE PLAYERS?                                       152
+
+  THE CHORUS GIRL--THE MUSICAL DIRECTOR--THE JOY OF
+  THE OPENING--SPENDTHRIFT HABITS--GAMBLING, PURE AND
+  SIMPLE--THE SHOW ON THE ROAD--THE ONE-NIGHT STAND--
+  THE "MR. BLUEBEARD" COMPANY.
+
+
+  CHAPTER XIII.
+
+  OTHER HOLOCAUSTS                                           181
+
+
+  CHAPTER XIV.
+
+  STORIES AND NARRATIVES OF THE HOLOCAUST                    193
+
+  MRS. SCHWEITZLER'S STORY OF THE BURNING OF THE
+  CURTAIN--ESCAPE OF MOTHER AND TWO SMALL CHILDREN--
+  EXPRESSION OF THE DEAD--ONLY SURVIVOR OF LARGE
+  THEATER PARTY--ALL HIS FAMILY GONE--A FAMILY PARTY
+  BURNED--CARRIES DAUGHTER'S BODY HOME IN HIS ARMS--SAD
+  ERROR IN IDENTIFICATION--THE HANGER OF THE ASBESTOS
+  CURTAIN--KEEPSAKES OF THE DEAD--THE SCENE AT
+  THOMPSON'S RESTAURANT--LIKE A FIELD OF BATTLE--WOMEN
+  EAGER TO HELP--STEADY STREAM OF BODIES--CLOTHING TORN
+  TO SHREDS--PRAYERS FOR THE DYING--CHILD SAVED FROM
+  DEATH BY BALLET GIRL--PRIEST GIVES ABSOLUTION TO
+  DYING FIRE VICTIMS--LITTLE BOY THANKS GOD FOR
+  CHANGING HIS LUCK--USE PLACER MINER METHODS--DAUGHTER
+  OF A. H. REVELL ESCAPES--PHILADELPHIA PARTNER IN
+  THEATER HORRIFIED--ALL KENOSHA IN MOURNING--FIVE OF
+  ONE FAMILY DEAD--COOPER BROTHERS DEEPLY MOURNED.
+
+
+  CHAPTER XV.
+
+  SOCIETY WOMEN AND GIRLS' CLUBS                             214
+
+  MISS CHARLOTTE PLAMONDON'S ACCOUNT OF THE FIRE--
+  SCREAMS OF TERROR HEARD--CHORUS GIRLS ESCAPE, PARTLY
+  CLAD--FOY TRIES TO PREVENT PANIC--ESCAPE OF ANOTHER
+  SOCIETY WOMAN--MINNEAPOLIS WOMAN'S STORY OF THE
+  FIRE--GIRLS' CLUBS SORELY STRICKEN.
+
+
+  CHAPTER XVI.                                               220
+
+  EDDIE FOY'S SWORN TESTIMONY--DESCRIBES STAGE
+  BOX--CURTAIN WOULD NOT COME DOWN--LIGHT NEAR THE
+  FIRE--SAW NO EXTINGUISHERS--TALKS OF APPARATUS--ONLY
+  ONE EXIT OPEN--WIRE ACROSS AUDITORIUM.
+
+
+  CHAPTER XVII.
+
+  EFFECT OF THE FIRE NEAR AND FAR                            230
+
+  NEW YORK THEATERS AND SCHOOLS--CRUSADE IN PITTSBURG--
+  WASHINGTON THEATER OWNERS ARRESTED--MASSACHUSETTS
+  THEATERS INVESTIGATED--ACTION IN MILWAUKEE--
+  PRECAUTIONS AT ST. LOUIS--ORDERS AFFECTING OMAHA
+  THEATERS--EFFECT ABROAD--HORROR FELT IN LONDON--
+  LONDON THEATER PRECAUTIONS--PRESENT RULES FOR LONDON
+  THEATERS--CURTAIN OFTEN TESTED--CLOSE WATCH FOR
+  FIRE--TREE TELLS OF RUSE--FORTUNE FOR SAFETY--W. C.
+  ZIMMERMAN ON EUROPEAN THEATERS--THE EFFECT ON GAY
+  PARIS--UPHEAVAL OF BERLIN THEATRICAL WORLD--MR.
+  SHAVER ON BERLIN THEATERS--VIENNA RECALLS A HORROR
+  OF ITS OWN--THE NETHERLANDS AND SCANDINAVIA.
+
+
+  CHAPTER XVIII.
+
+  SUGGESTIONS FOR SAFE THEATERS                              243
+
+  FRANCIS WILSON SAYS "NO STEPS"--STAIRCASES WITH
+  RAILINGS--PRECAUTIONS ENFORCED IN LONDON--WHAT THE
+  CHICAGO CITY ENGINEER SAYS--OPINION OF A FIREPROOF
+  EXPERT--ILLUMINATED EXIT SIGNS.
+
+
+  CHAPTER XIX.
+
+  THE SWORN TESTIMONY OF THE SURVIVORS                       251
+
+  THE FIRST WITNESS--MARLOWE'S EXPERIENCE--MUSICAL
+  DIRECTOR'S SWORN STATEMENT--MRS. PETRY'S ESCAPE--UP
+  AGAINST LOCKED DOORS--BLOWN INTO THE ALLEY--JUST OUT
+  IN TIME--SPORTING MEN TESTIFY--AN ELGIN PHYSICIAN'S
+  TALE--MR. MENHARD'S DIFFICULT EXIT--THE THEATER
+  ENGINEER--A SCHOOL GIRL'S ACCOUNT.
+
+
+  CHAPTER XX.
+
+  LACK OF FIRE SAFEGUARDS                                    271
+
+  A UNIVERSITY STUDENT'S STORY--A CLERGYMAN'S STORY--
+  THE FLY MAN'S STORY--SCHOOL TEACHER'S THRILLING
+  EXPERIENCE--GLEN VIEW MAN'S EXPERIENCE--THE LIGHT
+  OPERATOR--THE JAMMED THEATER--GAS EXPLOSION HOURS
+  BEFORE THE FIRE--PANIC AMONG THEATER EMPLOYEES--AN
+  EX-USHER'S WORDS.
+
+
+  CHAPTER XXI.
+
+  IRON GATES, DEATH'S ALLY                                   300
+
+  EVIDENCE OF GEORGE M. DUSENBERRY, SUPERINTENDENT OF
+  THE THEATER--PURPOSE OF THE TWO IRON GATES--NEVER
+  ANY FIRE DRILLS--GATES WERE BATTERED--DIDN'T BOTHER
+  ABOUT LOCKED DOORS.
+
+
+  CHAPTER XXII.
+
+  DANCED IN PRESENCE OF DEATH                                306
+
+
+  CHAPTER XXIII.
+
+  JOIN TO AVENGE SLAUGHTER OF INNOCENTS                      312
+
+  ATTORNEY T. D. KNIGHT SPEAKS--CORONER'S WORK
+  THROUGH--REMARKS BY ELIZABETH HALEY.
+
+
+  CHAPTER XXIV.
+
+  AWFUL PROPHECY FULFILLED                                   317
+
+  MOURNING AND INDIGNATION--NOTHING ELSE SO
+  HORRIBLE--UNFORTUNATE VICTIMS--FIRE! FIRE!--BEFORE
+  THE DISASTER--THE HOLOCAUST--THE STAMPEDE BEGINS--
+  ONE OF STUPENDOUS HORRORS--CURSED AND BLASPHEMED--
+  DEAD BODIES FOUND--SUDDENLY AND FOREVER PARTED--THE
+  FRENZY OF FRIENDS--TOO HORRIBLE TO DWELL UPON--HOW
+  THE THEATERS SHOULD BE BUILT.
+
+
+  CHAPTER XXV.
+
+  LIST OF THE DEAD                                           325
+
+
+  CHAPTER XXVI.
+
+  THE STORY OF THE BURNING OF BALTIMORE                      357
+
+
+
+
+MEMORIAL PRAYER.
+
+The Rt. Rev. Samuel Fallows wrote this prayer for Chicago on its appointed
+day of mourning. It is a prayer for all mourners of all creeds:
+
+    "O God, our Heavenly Father, we pray for an unshaken faith in Thy
+    goodness as our hearts are bowed in anguish before Thee.
+
+    Come with Thy touch of healing to those who are suffering fiery pain.
+
+    Open wide the gates of Paradise to the dying.
+
+    Comfort with the infinite riches of Thy grace the bereaved and
+    mourning ones.
+
+    Forgive and counteract all our sins of omission and commission.
+
+    All this we ask for Thy dear name and mercy's sake. Amen."
+
+
+
+
+MEMORIAL HYMN.
+
+Bishop Muldoon selected as the one familiar hymn most deeply expressive of
+the city's mourning, "Lead, Kindly Light," which he declared should be the
+united song of all Chicagoans on Memorial Day.
+
+  "Lead, kindly Light, amid th' encircling gloom,
+              Lead Thou me on;
+  The night is dark, and I am far from home,
+              Lead Thou me on.
+  Keep Thou my feet; I do not ask to see
+  The distant scene; one step enough for me.
+
+  I was not ever thus, nor prayed that Thou
+              Shouldst lead me on;
+  I loved to choose and see my path; but now
+              Lead Thou me on.
+  I loved the garish day, and, spite of fears,
+  Pride ruled my will: remember not past years.
+
+  So long Thy power hath blessed me, sure it still
+              Will lead me on
+  O'er moor and fen, o'er crag and torrent, till
+              The night is gone,
+  And with the morn those angel faces smile,
+  Which I have loved long since, and lost awhile."
+
+
+
+
+POEM BY A CHILD VICTIM.
+
+The following poem, written by Walter Bissinger, a boy victim of the
+Iroquois Theater fire, fifteen years old, was composed two years ago, in
+honor of the tenth anniversary of the youthful poet's uncle and aunt, Mr.
+and Mrs. Max Pottlitzer, of Lafayette, Ind., whose son Jack, aged ten,
+perished with his cousin in the terrible disaster:
+
+  HAVE A THOUGHT.
+
+  I.
+
+  Have a thought for the days that are long gone by
+      To the country of What-has-been,
+  And a thought for the ones that unseen lie
+          'Neath the mystic veil
+          Of the future pale,
+      As the years roll out and in.
+
+
+  II.
+
+  Have a thought for the host and hostess here,
+      Aunt Emily and Uncle Max,
+  And a thought for our friends to our hearts so dear
+          That around us tonight
+          In the joyous light
+      Of pleasure their souls relax
+
+
+  III.
+
+  Have a thought for the happy two tonight
+      Who have passed their tenth wedded year,
+  And the best of wishes, kind and bright,
+          Which we impart
+          With a loving heart
+      That is faithful and sincere.
+
+
+
+
+VERDICT OF CORONER'S JURY.
+
+From the testimony presented to us we, the jury, find the following were
+the causes of said fire:
+
+Grand drapery coming in contact with electric flood or arc light, situated
+on iron platform on the right hand of stage, facing the auditorium.
+
+City laws were not complied with relating to building ordinances
+regulating fire-alarm boxes, fire apparatus, damper or flues on and over
+the stage and fly galleries.
+
+We also find a distinct violation of ordinance governing fireproofing of
+scenery and all woodwork on or about the stage.
+
+Asbestos curtain totally destroyed; wholly inadequate, considering the
+highly inflammable nature of all stage fittings, and owing to the fact
+that the same was hung on wooden bottoms.
+
+Building ordinances violated inclosing aisles on each side of lower boxes
+and not having any fire apparatus, dampers or signs designating exits on
+balcony.
+
+
+LACK OF FIRE APPARATUS.
+
+Building ordinances violated regulating fire apparatus and signs
+designating exits on dress circle.
+
+Building ordinances violated regulating fire apparatus and signs
+designating exits on balcony.
+
+Generally the building is constructed of the best material and well
+planned, with the exception of the top balcony, which was built too steep
+and therefore difficult for people to get out of especially in case of an
+emergency.
+
+We also note a serious defect in the wide stairs in extreme top east
+entrance leading to ladies' lavatory and gallery promenade, same being
+misleading, as many people mistook this for a regular exit, and, going as
+far as they could, were confronted with a locked door which led to a
+private stairway preventing many from escape and causing the loss of
+fifty to sixty lives.
+
+
+HOLDING OF DAVIS AND HARRISON.
+
+We hold Will J. Davis, as president and general manager, principally
+responsible for the foregoing violations in the failure to see that the
+Iroquois theater was properly equipped as required by city ordinances, and
+that his employes were not sufficiently instructed and drilled for any and
+all emergencies; and we, the jury, recommend that the said Will J. Davis
+be held to the grand jury until discharged by due course of law.
+
+We hold Carter H. Harrison, mayor of the city of Chicago, responsible, as
+he has shown a lamentable lack of force in his efforts to shirk
+responsibility, evidenced by testimony of Building Commissioner George
+Williams and Fire Marshal William H. Musham as heads of departments under
+the said Carter H. Harrison; following this weak course has given Chicago
+inefficient service, which makes such calamities as the Iroquois theater
+horror a menace until the public service is purged of incompetents; and
+we, the jury, recommend that the said Carter H. Harrison be held to the
+grand jury until discharged by due course of law.
+
+
+RESPONSIBILITY OF WILLIAMS.
+
+We hold the said George Williams, as building commissioner, responsible
+for gross neglect of his duty in allowing the Iroquois Theater to open its
+doors to the public when the said theater was incomplete, and did not
+comply with the requirements of the building ordinances of the city of
+Chicago; and we, the jury, recommend that the said George Williams be held
+to the grand jury until discharged by due process of law.
+
+We hold Edward Loughlin, as building inspector, responsible for gross
+neglect of duty and glaring incompetency in reporting the Iroquois theater
+"O. K." on a most superficial inspection; and we, the jury, recommend
+that the said Edward Loughlin be held to the grand jury until discharged
+by due course of law.
+
+We hold William H. Musham, fire marshal, responsible for gross neglect of
+duty in not enforcing the city ordinances as they relate to his
+department, and failure to have his subordinate, William Sallers, fireman
+at the Iroquois Theater, report the lack of fire apparatus and appliances
+as required by law; and we, the jury, recommend that the said William H.
+Musham be held to the grand jury until discharged by due course of law.
+
+
+NEGLECT OF DUTY BY SALLERS.
+
+We hold the said William Sallers, as fireman of Iroquois Theater, for
+gross neglect of duty in not reporting the lack of proper fire apparatus
+and appliances; and we, the jury, recommend that the said William Sallers
+be held to the grand jury until discharged by due course of law.
+
+We hold William McMullen, electric-light operator, for gross neglect and
+carelessness in performance of duty; and we, the jury, recommend that the
+said William McMullen be held to the grand jury until discharged by due
+process of law.
+
+We hold James E. Cummings, as stage carpenter and general superintendent
+of stage, responsible for gross carelessness and neglect of duty in not
+equipping the stage with proper fire apparatus and appliances; and we, the
+jury, recommend that the said James E. Cummings be held to the grand jury
+until discharged by due course of law.
+
+From testimony presented to this jury, same shows a laxity and
+carelessness in city officials and their routine in transacting business,
+which calls for revision by the mayor and city council; and we, the jury
+demand immediate action on the following:
+
+
+BUILDING DEPARTMENT.
+
+Should have classified printed lists, to be filled out by an inspector,
+then signed by head of department, before any public building can secure
+amusement license, and record kept thereof in duplicate carbon book.
+
+All fire escapes should have separate passageways to the ground, without
+passing any openings in the walls.
+
+All scenery and paraphernalia of any kind kept on the stage should be
+absolutely fireproof.
+
+Asbestos curtains should be reinforced by steel curtains and held by steel
+cables.
+
+There should be two electric mains entering all places of amusement, one
+from the front, with switchboard in box office, controlling entire
+auditorium and exits, and one on stage, to be used for theatrical
+purposes.
+
+All city officials and employes should familiarize themselves with city
+ordinances as they relate to their respective departments, and pass a
+rigid and signed examination on same before they are given positions. This
+same rule should be made to apply to those holding office.
+
+
+FIRE DEPARTMENT.
+
+All theaters and public places should be supplied with at least two city
+firemen, who shall be under the direction of the fire department and paid
+by the proprietors of said places.
+
+We recommend that the office and detail work of the fire department, as
+imposed on the fire marshal, be made a separate and distinct work from
+fire fighting, as it is hardly to be expected of any fire marshal to give
+good and efficient service in both of these branches.
+
+Also a police officer in full uniform detailed in and about said place at
+each and every performance.
+
+In testimony wherof, the said coroner and jury of this inquest have
+hereunto set their hands the day and year aforesaid.
+
+  L. H. MEYER, Foreman,      PETER BYRNES,
+  J. A. CUMMINGS,            WALTER D. CLINGMAN,
+  JOHN E. FINN,              GEORGE W. ATKIN.
+        JOHN E. TRAEGER, Coroner.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER I.
+
+THE STORY OF THE FIRE.
+
+
+No disaster, by flood, volcano, wreck or convulsion of nature has in
+recent times aroused such horror as swept over the civilized world when on
+December 30, 1903, a death-dealing blast of flame hurtled through the
+packed auditorium of the Iroquois theater, Chicago, causing the loss of
+nearly 600 lives of men, women and children, and injuries to unknown
+scores.
+
+Strong words pale and appear meaningless when used in describing the full
+enormity of this disaster, which has no recent parallel save in the
+outbreaks of nature's irresistible forces. There have been greater losses
+of life by volcanoes, earthquakes and floods, but no fire horror of modern
+times has equaled this one, which in a brief half-hour turned a beautiful
+million-dollar theater into an oven piled high with corpses, some burned
+and mutilated and others almost unmarked in death.
+
+Coming, as it did, in the midst of a holiday season, when the second
+greatest city in the United States was reveling in the gaiety of Christmas
+week, this sudden transformation of a playhouse filled with a
+pleasure-seeking throng into an inferno filled with shrieking living and
+mutilated dead, came as a thunderbolt from a clear sky.
+
+It was a typical holiday matinee crowd, composed mostly of women and
+children, with here and there a few men. The production was the gorgeous
+scenic extravaganza "_Mr. Bluebeard_," with which the handsome new theater
+had been opened not a month before. "Don't fail to have the children see
+'_Mr. Bluebeard_,'" was the advertisement spread broadcast throughout the
+city, and the children were there in force when the scorching sheet of
+flame leaped from the stage into the balcony and gallery where a thousand
+were packed.
+
+The building had been heralded abroad as a "fireproof structure," with
+more than enough exits. Ushers and five men in city uniform were in the
+aisles. All was apparently safety, mirth and good cheer.
+
+Then came the transformation scene!
+
+The auditorium and the stage were darkened for the popular song "The Pale
+Moonlight." Eight dashing chorus girls and eight stalwart men in showy
+costume strolled through the measures of the piece, bathed in a flood of
+dazzling light. Up in the scenes a stage electrician was directing the
+"spot-light" which threw the pale moonlight effect on the stage.
+
+Suddenly there was a startled cry. Far overhead where the "spot" was
+shooting forth its brilliant ray of concentrated light a tiny serpentine
+tongue of flame crept over the inside of the proscenium drape. It was an
+insignificant thing, yet the horrible possibilities it entailed flashed
+over all in an instant. A spark from the light had communicated to the
+rough edge of the heavy cloth drape. Like a flash it stole across the
+proscenium and high up into the gridiron above.
+
+Accustomed as they were to insignificant fire scares and trying ordeals
+that are seldom the lot of those who lead a less strenuous life, the
+people of the stage hurried silently to the task of stamping out the
+blaze. In the orchestra pit it could readily be seen that something was
+radically wrong, but the trained musicians played on.
+
+Members of the octette cast their eyes above and saw the tiny tongue of
+flame growing into a whirling maelstrom of fire. But it was a sight they
+had seen before. Surely something would happen to extinguish it. America's
+newest and most modern fireproof playhouse was not going to disappear
+before an insignificant fire in the rigging loft. So they continued to
+sway in sinuous steps to the rhythm of the throbbing orchestra. Their
+presence stilled the nervousness of the vast audience, which knew that
+something was wrong, but had no means of realizing what that something
+was.
+
+So the gorgeously attired men and dashing, voluptuous young women danced
+on. The throng feasted its eyes on the moving scene of life and color,
+little knowing that for them it was the last dance--the dance of death!
+
+That dance was not the only one in progress. Far above the element of
+death danced from curtain to curtain. The fire fiend, red and glowing with
+exultation, snapping and crackling in anticipation of the feast before it,
+grew beyond all bounds. Glowing embers and blazing sparks--crumbs from its
+table--began to shower upon the merry dancers, and they fell back with
+blanched faces and trembling limbs. Eddie Foy rushed to the front of the
+stage to reassure the spectators, who now realized the peril at hand and
+rose in their seats struggling against the impulse to fly. Others joined
+the comedian in his plea for calmness.
+
+Suddenly their voices were drowned in a volley of sounds like the booming
+of great guns. The manila lines by which the carloads of scenery in the
+loft above was suspended gave way before the fire like so much paper and
+the great wooden batons fell like thunder bolts upon the now deserted
+stage.
+
+Still the audience stood, terror bound.
+
+"Lower the fire curtain!" came a hoarse cry.
+
+Something shot down over the proscenium, then stopped before the great
+opening was closed, leaving a yawning space of many feet beneath. With
+the dropping of the curtain a door in the rear had been opened by the
+performers, fleeing for their lives and battling to escape from the
+devouring element fast hemming them in on every side. The draft thus
+caused transformed the stage in one second from a dark, gloomy, smoke
+concealed scene of chaos into a seething volcano. With a great puff the
+mass of flame swept out over the auditorium, a withering blast of death.
+Before it the vast throng broke and fled.
+
+Doors, windows, hallways, fire escapes--all were jammed in a moment with
+struggling humanity, fighting for life. Some of the doors were jammed
+almost instantly so that no human power could make egress possible. Behind
+those in front pushed the frenzied mass of humanity, Chicago's elect, the
+wives and children of its most prosperous business men and the flower of
+local society, fighting like demons incarnate. Purses, wraps, costly furs
+were cast aside in that mad rush. Mothers were torn from their children,
+husbands from their wives. No hold, however strong, could last against
+that awful, indescribable crush. Strong men who sought to the last to
+sustain their feminine companions were swept away like straws, thrown to
+the floor and trampled into unconsciousness in the twinkling of an eye.
+Women to whom the safety of their children was more than their own lives
+had their little ones torn from them and buried under the mighty sweep of
+humanity, moving onward by intuition rather than through exercise of
+thought to the various exits. They in turn were swept on before their
+wails died on their lips--some to safety, others to an unspeakably
+horrible death.
+
+While some exits were jammed by fallen refugees so as to become useless,
+others refused to open. In the darkness that fell upon the doomed theater
+a struggle ensued such as was never pictured in the mind of Dante in his
+visions of Inferno. With prayers, curses and meaningless shrieks of terror
+all faced their fate like rats in a trap. The darkness was illumined by a
+fearful light that burst from the sea of flame pouring out from the
+proscenium, making Dore's representations of Inferno shrink into the
+commonplace. Like a horizontal volcano the furnace on the stage belched
+forth its blast of fire, smoke, gas and withering, blighting heat. Like a
+wave it rolled over every portion of the vast house, dancing.
+
+Dancing! Yes, the pillars of flame danced! To the multitude swept into
+eternity before the hurricane of flame and the few who were dragged out
+hideously disfigured and burned almost beyond all semblance of human
+beings it seemed indeed a dance of death.
+
+Withering, crushing, consuming all in its path, forced on as though by the
+power of some mighty blow pipe, impelled by the fearful drafts that
+directed the fiery furnace outward into the auditorium instead of upward
+into the great flues constructed to meet just such an emergency, the sea
+of fire burned itself out. There was little or nothing in the construction
+of the building itself for it to feed upon, and it fell back of its own
+weight to the stage, where it roared and raged like some angry demon.
+
+And those great flues that supposedly gave the palatial Iroquois increased
+safety! Barred and grated, battened down with heavy timbers they resisted
+the terrific force of the blast itself. There they remained intact the
+next day. Anxiety to throw open the palace of pleasure to the public
+before the builders had time to complete in detail their Herculean task
+had resulted in converting it into a veritable slaughter pen.
+
+"Mr. Bluebeard's" chamber of horrors, lightly depicted in satire to
+settings of gold and color, wit and music, had evolved within a few
+minutes into an actuality. Chamber of horrors indeed--grim, silent,
+smoldering and sending upon high the fearful odor of burning flesh.
+
+Policemen and firemen, hardened to terrible sights, crept into the
+smoldering sepulchre only to turn back sickened by the sight that met
+their eyes. Tears and groans fell from them and they were unnerved as they
+gazed upon the scene of carnage. Some gave way and were themselves the
+subjects of deep concern. It was a scene to wring tears from the very
+stones. No words can adequately describe it.
+
+Perhaps the best description of that quarter hour of carnage and the sense
+of horror when the seared, scorched sepulchre was entered for the removal
+of the dead and dying is found in the words of the veteran descriptive
+writer, Mr. Ben H. Atwell, who was present from the beginning to the end
+of the holocaust, and after visiting the deadly spot in the gray dawn of
+the following day wrote his impressions as follows:
+
+"Where at 3:15 yesterday beauty and fashion and the happy amusement seeker
+thronged the palatial playhouse to fall a few moments later before a
+deadly blast of smoke and flame sweeping over all with irresistible force,
+the dawn of the last day of the passing year found confusion, chaos and an
+all-pervading sense of the awful. It seemed to radiate the chilling,
+depressing volume from the streaked, grime-covered walls and the
+flame-licked ceilings overhead. Against this fearful background the few
+grim firemen or police, moving silently about the ruins, searching for
+overlooked dead or abandoned property, loomed up like fitful ghosts.
+
+
+WAVE OF FLAME GREETS AUDIENCE.
+
+"The progress of their noiseless and ghastly quest proved one circumstance
+survivors are too unsettled to realize. With the opening of the stage
+door to permit the escape of the members of the 'Mr. Bluebeard' company
+and the breaking of the skylight above the flue-like scene loft that tops
+the stage, the latter was converted into a furnace through which a
+tremendous draft poured like a blow pipe, driving billows of flame into
+the faces of the terrified audience. With exits above the parquet floor
+simply choked up with the crushed bodies of struggling victims, who made
+the first rush for safety, the packed hundreds in balcony and gallery
+faced fire that moved them up in waves.
+
+"With a swirl that sounded death, the thin bright sheet of fire rolled on
+from stage to rear wall. It fed on the rich box curtains, seized upon the
+sparse veneer of subdued red and green decorations spread upon wall,
+ceiling and balcony facings. It licked the fireproof materials below clean
+and rolled on with a roar. Over seat tops and plush rail cushions it sped.
+Then it snuffed out, having practically nothing to feed upon save the
+tangled mass of wood scene frames, batons and paint-soaked canvas on the
+stage.
+
+
+FEW REALIZED APPALLING RESULT.
+
+"There firemen were directing streams of water that poured over the
+premises in great cascades in volume, aggregating many tons. A few streams
+were directed about the body of the house, where vagrant tongues of flame
+still found material on which to feed. Silence reigned--the silence of
+death, but none realized the appalling story behind the awful calm.
+
+"The stampede that followed the first alarm, a struggle in which most
+contestants were women and children, fighting with the desperation of
+death, terminated with the sudden sweep of the sea of flames across the
+body of the house. The awful battle ended before the irresistible hand of
+death, which fell upon contestants and those behind alike. Somehow those
+on the main floor managed to force their way out. Above, where the
+presence of narrower exits, stairways that precipitated the masses of
+humanity upon each other and the natural air current for the billows of
+flame to follow, spelled death to the occupants of the two balconies, the
+wave of flame, smoke and gas smote the multitude.
+
+
+DROP WHERE THEY STAND.
+
+"Dropping where they stood, most of the victims were consumed beyond
+recognition. Some who were protected from contact with the flames by
+masses of humanity piled upon them escaped death and were dragged out
+later by rescuers, suffering all manner of injury. The majority, however,
+who beheld the indescribably terrifying spectacle of the wave of death
+moving upon them through the air died then and there without a moment for
+preparation. Few survived to tell the tale. The blood-curdling cry of
+mingled prayers and curses, of pleas for help and meaningless shrieks of
+despair died away before the roar of the fire and the silence fell that
+greeted the firemen upon their entry.
+
+"Survivors describe the situation as a parallel of the condition at
+Martinique when a wave of gas and fire rolled down the mountain side and
+destroyed everything in its path. Here, however, one circumstance was
+reversed, for the wave of death leaped from below and smote its victims,
+springing from the very air beneath them.
+
+
+MANY HEROES ARE DEVELOPED.
+
+"In a few minutes it was all over--all but the weeping. In those few
+minutes obscure people had evolved into heroes; staid business men drove
+out patrons to convert their stores into temporary hospitals and morgues;
+others converted their trucks and delivery wagons into improvised
+ambulances; stocks of drugs, oils and blankets were showered upon the
+police to aid in relief work and a corps of physicians and surgeons
+sufficient to the needs of an army had organized.
+
+"Rescues little short of miraculous were accomplished and life and limb
+were risked by public servants and citizens with no thought of personal
+consequences. Public sympathy was thoroughly aroused long before the
+extent of the horror was known and before the sickening report spread
+throughout the city that the greatest holocaust ever known in the history
+of theatricals had fallen upon Chicago.
+
+"While the streets began to crowd for blocks around with weeping and
+heartbroken persons in mortal terror because of knowledge that loved ones
+had attended the performance, patrol wagons, ambulances and open wagons
+hurried the injured to hospitals. Before long they were called upon to
+perform the more grewsome task of removing the dead. In wagon loads the
+latter were carted away. Undertaking establishments both north, south and
+west of the river threw open their doors.
+
+
+DEAD PILED IN HEAPS.
+
+"Piled in windows in the angle of the stairway where the second balcony
+refugees were brought face to face and in a death struggle with the
+occupants of the first balcony, the dead covered a space fifteen or twenty
+feet square and nearly seven feet in depth. All were absolutely safe from
+the fire itself when they met death, having emerged from the theater
+proper into the separate building containing the foyer. In this great
+court there was absolutely nothing to burn and the doors were only a few
+feet away. There the ghastly pile lay, a mute monument to the powers of
+terror. Above and about towered shimmering columns and facades in polished
+marble, whose cold and unharmed surfaces seemed to bespeak contempt for
+human folly. In that portion of the Iroquois structure the only physical
+evidences of damages were a few windows broken during the excitement.
+
+
+EXITS WERE CHOKED WITH BODIES.
+
+"To that pile of dead is attributed the great loss of life within. The
+bodies choked up the entrance, barring the egress of those behind. Neither
+age nor youth, sex, quality or condition were sacred in the awful battle
+in the doorway. The gray and aged, rich, poor, young and those obviously
+invalids in life lay in a tangled mass all on an awful footing of equality
+in silent annihilation.
+
+"Within and above equal terrors were encountered in what at first seemed
+countless victims. Lights, patience and hard work brought about some
+semblance of system and at last word was given that the last body had been
+removed from the charnel house. A large police detail surrounded the place
+all night and with the break of day search of the premises was renewed,
+none being admitted save by presentation of a written order from Chief of
+Police O'Neill. Fire engines pumped away removing the lake of water that
+flooded the basement to the depth of ten feet. As the flood was lowered it
+began to be apparent that the basement was free of dead.
+
+
+SURVEY SCENE WITH HORROR.
+
+"Searchers gazing down from the heights of the upper balcony surveyed the
+scene of death below with horror stamped upon their faces. Fire had left
+its terrifying blight in a colorless, garish monotony that suggests the
+burned-out crater of an extinct volcano. In the wreckage, the scattered
+garments and purses, fragments of charred bodies and other debris strewn
+within thousands of bits of brilliantly colored glass, lay as they fell
+shattered in the fight against the flames. A few skulls were seen.
+
+
+FIND BUSHELS OF PURSES.
+
+"Five bushel baskets were filled with women's purses gathered by the
+police. A huge pile of garments was removed to a near-by saloon, where an
+officer guards them pending removal to some more appropriate place. The
+shoes and overshoes picked up among the seats fill two barrels to
+overflowing.
+
+"The fire manifested itself in the flies above the stage during the second
+act. The double octette was singing 'In the Pale Moonlight' when the
+tragedy swept mirth and music aside, to give way to a more somber and
+frightful performance. Confusion on the stage, panic in the auditorium,
+phenomenal spread of the incipient blaze, failure of the asbestos fire
+curtain to fall in place when lowered followed in rapid progress, with the
+holocaust as the climax."
+
+But to return to the narrative of what happened immediately after the
+first alarm, as gathered by the collaborators of this work. There was a
+wild, futile dash--futile because few of the terrified participants
+succeeded in reaching the outer air. Persons in the rear of the theater
+building knew full well that a holocaust was in progress. There fire
+escapes and stage doors thronged with refugees, half clad and hysterical
+chorus girls flocking into the alley, and crackling flames leaping higher
+and higher from the flimsy stage and bursting from windows, told only too
+plainly what was in progress within. At the front, half a block distant,
+in Randolph street, ominous silence maintained. A mere handful of people
+burst out, those who had occupied rear seats and pushed by the ushers who
+sought to restrain them and quiet their fears. Loiterers about the ornate
+lobby scarcely sniffed a suggestion of impending disaster before the fire
+apparatus began to arrive with clanging bells.
+
+Those ushers who held back the straining, anxious spectators who sought
+escape at the first mild suggestion of danger--for what widespread woe are
+they responsible!
+
+Mere boys of tender years and meager experience, what knew they of the
+awful possibilities behind the spell of excitement upon the stage? Only
+two weeks before there had been an incipient blaze there that had been
+extinguished without the knowledge of the audience.
+
+Like all the rest of the world that now stands in shuddering wonderment,
+these boys scoffed at the thought of real danger in the massive pile of
+steel, stone and terra cotta, with its brave and shimmering veneer of
+glistening marble, stained glass of many hues, rich tapestries and
+drapings, and cold, aristocratic tints of red and old gold. And so with
+uplifted hands they turned back those whose sense of caution prompted them
+to leave at the outset. Surely disaster could not overtake the regal
+Iroquois in its first flush of pomp, pride and superiority. It was their
+sacred duty to see that no unseemly break marred the decorum established
+for the guidance of audiences at the Iroquois, and that duty was fully
+discharged.
+
+Thus it was that the wild hegira did not begin from the front until the
+arrival of the fire department. Then pandemonium itself broke loose. All
+restraining influences from the stage had ceased. At the appearance of the
+all-consuming wave of flame sweeping across the auditorium the boy ushers
+abandoned their posts and fled for their lives, leaving the packed
+audience to do the same unhampered.
+
+Unhampered--not quite! Darkness descending upon the scene, doors locked
+against the frightened multitude, fire escapes cut off by tongues of flame
+and exits and stairways choked with the bodies of those who died fighting
+to reach safety hampered many--at least the six hundred carried out later
+mangled and roasted, their features and limbs twisted and distorted until
+little semblance to humanity remained. After the first wild dash, in which
+a large portion of those on the main floor escaped, the blackness of night
+settled upon the long marble foyer leading from Randolph street to the
+auditorium. It settled in a cloud of black, fire laden smoke--death in
+nebulous forms defying fire fighter and rescuer alike to enter the great
+corridor. None entered, and, more pitiful still, none came forth.
+
+While this situation maintained in front a vastly different scene unfolded
+in the rear. The theater formed a great L, extending north from Randolph
+street to an alley and, in the rear, west to Dearborn street. This last
+projection, the toe of the L, was occupied by the stage, theoretically the
+finest in America, if not in the world. Thus the auditorium and stage
+occupied the extreme northern part of the structure, paralleling an alley
+extending on a line with Randolph street from State street to Dearborn
+street. This alley wall was pierced by many windows and emergency exits
+and was studded with fire escapes built in the form of iron galleries, and
+stairways hugging close to the wall leading to the alley.
+
+To these exits and the long, grim galleries of fire escapes the herded,
+fire-hunted audience surged. Those who reached doors that responded to
+their efforts found themselves pushed along the galleries by the
+resistless crush behind. As was the case in front, half way to safety
+another stream of humanity was encountered pouring out at right angles
+from another portion of the house. Coming together with the impact of
+opposing armies the two hosts of refugees gave unwilling and terrible
+answer to the time worn problem as to the outcome of an irresistible force
+encountering an immovable body. Both in front and rear great mounds of
+dead spelled annihilation as the answer. In front over 200 corpses piled
+in a twenty-foot angle of a stairway where two balcony exits merged told
+the terrible tale, and rendered both passages useless for egress, the dead
+being piled up in wall-like formation ten feet high.
+
+In the rear an alley strewn with mangled men, women and children writhing
+in agony on the icy pavement, or relieved of their sufferings by death,
+lent eloquent corroboration to the solution of the problem.
+
+It was in the rear that the true horror of the fire was most fully
+disclosed. There no towering mosaic studded walls or kindly mantle of
+smoke shut out the horrid sight. From its opening scene to its silent,
+ghastly denouement the successive details of this greatest of modern
+tragedies was forced upon the view to be stamped upon the memory of the
+unwilling beholder with an impressiveness that only death will blot out.
+
+After the first great impact had hurled the overflow of the fire-escape
+gallery into the alley yawning far below, the crush of humanity swept
+onward, downward to where safety beckoned. When the advance guard had all
+but reached the precious goal, with only a few feet of iron gallery and
+one more stairway to traverse, the crowning horror of the day unfolded
+itself. Right in the path of the advancing horde a steel window shutter
+flew back, impelled by the terrific energy of an immeasurable volume of
+pent up superheated air.
+
+The clang of the steel shutter swinging back on its hinges against the
+brick wall sounded the death knell of another host of victims, for in its
+wake came a huge tongue of lurid flame, leaping on high in the ecstasy of
+release from its stifling furnace. Fiercely in the faces of the refugees
+beat this agency of death. Before its withering blast the victims fell
+like prairie grass before an autumn blaze. Those further back waited for
+no more, but precipitated themselves headlong into the alley rather than
+face the fiery furnace that loomed up barring the way to hope.
+
+It would be well to draw the curtain upon this awful scene of suffering
+and death in the gloomy alley were it not for one circumstance that stands
+forth a glorious example of the heights that may be attained by the modest
+hero who moves about unsuspected in his daily life until calamity affords
+opportunity to show the stuff he is made of. High up in the building
+occupied by the law, dental and pharmacy schools of the Northwestern
+University, directly across the alley from the burning theater, a number
+of such men were at work. They were horny handed sons of toil--painters,
+paper hangers and cleaners repairing minor damage caused by an
+insignificant fire in the university building a few weeks before. One
+glance at the seething vortex of death below transformed them into heroes
+whose deeds would put many a man to shame whose memory is kept alive by
+stately column or flattering memorial tablet.
+
+Trailing heavy planks used by them in the erection of working scaffolds,
+they rushed to a window in the lecture room of the law school directly
+opposite the exit and fire escape platform leading from the topmost
+balcony of the theater. By almost superhuman effort and ingenuity they
+raised aloft the planks, scarce long enough to span the abyss, and dropped
+them. The prayers of thousands below and a multitude stifling in the
+aperture opposite were raised that the planks might fall true. All eyes
+followed their course as they poised in mid-air, then descended. Slow
+seemed their fall, a veritable period of torture, and awed silence reigned
+as they dropped.
+
+Then there arose a glad cry. With a crash the great planks landed true,
+the free ends squarely upon the edge of the platform of the useless fire
+escape, the others resting firmly upon the narrow window ledge where the
+painters stood defying flame, smoke and torrents of burning embers and
+blazing sparks hurled upon them as from the crater of a volcano.
+
+Death alley had been bridged! Across the narrow span came a volume of
+bedraggled humanity as though shot from a gun. A mad, screaming stream,
+pushed on by those behind, simply whirled across the frail support, direct
+from the very jaws of death, the blistering gates of hell.
+
+Only for a moment, a brief second it seemed, the wild procession moved.
+Yet in that limited period scores, perhaps hundreds, poured from the
+seething inferno--practically all that escaped from the lofty balcony that
+was a moment later transformed into the death chamber of helpless
+hundreds. Then the wave of flame, previously described, swept over the
+interior of the theater, greedily searching every nook and corner as
+though hungry for the last victim within reach.
+
+The last refugees to cross the narrow span, the dizzy line sharply drawn
+between life and death in its most terrifying aspect, staggered over with
+their clothing in flames, gasping, fainting with pain and terror. The
+workmen, students and policemen who had rushed to their assistance dashed
+across into the heat and smoke and dragged forth many more who had reached
+the platform only to fall before the deadly blast. Then the rescuers were
+beaten back and the fire fiend was left to claim its own.
+
+And claim them it did, searching them out with ruminating tongues of
+flame. Over every inch of paint and decoration, every tapestry, curtain
+and seat top it licked its way with insinuating eagerness. It pursued its
+victims beyond the confines of the theater walls, grasping in its deadly
+embrace those who lay across windows or prostrate on galleries and
+platforms. Thousands gazed on in helpless horror, watching the flames
+bestow a fatal caress upon many who had crept far, far from the blaze and
+almost into a zone of safety. With a gliding, caressing movement that made
+beholders' blood run cold it crept upon such victims, hovered a moment and
+glided on with sinuous motion and what approached a suggestion of
+intelligence in searching out those who fled before it. A shriek, a
+spasmodic movement and the victims lay still, their earthly troubles over
+forever.
+
+A few minutes later, possibly not more than half an hour after the
+discovery of the fire, when the firemen had beaten back the flames to the
+raging stage another procession moved across that same plank again. It
+moved in silence, for it was a procession of death. The great tragedy
+began and ended in fifteen minutes. Its echoes may roll down as many
+centuries, compelling the proper safeguarding of all places of amusement,
+in America at least. If so, the Iroquois victims did not give up their
+lives in vain.
+
+When the removal of the victims across the improvised bridge over death
+alley ended the tireless official in charge of that work, James Markham,
+secretary to Chief of Police O'Neill, had checked off 102 corpses. No
+attempt was made to keep count of the dead as they were removed from other
+portions of the theater and by other exits. The counting was done when the
+patrol wagons, ambulances, trucks and delivery wagons used in removing the
+dead deposited their ghastly loads at the morgues.
+
+The instance cited was not an isolated example of heroism, but rather
+merely a striking instance among scores. Police, firemen and citizens vied
+with each other in the work of humanity. Merchants drove out customers and
+threw open their business houses as temporary hospitals and morgues.
+Others donated great wagon loads of blankets and supplies of all kinds and
+the municipal government was embarrassed by the unsolicited relief funds
+that poured in. All manner of vehicles were given freely for the removal
+of dead and injured. So informal was the removal of the latter that many
+may have reached their homes unreported. For that reason a complete list
+of the injured may never be secured.
+
+An illustration of the possibilities in that direction is found in the
+case of one man who wrapped the dead body of his wife in his overcoat and
+carried it to Evanston, many miles away, where the circumstances became
+known days later when a burial permit was sought. Another is the case of
+an injured man who revived on a dead wagon en route to a morgue and was
+removed by friends.
+
+All these and other details are elaborated upon elsewhere, together with
+the touching story of the scores of young women employed in the
+production, "Mr. Bluebeard," who would have been stranded penniless in a
+strange city a thousand miles from home but for the prompt and noble
+relief afforded by Mrs. Ogden Armour.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER II.
+
+FIRST AID TO THE INJURED AND CARE FOR THE DEAD.
+
+
+On the heels of the firemen came the police, intent on the work of rescue.
+Chief O'Neill and Assistant Chief Schuettler ordered captains from a dozen
+stations to bring their men, and then they rushed to the theater and led
+the police up the stairs to the landing outside the east entrance to the
+first balcony.
+
+The firemen, rushing blindly up the stairs in the dense pall of smoke, had
+found their path suddenly blocked by a wall of dead eight or ten feet
+high. They discovered many persons alive and carried them to safety. Other
+firemen crawled over the mass of dead and dragged their hose into the
+theater to fight back the flames that seemed to be crawling nearer to turn
+the fatal landing into a funeral pyre.
+
+O'Neill and Schuettler immediately began carrying the dead from the
+balcony, while other policemen went to the gallery to begin the work
+there.
+
+In the great mass of dead at the entrance to the first balcony the bodies
+were so terribly interwoven that it was impossible at first to take any
+one out.
+
+"Look out for the living!" shouted the chief to his men. "Try to find
+those who are alive."
+
+From somewhere came a faint moaning cry.
+
+"Some one alive there, boys," came the cry. "Lively, now!"
+
+The firemen and police long struggled in vain to move the bodies.
+
+The raging tide of humanity pouring out of the east entrance of the
+balcony during the panic had met the fighting, struggling crowd coming
+down the stairs from the third balcony at right angles. The two streams
+formed a whirlpool which ceased its onward progress and remained there on
+the landing where people stamped each other under foot in that mad circle
+of death.
+
+In a short time the blockade in the fatal angle must have been complete.
+Then into this awful heap still plunged the contrary tides of humanity
+from each direction. Many tried to crawl over the top of the heap, but
+were drawn down to the grinding mill of death underneath. The smoke was
+heavy at the fatal angle, for the majority of those taken out at that
+point bore no marks of bruises.
+
+Many, and especially the children, were trampled to death, but others were
+held as in a vise until the smoke had choked the life from their bodies.
+
+It was toward this that the firemen directed O'Neill and Schuettler as
+they rushed into the theater. The smoke was still heavy and the great
+gilded marble foyer of the "handsomest theater in America" was somber and
+dark and still as a tomb, except for the whistling of the engines outside
+and now and then the shouting of the firemen. Water was dripping
+everywhere and stood inches deep on the floor and stairs.
+
+Two flickering lanterns shed the only light by which the policemen worked,
+and this very fact, perhaps, made their task more horrible and gruesome,
+if such a thing were possible.
+
+
+GREAT PILE OF CHARRED BODIES FOUND EVERYWHERE IN THEATER.
+
+All through the gallery the bodies were found. Some were those of persons
+who had decided to stay in their seats and not to join in the mad rush for
+the doors and run the risk of being trampled to death. Many of them no
+doubt had trusted to the cries, "There is no danger; keep your seats!"
+
+They had stuck to their seats until, choked by the heavy smoke, they had
+been unable to move.
+
+Some bodies were in a sitting position, while others had fallen forward,
+with the head resting on the seat in front, as though in prayer. Almost
+all were terribly burned.
+
+In the aisles lay women and children who had staid in their seats until
+they finally were convinced that the danger was real. Then they had
+attempted to get to the door.
+
+The smoke was so heavy the firemen worked with difficulty, but finally it
+cleared and workmen who were hastily sent by the Edison company equipped
+forty arc lights, which shone bravely through the smoke. With this help
+the firemen searched to better effect, and found bodies that in the
+blackness they had missed.
+
+"Give that girl to some one else and get back there," shouted Chief Musham
+to a fireman. The fireman never answered but kept on with his burden.
+
+"Hand that girl to some one else," shouted the battalion chief.
+
+The fireman looked up. Even in the flickering light of the lantern the
+chief carried one could see the tears coming from the red eyes and falling
+down the man's blackened cheeks.
+
+"Chief," said the fireman, "I've got a girl like this at home. I want to
+carry this one out."
+
+"Go ahead," said the chief. The little group working at the head of the
+stairs broke apart while the fireman, holding the body tightly, made his
+way slowly down the stairs.
+
+One by one the dead were taken from the pile in the angle. The majority of
+them were women. On some faces was an expression of terrible agony, but on
+others was a look of calmness and serenity, and firemen sometimes found it
+hard to believe they were dead. Three firemen carried the body of a young
+woman down the stairs in a rubber blanket. She appeared alive. Her hands
+were clasped and held flowers. Her eyes were closed and she seemed almost
+to smile. She looked as though she was asleep, but it was the sleep of
+death.
+
+In the dark and smoke, with the dripping water and the dead piled in heaps
+everywhere, the Iroquois theater had been turned into a tomb by the time
+the rescue parties had begun their work.
+
+
+MOAN INSPIRES WORKERS IN MAD EFFORT TO SAVE.
+
+The moan that the frantic workers heard as they struggled to untangle the
+mass of bodies gave the police hope that many in the heap might be alive.
+
+"We can't do it, chief," shouted one of the policemen. "We can't untangle
+them."
+
+"We must take these bodies out of the way to get down to those who are
+alive," replied the chief. "This man here is dead; lay hold, now, boys,
+and pull him out."
+
+Two big firemen caught the body by the shoulders and struggled and pulled
+until they had it free. Then another body was taken out, and then again
+the workers seemed unable to unloose the dead. Again came that terrible
+moan through the mass.
+
+"For God's sake, get down to that one who's alive," implored O'Neill,
+almost in despair.
+
+The policemen pulled off their heavy overcoats and worked frantically at
+the heap. Often a body could not be moved except when the firemen and
+police dragged with a "yo, heave," like sailors hauling on a rope. As fast
+as the bodies were freed one policeman, or sometimes two or three, would
+stagger down the stairs with their burdens.
+
+Over the heap of bodies crawled a fireman carrying something in his arms.
+
+"Out of the way, men, let me out! The kid's alive."
+
+The workers fell back and the fireman crawled over the heap and was helped
+out. He ran down the stairs three steps at a time to get the child to a
+place where help might be given before it was too late. Then other firemen
+from inside the theater passed out more bodies, which were handed from one
+policeman to another until some on the outside of the heap could take the
+dead and carry them downstairs.
+
+Suddenly a policeman pulling at the heap gave a shout.
+
+"I've got her, chief!" he said. "She's alive, all right!"
+
+"Easy there, men, easy," cried Schuettler; "but hurry and get that woman
+to a doctor!"
+
+A girl, apparently 18 years old, was moaning faintly. The policeman
+released her from the tangled heap, and a big fireman, lifting her
+tenderly in his arms, hurried with her to the outside of the building.
+
+"There must be more alive," said the chief. "Work hard, boys."
+
+There was hardly any need to ask the men to work harder, for they were
+pulling and hauling as though their own lives depended on their efforts.
+Everybody worked.
+
+The reporters, the only ones in the theater besides the police and
+firemen, laid aside their pencils and note books and struggled down the
+wet, slippery stairs, carrying the dead. Newspaper artists threw their
+sketch books on the floor to jump forward and pick up the feet or head of
+a body that a fireman or policeman found too heavy to carry alone.
+Constantly now a stream of workers was passing slowly down the stairs.
+Usually two men supported each body, but often some giant policeman or
+fireman strode along with a body swung over his shoulders. Coming down the
+stairs was a fireman with a girl of 16 clasped in his arms.
+
+"Isn't that girl alive?" asked the chief.
+
+"No," shouted two or three men, who had jumped to see. "She's dead, poor
+thing, rest her soul," said the fireman reverently, and then he picked his
+way down the stairs. Half-way down the marble steps two arms suddenly
+clasped the fireman's neck.
+
+He started so he missed his footing and would have fallen had not a
+policeman steadied him.
+
+"She's alive, she's alive!" shouted the fireman. "Git out of the way,
+there, out of the way, men," and he went dashing headlong out into the
+open air and through the crowd to a drug store.
+
+One child after another was taken from the heap and passed out to be
+carried downstairs. Some were little boys in new suits, sadly torn, and
+with their poor little faces wreathed in agony. On their foreheads was the
+seal of death.
+
+A big fireman came crawling from the heavy smoke of the inner balcony. He
+carried a girl of 10 years in his arms. Her long, flaxen hair half covered
+the pure white face.
+
+A gray haired man with a gash on his head apparently had fallen down the
+stairs. A woman's face bore the mark of a boot heel. A woman with a little
+boy clasped tight in her arms was wedged into a corner. Her clothes were
+almost torn from her, and her face was bruised. The child was unmarked, as
+she had thrown her own body over his to protect him.
+
+Out of the mass of bodies when the police began their work protruded one
+slender little white hand, clinching a pair of pearl opera glasses, which
+the little owner had tried to save, in spite of the fact that her own life
+was being crushed out of her. Watches, pocketbooks and chatelaine bags
+were scattered all through the pile. One man was detailed to make a bag
+out of a rubber coat and take care of the property that was handed to him.
+
+While the police were working so desperately at the fatal angle, another
+detail of police and firemen were working on the third floor. At the main
+entrance of the gallery lay another heap of bodies, and there was still
+another at the angle of the head of the stairs leading to the floor below.
+Here the sight was even worse than the terrible scene presented at the
+landing of the first balcony.
+
+The bodies on the landing were not burned. A jam had come there, and many
+had been stamped under foot and either killed outright or left to
+suffocate. Many of the bodies were almost stripped of clothing and bore
+the marks of remorseless heels.
+
+After these had been carried out, the firemen returned again and again
+from the pitchy blackness of the smoke-filled galleries, dragging bodies,
+burned sometimes beyond recognition.
+
+
+NONE LEFT ALIVE IN GALLERY.
+
+While now and then some one had been found alive in the other fatal angle,
+no one was rescued by searchers in the top gallery. The bodies had to be
+laid along the hall until the merchants in State street began sending
+over blankets. Men from the streets came rushing up the stairs, bending
+under the weight of the blankets they carried on their shoulders. Soon
+they went back to the street again, this time carrying their blankets
+weighed down with a charred body.
+
+
+DEAD AND DYING CARRIED INTO NEARBY RESTAURANT BY SCORES.
+
+The scenes in John R. Thompson's restaurant in Randolph street, adjoining
+the theater, were ghastly beyond words.
+
+Few half hours in battle bring more of horror than the half hour that
+turned the cafe into a charnel house, with its tumbled heaps of corpses,
+its shrieks of agony from the dying, and the confusion of doctors and
+nurses working madly over bodies all about as they strove to bring back
+the spark of life.
+
+Bodies were everywhere--piled along the walls, laid across tables, and
+flung down here and there--some charred beyond recognition, some only
+scorched, and others black from suffocation; some crushed in the rush of
+the panic, others but the poor, broken remains of those who leaped into
+death. And most of them--almost all of them--were the forms of women and
+children. It is estimated that more than 150 bodies were accounted for in
+Thompson's alone.
+
+The continuous tramp of the detachments of police bearing in more bodies,
+the efforts of the doctors to restore life, and the madness of those who
+surged in through the police lines to ransack piles of bodies for
+relatives and friends, made up a scene of pandemonium of which it is hard
+to form a conception. There was organization of the fifty physicians and
+nurses who fought back death in the dying; there was organization of the
+police and firemen; but still the restaurant was a chaos that left the
+head bewildered and the heart sick.
+
+The work was too much for even the big force of doctors that had flocked
+there to volunteer their services. Everybody in which there was the
+slightest semblance of life was given over to the physicians, who with
+oxygen tanks and resuscitative movements sought to revive the heart beats.
+As soon as death was certain the body was drawn from the table and laid
+beneath, to give place to another. But systematic as was this effort,
+heaps of bodies remained which the doctors had not touched.
+
+In a dozen instances, even when the end of the work was in sight, a hand
+or foot was seen to move in this or that heap. Instantly three or four
+doctors were bending over rolling away the dead bodies to drag forth one
+still warm with life. In a thrice the body was on a table and the oxygen
+turned on while the doctors worked with might and main to force
+respiration. Almost always it was in vain--life went out. Two or three
+were resuscitated, though it is uncertain with what chances of ultimate
+recovery. One of these was a Mrs. Harbaugh, who had been brought in for
+dead and her body tossed among the lifeless forms that ranged the walls.
+
+When the first rush of people from the theater gave notice of the fire to
+persons in the street there were less than a score of patrons in the
+restaurant. These rushed into the street, too, while a panic spread among
+the waitresses and kitchen force. By this time fire company 13 was on the
+ground in the alley side of the theater and the police were at the front
+attempting to lead the audience from its peril with some semblance of
+order. In another minute women and children with blistered faces were
+dashing screaming into the street, taking refuge in the first doorways at
+hand.
+
+Another minute, and every policeman knew in his heart the horror that was
+at hand. A patrolman dashed into Thompson's and ordered the tables
+cleared and arranged to care for the injured. Captain Gibbons dispatched
+another policeman to issue a general call for physicians and a detachment
+to take charge of the restaurant and the first aid to be administered
+there. Within five minutes the first of the injured were being laid on the
+marble topped dining tables where the police ambulance corps were getting
+at work.
+
+These steps scarcely had been taken when word came from the burning
+theater that the fire was under control, but that the loss of life would
+be appalling. Chief O'Neill hurried to the scene, sending back word as he
+ran that Secretary James Markham should summon doctors and ambulances from
+every place available. The west side district of the medical schools and
+hospitals was called upon to send all the volunteers possible, together
+with hospital equipment. One hundred students from Rush Medical College
+were soon on their way by street car and patrol wagon to the scene.
+
+
+TERRIBLE REALITY COMES TO AWESTRICKEN CROWD.
+
+It was only fifteen minutes after the first tongue of flame shot out from
+behind the scenes that a lull came in the awful drama of death within the
+theater. The firemen had quenched the fire and all the living had escaped.
+All that remained were dead. But now the scenes within the improvised
+hospital and morgue rose to the height of their horror.
+
+But for a narrow lane the length of the cafe the floor was covered with
+bodies or the tumbled bundles of clothing that told where a body was
+concealed. And over the scene of the dead rose the groans of the tortured
+beings who writhed upon the tables in the throes of their passing. And
+over the cries of the suffering rose the shouts of command of the Red
+Cross corps--now the directions of Dr. Lydston as to attempts at
+resuscitation, now the megaphone shouts of Senator Clark ordering the
+disposition of bodies and the organization of the constantly arriving
+volunteer nurses.
+
+In the narrow lane of the dead surged the policemen, bringing ever more
+and more forms to cord up beneath the tables. Then came the press of
+people, who, frantic with anxiety, had beaten back the police guard to
+look for loved ones in the charnel house. There was Louis Wolff, Jr.,
+searching for two nephews and his sister. There was Postmaster Coyne, who
+had hurried from a meeting of the crime committee to lend his aid. There
+were Aldermen Minwegen and Alderman Badenoch, and besides them scores of
+men and women anxiously looking and looking, and nerving themselves to
+fear the worst.
+
+"Have you found Miss Helen McCaughan?" shrieked a hysterical woman. "She's
+from the Yale apartments, and----"
+
+"I'm looking for a Miss Errett--she's a nurse," cried another.
+
+"My little boy--Charles Hennings--have you found him, doctor?" came from
+another.
+
+From every side came the heartrending appeals, while the din was so great
+that no single plaint rose above the volume of sounds. And all the time
+the doorway was a place of frightful sights.
+
+"O, please go back for my little girl," gasped a woman whose face and
+hands were a blister and whose clothing was burned to the skin. She
+staggered across the threshold and fell prone. Her last breath had gone
+out of her when two policemen snatched up the body and bore it to an
+operating table.
+
+"O, where's my Annie?" screamed another woman, horribly burned, whom two
+policemen supported between them into the restaurant. But at the word she
+collapsed, and, though three physicians worked over her for ten minutes,
+she never breathed again.
+
+
+ONE LIFE BROUGHT BACK FROM DEATH.
+
+Of a sudden Dr. E. E. Vaughan saw a finger move in a mass of the dead
+against the far wall of the restaurant.
+
+"Men, there's a live one in there," he cried, and, while others came
+running, the physician flung aside the bodies till he had uncovered a
+woman of middle age, terribly burned about the face, and with her outer
+garments a mass of charred shreds.
+
+In a second the woman was undergoing resuscitative treatment on a table,
+while the oxygen streamed into her lungs. Two doctors worked her arms like
+pumps, while a nurse manipulated the region of the heart. At length there
+was a flutter of a respiration, while a doctor bending over with his
+stethoscope announced a heart beat just perceptible. Another minute passed
+and the eyelids moved, while a groan escaped the lips.
+
+"She lives!" simply said Dr. Vaughan, as he ordered the oxygen tube
+removed and brandy forced between the lips. In five minutes the woman was
+saved from immediate death, at least, though suffering terribly from
+burns. She was just able to murmur that her name was Mrs. Harbaugh, but
+that was all that could be learned of her identity before she was taken
+away to a hospital.
+
+
+ONE HUNDRED FEET IN AIR, POLICE CARRY INJURED ACROSS ALLEY.
+
+Over a narrow, ice covered bridge made of scaffold planks, more than 100
+feet above the ground the police carried more than 100 bodies from the
+rear stage and balcony exits of the Iroquois theater to the Northwestern
+University building, formerly the Tremont house. The planks rested on the
+fire escape of the theater and on the ledge of a window in the Tremont
+building.
+
+Two men who first ventured on this dangerous passageway in their efforts
+to reach safety, blinded by the fire and smoke, lost their footing and
+fell to the alley below. They were dead when picked up.
+
+The bridge led directly into the dental school of the university, and at
+one time there were more than a score of charred bodies lying under
+blankets in the room. The dead were carried from the pile of bodies at the
+theater exits faster than the police could take them away in the
+ambulances and patrol wagons.
+
+As soon as the police began to take the injured into the university
+building the classrooms were drawn upon for physicians, and in a few
+minutes professors and dental students gathered in the offices and stores
+to lend their assistance. Wounds were dressed, and in cases of less
+serious injury the unfortunates were sent to their homes. In other cases
+they were sent to hospitals.
+
+When the smoke had cleared away the rescuers first realized the extent of
+the horror. From the bridge could be seen the rows of balcony and gallery
+seats, many occupied by a human form. Incited by the sight, the police
+redoubled their efforts, and heedless of the dangers of the narrow,
+slippery bridge, pressed close to each other as they worked.
+
+While a dozen policemen were removing the dead from the theater, twice as
+many were engaged in carrying them to the patrol wagons and ambulances at
+the doors of the university building. All the afternoon the elevators
+carried down police in twos and fours carrying their burdens of dead in
+blankets. So fast were they carried down that many of the patrol wagons
+held five and more bodies when they were driven away.
+
+
+CROWDS OF ANXIOUS FRIENDS.
+
+Behind the lines of police that guarded the passage of the dead, hundreds
+of anxious men and women crowded with eager questions. The rotunda of the
+building between 3 and 7 p. m. was thronged by those seeking knowledge of
+friend or relative who had been in the play. Some made their way to the
+third floor and looked hopelessly at the charred bodies lying there. In
+one corner lay the bodies of husband and wife, clasped in each other's
+arms. From under one sheltering blanket protruded the dainty high heeled
+shoes of some woman, and from the next blanket the rubber boots of a
+newsboy.
+
+A Roman Catholic priest made his way into the room. He was looking for a
+little girl, the daughter of a parishioner.
+
+"Have you the name of Lillian Doerr in your list?" he asked James Markham,
+Chief O'Neill's secretary, who was in charge of the police. Markham shook
+his head.
+
+"She and another little girl named Weiskopp were with three other girls,"
+continued the priest. "Three of the girls in the party have got home, but
+Lillian and the Weiskopp girl are missing. I suppose we must wait until
+all the bodies are identified before we can find her."
+
+The priest's mission and its futile results were duplicated scores of
+times by anxious inquirers.
+
+
+BALCONY AND GALLERY CLEARED.
+
+The rescue work went on until the balcony and gallery had been cleared of
+the dead, and then the police were called away. The exits were barred and
+the hotel building cleared of visitors. While the work of rescue was
+going on inside the building, the streets about the entrances were
+thronged with thousands of curious spectators. As soon as an ambulance
+backed up to the entrance the crowd pressed forward to get a view of the
+bundles placed in the wagon. Even after this work had ended the crowds
+remained in the cold and darkness.
+
+Many of the small shops and offices in the University building threw open
+their doors to the injured and those who had been separated from their
+friends. When those who had escaped by the alley exits reached Dearborn
+street they found the doors of the Hallwood Cash Register offices, 41
+Dearborn street, open to them. L. A. Weismann, Harry Snow, Harry Dewitt,
+and C. J. Burnett of the office force at once prepared to care for the
+injured. More than fifty persons were cared for.
+
+While these men were caring for strangers they themselves were haunted by
+the dread that Manager H. Ludwig of the company with his wife and two
+daughters were among the dead. The Ludwig family lives in Norwood Park,
+and the father had left the office with them early in the afternoon. At 6
+o'clock he had not returned for his overcoat.
+
+
+FINANCE COMMITTEE OF CITY COUNCIL ACTS PROMPTLY.
+
+"Spare no expense," was the order given by the finance committee of the
+council which was in session when the extent of the disaster became known
+at the city hall. First to grasp the import of the news was Ald. Raynier,
+whose wife and four children had left him at noon to attend the matinee.
+With a gasp he hurried from the room to go to the scene.
+
+"You are instructed," said Chairman Mavor to Acting Mayor McGann, "to
+direct the fire marshal, the chief of police, and the commissioner of
+public works to proceed in this emergency without any restrictions as to
+expense. Do everything needful, spend all the money needed, and look to
+the council for your warrant. We will be your authority."
+
+A telegram at once was sent to Mayor Harrison informing him of the fire
+and the executive returned from Oklahoma on the first train.
+
+Acting Commissioner of Public Works Brennan sent word to Chief O'Neill and
+Fire Marshal Musham that the public works department was at their service.
+
+"We want men and lanterns," Chief Musham answered.
+
+Supt. Solon was sent to a store near the theater with an order for as many
+lanterns as might be needed. Supt. Doherty assembled 150 men in Randolph
+street and seventy wagons employed on First ward streets. They were placed
+at the disposal of the two chiefs.
+
+Chief O'Neill was in the council chamber when the news arrived, hearing
+charges against a police officer. Lieut. Beaubien came from his office and
+whispered to him. The chief hurried to the fire. The trial board continued
+its work.
+
+On the ground floor of the city hall the fire trial board was in executive
+session trying six firemen on a charge of carrying tales to insurance men
+against the chief.
+
+At 3:33 o'clock the alarm rang. Chief, assistant chiefs, and accused
+firemen listened. Then the news of the magnitude of the fire reached
+headquarters. The board hurriedly adjourned and Chief Musham led accusers
+and accused to fight the fire.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER III.
+
+TAKING AWAY AND IDENTIFYING THE DEAD.
+
+
+In drays and delivery wagons they carried the dead away from the Iroquois
+theater ruins. The sidewalk in front of the playhouse and Thompson's
+restaurant was completely filled with dead bodies, when it was realized
+that the patrol wagons and ambulances could not remove the bodies.
+
+Then Chief O'Neill and Coroner Traeger sent out men to stop drays and
+press them into service. Transfer companies were called up on telephone
+and asked to send wagons. Retail stores in State street sent delivery
+wagons.
+
+Into these drays and wagons were piled the bodies. They lay outstretched
+on the sidewalk, covered with blankets. Much care in the handling was
+impossible. As soon as a space on the walk was made by the removal of a
+body two were brought down to fill it.
+
+One of the wagons of the Dixon Transfer Company was so heavily loaded with
+the dead that the two big horses drawing it were unable to start the
+truck. Policemen and spectators put their shoulders to the wheels.
+
+When the drays were filled and started there was a struggle to get them
+through the crowds, densely packed, even within the fire lines which the
+police had established across Randolph street at State and Dearborn
+streets.
+
+Policemen with clubs preceded many of the wagons. The crowds through
+which they forced their way were composed mostly of men who had sent wives
+and children to the theater and had reason to believe that one of the
+drays might carry members of their own families.
+
+Eight and ten wagons at a time, half of them trucks and delivery wagons,
+were backed up to the curb waiting for their loads of dead.
+
+Two policemen would seize a blanket at the corners and swing it, with its
+contents, up to two other men in the wagon. This would be continued until
+a wagonload of bodies had been handled. Then the police forced a way
+through the crowd and another wagon took the place.
+
+Occasionally a body would be identified, and then efforts were made to
+remove it direct to the residence. Coroner Traeger discovered the wife of
+Patrick P. O'Donnell, president of the O'Donnell & Duer Brewing Company.
+
+"Telephone to some undertaking establishment and have them take Mrs.
+O'Donnell's body home," he ordered one of his assistants. It was taken to
+the residence, at 4629 Woodlawn avenue.
+
+Friends of another woman who were positive they identified the body among
+the dead in Thompson's were allowed by the coroner to remove it to Ford's
+undertaking establishment, in Thirty-fifth street.
+
+
+HEARTRENDING SCENES WITNESSED AT THE UNDERTAKING ESTABLISHMENTS.
+
+The bodies of the fire victims were distributed among the undertaking
+rooms and morgues most convenient. By 8:30 o'clock 135 bodies lay on the
+floors in the establishment of C. H. Jordan, 14-16 East Madison street,
+and in the temporary annex across the alley. The first were brought in
+ambulances and in police patrol wagons. Later all sorts of conveyances
+were pressed into service, and during more than two hours there was a
+procession of two-horse trucks, delivery wagons, and cabs, all bringing
+dead. It soon became evident that the capacity of the place would be
+exhausted and the men, who sat drinking and talking at the tables in the
+big ante-room in a saloon across the alley were driven out, and this also
+was arranged for use as a temporary morgue.
+
+Two policemen were in charge of each load of the dead, and as soon as the
+first few bodies were received, they began searching for possible marks of
+identification. All jewelry and valuables, as well as letters, cards, and
+other papers were put in sealed envelopes, marked with a number
+corresponding with that on the tag attached to the body. When this work
+was completed all the envelopes were sent to police headquarters, and all
+inquirers after missing friends and relatives were referred to the city
+hall to inspect the envelopes.
+
+The scenes in the two long rooms of the morgue in the saloon annex across
+the alley were so overpowering that they appeared to lose their effect.
+Many of the bodies last brought from the theater were sadly burned and
+disfigured and almost all of the faces were discolored and the clothing
+rumpled and wet.
+
+The condition of many of the bodies evidenced a vain battle for life.
+Almost all of them were women or children, and the majority had been well
+dressed. Among them were several old women. The men were few. In many
+cases the hands were torn, as if violent efforts had been made to wrench
+away some obstruction.
+
+As quickly as the work of searching the bodies was completed, the
+attendants stretched strips of muslin over the forms, partly hiding the
+pitiful horror of the sight.
+
+Persons were slow in coming to the undertakers in search of friends. Many
+had their first suspicion of the catastrophe when members of theater
+parties failed to return at the usual hour.
+
+Among the first to arrive at Jordan's were George E. McCaughan, attorney
+for the Chicago & Rock Island railroad, 6565 Yale avenue, who came in
+search of his daughter, Helen, who had attended a theater party with other
+young women. A friend had been in Dearborn street when the fire started
+and soon after had discovered in Thompson's restaurant the body of Miss
+McCaughan. He attached a card bearing her name to the body, and, leaving
+it in the custody of a physician, went to the telephone to notify the
+father. When he returned to the restaurant the body already had been
+removed and the friend and the father searched last night without finding
+it.
+
+As it grew later the crowd around the doors increased, but almost every
+one was turned away. It would have been impossible for persons to have
+passed through the long rooms for the purpose of inspecting the bodies,
+they were so close together. Women came weeping to the doors of the
+undertaking shop and beat upon the glass, only to be referred to the city
+hall or told "to come back in the morning."
+
+Later it was learned that physicians would be admitted for the purpose of
+inspecting and identifying the dead, and many persons came accompanied by
+their family doctors for that purpose. Two women, who pressed by the
+officer at the door, sank half fainting into chairs in the outer office.
+They were looking for Miss Hazel J. Brown, of 94 Thirty-first street, and
+Miss Eloise G. Swayze, of Fifty-sixth street and Normal avenue. A single
+glance at the long lines of bodies stretched on the floor was enough to
+satisfy them. They were told to return in the morning or to send their
+family physician to make the identification.
+
+"The poor girls had come from the convent to spend the holiday vacation,"
+sobbed one of the women.
+
+During the evening the telephone bell constantly was ringing, and persons
+whose relatives had failed to return on time were asked for information.
+
+"Have you found a small heart-shaped locket set with a blue stone?" would
+come a call over the wire, and the answer would be, "We can tell nothing
+about that until morning."
+
+At Rolston's undertaking rooms were 182 bodies, lying four rows deep in
+the rear of 18 Adams street and three rows deep in the rear of 22 Adams
+street.
+
+On the floors, tagged with the numerals of the coroner's scheme for
+identification, were bodies of men, women, and children awaiting
+identification. One was that of a little girl with yellow hair in a tangle
+of curls around her face. She appeared as if she slept. A silk dress of
+blue was spread over her and the sash of white ribbon scarcely was soiled.
+
+Over the long lines of the dead the police hovered in the search for
+identifying marks and for valuables. Most of the bodies were partly
+covered with blankets.
+
+Outside a big crowd surged and struggled with the police. Not till 10
+o'clock were the doors opened. Then Coroner Traeger arrived, and in groups
+of twelve or fifteen the crowd was permitted to pass through the doors.
+
+There was a pathetic scene at Rolston's morgue when the body of John Van
+Ingen, 18 years old, of Kenosha, Wis., was identified. Friends of the Van
+Ingen family had spent the entire evening searching at the request of Mr.
+and Mrs. Van Ingen, who were injured. At midnight four of the Van Ingen
+children, who were believed to have perished in the fire, had not been
+accounted for. They were: Grace, 2 years old; Dottie, 5 years old; Mary,
+13 years old; and Edward, 20 years old.
+
+In the undertaking rooms of J. C. Gavin, 226 North Clark street, and
+Carroll Bros., 203 Wells street, forty-five bodies swathed in blankets
+were awaiting identification at midnight. Of the fifty-four brought to
+these places only nine had been identified by the hundreds of relatives
+and friends who filed through the rooms, and in several cases the
+recognition was doubtful.
+
+An atmosphere of awe appeared to pervade the places, and no hysterical
+scenes followed the pointing out of the bodies. The morbid crowds usually
+attendant on a smaller calamity were absent, and few except those seeking
+missing relatives sought admission. Only one of the men, James D. Maloney,
+wept as he stood over the body of his dead wife.
+
+"I can't go any further," he said. "Her sister, Tennie Peterson, who lived
+in Fargo, N. D., was with her, and her body probably is there," motioning
+to the row of blanket-covered forms, "but I can't look. I must go back to
+the little ones at home, now motherless."
+
+In Inspector Campbell's office at the Chicago avenue station Sergeant Finn
+monotonously repeated the descriptions, as the scores of frantic seekers
+filled and refilled the little office. Several times he was interrupted by
+hysterical shrieks of women or the broken voices of men.
+
+"Read it again, please," would be the call, and, as the description again
+was read off, the number of the body was taken and the relatives hurried
+to the undertaking rooms. The bodies of Walter B. Zeisler, 12 years old,
+Lee Haviland and Walter A. Austrian were partly identified from the police
+descriptions.
+
+The list of hospital patients also was posted in the station and aided
+friends in the search for injured.
+
+Sheldon's undertaking rooms at 230 West Madison street were the scene of
+pathetic incidents. Forty-seven bodies, some of them with the clothing
+entirely burned away, and with few exceptions with features charred beyond
+recognition, had been taken there. Late in the night only four had been
+identified. The first body recognized was that of Mrs. Brindsley, of 909
+Jackson boulevard, who had attended the matinee with Miss Edna Torney,
+daughter of Mr. and Mrs. P. Torney, 1292 Adams street. Mr. Torney could
+find no trace of the young woman.
+
+Of the forty-seven bodies thirty-six were of matured women and five of
+men. There were bodies of six children, three boys and three girls.
+
+Dr. J. H. Bates, of 3256 South Park avenue, was searching for the bodies
+of Myrtle Shabad and Ruth Elken, numbered among the missing.
+
+There were similar scenes at all of the undertaking rooms to which bodies
+were taken.
+
+"When the fire broke out I was taking tickets at the door," said E.
+Lovett, one of the ushers. "The crowd began to move toward the exits on
+the ground floor, and I rushed to the big entrance doors and threw three
+of them open. From there I hurried to the cigar store and called up the
+police and fire departments.
+
+"When I returned I tried to get more of the doors open, but was shoved
+aside and told that I was crazy. The crowd acted in a most frenzied manner
+and no one could have held them in check. Conditions on the balconies must
+have been appalling. They were well filled, but the exits, had they been
+opened, would have proved ample for all."
+
+Michael Ohle, who was ushering on the first balcony, noticed the fire
+shortly after it started. He hurried to the entrances and cleared the way
+for the people to get out. Then, he says, he started downstairs to find
+out how serious the fire was. Before he could return the panic was on and
+he fled to the street for safety.
+
+"Mrs. Phillipson, Phillipson--is Mrs. Phillipson here?"
+
+That cry sounded in drug stores, cigar stores, and hotels until three
+little girls, Adeline, Frances, and Teresa, had found their mother, from
+whom they were separated in the panic. At last at the Continental hotel
+the call was weakly answered by a woman who lay upon a couch, more
+frightened than hurt. In another moment three little girls were sobbing in
+their mother's lap.
+
+
+FRIENDS AND RELATIVES EAGERLY SEARCH FOR LOVED ONES MISSING AFTER THEATER
+HOLOCAUST.
+
+Friends sought for information of friends; husbands asked for word of
+wives; fathers and mothers sought news of sons and daughters; men and
+women begged to be told if there was any knowledge of their sweethearts;
+parents asked for children; and children fearfully told the names of
+missing playmates.
+
+The early hours of the evening were marked by many sad scenes. Men would
+rush to the desk where the names of the missing were being compiled and
+asked if anything had been heard of some member of their families, then
+turn away and hurry out, barely waiting to be told that there would be no
+definite news until nearly midnight.
+
+"Just think!" said one gray headed man, leaning on the arm of a younger
+man who was leading him down the stairs, "I bought the matinee tickets
+for the children as a treat, and insisted that they take their little
+cousin with them."
+
+"Have you heard anything of my daughter?" asked a woman.
+
+"What was her name?"
+
+"Lily. She had seats in the first balcony with some girl friends. You
+would know her by her brown hair. She wore a white silk shirt waist and a
+diamond ring I gave her for Christmas. I went to the theater, but I
+couldn't get near it, and they said they were still carrying out bodies."
+
+"And her name? Who was she?"
+
+"She was my daughter--my only one!"
+
+The woman walked away, weeping, without giving the name, and the only
+response she would make to questions from those who followed her was:
+
+"My daughter!"
+
+Two men, with two little boys, came in. "Our wives," they said, "came to
+the matinee with some neighbors. They have not yet come home."
+
+Before they could give their names a third man ran up and cried:
+
+"I just got word the folks have been taken home in ambulances. They are
+alive."
+
+The men gave a shout and were gone in an instant.
+
+Men with children in their arms came to ask for others of the family who
+had become separated from them in the panic at the theater. Women, tears
+dampening their cheeks, hushed the chatter of their little ones while they
+gave the names of husbands and brothers, or told of other children who had
+been lost.
+
+One man yielded to his fears at the last minute and went away without
+asking for information or giving any name. He said:
+
+"I went to the theater with my wife. We have only been married a year.
+When the rush came I was torn away from her, and the last thing I remember
+is of hearing her call my name. Then I was lifted off my feet and can
+recall nothing more except that I found myself in the street. I have been
+to all the hospitals and morgues, and now I am going back to the theater
+again."
+
+So it went until the last dreaded news began coming in. Identifications
+were being made and hearts were being broken. After that time the
+inquiries were not for information; they were pleas to be told that a
+mistake had been made or that one was possible.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER IV.
+
+SCENE OF HORROR AS VIEWED FROM THE STAGE.
+
+
+All but one of the 348 members of the "Bluebeard" company escaped,
+although many had close calls for their lives. Some of the chorus girls
+displayed great coolness in the face of grave peril. Eddie Foy, who had a
+thrilling experience, said:
+
+"I was up in my dressing room preparing to come on for my turn in the
+middle of the second act when I heard an unusual commotion on the stage
+that I knew could not be caused by anything that was a part of the show. I
+hurried out of my dressing room, and as I looked I saw that the big drop
+curtain was on fire.
+
+"The fire had caught from the calcium and the paint and muslin on the drop
+caused the flames to travel with great rapidity Everything was excitement.
+Everybody was running from the stage. My 6 year old son, Bryan, stood in
+the first entrance to the stage and my first thought naturally was to get
+him out. They would not let me go out over the footlights, so I picked up
+the boy and gave him to a man and told him to rush the boy out into the
+alley.
+
+"I then rushed out to the footlights and called out to the audience, 'Keep
+very quiet. It is all right. Don't get excited and don't stampede. It is
+all right.'
+
+"I then shouted an order into the flies, 'Drop the curtain,' and called
+out to the leader of the orchestra to 'play an overture. Some of the
+musicians had left, but those that remained began to play. The leader sat
+there, white as a ghost, but beating his baton in the air.
+
+"As the music started I shouted out to the audience, 'Go out slowly. Leave
+the theater slowly.' The audience had not yet become panic stricken, and
+as I shouted to them they applauded me. The next minute the whole stage
+seemed to be afire, and what wood there was began to crackle with a sound
+like a series of explosions.
+
+"When I first came out to the footlights about 300 persons had left the
+theater or were leaving it. They were those who were nearest the door.
+Then the policemen came rushing in and tried to stem the tide towards the
+door.
+
+"All this happened in fifteen seconds. Up in the flies were the young
+women who compose the aerial ballet. They were up there waiting to do
+their turn, and as I stood at the front of the stage they came rushing
+out. I think they all got out safely.
+
+"The fire seemed to spread with a series of explosions. The paint on the
+curtains and scenery came in touch with the flames and in a second the
+scenery was sputtering and blazing up on all sides. The smoke was fearful
+and it was a case of run quickly or be smothered."
+
+Stage Director William Carleton, who was one of the last to leave the
+stage when the flames and smoke drove the members of the company out,
+said:
+
+"I was on the stage when the flames shot out from the switchboard on the
+left side. It seemed that some part of the scenery must have touched the
+sparks and set the fire. Soon the octette which was singing "In the Pale
+Moonlight," discovered the fire over their heads and in a few moments we
+had the curtain run down. It would not go down the full length, however,
+leaving an opening of about five feet from the floor. Then the crowd out
+in front began to stampede and the lights went out. Eddie Foy, who was in
+his dressing room, heard the commotion, and, rushing to the front of the
+stage, shouted to the spectators to be calm. The warning was useless and
+the panic was under way before any one realized what was going on.
+
+"Only sixteen members of the company were on the stage at the time. They
+remained until the flames were all about them and several had their hair
+singed and faces burned. Almost every one of these went out through the
+stage entrance on Dearborn street. In the meantime all of those who were
+in the dressing room had been warned and rushed out through the front
+entrance on Randolph street. There was no panic among the members of the
+company, every one seeming to know that care would result in the saving of
+life. Most of the members were preparing for the next number in their
+dressing rooms when the fire broke out, and they hurriedly secured what
+wraps they could and all dashed up to the stage, making their exit in
+safety.
+
+"The elevator which has been used for the members of the company, in going
+from the upper dressing rooms to the stage, was one of the first things to
+go wrong, and attempts to use it were futile.
+
+"It seems that the panic could not be averted, as the great crowd which
+filled the theater was unable to control itself. Two of the women
+fainted."
+
+"When the fire broke out," said Lou Shean, a member of the chorus, "I was
+in the dressing room underneath the stage. When I reached the top of the
+stairs the scenery nearby was all in flames and the heat was so fierce
+that I could not reach the stage door leading toward Dearborn street. I
+returned to the basement and ran down the long corridor leading toward
+the engine room, near which doors led to the smoking room and buffet. Both
+doors were locked. I began to break down the doors, assisted by other
+members of the company, while about seventy or eighty other members
+crowded against us. I succeeded in bursting open the door to the smoking
+room, when all made a wild rush. I was knocked down and trampled on and
+received painful bruises all over my body."
+
+"I was just straightening up things in our dressing room upstairs," said
+Harry Meehan, a member of the chorus, who also acted as dresser for Eddie
+Foy and Harry Gilfoil, "when the fire started. Both Mr. Foy and Mr.
+Gilfoil were on the stage at the time. I opened Mr. Foy's trunk and took
+out his watch and chain and rushed out, leaving my own clothes behind. I
+was so scantily dressed that I had to borrow clothes to get back to the
+hotel. Mr. Gilfoil saved nothing but his overcoat."
+
+Herbert Cawthorn, the Irish comedian who took the part of Pat Shaw in the
+play "Bluebeard," assisted many of the chorus girls from the stage exits
+in the panic.
+
+"While the stage fireman was working in an endeavor to use the chemicals
+the flames suddenly swooped down and out, Eddie Foy shouted something
+about the asbestos curtain and the fireman attempted to use it, and the
+stage hands ran to his assistance, but the curtain refused to work.
+
+"In my opinion the stage fireman might have averted the whole terrible
+affair if he had not become so excited. The chorus girls and everybody, to
+my mind, were less excited than he. There were at least 500 people behind
+the scenes when the fire started. I assisted many of the chorus girls from
+the theater."
+
+Said C. W. Northrop, who took the part of one of Bluebeard's old wives:
+"Many of us certainly had narrow escapes. Those who were in the dressing
+rooms underneath the stage at the time had more difficulty in getting out.
+I was in the dressing room under the stage when the fire broke out, and
+when I found that I could not reach the stage I tried to get out through
+the door connecting the extreme north end of the C shaped corridor with
+the smoking room. I joined other members of the company in their rush for
+safety, but when we reached the door we found it closed. Some of the
+members crawled out through a coal hole, while others broke down the
+locked door, through which the others made their way out."
+
+Lolla Quinlan, one of Bluebeard's eight dancers, saved the life of one of
+her companions, Violet Sidney, at the peril of her own. The two girls,
+with five others, were in a dressing room on the fifth floor when the
+alarm was raised. In their haste Miss Sidney caught her foot and sank to
+the floor with a cry of pain. She had sprained her ankle. The others, with
+the exception of Miss Quinlan, fled down the stairs.
+
+Grasping her companion around the waist Miss Quinlan dragged her down the
+stairs to the stage and crossed the boards during a rain of fiery brands.
+These two were the last to leave the stage. Miss Quinlan's right arm and
+hand were painfully burned and her face was scorched. Miss Sidney's face
+was slightly burned. Both were taken to the Continental hotel.
+
+Herbert Dillon, musical director, at the height of the panic broke through
+the stage door from the orchestra side, hastily cleared away obstructions
+with an ax, and assisted in the escape of about eighty chorus girls who
+occupied ten dressing rooms under the stage.
+
+"We were getting ready for the honey and fan scene," said Miss Nina Wood,
+"talking and laughing, and not thinking of danger. We were so far back of
+the orchestra that we did not hear sounds of the panic for several
+moments. Then the tramping of feet came to our ears. We made our way
+through the smoking room and one of the narrow exits of the theater."
+
+Miss Adele Rafter, a member of the company, was in her dressing room when
+the fire broke out.
+
+"I did not wait an instant," said Miss Rafter. "I caught up a muff and boa
+and rushed down the stairs in my stage costume and was the first of the
+company to get out the back entrance. Some man kindly loaned me his
+overcoat and I hurried to my apartments at the Sherman house. Several of
+the girls followed, and we had a good crying spell together."
+
+Miss Rafter's mother called at the hotel and spent the evening with her.
+Telegrams were sent to her father, who is rector of a church at Dunkirk,
+N. Y.
+
+Edwin H. Price, manager of the "Mr. Bluebeard" company, was not in the
+building when the fire started. He said:
+
+"I stepped out of the theater for a minute, and when I got back I saw the
+people rushing out and knew the stage was on fire. I helped some of the
+girls out of the rear entrance. With but one or two exceptions all left in
+stage costume.
+
+"One young woman in the chorus, Miss McDonald, displayed unusual coolness.
+She remained in her dressing room and donned her entire street costume,
+and also carried out as much of her stage clothing as she could carry."
+
+Quite a number of the chorus girls live in Chicago, and Mr. Price
+furnished cabs and sent them all to their homes.
+
+Through some mistake it was reported that Miss Anabel Whitford, the fairy
+queen of the company, was dying at one of the hospitals. She was not even
+injured, having safely made her way out through the stage door.
+
+Miss Nellie Reed, the principal of the flying ballet, which was in place
+for its appearance near the top part of the stage, was so badly burned by
+the flames before she was able to escape that she afterward died at the
+county hospital. The other members of the flying ballet were not injured.
+
+Robert Evans, one of the principals of the Bluebeard company, was in his
+dressing room on the fourth floor. He dived through a mass of flame and
+landed three stairways below. He helped a number of chorus girls to escape
+through the lower basement. His hands and face are burned severely. He
+lost all his wardrobe and personal effects.
+
+
+STORY OF HOW A SMALL BLAZE TERMINATED IN TERRIBLE LOSS.
+
+The fire started while the double octet was singing "In the Pale
+Moonlight." Eddie Foy, off the stage, was making up for his "elephant"
+specialty.
+
+On the audience's left--the stage right--a line of fire flashed straight
+up. It was followed by a noise as of an explosion. According to nearly all
+accounts, however, there was no real explosion, the sound being that of
+the fuse of the "spot" light, the light which is turned on a pivot to
+follow and illuminate the progress of the star across the stage.
+
+This light caused the fire. On this all reports of the stage folk agree.
+As to manner, accounts differ widely. R. M. Cummings, the boy in charge of
+the light, said that it was short circuited.
+
+Stage hands, as they fled from the scene, however, were heard to question
+one another, "Who kicked over the light?" The light belonged to the
+"Bluebeard" company.
+
+The beginning of the disaster was leisurely. The stage hands had been
+fighting the line of wavering flame along the muslin fly border for some
+seconds before the audience knew anything was the matter.
+
+The fly border, made of muslin and saturated with paint, was tinder to the
+flames.
+
+The stage hands grasped the long sticks used in their work. They forgot
+the hand grenades that are supposed to be on every stage.
+
+"Hit it with the sticks!" was the cry. "Beat it out!" "Beat it out!"
+
+The men struck savagely. A few yards of the border fell upon the stage and
+was stamped to charred fragments.
+
+That sight was the first warning the audience had. For a second there was
+a hush. The singers halted in their lines; the musicians ceased to play.
+
+Then a murmur of fear ran through the audience. There were cries from a
+few, followed by the breaking, rumbling sound of the first step toward the
+flight of panic.
+
+At that moment a strange, grotesque figure appeared upon the stage. It
+wore tights, a loose upper garment, and the face was one-half made up. The
+man was Eddie Foy, chief comedian of the company, the clown, but the only
+man who kept his head.
+
+Before he reached the center of the stage he had called out to a stage
+hand: "Take my boy, Bryan, there! Get him out! There by the stage way!"
+
+The stage hand grabbed the little chap. Foy saw him dart with him to
+safety as he turned his head.
+
+Freed of parental anxiety, he faced the audience.
+
+"Keep quiet!" he shouted. "Quiet."
+
+"Go out in order!" he shouted. "Don't get excited!"
+
+Between exclamations he bent over toward the orchestra leader.
+
+
+ORCHESTRA PLAYS IN FACE OF DEATH.
+
+"Start an overture!" he commanded. "Start anything. For God's sake play,
+play, play, and keep on playing."
+
+The brave words were as bravely answered. Gillea raised his wand, and the
+musicians began to play. Better than any one in the theater they knew
+their peril. They could look slantingly up and see that the 300 sets of
+the "Bluebeard" scenery all were ablaze. Their faces were white, their
+hands trembled, but they played, and played.
+
+Foy still stood there, alternately urging the frightened people to avoid a
+panic and spurring the orchestra on. One by one the musicians dropped
+fiddle, horn, and other instruments and stole away.
+
+
+"CLOWN" PROVES A HERO.
+
+Finally the leader and Foy were left alone. Foy gave one glance upward and
+saw the scenery all aflame. Dropping brands fell around him, and then he
+fled--just in time to save his own life. The "clown" had proved himself a
+hero.
+
+The curtain started to come down. It stopped, it swayed as from a heavy
+wind, and then it "buckled" near the center.
+
+
+ALL HOPE LOST FOR GALLERY.
+
+From that moment no power short of omnipotent could have saved the
+occupants of the upper gallery.
+
+The coolness of Foy, of the orchestra leader and of other players, who
+begged the audience to hold itself in check, however, probably saved many
+lives on the parquet floor. Tumultuous panic prevailed, but the maddest of
+it--save in the doomed gallery--was at the outskirts of the ground floor
+crowd.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER V.
+
+EXCITING EXPERIENCES IN THE FIRE.
+
+
+"If you ever saw a field of timothy grass blown flat by the wind and rain
+of a summer storm, that was the position of the dead at the exits of the
+second balcony," said Chief of Police O'Neill.
+
+"In the rush for the stairs they had jammed in the doorway and piled ten
+deep; lying almost like shingles. When we got up the stairs in the dark to
+the front rows of the victims, some of them were alive and struggling, but
+so pinned down by the great weight of the dead and dying piled upon them
+that three strong men could not pull the unfortunate ones free.
+
+"It was necessary first to take the dead from the top of the pile, then
+the rest of the bodies were lifted easily and regularly from their
+positions, save as their arms had intertwined and clutched.
+
+"Nothing in my experience has ever approached the awfulness of the
+situation and it may be said that from the point of physical exertion, the
+police department has never been taxed as it has been taxed tonight. Men
+have been worn out simply with the carrying out of dead bodies, to say
+nothing of the awfulness of their burdens."
+
+The strong hand of the chief was called into play when the dead had been
+removed and when the theater management appeared at the exit of the second
+balcony, seeking to pass the uniformed police who guarded the heaps of
+sealskins, purses, and tangled valuables behind them. A spokesman for the
+management, backed up by a negro special policeman of the house, stood
+before the half dozen city police on guard, asking to be admitted that
+these valuables might be removed to the checkrooms of the theater.
+
+"But these things are the property of the coroner," replied the chief,
+coming up behind the delegation.
+
+"But the theater management wishes to make sure of the safety of these
+valuables," insisted the spokesman.
+
+"The department of police is responsible," replied Chief O'Neill.
+
+
+EXPERIENCE OF CHICAGO UNIVERSITY MEN.
+
+Clyde A. Blair, captain of the University of Chicago track team, and
+Victor S. Rice, 615 Yale avenue, a member of the team, accompanied Miss
+Majorie Mason, 5733 Monroe avenue, and Miss Anne Hough, 361 East
+Fifty-eighth street, to the matinee. They were sitting in the middle of
+the seventh row from the rear of the first floor. When the first flames
+broke through from the stage Miss Mason became alarmed. Seizing the girl,
+and leaving his overcoat and hat, Blair dragged her through the crush
+toward the door, closely followed by Rice and Miss Hough.
+
+"The crush at the door," said Blair, "was terrific. Half of the double
+doors opening into the vestibule were fastened. People dashed against the
+glass, breaking it and forcing their way through. One woman fell down in
+the crowd directly in front of me. She looked up and said, 'For God's
+sake, don't trample on me.' I stepped around her, unable to help her up,
+and the crowd forced me past. I could not learn whether she was trampled
+over or not."
+
+
+BISHOP BRAVES DANGER IN HEROIC WORK OF RESCUE.
+
+"I was passing the theater when the panic began," said Bishop Samuel
+Fallows of the St. Paul's Reformed Episcopal church. "I heard the cry for
+volunteers and joined the men who went into the place to carry out the
+dead and injured. I had no idea of the extent of the disaster until I
+became actively engaged in the work.
+
+"The sight when I reached the balconies was pitiful beyond description. It
+grew in horror as I looked over the seats. The bodies were in piles. Women
+had their hands over their faces as if to shield off a blow. Children lay
+crushed beneath their parents, as if they had been hurled to the marble
+floors.
+
+"I saw the great battlefields of the civil war, but they were as nothing
+to this. When we began to take out the bodies we found that many of the
+audience had been unable to get even near the exits. Women were bent over
+the seats, their fingers clinched on the iron sides so strongly that they
+were torn and bleeding. Their faces and clothes were burned, and they must
+have suffered intensely.
+
+"I ministered to all I could and some of them seemed to welcome the
+presence of a clergyman as it were a gift from God. There appeared to be
+little system in the work of rescue, but that was due, I believe, to the
+intense excitement."
+
+
+WOMEN AND FOUR CHILDREN SUFFER.
+
+Mrs. Anna B. Milliken, who is staying at Thompson's hotel, had four
+children in her charge, Felix, Jessie, Tony, and Jennie Guerrier, of 135
+North Sangamon street, their ages ranging from 11 to 17 years. She and her
+charges were in the balcony, standing against the wall, when the fire
+started.
+
+"Something told me to be calm," said Mrs. Milliken. "I had passed through
+one dreadful experience in the Chicago fire, and, though there was a great
+deal of confusion, I kept the children together, telling them not to be
+frightened. Men and women hurried past me, shouting like wild beasts, and
+if I had joined them the children and I would have been trampled under
+foot. It was minutes before I could leave with the two younger children.
+The two elder are lost. What shall I tell their folks," and the poor woman
+began to weep. Her face, as she stood in the lobby of the Northwestern
+building, was blistered and swollen. The back of her dress was burned
+through.
+
+"What are the names of the missing children?" inquired a physician. "They
+are in here," and he led the distracted woman into one of the "first aid
+hospitals." There Mrs. Milliken saw her two charges so swathed in bandages
+that they could not be recognized.
+
+
+LEARNS CHILDREN HAVE ESCAPED.
+
+"I'm looking for two little girls--Berien is the name," shouted H. E.
+Osborne. "They live in Aurora."
+
+"They've been here," answered Mr. Weisman. "They are all right and have
+been sent to their home in Aurora."
+
+With a glad shout Osborne ran back to the office of the National Cash
+Register company, 50 State street, to inform Miss Mary Stevenson, whom the
+children had been visiting.
+
+The Berien children were among the first to reach the offices of the
+Hallwood company after the fire broke out. By some chance they had made
+their way out uninjured. The story of their plight touched a stranger, who
+took them to a railway station and bought them tickets to their home in
+Aurora. One was about 14 and the other about 9 years old.
+
+
+FINDS HIS DAUGHTER.
+
+One young woman, terrified but uninjured, had found her way to this office
+and was sitting in a frightened stupor, when an elderly man hurried in
+from the street.
+
+"Have you seen--" he started to ask, and then, catching sight of the
+forlorn little figure, he stopped. With a glad cry, father and daughter
+rushed into each other's arms, and the father bore his child away. Their
+names were not learned.
+
+James Sullivan of Woodstock was probably the last man who got out of the
+parquet uninjured. With him was George Field, also of Woodstock, and the
+two fought their way out together.
+
+
+MR. FIELD'S NARRATIVE.
+
+"We were seated in the twelfth row," said Mr. Field, "when we saw fire at
+the top of the proscenium arch. At the same time some sparks fell on the
+stage.
+
+"Eddie Foy came out and told the audience not to be afraid, to avoid a
+panic, and there would be no trouble. While he was speaking, however, a
+burning brand fell alongside of him, and then came what looked like a huge
+globe of fire. The moment it struck the stage fire spread everywhere.
+
+"The panic started at once and everybody rushed for the doors. Sullivan
+and I were in the rear of the fleeing mass and made our way out as best we
+could without getting mixed up in the panic. As long as the women and
+children were struggling through the straight aisles there was not so much
+trouble except that some of the fugitives fell to the floor and had to be
+helped on their feet again. At times the women and children would be
+lying four deep on the floor of the aisles, and in several instances we
+had to set them on their feet before we could go further. There was not
+much smoke and had the aisles been straight to the entrances every one
+could have got out practically unhurt.
+
+"But when it came to the turns where they focus into the lobby the poor
+women and children were piled up into indiscriminate heaps. The screams
+and cries they uttered were something terrible. It was an impossibility to
+allay the panic and the frightened people simply trampled on those in
+front of them.
+
+"Some of the people in the orchestra chairs immediately in front of the
+stage must have been burned by the fire. The fire darted directly among
+them and the chairs began burning at once. Those on this floor far enough
+in the rear to escape these flames would have been all right except for
+the crush of the panic.
+
+"Sullivan, who was with me, was the last man out of the orchestra chairs
+who was not injured. Whoever was behind us must have been suffocated or
+burned to death. How many there were I have no means of knowing."
+
+
+NARROW ESCAPES OF YOUNG AND OLD.
+
+One of the narrow escapes in the first rush for the open air was that of
+Winnie Gallagher, 11 years old, 4925 Michigan avenue. The child, who was
+with her mother in the third row, was left behind in the rush for safety.
+She climbed to the top of the seat and, stepping from one chair to
+another, finally reached the door. There she was nearly crushed in the
+crowd. At the Central police station the child was restored to her mother.
+
+Miss Lila Hazel Coulter, of 4760 Champlain avenue, was sitting with Mr.
+Kenneth Collins and Miss Helen Dickinson, 3637 Michigan avenue, in the
+eighth row in the parquet. She escaped in safety.
+
+"I was sitting in the fifth seat from the aisle," said Miss Coulter, "but
+the fire, which was bursting out from both sides of the stage, had such a
+fascination for me."
+
+D. W. Dimmick, of Apple River, Ill., an old man of 70, with a long, white
+beard, was standing in the upper gallery when the fire broke out.
+
+"I was with a party of four," said Mr. Dimmick. "I saw small pieces of
+what looked like burning paper dropping down from above at the left of the
+curtain. At the same time small puffs of smoke seemed to shoot out into
+the house. A boy in the gallery near me called 'fire,' but there were
+plenty of people to stop him.
+
+"'Keep quiet!' I told him. 'If you don't look out, you'll start a panic.'
+
+"Then all of a sudden the whole front of the stage seemed to burst out in
+one mass of flame. Then everybody seemed to get up and start to get out of
+the place at once. From all over the house came shrieks and cries of
+'fire,' I started at once, hugging the wall on the outside of the stairway
+as we went down.
+
+"When we got down to the platform where the first balcony opens it seemed
+to me that people were stacked up like cordwood. There were men, women,
+and children in the lot. At the same time there were some people whom I
+thought must be actors, who came running out from somewhere in the
+interior of the house, and whose wigs and clothes were on fire. We tried
+to beat out the flames as we went along. By crowding out to the wall we
+managed to squeeze past the mass of people who were writhing on the floor,
+and practically blocking the entrance so far as the people still in the
+gallery were concerned.
+
+
+PULLS WOMEN FROM MASS ON FLOOR.
+
+"As we got by the mass on the floor I turned and caught hold of the arms
+of a woman who was lying near the bottom pinned down by the weight resting
+on her feet. I managed to pull her out, and I think she got down in
+safety. One of the men with me also pulled out another woman from the
+heap. I tried to rescue a man who was also caught by the feet, but,
+although I braced myself against the stairs, I was unable to move him.
+
+"I came in from Apple River to see the sights in Chicago, and I have seen
+all I can stand."
+
+Six little girls from Evanston, in a party occupying seats in the parquet,
+escaped by the side entrance. In the crush they lost most of their
+clothing. Four of the children stayed together, the other two being for
+the time lost in the street. The four were Hannah Gregg, 12 years old,
+1038 Sheridan road; Florence and May Lang, 14 and 13 years old, Buena
+Park; Beatrice Moore, 12 years old, Buena Park.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER VI.
+
+HEROES OF THE FIRE.
+
+
+One of the heroes of the Iroquois theater fire was Peter Quinn, chief
+special agent of the Atchison, Topeka & Santa Fe railroad system, who
+assisted in saving the lives of 100 or more of the performers. But for the
+prompt service of Quinn and two citizens who assisted him it is believed
+that most of the performers would have met the fate of the victims in the
+theater proper.
+
+Mr. Quinn had attended a trial in the Criminal court and in the middle of
+the afternoon started for the downtown district, intending to proceed to
+his office. Reaching Randolph and Dearborn streets the railroad official
+had his attention attracted to a man who rushed from the theater
+bare-headed and without his coat. What followed Quinn describes as
+follows:
+
+"The actions of the man and the fact that he was without coat and hat
+attracted my attention and I watched him through curiosity. He ran so
+swiftly that he collided with several pedestrians, and I saw him rush
+toward a policeman on the street crossing. He said something to the
+policeman and then I saw the bluecoat rush excitedly away. My curiosity
+was then aroused to such an extent that I followed the young man who ran
+into the alley in the rear of the theater. He disappeared there and I was
+about to go on my way when my attention was attracted to the door leading
+upon the stage.
+
+"As I passed I heard a commotion and saw the door was slightly open, and,
+peeping into the opening, I asked what was the trouble. Then, for the
+first time, I learned that the theater was on fire. A number of strangers
+arrived at the door about the same time.
+
+"The players, men, women, and children, had rushed to this small trap-door
+for escape, got caught in a solid mass, and were so firmly wedged together
+that they could not move. They were banked solidly against the little
+door, and it could not be opened. Nearly all of the players were in their
+stage costumes.
+
+"The women screamed and begged us to rescue them, and the cries of the
+children could be heard above the hoarse shouts of the men. I did not
+realize it at that moment, but it develops that the players were in the
+same position as the unfortunates who met death in the front end of the
+house.
+
+"Had we been unable to get that trap-door open when we did every member of
+that struggling crowd of men, women and children, would have perished
+where they stood, too tightly wedged together to permit even a slight
+struggle against death.
+
+"Nobody at that time had the slightest idea of the serious state of
+affairs. We tried to force the door open, but the crowd was banked up too
+tightly against it. I shouted through the opening and commanded those in
+the rear to step back far enough to permit the door to be opened. It was
+like talking to empty space, however, and for a few moments we stood there
+helpless and without any means to assist those in distress.
+
+"Then came a volume of smoke, and far in the rear of the crowd we could
+see the illumination from the flames. I had a number of small tools in my
+pocket, and immediately proceeded to remove the metal attachments which
+held the door in place. This was accomplished with some difficulty, and
+then we managed to force the crowd back probably an inch, but that was
+sufficient. The door was then permitted to drop from its place, and one by
+one the imprisoned players were assisted into the alley.
+
+"They were then in scanty costumes, but were quickly assisted to places of
+shelter. Even when the last player and stage hand had reached the alley we
+could not realize the awfulness of what had happened. I walked in upon the
+stage and found it a seething furnace. The players had been rescued just
+in time. A minute later and the flames and smoke would have reached the
+imperiled ones, and they would have been suffocated or burned where they
+stood."
+
+
+THE PILES OF DEAD IN THE GALLERY.
+
+William ("Smiling") Corbett was one of the first to penetrate the smoke
+and reach the balcony and gallery of the theater where the most fearful
+loss of life occurred. Charley Dexter, the Boston National league player,
+and Frank Houseman, the old Chicago second baseman, went to his
+assistance.
+
+Corbett was stopped by a fear-frenzied little woman, who begged him to
+save her two children.
+
+"They're up in the gallery," she cried.
+
+Corbett made a dash for the balcony entrance on the right.
+
+"Don't go up there," admonished some of the firemen about; "you'll get
+hemmed in."
+
+Corbett groped his way onward and upward, stumbling over bodies lying
+prostrate on the staircase, and finally reached the gallery entrance.
+
+"There they were," said Corbett afterward. "Positively the most sickening
+spectacle I ever saw. They were piled up in bunches, in all manner of
+disarray. I grabbed for the topmost body, a girl about 6 years old.
+Catching her by the wrist I felt the flesh curl up under my grasp. I
+hurried down with the little one, then back again, each time with the body
+of a child.
+
+"I then realized that no good could come of any further effort. Everybody
+was stark dead. I turned away and fled. I never again want to go near the
+place."
+
+
+EDDIE FOY'S HEROISM.
+
+Eddie Foy, leading comedian in "Mr. Bluebeard," said:
+
+"I was in my dressing room, one tier up off the stage, when I smelled
+smoke. The 'Moonlight ballet' was on, and it was three minutes before the
+time for my entrance on the first scene of the second act.
+
+"I looked up and immediately over me, in the left first entrance, I saw
+sparks and a small cloud of smoke. The members of the company and of the
+chorus had already started off the stage. My eldest boy, Bryan, was
+standing under the light bridge in the first entrance, and, taking him by
+the hand, I turned him over to one of the stage hands with orders to get
+him out of the theater. In less time than it takes to tell it, the little
+wreath of smoke and the tiny sparks had grown in volume. The smoke and
+some of the sparks had already made their way into the main part of the
+house, curling down and around the lower edge of the proscenium arch.
+
+"I looked at the house through an opening, and that was enough. I tried to
+appear as calm as possible under the conditions, realizing what a stampede
+would mean. Just what I said I cannot for the life of me now recall. In
+effect, though, this is about it:
+
+"'Ladies and gentlemen, there is no danger. Don't get excited. Walk out
+calmly.'
+
+"Between each breath, and these were coming in short, sharp gasps, I kept
+yelling out from the corner of my lips: 'Lower that iron curtain; drop the
+fire curtain!'
+
+"The balcony and gallery were packed with women and children, and fully
+aware of what was in store for these hapless ones, my heart sank.
+
+"The cracking of the timbers above increased. The smoke was growing more
+dense. I knew the material aloft--flimsy, dry linens, parched canvas, and
+paint-coated tapestries and drops.
+
+"Without raising my voice to a pitch calculated to alarm, and yet
+unmistakably urgent in its appeal, I repeated: 'Get out--get out slowly.'
+
+"The northeast corner of the fly gallery was now a furnace. Just as I made
+the last appeal to the balcony and the gallery a fiercely blazing ember
+dropped at my feet. Another, a smaller one, was caught in the draft and
+forced out into the theater proper.
+
+"'Drop the fire curtain,' I shouted again, looking in vain for it to come
+down. I know that not a soul in the theater proper would be in danger if
+this was done. The switchboard was there--but no one to work it. I cried
+out for Carleton, our stage manager. He was gone. I called for 'Pete,' one
+of the electricians. He, too, was gone.
+
+"'Does any one know how this iron curtain is worked?' I yelled at the mob
+of fleeing stage hands, members of the company, property men, and
+musicians. Not an answer.
+
+"At the first sign of danger, after reaching the footlights, I said to
+Dillea, our orchestra leader:
+
+"'An overture, Herbert, an overture.'
+
+"Dillea--God bless him, his ranks already thinning out in the orchestra
+pit--struck up the 'Sleeping Beauty and the Beast' overture. Of the
+thirty odd musicians in the pit not over half a dozen remained to follow
+Dillea and his baton. But the little fellow, ashen pale, his eyes glued on
+the raging mass of flame above, never whimpered. He kept right on, and
+only left his post when the flames drove him away from his leader's stand.
+When Dillea disappeared down the opening in the orchestra pit half of the
+lower floor had been emptied. This I noticed only in an aside, for my eyes
+were fastened on the sea of agonized, distracted little ones in the
+balcony and gallery."
+
+
+AN ELEVATOR BOY HERO.
+
+The bottom of the elevator shaft in the doomed theater was a scene of
+pandemonium when the stage hands tried to get the girls out. Archie
+Barnard headed the chain gang and behind him were J. R. O'Mally, Arthur
+Hart and William Price. As soon as the women reached the floor they began
+to run wild, and had to be caught and tossed from one man to another. The
+women in the first tier of dressing rooms were the first down and they
+were helped out without much trouble.
+
+On his second trip up with the elevator young Robert Smith ascended into
+an atmosphere that was so thick with smoke that he could not see or
+breathe. He found one of the girls on the sixth floor and then took on
+another load from the fifth. By the time he had come down with these, the
+flames and smoke were threatening the men in the chain. The clothing of
+Barnard and William Price was on fire and their hair was burning.
+Nevertheless they threw the girls out and waited for the third load.
+
+This load came near not arriving. The smoke was so thick that Smith had to
+find the girls and drag them into the elevator and by the time he had
+done this he was almost overcome. The elevator was burning at the place
+where the controller was located, and Smith had to place his left hand in
+the flame to start the car. The hand was badly burned, but the car was
+started and came down in time for the girls to receive assistance from the
+men who were waiting. When the last girl was out the men left the
+building.
+
+Up in the gridiron, where the smoke was thickest, the four German boys who
+worked the aerial apparatus were caught, fully sixty feet from the stage
+floor, and no one had time to come to their assistance or to pay any
+attention to them, because there were too many other people to be saved.
+
+At first, they did not know what to do. As the smoke became thicker and
+the heat more intense they moved to get out. One of them, who was some
+distance from his companions, was caught in the flames of one of the
+burning pieces of draperies, and either because he lost his presence of
+mind or because he could not hold out any longer, he jumped. Some of the
+people on the stage floor heard him fall, but he did not move and no one
+could help him. He could not be found after the other people escaped from
+the stage. His three companions climbed over the gridiron scaffolding and
+made their way down the stairway to safety.
+
+"I heard the little fellow fall," said Arthur Hart, "and that is the last
+I knew of him. It was a long jump, and I presume that he was badly
+injured."
+
+"I stuck to the car until the ropes parted," said young Smith, the
+elevator boy, "and then I began to get faint. Someone reached in and
+pulled me out just in time to save my life. The larger part of the girls
+were in the dressing rooms when the fire broke out, and they all tried to
+get out at once. A great many tried to crowd into the elevator and it was
+hard work to keep it going. I made as many trips as I could."
+
+
+TWO BALCONY HEROES.
+
+A man who gave his name as Chester, with his wife and two daughters, was a
+hero who escaped without letting the police know who he was. This man was
+in the lower balcony of the theater and in the panic he succeeded in
+reaching the fire escape with his children and wife. After getting on the
+fire escape, the flames swept up and set the clothing of his wife and
+girls on fire. Burned himself, he fought the flame and then realizing that
+delay meant certain death he dropped the children to the ground, a
+distance of ten feet, and then dropped his wife. Then he leaped himself.
+
+W. G. Smith of the Chicago Teaming Company, 37 Dearborn street, saw them
+jumping and with some of his men he picked them up and carried them into
+his store. This was before the fire department arrived.
+
+When all had been taken in Smith rushed back into the alley to find the
+lower fire escape filled with screaming, struggling women. All were
+hatless and their faces were scorched by the intense heat. He shouted to
+them to wait a moment, as the firemen were coming, but one woman leaped as
+he spoke. She too was taken into Smith's store and all his patients were
+taken later to nearby hotels, where their injuries were attended to.
+
+After Smith left the alley Morris Eckstrom, assistant engineer, and M. J.
+Tierney, engineer of the university building, ran to the rescue of the
+women on the fire escape. The firemen had not yet arrived, and the screams
+of the women with the flames creeping upon them were frightful to hear.
+
+"Jump one by one," shouted Eckstrom, "and we'll catch you."
+
+Tierney grabbed a long blanket from the engine room, and the women,
+realizing it was their only chance, leaped into it. In some cases they
+were injured, but none was seriously hurt.
+
+"I know we caught twenty women that way, before the flames got so terrific
+that none of them could reach the fire escape," said Eckstrom. "I saw a
+dozen women and children and some men, through the open door to the fire
+escape, fall back into the flames."
+
+
+THE MUSICAL DIRECTOR'S STORY.
+
+Musical Director Herbert Dillea of the "Mr. Bluebeard" company, who was
+one of the first of the members of the orchestra to see the fire, had
+several narrow escapes from death while he endeavored to rescue four of
+the chorus girls who had fainted in the passageway which leads from the
+armor-room to the front smoking apartment.
+
+Dillea was nearly overcome by the thick smoke which filled the areaway,
+but, with the assistance of some of the stage employes, he succeeded in
+carrying the unconscious actresses to the street. The young women, upon
+reaching the fresh air, soon revived, and they were taken care of in
+stores until they got their street clothing.
+
+Dillea said that several other members of the orchestra vainly endeavored
+to persuade some of the audience who were occupying front seats to enter
+the passageway, but no attention was paid to them.
+
+In describing his experiences Dillea said:
+
+"It was during the second verse of the 'Pale Moonlight' song that I
+suddenly saw a red light to my left in the proscenium arch. The moment I
+saw the red glare I knew there was a fire, and in whispers I ordered the
+other members of the orchestra to play as fast as they could, as I thought
+the asbestos would be lowered. We had hardly begun to play when the
+asbestos started to come down, but right in the middle it stopped, and it
+remained so.
+
+"By this time the chorus girls were shrieking with terror, as the fire
+brands were falling among them on the stage. As soon as the audience saw
+the fire brands they began to arise, but Eddie Foy ran out and begged them
+to remain quiet, assuring them that there was no danger. The audience paid
+no attention to him and the panic followed. Then I thought it was time to
+make our escape, and I turned to the orchestra men and told them to follow
+me to the passageway. While I was running through the areaway I shouted to
+the actresses. They ran from their rooms, and four of them fainted. It was
+only with the greatest difficulty they were carried out."
+
+
+CHILD SAVES HIS BROTHER.
+
+Willie Dee, the 12-year-old son of Mr. and Mrs. W. E. Dee, who lost two
+children in the fire, by a presence of mind and bravery that would have
+been commendable in a person of mature years saved himself and a smaller
+brother not 7 years old.
+
+The four children of Mr. and Mrs. Dee attended the theater on the fatal
+afternoon in company with their nurse, Mrs. G. H. Errett. Besides Willie,
+the oldest of the children, there were two twin boys, Allerton and Edward,
+between 6 and 7 years of age, and the baby 2-1/2 years old. Willie was one
+of the first to notice the fire and called to the nurse to go out. The
+nurse did not grasp the situation, thinking the flames a part of the act,
+and hesitated. Noticing her hesitation, Willie seized the nearest one of
+the children, Allerton and pulled the smaller boy with him down the
+stairs from the first balcony in which the party was seated. The two boys
+were unable to move fast enough to keep ahead of the crowd, although they
+were the first ones out. They were overtaken and both of them shoved
+through the doors in front, where they became separated. Willie thought
+his little brother lost and went home without him. The smaller boy was
+later picked up and taken into Thompson's restaurant, from which place he
+was taken home, practically uninjured.
+
+The other twin, Edward, was killed where he sat. The nurse and baby
+succeeded in reaching the first landing, where they were trampled
+underfoot. A fireman took the baby from the nurse's arms and placed it in
+charge of Dr. Bridge. The doctor succeeded in resuscitating it and took it
+to his home at Forty-ninth street and Cottage Grove avenue, where it died
+early the following morning.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER VII.
+
+THE ORIGIN OF THE FIRE--THE ASBESTOS CURTAIN AND THE LIGHTS.
+
+
+The real story of the origin of the fire was told by William McMullen,
+assistant electrician. He said: "The spot light was completely
+extinguished at the time of the fire. I am positive of this, because I was
+working on it. Three feet above my head was the flood light. I noticed the
+curtain swaying directly above it and suddenly a spark shot up and it was
+ablaze in a second."
+
+McMullen called the attention of his assistant to the flame.
+
+"Put the fire out," he said.
+
+"All right," said the other man, reaching down, using his hands to put out
+the small flame.
+
+"Put it out! Put it out!" shouted McMullen.
+
+"I am! I am!" said the other, clapping the flimsy stuff between his hands.
+
+Some of the stage hands at this moment noticed the fire.
+
+"Look at that fire!" these called out. "Can't you see that you're on fire
+up there! Put it out!"
+
+"D---- it, I am trying to," said the man who was clapping away at the
+burning paint impregnated muslin.
+
+Then a flame a foot high shot up and caught the draperies above those on
+fire.
+
+"Look at that other one. It's on fire," some one on the stage yelled.
+
+"Put it out!" shouted another.
+
+"All right," said the man on the perch. But he did not clap hard enough
+or fast enough, and in ten seconds the flames were beyond his reach.
+
+It was after these hand clapping attempts to extinguish the fire had
+proved futile that McMullen shouted a call for the asbestos curtain to be
+put down.
+
+"I did not see the curtain move."
+
+
+ANOTHER ACCOUNT OF THE FIRE'S ORIGIN.
+
+W. H. Aldridge, who was employed to operate one of the so-called calcium
+lights, told how the fire started.
+
+"I was about twenty feet above the lights which were being used, having
+left my place to watch the performance," he said. "While I was looking
+down on the performers I noticed a flash of light where the electric wires
+connect with the calcium light. The flash seemed to be about six inches
+long. As I looked a curtain swayed against the flame. In a moment the
+loose edges of the canvas were in a blaze, which rapidly ran up the edge
+of the canvas and across its upper end.
+
+"A man named McNulty was in charge of the light. Whether he accidentally
+broke the wire and caused the flash I do not know. The light was about
+twenty feet from the floor. It consisted of a 'spot' light, used to follow
+the principal performer, and a 'flood' light, which was used to produce
+the moonlight effect."
+
+
+WERE ELECTRIC LIGHTS TURNED OUT?
+
+James B. Quinn, general manager of the Standard Meter company, who was
+present throughout the panic, said on this point: "Had the electrician who
+had charge of the switches for the foyer lights remained at his post long
+enough to have turned on the lights in the foyer there would not have been
+one-half the loss of life in the foyer and balcony stairs. When that
+awful darkness fell on the house the frenzied people did not know where to
+turn. They had not become fully acquainted with the turns because the
+theater was new. I was there and assisted in removing the dead and dying,
+and having been connected with lighting plants all my life I know what I
+am talking about. We did not have an electric light turned on for two
+hours after the fire. It was too late then. True, we had lanterns, but
+they were inadequate and would not have been needed had the electrician or
+his assistant done their duty. When the lights were turned on it was done
+by outside electricians."
+
+
+STATEMENT OF MESSRS. DAVIS AND POWERS, MANAGERS OF THE THEATER.
+
+When the fire broke out Manager Will J. Davis of the Iroquois was
+attending a funeral. A telephone message was quietly whispered to him and,
+after hesitating a moment, Davis unostentatiously slipped on his overcoat
+and left the place.
+
+Mr. Davis and Harry J. Powers later stated as follows:
+
+"So far as we have been able to ascertain the cause or causes of the most
+unfortunate accident of the fire in the Iroquois, it appears that one of
+the scenic draperies was noticed to have ignited from some cause. It was
+detected before it had reached an appreciable flame, and the city fireman
+who is detailed and constantly on duty when the theater is open noticed it
+simultaneously with the electrician.
+
+"The fireman, who was only a few feet away, immediately pulled a tube of
+kilfire, of which there were many hung about the stage, and threw the
+contents upon the blaze, which would have been more than enough, if the
+kilfire had been effective, to have extinguished the flame at once; but
+for some cause inherent in the tube of kilfire it had no effect. The
+fireman and electrician then ordered down the asbestos curtain, and the
+fireman threw the contents of another tube of kilfire upon the flame, with
+no better result.
+
+"The commotion thus caused excited the alarm of the audience, which
+immediately started for the exits, of which there are twenty-five of
+unusual width, all opening out, and ready to the hand of any one reaching
+them. The draft thus caused, it is believed, before the curtain could be
+entirely lowered, produced a bellying of the asbestos curtain, causing a
+pressure on the guides against the solid brick wall of the proscenium,
+thus stopping its descent.
+
+"Every effort was made by those on the stage to pull it down, but the
+draft was so great, it seems, that the pressure against the proscenium
+wall and the friction caused thereby was so strong that they could not be
+overcome. The audience became panic-stricken in their efforts to reach the
+exits and tripped and fell over each other and blocked the way.
+
+"The audience was promptly admonished and importuned by persons employed
+on the stage and in the auditorium to be calm and avoid any rush; that the
+exits and facilities for emptying the theater were ample to enable them
+all to get out without confusion.
+
+"No expense or precaution was omitted to make the theater as fireproof as
+it could be made, there being nothing combustible in the construction of
+the house except the trimmings and furnishings of the stage and
+auditorium. In the building of the theater we sacrificed more space to
+aisles and exits than any theater in America."
+
+
+FIRST RELIABLE STATEMENT AS TO WHY THE CURTAIN DID NOT COME DOWN.
+
+The man who gave the first reliable explanation of the failure of the
+"asbestos" curtain to operate properly was John C. Massoney, a carpenter,
+who was working as a scene shifter.
+
+"The reflector was constructed of galvanized iron or some similar
+material, with a concave surface covered with quicksilver about two feet
+in width," he said.
+
+"The reflector was twenty feet long and was set on end. The inner edge was
+attached to the stage side of the jamb of the proscenium walls with
+hinges. Along the inner edge, next the hinges, was a row of incandescent
+electric lamps.
+
+"When the reflector was not in use it was set back in a niche in the
+proscenium wall, and the curtain, when lowered, passed over it. When used
+it was swung around to the desired position, and projected from the wall.
+When the reflector was in use it prevented the curtain being lowered."
+
+"I have not ascertained whether the reflector was in use. The one on the
+south side of the stage was not, and from this I infer that the one on the
+north was not being used. If it was not in use, then somebody must have
+been careless."
+
+Massoney said he was on the south side of the stage when the fire started.
+
+"I did not see the fire start, but I saw it soon after it began," he said.
+"The fire was in the arch drapery curtain, which is the fourth curtain
+back of the 'asbestos' curtain. I saw the 'asbestos' curtain coming down
+soon after, but I noticed that the south end was very much lower than the
+north end. The south end was within four or five feet of the stage floor,
+while the north end was much higher.
+
+"I ran round to the north side and up the stairs to the north bridge. I
+found the north end of the curtain was resting on the reflector. I tried
+to reach the curtain to push it off the reflector, but could just touch
+it. I could not get hold of it. I am 5 feet 11 inches tall, and I can
+reach a foot above my head at least, so I figure that the north end of the
+curtain was nineteen or twenty feet from the floor.
+
+"When I first reached the bridge sparks were flying in one little place
+near me, but before I got down I saw a great sheet of circular flame going
+out under the curtain into the audience room. I stayed on the bridge as
+long as I could trying to move the curtain. I half fell down the stairs of
+the bridge and got out as fast as I could."
+
+"Why didn't you call some one to help you?"
+
+"There was no one on the bridge when I got there and no one on duty, that
+I could see, on the north side of the stage."
+
+"Was the reflector in use?"
+
+"I do not know."
+
+"Whose duty was it to look after the reflector?"
+
+"I do not know."
+
+"Did the curtain blow to pieces?"
+
+"It seemed all right. There was no hole in it that I saw."
+
+
+ANOTHER STORY AS TO WHY THE CURTAIN DID NOT LOWER.
+
+Joe Dougherty, the man who attempted to lower the asbestos curtain, says
+that the reason it stuck and would not come down was that it stuck on the
+arc spot light in the first entrance near the top of the proscenium arch.
+He was the last man to leave the fly loft and at the time he attempted to
+lower the asbestos curtain he was twenty feet or more above it, so that
+when it caught on the arc spot light he was unable to extricate it. The
+opening of the big double doors at the rear of the stage, he says, caused
+such a draft that the curtain could not be raised again to free it from
+the obstruction.
+
+Dougherty denies that the wire used by the flying ballet had anything to
+do with the obstruction of the curtain. The regular curtain was within a
+few inches of the asbestos sheet and had been operated a few minutes
+before the fire occurred. If one curtain worked the other would if the
+flying ballet rigging was not in the way.
+
+
+THE THEATER FIREMAN'S NARRATIVE.
+
+W. C. Saller was the fireman employed by the theater managers to look
+after fire protection. He was formerly connected with the city fire
+department.
+
+"I was on the floor of the stage about twenty feet from the light," he
+said. "The base of the light was on a bridge fifteen feet from the floor.
+The light was about five feet high and was within a foot and a half or two
+feet of the edge of the proscenium arch and close to the curtains. I saw
+the flame running up the edge of the curtain and ran to the bridge. I
+threw kilfire on the burning curtain but saw it did not stop the blaze and
+yelled to those below to lower the asbestos curtain. When the curtain was
+within fifteen feet of the stage floor the draft caused it to bulge out
+and stick fast. It was impossible to lower the curtain further, and after
+that nothing could be done to stop the fire.
+
+"In my opinion the draft was caused by the doors opening off the stage
+into the alley and Dearborn street. There were no explosions except the
+blowing out of fuses in the electric lighting system."
+
+Saller was severely burned about the hands and face.
+
+
+THE STAGE CARPENTER.
+
+Edward Cummings, stage carpenter, and his son, R. N. Cummings, his
+assistant, of 1116 California avenue, testified that the fire started in
+the curtains at the south end of the stage. Both asserted that the draft
+or suction caused the asbestos curtain to stick. They said the fire spread
+with remarkable rapidity among the curtains, which were about two feet
+apart, and when the asbestos curtain stopped they said that no human
+agency could have prevented the disaster that followed.
+
+
+THE CHIEF ELECTRICAL INSPECTOR'S TALE.
+
+Chief Electrical Inspector H. H. Hornsby of the city electrician's
+department declared the electric wires in the theater were in the best
+condition of any building in Chicago.
+
+"The wire leading to the calcium arc light might have been broken or
+detached," he said. "It requires no volts of electricity to operate one of
+those lights. The man operating the light may have got his legs or arms
+entangled in the wires and broken one of them at the point of connection
+or he may have pulled the light too far and broken or detached the wire.
+The arc created would have produced intense heat and readily ignited the
+inflammable curtain. If the light had not been set so close to the scenery
+the curtain could not have blown into the arc.
+
+"While the theater was being wired Inspector B. H. Tousley made
+twenty-five or thirty inspections. Though the ordinance requires only such
+wires as are concealed to be placed in iron conduits, in the Iroquois all
+wires were put in iron tubes. The switchboard was of marble, with the
+connecting wires behind it in iron conduits. The management seemed
+desirous of making the electric system the best possible and adopted every
+suggestion we offered to improve its safety. I am satisfied there was not
+a better job in Chicago. I do not believe it could have been made safer.
+
+"It is impossible to guard against a wire being broken. The wire leading
+from the switchboard could not be inclosed in an iron conduit. It had to
+be flexible to permit the light being moved around. The arc light was
+encased in a closed box to prevent sparks falling on the floor or being
+blown into the scenery. All the fusible plugs were in cartridges to
+prevent sparks from falling if the plugs burned out. Every precaution we
+could think of was taken to make the system absolutely safe."
+
+
+ONE OF THE COMEDIANS SPEAKS.
+
+Herbert Cawthorn, the Irish comedian, who took the part of Pat Shaw in
+"Mr. Bluebeard," assisted many of the chorus girls from the stage exits in
+the panic. After being driven from the building he made two attempts to
+enter his dressing room, but was driven back by the firemen, who feared
+lest he be overcome by the dense smoke.
+
+With several others of the leading actors in the play Mr. Cawthorn took
+refuge in a store on Dearborn street after the fire. He was still in his
+abbreviated stage costume and was suffering considerably from the cold.
+
+He gave a graphic description of the origin of the fire and of the panic
+among the stage hands and actors. He described the scene as follows:
+
+"I was in a position to see the origin of the fire plainly, and I feel
+positive that it was an electric calcium light that started the fire. The
+calcium lights were being used to illuminate the stage in the latter part
+of the second act, when the song, 'In the Pale Moonlight,' was being sung.
+
+"I was standing behind a wing on the lefthand side, which would be the
+righthand side to the audience, when my attention was attracted above by a
+peculiar sputtering of what seemed to me to be one of the calciums. It
+appears to me that one of the calciums had flared up and the sparks
+ignited the lint on the curtain. Instantly I turned my attention toward
+the stage and saw that many of the actors and actresses had not yet
+discovered the blaze.
+
+"Just then the fireman who is kept behind the scenes rushed up with some
+kind of a patent fire extinguisher. Instead of the stream from the
+apparatus striking the flames it went almost in the opposite direction.
+While the stage fireman was working the flames suddenly swooped down and
+out. Eddie Foy shouted something about the asbestos curtain, and the
+firemen attempted to use it and the stage hands ran to his assistance.
+
+"The asbestos curtain refused to work, and the stage hands and players
+began to hurry from the theater. There was at least 500 people behind the
+scenes when the fire started. I assisted many of the chorus girls to get
+out, and some of them were only partly attired. Two of the young women in
+particular were naked from their waists up. They had absolutely no time to
+even snatch a bit of clothing to throw over their shoulders."
+
+
+ABOUT THE LIGHTS.
+
+A dozen different stories from a dozen different people were told about
+the extinguishment of the electric lights. Assistant City Electrician
+Hyland, who was the acting head of the city's department during the
+absence of City Electrician Ellicott, stated:
+
+"The switchboard controlling the electric lighting apparatus is located
+under the place where the fire started at the left side of the stage. It
+was made of metal and marble and practically indestructible. The wires
+were led into the switchboard through iron tubes, and those tubes and
+wires are there yet. I visited the theater after the fire and turned on
+five sets of lights. Those five were in working order, but I think they
+controlled the lights into the foyer and halls. The lights in the theater
+were burned out. That I know, because when I paid my first visit to the
+switchboard I found the switch affecting the lights in the auditorium
+turned on. The terrific heat in the theater when the fire was sweeping
+across it must have burst the glass bulbs and may have melted the wires
+leading into the lights in the auditorium. How many minutes it took to
+explode these incandescent lights and melt the wires running to them
+depends entirely upon the length of time it took the theater to turn into
+a furnace.
+
+"I have been told that a moonlight scene was on the stage just before the
+fire broke out. In such a scene it would be customary to turn off most if
+not all of the lights in the auditorium, so as to darken the place where
+the audience was and concentrate upon the stage what little light was
+used. Yet, the way I found the switchboard, with the circuit leading to
+the auditorium turned on, the knob melted off and the condition of the
+board showing that it could not have been tampered with since the fire,
+convinces me that the lights must have been on when the fire broke out, or
+else they were turned on after the first flames were discovered. It is
+hard to discover the facts even from people who were in the theater at the
+time it was burned. Almost every one tells a different story."
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER VIII.
+
+SUGGESTIONS OF ARCHITECTS AND OTHER EXPERTS AS TO AVOIDING LIKE
+CALAMITIES.
+
+
+Robert S. Lindstrom, a well known Chicago architect, makes the following
+suggestions: "It is earnestly requested that the following suggestions be
+published for the benefit and warning of patrons of public places, also as
+an aid to city officials, architects and builders, as a possible means of
+averting another horror such as has been witnessed in the Iroquois theater
+fire.
+
+"Every theater in Chicago is virtually a death trap set for patrons even
+under ordinary conditions. Barring fires and panics, the playhouses are
+not amply provided with exits, and are unsafe on account of overcrowding.
+Thereby each person attending a performance in any of Chicago's theaters
+does so at a risk of his own life. This also applies to all halls that are
+hurriedly arranged for public meetings and especially during the election
+campaign work and convention gatherings.
+
+"A theater may be absolutely fire-proof, but when the seating capacity of
+the house has been overcrowded by reducing sizes of stairs, aisles and
+exits the building is really worse than a non-fire-proof building, for in
+the latter the smoke would have a chance to escape.
+
+"The following suggestions will partially avert such a horror as has been
+witnessed at the Iroquois, which was advertised as the safest fire-proof
+theater in Chicago:
+
+"All seats throughout the house should be placed far enough apart from
+back to back so that an open passageway running from aisle to aisle shall
+be large enough to allow a person to get out without disturbing all the
+people seated in the section. In the Iroquois the seats in the gallery are
+so closely spaced from back to back that one cannot sit in a comfortable
+position at any time. All seats should be made of iron framework, with
+seats fixed so that danger of catching clothing on upturned edges may be
+averted, which in the present theater seats causes very much delay in a
+rush. The upholstering should be done with asbestos wool and all covering
+done with asbestos fire-resisting cloth.
+
+"An aisle should be left between the orchestra and the front row of seats.
+Main aisles should be made so that they connect with the aisle in front,
+also the aisle in rear, without any obstructions, and an exit door placed
+at end of each aisle leading directly to the vestibule. The present system
+is one large door at the center so that people from the side aisles
+collide with those from the center aisles and no one can get out. It is
+also very important that the door opening, with doors open, is a trifle
+larger than the aisle; all seats that face on aisles to be plain to
+prevent clothing from catching on same.
+
+"Carpets should be prohibited in all halls and aisles and replaced by
+interlocking rubber tile or some similar covering to prevent slipping in a
+rush.
+
+"All steps should have safety treads, composed of steel and lead, in place
+of slate or marble, which becomes slippery and dangerous. Stairs to be
+straight without winds or turns and at every ten feet from the sidewalk
+there should be a landing twice as long as the width of the stairs and
+doors at the foot of the stairs should be a trifle larger than the stair
+opening.
+
+"All balconies and galleries above the first floor should have a metal
+hand rail back of each row of seats securely fastened to the floor
+construction.
+
+"Doors should swing out; in addition to door handle threshold to have an
+automatic opening device so as to throw doors open in case of fire or
+accident. Also at each fire exit there should be in view of the audience a
+box containing saw and tools and plainly marked for use in case of fire,
+providing locks on doors fail to work. In addition an attendant should be
+placed at each fire exit and remain there until the house is vacated
+during every performance.
+
+"Fire escapes should be made of regular stair pattern with treads eleven
+inches and rises seven inches, and treads provided with steel and lead
+composition covering and risers closed.
+
+"Instead of sloping the ceiling toward the stage it should be made level
+with a cone shape toward the center and there connect with a down draft
+ventilator and an emergency damper controlled by a three-way switch from
+stage, box office and each balcony, made large enough to form a smoke flue
+in case of fire. Wires controlling this ventilator should run in conduit
+fireproofed and in addition to switch an electric emergency switch
+weighted with a fused link to make a contact when link breaks. Same to
+apply to stage, halls and stairways, except that fireproof ducts will
+connect halls and stairs with outer air. In addition to the ventilator
+every part of the house should be equipped with a system of sprinklers
+operated automatically by a gravity system. A large glass chandelier such
+as used at the Iroquois should be prohibited.
+
+"Emergency lights in case of fire and accidents during the performance to
+light up the house should be placed on ceiling of main auditorium,
+balconies, halls and stairs and built of fire-proof boxes with wired
+plate-glass face. These lights should be operated on a separate system and
+run in fireproof conduits, and controlled from the street front, also to
+have a fusible weighted switch on stage.
+
+"Fire doors should be constructed of steel with wired plate-glass panels
+so that fire can be prevented from outside sources, but if in case of
+accident the lock should fail to work from the inside, the glass panel can
+be broken with tools that should be placed in reach and plainly marked.
+
+"Calcium lights should be prohibited anywhere in the auditorium. The place
+is generally on the gallery. In the Iroquois the scenic lights were placed
+at the extreme top of the upper gallery, with a supporting framework that
+rested on the aisle floor and obstructed aisle to audience.
+
+"Counter-weights of curtain should be made in sections with fusible link
+connections so that in case of fire curtain will drop of its own weight.
+
+"Curtain should be constructed of steel framework and made rigid and run
+in steel guides of sufficient size to allow for expansion in case of fire.
+Stage floor should be four inches thick, solid, laid on concrete bed.
+
+"A special waiting room with a special exit, entrance to same to be from
+main foyer, should be used especially for patrons using carriages so as to
+prevent the present system of blocking exits and vestibule with people
+waiting for carriages and preventing exit of crowd.
+
+"On stage of every theater there should be a fire plug, also a hose long
+enough to reach any part of the house, to run on a reel.
+
+"A loss of life in a panic cannot be entirely prevented, but some of the
+above suggestions if carried out will, at least, prevent a wholesale loss
+of human life.
+
+"All theaters should be thoroughly investigated and where the slightest
+detail is found to conflict with the law and the safety of an audience
+the city officials should prevent the use of such house until it has been
+properly constructed."
+
+
+THE ARCHITECT SPEAKS.
+
+Benjamin H. Marshall, architect of the theater, received the news of the
+disaster in Pittsburg, Pa., and at once started for Chicago. He was
+stunned by the intelligence, and, speaking of it, said:
+
+"This seems to be a calamity that has no precedent, and I can not
+understand how so many people were caught in the balconies unless they
+were stunned by the shock of an explosion. There were ample fire exits and
+they were available. The house could have been emptied in less than five
+minutes if they were all utilized. The fact that so many people were
+caught in the balconies would prove that they were stunned and
+panic-stricken by the report rather than by the fear of a fire. It is
+difficult for me at this time to even guess as to the cause for the great
+loss of life.
+
+"I am completely upset by this disaster, more so because I have built many
+theaters and have studied every playhouse disaster in history to avoid
+errors."
+
+
+EXAMINATION BY ARCHITECTURAL EDITOR.
+
+Robert Craik McLean, editor of the _Inland Architect_, who spent some time
+investigating the claim that the theater was equipped with an asbestos
+fire curtain, said: "After a careful investigation, I am convinced that
+the theater was not equipped with a curtain such as is demanded by the
+city ordinances.
+
+"I visited the damaged theater, but there was no sign of an asbestos
+curtain. Fire will not destroy asbestos, and if there was a curtain there
+when the holocaust occurred it had been removed, and an investigation
+should be made to learn what became of it. If no curtain had been removed,
+as is claimed, I cannot understand how the claim can be set up that the
+theater had a fire curtain. No one denies that there was a curtain there,
+but had it been made of asbestos, as required by the ordinance, it would
+not have been destroyed by the draft of air, as is claimed by the
+management of the house. An asbestos curtain must have a foundation of
+wire or some other material, and had the Iroquois been equipped with such
+a drop the wire screen, at least, would be there to prove it."
+
+"Mr. Samuel Frankenstein of the Frankenstein Calcium Light company, made
+the statement to me that he had had a conversation with the stage manager
+of the Iroquois regarding the fire drop. Mr. Frankenstein said that the
+stage manager told him that the Iroquois stage was not equipped with a
+true fire curtain. According to Mr. Frankenstein, the stage manager went
+further than this, and declared that there were only three theaters in
+Chicago equipped with real asbestos drops."
+
+
+PROPOSED PRECAUTIONS FOR NEW YORK THEATERS.
+
+Charles H. Israels of the firm of Israels & Harder, architects of the new
+Hudson theater, and several of the large hotels, suggested a number of
+precautions which might be adopted in New York theaters. Among other
+things he advocated an ordinance requiring all the theater emergency exits
+to be used after each performance.
+
+"Nearly every modern theater in this city," Mr. Israels said, "is
+adequately provided with exits, with which the audience are not familiar,
+and which are used so seldom that the employes are unused to having the
+audience pass out through them. Besides the one exit ordinarily in use
+there are four emergency exits, and the law requires them to open either
+on a brick enclosed alley at the side of the theater or directly into the
+street.
+
+"The people in the gallery, who are in the place of the greatest danger,
+would undoubtedly become thoroughly accustomed to using these outside
+stairways.
+
+"The main advantage to be gained by this suggestion over all others is
+that it could be put into immediate operation without the spending of a
+single cent on the part of the owners of most of New York's playhouses.
+
+"In a few of the theaters it might be argued that the stairways at the
+emergency exits were not sufficiently inclosed to allow the crowds to pass
+down in safety. The law now requires the stairways to be covered at the
+top, and covering the outside rail with heavy wire mesh raised about two
+feet above its present level would prevent any one from falling over the
+side.
+
+"Fireproof scenery or scenery which will at least not flame, is a
+practical possibility now. The building code should compel the use of
+scenery on frames of light metal covered with canvas that has been
+saturated in a fireproof solution. Fireproof paint is compulsory on the
+woodwork behind the proscenium wall, but in painting scenery combustible
+paint may be used.
+
+"The law should be most strictly enforced as to the cleaning out of
+rubbish beneath the stage. In a number of the theaters of New York this is
+done only occasionally."
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER IX.
+
+THIRTY EXITS, YET HUNDREDS PERISH IN AWFUL BLAST.
+
+
+Those in greatest danger through proximity to the stage did not throw
+their weight against the mass ahead. Not many died on the first floor,
+proof of the contention that some restraint existed in this section of the
+audience.
+
+Women were trodden under foot near the rear; some were injured. The most
+at this point, however, were rescued by the determined rush of the
+policeman at the entrance and of the doorkeeper and his assistants.
+
+The theater had thirty exits. All were opened before the fire reached full
+headway, but some had to be forced opened. Only one door at the Randolph
+street entrance was open, the others being locked, according, it appears,
+to custom.
+
+From within and without these doors were shattered in the first two
+minutes after the fire broke out--by theater employes, according to one
+report, by the van of the fleeing multitude and the first of the rescuers
+from the street, according to another.
+
+The doors to the exits on the alley side, between Randolph and Lake
+streets, in one or more instances, are declared by those who escaped to
+have been either frozen or rusted. They opened to assaults, but priceless
+seconds were lost.
+
+Before this time Foy had run back across the stage and reached the alley.
+With him fled the members of the aerial ballet, the last of the performers
+to get out. The aerialists owed their lives to the boy in charge of the
+fly elevator. They were aloft, in readiness for their flight above the
+heads of the audience. The elevator boy ran his cage up even with the line
+of fire, took them in, and brought them safely down.
+
+As Foy and the group reached the outer doorway the stage loft collapsed
+and tons of fire poured over the stage.
+
+The lights went out in the theater with this destruction of the
+switchboard and all stage connections. One column of flame rose and
+swished along the ceiling of the theater. Then this awful illumination
+also was swallowed up. None may paint from personal understanding that
+which took place in that pit of flame lit darkness. None lives to tell it.
+
+To those still caught in the structure the light of life went out when the
+electric globes grew dark.
+
+In spite of the terrible form of their destruction, it came swiftly enough
+to shorten pain. This at least was true of those who died in the second
+balcony, striving to reach the alley exits abreast of them.
+
+Six and seven feet deep they were found, not packed in layers but jumbled
+and twisted in the struggle with one another.
+
+Opposite the westernmost exit of the balcony--on the alley--was a room in
+the Northwestern University building (the old Tremont house) where
+painters were working, wiping out the traces of another fire.
+
+They heard the sound of the detonation of the fuse; they heard the rush of
+feet toward the exit across the way. Out on the iron stairway came a man,
+pushed by a power behind, himself crazy with fear. He would have run down
+the iron fire escape, but flames burst out of the exit beneath and wrapped
+themselves around the iron ladder.
+
+
+HORRIBLE SIGHT MET THE FIREMEN UPON ENTERING AUDITORIUM.
+
+The postures in which death was met showed how the end had come to many.
+
+A husband and wife were locked so tightly in one another's arms that the
+bodies had to be taken out together. A woman had thrown her arms around a
+child in a vain effort to save her. Both were burned beyond recognition.
+
+The sight of the children's bodies broke down the composure of the most
+restrained of the rescuers. As little form after form was brought out the
+tears ran down the faces of policemen, firemen and bystanders. Small hands
+were clenched before childish faces--fruitless attempts at protection from
+the scorching blast.
+
+Most of the children could be recognized. Fate allowed that thin shadow of
+mercy. They fell beneath their taller companions. The flames reached them,
+but they were face downward, other forms were above them, and generally
+their features were spared.
+
+The persons crowded off the fire escape platform, and those who jumped
+voluntarily by their own death saved persons on the lower floor from
+injury. Scores jumped from the exits at the first balcony, the first to
+death and injury, the ones behind to comparative safety on the thick
+cushion of the bodies of those who preceded them and who fell from the
+balcony above. Other hundreds from the main floor jumped on to the same
+cushion--an easy distance of six feet--without any injury.
+
+When the firemen came they spread nets, but the nets were black, and in
+the gloom they could not be seen. They saved few lives--argument for the
+use of white nets hereafter.
+
+The chain of mishaps surrounding the catastrophe extended to the fire
+alarm. There was no fire alarm box in front of the theater, as at other
+theaters. A stage hand ran down the alley to South Water street and by
+word of mouth turned in a "still" alarm to No. 13. The box alarm did not
+follow for some precious minutes. At least four minutes were lost in this
+way.
+
+Of the 900 persons seated in the first and second balconies few if any
+escaped without serious injury.
+
+So fiercely the fire burned during the short time in which hundreds of
+lives were sacrificed that the velvet cushions of the balcony seats were
+burned bare.
+
+The crowds fought so in their efforts to escape that they tore away the
+iron railings of the balconies, leaping upon the people below.
+
+From 3 o'clock, when the alarm was sent in, to 7:30 o'clock, when the
+doors of the theater were closed, the charred, torn, and blistered bodies
+were carried from the building at the rate of four a minute. One hundred
+were taken out across the plank way.
+
+Many blankets filled with fragments of human bodies were taken from the
+building.
+
+Hundreds of bodies were taken from the building, their clothing gone,
+their faces charred beyond recognition. Under pretense of serving as
+rescuers ghouls gained entrance to the theater and robbed the dead and
+dying in the midst of the fire.
+
+Men fell on their knees and prayed. Men and women cursed. A rush was made
+for the Randolph street exits. In their fear the crowds forgot the many
+side exits, and rushed for the doors at which they had entered the
+theater. Little boys and girls were thrown to one side by their stronger
+companions.
+
+Ten baskets of money and jewelry thrown in this manner were picked up from
+the main floor when the fire was extinguished.
+
+Men and women tore their clothing from them. As the first rush was made
+for the foyer entrance to the balconies men, women and children were
+thrown bodily down the steps.
+
+A few score of those nearest the doorways escaped by falling or being
+thrown down the stairs of the main balcony entrances.
+
+Scores were wedged in the doorways, pinned by the force of those behind
+them. There in the narrow aisle at the balcony entrances they were
+suffocated and fell--tons of human weight.
+
+All succeeded in leaving their seats in the first balcony. Climbing over
+the seats and rushing up the slanting aisles to the level aisles above,
+they fought their way. Those at the bottom of the mass were burned but
+little. The top layer of bodies was burned till they never can be
+identified.
+
+Darkness shrouded the theater with its hundreds of dead when the fire was
+under control that the building could be entered. The firemen were forced
+to work in smoky darkness when they started carrying the bodies from the
+balconies.
+
+
+THE GALLERY HORROR.
+
+James M. Strong, a Chicago board of trade clerk, the sole survivor of all
+the occupants of the gallery who tried to escape through the locked door,
+smashed with his fist a glass transom and climbed through it. Three
+members of his family, who followed him down the passageway, shared the
+fate of others. Their bodies since have been discovered, burned almost
+beyond recognition.
+
+"If the door hadn't been locked hundreds of persons could have saved their
+lives," said Strong.
+
+The passageway, along which Strong and many now dead ran to supposed
+safety, led toward the front of the theater, past the top entrance to the
+gallery. Strong had been unable to secure seats and was standing in the
+rear of the gallery with his mother, Mrs. B. K. Strong, his wife, and his
+niece, Vera, 16 years old, of Americus, Ga. When the fire started all ran
+toward the nearest exit.
+
+"The exit was crowded," said Strong. "We ran on down a passage at the side
+of it, followed by many others. At the end, down a short flight of steps,
+was a door. It was locked. In desperation I threw myself against it. I
+couldn't budge it. Then, standing on the top step of the little stairway,
+I smashed the glass above with my fist and crawled through the transom.
+
+"When I fell on the outside I heard the screams on the other side, and,
+scrambling to my feet, I tried again to open the door, but couldn't. The
+key was not there. I ran down a stairway to the floor below, where I found
+a carpenter. I asked him to give me something to break down the door, and
+he got me a short board. I ran back with this and began pounding, but the
+door was too heavy to be broken.
+
+"I scarcely know what happened afterward. Smoke was pouring over the
+transom and I felt myself suffocating. Alone, or with the assistance of
+the carpenter, I at last found myself at the bottom of the stairway
+opening into the lobby of the theater. From there I pushed my way to the
+street. Until then I didn't know I was burned."
+
+
+GIRL'S MIRACULOUS ESCAPE.
+
+The most miraculous escape was that of Winnie Gallagher, an 11-year-old
+girl, who occupied a seat with her aunt almost directly under the stage.
+When the panic was started she jumped to her feet and after being thrown
+about and trampled upon and having her clothing torn from her she managed
+to climb over the seats and reach the street in safety. What few pieces of
+wearing apparel she had on at the time were in ribbons and a messenger
+boy, seeing her predicament, pulled off his overcoat and wrapped it around
+her. She went to the Central station, where she gave the police her name
+and asked that someone take her to her home, 4925 Michigan avenue.
+
+
+AN ACCOUNT FROM THE BOXES.
+
+The first two lower boxes on the left of the stage were occupied by a
+party of young women who were being entertained by Mrs. Rollin A. Keyes of
+Evanston, in honor of her young daughter, Miss Catherine Keyes, who was
+home from school in Washington for the holidays.
+
+"We arrived at the theater shortly after the first act," said Miss Emily
+Plamondon of Astoria, Ore., a member of the party, in describing the fire.
+"As far as I could see the house was filled with women and children, who
+occupied seats on the first floor and in the galleries. It was about a
+quarter to 3 when one of the young women in the party asked Mrs. Keyes if
+she did not smell something burning and an instant afterward a great cloud
+of smoke spread across the stage and into the body of the house.
+Immediately we realized the danger we were in, as did all around us.
+Instead of a rush to the doors, the audience gazed for a moment at the
+stage, and as a whole the people appeared very calm, under the
+circumstances, and as if contemplating how they would escape.
+
+"Again another cloud of smoke issued from the stage and several stage
+hands appeared, shouting at the top of their voices for the people to sit
+down. But it was only for an instant that they obeyed, for by that time
+the smoke had spread through the theater and men, women and children were
+gasping for breath. Then a mad rush was made for the doors and for the
+supposed exits, but in vain. Mrs. Pearson and Mrs. Keyes commanded us to
+keep together by all means and just as we were leaving the boxes the
+theater became darkened, which, I suppose, was caused by the burning out
+of the electric light, and thus made our escape the harder. We plodded
+through the aisles until we came within about ten feet of the main
+entrance without encountering any violence from the panic-stricken women
+and children who were fighting for their lives. Then the crush became
+terrible and the members of our party, Mrs. Rollin A. Keyes, Mrs. Pearson,
+Misses Charlotte Plamondon, Catherine Keyes, Elmore of Oregon, Amelia
+Ormsby, Grace Hills, Josephine Eddy and Miss Elizabeth Eddy realized that
+it would be impossible to get to the street through that door.
+
+"It was only a short time, however, when somebody knocked down two doors,
+which had been locked, and the majority of the people on the first floor
+escaped through them without serious injury. Miss Charlotte Plamondon, who
+was bruised about the face and hands, and I were the only ones in the
+party who escaped with our wraps. The others had their clothes torn almost
+from them, as they were hurrying from the burning theater.
+
+"Before we had left the boxes the fire had spread to the first row of
+seats and the stage hands were endeavoring to lower the asbestos curtain.
+When it was about half down it became caught and the attempt to drop it
+was abandoned. A great gush of fire then spread to the draperies over the
+boxes. The people were wonderfully calm, it seemed to me, for so crucial
+a moment and it was not until the smoke filled the house that they became
+frantic and screamed for help. We could hardly breathe and I believe had
+we been in the theater a few minutes longer we, too, would have been
+suffocated, as the heat and smoke were becoming unendurable. Had the exits
+been open and unlocked the loss of life would not have been nearly so
+great."
+
+"We were seated for half an hour before the fire broke out. Our attention
+was first attracted by a wreath of flame, which crept slowly along the red
+velvet curtain. We all noticed it. So did the audience and I could see
+little girls and boys in the orchestra chairs point upward at the slowly
+moving line of flame. As the fire spread the people in the balcony and on
+the first floor arose to their feet as if to rush out of the place. Then
+Eddie Foy hurried to the front of the stage and commanded the people to be
+quiet, saying that if they would remain seated the danger would be
+averted. All the people who were then on the stage maintained remarkable
+presence of mind and the chorus girls endeavored to divert the attention
+of their auditors off the fire by going on with their parts.
+
+"I looked over the faces of the audience and remarked how many children
+were present. I could see their faces filled with interest and their eyes
+wide open as they watched the burning curtain.
+
+"Then I looked behind me and realized the awful consequence should the
+people become alarmed. The doors, except for the one through which we
+entered the theater, were closed and apparently fastened. Up in the
+balcony I could see people crowding forward in order to obtain a better
+view. Again the audience arose as if to flee.
+
+"Eddie Foy again rushed on the stage and waved his arms in a gesture for
+the people to be seated. But just then the shrill cry of a woman caused
+the women and children to rise to their feet, filled with a sudden and
+uncontrollable terror.
+
+"'Fire!' I heard her exclaim, and in another instant the eyes of the
+audience were turned to the exits in the rear. The flames lighted up the
+stage as the light tinsel stuffs blazed up, and the scene changed from
+mimicry to tragedy. A confused, rumbling noise filled the theater from the
+pit to the dome. I knew it was the sound of a thousand people preparing to
+leave their seats and rush madly from the impending danger. The noise of
+their footsteps in the balcony was soon deadened by the cries for aid from
+those who were hemmed in by the struggling mass.
+
+"On the stage the chorus girls, who had exhibited rare presence of mind,
+turned to flee. Many were overcome before they could stir a step. They
+fell to the floor and I saw the men in the cast and the stage hands lift
+them to their feet and carry them to the rear of the stage. By this time
+the scenery was a mass of flames."
+
+
+INSPECTION AFTER THE FIRE.
+
+Deputy Building Commissioner Stanhope with three inspectors made a
+thorough examination of the theater building yesterday.
+
+"I first examined the building with respect to the safety of its walls and
+found them in perfect condition," said Mr. Stanhope. "They are not out of
+plumb an inch and are as good as they ever were. The steel structure is
+not injured except that portion which supported the stage. The heat has
+twisted some of the supports but they can be replaced at little cost.
+Except the backs of the seats and the floor of the stage the interior of
+the auditorium was not injured by the fire. The carpets in the gallery,
+where most of the people were killed, were not even scorched."
+
+
+A YOUNG HEROINE.
+
+Verma Goss is one of the young heroines of the fire. She attended the
+theater in a party composed of her mother, Mrs. Joseph Goss; her
+5-year-old sister, Helen; Mrs. Greenwald of 536 Byron street and her young
+son Leroy. In the rush for the door Miss Verma caught her young sister's
+hand and pulled her out of the crowd and carried the child to safety. She
+thought her mother was following, but she and her sister were the only
+ones of the party who escaped.
+
+
+A NARROW ESCAPE.
+
+Mrs. William Mueller, with her two children, Florence Marie, 5 years of
+age, and Barbara Belle, 7, occupied a seat in the parquet.
+
+"I was not in the theater auditorium," said Mrs. Mueller. "I was in one of
+the waiting rooms, but was on my way to our seats. As I entered the doors
+somebody yelled fire. I looked up and saw the curtain ablaze. Then came
+the stampede. I picked up my children and ran toward the door. I was
+caught in the jam and it seemed that I would fail to reach it. Some man
+saw my plight and jumped to my assistance. He picked up Florence and threw
+her over the heads of the rushing people. She fell upon the pavement, but
+was not badly injured."
+
+
+FINDS WIFE IN HOSPITAL.
+
+The first woman to be rescued over the temporary bridge between the
+theater and the Northwestern university building was Mrs. Mary Marzein of
+Elgin, Ill. She was severely burned and lost consciousness after her
+rescue. A score or more suffered death on every side as she crept over the
+ladder. They were thrown aside and knocked down, but she clung to the
+ladder and escaped. She was taken to the Michael Reese hospital and did
+not regain consciousness until the following day. Her husband, who is an
+employe of the Elgin Watch Company, searched all the morgues and was
+making a tour of the hospitals when he found his wife.
+
+When Mrs. Marzein recovered in the afternoon the first person she inquired
+for was her husband, who at that moment was being ushered into the room.
+Their eyes met as she was whispering his name to the nurse, and an
+affecting scene followed.
+
+
+A MIRACULOUS AND UNCONSCIOUS ESCAPE.
+
+One of the most miraculous escapes from the fire was that of Miss Winifred
+Cardona. She was one of a party of four and with her friends occupied
+seats in the seventh row of the parquet.
+
+"The first intimation I had of the danger was when I saw one of the chorus
+girls look upward and turn pale. My eyes immediately followed her glance
+and I saw the telltale sparks shooting about through the flies. The
+singing continued until the blaze broke out. Then Mr. Foy appeared and
+asked the audience to keep their seats, assuring them that the theater was
+thoroughly fireproof. We obeyed, but when we saw the seething mass behind
+struggling for the door we rushed from our seats. I became separated from
+the other girls and had not gone far before I stumbled over the prostrate
+body of a woman who was trampled almost beyond recognition. For an instant
+I thought it was all over. Then I felt someone lift me and I knew no more
+until I revived in the street. It was the most awful experience I have
+ever had and I consider my escape nothing short of miraculous."
+
+
+LITTLE GIRL'S MARVELOUS ESCAPE.
+
+"I'm the most grateful man in all Chicago," said J. R. Thompson, who owns
+the restaurant. "My sister was in the theater with my two children--John,
+aged 9, and Ruth, aged 7. Sister got almost to the door with both of them.
+Then Ruthie disappeared. She told me she knew the child must be safe, but
+I was like a maniac. It was an hour before we found her. How it happened I
+didn't know, but she ran back into the theater and out under the stage,
+out through the stage entrance."
+
+"Where is the little girl now?" I asked him.
+
+"I sent her home to her mother," he said.
+
+Only ten feet away lay the chestnut-haired girl who "was a great one to
+scamper."
+
+
+FOUR GENERATIONS REPRESENTED.
+
+Members of four generations of a family were turned into mourners, only
+one member remaining from a party of nine made up of Benjamin Moore and
+eight of his relatives, of whom only one, Mrs. W. S. Hanson, Hart, Mich.,
+escaped. Following are the names of the eight victims: Mrs. Joseph
+Bezenek, 41 years old, West Superior, Wis., daughter of Benjamin Moore;
+Benjamin Moore, 72 years old, Chicago; Roland Mackay, 6 years old,
+Chicago, grandson of Mrs. Joseph Bezenek and great grandson of Benjamin
+Moore; Mrs. Benjamin Moore, 47 years old, wife of Benjamin Moore; Joseph
+Bezenek, 38 years old, West Superior, Wis., husband of Mrs. Bezenek and
+son-in-law of Benjamin Moore; Mrs. Perry Moore, 33 years old, Hart,
+Mich., daughter-in-law of Benjamin Moore; Miss Sibyl Moore, Hart, Mich.,
+13 years old, daughter of Mrs. Perry Moore and granddaughter of Benjamin
+Moore; Miss Lucile Bond, 10 years old, daughter of George H. Bond and
+granddaughter of Benjamin Moore, Chicago.
+
+
+DAUGHTERS AND GRANDCHILDREN GONE.
+
+Three daughters and two grandchildren, constituting the entire family of
+Mr. and Mrs. Morris Eger, Chicago, perished in the fire. The daughters
+were Miss S. Eger, who was a teacher in the Mosely school; Mrs. Marion
+Rice, wife of A. Rice, and Mrs. Rose Bloom, wife of Max Bloom, and the
+children were: Erna, the 10-year-old daughter of Mrs. Rice, and her
+11-year-old brother, Ernest.
+
+After a long search among the many morgues of the city the bodies were all
+identified, two of them being found there.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER X.
+
+HOW THE NEW YEAR WAS USHERED IN.
+
+
+The New Year came to Chicago with muffled drums, two days after the
+calamity that threw the great metropolis into mourning.
+
+Scarcely a sound was heard as 1904 entered.
+
+Jan. 1--day of funerals--was received in silence. Streets were almost
+deserted, even downtown. Men hurried silently along the sidewalks. There
+were not half a dozen tin horns in the downtown district where ordinarily
+the blare of trumpets, screech of steam whistles, volleys of shots and the
+merriment of late wayfarers make the entrance of a new year a period of
+deafening pandemonium.
+
+Merrymakers were quiet when in the streets and subdued even in the
+restaurants. Noise, except in a few scattered districts, was unknown.
+
+It was a remarkable, spontaneous testimony to the prevalent spirit
+throughout the city. Mayor Harrison had asked, in an official
+proclamation, that there be no noise, but few of those who desisted from
+the usual practices of greeting the New Year knew that they had been
+requested to be silent.
+
+
+MOURNING IN EVERY STREET.
+
+There were mourning families in every neighborhood; crepe in every street;
+grief stricken relatives throughout the city; unidentified dead in the
+morgues, and sufferers in the hospital. The citizens did not need to be
+requested to be quiet.
+
+Jan. 1, 1904, meant the beginning of funerals and the burial of dead who
+were to have lived to take part in merrymaking.
+
+A year before in downtown Chicago the din was an ear-splitting racket of
+horns, whistles, yells, songs, and exploding cannon.
+
+A year before the downtown streets were filled with hundreds of laughing
+men and women, roystering parties filling the air with the uproar of tin
+horns and revolvers.
+
+
+NOISE SEEMS A SACRILEGE.
+
+That night there were a messenger boy in La Salle street blowing a tin
+horn and a man at Wabash avenue and Harrison street. The other pedestrians
+looked at them as if they considered the noise a sacrilege. It was with
+the same feeling that they heard the blowing of the factory whistles in
+the few cases where the engineers forgot.
+
+A year before the outlying districts were awakened by the firing of cannon
+and the shouts of people in noisy celebrations. That dread night there was
+nothing to keep residents awake except grief.
+
+
+MAYOR ASKS FOR SILENCE.
+
+To insure this condition, as the only fitting one, Mayor Harrison had
+issued a proclamation in which he said:
+
+"On each recurring New Year's eve annoyance has been caused the sick and
+infirm by the indulgence of thoughtless persons in noisy celebrations of
+the passage of the old year. The city authorities have at all times
+discouraged this practice, but now, when Chicago lies in the shadow of the
+greatest disaster in her history for a generation, noisemaking, whether by
+bells, whistles, cannon, horns or any other means, is particularly
+objectionable.
+
+"As mayor of Chicago I would, therefore, request all persons to refrain
+from this indulgence, and I would particularly ask all railway officials
+and all persons in control of factories, boats, and mills to direct their
+employes not to blow whistles between the hours of 12 and 1 o'clock
+tonight."
+
+Persons not reached by this proclamation had seen the lines waiting
+entrance at the morgues. The few peddlers who had tin horns for sale found
+no buyers. This market, which in other years has been a profitable one, on
+Dec. 31, 1903, was dead. The venders slunk up to the building walls and,
+even in trying to sell, made little noise with their wares.
+
+
+MERRIMENT IS SUBDUED.
+
+In such restaurants as the Auditorium Annex, the Wellington, and Rector's
+there were gay crowds, but the merriment was subdued. "No music" was the
+general rule throughout the city. At Rector's the management took down
+flowers which were to have decorated the restaurant and sent them to the
+hospitals where the injured theater victims were.
+
+At the Annex and the Wellington the lobbies had been filled with gayly
+decorated tables, and this space as well as the cafes was entirely
+occupied. Congress street was filled with carriages and cabs for the
+guests at the Annex.
+
+
+CITY OF MOURNING.
+
+Even these gatherings, which were the least affected by the gloom over the
+city, were ghastly as compared with those of former years. There were
+exceptions to the general rule, but even in the places which felt the
+effect the least there was abundant testimony to the fact that Chicago was
+a city of woe.
+
+The aspect of the downtown district was evidence that there was scarcely
+a neighborhood in the city which had not at least one sorrowing family.
+
+Not only was this indicated by the lack of noise on the noisiest night of
+the year but by the absence of lights. Many electric signs and
+illuminations which usually lighted up the streets had been closed, and
+gay, wicked, noisy Chicago was clothed with gloom such as it had never
+before known.
+
+Dark and solemn as was the opening day of the new year it was no
+circumstance compared with the day that followed. At the suggestion of the
+mayor Saturday, Jan. 2, was set apart to bury the dead. The proclamation
+issued in that connection follows:
+
+"Chicago, Dec. 31.--To the citizens of Chicago: Announcement is hereby
+made that the city hall will be closed on Saturday, Jan. 2, 1904, on
+account of the calamity occurring at the Iroquois theater. All business
+houses throughout the city are respectfully requested to shut down on that
+day.
+
+  "Respectfully,
+    "CARTER H. HARRISON, Mayor."
+
+The request was generally followed, and on that mournful day the interment
+of the victims of the holocaust began, filling the streets with
+processions moving to the grave. From daybreak until evening funeral
+corteges moved through the streets. Church bells at noon tolled a requiem.
+The machinery of business was hushed in the downtown district, and long
+lines of carriages, preceded by hearses or plain black wagons, followed
+the theater victims to the grave.
+
+In no public place, in no home was the grief of the bereft not felt. Many
+of the dead were taken directly from the undertaking rooms to the
+cemeteries and buried with simple ceremony. Before dark nearly 200 victims
+were borne to the grave. A score were taken to railroad stations, to be
+followed by the mourning back to their homes.
+
+
+BUSINESS WORLD IN MOURNING.
+
+The board of trade closed at 11 o'clock. The doors of the stock exchange
+were not opened. Few of the downtown mercantile houses and few of the
+offices were open after noon. There was little business.
+
+It was a day of mourning, and the army of the sorrowful that for days had
+searched for its dead performed the last rites. At noon bells in all the
+church towers were rung to the rhythm of "The Dead March in Saul." Those
+who heard the solemn dirge stood still for the space of five minutes with
+bared heads. The proclamation of the mayor generally was observed.
+Everywhere there was gloom and no one could escape from the pall that
+enshrouded Chicago.
+
+The demand for hearses was so great that the undertakers were compelled to
+make up schedules in which the different hours of the day were allotted to
+the grief-stricken.
+
+Flags were at half-mast, while white hearses bearing the bodies of
+children and black hearses with the bodies of others took their way to the
+various churches. In some blocks three and four hearses were standing, and
+at the churches one cortege would wait until another moved away.
+
+The pall seemed to pervade the air itself. Pedestrians halted on the
+sidewalk, and in the cold stood with bared heads while the funeral
+processions passed.
+
+Children saw their parents laid away; parents followed the coffins of
+their child. Students just reaching manhood or womanhood were laid at
+rest, while relatives and companions mourned. Kindly clergymen wept as
+they spoke words of comfort to those bereft of father, mother, brother,
+sister, or even of all.
+
+Two double funerals passed through the downtown districts just as the
+department stores were dismissing their thousands of employes. Sisters
+were being taken to their last resting place, and this cortege was
+followed by two white hearses containing the bodies of another brother and
+sister. Both funeral processions went to the same depot, and all four
+victims were buried in the same cemetery.
+
+The numerous funeral trains which left Chicago contained in nearly every
+instance more than one coffin. Hearse after hearse and carriage after
+carriage arrived in the blinding snow and stopped at the depots, opening
+an epoch of funerals that continued daily until the last victim was laid
+to rest.
+
+Thus opened the year 1904 in Chicago, the stricken and desolate.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XI.
+
+A SABBATH OF WOE.
+
+
+A majority of the victims of the fire were laid to rest, however, during
+the Sabbath succeeding the awful calamity. The main thoroughfares of the
+benumbed city leading north and west toward the resting places of the dead
+were crowded with funeral processions, sometimes four and five hearses
+together showing as white as the snow on the ground, bearing as they did
+the bodies of children.
+
+As one funeral procession after another passed through the streets the
+numbers of the sorrowing at the cemeteries increased. A few hundred feet
+from one freshly made grave there was another and a short distance away
+still another that told the mourners at one funeral that others were
+bereaved.
+
+The work of burying the dead began early in the morning and lasted until
+late in the evening. Sometimes the homes of several of the dead were
+grouped in a few blocks and in one instance a glance down a single street
+would reveal the thickly crowded carriages for half a dozen funerals that
+had thrown an entire neighborhood into mourning. Where hearses could not
+be furnished they were improvised from other kinds of vehicles and
+mourners who could not get cabs rode in carriages. As the night closed
+down on hundreds of mourning homes, in every cemetery in the city the
+speaking mounds of fresh earth told of the end of families broken and
+altogether destroyed.
+
+
+SEVEN TURNER VICTIMS.
+
+More than a thousand turners joined in the services for seven victims who
+were members of their societies. The Chicago Turnbezirk, the central body
+of the turners, had charge of the exercises. Representatives of the Aurora
+Turnverein, Schweitzer Turnverein, Forward Turnverein, Social Turnverein,
+and other turner organizations joined in the services.
+
+The exercises were held at the Social Turner hall, Belmont avenue and
+Paulina street. The coffins of the victims were placed in front of the
+stage at the end of the hall. After the services the coffins were taken by
+uniformed turners through the hall to black wagons and the march to
+Graceland cemetery began. Three drum corps, with muffled drums, beat a
+funeral march.
+
+Women turners, in their gymnasium suits, escorted the bodies of the women
+victims, and uniformed turners watched the coffins of the men.
+
+Short services were held at the cemetery.
+
+
+SAD SCENES AT WOLFF HOME.
+
+At the residence of Ludwig Wolff, 1329 Washington boulevard, the bodies of
+his daughter, Mrs. William M. Garn and her three children, Willie, 11,
+John, 7, and Harriet, 10 years old, lay. All day long until the time for
+the funeral services a stream of sympathizing friends poured in. A crowd
+of more than a thousand surrounded the house and the policemen stationed
+there were compelled to force a way for the caskets when they were borne
+to the hearses. The service was read by the Rev. William C. Dewitt of St.
+Andrew's church. Twelve boys acted as pallbearers for their former
+playfellows and followed the little white hearses to Graceland. The
+funeral was one of the largest ever seen on the west side of the city,
+more than one hundred carriages being in the funeral train.
+
+
+PATHETIC SCENE AT CHURCH.
+
+Far different in all except the grief was the funeral from the little
+frame church at Congress street and Forty-second avenue. Inside lay the
+bodies of Mrs. Mary W. Holst and her three children, Allan, 13, Gertrude,
+10, and Amy, 8 years. They were in the ill fated second balcony of the
+theater and met death trying to reach the fire escape. Of the family only
+the father and a 6 months old son survive. Mrs. Holst was the sister of
+former Chief of Police Badenoch. Interment was at Forest Home.
+
+The building was still gay with its Christmas decorations and a large
+motto, "Peace on earth, good will to men," which the Holst children had
+assisted in making.
+
+
+BURY CHILDREN AND GRANDCHILDREN.
+
+Another quadruple funeral was that of the daughters and the grandchildren
+of Jacob and Elizabeth Beder of 697 Ogden avenue. The two women, Mrs.
+Edyth Vallely, 835 Sawyer avenue, and Mrs. Amy Josephine McKenna of 758
+South Kedzie avenue, went to the theater accompanied by their two
+children, Bernice Vallely, aged 11, and Bernard McKenna, aged 3. The
+bodies were found after the fire by the husbands of the dead women at the
+morgues. The services were in charge of Rev. D. F. Fox of the California
+Avenue Congregational church. Interment was at Forest Home.
+
+
+FIVE DEAD IN ONE HOUSE.
+
+Memorial services were held in the afternoon for Mrs. Eva Pond, wife of
+Fred S. Pond, their children, Raymond, 14, Helen, 7, and Miss Grace
+Tuttle, sister of Mrs. Pond, at the family residence, 1272 Lyman avenue.
+The services were conducted by the Rev. Mr. Bowles of All Saints'
+Episcopal church.
+
+Miss Tuttle had been for eighteen years a teacher in the Chicago public
+schools. She attended the performance at the Iroquois with her sister and
+her sister's children, and none of them emerged alive. Mrs. Pond was the
+wife of Fred S. Pond, for thirty years cashier of the Deering Harvester
+Company, who is the only survivor of a once happy family circle. The four
+bodies were taken to Beloit, Wis., for burial.
+
+
+ENTIRE FAMILY IS BURIED.
+
+None but friends attended the Beyer funeral service during the afternoon
+at Sheldon's undertaking rooms, for the entire family, mother, father, and
+child, were numbered among the Iroquois dead. Otto H. Beyer, his wife
+Minnie, and their 4 year old daughter Grace, were the victims. The bodies
+were taken to Elkader, Iowa, for burial. This was perhaps the saddest of
+all the sad services conducted during the day, as no relatives were
+present to mourn the dead.
+
+
+MRS. FOX AND THREE CHILDREN.
+
+Mrs. Emilie Hoyt Fox, daughter of William M. Hoyt, the wholesale grocer;
+George Sidney Fox, her 15-year-old son; Hoyt Fox, 14 years old, and Emilie
+Fox, 9 years old, were all buried side by side in Graceland cemetery. The
+funeral services were held in Graceland chapel and were conducted by Rev.
+Henry G. Moore of Christ Episcopal church, Winnetka.
+
+
+MRS. A. E. HULL AND CHILDREN.
+
+Simple and short were the funeral services at Boydston's chapel,
+Forty-second place and Cottage Grove avenue, over the remains of four
+members of the Hull family. Mrs. Hull, the mother, was the wife of Arthur
+E. Hull, 244 Oakwood boulevard, and attended the theater with her little
+daughter, Helen, and two nephews, adopted sons, Donald and Dwight. The
+services were directed by Rev. J. H. McDonald of the Oakland Methodist
+Episcopal church and consisted simply of a prayer and the reading of a
+poem found in the desk of Mrs. Hull, and which had evidently been clipped
+from some newspaper. At the conclusion of the services the caskets were
+carried to the Thirty-ninth street station of the Michigan Central
+railroad, over which they were taken to Troy, N. Y., for burial.
+
+
+HERBERT AND AGNES LANGE.
+
+"We were four of the happiest mortals in all Chicago until that awful
+thing blasted our lives forever," sobbed Mrs. Louis Lange of 1632 Barry
+avenue at the close of the funeral of her only two children, Herbert
+Lange, 17 years old, and his sister Agnes, 14. The service was held at the
+Johannes Evangelical Lutheran church at Garfield avenue and Mohawk street.
+
+
+SWEETHEARTS BURIED AT THE SAME TIME.
+
+While the last rites were being held for Albert Alfson in Chicago, the
+body of his sweetheart, Miss Margaret Love, was being buried in the
+cemetery at Woodstock. Two hundred persons, 125 from Woodstock, attended
+Alfson's funeral at 24 Keith street.
+
+
+FIVE BURIED IN ONE GRAVE.
+
+The largest funeral at Oakwoods was that of Dr. M. B. Rimes, 6331
+Wentworth avenue, his wife and three children, Lloyd, Martin, and Maurice.
+The five from one family were buried together in one large grave.
+
+
+BOYS AS PALLBEARERS.
+
+At the home of Ludwig Wolff, 1329 Washington boulevard the body of his
+daughter, Mrs. William M. Garn, and her three children, Willie, John and
+Harriet, lay. All day long until the time for the funeral services, a
+stream of sympathizing friends poured in, bearing many floral tributes to
+the dead. The impressive service of the Episcopal church was read by the
+Rev. William C. Dewitt of St. Andrew's church, of which Mrs. Garn was a
+member. Twelve boys acted as pallbearers to their late playfellows, and
+followed the little white hearses to Graceland cemetery. The funeral was
+one of the largest ever seen on the West Side, more than one hundred
+carriages being in the train.
+
+
+WINNETKA SADDENED.
+
+A funeral was held which saddened the hearts of all Winnetka. The little
+north shore suburb lost eight of its residents in the fire, and the
+funeral of four of the Fox family was held yesterday. The services were
+conducted by the Rev. Henry G. Moore of Christ Episcopal church, Winnetka.
+
+
+MOTHER AND DAUGHTERS BURIED TOGETHER.
+
+Three hearses carried away the bodies of Mrs. Louise Ruby and her
+daughters, Mrs. Ida Weimers and Mrs. Mary Feiser. The services were held
+at the late home of Mrs. Ruby, 838 Wilson avenue. Father F. N. Perry of
+the Church of Our Lady of Lourdes celebrated mass for the two daughters,
+who were members of his parish. The Rev. John G. Kircher of Bethlehem
+Evangelical church read the service for the mother.
+
+
+HOLD TRIPLE FUNERAL.
+
+Triple funeral services were held at the residence of Henry M. Shabad,
+4041 Indiana avenue, for his two children, Myrtle, aged 14 years, and
+Theodore, aged 12 years, and little Rose Elkan, daughter of Mr. and Mrs.
+N. Elkan. The three children attended the matinee together and all were
+killed. Rabbi Jacobson of the Thirty-fifth street synagogue conducted the
+service and at the conclusion referred to the Iroquois fire as one of the
+"greatest calamities of the age." The interment took place at Waldheim.
+
+
+WOMEN FAINT IN CHURCH.
+
+Attended by many grief stricken schoolmates and friends, the funeral of
+Robert and Archie Hippach, sons of Louis A. and Ida S. Hippach, was held
+at the Church of the Atonement, Kenmore and Ardmore avenues. They lived at
+2928 Kenmore avenue. At the church several women fainted and had to be
+taken from the church.
+
+
+LIFE-LONG FRIENDS MEET IN DEATH.
+
+Miss Viola Delee of 7822 Union avenue, and Miss Florence Corrigan of 218
+Dearborn avenue, victims of the Iroquois theater fire, whose remains were
+buried, were life-long friends. They were schoolmates at St. Xavier's
+College, where both graduated two years ago. On the afternoon of the fire
+Miss Delee had arranged to meet her friend downtown and attend the
+matinee. It is thought they secured seats on the main floor about eight
+rows from the front. Their bodies were found lying some distance apart.
+
+The body of Miss Delee showed marks that must have caused her excruciating
+pain. Her face was badly burned and disfigured. Miss Corrigan was burned
+almost beyond recognition. She was not identified until after the identity
+of Viola's body had been established through a card which she carried in
+the pocket of her dress.
+
+The funerals of two friends who had perished together in the fire met in
+Forest Home cemetery when Mrs. Floy Irene Olson of 835 Walnut street and
+Bessie M. Stafford were buried in graves not thirty feet apart. The two
+women had been life-long friends and were co-workers in the Warren Avenue
+Congregational church. Rev. Frank G. Smith conducted the services over
+each of the bodies.
+
+
+EDWARD AND MARGARET DEE.
+
+Rev. Father Quinn of St. James' Roman Catholic church, conducted the
+obsequies for Edward Mansfield and Margaret Louise Dee, the children of
+William Dee, at the residence, 3133 Wabash avenue. The funeral procession
+was the largest ever seen on the south side for children, seventy-five
+carriages following the white hearse that bore the two white caskets.
+
+
+MISS E. D. MANN AND NIECE.
+
+Miss Emma D. Mann, supervisor of music in the Chicago public schools, and
+her niece, Olive Squires, 14 years old, were buried at Rosehill after
+impressive ceremonies at the Centenary Methodist Episcopal church. Miss
+Mann had been connected with the schools of the city for many years.
+
+
+ELLA AND EDYTH FRECKLETON.
+
+The funeral services over the remains of Ella and Edyth Freckleton,
+daughters of William J. Freckleton, 5632 Peoria street, were conducted by
+Rev. R. Keene Ryan at Boulevard hall, Fifty-fifth and Halsted streets.
+More than 2,000 persons were in the hall and 500 others stood in the
+street for hours waiting for the funeral cortege to pass on its way to
+Oakwoods, where interment was made.
+
+
+MISS FRANCES LEHMAN.
+
+Hundreds of pupils of the Nash school, Forty-ninth avenue and Ohio street,
+members of the Ridgeland fire department and a delegation of employes of
+the Cicero and Proviso Electric Street railway attended the funeral
+services over the remains of Miss Frances Lehman, at the residence of her
+parents, 525 North Austin avenue, in the morning. Rev. Clayton Youker,
+pastor of the Euclid Avenue Methodist Episcopal church, officiating. Many
+beautiful floral tributes were sent by the teachers and the pupils of the
+Nash school.
+
+And so during this Sabbath of woe, tragedies of life and death such as
+these, but far too numerous to be all recorded, were being enacted in all
+parts of the stricken city. Although nature had bestowed upon the
+countless mourners a day bright and clear, their spirits were dark with
+sorrow and for years to come their memories will revert to that time as
+the saddest of their lives; and those whose dear ones were not among the
+dead, if their natures were blessed with any sympathy whatever, were
+oppressed, as never before, with the heavy burden which others must bear.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XII.
+
+WHAT OF THE PLAYERS?
+
+
+Never before in the history of amusements has so excellent an opportunity
+been afforded to look behind the scenes of the mimic world and study the
+real life of the actor. To one and all, whether religionist unalterably
+opposed to the theater and all its ramifications, or the devotee finding
+life's chiefest pleasures contributed by musician and mummer, the stage
+looms up a mystic realm, affording more interest and comment than almost
+any other department of earthly effort.
+
+When Shakespeare wrote "See the players well bestowed" in his immortal
+masterpiece, "Hamlet," the term player meant something very different from
+what it does today. In this day and age it is not only the poetic,
+lofty-minded and learned tragedian who is rightfully accorded the title
+"actor," but through time-honored custom and common usage the specialty
+performer, slap-stick comedian and the interesting chorus girl are
+recognized as members of the "profession"; and be it noted, although a sad
+commentary on the stage, they far outnumber those of the old, legitimate
+school.
+
+So it is that in dealing with the player folk, to whom the terrifying
+Iroquois experience was but an incident in a long career of vicissitudes
+unknown to those who make up the great commercial, industrial and
+agricultural world, it is necessary to consider the sleek, well-groomed
+executive staff, the better-paid and more widely-known stellar lights of
+the "Mr. Bluebeard" company, the less distinguished principals, both men
+and women, the struggling chorus boy, the saucy, piquant and greatly
+envied chorus girl and a small army of unheard-of yet equally important
+stage mechanics.
+
+Upwards of 150 persons--a little world of their own--made up the company
+that found its merry-making tour brought to a sudden termination by a
+blast that came upon them like a visitation from the bottomless pit. What
+they endured, what conditions the fatal fire imposed upon them, will never
+be fully known or appreciated. Merry minstrels in name, but homeless,
+purposeless wanderers in fact, the dead sweep of the elements tore asunder
+their little universe and left them stranded and more purposeless still,
+practically penniless and among strangers, overburdened with their own
+woes.
+
+With such an organization as "Mr. Bluebeard" there are to be found two or
+three fortunate mortals, whose powers to amuse and whose popularity with
+the amusement-loving public place their salaries at a figure anywhere
+between $150 and $300 a week. In this particular company "Eddie Foy," in
+private life Edward Fitzgerald, stood out preeminently as such a player.
+Then came more than a score of principals whose salaries will range from
+$60 to $150 a week, depending entirely upon ability and the extent to
+which fortune has favored them in casting the various parts, as the
+characters are known. Next in order are the less important people, who
+play "bits" (very unimportant parts), and who act as understudies for the
+principals, ready to replace them in an emergency. They are largely
+graduates from the chorus or comparative novices in the profession. Their
+compensation may be from $30 to $50 a week, according to beauty, grace and
+general usefulness.
+
+All have their railroad fares paid and their baggage transported at the
+expense of the management. They are required to furnish their own
+wardrobe, however, in many instances an item of no small expense.
+
+
+THE CHORUS GIRL.
+
+And then--the chorus girl! No living creature excites such general
+curiosity, interest, and perhaps admiration and envy, as this footlight
+queen. She is popularly supposed to devote her time exclusively to
+delightful promenades with susceptible "Johnnies" in the millionaire
+class, automobile rides, after-the-show wine suppers and all manner and
+form of unconventional and soul-stirring diversions that for her more
+sedate and useful sister, the ordinary American girl, would mean to be
+ostracized socially. Hers is generally regarded as a voluptuous life of
+music, mirth and color, an endless, extravagant pursuit of pleasure.
+
+To the wide, wide world her triumphs and escapades are heralded by
+newspaper, press agent, and the callow youth of the land, who regard
+themselves as "real sports" and clamor for an opportunity to provide a
+supper for one of the chorus at the expense of going without cigarettes
+for the rest of the month.
+
+Whoever hears of the little, disorderly bunk of a room the chorus girl's
+salary provides her with at some cheap hotel; of her struggles for
+existence during the months she is out of employment almost every season;
+of the glass of beer and nibble of free lunch that is often her only meal
+during the long weeks of endless rehearsal that precede the opening of the
+show, when absolutely without income she lives on her scant savings, what
+she can borrow, and hope and anticipation of what is in store when the
+tour begins! For three or four weeks she rehearses morning and afternoon
+while the production is being put in shape. No salaries are paid during
+that period, and it is a particularly soft-hearted manager who allows the
+girl carfare. Most of the day there are marches, dances and evolutions to
+be gone through with maddening monotony. She must remain on her feet, for
+chairs are few about stages, and courtesy scant so far as chorus people
+are concerned.
+
+And at night, when she goes home worn with effort, there are songs to be
+learned, and then to be repeated over and over again in chorus the next
+day, to the accompaniment of a battered and expressionless piano shoved
+into the brightest spot on the gloomy half-dark stage, or, if there be no
+such thing, placed in the orchestra pit, where the musical director can
+enjoy the advantage of an electric light.
+
+
+THE MUSICAL DIRECTOR.
+
+The musical director! What an autocrat he is! His rules are arbitrary and
+irrevocable. His criticism stings and burns. He is tired, overworked and
+under the strain of responsibility for the successful development of the
+aggregation of young men and women who confront him, and who appear to him
+weighted down with all the stupidity naturally intended for distribution
+among a vastly larger number of individuals. He swears, raves, coaxes as
+his moods change. He weeds out one here and engages a new member there.
+And with every change the difficulties increase. The tunes that seem so
+inspiring when heard from the comfort of a parquet seat grow dreary to
+those who are living with them hourly during this period. The "catchy"
+songs become so much hateful drivel and maddening nonsense, when done over
+and over again to the inspiring declaration of the half-crazed director
+that "the whole bunch ought to go back to the farm, back to the dishpan."
+
+It is a tired, world-worn, weary creature that creeps away after such a
+rehearsal--a woman who would be hard to recognize as the sprightly,
+dashing blonde in blue tights, who tosses her head saucily in the third
+act and sets the hearts of the youth of the one-night-stands aflame a few
+weeks later.
+
+
+THE JOY OF THE OPENING.
+
+At last the chaos and confusion end, the great mass of detail is blended
+into a production and the stage manager begins his term of storming and
+fussing. The dress rehearsal is called, the shimmering silken costumes are
+donned and all hands are agreeably surprised to find that there really is
+a plot to the piece and some rhyme and reason behind the efforts of the
+few preceding weeks' labor. The opening is at hand.
+
+What joy it brings to all, both those of high and low degree. Brave
+costumes, light, color and a mellow orchestra, in place of the old tin-pan
+of a piano, work great changes in their spirits. And best of all--salaries
+begin. To the chorus girl it means from $18 to $25 a week, and if she be
+particularly clever perhaps a little more. That is hers, free from all
+charges for transportation, baggage delivery or the furnishing or
+maintenance of wardrobe. She must furnish her own "make-up" of paints,
+powder and cosmetics, to be sure, and of this she uses no small amount;
+but that is a minor expense.
+
+The opening over, the critics of the press either praise or flay the
+production--something that means much in determining what its future will
+be. For a few weeks, possibly a month or two, it remains the attraction at
+the theater where it had its birth. Conditions become pleasanter, yet a
+vast amount of rehearsing continues in order to bring about improvement
+or make changes in the personnel of the company. Every time a girl drops
+out, voluntarily or otherwise, her successor must be put through the ropes
+in order to be able to replace her. That means all those in the same
+scenes must go through the dreary details again. In fact, from the time
+such a show opens until it closes rehearsals never really cease, the
+causes necessitating them being almost without number.
+
+
+SPENDTHRIFT HABITS.
+
+During the "run" in the opening house the chorus girl has a chance to live
+at comparatively small expense. She may pay off her small debts, if she is
+troubled with a conscience. What is far more important, she can replenish
+her threadbare street wardrobe, for it is an unwritten managerial law that
+all stage people must dress well both on and off the stage. So when the
+"run" terminates and the road tour begins, nearly all the company are
+pretty short financially, although they may be even with the world if they
+are particularly fortunate. All actors are naturally "spenders." Their
+mode of life compels it. With few family ties, the majority without a
+home, their every expense is double that of the every-day sort of a man.
+Their meeting place and their lounging place, whether it be for business
+or social reasons, is necessarily the hotel or the bar. Under those
+conditions it would be difficult for the most conservative to cultivate
+frugality or economy. And actors have never been known to injure
+themselves in an effort to attain either unless under stress of temporary
+compulsion.
+
+
+GAMBLING, PURE AND SIMPLE.
+
+Perhaps the show has made a "hit." Perhaps not. One can never tell in
+advance, for it is gambling, pure and simple, so the oldest managers
+openly assert. If it proves a failure all the capital, labor and trouble
+has been thrown away like a flash in the pan. The actors arrive some night
+to find the house dark, the box-office receipts, scenery and properties
+seized on an attachment, and their salaries and prospects gone. What
+happens then with weeks, possibly months, of idleness ahead of them, can
+be better imagined than described. Somehow, the people struggle through
+and survive and bob up to face the same experience again. It is hard
+enough on the principals with good salaries and friends purchased through
+profligate expenditure of their money when all was sunshine and
+prosperity, but it is a worse blow to the chorus. Yet they pass through
+seemingly unscathed. They are used to it and know how.
+
+But this is a dreary side of the picture, and all productions are by no
+means doomed to flunk; those that do not go forth upon the road with a
+flourish of trumpets, the glitter and glamor of carloads of courts and
+palaces of canvas, tinsel and papier-mache and with everyone looking
+forward to the rapid acquirement of a fortune. Verily, your actor is a
+born optimist. Were it not for ambition, hope, egotism and inherent love
+of publicity, notoriety and admiration, where would the stage get its
+recruits?
+
+
+THE SHOW ON THE ROAD.
+
+After the production has taken to the road it may still prove a
+"frost"--the theatrical term for failure. Then it is the same grim story,
+with additional discouragements. There are cold, clammy hotelkeepers whose
+one anxiety is to see their bills paid, and commercially inclined
+railroads who will transport none, not even actors, without payment in
+something more tangible than promises. Then comes the benefit
+performance, the appeal to local lodges of orders the actors may be
+identified with and the mad scramble to induce the railroad to carry the
+people home "on their trunks." If they can get their baggage out of the
+hotels the performers usually find it possible to secure transportation by
+leaving their trunks with the railroads as a pawn to be released when they
+raise money enough to settle the bill. Surely a pleasant prospect--to go
+"home" penniless and without personal effects, clothing or even prospects.
+
+And all this time where is the manager? He may have fled in desperation
+with the few dollars that came into his hands the preceding night, or he
+may be shut up in his room worse off than his employes. It all depends
+upon circumstances.
+
+All shows do not meet disaster on the road, however. Yet there is always
+the distressing possibility to confront the actor. Many go on their glad,
+successful way, for a time, like "Mr. Bluebeard," piling up profits and
+bringing joy to the hearts of managers and owners and continued employment
+to the players. Yet even then all is not as roseate as might be thought
+from a casual glance taken from the front. There are epidemics, railroad
+accidents, hotel fires and all manner of emergencies to be considered, not
+to speak of the one-night stand.
+
+
+THE ONE-NIGHT STAND.
+
+Of all the terrors the actor faces the one-night stand is the worst. That
+is the technical name applied to the city or town where the company lights
+for a single performance as it flits across the continent. It is almost
+impossible to so route an attraction that its time will be placed
+exclusively in large cities, so they fall back on the one-night stand.
+Imagine the joy of leaving Chicago Sunday morning, playing at South
+Chicago Sunday afternoon and evening, taking a train after the performance
+and jogging into Michigan City, Ind., with the early dawn, catching a bit
+of sleep during the day, playing at night and skipping out for Logansport.
+With the same programme at Logansport, Fort Wayne, Richmond, and Lima,
+Mansfield or Dayton, Ohio, the company is within striking distance of
+Cleveland, Cincinnati, Louisville or Indianapolis, as its bookings may
+elect. And that is precisely what they all do. This is a sample week. It
+is not an uncommon thing for a big attraction to cover two or three weeks
+of unbroken one-night stands, and those going to and from the Pacific
+coast are often compelled to play four and five, without the friendly
+relief of an engagement covering a week.
+
+Truly life under these circumstances is a horror. Train-worn, broken in
+rest, with scarcely opportunity to unpack to change their linen, such
+weeks mean to the performer an existence not calculated to tempt recruits
+to the profession. To the principal, stopping at the best hotels and
+making use of sleeping cars whenever possible, it is wearing enough and a
+burden. To the chorus girl, it is a hideous nightmare. Out of her meager
+salary she must pay during such weeks from $1.25 to $1.75 a day for hotel
+accommodations that are far from tempting. She is driven to resort to
+sleepers through self-preservation at an average of $2 a night for long
+night trips, and her laundry and other incidental expenses mount up into
+startling figures. Her clothing is ruined by almost ceaseless crushing
+aboard trains, and unless she be thoroughly broken to such a life she is
+wrecked physically.
+
+
+[Illustration: AMBULANCE LOADED WITH FIRE VICTIMS.]
+
+[Illustration: ARCH AT TOP OF STAIRWAY PACKED WITH DEAD.]
+
+[Illustration: CARRYING OUT SOME DEAD, SOME STILL LIVING.]
+
+[Illustration: FIREMEN CARRYING OUT THE DEAD CHILDREN.]
+
+[Illustration: HEROIC RESCUE OF THE LIVING BY CHICAGO FIREMEN.]
+
+[Illustration: SCENE IN DEATH ALLEY--REAR OF THE THEATRE.]
+
+[Illustration: CARRYING OUT BODIES FROM SECOND BALCONY.]
+
+[Illustration: MISS NELLIE REED, Leader of the Flying Ballet, killed by
+the fire.]
+
+[Illustration: FIREMEN HELPING THE CHORUS GIRLS OUT OF THE THEATER.]
+
+[Illustration: PHOTOGRAPH OF THE STAGE OF THE THEATER IN RUINS.]
+
+[Illustration: FRONT OF THEATER, PILING DEAD IN THE STREET.]
+
+[Illustration: IN THE THEATER, DOORS LOCKED, PANIC, FIRE, AND DEATH.]
+
+[Illustration: INSIDE THE IROQUOIS THEATER WHILE THE FIRE RAGED.]
+
+[Illustration: LOOKING FOR HER CHILDREN AMONG THE DEAD.]
+
+[Illustration: A LINE OF VICTIMS OF THE FIRE AWAITING IDENTIFICATION.]
+
+[Illustration: DIAGRAM SHOWING HOW PEOPLE GOT OUT OF THE GALLERY.]
+
+
+When she reaches a big city again she can once more creep to bed after her
+work at midnight and find in unbroken hours of sleep balm for all she has
+passed through. She may secure a decent room at a second or third class
+European hotel for $6 a week and buy her meals where she chooses. If some
+callow youth buys them for her in consideration of the pleasure of basking
+in her smiles, she is that much ahead. She can live within her means in
+the city and save money--if she wants to. But she seldom does, and no one
+can blame her, for she feels that nothing save the pleasures secured by
+extravagance can compensate her for what she has lost--comfort, repose,
+dignity, social recognition, and, most of all, home.
+
+These same conditions are experienced to a varying degree by all players
+save those within the sacred circle drawn by the finger of phenomenal
+success. That small handful with private cars, lackies and all the
+comforts of a portable home, is so insignificant in number that it
+requires no consideration here.
+
+
+THE "MR. BLUEBEARD" COMPANY.
+
+In the best and most prosperous organizations, such as "Mr. Bluebeard"
+was, life is not all sunshine and roses. To be true, its members escaped
+the manifold terrors of playing in the barns to be found in many large
+one-night stands and dressing in their stalls, dignified by the term
+dressing-rooms. The women were not compelled to dress and undress behind
+inclosures made of flimsy scenery with a sheet thrown over for additional
+protection. Nor did they have to live in the barn-like hotels many such
+towns boast. But they had their own troubles, such as they were. The
+chorus girls did not escape having to be thrown into involuntary contact
+with all classes and conditions of mankind, nor did they avoid the sharp
+social distinction drawn by the principals in all organizations.
+
+Only a few weeks before the Iroquois horror they passed through a serious
+fire scare in the theater where they were playing in Cleveland, an
+experience that for the moment promised to rival the one that finally
+overtook them. Flames in the scenery endangered their lives, but the fire
+was extinguished. Therefore the incident "amounted to nothing" and little
+or nothing was heard about it.
+
+When the dread hour arrived at the Iroquois, the majority lost their all.
+It was not to be expected they would leave their jewelry and money about
+hotels of which they knew little. Quite naturally, they took both to their
+dressing-rooms. Many were on the stage when the cry of fire came, and were
+fortunate to escape with their lives, without thought of clothing, money
+or jewelry, all of which were swept away. With employment, valuables,
+everything gone save their hotel baggage, they were in a sorry plight,
+indeed. But with the optimism that only the actor knows they rejoiced in
+their escape from the fate that overtook little Nellie Reed and from the
+terrible scars and burns suffered by many of their number.
+
+A score of their number were under arrest, held as witnesses, men and
+women alike. The management came to their relief to the extent of
+furnishing bonds that secured their temporary release. Klaw and Erlanger
+also furnished transportation back to New York for such as were at liberty
+to go. Then another obstacle arose. Few had the means to settle their
+hotel bills, and the proprietors of the places would not release their
+baggage. At this juncture relief came from outside sources. Mrs. Ogden
+Armour provided for the chorus girls, contributing $500 to settle their
+bills. That night over a hundred of the players were headed back to the
+great metropolis they call home, to seek new engagements, and if
+unsuccessful, to do the best they could. And the majority started with
+certain failure staring them in the face.
+
+It was on Sunday, January 3, 1904, four days after the fire, that the
+members of the "Mr. Bluebeard" company turned their faces homeward, for to
+all players New York is "home." Just before the train started a plain
+white box was put on board the baggage car. It contained all that was
+mortal of Nellie Reed, the sprightly little girl who had delighted scores
+of thousands by her mid-air flights from the stage at each performance.
+
+It was her last railroad "jump." Poor little thing, still in her early
+teens, she closed her earthly career with the close of the show, and went
+back "home" with it! If the future has for her any further flights they
+will be of celestial character, and not through the agency of an invisible
+wire such as guided her above the heads of Iroquois theater audiences and
+which was at first thought to have interfered with the fall of the curtain
+and to have been directly responsible for the appalling holocaust.
+
+It was a sad departure. Nearly 150 persons comprised the "Mr. Bluebeard"
+party, and nearly as many more took the trip from "The Billionaire"
+company, also owned by the same management. Only a day or two before the
+fire that closed the "Bluebeard" show death had laid its hand heavily upon
+"The Billionaire," playing at the Illinois theater only a few blocks
+distant. "The Billionaire" himself died--big, rollicking Jerome Sykes, who
+made famous the part "Foxy Quiller" and the opera of that name and who a
+few years ago made such a hit as the fat boy in "An American Beauty" that
+he outshone Lillian Russell, its star. Sykes contracted a cold at a
+Christmas celebration for the members of the two companies and when he
+died the production died with him.
+
+So with the Iroquois catastrophe there were two big, obviously successful,
+companies wiped out of the theatrical world at one blow and without
+notice. The members of each had half a week's salary due; that was their
+all. It was promptly paid and with that and their tickets all set forth in
+the happy possession of their baggage, many through the charity of Mrs.
+Armour.
+
+All--not quite! There were two members of "The Billionaire" who did not
+make the last "jump," two who were in the audience at the Iroquois and
+perished in the maelstrom of flame and smoke. The curtain had been rung
+down for them forever. They, at least, would know no more of pitiful
+quests for engagements, of wearying rehearsal and momentary, superficial
+conquest. They had played their last stand.
+
+"This is the saddest day of my life," declared one of the chorus members
+in the presence of the writer. "Here I am, 1,000 miles from home, no
+prospects of another engagement this season, and only $5 in the world."
+
+"I have less than you," said a frail appearing girl, with tears in her
+eyes. "I lost my savings, $22, in the fire, and I have only $3 to go home
+with."
+
+"It is the life of the stage," said a matronly wardrobe woman. "The poor
+girls are penniless, and if the injured were left hind it would be as
+charity patients. The responsibility of the managers of the show ceases
+when the production is closed. I know many of these girls are without
+sufficient money to pay for a week's lodging, and it is a sad outlook for
+some of them this winter."
+
+And the wardrobe woman told the truth--it was merely a striking example, a
+pitiful vicissitude of "the life of the stage."
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XIII.
+
+OTHER HOLOCAUSTS.
+
+
+Since the time that civilized man first met with fellow man to enjoy the
+work of the primitive playwright, humanity has paid a toll of human life
+for its amusements. Oftener than history tells the tiny flicker of a
+tongue of flame has thrown a gay, laughing audience into a wild,
+struggling mob, and instead of the curtain which would have been rung down
+on the comedy on the stage, a pall of black smoke covered the struggles of
+the living and dying.
+
+Of all the theater disasters of history, none ever occurred in America
+equaling the loss of life in the Iroquois fire. Only two in the history of
+the civilized world surpass it. There have been fires accompanied by
+greater loss of life, but not among theater audiences.
+
+But the grand total of persons killed in theater holocausts is large and
+the saddest comment on this list is that most of the victims were from
+holiday audiences of women and children. Lehman's playhouse in St.
+Petersburg, Russia, was destroyed in Christmas week, 1836, and 700 persons
+lost their lives. The Ring theater, Vienna, Austria, was destroyed Dec. 8,
+1881, and 875 persons lost their lives. These are the only theater
+holocausts whose deadliness surpasses that of the Iroquois.
+
+To all have been the same accompaniments of panic, futile struggle and
+suffocation. In the last century with the introduction of the modern style
+of playhouse, these fatal fires have increased. The annals of the stage
+are replete with dark pages that cause the tragedy of the mimic drama
+depicted behind the footlights to pale and shrivel into comparative
+nothingness.
+
+Perhaps it is a fatal legacy from the time when civilized society gathered
+in its marble coliseums and amphitheaters to witness the mortal combats of
+human soldiers or the death struggles of Christians waging a vain battle
+against famished wild beasts. Whatever it may be, death has always stalked
+as the dread companion of the god of the muse and drama.
+
+An English statistician published six years ago a list of fires at places
+of public entertainment in all countries in the preceding century. He
+showed that there had been 1,100 conflagrations, with 10,000 fatalities,
+and he apologized for the incompleteness of his figures. Another authority
+says that in the twelve years from 1876 to 1888 not less than 1,700 were
+killed in theater disasters in Brooklyn, Nice, Vienna, Paris, Exeter and
+Oporto, and that in every case nearly all the victims were dead within ten
+minutes from the time the smoke and flame from the stage reached the
+auditorium. As in the Iroquois fire, it was mainly in the balconies and
+galleries that death held its revels.
+
+Fire wrought havoc at Rome in the Amphitheater in the year 14 B. C., and
+the Circus Maximus was similarly destroyed three times in the first
+century of the Christian era. Three other theaters were razed by flames in
+the same period, and Pompeii's was burned again almost two centuries
+later, but the exact loss of life is not recorded in either instance. The
+Greek playhouses, built of stone in open spaces, were never endangered by
+fire.
+
+No theaters were built on the modern plan until in the sixteenth century
+in France, and not until the seventeenth did any catastrophe worthy of
+record occur. When Shakespeare lived plays were generally produced in
+temporary structures, sometimes merely raised platforms in open squares,
+and it was after his time that scenic effects began to be amplified and
+the use of illuminants increased. Thus it was that dangers, both to
+players and auditors, were vastly increased.
+
+In the Teatro Atarazanas, in Seville, Spain, many people were killed and
+injured at a fire in 1615. The first conflagration of this kind in England
+worth noting happened in 1672, when the Theater Royal, or Drury Lane,
+standing on the site of the playhouse in which "Mr. Bluebeard" was
+produced before it was brought to Chicago, was burned to the ground. Sixty
+other buildings were destroyed, but no loss of life is recorded.
+
+Two hundred and ten people lost their lives and the whole Castle of
+Amalienborg, in Copenhagen, was laid in ashes in 1689 from a rocket that
+ignited the scenery in the opera house. Eighteen persons perished at the
+theater in the Kaizersgracht, Amsterdam, in 1772, and six years later the
+Teatro Colisseo, at Saragossa, Spain, went up in flames and seventy-seven
+lives were lost. The governor of the province was among the victims.
+Twenty players were suffocated in the burning of the Palais Royal in Paris
+in 1781.
+
+In the nineteenth century there were twelve theater fires marked by great
+loss of life, and the first of these occurred in the United States. At
+Richmond, on the day after Christmas in 1811, a benefit performance of
+"Agnes and Raymond, or the Bleeding Nun," was being given, and the theater
+was filled with a wealthy and fashionable audience. The governor of
+Virginia, George W. Smith, ex-United States Senator Venable, and other
+prominent persons were in the audience and were numbered among the seventy
+victims. The last act was on when the careless hoisting of a stage
+chandelier with lighted candles set fire to the scenery. Most of those
+killed met death in the jam at the doors.
+
+The Lehman Theater and circus in St. Petersburg was the scene of a fire in
+1836, in which 800 people perished. A stage lamp hung high ignited the
+roof, a panic ensued, and there was such a mad rush that most of the
+people slew each other trying to get out. Those not trampled to death were
+incinerated by the fire that rapidly enveloped the temporary wooden
+building.
+
+A lighted lamp, upset in a wing, caused a stampede in the Royal Theater,
+Quebec, June 12, 1846, and 100 people were either burned or crushed into
+lifelessness. The exits were poor and the playhouse was built of
+combustible material. Less than a year later the Grand Ducal Theater at
+Carlsruhe, Baden, Germany, was destroyed by a fire, due to the careless
+lighting of the gas in the grand ducal box. Most of the 150 victims were
+suffocated. Between fifty and one hundred people met a fiery death in the
+Teatro degli Aquidotti at Leghorn, Italy, June 7, 1857. Fireworks were
+being used on the stage and a rocket set fire to the scenery.
+
+One of the most serious fires from the standpoint of loss of life was that
+in the Jesuit church of Santiago, South America, in 1863. Fire broke out
+in the building during service. A panic started and the efforts of the
+priests to calm the immense crowd and lead them quietly from the edifice
+were vain. The few doors became jammed with a struggling mass of men,
+women and children. The next day 2,000 bodies were taken from the church,
+most of them suffocated or trampled to death.
+
+The Brooklyn theater fire was long memorable in this country. Songs,
+funeral marches and poems without number were written commemorating the
+sad event. Vastly different from the Iroquois horror, most of the victims
+of the Brooklyn theater were burned beyond recognition. At Greenwood
+cemetery in Brooklyn there now stands a marble shaft to the unidentified
+victims of the holocaust.
+
+Kate Claxton was playing "The Two Orphans" at Conway's Theater in Brooklyn
+on the night of Dec. 5, 1876. In the last scene of the last act Miss
+Claxton, as Louise, the poor blind girl, had just lain down on her pallet
+of straw, when she saw above her in the flies a tiny flame. An actor of
+the name of Murdoch, on the stage with her, saw it about the same time,
+and was so excited that he began to stammer his lines. Miss Claxton tried
+to reassure him and partly succeeded.
+
+Then the audience realized that the theater was on fire, and a movement
+began. The star, with Mr. Murdoch and Mrs. Farren, joined hands, walked to
+the footlights and begged the audience to go out in an orderly manner.
+"You see, we are between you and the fire," said Miss Claxton. The people
+were proceeding quietly, when a man's voice shouted, "It is time to be out
+of this," and every one seemed seized with a frenzy. The main entrance
+doors opened inwardly, and there was such a jam that these could not be
+manipulated.
+
+The crowds from the galleries rushed down the stairways and fell or jumped
+headlong into the struggling mass below. Of the 1,000 people in the
+theater 297 perished. They were either burned, suffocated or trampled to
+death. The actor Murdoch was one of the victims.
+
+That same year, 1876, a panic resulted in the Chinese theater of San
+Francisco from a cry of fire. A lighted cigar which someone playfully
+dropped into a spectator's coat pocket caused a smell of burning wool. The
+audience became panic stricken and rushed madly for the exits. At the time
+there were about 900 Americans in the auditorium, and of this number
+one-quarter were seriously injured. The fire itself was of no consequence.
+
+The destruction of the Ring theater at Vienna, Dec. 8, 1881, remains the
+greatest horror of the kind in the history of civilization. It was
+preceded on March 23 of the same year, by the burning of the Municipal
+theater in Nice, Italy, caused by an explosion of gas, and in which
+between 150 and 200 people perished miserably, but the magnitude of the
+Vienna holocaust made the world forget Nice for the time. The feast of the
+Immaculate Conception was being celebrated by the Viennese, and
+Offenbach's "Les Contes d'Hoffman," an opera bouffe, was the play. The
+audience numbered 2,500.
+
+Fire was suddenly observed in the scenery, and a wild panic started. An
+iron curtain, designed for just such emergencies, was forgotten, and the
+flames, which might thus have been confined to the stage, spread furiously
+through the entire building. The scene was changed from light-hearted
+revelry, with gladsome music, to one of lurid horror.
+
+The exits from the galleries were long and tortuous and quickly became
+choked. As in the Iroquois theater fire, those who had occupied the
+gallery seats were the ones who lost their lives. But few escaped from the
+galleries. The great majority of the spectators were burned beyond
+recognition by their nearest relatives. One hundred and fifty were so
+charred that they were buried in a common grave, and the city's mourning
+was shared by all the world.
+
+The next fire of this nature to attract the world's attention and sympathy
+was the destruction of the Circus Ferroni at Berditscheff, Russian Poland.
+Four hundred and thirty people were killed and eighty mortally injured.
+Many children were crushed and suffocated in the jam, and horses and
+other trained animals perished by the score. This was on Jan. 13, 1883,
+and the origin of the conflagration was traced to a stableman who smoked a
+cigarette while lying in a heap of straw.
+
+
+TWO GREAT PARISIAN HORRORS.
+
+The burning of the Opera Comique in Paris, May 25, 1887, was a spectacular
+horror. Here again an iron curtain that would have protected the audience
+was not lowered. The first act of "Mignon" was on, when the scenery was
+observed to be ablaze. The upper galleries were transformed into infernos,
+in which men knocked other men and women down and trampled them in their
+eagerness to save themselves, while the flames reached out and enveloped
+them all.
+
+Many of the actors and actresses escaped only in their costumes, and some
+rushed nude into the streets. The scenes in the thoroughfares where men
+and women in tights and ball dresses and men in gorgeous theatrical robes
+mingled with the naked, and the dead and dying were strewn about, made a
+picture fantastically terrible. The official list of dead was
+seventy-five, but many others died from the fire's effects.
+
+The theater at Exeter, England, burned Sept. 5, 1887, was ignited from gas
+lights, and so much smoke filled the edifice in a short time that near 200
+were suffocated in their seats. They were found sitting there afterward,
+just as though they were still watching the play. This was the eleventh,
+and the Oporto fire the twelfth of the big conflagrations of the country.
+One hundred and seventy dead were taken from the ruins of the Portuguese
+playhouse after the flames which destroyed it on the evening of March 31,
+1888, had been subdued. Many sailors and marine soldiers in the galleries
+used knives to kill persons standing in their way, and scores of the
+victims were found with their throats cut.
+
+Ten years after the Opera Comique fire occurred the greatest of all
+Parisian horrors, the destruction by flames of the charity bazar, May 4,
+1897. Members of the nobility, and even royalty, were among the victims.
+All of fashionable Paris were under the roof of a temporary wooden edifice
+known to visitors to the exposition of 1889 as "Old Paris." The annual
+bazar in the interest of charity had always been one of the most imposing
+of the spring functions. The wealthy and distinguished, titled and modish
+were there in larger numbers than on any previous occasion.
+
+The fire broke out with a suddenness that so dazed everyone that the small
+chance of escape from the flimsy structure was made even less. Duchesses,
+marquises, countesses, baronesses and grand dames joined in the mad rush
+for the exits. The men present are said to have acted in a particularly
+cowardly manner, knocking down and trampling upon women and children. The
+death list of more than 100 included the Duchesses d'Alencon and De St.
+Didier, the Marquise de Maison, and three barons, three baronesses, one
+count, eleven countesses, one general, five sisters of charity and one
+mother superior. The Duchess d'Alencon was the favorite sister of the
+Empress of Austria and had been a fiance of the mad King Ludwig of
+Bavaria. The Duchess d'Uzes was badly burned. The shock of the news and
+the death of his niece, the Duchess d'Alencon, accounted for the death on
+May 7 of the Duc d'Aumale.
+
+The Gaiety Theater in Milwaukee on November 5, 1869, furnished more than
+thirty victims to the fire fiend, but only two of these were burned to
+death. The Central Theater in Philadelphia was destroyed April 28, 1892,
+and six persons perished. A panic occurred at the Front Street playhouse
+in Baltimore December 27, 1895, among an audience composed entirely of
+Polish Jews. There was no fire, but a woman who had seen a bright light on
+the stage thought there was, and her cries caused a stampede that resulted
+in twenty-four deaths.
+
+Statisticians show that theaters as a rule do not attain an old age, but
+that their average life in all countries is but twenty-two and
+three-fourths years. In the United States the average is but eleven to
+thirteen years, and here almost a third are destroyed before they have
+been built five years. More playhouses feed the flames just prior to and
+after than during performances, because of the added precautions of
+employes.
+
+Two deadly conflagrations occurred in New York in 1900. The first the
+Windsor hotel fire, which resulted in the death of 80 persons. Fire broke
+out in the old hotel on Fifth avenue about midnight. With lightning
+rapidity the flames shot up the light and air shafts, filling the rooms
+with smoke and making them as light as day. The guests suddenly aroused
+from sleep became panic stricken. The fire department was unable to throw
+up ladders and give aid as fast as frightened faces appeared at the
+windows. The result was that many jumped to death. They were picked up
+dead and dying in the streets. Others ran from their rooms into the
+fire-swept hallways and were burned to death.
+
+A short time later fire broke out one afternoon on the docks across the
+river from New York at Hoboken. The fire was on a pier piled high with
+combustible material. It burned like powder, spreading to the ocean liners
+tied to the pier and the efforts of the fire department were not effective
+in checking it. The cables which held the blazing vessels to the piers
+burned through and they drifted into the river, carrying fire and death
+among the shipping. Longshoremen unloading and loading the vessels jumped
+in panic into the river. Others found themselves cut off from both land
+and water by the flames on all sides and were burned like rats in a trap.
+It was estimated that 300 lives were lost. Many bodies were never
+recovered and others were found miles down the river.
+
+Property losses are seldom proportionate to the financial losses from
+fire. In the Iroquois theater fire the property loss was almost
+inconsequential, while at the burning of Moscow by the Russians, Sept. 4,
+1812, the property loss amounted to more than $150,000,000, while no lives
+were lost.
+
+Constantinople, with its squalid and crowded streets, has always been a
+fruitful spot for fires. They are of annual occurrence and as the Turkish
+fire department is a travesty, are usually of considerable magnitude. The
+great fire of that city was in 1729, when 12,000 houses were destroyed and
+7,000 persons burned to death. Aug. 12, 1782, a three days' fire started
+in which 10,000 houses, 50 corn mills and 100 mosques were burned and 100
+lives lost. In February of the same year, 600 houses were burned, and in
+June 7,000 more. Fires are the best safeguards for Constantinople's
+health.
+
+Great Britain has had comparatively few fires. In 1598 one at Tiverton
+destroyed 400 houses and 33 lives. In 1854 50 persons were killed at
+Gateshead. The great fire of London raged from Sept. 2 to 6, 1666. It
+began in a wooden building in Pudding Lane and consumed the buildings on
+436 acres, blotting out 400 streets, 13,200 houses, St. Paul's and 86
+other churches, 58 halls and all public buildings, three of the city gates
+and four stone bridges. The property loss was $53,652,500, while only six
+persons were killed.
+
+Nearly every large city of the United States has had its great fire. That
+of Boston was on Nov. 9 and 10, 1872. Fire started at Summer and Kingston
+streets and 65 acres were burned over. The property loss was about
+$75,000,000 and there was no loss of life.
+
+The great fire in New York began in Merchant street, Dec. 16, 1835. No
+lives were lost, but the property loss was $15,000,000 and 52 acres were
+devastated, 530 buildings being destroyed. Ten years later a much smaller
+fire in the same district caused the death of 35 persons.
+
+July 9, 1850, thirty lives were lost in Philadelphia, and February 8,
+1865, twenty persons were killed by another fire. Large fires in that city
+have almost invariably been accompanied by loss of life.
+
+As the result of a Fourth of July celebration in 1866, nearly half of
+Portland, Md., was swept away by fire. The property loss was $10,000,000,
+but there was no loss of life. In September and October of 1871 forest
+fires raged in Wisconsin and Michigan. An immense territory was swept over
+and more than 1,000 persons lost their lives.
+
+The greatest fire of modern times was the one which started in Chicago,
+October 8, 1871. A strip through the heart of the city, four miles long
+and a mile and a half wide, was burned over. The total loss was
+$196,000,000 and 250 persons lost their lives. By the fire 17,450
+buildings were destroyed and 98,860 persons were made homeless. Within
+four years the entire burned district had been rebuilt.
+
+Fires in Chicago attended with loss of life have been of increasing
+frequency in the past few years. Fire in the Henning & Speed building on
+Dearborn street, in 1900, caused four girls to lose their lives. Since it
+and before the Iroquois disaster have come: The St. Luke Sanitarium
+horror, 10 lives lost, 43 injured; the Doremus laundry explosion, 8 lives
+lost; the American Glucose Sugar refinery blaze, 8 killed; Northwestern
+railroad boiler explosion, 8 killed, Stock Yards boiler explosion, 18
+killed, and about a year ago the Lincoln hotel fire, 14 visiting stockmen
+suffocated.
+
+In view of this terrible array of suffering and death, it would seem that
+no precaution could be too great to avert future calamities. But although
+human life is beyond price, it is probable that the world at large will
+move on very much in the same old way--an arousing and an upheaval of
+public sentiment for a time after the burned and maimed have been laid
+away, and then a gradual return of carelessness. It would seem impossible,
+however, that the United States could forget for many generations the
+Iroquois disaster, and that it must result in a final reform of all
+arrangements looking to the safety of theater goers.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XIV.
+
+STORIES AND NARRATIVES OF THE HOLOCAUST.
+
+
+From two women who sat within a few feet of the stage when the fire broke
+out in the theater, and who remained calm enough to observe the actual
+beginning of the holocaust, there came one of the most thrilling and
+significant stories of that afternoon of panic.
+
+Mrs. Emma Schweitzler and Mrs. Eva Katherine Clapp Gibson, of Chicago,
+were the two women who told this story. They occupied seats in the fifth
+row of the orchestra circle. Mrs. Schweitzler was the last woman to walk
+out unassisted from the first floor. Mrs. Gibson was carried out badly
+burned.
+
+"The curtain that was run down," said Mrs. Schweitzler, "was the regular
+drop curtain painted with the 'autumn scene,' It was the same curtain that
+was lowered before the show started and the same one used during the
+interval following the first act. No other curtain was lowered.
+
+"As soon as the drop curtain came down it caught fire. A hole appeared at
+the left hand side. Then the blaze spread rapidly, and instantly a great
+blast of hot air came from the stage through the hole in the curtain and
+into the audience. Big pieces of the curtain were loosened by the terrific
+rush of air and were blown into the people's faces. Scores of women and
+children must have been burned to death by these fragments of burning
+grease and paint. I was in the theater until the curtain had entirely
+burned. It went up in the flames as if it had been paper, and did more
+damage than good."
+
+"So far as could be observed from the audience, the asbestos curtain was
+not lowered at all," said Mrs. Schweitzler. "I was particularly interested
+in that 'autumn-scene' curtain because I paint oil pictures myself.
+
+"Before the show started I sat for a long time examining the painting.
+From our seats in the fifth row we could see every detail. The 'autumn
+scene' was done in heavy red and in order to get some of the effects the
+artist had to use great daubs of paint, smearing it on pretty thick in
+some places. I am certain that the backing was common canvas and if this
+was so it must have been covered with wax before the paint was put on.
+This same curtain came down after the first act, so I had plenty of time
+to know it.
+
+"When the fire started my first feeling was that the stage people were
+acting recklessly. For several minutes the fire was no bigger than a
+handkerchief. A bucket of water would have saved the lives of every one.
+But there seemed to be no water on the stage.
+
+"One of the stage hands first took his hand and then used a piece of plank
+to smother the flames. It kept spreading. After Eddie Foy had made his
+speech the 'autumn scene' curtain came down. 'Pull down the curtain,' was
+all the cry I heard. They did not say 'Pull down the asbestos curtain,'
+nor was there any mention of any fireproof curtain. The 'autumn scene,'
+with its highly inflammable paint, came down, and it was like pouring fire
+into the people's faces. It was a great piece of bungling--far worse than
+if no curtain had been lowered at all.
+
+"It has been said that noise and panic-like screaming followed the burning
+of the curtain. This is absolutely not true. The whole place was almost
+gruesomely silent.
+
+"Mrs. Gibson and I were half way in from the aisle and had to wait for
+many to go out before we started. At the aisle some one stepped on Mrs.
+Gibson's dress and she fell to the floor. Men, women and children trampled
+over her, and having done all I could I started out. In the lobby I begged
+some men to return for Mrs. Gibson, but they said it was no use. The
+curtain by that time was burned up."
+
+Mrs. Gibson, wife of Dr. Charles B. Gibson, confirmed Mrs. Schweitzler's
+assertions that no asbestos curtain was visible from the audience. "From
+the place where I fell," said Mrs. Gibson, "I crawled on hands and knees
+to the entrance. When I got to the rear the curtain was all burned away."
+
+
+ESCAPE OF MOTHER AND TWO SMALL CHILDREN
+
+Mrs. William Mueller, Jr., 3330 Calumet avenue, who at the time was
+confined to her bed from injuries sustained by trying to get out of the
+Iroquois as the panic began and from bruises sustained by being trampled
+upon, tells the story that she with her two children, Florence, 5 years
+old, and Belle, 3 years old, occupied three seats in the second row from
+the back on the ground floor on the right side of the theater. The
+children became restless as the second act began and Mrs. Mueller took
+them to a retiring room.
+
+After the children had been in the retiring room for some minutes, they
+wanted to go back and see the performance. Mrs. Mueller started back into
+the lobby to go to her seats, when she saw, in a glass, the reflection of
+the flames. She hurried back into the retiring room and asked for the
+children's wraps, saying she thought something was wrong and did not want
+to stay in the theater any longer. The maid in the room asked her what was
+the matter and Mrs. Mueller told her.
+
+"Oh, that's all right. I won't give you the things now," the maid replied.
+"I'll go and see what is the matter."
+
+Mrs. Mueller demanded the children's wraps, but they were refused. Just
+then Mrs. Mueller thinks she must have heard the first cry of alarm and
+she ran to the front doors with the children. She tried one door and found
+it locked. Then she tried another, and that was locked. She pushed against
+it and then threw herself against it, trying to force it open. She does
+not remember seeing any employee near the outer door.
+
+Mrs. Mueller then heard people in the audience shrieking and then she
+fainted. It is thought that the oldest little girl, Florence, also
+fainted.
+
+As the people pushed out of the theater they trampled upon Mrs. Mueller
+and the child. Mrs. Mueller was horribly bruised and was either kicked in
+the eyes or else some one stepped on her face. It was at first feared she
+would lose her eyesight.
+
+The first person carried out when the rescue began was Mrs. Mueller; she
+was right in front of the doors. Near her was Florence. Just before the
+men entered, and after every one else seemed to be out, little Belle came
+walking out. A man ran to her, picked her up and took her to a barber
+shop, where she continued to cry for her mother. The little girl,
+Florence, was also carried out and was taken to the same barber shop,
+where the two children were later found by Mr. Mueller. Mrs. Mueller was
+taken to the Samaritan hospital, where she was found that night.
+
+
+EXPRESSION OF THE DEAD.
+
+John Maynard Harlan visited the morgue in search of the body of Mrs. F.
+Morton Fox and her three children, who were intimate friends of Mrs.
+Harlan. In speaking of his experience he said:
+
+"I was profoundly impressed by the expressions on the faces of many of the
+dead. Perhaps it was only a fancy, but it seemed to me that the faces of
+those having the higher order of intelligence showed less horror and more
+resignation. Some of these seemed to have passed away almost with a smile
+of faith, so serene were their countenances. But the faces of the less
+intelligent were uniformly struck with suffering to a terrible degree.
+
+"When I found Mrs. Fox's little boy the smile of courage on his face was
+one of the most noble sights that I ever saw. It seemed to me that I could
+see the brave little fellow trying to reassure his mother and facing death
+with a heroism not expected of his years."
+
+
+ONLY SURVIVOR OF LARGE THEATER PARTY.
+
+Mrs. W. F. Hanson, of Chicago, was the only member of a theater party of
+nine to escape. She wept as she talked of her companions and shuddered as
+she recalled the manner of their death.
+
+"I cannot tell how I got out of the theater," she said. "I remember
+starting for one of the aisles when the panic was at its height. I was
+separated from my friends. We had a row of seats in the second balcony.
+Suddenly someone seized me and I was tossed and dragged along the aisle
+and I lost consciousness. When I came to my senses I was in a store across
+the street. Every one of my companions perished. We composed a holiday
+theater party and we were all related by marriage."
+
+
+ALL HIS FAMILY GONE.
+
+Arthur E. Hull, of Chicago, who lost his entire family in the Iroquois
+fire, tells the following pathetic story:
+
+"It is too terrible to contemplate. I can never go to my home again. To
+look at the playthings left by the children just where they put them, to
+see how my dear dead wife arranged all the details of her home so
+carefully, the very walls ring with the names of my dear dead ones. I can
+never go there again.
+
+"Mrs. Hull had called the children from their play to go and see the show.
+They were laughing and shouting about the house in childish glee, when
+she, all radiant with smiles, came to tell them of the surprise she had
+planned for them.
+
+"They left their toys just where they were. She fixed the things about the
+house a bit, and then took them with her.
+
+"Mary, our maid, went with them. She, too, was joyous at the prospect, and
+a happier party never started anywhere. Everything was smiles and
+sunshine.
+
+"They had planned for a day of joy, and it turned out a day of sorrow.
+Sorrow more deep than can be fathomed by human mind. Sorrow so acute that
+it is indescribable."
+
+The party consisted of Mrs. Hull, her little daughter, Helen Muriel, her
+two adopted sons, Donald DeGraff and Dwight Moody, together with Mary
+Forbes.
+
+The two boys had been adopted by Mr. and Mrs. Hull but three weeks before,
+and had lately come from Topeka, Kan., where their father, Fred J. Hull,
+had died.
+
+The party was gotten up for them particularly, and it was the first and
+last time they were ever to witness a stage production. This was only one
+of a score of recorded cases where the unselfish desire to give pleasure
+to the young caused their death.
+
+
+A FAMILY PARTY BURNED.
+
+Dr. Charles S. Owen, a physician and one of the most prominent men in
+Wheaton, died at the Chicago homeopathic hospital from injuries sustained
+at the Iroquois fire. On Christmas day Dr. Owen held a family reunion, and
+eight relatives came from Ohio to spend the holiday week. Wednesday a
+theater party was arranged and twelve seats were secured at the Iroquois
+in the front row of the first balcony. Out of the entire party of twelve
+Dr. Owen was the only one to escape.
+
+
+CARRIES DAUGHTER'S BODY HOME IN HIS ARMS.
+
+It appears that Miss Blackburn had attended the matinee with her father,
+James Blackburn. They had seats in the first balcony. In the panic father
+and daughter became separated. The father escaped to the Randolph street
+lobby and then started back for his daughter. He found her body on the
+staircase horribly burned. Catching up the lifeless form and wrapping it
+in his overcoat, Mr. Blackburn rushed to the street and procured a cab, in
+which he was driven with his burden directly to the Northwestern station.
+He caught the first train for Glen View and had the body of his child at
+home in half an hour.
+
+
+SAD ERROR IN IDENTIFICATION.
+
+Mrs. Lulu Bennett, Chicago, whose daughter, Gertrude Eloise Swayze, 16
+years old, was a victim of the holocaust, thought she would avoid the
+gruesome task of making a tour of the morgues, so she asked a friend to
+search for her daughter's body. After visiting a number of morgues he
+finally found the body of a girl at Rolston's, in Adams street, which he
+identified as Miss Swayze. The body was conveyed to the mother's
+residence, but when she looked at the body she turned away with a moan
+and said: "That is not my Gertrude; take it away, take it away. There has
+been some terrible mistake made."
+
+Mrs. Bennett made a personal tour of the morgues afterward and found her
+daughter's body.
+
+
+THE HANGER OF THE ASBESTOS CURTAIN.
+
+The asbestos curtain at the Iroquois theater was not hung in a manner
+satisfactory to Lyman Savage, the stage carpenter who put it up, according
+to a statement he made to his son, C. B. Savage, head electrician at
+Power's theater, a short time before his death which occurred indirectly
+as a result of the fire.
+
+Mr. Savage, who lived at 1750 Wrightwood avenue and who was a stage
+carpenter in Chicago for twenty-five years, worked at the Iroquois theater
+until two weeks before the fire, when he was compelled to leave because of
+kidney trouble. His son ascribes his death to excitement over the Iroquois
+fire. That disaster was uppermost in his mind.
+
+Mr. Savage said: "I asked my father if he hung the asbestos curtain at the
+Iroquois theater and he said he did. I then asked him if he hung the
+curtain according to his own ideas, and he replied in substance: 'No, that
+curtain was not hung my way, but Cummings' (the stage carpenter's) way. If
+you want to see a curtain hung my way you should see the curtain in a
+theater I worked on in Michigan last fall.'
+
+"My father did not specify what point about the hanging of the curtain he
+did not approve, and I do not know what feature of the work he was not
+satisfied with.
+
+"I asked my father if the curtain was hung on Manila ropes, and he said
+that it was not, but that it was hung on wire cables. I know that to be a
+fact, for I saw the cables myself.
+
+"I do not desire to shield any negligent person, but Stage Carpenter
+Cummings was not responsible for the lowering of the curtain only in so
+far as he was responsible for having some one there to lower it.
+
+"I was on the stage when the fire broke out, having gone to the theater to
+see Archie Bernard, the chief electrician. The statement has been made
+that the lights were not thrown on in the auditorium after the fire was
+discovered. Just before the fire broke out Bernard was stooping down
+preparing to change the lights, and he had just said to me: 'I will show
+you how I change my lights.'
+
+"When the fire was discovered I saw him reach down to throw a switch.
+Whether he threw the switch that lights the auditorium I do not know, but
+I do know that the fire from the draperies fell all around the switchboard
+and burned out the fuses. Consequently if the lights had been turned on
+the fact that the fuses were burned out would cause them to go out.
+
+"The first I knew of the fire was when I heard some one behind and above
+me clapping his hands. I looked up and saw McMullen trying to put out the
+blaze with his hands. If he could have reached far enough he would have
+extinguished the fire. He did the best he could.
+
+"I carried four women out of the theater and burned my hands. I stayed on
+the stage as long as it was possible for me to do so."
+
+
+KEEPSAKES OF THE DEAD.
+
+Many Chicago people spent a part of the Sabbath following the fire in the
+dingy little storeroom at 58 Dearborn street, where the effects and the
+valuables of the Iroquois theater victims are kept.
+
+The storeroom was crowded all day. The line formed at Randolph street and
+pushed its way to the north. A mother stepped to one of the show cases.
+She had lost a boy and she had come to find his effects. She was looking
+through the glass when she called one of the policemen to her side.
+
+"That's it. That's my little boy's," and she pointed at a prayer book.
+
+The policeman took it from the case.
+
+"Yes, that's it," she murmured.
+
+From the street came the tolling of the half hour.
+
+"Just a week ago he started for Sunday school with it. It was a Christmas
+present and he took it to church for the first time."
+
+A young man, well dressed and prosperous looking, came in and walked along
+the wall, gazing at the dresses and the furs. Suddenly he seized a fur boa
+and kissed it.
+
+"It was her's," he cried. "May I take it with me?"
+
+The officer told him to visit the coroner and get a certificate.
+
+Two young men entered the place and began making flippant remarks. The
+officers overheard their conversation and escorted them to the threshold
+of the door. Two heavy boots assisted in making their exit into the street
+a rapid one.
+
+
+THE SCENE AT THOMPSON'S RESTAURANT.
+
+John R. Thompson's restaurant at 3 o'clock in the afternoon of the fatal
+day was an eating-house, decked here and there with late lunchers; at 3:20
+it was a hospital, with the dead and dying stretched on the marble eating
+tables; at 4 o'clock it was a morgue, heaped with the dead; at 7:30 it was
+again a restaurant, but with chairs turned on top of the tables that had
+been the slabs of death, with the aisles cleared of the human debris, and
+the scrub woman at work mopping out the relics of human flesh, charred
+and as dust, and sweeping in pans the pieces of skulls that had lain about
+the mosaic floors, yet damp with the flowing length of woman's hair.
+
+The terror, the horror, the tragedies, the martyrdom, the piercing screams
+of the dying, the agonized groans, the excitement of the surging mob, the
+hurrying back and forth of the police with their burdens of death and life
+that only lasted a moment, the pushing of physicians, the casting of dead
+about on the floors like cord wood, one on top of the other, to make room
+on the marble slabs of tables for the oncoming living, the cries of
+children, the sobbing of persons recognizing their loved one dead, or
+worse than dead--this unutterable horror can never be imagined, and was
+never known before in Chicago, not excepting the horrors of the great
+fire, or the martyrdom of war.
+
+
+LIKE A FIELD OF BATTLE.
+
+The scene presented was most horrible. It was like a battlefield where the
+dead are being brought to the church or the residence that has at a
+moment's notice been turned into a hospital. In they came, the dead and
+the injured, at first at the rate of one every three minutes; then faster,
+several at a time, until the restaurant was heaped with maimed bodies
+lying on the tables or the floor, with surgeons bending over them, and on
+the cashier's counter, with the girl there sobbing with her face hidden in
+her hands, afraid to look at the ghastly spectacle.
+
+There were scores of physicians, three to each table, and they worked with
+vigor and earnestness and skill, but with the tears coursing down the
+cheeks of many a one. At first the bodies were carried into Thompson's,
+then they went across the street; many of them were put in ambulances and
+taken to the emergency room for women in Marshall Field's store, and
+still many others of the injured--those yet able to walk--were half
+dragged, half carried to the offices of physicians in the Masonic temple.
+
+
+WOMEN EAGER TO HELP.
+
+Women fought and shoved and pushed their way through the crowd to get to
+the door of the improvised hospital, that became a morgue only too
+rapidly.
+
+"I am a nurse. Let me help," said some.
+
+"I am a mother. My boy may be dead inside. For God's sake, let me save a
+life," said another, a woman in middle age.
+
+Others came in from the crowds, neither mothers nor nurses, women with the
+spirit of heroism who longed to serve humanity when humanity was at so low
+an ebb.
+
+"She's dead," was more often than not the verdict after much work. "Next!"
+and the cold and stiffened form of the victim was dragged, head first,
+from the marble eating table, thrown quickly under the tables, and another
+form, perhaps that of a tiny child, took its place.
+
+
+STEADY STREAM OF BODIES.
+
+So fast came the bodies for a time that there was one steady stream of
+persons carried in--the still living--while without the morgue stood the
+ambulances waiting for their burdens. The sidewalk, muddy and crowded, was
+strewn with the dead, lying on blankets or else thrown down in the mud,
+waiting to be taken to the various morgues of the city.
+
+There was a figure of a man--a large man with broad shoulders and dressed
+in black--whose entire face was burned away, only the back of the head
+remaining to show he had ever had a head; yet below the shoulders he was
+untouched by the fire.
+
+There lay women with their arms gone, or their legs, while one had one
+side burned off, with only the cross shoulder-bone remaining. She had worn
+a pink silk waist and black skirt; the fragments of the garments still
+clung to her like a shroud that had lain in the grave.
+
+There was a little boy, with a shock of red-brown hair, whose tiny mouth
+was open in terror and whose baby hands were burned off so that his tiny
+wrists showed like red stumps.
+
+
+CLOTHING TORN TO SHREDS.
+
+There was one young girl, her garments so torn from her splendid figure
+that her arms and white bosom rose uncovered from the tattered and
+torn--not burned--shreds of her clothing, and the shreds of a
+turquoise-blue silk petticoat draped her limbs. She had died from
+suffocation--fought and struggled and died. On her finger sparkled a
+diamond ring, and about her slender throat was a string of pearl beads.
+
+There was another body of a girl that several persons said they knew, yet
+no one could speak her name. She was beautiful in her terrible death, with
+a wealth of blonde hair, and staring blue eyes. She was dressed in a
+blue-black velvet shirt waist, with gold buttons, a mixed white and tan
+and gray walking skirt, with a pink silk petticoat beneath. She had died
+of suffocation, and, as she lay on the marble table dead, a tiny blue
+chatelaine watch, ticking merrily the hour, was pinned upon her breast.
+
+The crowding, the howling, the screaming in Thompson's was so highly
+pitched, that no one could hear the orders of the physicians. Bedlam
+reigned--no order, no leader, everyone doing what he could to help. At
+length came the loud voice of a man, and those who could hear, stopped
+and listened, while those at the front of the restaurant said: "Some man
+has gone crazy with grief."
+
+It was State Senator Clark, who, seeing the need of an order, jumped to a
+table and gave one.
+
+"Everyone get out," he cried, "and make room for the doctors. Let there be
+three doctors to a table and one nurse while they last."
+
+Skillfully, cleverly, worked the looters of the dead. Rings were torn from
+stiffened fingers, watches, bracelets, chains, purses taken from bosoms,
+then out in the surging crowd of excited humanity went the thieves, lost
+to recognition by those who saw them loot in the terribleness of the
+scene.
+
+
+PRAYERS FOR THE DYING.
+
+Through the mangled mass of humanity moved a priest with a crucifix in his
+white hands--Father McCarthy of Holy Name Cathedral, saying the prayers
+for the dying--not for the dead, but to give the last words of a hope
+beyond. Many persons died with the words of Father McCarthy sounding like
+music in their ears.
+
+"I was with the Army of the Potomac during the Civil War," said Dr. H. L.
+Montgomery as he worked over the dying. "I rescued 150 people during the
+great Chicago fire. I have seen the wreckage of explosions. But I never
+saw anything so grimly horrible as this."
+
+"Will Davis is in the theater now and acting like crazy," interrupted the
+voice of a boy. "Can't no one speak to him?"
+
+And out dashed all the employes of the burning theater to find Mr. Davis
+as he paced the destroyed gallery floor and looked at the ruin below and
+at the dead as they were hauled out of the debris.
+
+Little Ruth Thompson, the seven-year-old daughter of John R. Thompson, was
+in the fire and almost to the front exit when the mob hurled her back. The
+tiny child fought and was yet forced back. She climbed onto the stage,
+burning as it was, and worked her way to the rear door and out into the
+alley, then through into the scene of death and pain in her father's
+restaurant.
+
+"Papa, I got out. Where's grandpa?" she cried.
+
+There was one old man, with white beard and hair, who wept over the body
+of his aged wife. He was Patrick P. O'Donnell of the firm of O'Donnell &
+Duer.
+
+Death, pain, tragedy--and at 7:30 o'clock the place was a restaurant
+again.
+
+
+CHILD SAVED FROM DEATH IN FIRE BY BALLET GIRL.
+
+Left under the burning stage during the mad rush by the members of the
+"Mr. Bluebeard" company at the Iroquois theater fire a four-year-old girl,
+who appeared in the performance as one of the Japanese children, was
+heroically rescued by Elois Lillian, one of the ballet girls, who was the
+last to escape from the theater.
+
+"I was the last to escape from under the stage," said Miss Lillian, "and
+as I rushed headlong through the smoke I saw the little girl screaming
+with fright and almost suffocated. The rest had escaped, leaving the child
+behind. I took the little one under my arm in a death-like grip and
+succeeded in getting into the aisle behind the boxes; and ran through the
+smoking-room and out the front door. I don't know how I managed to hold on
+to the struggling child, or how I came to get out the front way.
+
+"I was dressed in tights, and as soon as I reached the street ran into
+Thompson's, and there soon had her revived. The mother, frantic with
+grief, came in, and when she saw her daughter and heard my story she fell
+upon her knees, thanking me for saving her little girl's life."
+
+
+PRIEST GIVES ABSOLUTION TO DYING FIRE VICTIMS.
+
+When the Rev. F. O'Brien of the Holy Name Cathedral learned of the fire
+and heard that so many were dying he rushed into the Northwestern Medical
+University, into which many victims had been taken, to administer the last
+sacraments to members of the Catholic Church. Finding he was unable to
+attend the great number being brought in, he announced that he would give
+a general absolution to all the Catholics among the victims.
+
+The scene of that last absolution beggars description. During the brief
+moment the priest, with uplifted hands, besought God to pardon all the
+frailties of his dying servants, the poor, mangled men and women seemed to
+realize that they were face to face with the inevitable. Though crazed
+with pain, they ceased to moan, and fastened their fast-dimming eyes on
+the priest.
+
+When the absolution was given many of the victims, horribly burned, with
+the flesh of their head and face blackened, and in most cases so burned as
+to expose the bones, put out their hands imploringly toward the priest,
+for one handclasp, one word of sympathy before they passed away.
+
+Even the stalwart policemen were affected by the touching spectacle.
+Another priest of the Holy Ghost order arrived shortly after, and both
+clergymen administered absolution, remaining until the injured were
+removed to various hospitals and the dead to the morgues.
+
+
+LITTLE BOY THANKS GOD FOR CHANGING HIS LUCK.
+
+Warren is the ten-year-old son of former Governor Joseph K. Toole of
+Montana, prominent for years in national politics. In the last four months
+the boy has been the victim of three accidents, each of which bore serious
+consequences for the little fellow.
+
+Thursday night, when he knelt down at his bedside in the Auditorium hotel
+to say the evening prayer which his mother had taught him, he mumbled:
+
+"I thank you, God, that you did not let me go to the theater Wednesday
+afternoon. You see, if you had not delayed my mamma when she went down
+town shopping that day, my little brother and I would have been in the
+fire. I thank you, God, for changing my luck."
+
+Warren's mamma and papa heard the prayer. Before he had reached the "Amen"
+both had silently bowed their heads.
+
+"Yes, Warren, your luck has changed," said the former Governor, as he bent
+over his son to say "Good night."
+
+Less than four months ago Warren was playing with a gun. The firearm
+exploded and the boy was seriously injured. He had not fully recovered
+when he fell from the top of a cart and broke his arm. Then, a few weeks
+ago, a dog upon whom he lavished much of his youthful affection suddenly
+sprang at him and bit him between the eyes. He was badly scarred, but his
+parents were thankful that he did not lose his sight.
+
+On Wednesday he importuned his nurse to take him to see "Mr. Bluebeard,
+Jr." The nurse referred him to his father, and the latter told him that
+he and his brother could go if his mother returned from her shopping trip
+in time to take them. The holiday crowds detained Mrs. Toole until quite
+late in the afternoon. Now little Warren is convinced that good fortune
+has at last deigned to smile upon him.
+
+
+USE PLACER MINER METHODS.
+
+Methods of the California placer miner were used by the Chicago police in
+recovering the valuables lost in the mad rush for safety by the Iroquois
+theater fire victims. Big wagon loads of dirt and ashes taken from the
+theater floor were taken down under police guard to a basement at Lake
+street and Fifth avenue. There a placer mining outfit, including sieves
+and gold pans, had been erected and City Custodian Dewitt C. Cregier thus
+searched for valuables in the rubbish.
+
+
+DAUGHTER OF A. H. REVELL ESCAPES.
+
+Margaret Revell, daughter of Alexander H. Revell, with her friend,
+Elizabeth Harris, accompanied by a maidservant, sat in the parquet of the
+theater, fortunately next to the aisle. At the first alarm they were swept
+to the door by the crowd, and were among those who got out early, escaping
+with only minor bruises. Mr. Revell was among the early searchers on the
+scene, and remained giving assistance after learning of the safety of his
+daughter.
+
+
+PHILADELPHIA PARTNER IN THEATER HORRIFIED.
+
+The news of the terrible Chicago calamity was a severe blow to S. A. Nixon
+of Philadelphia, part owner of the Iroquois theater. When the news was
+confirmed he broke down and wept bitterly.
+
+Fred G. Nixon, son of Mr. Nixon, said: "We were at the dinner table
+Wednesday evening when the telephone bell rang and I answered. A newspaper
+man told me that the Iroquois theater in Chicago had been destroyed and
+many persons killed. I could not believe it and I asked: 'Are you sure it
+was the Iroquois?' 'Positive,' came the answer. My father had paid no
+attention to what I said, but the word 'Iroquois' attracted him, and as I
+returned to my seat he asked: 'What was that you said about the Iroquois?'
+'Oh, nothing,' I replied, trying to be calm.
+
+"But my face betrayed me. The news had paled me, and my father, suspecting
+something was wrong, insisted, and I told him. He refused to believe it
+and went to the telephone to satisfy himself. In five minutes he heard the
+worst. Then he collapsed and sobbed like a child. For eight hours we sat
+up waiting for full particulars, and at 3 o'clock Thursday morning, when
+father went to bed, he was almost a nervous wreck."
+
+
+ALL KENOSHA IN MOURNING.
+
+Next to Chicago the blow of death at the Iroquois fell heavier on Kenosha,
+Wis., than any of the other cities whose residents perished in the
+disaster. Two of the leading manufacturers of the city, Willis W. Cooper
+and Charles H. Cooper, and the children of Mr. and Mrs. S. H. Van Ingen
+were among the dead.
+
+Kenosha was in deep mourning. Trade was practically suspended and the
+people gathered on the streets in little groups discussing the one topic.
+Four bodies were brought to the city on the evening train, and a crowd of
+over a thousand people gathered at the railway station, and walked in
+silence through the streets behind the hearses. All the bodies were taken
+to the morgue, from which place they will be removed to the stricken
+homes.
+
+
+FIVE OF ONE FAMILY DEAD.
+
+The story of the wiping out of the children of H. S. Van Ingen, the former
+manager of the Pennsylvania Coal Company in Chicago, and a resident of
+Kenosha, is one of the saddest stories of the tragedy. Following the
+custom established years ago, Mr. and Mrs. Van Ingen and their five
+children, Grace, twenty-three years old; Jack, twenty; Edward L.,
+nineteen; Margaret, fourteen; and Elizabeth, nine, had all come to Chicago
+for a matinee party. Schuyler, another son, the sole survivor of the
+children, was to join the family for a dinner and family reunion at the
+Wellington hotel after the matinee. The seven persons were seated in the
+front row of the balcony when the panic ensued, and Mr. Van Ingen,
+marshaling his little force, started for the exit at the aisle, but the
+mighty crush of people separated the parents from the children, and Mr.
+Van Ingen, putting his arm around Mrs. Van Ingen, carried her one way,
+while the children were swept the other.
+
+The last Mr. Van Ingen saw of the children was when Jack, the oldest boy,
+took his little sister, Elizabeth, in his arms and shouted to his father:
+"You save mother and I'll look after the rest." In another moment the
+party, including the children, was trampled down.
+
+Mr. and Mrs. Van Ingen started to return to the theater for the children
+and both of them were fearfully burned in the attempt. The bodies of the
+two boys were located in the evening. Margaret and Elizabeth were found
+the next day. Grace, the oldest daughter, and one of the best known young
+women of Kenosha, was identified still later. Mr. and Mrs. Van Ingen, both
+terribly burned, were taken to the Illinois Hospital.
+
+
+COOPER BROTHERS DEEPLY MOURNED.
+
+Willis Cooper was one of the best known men in Kenosha. He was the
+secretary of the great Twentieth Century movement in the Methodist
+Episcopal Church which resulted in $20,000,000 being raised for missions.
+He was last year the prohibition candidate for governor of Wisconsin, and
+was recently elected head of the lay delegation of the Wisconsin churches
+at the general conference of the Methodist Church. Mr. Cooper was a
+millionaire, and his gifts to church charities often exceeded $10,000 a
+year. In Kenosha he was the general manager of the Chicago Kenosha Hosiery
+Works, the largest stocking making plant in the world.
+
+Charles F. Cooper, his brother, was the factory manager and general
+salesman of the company. He was the president of the Kenosha
+Manufacturers' Association, of the Kenosha Hospital Association, and the
+Masonic Temple Association. He was the founder of profit-sharing in the
+Kenosha plant, and under his direction it became known as the plant "where
+the life of the worker is flooded with sunshine." He was most popular with
+the working classes in Kenosha, and when his body was taken to the morgue
+hundreds of men and women stood with uncovered heads while it passed.
+
+There occurred between the acts at the Century theater, St. Louis, on New
+Year's night, an unusual incident, when C. H. Congdon, of Chicago, arose
+from his seat and related incidents of the Iroquois theater tragedy.
+
+He had proceeded only for a few minutes when some one in the audience
+began singing "Nearer, My God, to Thee," which was immediately taken up by
+the whole audience, the orchestra joining in with the accompaniment.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XV.
+
+SOCIETY WOMEN AND GIRLS' CLUBS.
+
+
+Miss Charlotte Plamondon, daughter of the vice-president of the Chicago
+board of education, who waited until the fire had caught in the curtains
+over the front box, in which she sat, before attempting to get out,
+related her experience at the Chicago Beach Hotel:
+
+"I can't tell you how I escaped the awful fate of others," she said. "I
+only know that when the flames began to crackle over my head and dart down
+from the curtains of our box I leaped over the railing of the box and fell
+in the arms of some man. I think he was connected with the theater, for he
+immediately set me down in a seat and told me to be quiet for a moment.
+
+
+SCREAMS OF TERROR HEARD.
+
+"Then I think I lost all reason. I have a vague recollection of having
+been pushed up along the side aisle that runs by the boxes. It was as
+quiet as death for a moment. The great audience rose like a single person,
+but no sound escaped it until those in front were wedged in the doorway.
+Then a scream of terror went up that I shall never forget. It rings in my
+ears now. Women screamed and children cried. Men were shouting and rushing
+for the entrance, leaping over the prostrate forms of children and women
+and carrying others down with them.
+
+"Back of me, I remember, there was a sheet of flame that seemed to be
+gathering volume and reaching out for us. Then I forgot again, and not
+until the crowd surged toward the wall and caught me between it and the
+marble pillar did I realize what the danger was. The pain revived me. I
+know I was almost crushed to death, but it didn't hurt. Nothing could
+hurt, with the screaming, the agonizing cries of the women and children
+ringing in your ears.
+
+
+CHORUS GIRLS ESCAPE PARTLY CLAD.
+
+"And then, somehow, I found myself out on the street and the dead and
+dying were around me. When I realized that I was out of the place and safe
+from the fire and crush, all my strength seemed to leave me. But the cold
+air braced me after a moment and I went around to the drug store, where
+the dead were being brought in and the poor actresses and chorus girls
+were coming in with scarcely anything on them.
+
+"I never felt as I did when it dawned upon us that the theater was on
+fire. It seemed like a dream at first. The border curtain right near our
+box blew back, and I think it hit a light or something, for when it fell
+back into place I saw it was on fire.
+
+"The chorus girls kept right on singing for a couple of minutes, it
+seemed. Then one of the stage men rushed out and shouted: 'Keep your
+seats.'
+
+"Oh, the stage men behaved like heroes! As I think of it now, they
+conducted themselves with rare courage. I saw a couple of the girls fall
+down, and I knew that they were overcome."
+
+
+FOY TRIES TO PREVENT PANIC.
+
+"Just then Eddie Foy ran out on the stage, partly made up, and cried:
+
+"'My God, people, keep your seats!'
+
+"When Foy said this I regained my senses, and when the asbestos curtain
+did not come down I felt that the situation was critical. The flames had
+taken hold of the front row of seats behind the orchestra and were
+creeping up the curtains over our box, when I jumped to my feet and leaped
+over the railing.
+
+"I saw the children lying in heaps under our feet. Their little lives were
+ended, and rough feet were bruising their flesh; and such innocent
+children! Men leaped over the rows of prostrate forms and fought like they
+were mad, trying to get out of the entrance."
+
+
+ESCAPE OF ANOTHER SOCIETY WOMAN.
+
+Mrs. A. Sorge, Jr., whose husband is a consulting engineer, with offices
+in the Monadnock Building, and who lives at the Chicago Beach Hotel,
+attended the theater in company with Dr. Jager, who is a guest of Mr. and
+Mrs. Sorge. They occupied a seat well down in the parquet.
+
+"When the fire started," said Mrs. Sorge, "persons on the stage told us to
+keep our seats. Dr. Jager also told me to sit still, and we did until the
+flames began to come near us. Then we clasped hands and started for the
+door.
+
+"I was not half so much afraid of the fire as I was of being crushed to
+death, and I tried in every way to keep out of the crush. Dr. Jager got
+separated from me by catching his foot in an upturned chair, but he soon
+found me. We later managed to get out on the street without suffering any
+injuries of a serious nature.
+
+"The saddest thing I saw inside the burning building was a little girl
+looking for her baby sister. The two had got separated in the rush for the
+entrance, and it is quite likely that both were killed in that crush, for
+it was something awful."
+
+
+MINNEAPOLIS WOMAN'S STORY OF THE FIRE.
+
+Mrs. Baldwin, wife of Dr. F. R. Baldwin of Minneapolis, immediately after
+her return from the scene of the awful Chicago catastrophe, through which
+she had passed, overwhelmed with the horror of the sights and sounds she
+had seen and heard, gave the following account:
+
+"It was too unutterably shocking for one to realize at the time. The
+horror of the thing has grown upon me ever since. It fills my mind and
+imagination, so I can hardly think of anything else. I cannot help feeling
+almost ashamed to be here, safe and unharmed, while whole families were
+burned and crushed to death in that awful place. I cannot say how glad I
+am to be home and see my babies safe, when so many mothers are crying
+aloud in Chicago for their children to come back to them.
+
+"At first nobody seemed to realize the awful danger. No water was used to
+put out the flames on the stage. It was only flimsy, gauzy scenery at
+first that was burning, and the people on the stage tried to tear it down
+and stamp it out as it fell. I heard no screams, and the people for many
+moments kept their seats. I did not hear the cry of 'fire.'
+
+"But all at once a great ball of fire or sheet of flame--I don't know how
+to express it--shot out and the whole theater above us seemed to be full
+of fire. Then there was a smothered sound as of a sighing by all in the
+theater.
+
+"By that time I began to realize that it was time to see what could be
+done about getting out. It so happened that I could not have chosen a
+better place from which to get out of the building. We were on the alley
+side, opposite the Randolph street side of the building, and only two
+seats from the wall.
+
+"I did not know that there was an entrance here, but all at once the doors
+seemed to be opened close to us. We had but to take two or three steps and
+then were thrown forward out of the doors by the crowd behind us. My
+mother, who was with me, was unhurt, and I had but a few bruises.
+
+"One of the first things I saw as I got up was a girl lying on one of the
+fire escape platforms with the flames shooting over her through the
+window. One man, who jumped from the platform, had not taken two steps
+before a woman who jumped a moment later from a height of about forty feet
+came right down upon him, killing him upon the spot.
+
+"The sights all about the city have been many times described, but nothing
+can picture those terrible scenes. In a flat just below my mother's five
+out of a family of six perished, leaving but one demented girl.
+
+"Of another family living near us, only the husband and father was left,
+his wife and four boys and his mother all having been killed in the fire.
+As I passed near the theater the next day I saw a man walking up and down
+in front of the building muttering to himself, and every now and then he
+would sit upon the curb and look up at the building, breaking out into
+peals of laughter. He had been through the fire."
+
+
+GIRLS' CLUBS SORELY STRICKEN.
+
+Mrs. Walter Raymer, wife of the alderman, attended the Iroquois in charge
+of the "F. P. C.," a club of young girls, of which her daughter was
+treasurer. Of the eight members only two escaped uninjured. Miss Mabel
+Hunter, the president, was killed; Miss Edna Hunter was taken to her
+residence, 85 Humboldt boulevard, severely injured; Miss Lillian Ackerman
+was borne to the Samaritan Hospital, burned about the head and body.
+
+Edna Hoveland was badly injured, and her little sister, who accompanied
+her, was burned to death. May Marks is dead. Viva Jackson, missing all
+Wednesday night, was found in the morning at an undertaker's rooms. The
+two who escaped injury were Miss Abigail Raymer, daughter of the alderman,
+and Miss Florence Nicholson.
+
+The eight girls, all between sixteen and eighteen years old, had organized
+their little club a few weeks ago for the purpose of literary study and
+recreation, and the theater party was arranged by Mrs. Raymer as a
+surprise for the members.
+
+The Theta Pi Zeta club of the junior class of the Englewood High School,
+with the exception of two members, was wiped out of existence. The club
+was composed of eight young women living in Englewood and Normal Park.
+Seven had purchased seats in the sixth row of the dress circle. What they
+encountered after the panic started no one knows, for of the seven only
+one, Miss Josephine Spencer, 7110 Princeton avenue, was saved and she was
+taken to the West Side Hospital terribly burned. The only member who
+entirely escaped was Miss Edith Mizen of 6917 Eggleston avenue, daughter
+of Mr. and Mrs. George K. Mizen. Her parents objected to her attending a
+theatrical performance.
+
+Those who perished are Helen Howard, 6565 Yale avenue; Helen McCaughan,
+6565 Yale avenue; Elvira Olson, 7010 Stewart avenue; Florence Oxnam, 435
+Englewood avenue; Lillie Power, 442 West Seventieth street; and Rosamond
+Schmidt, 335 West Sixty-first street.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XVI.
+
+EDDIE FOY'S SWORN TESTIMONY.
+
+
+Eddie Foy, whose real name is Edwin Fitzgerald, has faced many audiences
+under all conditions and circumstances during his stage career of a
+quarter of a century, during which he rose from a street urchin to the
+distinction of one of America's most entertaining and unctuous comedians.
+Never before had such interest centered in his appearance as when on
+Thursday afternoon, January 7, 1904, he took the witness stand to relate
+under oath what he knew concerning the calamity of the preceding week.
+
+The actor's face was a study. His deep-lined countenance, ordinarily
+irresistibly funny without effort on his part, took on a truly tragic
+aspect as he entered upon his story. His indescribable, husky voice that
+has made hundreds of thousands laugh with merriment, was broken; there was
+no suggestion of humor in it. Instead it was a wail from the tomb, the
+utterance of a man broken with the weight of the woe he had beheld in a
+few brief, fleeting moments.
+
+The questions were propounded by Coroner Traeger and Major Lawrence
+Buckley, his chief deputy, and were promptly and fully answered by the
+comedian.
+
+The full text, as secured through a stenographic report, follows:
+
+Q. Will you kindly tell us, Mr. Foy, or Fitzgerald, in your own way, what
+transpired?
+
+A. Well, I went to the matinee with my little boy, six years old, and I
+wanted to put him in the front of the theater to see the show. I sent him
+out before the first act by the stage manager, and he took him out and
+brought him back and said there were no seats. I sent him downstairs and
+put him in a little alcove that is next to the switchboard, underneath
+where they claim the fire started, and where I saw the fire first.
+
+Q. That is on what side of the stage?
+
+A. On my right facing the audience. On the south side of the stage. The
+second act was on. I was in my dressing-room tying my shoes, and I heard a
+noise, and I didn't pay much attention to it at first. I says to myself,
+"Are they fighting again down there"--there was a fight there about a week
+or two ago; and I says, "They are fighting again." I looked out of the
+door and heard the buzz getting stronger and stronger, with this
+excitement, and I thought of my boy and I ran down the steps. I was in the
+middle dressing-room on the side, and I ran down screaming "Bryan." I got
+him at the first entrance right in front of the switchboard, and looked up
+and saw a fireman there. I don't know what he was doing; he was trying to
+put the fire out. Then the two lower borders running up the side of this
+canvas were burning. I grabbed my boy and rushed to the back door, and
+there was a lot of people trying to get out.
+
+
+DESCRIBES STAGE BOX.
+
+Q. What door?
+
+A. The little stage door on Dearborn street.
+
+Q. How did you find that door--was it open?
+
+A. No. I knew where the door was.
+
+Q. Was the door open when you got there?
+
+A. Yes; they were breaking through it.
+
+Q. Who?
+
+A. All of our people.
+
+Q. Employees on the stage?
+
+A. Not many of them. It was crowded there, and I threw my boy to a man. I
+says: "Take this boy out," and ran out on the footlights to the audience.
+When I did they were in a sort of panic, as I thought, and what I said
+exactly I don't remember, but this was the substance--my idea was to get
+the curtain down and quietly stop the stampede. I yelled, "Drop the
+curtain and keep up your music." I didn't want a stampede, because it was
+the biggest audience I ever played to of women and children. I told them
+to be quiet and take it easy "Don't get excited"--and they started up on
+this second balcony on my left to run, and I says, "Sit down; it is all
+right; don't get excited." And they were going that way, and I said to the
+policeman, "Let them out quietly," and they moved then, and I says, "Let
+down the curtain," and I looked up and this curtain was burning--the
+fringe on the edge of it.
+
+
+WOULD NOT COME DOWN.
+
+Q. It was caught, was it?
+
+A. It did not come down.
+
+Q. How near to the bottom of the stage was it?
+
+A. Three feet above my head. I would have been outside if the curtain had
+come down.
+
+Q. It was lowered down after you hallooed?
+
+A. I hallooed for it to come down.
+
+Q. And it came down that far and then caught?
+
+A. I did not see it come down, but it was there when I looked up.
+
+Q. When you looked up it was caught, was it?
+
+A. Yes, sir, it must have been caught--it didn't come down. Then when I
+was hallooing, I kept hallooing for the curtain to come down--how many
+times I don't know--and talked to this man to let them out quietly, there
+was a sort of a cyclone; the thing was flying behind me; I felt it coming.
+
+Q. What do you mean by a cyclone--cyclone of what?
+
+A. It was a whirl of smoke when I looked around--the scenery had broken
+the slats it was nailed to; it came down behind me, and I didn't know
+whether to go in front or behind. The stage was covered with smoke, and it
+was a cold draft, and there was an explosion of some kind like you light a
+match and the box goes off. I didn't know whether to go front or not, so I
+thought of my boy--maybe the man did not take him out--so I rushed out the
+first thing and went back of the stage.
+
+Q. You went out yourself, then?
+
+A. Yes, sir, and I was looking for my boy all the way in. I wasn't sure he
+was out. I found him in the street.
+
+Q. Do you know what started the fire, Mr. Fitzgerald?
+
+A. No, sir.
+
+
+LIGHT NEAR THE FIRE.
+
+Q. Was there any light of any kind near where you first saw the fire?
+
+A. Yes, sir.
+
+Q. What kind of a light?
+
+A. A lens light--one that you throw spot light on people with.
+
+Q. How close was that to the drop that was on fire?
+
+A. That I could not tell--there were three or four drops on fire when I
+got there for the boy.
+
+Q. They were all close together?
+
+A. Yes.
+
+Q. Too high up for anybody to reach?
+
+A. Impossible.
+
+Q. Were there any other fires of any kind, fires or lights, near those
+drops or the fire, besides this drop light?
+
+A. That was the only one I saw.
+
+Q. Then there would not be anything else able to ignite those drops, only
+this light?
+
+A. I should think so, yes.
+
+Q. You are satisfied in your own mind that it was caused from that light.
+
+A. That it was caused from that light.
+
+Q. You have been playing there in the theater since "Mr. Bluebeard, Jr.,"
+started, or since the theater opened, haven't you?
+
+A. Yes, sir.
+
+Q. Do you know of any drill or any precautions that were taken by the
+management or parties in charge of the theater in emergency cases in the
+case of fire--that is, drilling or handling the employees as to what they
+should do in case of fire?
+
+A. No. I know I couldn't smoke in the theater; the policeman was around
+there all the time in the dressing-rooms.
+
+
+SAW NO EXTINGUISHERS.
+
+Q. Did you notice any fire extinguishers of any kind on the stage?
+
+A. No, sir, I did not.
+
+Q. Any appliances of any kind to be used in case of fire?
+
+A. No. I don't think I did; there might have been.
+
+Q. Did you notice any fire extinguishers in your dressing-room?
+
+A. No, sir.
+
+Q. Did you ever notice while in the theater whether there was any
+policeman or fireman stationed on the stage or around the stage?
+
+A. Yes, sir, there was a fireman there always on the stage.
+
+Q. Did you ever hear while in the theater of an asbestos curtain there?
+
+A. I cannot say that I did.
+
+Q. Did you ever hear of a fireproof curtain there?
+
+A. Yes, sir.
+
+Q. Did it take long for this curtain that you say was down and stuck to
+burn?
+
+A. I couldn't stay there long enough to see if it was burning--it was on
+fire.
+
+Q. You have had a good deal of experience in theaters?
+
+A. Thirty-five years.
+
+Q. Would you consider that there was as good a protection taken at the
+Iroquois theater as there was in the average theater throughout the
+country in cases of fire?
+
+A. You mean in the construction of the theater?
+
+Q. Not the construction, but I would say in the management, and in the
+furnishing of fire extinguishers and appliances to extinguish fires.
+
+A. Well, I never took notice of the fire extinguisher. If a man would look
+at that stage he would naturally think they couldn't possibly have a fire
+without everybody getting out in front of the theater.
+
+Q. I didn't ask you that. My question was, in your experience in traveling
+through the theaters in different cities, would you consider there was as
+good protection taken on the Iroquois stage to extinguish fire, as there
+was in the average theater throughout the country?
+
+A. Well, I couldn't say; I never took notice of what was on the stage to
+extinguish fires.
+
+Q. Did you at any other theater?
+
+A. Well, I have seen fire extinguishers around at times.
+
+
+TALKS OF APPARATUS.
+
+Q. In theaters where you have noticed these fire extinguishers, what part
+of the theater did you see them in?
+
+A. Well, they were fire extinguishers like a man would put on his back,
+with a strap to it.
+
+Q. Where were they?
+
+A. On the platform in the theater.
+
+Q. Did you notice anything of that kind at the Iroquois theater?
+
+A. No, sir, I did not; I cannot say that I did.
+
+Q. Now, if you did not see those appliances, you did not see them when you
+went in the stage entrance?
+
+A. No, sir.
+
+Q. You say you saw them in other stage entrances?
+
+A. Yes, sir.
+
+Q. You didn't see them at the Iroquois theater?
+
+A. No, sir, not any time I was there.
+
+Q. Did you see any hose of any kind that could be used in cases of fire?
+
+A. I don't know whether there was any; I didn't see any.
+
+Q. Did you know of any other fire that occurred in the theater previous to
+this one?
+
+A. No, sir.
+
+Q. You have been with the company for how long?
+
+A. I played right along with it in Wisconsin and New York last season, and
+opened in Pittsburg with it and have been with it ever since.
+
+Q. Did you play at Cleveland?
+
+A. Yes, sir.
+
+Q. What was the date of the fire in Cleveland?
+
+A. I don't know the date; there was a fire on the stage.
+
+Q. Was the cause the same as at this fire?
+
+A. No; the flies caught fire at this fire. This was on the stage. They
+could not get at this fire.
+
+Q. What caused it?
+
+A. That I don't know, sir.
+
+Q. Did you consider it a dangerous lot of scenery to travel with, lights
+and scenery combined?
+
+A. I don't know; I consider all scenery dangerous.
+
+Q. Did you consider this dangerous?
+
+A. No, sir.
+
+
+ONLY ONE EXIT OPEN.
+
+Q. Were both of the exits on the stage open?
+
+A. Only one door, a little door that we go through always was open when I
+went out.
+
+Question by Foreman Meyer of the Jury: Mr. Foy, when you came out to the
+footlights to try to quiet the people and you cried for the curtain to
+come down, did you see the curtain come down?
+
+A. I did not see the curtain come down. I screamed for the curtain to come
+down, and I told the orchestra to keep up the music, and then I addressed
+the audience, thinking I would get the curtain down. I would have been in
+front of the curtain if it came down.
+
+Q. You said at the same time you looked around?
+
+A. I looked around, yes, sir.
+
+Q. What was the color of the curtain as you looked at it?
+
+A. I couldn't tell the color. It was right over my head.
+
+Q. Could you tell from any observation at any time before that?
+
+A. No, sir.
+
+Question by Juror Cummings: When you counseled the audience to keep quiet
+were you working on the assumption that there was a fire brigade on the
+stage?
+
+A. Well, my idea was to get the curtain down and stop the panic. The
+audience was composed of women and children.
+
+Question by Deputy Buckley: From the time that you first heard the noise,
+when you were in the dressing-room until you got out, about what time
+elapsed?
+
+A. Well, I have been trying to figure that out in my own mind. I don't
+think it was ninety seconds.
+
+
+WIRE ACROSS AUDITORIUM.
+
+Q. Do you know, Mr. Foy, whether there was a wire extending from the stage
+across the auditorium to any of the balconies or any part of the theater
+or auditorium outside?
+
+A. Yes, sir.
+
+Q. Where was that wire located?
+
+A. The wire hung from the center of the auditorium to the side of the
+stage, to where the fire, they say, started, on my right-hand side facing
+the audience.
+
+Q. Was that the side of the stage where the curtain was caught?
+
+A. I could not say. I have been trying to fix that in my mind.
+
+Q. You cannot say whether it was hung on the wire on the right or left
+hand side?
+
+A. No, sir. I should not think that it had anything to do with it.
+
+Q. Was that stationary?
+
+A. It hung from the front, and it was unhooked and put on the woman when
+she went out in the air.
+
+Q. Did any part of it go behind the curtain?
+
+A. Yes, it went behind the curtain, but that could not have possibly
+stopped it, because it would have broken it. I don't think the curtain was
+low enough down to touch it, because the girl is only a little girl, Miss
+Reed, and they had to hook it on her.
+
+Q. About how high up was the wire?
+
+A. Well, so that a man like the stage manager would take it off and the
+man that was assisting in this flying ballet would hook it on this little
+girl that flew out.
+
+Q. She was killed?
+
+A. She was killed.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XVII.
+
+EFFECT OF THE FIRE NEAR AND FAR.
+
+
+Many of the members of the "Mr. Bluebeard, Jr.," company were arrested and
+retained as witnesses in the trial, on a charge of manslaughter, of
+Messrs. Davis and Powers, Building Commissioner Williams and the stage
+manager, electricians and carpenters especially concerned in the
+manipulation of the lights and curtains. On the Saturday night succeeding
+the fire Mayor Harrison closed all the theaters in the city, numbering
+thirty-seven, for a period of two weeks, or until a thorough investigation
+could be made as to whether they were complying with the city ordinances
+in every detail.
+
+People with seat checks were turned away from the doors of the theaters.
+Even the fireproof Auditorium was not permitted to remain open, and
+Theodore Thomas and his musicians returned to their homes without playing.
+
+Theatrical people in the dressing-rooms of the theaters took off their
+makeup and left. Ushers turned out the lights and the managers locked the
+doors. It was a condition without precedent in any large city of this or
+any other country--every public place of theatrical amusement closed by
+command, as the result of a great disaster.
+
+And not only did the terrible calamity close every theater in Chicago, but
+it sent the city authorities, fire inspectors, aldermen and all, scurrying
+through the city, examining the big department stores and their means of
+escape for their thousands of employees. The alarm and inspection also
+extended to the public schools of the city. Nor was the awful upheaval
+felt with startling force only at home, but like an earthquake its
+vibrations reached distant cities and countries. The monarchs of Europe,
+with the great public men of America, sent words of sympathy over the
+throbbing wires, those which came from Emperor William being:
+
+"NEUES PALAIS, Dec. 31.--To the President of the United States: Aghast at
+the terrible news of the catastrophe that has befallen the citizens of
+Chicago the empress and myself wish to convey to you how deeply we feel
+for the American people who have been so cruelly visited in this week of
+joy. Please convey expression of our sincerest sympathy to the city of
+Chicago. Many thanks for your kind letter. In coming years may Providence
+shield you and America from harm and such accidents.
+
+  "WILHELM I. R."
+
+Within a few days there was abundant evidence that profound sympathy had
+given place, in all the large cities of the world, to practical endeavors
+to avert like calamities.
+
+
+NEW YORK THEATERS AND SCHOOLS.
+
+As his first official act, Nicholas J. Hayes, who on New Year's became
+fire commissioner of New York, ordered an investigation of all the
+theaters of that city. He declared that he intended to ascertain whether
+the New York playhouses were so constructed and equipped as to safeguard
+human life in case of fire or panic.
+
+"The protection of human life is the first and most important duty of the
+fire commissioner," said Mr. Hayes. "In this work no one shall hinder me
+from doing my full duty."
+
+In each battalion district where a theater was located the new fire
+commissioner designated a competent assistant foreman as theater inspector
+and provided for weekly inspection of theaters. These inspectors were
+under the supervision of a general theater inspector. One of the tests at
+once applied by Commissioner Hayes was to have the inspector pour gasoline
+on the asbestos curtain and then apply fire. Several houses were at once
+closed, as the curtains failed to stand the test.
+
+City Superintendent of Schools Maxwell, of New York, also issued special
+fire instructions to the district superintendents and principals of
+schools, whom he directed to perfect fire drills and the rapid dismissal
+of school children under their care.
+
+
+CRUSADE IN PITTSBURG.
+
+The Pittsburg department of public safety immediately began a crusade
+against the violation of the ordinances regarding theater construction and
+equipment. Managers were compelled to arrange their fire escapes, curtains
+and apparatus so that everything worked with facility. At the Nixon
+theater, at the close of a performance, the people were rapidly dismissed
+after a fire alarm, and ushered out into the alley exits and down fire
+escapes in two and one-half minutes. Other theaters were put through
+similar drills.
+
+
+WASHINGTON THEATER OWNERS ARRESTED.
+
+Warrants were issued for the arrest of the proprietors of three of the
+seven Washington theaters. Failure to comply with building regulations in
+making improvements resulted in the withholding of the license of one
+theater. The two other proprietors were arrested for failure to provide
+proper exit lights, fire escapes and stage stairways.
+
+
+MASSACHUSETTS THEATERS INVESTIGATED.
+
+As a result of the fire Chief Rufus R. Wade, of the Massachusetts state
+police, at once issued orders for his inspectors to make immediate and
+thorough inspection of every theater in the commonwealth outside of
+Boston. The statutes give no jurisdiction over Boston, but his orders
+meant that more than 100 theaters under his supervision would receive
+immediate attention.
+
+The Chicago theater horror caused such a decreased attendance at Boston
+theaters as to mean comparatively empty houses for some time afterward.
+Huge areas of vacant seats were to be observed and the crowds at theater
+exits at 10:45 were prominent for their absence.
+
+
+ACTION IN MILWAUKEE.
+
+Spurred to action by the theater horror in Chicago, the city officials of
+Milwaukee, Wis., closed four theaters. The orders to darken the houses
+followed an investigation by the chief of the fire department. In the
+Academy and the Bijou, popular-priced houses, and in the two vaudeville
+houses, the Star and the Crystal, the chief found the "fire" curtains were
+made of thin canvas.
+
+
+PRECAUTIONS AT ST. LOUIS.
+
+In St. Louis the commissioner of public buildings and the chief of the
+fire department served notice on theater managers that the provisions of
+the city ordinances designed to prevent fire and panic must be rigidly
+carried out. A new ordinance revising the building laws was at once laid
+before the city council. One of its new features insists on a metal
+skylight or fire vent over the stage. This vent must be so constructed as
+to open instantly and automatically. Fire Chief Swingle sent notice to the
+managers that all aisles must be kept cleared.
+
+
+ORDERS AFFECTING OMAHA THEATERS.
+
+Building Inspector Withnell ordered several radical changes in theaters
+and large department stores as a result of the fire. All the theaters were
+required to increase their exit facilities, and one theater was ordered to
+put in additional aisles and remove 150 rear seats in the parquet circle
+and balconies, which would interfere with a free exit in case of panic.
+Asbestos curtains were ordered into use at all the theaters.
+
+
+EFFECT ABROAD.
+
+The news of the awful calamity shocked the great cities of Europe beyond
+expression, and its discussion excluded even such large agitating
+questions as the Eastern--possible war between Japan and Russia, which
+might involve the entire Old World. The so-called American colonies of
+London, Paris and Berlin were especially shocked, many members of whom
+sought for news of friends and relatives who might be among the list of
+dead or injured. As the complete list could not be cabled for several days
+thereafter their suspense was, in many cases, unbearable, and scores took
+the first steamers for America.
+
+
+HORROR FELT IN LONDON.
+
+Upon the receipt of the first news all local and foreign topics of
+interest were forgotten in London in the universal horror over the
+tragedy. The extra editions of the newspapers giving the latest details
+were eagerly bought up and newspaper placards bore in flaring type the
+announcement of further news from Chicago. The flags over the American
+steamship offices were half-masted.
+
+The accounts of the deadly panic were read by the English people with
+peculiar sympathy and horror, for the pantomime season was at its height
+and the London theaters were daily packed with women and children.
+
+Yet certainly the first night after the news was generally known, which
+was Thursday, no appreciable effect was felt on the attendance of most of
+the London theaters. The usual number were waiting in line at the Drury
+Lane box office early in the evening. The vaudeville had "house full"
+boards prominently displayed. Still another playhouse in the Strand showed
+only a slight falling off in attendance, but when the actual list of dead,
+injured and missing was received by cable and posted in the newspaper
+offices, hotels and other public places, there was a very marked decrease
+in the number of theater goers. Later still came the detailed information
+called for by the fire committee of the London county council, which
+indicated that the Chicago theater offered better chances of escape than a
+number of houses in the very heart of London. This was the first step
+toward a thorough overhauling of the theaters of the world's metropolis.
+
+
+LONDON THEATER PRECAUTIONS.
+
+With the story of the horror upon the pale lips of all, there was at the
+same time, in the minds of many of the theater goers of London, a feeling
+that the regulations of the lord chamberlain and the London county council
+reduced to a minimum the possibility of the occurrence of a similar
+tragedy in their midst. Nevertheless theatrical men of experience agree
+that, after all, the most elaborate precautions may be taken, and when the
+crucial moment arrives they may prove of not the slightest value.
+
+
+PRESENT RULES FOR LONDON THEATERS.
+
+On the programme of every theater in London is printed the following
+extract from rules made by the lord chamberlain:
+
+"The name of the actual responsible manager of the theater must be printed
+on every playbill. The public can leave the theater at the end of the
+performance by all exit entrance doors, which must open outward.
+
+"Where there is a fireproof screen to the proscenium opening it must be
+lowered at least once during every performance, to insure it being in
+proper working order.
+
+"All gangways, passages and staircases must be kept free from chairs or
+any other obstructions."
+
+To guard against the possibility of a person in a moment of fright jumping
+from a balcony, the London county council insists on a brass railing being
+fixed on the tier in front of the upper circle.
+
+
+CURTAIN OFTEN TESTED.
+
+His Majesty's Theater is one of the largest and best equipped theaters in
+London. The precautions taken there may be mentioned as representative of
+what many London theater managers do to protect their patrons. A big iron
+asbestos curtain is worked by a lever in the "prop" corner on the
+prompter's side. The curtain is lowered just after the audience has been
+seated, before the play begins, not only to test it, but to give the
+audience confidence. Thursday night following the Iroquois fire Beerbohm
+Tree, the proprietor, ordered the curtain to be lowered twice, the second
+time after the first act, and this will be done in the future.
+
+
+CLOSE WATCH FOR FIRE.
+
+Two firemen belonging to the fire department, but paid by the theater,
+come on duty at 7 o'clock. Every light or naked torch carried on the stage
+it is their duty to watch. It is the custom here, as at all theaters, to
+keep blankets dripping wet hanging at certain points all round the stage.
+Cutting-away apparatus and buckets are kept in the flies.
+
+"I have never heard of a great theater fire," said Mr. Dana, acting
+manager, "where trouble has been caused by flames in the front of the
+house. The exits in London theaters must be direct to the streets, not
+false exits, as I am afraid is too often the case in America.
+Nevertheless, when all is done, the fact remains that no one has ever
+invented a patent for stopping a panic."
+
+
+TREE TELLS OF RUSE.
+
+"It is certainly the most terrible tragedy I ever heard of," said Mr.
+Tree, the proprietor. "It is quite easy at times to prevent a panic from
+the stage by a little presence of mind. I was playing once in Belfast when
+suddenly behind a transparency I saw a reddish blaze and guessed it was a
+fire, but went quietly on until a convenient pause. Then I announced to
+the audience that something was out of order and the curtain would descend
+quietly and remain down a few minutes. I assured them there was absolutely
+no danger. The curtain descended amid applause, and while the band played
+the fire was quickly smothered. The curtain rose and the play went on
+without a soul leaving the house.
+
+"It is quite possible at such a time for a person to hypnotize an
+audience. In all cases of theater disasters it has been the panic, not the
+fire, that has caused the big loss of life.
+
+"It is probable if the audience had known where the exits were the
+Iroquois theater might have been cleared in two minutes. I think that
+every night uniformed attendants should be stationed in all theaters,
+whose duty it should be to call out 'This way out' when the audience is
+leaving. I am surprised there appeared to be no outside balconies with
+stairways, as is the case in most American theaters, which is an
+advantage which we have not got here."
+
+
+FORTUNE FOR SAFETY.
+
+Sidney Smith, business manager of the Drury Lane theater, where "Mr.
+Bluebeard, Jr.," was produced two years ago, said: "The kernel of the
+whole matter is that human beings will be human beings. There is no
+possible provision against a panic. Our theater is the only isolated one
+in London."
+
+
+W. C. ZIMMERMAN ON EUROPEAN THEATERS.
+
+W. Carbys Zimmerman, of Chicago, the well-known architect, sailed for
+America on the Saturday succeeding the fire, with his wife, in a state of
+intense anxiety as to whether his children had been caught in the Iroquois
+disaster.
+
+Mr. Zimmerman had just completed a tour of inspection of the theaters of
+Vienna, Paris and London. "My work in London," he said, "was interfered
+with by the appalling news from Chicago. I had seen only a few theaters
+here when I heard of the Iroquois fire. After that I had no heart to make
+further investigation. My observation leads me to think the Vienna
+theaters the safest in Europe. Many of them are quite detached from other
+buildings. They are splendidly furnished with exits and fire-fighting
+appliances. The theaters of Paris, except the best ones, are extremely
+dangerous.
+
+"From what I saw in London I judge that fire in many theaters would result
+in great loss of life. The passages are often so narrow that two people
+can scarcely pass. The managers naturally put a rosy face on the matter.
+They pretend that the Chicago fire has not reduced their bookings, but
+intelligent observers know better. Immense improvements are certain to be
+effected in London theaters in the immediate future.
+
+"Every theater should be isolated from other structures. It should have
+exits all round and these should be used regularly. There should be no
+emergency exits whatever. The fireproof curtain should be used constantly
+in place of the ordinary drop curtain. All passages should be straight and
+wide and all scenery noncombustible. Lastly, professional fire fighters
+should be properly posted throughout the performance. Europe recognizes
+that amateur firemen are useless in a crisis."
+
+
+THE EFFECT ON GAY PARIS.
+
+Thousands of Parisians, both French and Americans, including all those who
+had friends and relatives in Chicago, eagerly scanned the list of the dead
+and injured in the Iroquois disaster, as it was posted at the newspaper
+offices and distributed throughout the hotels and public places in the
+city. This step greatly relieved the anxiety of many of the American
+colony, while at the same time it confirmed the fears of those whose
+friends or acquaintances were caught in the fire.
+
+The theater managers complained at once that the Chicago catastrophe had a
+most damaging effect on receipts. All the popular matinees were
+comparatively deserted and the children's New Year pantomimes were
+complete failures. Cool heads pointed out that the Parisian theaters, as a
+rule, are better equipped against fire than those of Chicago, but without
+effect. The lesson of terror had seized the public.
+
+
+UPHEAVAL OF BERLIN THEATER WORLD.
+
+The Berlin evening papers of the fateful day expressed horror and sympathy
+over the Chicago catastrophe, comparing the details with those of the
+Vienna and Paris theater fires. The fire department of the city announced
+that it would immediately make a fresh study of the protective
+arrangements of the local theaters, so as to prevent, if possible, a
+disaster similar to the one at Chicago.
+
+Directors of all the Berlin theaters were promptly summoned to police
+headquarters and apprised of the kaiser's demand that fire protection be
+made more adequate. The directors of many houses came before their
+audiences and publicly stated their intention to install the new
+facilities ordered by the kaiser. These precautions included the lowering
+of the iron curtain five minutes before each performance and during the
+intermissions; an increase in the number of firemen on and off the stage,
+and illuminated exit signs, incapable of extinguishment by smoke or flame.
+Before each performance the firemen were also to make minute inspection of
+the building and furnish a formal report that all was right before the
+curtain was raised.
+
+The greatest bomb, however, cast into the theater world of Berlin was
+Emperor Wilhelm's order summarily closing the Royal Opera House until
+certain alterations, necessary for protection from fire and possible
+panic, were made. The kaiser's action attracted the attention of the whole
+community, which concluded that if the largest and best-equipped playhouse
+in Prussia was unsafe many minor establishments must be positively
+dangerous. Berlin, without doubt, contained a dozen music halls and other
+places of amusement where a fire panic would be deadly, and they followed
+the fate of the Royal Opera House and were closed until safeguards
+approved by the proper authorities were provided. In the future
+proprietors of Berlin theaters will also station special policemen in
+their houses for the sole purpose of controlling audiences in case of
+fire, or panic, or both. Thus did the Chicago tragedy profoundly affect
+one of the great theater centers of the world.
+
+
+MR. SHAVER ON BERLIN THEATERS.
+
+Cornelius H. Shaver, president of the Railroad News Company of Chicago,
+who was in Berlin at the time of the fire, said: "Many of the theaters in
+Germany strike me as firetraps. Several Berliners assure me that the
+ushers are the only ones sure of escaping with their lives from at least
+three of their best houses. The auditoriums in many German theaters are
+150 feet back from the street and to reach them one must journey through a
+labyrinth of courts, corridors and sudden turnings. In the interior the
+precautions against fire are excellent, including iron curtains, automatic
+sprinklers and squads of city firemen; but German theaters and hotels are
+lacking in so essential an equipment as outside fire escapes."
+
+
+VIENNA RECALLS A HORROR OF ITS OWN.
+
+The catastrophe at Chicago aroused the most painful interest and the
+utmost sympathy everywhere in Austria, the Viennese having a keen
+recollection of the disaster at the Ring theater in 1881, when 875 people
+lost their lives. Intense anxiety prevailed in the American colony, as
+many doctors and musical students who form the bulk of the colony come
+from the Middle West of the United States.
+
+Herr Lueger, the burgomaster of Vienna, sent a cable message to Mayor
+Harrison, expressing sympathy and deep condolence over the terrible
+catastrophe.
+
+
+THE NETHERLANDS AND SCANDINAVIA.
+
+Upon receipt of definite news of the Iroquois theater disaster the
+theaters and music halls in The Hague were overhauled by the authorities.
+Amsterdam and Rotterdam demanded strict enforcement of the regulations
+against fire and new legislation looking to that end was at once put in
+force.
+
+In Copenhagen, Stockholm and Christiania the Danish, Swedish and Norwegian
+licensing authorities for public amusements caused a rigid inspection to
+be made of all playhouses with a view to better safeguards against fire,
+and that inspection is still progressing and will doubtless bear good
+results as in other European centers.
+
+Enough has been said to indicate that virtually the entire hemisphere of
+the West has been stirred to practical action by the terrible calamity
+which this book records. It is not within the range of human possibility
+that theaters can be made absolutely perfect, any more than other human
+institutions, nor is it possible that the awful lesson furnished by the
+Iroquois theater disaster will have been forgotten before substantial
+improvements are made in the amusement houses of the world for the present
+and future protection of human life.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XVIII.
+
+SUGGESTIONS FOR SAFE THEATERS.
+
+
+Clarence J. Root, of Chicago, an assistant of Prof. Cox in the weather
+bureau, makes the following suggestions in connection with the
+safe-theater agitation:
+
+"Location--All theaters to be in buildings by themselves, like the
+Illinois and Iroquois. No stores or offices to be located in them.
+Buildings should be isolated, with wide private or public alleys or courts
+entirely around the rear and sides. A false wall could be built in front
+of the side courts where they project upon the street, thus helping the
+appearance of the block. These should, however, have wide arches through
+them.
+
+"Construction--All buildings to be absolutely fireproof. The buildings
+should be built of steel, fireproof tiling, steel lathing, etc. Scenery of
+asbestos or aluminum would be practicable. Aluminum is light and easily
+handled. The seats to be upholstered in leather. The floor to be
+constructed of metal, cement, mosaic or composition, with thin rubber
+matting over them, such as is used on sleeping-car steps. Ornamental iron
+work can be used on boxes, front of balconies, etc. Stair railings of
+brass or fancy copper. The fire curtain to be of steel and asbestos both.
+The heavy steel would prevent any bulging from a draft.
+
+"Exits--No steps or stairs should be used in the aisles or exits or
+anywhere in the theater. Easy inclines, similar to the ones in the new
+Pittsburg theater, should be used in the aisles, the inside entrances and
+exits, and the outside exits, all to be covered with rubber to prevent
+slipping. Two or three very wide exits ought to be provided on each side
+of the theater, and in addition, one (say twice as wide as the aisle) at
+the rear end of each aisle, the hallway leading from these rear exits, if
+not opening outdoors, to be wide enough to accommodate the entire number
+of exits. These rules should apply in the balconies, also. The outside
+fire-escapes to be long, easy inclines, with high sides, to prevent people
+from jumping. Each exit to have its own independent incline, so that the
+crowd from the first balcony cannot block those from the upper gallery, as
+in the Iroquois fire. All doors to swing outward and not to be locked
+during the performance. They should be inspected before each play and
+should be so connected, electrically, that every door in the house could
+be thrown open instantly, merely by the touching of a button, these
+buttons to be located on the stage and other places convenient to the
+ushers and employees. Theaters should not be built 'L' shape. That was one
+fault of the Iroquois. The crowd naturally followed the aisles to the back
+of the house and then, instead of finding themselves at the outdoor exits,
+as in most playhouses, they had to go clear to one side of the theater.
+This mixed them up with the crowds from the other aisles and concentrated
+too many people in one place.
+
+"Summary--A theater as described above could not burn, but a sprinkler
+system would do no harm. Heating and power plant in another building would
+prevent danger of an explosion. The aisles should be very wide and no
+standing room or portable chairs allowed. It may seem unnecessary in a
+fireproof theater to have such elaborate exits, but panics will occur from
+other causes than fires. A plan of the house should be printed on the
+cover of the program; this should plainly show the exits. A description
+of the fireproof qualities of the theater should also be printed. This
+will secure the confidence of the audience, and perhaps avert a panic. In
+a house built and equipped, strictly in accordance with the above ideas, a
+fire would be impossible and a serious panic unlikely."
+
+
+FRANCIS WILSON SAYS "NO STEPS."
+
+Francis Wilson, the well known actor, in speaking of the fire, said:
+
+"I suppose similar scenes always will follow a sudden rush in any building
+crowded with men and women, but I feel strongly that theater buildings
+could be improved so as to reduce the danger in a stampede to a minimum.
+It is my opinion that there should not be a single step in a theater. The
+descents should be gentle inclines. That this is possible is shown by the
+construction of a new theater in Pittsburg, where even the gallery is
+reached by inclines.
+
+"It is the thought of the many stairways that must be passed quickly, and
+possibly in darkness, that drives the occupants of the galleries to panic
+at any alarm. If they were sure of a clear pathway straight to the street
+half their fear would be allayed. In doing away with steps in the
+auditoriums of theaters the builders should not forget the actors."
+
+
+STAIRCASES WITH RAILINGS.
+
+Suggestion by W. B. Chamberlain, of London:
+
+"In nearly all fires in theaters loss of life seems to be at the head of
+stairs. This is natural, as persons who come first to the head of the
+stairs, hold back, being afraid to go down quickly lest they be pushed
+down by those behind them. People seem to think a broad staircase safer
+than a narrow one. I don't think this is the case, as in a narrow one you
+can put your hands on two sides, and go down with less fear of being
+thrown forward. All wide staircases should be provided with handrails, for
+if you have both hands on handrails you can run down quickly. If theaters
+were below ground you would in case of fire run up instead of down. They
+would be much safer for want of air to feed the flames."
+
+
+PRECAUTIONS ENFORCED IN LONDON.
+
+According to Sir Algernon West, of London, since 1858 not a single life
+has been lost in a properly licensed theater building in that city, except
+of a fireman, who perished in the performance of duty at the Alhambra in
+1882. During the few days following the Iroquois disaster, theater
+managers and the public praised the wisdom of the rules of the county
+council, whereas some of the former had been wont to find them rather
+irksome. In addition to the main rules about lowering the asbestos curtain
+once during the performance, doors opening outward, stairways and passages
+to be kept free, there are some other precautions which must be observed.
+All doors used for the purpose of exit must, if fastened during the time
+the public are in the building, be secured during such time only by
+automatic bolts only of a pattern and position approved by the council.
+The management must allow the public to leave by all exit doors. All gas
+burners within reach of the audience must be protected by glass or wire
+globes. All gas taps within reach of the public must be made secure.
+
+An additional means of lighting for use in the event of the principal
+system being extinguished must be provided in the auditorium, corridors,
+passages, exits and staircases. If oil or candle lamps are used for this
+purpose, they must be of a pattern approved by the council, and properly
+secured to a noninflammable base, out of reach of the public. Such lamps
+must be kept lighted during the whole time the public is in the premises.
+No mineral oil must be used in them. All hangings, curtains and draperies
+must be rendered noninflammable. Scenery is painted on canvas that has
+been first prepared with a solution recommended by the county council, to
+make it noninflammable. The paints used by the scenic artists contain no
+oils.
+
+
+WHAT THE CHICAGO CITY ENGINEER SAYS.
+
+John Ericson, the city engineer of Chicago, has this to offer:
+
+"A theater building should have an open space on all sides with exits and
+entrances leading directly out, and not, as now is mostly the case, be
+wedged in tight between other large buildings, with a number of exits all
+leading to one or two not too wide hallways which again, together with the
+stairways from the balconies and galleries, merge into one entrance. These
+halls and stairways are only too easily blocked by the frantic people in
+case of a panic. The aisles in most of our theaters are also too narrow
+and should be made considerably wider.
+
+"The excuse that space is too valuable for such extravagance cannot hold.
+If the return for the capital invested in such a case does not seem
+sufficiently large to the investor, then rather charge a little more for
+the entertainment or reduce the number of playhouses so as to insure full
+houses, but in the name of humanity construct those that are used in such
+a way that calamities such as have occurred will be an impossibility.
+
+"I am also of the opinion that perforated water pipes over the stage, into
+which water can be turned at a moment's notice so as to drench the whole
+stage if necessary, would add greatly to the safety of life and property.
+
+"An automatic sprinkler system would probably have been less effective in
+the case of the Iroquois fire, as great damage to life would have probably
+been done before such sprinklers would have been put into action."
+
+
+OPINION OF A FIREPROOF EXPERT.
+
+William Clendennin, editor of the _Fireproof Magazine_, condemned the
+Iroquois Theater building as long ago as last August. Here is his opinion,
+which he asserts is based on a personal investigation:
+
+"The Iroquois theater was a firetrap. The whole thing was a rush
+construction. It was beautiful but it was cheap. Everything but the
+structural members was of wood; the roller on the asbestos curtain, the
+pulleys, all of a cheap compromise.
+
+"I made an investigation of the theater last August and condemned it on
+four different points. My condemnation was published in the August number
+of the _Fireproof_. The points are:
+
+"1. The absence of an intake, or stage draft shaft.
+
+"2. The exposed re-enforcement of the concrete arch.
+
+"3. The presence of wood trim on everything.
+
+"4. The inadequate provision of exits.
+
+"A theater has two parts--the stage and the house or audience part. There
+should be a roll shutter between the two and the best sort of a curtain is
+a compromise. The poor stuff in the curtain at the Iroquois theater made
+it doubly a compromise; a great danger, a terrible trap.
+
+"The stage may be compared to a closet. When you open a closet door the
+draft is outward, not inward. So when the fire started on the stage the
+draft pulled it toward the audience. It was a quick flame puff.
+
+"The arch, or ceiling, was covered with a cheap concrete. The first puff
+of flame destroyed this. It crumbled away, exposing the twisted mass of
+steel re-enforcement and girders, and fell on the audience. This killed
+many. Looking from below, the bewildered, choking and maddened crowd
+thought it was the result of a panic above. They believed the galleries
+were falling and in the rush resulting many more were killed.
+
+"The Iroquois theater was the most-talked-of construction in the country
+at the time of its building. It was believed to be the expression of the
+most modern ideas in regard to theater building; to be about as near
+fireproof as one could be. My investigation satisfied me that it was one
+of the worst firetraps in the city. There was so much wood and so much
+plush and inflammable trimming about everything. The insufficient exits
+tell the rest of the story."
+
+
+ILLUMINATED EXIT SIGNS.
+
+On this point T. B. Badt, a consulting electrical engineer of Chicago,
+writes:
+
+"It has been stated that in the Iroquois no exit signs were over the
+doors, and it has been suggested that this was one of the causes of loss
+of life. The question arises, what would signs have been good for if the
+theater was thrown in darkness? The signs would not have been seen any
+more than the doors underneath the draperies. In order to avoid such
+trouble I should propose the following:
+
+"Have over each door a transparent sign made out of metal with glass
+crystal letters, and have same illuminated from the outside of the
+building wall by means of a lantern attached on the outside, and have this
+lantern supplied by a source of light independent of the theater lighting
+system, either electric or gas. The sign would be illuminated at all times
+during the performance; it would not be an objection during dark scenes,
+because there would be practically no light thrown through the glass
+letters to interfere with the darkness inside; at the same time the sign
+would stand there glaring the word 'exit,' no matter how dark the theater
+or how light the theater. The main point I am trying to raise is that any
+device which has to be operated in case of an emergency is liable to fail,
+but an illuminated sign that will be illuminated at all times will be
+there no matter what trouble may happen, because nobody can forget to
+light it during the excitement, as it is already lighted before the
+performance commences. This, in my opinion, is the keynote for all devices
+which are intended to prevent panics in theaters. An automatic device is
+dependent upon certain conditions, usually rise of temperature near the
+ceiling. A manually operated safety device depends upon the presence of
+mind and cool-headedness of a certain employee and in my opinion all these
+features should be eliminated. Everything should be ready for an emergency
+and not be dependent upon somebody or something to make it ready. All exit
+doors ought to be unlocked and swing open towards the outside, and this,
+in connection with the permanently illuminated sign above the door saying
+'exit,' in my opinion, would prevent any of the calamities heretofore
+experienced in theater disasters."
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XIX.
+
+THE SWORN TESTIMONY OF THE SURVIVORS.
+
+
+Scores and scores of witnesses assembled in the little committee rooms and
+antechambers of the council hall in the great Chicago administrative
+building, each with his story to add to the story of horror, when the
+inquest over the dead began on Thursday, January 7, 1904, one week and a
+day after the disaster.
+
+Some were muffled under great rolls of bandages that concealed frightful
+scars and burns. Others gave no outward indication of the season of terror
+they had passed and survived to tell the tale. Fashionable theater goers,
+actors, actresses and stage hands, chorus girls, belted policemen and grim
+firemen, all met on terms of temporary equality, forming a heterogeneous
+assemblage waiting the call to take the stand. One by one they were
+admitted to the vast council chamber where for days the inquisition
+continued.
+
+Vast throngs of curious besieged the place, clamoring for opportunity to
+view the proceedings. None, save the favored few citizens to whom tickets
+were issued, municipal, county and state officials and representatives of
+the press, enjoyed that opportunity. To them day after day a growing tale
+of suffering and death was unfolded such as has not fallen upon mortal
+ears for half a century. It was a harrowing recital that satiated and
+sickened the auditors and left them faint at each adjournment.
+
+For days preceding the opening session Coroner Traeger his deputies and
+the six jurors had been engaged in a canvass of hospitals, undertaking
+establishments and morgues, viewing the dead. Nor was that ghastly work
+over when they entered upon the semi-judicial task of taking testimony.
+Ever and anon they halted the inquiry to proceed to the bedside of some
+victim that had died after lingering suffering. This formality was
+necessary before burial permits could issue. Each succeeding call brought
+to the jurors a shudder. Theirs was a gruesome task for the public service
+and they felt its burden keenly.
+
+The trend of the statements taken were the same. Details formed the only
+variations. Some of the statements follow:
+
+
+THE FIRST WITNESS.
+
+John C. Galvin, 1677 West Monroe street, Chicago, the first witness heard,
+said:
+
+"On the day the fire occurred I stepped into the vestibule to buy tickets
+for the following evening. It must have been a little after half past
+three. As I stepped into the entrance I looked into the lobby and turned
+to the ticket office, and as I did so the center doors of the lobby foyer
+and the outside entrance doors were blown open as though by a gust of hot
+air. I looked into the foyer and I saw people running toward the entrance.
+I realized at once what the trouble was, and went to the lobby doors and
+tried to open the west door there, that being the nearest to me. It was
+locked on the inside and I couldn't do anything with it.
+
+"Then I tried to pacify the people from rushing or crowding, tried to save
+the panic, but it was no use. I would judge there were probably a dozen,
+not more than a dozen, cleared the door before the crush came. I recollect
+the first person to go down seemed to be a rather stout woman, who seemed
+to be free herself, somebody stepping on her skirt. She turned to gather
+up her skirts and she was borne down by the crowd, and then they piled on
+top of each other. I did what I could to release the jam, pulling the
+people from under the crowd and getting them out into the entrance, out
+into the street, but all the while the vestibule was filling up by those
+returning to help their friends, and people rushing into the street and
+helping to bring the crowd to. I tried to open the outside entrance door,
+the west door, which I found was bolted on the inside at that time. I
+tried to lift the bolt, but I couldn't do that.
+
+"Then I kicked out two of the panels. I kicked the glass out of the
+panels, and I then returned to the west vestibule door and I kicked out
+the panels of these two doors, that is, the west door, and tried to take
+some of the people out through the openings. After we got out of the
+doorway I walked back into the entrance gallery and walked around, and
+there was a dense smoke coming from the theater.
+
+"I was expecting a big crush in the vestibule, a much larger crush than I
+saw. I thought there would be a jam on that stair, but nobody came down
+the stairs to my recollection, not a soul. They never lived to reach it.
+All the time I was there I saw no one whose dress or demeanor would
+indicate they were policemen, firemen or attaches of the theater. I
+remained doing what I could to relieve the situation until driven out by
+the smoke. I then went across the street and watched the destruction of
+the theater."
+
+
+MARLOWE'S EXPERIENCE.
+
+James C. McGurn, 2 Rosemont street, Dorchester, Mass., known on the stage
+as James C. Marlowe:
+
+"I was in the Garrick theater, a block distant, to see the show. At the
+first alarm I hurried out and went down to the Iroquois theater entrance.
+I went inside and the firemen were in working at the time, getting lines
+of hose in there. Some of the firemen were already pouring streams through
+into the lobby. There was a tremendous draft there and the lobby was
+clear, but directly inside the door that had been opened there were dense
+volumes of smoke. The first thought that struck my mind, being conversant
+with theaters, was that there might be somebody in the house. Just then a
+man came in there, followed by another man, a citizen, and we were the
+only men in the lobby outside of the firemen. He asked for the gallery
+stairway and immediately after that I saw him going up the stairs to the
+right as you go in the lobby. He went up these stairs with his men and a
+fireman followed him.
+
+"I was watching the stairs, and they were up there thirty seconds, about,
+when the fireman came down with the first body, a little girl, about eight
+years old. He shouted out to the firemen for God's sake to get up there,
+and all the firemen I saw in the lobby dropped everything and went up, and
+they weren't up there but a few seconds before they came tumbling down
+with bodies, and after I had remained there about three minutes more I saw
+dozens of bodies brought down. One fireman slipped with the body of an old
+lady about the fourth step and fell down on the marble floor and I helped
+put her into the fireman's arms. The smoke was so dense I could not see
+much and as I could do nothing to help any one I hurried out of the
+foyer."
+
+
+MUSICAL DIRECTOR'S SWORN STATEMENT.
+
+Antonio Frosolono, 170 Seminary avenue, Chicago, musical director at the
+ill-fated theater:
+
+"I was in the Iroquois theater playing at that performance in the
+orchestra. I was not directing the performance, as the company has its own
+director. I was sitting sideways, facing the east door of the stage. The
+stage was to my left. I do not know how the fire started, only I heard a
+confusion.
+
+"The 'Pale Moonlight' scene was on and sixteen people, the double octette,
+occupied the stage. Some of them did not sing, and some of them went out
+of their places. Eddie Foy came out and announced that if everybody would
+keep quiet everything would be all right. Then, when I turned around, the
+stage fireman had kicked a piece of blazing curtain down in the orchestra.
+
+"Then the bassoon player made a terrible scramble to get out, and I think
+he succeeded in getting out. Then after that Mr. Dolere, the musical
+director for the company, went out like a shot out of a gun; he went over
+the stand and everything. He went under the stage. Then everybody else got
+out. I still sat there, because I did not see much danger to myself, as I
+thought, or anybody else. I saw the people when they went out, and I heard
+the cries, and that is what attracted my attention. I stayed there until
+everybody else had gone out of the orchestra. The time when I thought it
+was time to get out was when the bass fiddle and the 'cello got to
+burning.
+
+"All were excited on the stage. Some tried to put the fire out and others
+ran. Some one was trying to lower the curtain, but it would not come down
+all the way. Of a sudden it bulged out over my head like a balloon. Then
+the flames began to rush out from under the curtain. I saw the people
+rushing out, some jumping over, hallooing and screaming; then I turned
+around at that instant to my right and saw that the violin and 'cello and
+bass fiddle had caught on fire at one of the music stands, and then I went
+out."
+
+
+MRS. PETRY'S ESCAPE.
+
+Mrs. Josephine Petry, 6014 Morgan street:
+
+"On Wednesday afternoon at 2:15 I went to the Iroquois theater. It was
+late; the performance had begun. My ticket entitled me to what I thought
+was the balcony, but it was at the top of the house, and when I went up
+there the theater was dark and the people were standing four deep behind
+my seat.
+
+"It was the second act, the moonlight octette, if I am not mistaken, when
+I saw on the left hand side behind the proscenium arch a bright light. I
+kept my eyes on that, because to me it did not look right, and it got
+brighter all the time. Eddie Foy came right beside the proscenium arch,
+right where the fire was on the side, over him, and told the people they
+should keep their seats, there was no danger. Naturally a few got up, but
+they sat down again. Some people said: 'Keep your seats.' I got up and
+some one said beside me: 'Sit down, there is nothing the matter.' I sat
+down again, but the glare was getting much brighter and pieces of charred
+cloth were falling down, although the flames by then had not come forward.
+They were all behind, but you could see the light so brightly I picked up
+my wraps and went out.
+
+"I went out by the same way I entered. At the lower floor about a hundred
+people were trying to get out. The doors were locked. When I left the
+charred remnants of the scenery were falling down in large chunks onto the
+stage, and the lights were so bright that they scared me, and I got up,
+but the flames had not reached the stage yet when I left, but when I got
+down to the exit and I turned my head there was a mass of flames behind;
+it was all flames, and yet I did not hear a sound."
+
+
+UP AGAINST LOCKED DOORS.
+
+Ebson Ryburn, stock broker, 3449 Prairie avenue, Chicago:
+
+"I was at the box office with the intention of purchasing tickets for the
+night; I went to the box office about 3:30 p. m., and when I went in there
+were three or four others ahead of me. Suddenly I heard some commotion on
+the inside and several persons rushed out, and there must have been as
+many as five or six, I guess, got out, and then I heard a woman cry
+'Fire.' Up to that time I did not think it was anything serious. I thought
+probably it was a scare and I looked in through the door and I saw more
+coming--rushing--and I rushed over to hold the doors open, and did so for
+a length of time until quite a number got out, and I noticed several going
+to the door next to it; that is, the last door west; and then came over to
+this other door.
+
+"They tried to push it open. I left where I was and went to that door and
+tried to force it open and could not. I saw between the two doors a bolt
+or a bar, and there was quite a number coming out the other door then and
+I saw there was no chance to come out, and I tried to open the other door
+opposite that leading into the street, and that door was in the same
+condition, locked or bolted; it was fastened; I could not get out of that
+door and I could not get in the other. Then there were quite a number
+coming out, and I noticed several men, and by that time I could see smoke,
+a little haze of smoke, and every one coming out seemed to be frightened,
+crazy-like, and so I got out myself into the street. The fire department
+had not yet arrived."
+
+
+BLOWN INTO THE ALLEY.
+
+Mrs. James D. Pinedo, 478 North Hoyne avenue, Chicago:
+
+"I reached the theater to attend the fatal matinee late, about 2:25
+o'clock. The performance was in progress and we could not secure seats, so
+we got standing room tickets and entered. When I reached the extreme right
+of the theater the people were only standing one deep. There was a space
+there where I could see the stage, especially the left part of the stage
+where the sparks started, and the curtain had just rung up for the second
+act, a few minutes after the chorus was singing, when I saw a man using
+his hands trying to put out the sparks. When I saw those few sparks I
+quietly turned around to see if there was any fire escape or exit on that
+floor in case there should be a fire, and I didn't move because I was
+afraid of precipitating a panic. I simply turned my head and I saw what I
+supposed was an exit. I couldn't tell.
+
+"I saw drapery and naturally supposed, being a theater-goer, that it
+masked an exit. I turned back to the stage then, and in the meantime these
+sparks had changed into flames, and I put on my rubbers--I was very calm
+at the time--and I got ready to move out. Eddie Foy told us to be
+perfectly quiet and avoid a panic, and there were also some men and women
+in the back part of the audience who also told the people to sit down. I
+have never seen an audience who were saner than these women and children.
+They sat perfectly still I should say for at least two minutes, while
+those sparks changed into flames. They were perfectly calm. I think most
+of these women realized there were little children there. The audience was
+nearly packed full of children.
+
+"Then I saw the big ball of flame come out from the stage and fall in the
+auditorium of the theater on the heads of those in front, and I thought,
+'Now is the time to get out.' I walked quietly to what I thought was an
+exit, and there was a little man there before me, who had torn aside the
+drapery, and I saw an iron door or doors heavily bolted, and we couldn't
+get them open. It was bolted and I heard this man ask the usher to please
+unlock the door, and he refused. The usher was standing there and we were
+frantically, of course, trying to get the door open, but it would not
+open, and I judge we were standing at least two minutes, probably a minute
+and a half--time that seemed long enough in a case like that.
+
+"Finally the man induced this usher to try and open the door. At least
+they were trying to, the two of them, and I was right behind them--trying
+to open that door--when all of a sudden there was a rush of wind. I
+thought at the time it was an explosion, because I didn't know of any
+force powerful enough to open those iron doors, and those iron doors blew
+open, and blew us into the alley. Of course that is my last recollection.
+I was then safe."
+
+
+JUST OUT IN TIME.
+
+Ella M. Churcher, 850 Washington boulevard, Chicago:
+
+"I occupied the fourth row from the front in the top gallery, seats 42, 43
+and 44, with my mother and nephew. I was sitting in the middle. A shower
+of sparks was the first suggestion of fire. Then the curtain was lowered
+and Eddie Foy stepped out. I couldn't hear his words, but his motions were
+to sit down and keep our seats, and we did so until I saw the red curtain
+that went down after the first act give away in the upper left hand corner
+and pieces fell, making a large opening. It was on fire.
+
+"Then we got up and had to go about ten feet, that took us to the wall,
+and three steps to go up to the exit leading to the marble stairway. As we
+turned the last look I caught was a tongue of fire leaping to the gallery
+and a cloud of smoke with it, and we got the heat from it, scorching and
+blistering both of my ears and both my nostrils and scorching my hair and
+chiffon boa on my neck. At that instant we stepped out on the marble
+stairway, right out of it, and we got down stairs safely, and then we
+passed out to the street."
+
+
+SPORTING MEN TESTIFY.
+
+Frank Houseman, 293 Warren avenue, Chicago:
+
+"Dexter, the baseball player, and I dropped into the Iroquois that
+afternoon about 2:20 and found the house sold out with the exception of
+two boxes and standing room. We bought a couple of seats in an upper box
+and went in. The house was crowded and it was dark, for the performance
+was in progress. We found an usher and started up the stairway to the box.
+The stairway was pitch dark.
+
+"'This is a dark stairway; this is funny they don't have a light or
+something here,' I said to my friend. I stumbled a couple of times going
+up the stairway. Finally we got to where we were seated. Well, during the
+intermission between the first and second acts we had a good view of the
+audience, being up high, and I remarked to my friend that there were a
+great many women and children present in event of any trouble.
+
+"When the curtain rose for the second act, if I can remember, probably
+five or ten minutes after, I noticed a spark directly on the opposite side
+to the stage in behind. We were sitting up where we viewed the audience
+and it was very easy for us to distinguish the spark, and I saw a man--it
+looked as though he was on a pedestal of some kind; it must have been a
+bridge of some kind that he was standing on--working to put out the light,
+so I quietly said to my friend: 'Do you see those sparks over there?' He
+says: 'Yes; they will put that out all right.'
+
+"Well, I instantly thought about the stairway that I had to come up
+getting into this box, and somehow or other I could not get it out of my
+mind. I said: 'Well, now, I don't know; we better get down near the
+door--it looks pretty good--the outside.' So we finally started, and as we
+started out of the box I suggested that he tell the gentleman and lady
+that were in the box with us that they had better come on, which I
+understand he did. He came down the stairs.
+
+"It was a blast of flame or fire, a sort of ball or something that
+appeared to me like it was a lot of scenery that was burning down, scenery
+or flimsy work. It burnt a great deal on the order of paper. All I thought
+of was the opening of that door, because the people at that time were
+crowding close to me and screaming and hallooing, and I don't just
+remember just how I got that door open, but anyway it opened and carried
+the crowd out. I tried to do what I could around there for the people that
+were being trampled on, trying to pull them out from the middle of the
+alley and start them on their way if they were not too badly hurt, until
+they began jumping off the fire escapes above, and I noticed and looked up
+and saw that the people were not moving.
+
+"The flames by that time had come out of the top exits that were open, and
+the fire escape held all the people it could and the flames were
+surrounding them, and they were jumping, and those that were not pushed
+off jumped off. I was trying to get the people on the lower fire escape,
+which--I can guess at it--was probably ten or fifteen feet from the
+ground. We got a couple of them to jump down because it was but a little
+ways up; they began jumping right from overhead and of course I had to
+look out that no one fell on me, or would jump on me, and I could not do
+very much of anything, only to pull out the people being trampled upon,
+and pull them to one side, until one man jumped on, I think, three
+bodies, and started to get up and go away, and was just about in a rising
+position when there was a lady fell on him, and he didn't move after that.
+It became so dangerous then that I had to get away.
+
+"My intentions were to go around and out the same way I got in, or to get
+near the door, because I remarked to him when I got down stairs: 'We may
+have to help some of these little children here in case they don't put
+this out,' although I thought they would put it out. Well, there were
+three or four people standing along there, and when we reached the main
+floor just about that time the audience began to notice there was a fire.
+
+"Previous to this time they had not seen it and they began to mumble and
+some of them to rise, and Mr. Foy came out and tried to quiet them by
+stating that it was merely a little curtain fire; that they would put it
+out, and to be as quiet as possible. It seemed to relieve them. A great
+many of them returned to their seats. I thought I could hear Mr. Foy speak
+to some one back in the scenery as though he was waiting for the drop
+curtain.
+
+"Well, it began to look pretty bad about that time and I looked around and
+I saw the curtains, the first I had noticed of the exits there. I said to
+some one standing there, 'Where does this lead?' He says, 'Outside;' so I
+stayed there probably thirty seconds, when the bits of scenery and pieces
+of fire began to drop down all around the stage, and one or two of the
+girls that were on the stage at the time of the octette, fainted; well, I
+pushed this fellow aside, and for a moment--momentarily--looked at the
+lock, and it happened to be a lever that lifts up.
+
+"I am familiar with it, as I have one in my home, and I didn't have much
+trouble with it, but I was kind of disappointed when I opened it, because
+I thought it would lead outside--when I faced the iron doors. At that time
+there was a big blast came out from the stage."
+
+Charles Dexter, professional baseball player:
+
+"I met Mr. Houseman and he invited me to go to the theater with him, and
+we went together and we were a little bit late. We got seats in an upper
+box.
+
+"The house was quite dark when we went in, and we were ushered into the
+right hand box, that is, to the right of the stage; I guess that is the
+north box, and we got to see about the last part of the first act, and
+just about two minutes after we came in a lady and gentleman came in and
+we gave them our seats; they sat directly in front of us; I took the back
+seat, and just as the moonlight scene came on, the octette, Mr. Houseman
+turned to me and said: 'Do you see that little blaze?' And I told him I
+did.
+
+"He said: 'I think it is about time for us to get out of here.' I told him
+I thought everything would be all right; that he had better not start down
+stairs or say anything that would be liable to cause a panic, and he said
+he would go down quietly, and for me to tell the people ahead of me what
+to do. The stairway was so dark I tried to follow out.
+
+"I knew he had started down the steps, and I had to wait and light a match
+to tell where I was going down the steps, from the box down to the first
+floor. I lost Mr. Houseman then; I looked for him but could not find him,
+and I walked around and stood very near the first box. By that time the
+blaze had gone up.
+
+"Mr. Foy was on the stage telling the people to be quiet or pass out
+quietly. I couldn't tell exactly what he said, and I noticed the orchestra
+seemed inclined to leave, and I could hear him yelling to the leader to
+play, which he did.
+
+"They played for quite a little while; then the fire commenced dropping
+all around Mr. Foy, and I thought that I would get out, go out from the
+front door; I didn't know any other means of exit, and I started out that
+way. By that time the people had started out of their seats and I found
+that I could not get out that way very well. I thought that the best thing
+that I could do would be to come back and jump on the stage, hoping to get
+out the stage door. People were running around, and I didn't know what to
+do, and I ran into a crowd of little children.
+
+"The people were running over one another. I saw some draperies hanging
+and I opened them. I didn't know where I was going, and I found two doors
+of glass or wood. I didn't stop to examine them but I opened them. I found
+myself up against some iron doors. I didn't know how to work them. The
+only thing I could see was a cross-bar, and I started to shove that up,
+and I couldn't shove very well, and I started to beat at it. By that time
+the people were pushed up against me, and I didn't know whether I would be
+able to get it open or not. I had all the poor little kids around me, and
+I beat the thing until finally it went up, and as it did of course the
+people behind me--we went out into the alley.
+
+"I turned and looked back and saw a wave of fire sweeping over the whole
+inside of the theater."
+
+
+AN ELGIN PHYSICIAN'S TALE.
+
+"Dr. De Lester Sackett, Elgin, III.:
+
+"I attended the fateful matinee performance, accompanied by my wife, my
+sister-in-law and my little girl. We occupied seats in the third row of
+the first balcony at the extreme north end of the theater, next to the
+alley. At the time the fire broke out we were sitting where we could look
+right over to the extreme left of the stage, and what seemed to be a
+couple of limes, or an electric light; we could see sparks dropping from
+that sometimes. We could not see the light itself, but could see those
+sparks, evidently dropping from that kind of a light.
+
+"That was my first impression upon seeing it. And instantly there was more
+or less excitement, and the party who played the part of "Bluebeard" came
+to the extreme front of the stage at our extreme left and tried to allay
+the excitement by making motions with his hands, keeping the orchestra
+playing and the girls dancing, at the same time trying to get the audience
+to keep quiet. He said that there was danger from excitement, but not much
+danger from the fire.
+
+"There was much excitement in the immediate vicinity of my seats, with no
+gentlemen nearer than the three gentlemen sitting a little further to my
+right and back in the second section from us towards the rear were two
+young men; all others were women and children. There seemed to be perfect
+confusion and I rose to my feet and tried to quiet them, and counseled
+that they should not become excited; that there was more danger from a
+panic than there was from the fire. I never dreamed that the fire could
+reach us there, and we had to keep our positions in our seats, as I had
+counseled others to keep quiet, and it would not look very well for us to
+take the lead then and run, so we remained there until my wife said to me,
+'Every one has left their seats, and we must get out of here.'
+
+"I then turned and looked at the stage and saw how the fire had progressed
+and said to her: 'It is a race with death,' and I tried then to get my
+little girl, who was eleven years old, next to me. She was sitting next to
+the aisle. I reached beyond my wife and sister-in-law and I got my little
+girl and then I tried to crowd them into the aisle.
+
+"The pressure was so great I could not get them into the aisle. People
+crowded up the aisle so thick I could not get them in there, and I
+discovered the seats in our rear had been vacated. Everybody was getting
+to the aisle, and I told my wife our only show was over these seats, and I
+took my little girl and started and told them to follow me, which they
+did. At that time in the extreme left-hand corner back of us we could see
+light coming up--they had got an opening there in the rear of this
+balcony.
+
+"We couldn't see any opening, but we could see the light from the opening,
+and then we went over the seats. I didn't look back after I started. My
+wife and sister-in-law followed us, and we went over the seats and out of
+that rear exit back of the seats to the extreme north into the alley,
+where we found a fire escape.
+
+"The doors were open when we got there, but I cannot help but feel that if
+we had started sooner we would not have got to those doors. If we had
+waited longer we certainly would not have got through. My ears are still
+not healed from the burning they got. My nose was burned, and my
+sister-in-law's bandages have not been removed from her face yet, she was
+burned so bad, and it was all from hot air coming from that stage.
+
+"On the first landing from the exit we went out of, evidently two ladies
+had turned and were coming up the fire escape, instead of going the other
+way, they were so confused. I told them to turn and go down. They did not
+until I reached them and I took hold of one lady and turned her around and
+started her down and pushed the shutter back against the wall--I remember
+that very distinctly--and then we went on down and when I got to the foot
+of the escape I turned my child over to my wife and went back for my
+sister-in-law and crowded my way up between the people by keeping to the
+extreme outside railing, and got up probably to the first landing and
+found her coming down.
+
+"It is my impression that the curtain that was lowered was burned. I know
+that when the party playing the part of "Bluebeard" was out there he kept
+those girls dancing until one of them fainted, and they lifted her up, and
+I thought it was the most heroic thing I ever saw, those girls remaining
+there with the fire dropping all about them and still dancing in an effort
+to quiet the audience. The draft was something fearful. It carried the
+fire with it. The flames came clear out over the parquet, and so much so
+that after I started up those steps we didn't dare to look back."
+
+
+MR. MEMHARD'S DIFFICULT EXIT.
+
+Albert A. Memhard, 750 Greenleaf avenue, Rogers Park, Chicago:
+
+"I attended the matinee performance at the Iroquois, December 30, 1903. I
+was sitting in section A, the tenth seat in the first row in the first
+balcony or dress circle on the north side of the house, and on the right
+hand with reference to the stage. I was between two aisles just about the
+middle of the section. I was there before the orchestra started to play
+and saw the curtain go up before the first act and the same curtain come
+down and then be raised before the second act. I was in company with a
+theater party made up of Mr. Gurnsey, who is employed at the same store as
+myself, and our families. Soon after the second act started we saw, almost
+all of us at about the same time, sparks of fire coming from the left hand
+corner of the stage, perhaps eight feet from the top, but we sat still
+until it began to come out in flames, the flames dropping on the stage.
+Then we started out.
+
+"I could not open the first exit door I reached. I then went to the
+second exit and after some trouble I got it open by lifting up a brass
+lever. Then the inside doors opened, which were wood and glass. I had the
+iron doors to open next. I opened them by lifting a long bar. I went out
+on the fire escape with my friends, who were with me with the exception of
+my son, who had gone ahead, following the crowd. When I saw he was not
+with us I went back and ran almost to the top of the stairs. I brought him
+back. We went down the fire escape and out the alley to Dearborn street.
+
+"The fire exits were all covered by heavy draperies that might readily be
+mistaken for simple decorations and were not marked or labeled in any way.
+Neither was there any one on hand to direct the crowd how to get out. The
+only light was the illumination afforded by the fire."
+
+
+THE THEATER ENGINEER.
+
+Robert E. Murray, 676 Jackson boulevard, Chicago, engineer at the Iroquois
+theater:
+
+"I was down stairs underneath the stage when I heard some confusion about
+3:30 o'clock. I rushed upstairs onto the stage and the first person I saw
+was the house fireman. He had some kilfyre and was trying to sprinkle it
+on the fire. I saw the curtain down about ten feet from the stage and I
+tried to jump up and grab it to pull it down, but it was out of my reach.
+By that time there was fire coming down so I had to get away from there. I
+went to the elevator and saw that the boy was making trips and bringing
+people down as fast as he could. When I saw he was doing his duty I went
+downstairs and told my fireman to shut off steam in the house and pull the
+fires, so as to prevent the possibility of an explosion.
+
+
+RUSH OF CHORUS GIRLS.
+
+"Then some of the musicians and chorus girls came rushing through and they
+wanted to know which way out. There was a door in the smoking room in the
+basement and I opened it for them. Some went out that way. The smoke was
+so thick that some of them ran back. I took them to the coal hole and
+shoved them out of the coal hole. The smoke was getting so thick in there
+we could hardly stand it, so I told the fireman to take our clothes and go
+to the coal hole and get out. I stayed there and shut the steam off in the
+boilers, and was trying to get the fire out to save any boiler explosion
+if the fire should get too hot.
+
+"After I thought everybody was out of there I made a trip around the
+dressing rooms in the basement and hallooed, 'Everybody out down here.'
+Then I met a girl by the name of Nellie Reed. She was up against the wall
+scratching it and screaming. I grabbed her and went out with her to the
+street. I went back to the boiler. My toolbox was there, and I grabbed the
+toolbox and jerked it back on the coal pile and then I crawled out of the
+coal hole myself into the fresh air."
+
+
+A SCHOOL GIRL'S ACCOUNT.
+
+Ruth Michel, school girl, 698 North Robey street, Chicago:
+
+"I was sitting in the top balcony in the second row near the north or
+alley wall when the fire broke out. There were four in our party, all
+girls, and we reached our seats about five minutes before the performance
+began. The curtain went up for the second act and there was, I think,
+about twelve actresses on the stage. There was a green light thrown over
+the stage, to represent the moonlight, a greenish blue. I saw a man at the
+side of the stage making motions with his hands; I didn't know whether he
+was coming in at the wrong time or not, and then I saw a spark come from
+above the stage. Then a spark fell down, and one of the women in our party
+said, 'We will get out of here,' and a man rose and said he would knock
+our heads off if we got out, so we sat there. Then they tried to drop a
+curtain and it didn't come down very far.
+
+"Then they dropped another curtain. It came down beyond the one that got
+stuck, came down all the way, I think. That one caught fire right away,
+even before it reached the stage. Then an awful draft came and it blew the
+flames right out over the audience. We got out of our seats, got out of an
+exit all right and went out on the fire escape. I got down two or three
+steps and we were driven back by the flames below us. The heat came up
+just like a furnace and I went up two or three steps and then I got under
+the railing and dropped to the alley. I lit on my toes and a man caught me
+at the same time, so I was not hurt. The distance was the same as from the
+fourth story window of the building across the alley. Men in the alley
+called to me not to jump, but I knew I had to jump or else burn up,
+because the flames were coming up so right behind me."
+
+"I am only surprised that you escaped alive to tell of it," softly
+commented the coroner.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XX.
+
+LACK OF FIRE SAFEGUARDS.
+
+
+Examination of Robert E. Murray, engineer of the theater, and through that
+fact, the man in charge of its machinery and mechanical equipment,
+revealed in a startling way the absolute unpreparation for fire or
+emergency that characterized the palatial opera house. Coroner, jury and
+spectators alike were stirred by the confession of absolute disregard for
+life evinced by the management and the certainty that no thought had been
+given to the possibility of a fire.
+
+The entire fire equipment of the Iroquois as described by Murray consisted
+of two kilfyre tubes on the stage and one below the stage; a two inch
+stand pipe on the stage, two under the stage, and one near the coatroom in
+the front of the house. Only one of these, that in the front of the house,
+was equipped with hose. The kilfyre tubes were two inches in diameter and
+eighteen inches long. Incidentally Murray said that the ferrule along the
+bottom of the "asbestos" curtain was of wood, and not iron.
+
+Questions and answers touching on these conditions, as given under oath,
+follow:
+
+Q. Do you know whether the employees of the theater were at any time
+instructed by anybody to use these kilfyres or hose in case of fire?
+
+A. No, sir.
+
+Q. Was there anything on the reel of hose in the coatroom to indicate what
+it was there for?
+
+A. No, there was no sign on it.
+
+Q. Was there anything there to tell you or anybody else how to use the
+hose in case of fire?
+
+A. No, sir. The hose was on the reel and all you would have to do----
+
+Q. Never mind what you would have to do. Was there anything there for
+anybody to know what to do?
+
+A. No, sir.
+
+The witness testified that when he reached the stage after attending to
+his engines, the "asbestos" curtain was caught part way down.
+
+Q. No signs saying "Exits" or "This way out" or any-thing?
+
+A. No, sir.
+
+Q. Any fire alarm boxes that you know of in case of fire?
+
+A. No, sir.
+
+Q. No bells to ring in case of fire?
+
+A. No.
+
+Q. No appliance to call the fire department in case of fire?
+
+A. No, not that I know of.
+
+Q. What would you have to do in case of a fire, go out in the street for a
+fire alarm or fire box?
+
+A. If I could not put it out I would run to the box or to the telephone.
+
+Q. Do you know where the wires were that worked the ventilators, where
+they were located?
+
+A. On the north side of the stage, on the proscenium wall.
+
+Q. Who had charge of working them?
+
+A. The people on the stage.
+
+Q. What do you know about the skylights, how were they opened?
+
+A. I never noticed.
+
+
+[Illustration: HARRY J. POWERS, One of the Theater Managers Arrested for
+Manslaughter.]
+
+[Illustration: MONROE FULKERSON, Attorney for the Fire Department.]
+
+[Illustration: EDDIE FOY, Leading Actor, who told the audience to go out
+slowly.]
+
+[Illustration: SCENE ON THE STAGE WHEN THE FIRE STARTED. The star shows
+where the fire started.]
+
+[Illustration: PROMENADE IN FRONT PART OF IROQUOIS THEATER.]
+
+[Illustration: RELATIVES TRYING TO FIND THEIR DEAD.]
+
+[Illustration: WAITING THEIR TURN TO GET INTO THE MORGUE.]
+
+[Illustration: POLICE MAKING LIST OF UNIDENTIFIED BODIES.]
+
+[Illustration: CARTING AWAY THE DEAD.]
+
+[Illustration: MAIN EXIT FROM FIRST BALCONY, WHERE OCCURRED THE GREATEST
+LOSS OF LIFE.]
+
+[Illustration: MANAGERS DAVIS AND POWERS GIVING $10,000 BONDS AFTER THEIR
+ARREST.]
+
+[Illustration: MISS MINNIE H. SCHAFFNER, 578 45TH PLACE, CHICAGO.
+
+Miss Schaffner, 25 years of age, had been a teacher for a number of years,
+and at the time she met her death was connected with the Forrestville
+school. She attended the matinee with two friends, one of whom was among
+the victims.]
+
+[Illustration: JACK POTTLITZER, LAFAYETTE, IND.
+
+The ten-year-old boy who lost his life at the fire while in company with
+his cousins, Miss Tessie Bissinger and Walter Bissinger. Miss Bissinger
+only escaped. Jack's mother died six months before.]
+
+[Illustration: MRS ARTHUR BERGCH, 4926 CHAMPLAIN AVENUE. CHICAGO.
+
+Mrs. Bergch attended the theater with her son, who was also killed. She
+was terribly burned, the body being identified by her rings. She left a
+husband and a baby two years old.]
+
+[Illustration: ARTHUR J. BERGCH, 11 YEARS OLD. CHICAGO.
+
+The boy was burned beyond recognition, the body being identified by a
+favorite jackknife, which was found by the father in his trousers
+pocket.]
+
+[Illustration: ARTHUR E. HULL, 244 OAKWOOD BOULEVARD, CHICAGO.
+
+Mr. Hull lost his wife and three children in the fire, and took the first
+steps toward the arrest of the proprietors of the Iroquois Theater and the
+formation of the Iroquois Memorial Association.]
+
+[Illustration: THOMAS D. KNIGHT, CHICAGO.
+
+Mr. Knight is the legal representative of Arthur E. Hull in the affairs of
+the Iroquois Memorial Association, organized by Mr. Hull to safeguard the
+interests of the fire victims and to concentrate public opinion on the
+question of safe theaters.]
+
+[Illustration: DONALD D. AND DWIGHT M. HULL, 244 OAKWOOD BOULEVARD,
+CHICAGO.
+
+Two nephews and adopted children of Arthur E. Hull 8 and 6 years of age
+who with his daughter Helen and wife were burned to death. Mr. Hull headed
+the movement for safe theaters.]
+
+[Illustration: HELEN MURIEL HULL, 12 YEARS OLD CHICAGO
+
+The daughter of Arthur E. Hull made one of a little theater party
+organized by his wife for the amusement of the three children. All the
+party perished.]
+
+[Illustration: WILL J. DAVIS, One of the Theater Managers Arrested for
+Manslaughter.]
+
+
+A UNIVERSITY STUDENT'S STORY.
+
+Equally damaging testimony was given by Fred H. Rea, 3231 South Park
+avenue, a student at the Northwestern University Dental School. After
+telling of the scenes when "death alley" was bridged by planks and ladders
+thrust from the school windows he told of the death jam on the fire
+escapes.
+
+Rea's story was one of the most graphic told which narrated the horrors of
+Death's Alley, and the narrow escape of those who were fortunate enough to
+be rushed over the planks thrown to them from the University building. It
+was not only a story, but an additional evidence of the total lack of
+preparation for the meeting of just such an emergency.
+
+"At the time the fire broke out I was in the Northwestern University
+building on the third floor in the law school," he said. "I heard
+something that sounded like an explosion and all the students present
+immediately ran to the lecture room. There we met some painters who were
+repairing the ceiling in the corridor. They joined us, bringing with them
+three planks and ladders. These planks we placed from the back window of
+the lecture room across to the upper landing of the gallery. One ladder
+was placed across from the fire escape of the lecture room to the second
+landing. Across the ladder, I think, only one person came, as the flames
+from the exit were so hot that nobody could reach it.
+
+"Fourteen or fifteen persons came across the plank, and all but three or
+four were badly burned. I saw at least three persons try to pass down the
+fire escape from the top landing, but they were unable to do so, because
+at the second landing from the top the doors were not swung clear back
+against the wall. The doors were at right angles to the wall, and through
+the exit smoke was pouring and part of the time flames. Several people on
+the upper landing deliberately climbed over the railing and dropped to the
+alley below.
+
+"I saw one woman drop and strike a ladder which was placed to the fire
+escape and bound off into the alley. A man climbed out over and was
+clinging by his hands, when one of the firemen came up from below and held
+him until a ladder could be run up. A number of people who fell in the jam
+on the exit burned right there before our eyes. We could see their clothes
+on fire. That was on the landing of the fire escape, partly in and partly
+out of the exit."
+
+
+A CLERGYMAN'S STORY.
+
+The Rev. Albertus Perry, 5940 Princeton avenue, Chicago, was passing the
+theater when the panic started. He ran into the vestibule and thence into
+the foyer, where he saw men breaking open the doors. He remained but a
+short time, and left, overcome by the terrible sight.
+
+"The great marble hall was filled with madmen and hysterical women fleeing
+for life," he declared. "The doors, of which there appeared to be several
+sets, were locked against them with the exception of the center door of
+each set. Men were beating against the steel and glass barriers and women
+crowded with the desperation of death stamped upon their faces. Smoke was
+puffing out, filling the beautiful foyer and telling in awful eloquence of
+the triumph of death further in. I could do nothing to relieve the
+situation for there was nothing within the power of mortal man to do to
+stop the horror. So I left, overcome by the terrible sight that had met my
+eyes."
+
+
+THE FLY MAN'S STORY.
+
+Charles Sweeney, 186 North Morgan street, Chicago, "fly man" on first
+flying gallery, nearest point where the fire started:
+
+"In the second act, in the 'Pale Moonlight' scene, I was sitting on a
+bench, and there were two or three more of the boys. About ten feet from
+the front of the fly gallery I saw a bright light. The other boys saw it,
+I guess, at the same time and we ran over there. I saw a small blaze on
+one of the borders. I don't know exactly which one. I hallooed across the
+stage to Joe Dougherty. He was the man taking Seymour's place. Seymour was
+sick. I said, 'Down with the asbestos curtain.' Smithey and I got
+tarpaulins and we slapped the flame with them. We did the best we could
+and then it got out of our reach. It went right along the border toward
+the center. Then it burned and one end of it fell down, bent like. Then it
+blazed all over and I saw there was no possibility of doing anything. I
+ran upstairs to the sixth floor and hallooed to the girls. I led them down
+in front of me, and I kept telling them to be careful and not to have a
+stampede or anything of that kind, and then I came down and went outside
+the building."
+
+
+SCHOOL TEACHER'S THRILLING EXPERIENCE.
+
+Alice Kilroy, 67 Oregon avenue, Chicago, a Chicago school teacher:
+
+"During the performance I stood in the upper balcony, right near the
+alley; a few feet from the top exit south, about the third or fourth seat
+from the end. I stood right back of that. When the fire first began we
+thought it was part of the performance and my sister said to me, very
+calmly, 'Even if there is no fire, let us go out in the exit.' We knew
+this was an exit because we had seen it opened. An usher had been out and
+we stepped out there.
+
+"As soon as we stepped out the heat was intense and we saw we could not go
+down the steps, so we stood there on the platform of the fire escape. I
+tried to get in the theater again, but the people were rushing out and I
+could not go against the mob. I saw that the mob was trying to get out of
+the exit, and so I had to stand right where I was. We stood there it
+seemed to me, about six minutes, and we knew we were burning, and there
+wasn't anything to do but to stay there. We couldn't go any other place.
+After a few minutes some water fell on us. I did not see very much because
+I held a collarette up to my face to protect it from the hot air, which
+was unutterably awful. When the water came that kind of refreshed us and
+dampened the fire so we could stand up for a few minutes longer, and then
+a plank was put from the opposite building and we went over the plank and
+escaped to the Northwestern University building. The crowd behind us that
+had been fighting and pushing so hard seemed to die away and collapse all
+in an instant. The scrambling and pushing ceased. This crowd was at the
+entrance to the door. Something happened to them and they did not have any
+life, because they did not push when I turned back. When I first started
+to go in--when I turned back--there was lots of life, then I turned and
+faced them, the mob going out, because it was so hot out there I thought I
+could go back in the theater. Part of them fell on the floor and part
+outside on the fire escape platform. I think I was the last to escape
+alive over the planks across the alley. I was terribly burned; you can see
+by the bandages that I don't dare to take off yet."
+
+
+GLEN VIEW MAN'S EXPERIENCE.
+
+Walter Flentye, Glen View:
+
+"I occupied seat 7 in section R, handy to the entrance. I think it was
+about half-past 3, while that octet was singing there in the pale
+moonlight, that I just noticed a kind of a hesitation on the part of the
+octet, and pretty soon I saw a few sparks begin to come down about the
+size of those from a roman candle. They were coming down from the upper
+left hand corner of the stage, and pretty soon the fire began to grow more
+and more, and I should say that pieces of burning rags dropped down of
+different sizes. About that time Eddie Foy came out and tried to calm the
+audience. I don't just exactly remember what he said, and I kept my seat.
+I had no idea that there was to be anything of that kind; that the fire
+was to be as large as it was, and the audience down below were going out.
+I had a friend beside me that left. I don't remember just what I said to
+him. He said he was going and he went out and a little later I got up,
+and, without any trouble, went through the door, and I went immediately to
+the check room. I had checked a valise and umbrella, and at that time I
+had no idea of any such a fire as that. So I thought I had plenty of time
+and I took my valise and umbrella and set them on a settee to the left of
+the foyer and put on my overcoat and hat.
+
+"When I first came out I noticed that there were a lot of women that were
+almost frenzied by the excitement and they were around toward the
+entrance, and I noticed one man carrying a woman. That was while I was
+going to the checkroom, and after I had put on my coat I looked and there
+were two women and a man that went to the door to look in, and I kind of
+thought the woman might rush in, so I said, 'Don't go back, it is too late
+now.' And they all turned around and I looked once more and by that time
+it looked as though there was a mass of fire belched out, and I remember
+seeing it catch the front seats, and after I went out and walked across
+the street and I talked to a policeman who stood in front of Vaughn's
+store and by that time about eight or ten policemen came along from down
+Randolph street, and shortly after the firemen came. Then for the first
+time I realized what a terrible thing I had escaped and the true horror
+of the situation unfolded itself."
+
+
+THE LIGHT OPERATOR.
+
+William Wertz, 12024 Union avenue, West Pullman, Ill.:
+
+"I was operating a light on the rear part of the stage on the afternoon of
+the fire. I noticed that the actors, eight boys, were looking up toward
+the right hand of their places, and as soon as they did that I stepped
+back one or two feet, still holding my lamp in sight so as to attend to it
+should it go down. I looked toward the place that the people had gazed and
+I noticed a small blaze there upon a little platform used for throwing a
+light on the front of the stage. As I looked there I saw the fireman of
+the house, who was back on the stage, running forward hallooing, 'Lower
+down the curtain!' and climb up to the little platform. He had either
+taken a tube of kilfyre in his hand or there was one up there, as I very
+distinctly saw him sprinkle it on the fire. Then the man took his hands
+and tried to tear down the blazing pieces of scenery.
+
+"Then I saw one drop after another go into the flame. I saw a lot of
+people running up to that point of the fire, others from the balcony
+dressing rooms come running down, and on the side of me, or close to the
+door were several girls becoming hysterical, excited. That was at the
+stage door opening onto a little bridge-like platform leading to Dearborn
+street. I went up to the girls and said, 'Come on, girls, get out of here
+as soon as possible.' I took one by the arm and put her out.
+
+"When I came out there the girls started to run forward, and I went in
+again, because I was in my shirt sleeves and I wanted to take my coat and
+save what goods I had. As soon as I entered the stage again I heard a lot
+of noise and crying and calling and I went forward to that point and
+succeeded in pulling some more of the young ladies out. Then when I got
+on the little bridge leading from the stage to Dearborn street, I noticed
+that the whole scenery was in a blaze, that it was falling down and I
+tried to get in again, but through the enormous heat, and I believe that
+the city fire people just had arrived there with the hose and pulled me
+back so I couldn't get in there any more.
+
+"I know there was an asbestos curtain in the theater and that it was used.
+During the time I have been connected with different theaters through the
+country I have always looked up to the curtains, and often put my hands on
+them. What was called by employees in the house the asbestos curtain, and
+also in several theaters in Chicago, has written on it, 'asbestos
+curtain.' When I entered this house on several occasions before the show I
+saw this particular curtain hanging there, a dirty white color, and on one
+or two occasions, in passing by, I pushed my hand against it and it felt
+to me exactly like other curtains hanging in Chicago, and on which
+'asbestos' is written. One, for instance, in the Grand opera house, has
+written on it 'asbestos,' and is the same color in the back and has the
+same feeling when you put your hands on it as this one in the Iroquois
+theater.
+
+"It was that curtain Sallers, the house fireman, was shouting for when I
+heard him. The fireman said, 'Down with that curtain,' and the other
+voice, which I thought was Mr. Carleton's, the stage manager, said, 'For
+God's sake lower that curtain.' Several other voices hallooed out, 'What
+is the matter with the curtain? Down with the curtain.' But it didn't fall
+and the holocaust followed."
+
+
+THE JAMMED THEATER.
+
+The unlawful and deadly crowded condition of the theater at the time of
+the fire was emphasized by the testimony of Rupert D. Laughlin, 1505
+Wrightwood avenue, who, although he reached the theater before the curtain
+went up, found the spaces behind the seats crowded and people sitting on
+the steps in the aisles. Laughlin and Miss Lucy Lucas, his niece, had
+seats in the second balcony, or gallery.
+
+"We went into the theater about ten minutes before the orchestra come out
+and had some difficulty in getting into our seats," he said, "on account
+of the people standing in the aisles and at the back. The people were
+sitting on the steps.
+
+"The steps were very steep and people occupied them quite a way down. They
+had to rise and stand aside to let us make our way to our seats. There was
+a man and a woman sitting on the step right beside our seats. At the end
+of the first act I went out to the foyer. I had considerable difficulty
+getting out. There was a great deal larger crowd in the aisles and sitting
+on the steps than there was when we came down first. They were strung
+along the aisle and there were a great many women on the steps. I went out
+and walked around for a while and then came back and took my seat. I had
+to make the women get up as I was coming down the aisle again.
+
+"When the fire started I went right to the first exit and out on the fire
+escape platform. When I got to the door there were flames and a great deal
+of smoke coming out from a window that was near there, and we couldn't go
+out at that time, so we waited for a few seconds, and the fire died down.
+Then we went down the fire escape to the alley.
+
+"Many other people escaped by the same means before us--at least I should
+judge there was, because we saw a number of hats and furs and things of
+that sort on the steps. There wasn't anybody coming down in back or in
+front of us while we were going down."
+
+
+GAS EXPLOSION HOURS BEFORE THE FIRE.
+
+That the explosion of a gas tank came near destroying the Iroquois theater
+a few hours previous to the performance on the opening night, about a
+month before, was testified to by John Bickles, 6711 Rhodes avenue.
+According to Bickles, a gas tank under the stage exploded with such force
+that flames shot over an eight-foot partition. It was only after a hard
+fight on the part of employes of the theater and the fact that there was
+little inflammable material near the fire that the flames were subdued.
+Bickles stated that he did not know what sort of a gas tank exploded, as
+he did not inquire of the other employees. At the time he was standing in
+a room opposite the one in which the gas tank exploded.
+
+"The flames leaped over an eight-foot partition, but did not burn me,"
+said Bickles. "I went on to the stage soon after the explosion and the
+next day was discharged by the George A. Fuller company, builders of the
+theater, by whom I was employed as a carpenter. There was no work was the
+reason. There were a number of actresses and sewing women in the theater
+at the time of the explosion. The first performance was to be given that
+evening and everybody was making ready. I was the person who fixed the
+wall plates for the skylights, but I never saw them after they were
+finished."
+
+From Bickles' testimony it seemed the George A. Fuller company had kept a
+number of its men in the theater after it was occupied by the Iroquois
+Theater company. They were completing unfinished details. The fact of the
+fire, he said, was hushed up.
+
+
+PANIC AMONG THEATER EMPLOYEES.
+
+Gilbert McLean, a scene shifter, at work on the stage when the fire
+started, told of the failure of the fire extinguisher to put out the
+blaze, and declared that the failure of the fire curtain to drop was due
+to a misunderstanding among the men in the flies who were supposed to
+operate it. Then men appeared not to know what was wanted and lost
+priceless time hesitating. McLean's story would indicate that the stage
+employees ran away long before the audience knew that there was danger.
+Speaking of the efforts of the stage fireman to put out the blaze soon
+after it started in the grand drapery, McLean said:
+
+"If the extinguisher had been effective he could not have reached the fire
+at that time, though the part he did reach did not seem to be affected at
+all. Then there was a commotion, everybody was running back and forth, and
+I yelled as loud as I could to send the curtain. I saw the men did not
+understand the signal; they were signaling from the first entrance then by
+a bell. I could hear the bell ringing and I could see the fly men, as they
+called them, and saw they didn't understand. I yelled as loud as I could
+and they did not seem to understand me or to know why the curtain should
+be sent at that time, as it was not the regular time for the curtain.
+
+"Well, the fire kept making headway towards the back of the stage. It
+spread rapidly right straight back. There seemed to have been a draft from
+the front of the theater. The show people started to go out fast, coming
+from the basement and from the stage and leaving the stage by the regular
+stage entrance. Somebody hallooed, 'She is gone. Everybody run for your
+lives.' I went towards the rear door then and made my way out as best I
+could.
+
+"There had never been any fire drill on the stage so far as I know and I
+never heard any fire instructions. Many were out before I left and I
+guess all the stage people got out some way or another. It was every man
+for himself then."
+
+
+AN EX-USHER'S WORDS.
+
+Willard Sayles, 382 North avenue, Chicago: "I was formerly an usher at the
+Iroquois theater. During my period of employment the fire escape exits at
+the alley side of the house were always kept locked. There was one
+exception. The opening night Mr. Dusenberry, the head usher, had me open
+the inner set, the wooden doors that concealed the big outside iron ones.
+The people on the aisle were complaining that it was too warm. He gave
+orders to the director and myself to open the wooden inner doors to the
+auditorium. Later on Mr. Davis came up and told me to close them and not
+to open them unless I got instructions from him. That was the only time I
+got instructions from either one of them. We had not got instructions as
+to what doors we were to attend to in case of fire. The only time we got
+instructions was the Sunday before the house opened; Mr. Dusenberry called
+us all down there and told us to get familiar with the house. There was no
+fire drill or anything of that kind."
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XXI.
+
+IRON GATES, DEATH'S ALLY.
+
+
+That two iron gates, securely padlocked, across stairways in the Randolph
+street entrance, held scores of women and children as prisoners of death
+at the Iroquois theater fire horror, was the startling evidence secured on
+Saturday, Jan. 9, ten days after the holocaust by Fire Department Attorney
+Monroe Fulkerson.
+
+In a statement under oath George M. Dusenberry, superintendent of the
+auditorium of the playhouse, admitted that these gates had remained locked
+against the frantic crowds through all the terrible rush to escape.
+Against these, bodies were piled high in death of those who might have
+gained the open air had they not been penned in by the immovable bars.
+
+Not until the sworn statement had been secured from Dusenberry were the
+investigators brought to a full realization of the horrors of the
+imprisoned victims.
+
+These deadly iron gates, four to five feet high, according to Dusenberry's
+testimony, were quietly removed after the fire. One of the gates was at
+the landing of the dress circle. The other was on the stairway which led
+from the dress circle entrance to the landing above. At the Randolph
+street entrance were two grand staircases. Passage down one of these
+staircases was shut off completely by the iron gates.
+
+According to Dusenberry, the gates were locked with a padlock, requiring a
+key to open them. It was the custom to open these gates after the
+intermission at the close of the second act, so as to give the people an
+unobstructed passageway for leaving the house at the close of the play.
+
+The exact condition made by the locked gates and the extent to which they
+contributed to the immense loss of life may be realized by Dusenberry's
+sworn testimony in detail on this point.
+
+
+DUSENBERRY'S TESTIMONY.
+
+It was as follows:
+
+Q. Do you recall an inspection which I made of the stairway of the second
+floor of that theater the next day after the fire? A. Yes, sir.
+
+Q. And showed you two iron gates that folded up like an accordion? A. Yes,
+sir.
+
+Q. Please state whether or not these two gates were locked at the time of
+the fire. A. Yes, sir.
+
+Q. State where the lower one was located. A. At the landing of the dress
+circle.
+
+Q. And do I understand that one side of it was solidly hinged with an iron
+rod and that the other side of the gate was fastened by a chain locked by
+a padlock? A. A small lock.
+
+Q. The lock required a key to open it? A. Yes, sir; a small key.
+
+Q. How high was this gate? A. I should think four or five feet.
+
+Q. And was I correct in saying it folded up like an accordion when not in
+use? A. Yes, sir.
+
+Q. Where was the other one located? A. On the stairway which led from the
+dress circle entrance up to the landing above.
+
+Q. And was it secured and locked in the same manner as the other gate? A.
+Yes, sir.
+
+
+PURPOSE OF THE TWO GATES.
+
+Q. Consider the first one; what was its function? A. In order that we
+could have system in handling the house.
+
+Q. Yes; but what was it used for? A. When people were going upstairs that
+gate simply turned them for the balcony stairway.
+
+Q. You are talking about the lower gate? A. Yes, sir.
+
+Q. So, by reason of this gate, when the people started out they could have
+only one direction in which to leave, instead of two, as would be the case
+if no gate were there? A. Yes, sir.
+
+Q. Let us consider the other gate; what was it for? A. To keep the people
+from going down into the dress circle, and to keep them on the regular
+stairway for the balcony.
+
+Q. I believe you told me that you locked these gates yourself just before
+this matinee began? A. Yes, sir.
+
+Q. That is correct, is it? A. Yes, sir.
+
+Q. Did you ever say anything to Mr. Noonan or Mr. Powers or Mr. Davis as
+to the importance of having men stationed there, instead of a gate, so
+that in case of fire this would not be an obstruction? A. No, sir; they
+were always unlocked after the second intermission.
+
+Q. In what act was that? A. At the close of the second act they would be
+always unlocked. They were exits.
+
+Q. At the time this fire began and people started out, were they still
+locked or unlocked? A. They were locked.
+
+
+NEVER ANY FIRE DRILLS.
+
+Dusenberry admitted that at the time of the fire's outbreak he was
+descending from the top balcony after having made an inspection of the
+entire house. This was his custom, to see that the ushers were in their
+places. He said that 100 persons were standing in the passageway back of
+the last row of seats on the first floor and about twenty-five persons
+occupied standing room in the rear of the first balcony, and seventy-five
+in the rear of the top balcony.
+
+He admitted that he had never received any instructions from any of the
+owners or managers of the theater as to what to do in case of fire. He
+said that he had been told in a general way by Will J. Davis that he was
+to instruct the boys in their duties as ushers and make them familiar with
+the house.
+
+There had never been any fire drills, he said. He did not know, he said,
+from what point or in what manner the large cylindrical ventilator over
+the auditorium was worked. It was because this ventilator was open and
+those above the stage closed that the fire was drawn into the front of the
+house. He said the nine exits on the north side, three of which were on
+each floor, were all bolted at the time of the fire; also that the nine
+pairs of iron shutters outside the inner doors were bolted at the time,
+and that he had never received orders from any one to have these unbolted
+while the audience was in the house.
+
+
+GATES WERE BATTERED.
+
+"I found these gates in a battered condition by personal inspection, the
+next morning after the fire," Fire Department Attorney Fulkerson added. "I
+hunted up Mr. Dusenberry and took him to the place and examined him on the
+spot as to each minute detail. The examination was with reference to their
+being locked, and as to why a man had not been stationed there, in place
+of a gate, to direct the people.
+
+"I called two policemen as witnesses. The reason I have kept this matter
+secret until now was the fact that this is the first day I have had an
+opportunity of examining Mr. Dusenberry under oath and taking his
+statements in shorthand to be used in any proceeding that may follow.
+
+"The importance of his testimony is that he is the man the theater
+management had put in direct control of the audience and auditorium, and
+the facts which he has testified to speak for themselves. Let the public
+draw its own conclusions.
+
+"I wish to say, however, with reference to those iron gates that they are
+no part of the building or the stairway as turned over by the builders and
+were not a part of the plans of the same, but a feature installed by the
+management after the stairways were finished and accepted, and no permit
+was obtained from the city building department to place the gates there.
+They proved to be the gates of death. Until this time they have been
+overlooked in the general investigation and silence has been maintained by
+the fire department for the purpose of clinching the evidence concerning
+them. This was rendered necessary through the fact that those best
+qualified to tell of their danger gave up their lives in acquiring that
+knowledge. They were gathered from behind the deadly barriers and now lie
+in eternal silence beyond the reach of all earthly summonses and the
+jurisdiction of our tribunals."
+
+Ernest Stern, 3423 South Park avenue, Chicago:
+
+"There was nothing left in the playhouse but standing room when my sister
+and I arrived, so we bought tickets according that privilege and took up a
+position in the middle of the first balcony. We were standing there when
+we saw the first evidence of fire and at once ran out. We owe our lives to
+that fact.
+
+"It was about the middle of the second act when I noticed the blaze on the
+upper left-hand corner of the stage. Those on the stage seemed to be in
+semi-panic. The people didn't know what to do. Then there seemed to be
+somebody giving directions for them to put down the curtains after a
+burning piece of scenery or something fell on the stage. A man came out
+and gave instructions for them to pull down the curtain and after that we
+went out the door, downstairs and came to a door on the left hand side in
+the foyer, facing the street, and in the inner vestibule. There was a man
+there. He was not in uniform. He was trying to open the door, which was
+locked. There was a pair--two doors--and one of them was open and a great
+crowd was going out. This man was trying to unlock the other door and he
+could not do it. I broke the glass, and that wouldn't do either, so I
+kicked the whole door out and we escaped."
+
+
+DIDN'T BOTHER ABOUT LOCKED DOORS.
+
+That the foyer doors, which the van of the fleeing audience found closed,
+were locked during the performance was the statement of Harry Weisselbach
+of Chicago. He was at the ticket office in the outer vestibule off
+Randolph street, some time before the fire and saw two men in an argument
+regarding the doors. They were coming out of the theater.
+
+"That's a mean trick, to lock the doors so people can't get out," said one
+of the men. "They have locked the doors again," he continued, looking back
+at the door man. "I wonder if there is a policeman around here."
+
+The man's companion replied that he wasn't going to bother about the
+matter and the two left the theater. Weisselbach went around to the
+Northwestern University school and was there only a short time when the
+fire in the theater started. His story of the fire from that viewpoint was
+similar to that told by Witness Fred H. Rea.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XXII.
+
+DANCED IN PRESENCE OF DEATH.
+
+
+Heroes and heroines--every one of them--the members of the octette told
+the coroner how they sang and danced to reassure the vast audience of
+women and children while death lowered overhead and swept through the
+scene loft, a chariot of flame. Modestly they revealed the part they
+played in the catastrophe while billows of flame, death's red banners,
+menaced their lives.
+
+Madeline Dupont, 145 Franklin avenue, New York:
+
+"I first saw just a little bit of flame, which was on the right hand side
+of the first entrance on the west, the first drop of the curtain. It was
+just above the lamp that was reflecting on the moonlight girls. It was a
+calcium light. I went back and got in my place with the pale moonlight
+girls and the boys came out and sang their lines. Then we eight girls went
+on the stage--as we always did--went down to the front of the stage--and
+going down stage I saw the flame getting larger. Mr. Plunkett, the
+assistant stage manager, was in the entrance, ringing for the asbestos
+curtain to come down. He rang the bell until we reached the front of the
+stage, where we went on singing. We sang one verse of 'The Pale Moonlight'
+song, and then Mr. Foy came out and spoke to the audience. What he said I
+don't know, and then Miss Williams fainted. She was one of the 'pale
+moonlight' girls, and stood alongside of me. She was taken out, and then
+Miss Lawrence and myself were the last girls to leave the stage. I went
+downstairs to notify the girls down in the basement in the dressing
+rooms. I called to them that there was a fire, and advised them to run for
+their lives. Nobody was coming up then. Then I went out of the regular
+stage door entrance."
+
+Ethel Wynne, New York City:
+
+"When I was about to make my exit I noticed a very small flame to the
+right of the stage at the first entrance. It was really above the short
+fellow--a little gentleman, rather--who stands on the bridge. This flame
+was above his head. When he noticed it he put both hands up to get the
+burning material--just grabbed up to get the material that was burning.
+But the flame was away beyond his reach.
+
+"The calcium light is below that, and it appeared to me as though it was
+the side of the curtain where the curtains are drawn up, or something. The
+flames spread very rapidly. I remember seeing Mr. Plunkett very plainly in
+the first entrance and hearing bells ringing for the curtain to fall. I
+said to Miss Dupont and Miss Williams, 'The curtain will fall in the
+meantime, the bells have rung.' We went to the back to make our entrance
+and the bell still continued to ring. I remember very plainly that I heard
+some one yell, 'Drop the curtain.'
+
+"I noticed clearly that the curtain was caught, and it must have been on
+our left. It came down on the right hand side. The flames were going up
+very rapidly. I very foolishly lost my reason and walked back to the back
+steps, where I had made my entrance. From there I unfortunately had to
+watch the awful sights that we know of. I don't know to this hour how I
+got out of the burning theater."
+
+Gertrude Lawrence, 5 West 125th street, New York:
+
+"I was the leader of the octet, and I was on the platform going to meet my
+partner when I first saw the flame. I went on working as usual, down to
+the front, and paid no more attention to it because I thought it would
+soon be out. It was on the right hand side of the stage, above the stage.
+I noticed there was quite an excitement on the other side, but I went on
+working. I thought if there was an awful fire there would be a panic, and
+I thought by working I would quiet the people. Then I turned and saw the
+flames and went up the steps, there looking back and seeing the audience
+in the awful panic. Then I went out the usual stage door."
+
+Daisy Beaute, 178 West 94th street, New York:
+
+"I was standing in the third wing ready to go on, and I saw a flame on the
+left hand side, facing the audience, from the draperies above the first
+entrance on my right hand side. It was in the draperies clear at the top
+of the arch in the stage opening. We kept on dancing, but Miss Williams
+fainted. I ran for my life without waiting to see anything more."
+
+Miss Edith Williams, the member of the octet who fainted on the stage,
+swooned again soon after she took the witness stand. Deputy Coroner
+Buckley had just administered the oath and asked the young woman to be
+seated, when she fell backwards. The fall was broken by a stenographer,
+and the woman saved from serious injury. She was assisted to the witness
+room and revived. Another witness was called.
+
+Miss Anna Brand, another member of the octet, testified to the facts
+similar to those related by Miss Dupont and Miss Wynne, Miss Lawrence,
+Miss Beaute, Miss Richards and Miss Romaine, the remaining members
+testifying in a similar strain. None admitted knowing who opened the rear
+stage door leading to Dearborn street, the door through which came the
+cold blast that forced the fire into the auditorium.
+
+"Jack" Strause, 31 West 11th street, New York:
+
+"The octet had just made its entrance, walked four steps and danced eight,
+bringing the members to the center of the stage, when I discovered the
+fire overhead at the side of the proscenium arch. My partner in the scene,
+a young woman, cried out that she was fainting. She braced up, however,
+did a few more steps and collapsed. As I stooped to pick her up I saw the
+curtain fall possibly six or seven feet. From that time on I observed
+nothing more of the progress of the fire, being engrossed in an effort to
+carry out the unconscious young woman. Upon reaching the big scene door at
+the north of the stage, a strong blast of air blew us both into the alley.
+The rush of air was occasioned by the falling of a partition behind me, I
+think. I carried the girl into a neighboring restaurant, where she
+revived."
+
+Samuel Bell (Beverly Mars):
+
+"We saw the fire start about the time we made our entrance, but continued
+with our 'turn,' reaching the center of the stage. The fire was spreading
+and large sparks and fragments of burning material were falling, but we
+kept on until Miss Williams fainted. I saw the people in front commence to
+get excited and I put up my hands and told the people to keep as quiet and
+move out as easily as they could and not to get excited. I looked up again
+and I saw the drop curtain coming down. I should call it the asbestos
+curtain. It came down, as near as I could judge, about six or eight feet.
+Then I turned to look for my partner and she had gone. I looked on the
+stage to see her and I could not find her. She had gone off the stage. I
+merely went off the stage, out of the same side I had entered--I could not
+say exactly which entrance--and then out of the stage door, which was wide
+open."
+
+Victor Lozard, 235 Bower street, Jersey City:
+
+"I was coming out with the boys, eight of us, at the right side. We came
+up and met our partners and we got down as far front as the footlights,
+when Miss Williams fainted, which attracted my attention to some flames
+up at the first entrance on the right side. I then immediately turned
+around and helped pick Miss Williams up, and by that time my partner had
+left me, and I left the stage on the right side. I went up and was going
+to leave by the stage door, but people were going out there, and so I went
+over to the back drop, to the right of the stage, and there, about the
+middle of the stage, I was blown down or knocked down, I don't know what
+happened to me, and the next I knew of myself I was out in the alley. I
+don't know how I got there."
+
+John J. Russell, Boston, Mass.:
+
+"I had taken the first twelve steps of the dance when I first noticed the
+fire. It was in the first entrance, prompt side, about fifteen feet above
+the stage. The flame then was about five inches in length.
+
+"I noticed that for about a second. I continued on with the rest of the
+business, and me and my partner, as I always had done in that number, went
+down to the footlights. When we got there we continued in the business for
+about three or four seconds after getting down. Then Miss Williams
+fainted. The flames were falling to the stage, large pieces of burning
+material, and seemed to create quite a little disturbance among the people
+in the audience. I spoke to a number and tried to quiet them.
+
+"I told them to be seated, that everything would be all right, and to
+quiet down, and quite a number did. After Miss Williams fainted it
+attracted my attention, of course, to what was going on on the stage. I
+saw one of the moonlight boys pick Miss Williams up in his arms and go
+toward the stage entrance, other members of the octet following, except
+myself. I staid until they were out of sight. I left the stage by the
+second entrance on the prompt side. I went down stairs by the stairway
+beside the stage elevator.
+
+"I came back on the stage again, made one more trip down stairs, and then
+I came to the stage once more. I went partly up stage, toward the stage
+entrance, that was all in flames. I looked to the other side of the stage
+and that was all in flames. I went down to the footlights, crossing again
+across the stage, and jumped over the footlights into the auditorium and
+made my way out to the first exit on my left, looking into the auditorium
+from the stage, into the alley. The panic was on at that time and it was a
+dreadful sight."
+
+The statements of the remaining members were almost identical with those
+quoted.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XXIII.
+
+JOIN TO AVENGE SLAUGHTER OF INNOCENTS.
+
+
+Ten days after the fire horror, while blood curdling disclosures were
+coming to light revealing the fate of the penned-in fire victims in a new
+and more ghastly aspect, and while school officials and pupils gathered to
+express grief for the 39 teachers and 102 pupils who were gathered in the
+grim harvest, an inspired movement sprang from the aftermath of woe. It
+was a cry for justice.
+
+In an upper chamber in a towering sky-scraper in the heart of teeming,
+bustling Chicago, scores of sad visaged men and women assembled to lay
+aside their burden of woe and enter upon the prosecution of those whose
+avarice, neglect or incompetency had snuffed out all happiness and
+sunshine from their lives. A preliminary organization of relatives of
+victims of the Iroquois theater fire was effected in consequence on
+Saturday, January 9, for that purpose, at a meeting held in the offices of
+the Western Society of Engineers, in the Monadnock building.
+
+The meeting was held in response to a call sent out by Arthur E. Hull,
+asking that concerted action be taken by the relatives and survivors to
+cause the speedy prosecution and punishment of any who were criminally
+responsible for the disaster and to learn those financially liable for
+claims. Mr. Hull lost his wife and three children in the catastrophe.
+
+Long before 3 o'clock, the time set for the meeting, many fathers,
+mothers, brothers, sisters and near relatives of victims began to gather.
+Nearly every seat was taken when the meeting was called to order. There
+were perhaps 125 people present, among whom over a hundred lost near and
+dear relatives in the fire.
+
+Attorney W. J. Lacey announced the object of the gathering by reading the
+call and suggested the formation of a temporary organization. Mr. Hull was
+elected chairman and Edward T. Noble secretary.
+
+
+MR. HULL'S STATEMENT.
+
+Mr. Hull spoke briefly of his reason for calling the meeting.
+
+"The last time I saw my wife and little ones," he said, "was on the
+morning of the fire. I did not know until late in the evening that they
+had perished in the flames. There are many others who have suffered as
+deeply as I have, on account of this horror. There are some families,
+perhaps, whose means of support have been wrested from them. There is
+suffering and sorrow throughout this great city. It is my desire that we
+work together in the effort to find out who the men are that are
+criminally and financially responsible for our terrible loss and bring
+them before the bar of justice.
+
+"It was the duty of the contractors who built the Iroquois theater to see
+that the building was complete in every detail before turning it over to
+the management. This, in my opinion, establishes their responsibility. The
+architect may also be held responsible.
+
+"As to the building inspector, I think he should be prosecuted to the
+fullest extent of the law. It was his failure to hold the management to a
+strict adherence to the law that brought about the destruction of nearly
+600 precious lives. We have recourse to the courts of justice. Let us
+stand together and see that punishment is meted out to the guilty."
+
+
+ATTORNEY T. D. KNIGHT SPEAKS.
+
+Chairman Hull then called for an expression from his attorney, Thomas D.
+Knight, who spoke as follows:
+
+"Mr. Hull's object in calling this meeting is to place the responsibility
+where it belongs, not upon the scene shifter and the stage hand, but upon
+men high in authority--the management and owners of the theater. They are
+the men he regards as financially and criminally liable for the disaster
+that destroyed his family and families of many of those present here
+today. It was Mr. Hull who caused the arrest of Mr. Davis and Mr. Powers
+of the theater management, and Building Commissioner Williams. As Mr. Hull
+is so deeply affected by his loss he has requested me to state that it is
+his desire that a permanent organization be effected.
+
+"I believe an executive committee should be appointed to ascertain just
+what is best to be done and do it. I would suggest also the appointment of
+subcommittees on civil authority, permanent organization and finance. This
+last committee would be an important adjunct of this organization. It
+should be the aim of the finance committee to learn how many families are
+destitute as a result of the loss of their means of support in the fire
+and see that they are provided for. There are plenty of men of wealth in
+the city today who would gladly contribute to such a worthy cause.
+
+
+CORONER'S WORK THOROUGH.
+
+"As to the question of who are financially responsible the coroner's
+investigation has been thorough, careful and fair. The coroner's
+questioning has been competent and complete in every respect. It is
+probable that he will be able to determine just which men are to blame.
+Enough has been developed already to prove that there was gross and
+culpable negligence on the part of the proprietors of that theater.
+
+"As far as Klaw & Erlanger are concerned we have evidence connecting them
+already. The blaze that ignited the draperies and scenery was proved to
+have come from the 'spot' light, which was operated by an employee of the
+'Mr. Bluebeard' company, which is owned by these men, who control the
+theatrical trust. If it can be shown that Mayor Harrison and other city
+officials by their negligence contributed to the loss, then they can also
+be held responsible. There is no doubt but that those who are liable can
+be attacked in the civil courts."
+
+
+REMARKS BY ELIZABETH HALEY.
+
+A general discussion followed, during which Miss Elizabeth Haley, residing
+at 419 Sixtieth place, arose and made some revelations in regard to the
+lack of fire protection in various public schools. She said:
+
+"I presume the gentleman who has just spoken is an attorney and I would
+like to ask him if the men who allowed such criminal conditions to
+exist--the mayor, aldermen and city trustees--if they could not be held
+liable, both civilly and criminally? I am a school teacher, and I would
+like to know if men who time after time have completely ignored reports
+about the absolute absence of fire protection in school buildings are not
+liable?
+
+"To my personal knowledge reports have been made month after month to
+them, and nothing was ever heard of them. I know of schools where there is
+no fire hose, no fire extinguishers, no fire apparatus of any kind, no
+fire alarms, no telephones, no fire escapes--not a thing that would enable
+the hundreds of children to save their lives in the event of a fire. And
+these buildings are locked at 9 o'clock, with only one exit left open. Are
+not the mayor, the aldermen, and the trustees directly responsible for
+this state of things, and are they not the men who should be prosecuted
+along with the proprietors of that theater?
+
+"On November 2 last, the newspapers reported that a complaint had been
+made before the city council that the theaters were violating the laws.
+That report went to a subcommittee and has never been heard of since; and
+a day or two later Mayor Harrison came out with a statement in which he
+defied criticism and declared that there was no truth in the complaints.
+The whole thing strikes me as a splendid lesson in civics--that we cannot
+shirk our duty, even as high officials."
+
+The following committee, the majority residents of Chicago, was named to
+act, pending further action: J. L. McKenna, 758 South Kedzie avenue; Henry
+M. Shabad, 4041 Indiana avenue; J. J. Reynolds, 421 East Forty-fifth
+street; E. S. Frazier, Aurora, Ill.; Morris Schaffner, 578 East
+Forty-fifth street.
+
+All of these men lost members of their families in the fire, Mr. McKenna
+losing his whole family.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XXIV.
+
+AWFUL PROPHECY FULFILLED.
+
+
+More than a quarter of a century ago the prophecy was made by the _Chicago
+Times_ that a terrible calamity was in store for the public on account of
+the lax provision made for escape from burning theaters. The prophecy was
+put forth in the guise of a pretended report of such a horror in the issue
+of that publication for February 13, 1875, and was as follows:
+
+"Scores of houses are saddened this beautiful winter morning by the fate
+which overtook so many unsuspecting people in Chicago last night. The
+hearts of thousands will be stirred to their depths with sympathy for the
+unfortunates. It was a catastrophe awful in its results, yet grand in its
+horror. Nothing has equaled it for years; it is to be hoped that its
+counterpart will never be known.
+
+"There are smoking ruins down in the heart of the city--ruins of one of
+the finest theaters in Chicago, which fell a prey to the devouring element
+last night. There are mourning households and rows of dead bodies at the
+morgue. There will be anxious inquiries on the lips of many persons with
+whom one will meet manifesting an eagerness to know whether friends were
+swallowed up in the flames or made good their escape.
+
+"While it cannot be said that the catastrophe was entirely unexpected, yet
+it came so suddenly and so little had been done to obviate it, that its
+results are fearful to contemplate. For months the frequenters of the
+various places of amusement in Chicago had often questioned themselves
+whether there would not come the day when in some of these buildings
+grisly death would stalk forth, like a thief in the night, and lay his
+cold hands upon the unsuspecting throng; at last the terrible moment and
+the horrible reality dawned.
+
+"With all her experience in conflagrations and attendant horrors, Chicago
+has nothing to compare with this catastrophe. Even the fire of 1871, which
+swept over a vast extent of country and reduced proud and formidable
+looking buildings and scattered their strength to the winds, lacked the
+comparative loss of life which this one disaster has entailed. Property
+may be dissipated, but it can be recovered once more.
+
+"Death robs us forever of our dear ones, and leaves a void which time can
+never fully fill.
+
+
+MOURNING AND INDIGNATION.
+
+"As we tread today upon the very heels of this latest sad event and take a
+comprehensive view of its details and results, no one, not even though he
+have no personal interest in the loss entailed, can help joining in the
+expression of mourning which will go up, and at the same time give vent to
+the already too long-suppressed feelings of indignation, which have from
+time to time arisen when thinking of the flimsy manner in which theaters
+are built, their lack of protection against fire and the inadequate means
+afforded inmates to escape therefrom in the event of an undue excitement
+that should spread a panic, ere the breaking out of a fire.
+
+"The sympathy for the dead will be equally balanced by vigorous
+denunciation of the criminality of everybody who, in an official or
+proprietary capacity, is interested therein.
+
+
+NOTHING ELSE SO HORRIBLE.
+
+"In the history of the country there are few events that can match this
+one. The burning of the Richmond theater, the falling of the Pemberton
+mill, the burning of the cotton mill at Fall River, the breaking loose of
+the Haydenville mill pond, with now and then of late years the engulfing
+of some steamer on inland lakes or the ocean, have for the time cast a
+great pall of mourning over the land, but they only stand in the same
+category with this last disaster, and can hardly rival it in swiftness of
+culmination or suddenness of origin.
+
+"For the time being this will furnish the chief topic for conversation,
+and if the _Times_ mistakes not, it will as well arouse the public to a
+complete realization of the unsafeness of theaters in general, and have
+the beneficial effect even in its tragic nature of moving the people to
+insist upon the adoption of a certain amount of safeguards against a like
+event in the future. The time to move in this matter is at this critical
+juncture, even while the charred remains of the
+
+UNFORTUNATE VICTIMS
+
+are lying stark upon their biers and friends are stabbed with the grief of
+the untimely taking off of their friends.
+
+"In the excitement of this hour it is no time to deal in sentimental
+reflections. The scenes of the past night are too fresh to warrant lengthy
+dwelling upon the morale of the occurrence. It is sufficient that it is
+distinctly understood that the catastrophe was more the result of
+insufficient means of egress from the theater than was the primary cause
+of the development of the fire, although the latter, aided by the first
+and helped on by the panic stricken people, who from the outset
+appreciated the terrible position in which they were placed, augmented to
+a large degree the number of deaths.
+
+"Chicago theaters as a general thing are tinder boxes into which humanity
+are packed by avaricious managers without any regard to their safety or
+thought of the imminent risk which is nightly impending. Evidently their
+only desire is to fill the house, gather in as much money as possible,
+while they take no heed to the dangers which surround their patrons on
+every hand.
+
+"The lesson had to be taught some time, it was inevitable; it had to be
+located at some one of the places of amusement, although all of them
+were--and those remaining are still--liable to share the same fate at any
+moment. If the experience of one should teach the others a little wisdom,
+the existing evil may perhaps be remedied, although it shall have been at
+the sacrifice of human life.
+
+
+FIRE! FIRE!
+
+"The gallery was overflowing and the gate that opened to the stairway
+which led to the floor below, as usual, was locked, so that those who
+bought cheap tickets could not make their way to higher-priced sections on
+the lower floor. In the uppermost gallery--where the 'gods' are supposed
+to assemble, and from which comes much of the inspiration which upholds
+the ambitious actor and transports the ranting comedian and raging
+tragedian to the seventh heaven of bliss--in this gallery there was a
+motley crowd.
+
+"They were there in large numbers, because the play had something that
+savored of blood; there was a broadsword combat and a murder scene. For
+reasons the very antitheses of these were the people downstairs drawn
+thither--there were love scenes and heart-burnings and statuesque posings,
+and artistic excellencies of varied kinds. It was a play that touched the
+feelings of humanity, the vulgar as well as the refined.
+
+
+BEFORE THE DISASTER.
+
+"The auditorium was ablaze with light, the audience were lit up with
+gaiety. Handsome women, richly clad, ogled one another and cast
+coquettish glances at dashing gentlemen. Fond mothers, chaperoning
+blooming daughters, chatted pleasantly, while indulgent fathers, although
+seeking relief from the cares of the day in the charming play, found
+neighbors near at hand with whom to discuss sordid business or perplexing
+politics.
+
+
+THE HOLOCAUST.
+
+"As has been stated, the house was filled with spectators. When the
+premonition of the impending disaster had been given out, and after the
+first great thrill of horror had, for the instant, frozen the blood of
+every spectator and caused an involuntary check to every heart, there came
+quickly the manifestation of a determination to 'do or die,' to escape
+from the angry flames if possible. And with this determination came the
+positive assurance of the growing calamity, through the person of one of
+the actors, who but a short time previous had been playing the buffoon,
+setting staid people agape with amusement and turning dull care into
+festivity. Hastily drawing the foot of the curtain back from the
+proscenium pillars, he thrust his blanched countenance into view and
+screamed with terrified voice:
+
+"'Hurry to the door for your lives; the stage is afire!'
+
+
+THE STAMPEDE BEGINS.
+
+"It hardly needed these words of warning to perfect the demoralization
+which had seized upon the terrified crowd. The stampede had already
+commenced; the work of death had been inaugurated.
+
+"Those who escaped, and with whom the _Times_ reporter had the good
+fortune to talk, on last evening, say that the detail of the horrors of
+that scene would defy description. One or two of these informants were so
+far down in the dress circle that they saw the whole of the catastrophe
+and measured its horrible magnitude as best they could under the
+excitement that prevailed. How they escaped is more than they could tell,
+but they found themselves borne along, lifted and pushed forward till the
+door was reached, and the outside and safety gained. They describe the
+scene inside the theater as
+
+ONE OF STUPENDOUS HORRORS.
+
+"The affrighted audience, rising from their seats, began simultaneously to
+attempt to reach the means of egress. Timid females raised their hands to
+heaven, shrieked wild, despairing cries and fell to be trampled into
+eternity by the heels of the wild rushing throng. Mothers pleaded
+piteously in the tumult and the roar that their darling daughters might be
+spared, while they themselves were resigned to the fate which was
+inevitable. Stout men with muscles of iron and cheeks blanched with terror
+clasped wives and sweethearts to their breasts and
+
+CURSED AND BLASPHEMED,
+
+and piteously prayed--the one that their progress was impeded, the other
+to those who, like them, prayed for a safe deliverance, but who were
+unable to afford the slightest assistance.
+
+"Meanwhile the flames had eaten their way to the front, and with one fell
+swoop licked up the combustible drop curtain, spread themselves across the
+proscenium and were working up towards the ceiling. Reaching this point
+the destroying element seemed to pause a moment as though pitying the
+position of the puny individuals who were fleeing its approach, and then
+remorselessly swept down in forked fury and pierced venom. The
+terror-stricken crowd felt the hot breath of the monster and surged and
+swayed and tried to escape its fury.
+
+
+DEAD BODIES FOUND.
+
+"The corpses recovered were, as has been before stated, taken to the
+street, removed two blocks away from the scene of the disaster, and, for
+the time being, laid out upon the pavement, awaiting the recognition of
+friends. Fathers and mothers, who in the tumult of the stampede had become
+separated from children; husbands who, despite their efforts, had felt
+themselves torn away from wives; friends who had been
+
+SUDDENLY AND FOREVER PARTED
+
+from friends; young men, who, while they had no friends to lose in the
+building, yet felt themselves bereft by reason of the common sympathy of
+the human heart; all these had, during the time preceding the recovery of
+the bodies, filled the streets and poured out their inconsolable grief in
+loudest tones. The _Times_ reporter to whose lot fell the recording of the
+scenes depicted under this head hopes that it may never again be his to
+witness a repetition of the scene. The anguish, the frenzy, the loud
+wailings, the heart-broken demonstrations were, indeed, overpowering and
+calculated to make an impression upon even the most stony heart that will
+last as long as reason holds its sway.
+
+
+THE FRENZY OF FRIENDS.
+
+"The silent bearers of these bodies, as they came and went, could not but
+be moved to tears at the reception which their burdens met. Here a
+charming girl, cut off in the flower of her youth and at the height of her
+pleasure; there a promising lad, full of hope but an hour before. Again,
+the silvered head of a loved mother, and soon the sturdy frame of one who
+had passed the heydey of youth and was beginning to enjoy the fruits of
+his youthful labors. There were people well known, whose sudden taking
+away will shock many a friend this morning; and there were others, too,
+male and female, who, lacking friends in life, found no mourners save the
+full heart of a sympathetic public to regret their departure.
+
+
+TOO HORRIBLE TO DWELL UPON.
+
+"But these scenes are too painful to be dwelt upon. One by one the dead
+were removed, some to near hotels, to await the coming dawn, when they
+might be taken to their late homes, and others being sent to the morgue by
+the police. At 2 o'clock officers were still searching, and the populace
+who had been drawn together by the awful catastrophe had dispersed in the
+main, although a few still lingered about the ruins, anxious to offer
+assistance where it might most be needed, while two streams of water
+continued to be poured into the building that every spark might be
+extinguished.
+
+
+HOW THEATERS SHOULD BE BUILT.
+
+"Granting that the conflagration detailed never happened, it is something
+liable to occur at any time in this city. Newspaper accounts more
+sensational in headlines and more shocking in narrative are to be expected
+almost any morning. The above is but a suggestion of what may at any time
+become a reality. Theaters are so built and so crammed with inflammable
+materials that a fire once started in them would in an incredibly short
+period gain such headway that nothing under heaven could check its mad and
+devouring career. Furthermore, the means of exit and all other avenues of
+escape are so limited that a panic once inaugurated in a crowded house
+would bring destruction upon the heads of a large proportion of the
+audience. Have theater-goers in Chicago ever thought of this, as, crowded
+into a seat, with means of hasty exit cut off, they have sat and looked
+around them upon the hundreds of others similarly situated?
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XXV.
+
+LIST OF THE DEAD.
+
+
+A.
+
+ADAMEK, JOHN, MRS., 40 years old, Bartlett, Ill.
+
+ALEXANDER, LULU B., 36 years old, 3473 Washington boulevard; identified by
+husband, W. G. Alexander.
+
+ALLEN, MRS. MARY S., 27 years old, 5546 Drexel boulevard.
+
+ANDERSON, RAGNE, 39 years old, scrubwoman, Iroquois; 229 Grand avenue.
+
+ANDREWS, HARRIET, 20 years old, West Superior, Wis.
+
+ALEXANDER, BOYER, 8 years old, 475 Washington boulevard; body identified
+by his father, Dr. W. A. Alexander.
+
+ADAMS, MRS. JOHN, Iola, Ill., identified by R. H. Ostrander.
+
+ALDRIDGE, LUELLA M'DONALD, 792 West Monroe street.
+
+ALFSON, ALFRED, 24 Keith street; identified by father.
+
+ANDERSON, ANNIE, 29 years old, 2141 Jackson boulevard.
+
+ANNEN, MARGARET, 299 Webster avenue; identified by Charles Annen.
+
+
+B.
+
+BARRY, WILMA, 17 years old, 4330 Greenwood avenue, stepdaughter of E. P.
+Berry, the insurance man, was with Mrs. Barry, who escaped.
+
+BARRY, MISS MAGGIE, 26 years old, 236 Lincoln avenue.
+
+BARNHEISEL, CHARLES H., 3622 Michigan avenue; unknown to family that he
+had attended theater, and published list of dead containing name conveyed
+the first information to family; body identified by relatives.
+
+BISSINGER, WALTER, 15 years old, 4934 Forrestville avenue, son of Benjamin
+Bissinger, real estate man; attended Howe Military academy at Lima, Ind.;
+was with sister, Tessie, 20 years, and cousin, Jack Pottlitzer, of
+Lafayette, Ind., who was killed; the sister escaped.
+
+BURNSIDE, MRS. ESTHER, 437 West Sixty-fourth street; body identified by
+her son, C. W. Burnside, and the family physician, Dr. Schultz.
+
+BYRNE, CONSILA, 16 years old, 616 West Fifteenth street; Identified by
+sister.
+
+BICKFORD, GLENN, 16 years old, son of C. M. Bickford, 947 Farwell avenue,
+Rogers Park.
+
+BICKFORD, HELEN, 14 years old, daughter of C. M. Bickford.
+
+BREWSTER, MARY JULIA, 116 Thirty-first street, daughter of Mr. and Mrs. L.
+H. Brewster.
+
+BRENNAN, PAUL, 608 West Fulton street; identified at Rolston's.
+
+BAGLEY, MISS HELEN DEWEY, 18 years, 24 Madison Park; identified by J. J.
+Mahoney.
+
+BARKER, ETHEL M., 27 years old, 1925 Washington boulevard; identified by
+father.
+
+BATTENFIELD, MRS. D. W., 43 years old; Delaware, O.
+
+BATTENFIELD, JOHN, 23 years old; Delaware, O.
+
+BATTENFIELD, ROBERT, 15 years old; Delaware, O.
+
+BATTENFIELD, RUTH, 21 years old; Delaware, O.
+
+BESMICK, JOSEPH, West Superior, Wis.
+
+BEYER, infant.
+
+BIRD, MISS MARION, Iola, Ill.; identified by cousin.
+
+BLOOM, MRS. ROSE, 3760 Indiana avenue, 30 years old.
+
+BOEAM, PAUL, 608 West Fulton street.
+
+BOETCHER, MRS. CHARLES, 4140 Indiana avenue.
+
+BOICE, W. H., 5721 Rosalie court.
+
+BOICE, Mrs. W. H., 5721 Rosalie court.
+
+BOICE, MISS BESSIE, 15 years old, 5721 Rosalie court.
+
+BOLTIE, HELEN, Winnetka, aged 14.
+
+BOND, LUCILE, Hart, Mich.; identified by an aunt.
+
+BOWMAN, MRS. JOSEPHINE, 20 Chalmers place; identified by B. F. Jenkins, a
+neighbor.
+
+BOWMAN, BEATRICE M., 33 years old, 20 Chalmers place, daughter of Mrs.
+Josephine Bowman.
+
+BOWMAN, LUCIEN, 14 years old, 20 Chalmers place.
+
+BRADWELL, MISS MYRA, Windsor hotel.
+
+BRADY, LEON, 4356 Forrestville avenue.
+
+BROWN, HAROLD, 16 years old, 94 Thirty-first street, identified by Ella
+Huggins.
+
+BUEHRMANN, MARGARET, 13 years, 46 East Fifty-third street.
+
+BUTLER, MRS. F. S., 649 Michigan street, Evanston; suffocated by smoke in
+first balcony; body identified by sister.
+
+BOTSFORD, MABEL A., 21 years old, Racine, Wis.
+
+BARTLETT, MRS. WILLIAM, Grossdale, Ill.
+
+BERGH ARTHUR, 4926 Champlain avenue.
+
+BOGGS, MRS. M., 6933 Princeton avenue.
+
+BRENNAN, MARGARET, 40 years, 608 West Fulton street.
+
+BAKER, MISS ADELAIDE, 17 years old, 4410 Ellis avenue.
+
+BANSHEP, GEORGE, 28 years old, engineer, 4847 Forrestville avenue.
+
+BARTESCH, WILLIAM C., 24 years old, 464 Racine avenue.
+
+BARTLETT, ARTHUR, 6 years old, West Grossdale, Ill.
+
+BECKER, MASON A., 3237 Groveland avenue.
+
+BELL, MISS PET, 60 years old, 3000 Michigan avenue.
+
+BERG, OLGA, 11 years old, 408 West One Hundred and Eleventh street;
+identified by father.
+
+BERG, FRANK.
+
+BERG, MRS. HELEN, 408 West One Hundred and Eleventh street.
+
+BERG, VICTOR, 11 years old, 408 West One Hundred and Eleventh street;
+identified by Frank Berg, father.
+
+BERGCH, Mrs. Annie, 30 years old, 4926 Champlain avenue.
+
+BERRY, MISS EMMA, 19 years old, 236 Lincoln avenue.
+
+BERRY, MRS. C. C., 56 years old, 236 Racine avenue.
+
+BERRY, OTTO, Battle Creek, Mich., visiting at 236 Lincoln avenue.
+
+BEUTEL, WILLIAM, 33 years old, Englewood avenue, near Halsted street.
+
+BEYER, OTTO, 38 years old, Diversey boulevard.
+
+BEZENACK, MRS. NELLIE, 40 years old.
+
+BIEGLER, MISS SUSAN MARSHALL, 27 years old, 6518 Minerva avenue.
+
+BLISS, HAROLD F., 23 years old, Racine, Wis.
+
+BLUM, MRS. ROSE, 30 years old, 5248 Prairie avenue.
+
+BOLTE, LINDA W., 14 years old, Lakeside, Ill.; identified by uncle, John
+H. Willard, 2942 Indiana avenue.
+
+BRINSLEY, EMMA L., 29 years old, 909 Jackson boulevard.
+
+BROWNE, HAZEL GRACE, 14 years old, South Bend, Ind.
+
+BURKE, BERTHA, 41 years old, 511 West Monroe street; taken to Reedsville,
+Wis.
+
+BUSCHWAH, LOUISE ALICE, 12 years old, 1810 Wellington avenue.
+
+BUTLER, BENNETT, 13 years old, 649 Michigan street, Evanston.
+
+
+C.
+
+CALDWELL, ROBERT PORTER, 15 years old, St. Louis grain dealer.
+
+CALVEN, MRS. HENRIETTA, Knox, Ind.
+
+CAVILLE, ARTHUR, 24 years old, 54 Twenty-sixth street.
+
+CHAPMAN, MISS NINA, 23 years old, Cedar Rapids, Ia.
+
+CHRISTOPHERSON, MRS. MINNIE, 35 years old, 231 N. Harvey avenue.
+
+CLAY, MISS SUSIE, 36 years old, 6409 Monroe avenue.
+
+CLAYTON, JOHN V., 13 years old, 534 Morse avenue.
+
+COGANS, MRS. MARGARETHA, 26 years old, 5904 Normal avenue.
+
+CUMINGS, IRENE, 18 years, 5135 Madison avenue. Was with Miss Baker, 4410
+Ellis avenue, who was injured. They were in the third row of the balcony.
+
+CROCKER, MRS. LILLIE J., 3730 Lake avenue, teacher at Oakland school. She
+went to the theater with Mrs. Pierce and daughter, of Plainville, Mich.
+
+CANTWELL, MRS. THOMAS, 733 West Adams street, mother of Attorney Robert E.
+Cantwell; identified by James Roche, a cousin.
+
+COHN, MRS. JACOB, 222 Ogden avenue.
+
+COPLER, LOLA, 18 years old, address not known.
+
+CHAPMAN, BESSIE, 19 years old, Cedar Rapids, Ia., 211 Lincoln avenue;
+identified by her uncle, C. W. Pierson, with whom she was visiting. Was at
+theater with her sister Nina.
+
+CHAPMAN, NINA, 23 years old, 211 Lincoln avenue; identified by her uncle,
+C. W. Pierson, Cedar Rapids, Ia.
+
+COULTTS, R. H., 1616 Wabash avenue. Body identified by granddaughter.
+
+CASPER, CHARLES E., Kenosha, Wis.; body identified by G. H. Curtis of
+Kenosha.
+
+CURBIN, VERNON W., 10 years, 6938 Wentworth avenue. Identified by uncle,
+Carlos B. Hinckley.
+
+CALDWELL, ROY A. G., supposed; identified by cards in clothing.
+
+CLARK, E. D., 30 years old, 5432 Lexington avenue.
+
+CHRISTIANSON, HENRIETTA, 18 years old, 445 West Sixty-fifth street;
+identified by W. A. Douglas.
+
+CHRISTOPHER, MISS BELL, Decorah, Ia.
+
+COOPER, MRS. HELEN S., 27 years old, Lena, Ill.
+
+COOPER, WILLIS W., Kenosha, Wis., son of Charles F. Cooper, Kenosha.
+
+COOPER, CHARLES F., Kenosha, Wis.
+
+CORBIN, LOUISA, 37 years old, 6938 Wentworth avenue.
+
+CORCORAN, MISS FLORENCE, 218 Dearborn avenue; identified by brother.
+
+CHAPIN, AGNES, 4458 Berkeley avenue.
+
+CORBIN, NORMAN, 9 years, Peoria, Ill.; identified by Victor B. Corbin.
+
+
+D.
+
+DEVINE, CLARA, 29 years, 259 La Salle avenue; identified by M. Reece.
+
+DYRENFORTH, HELEN, 8 years old, daughter of Harold Dyrenforth, 832 Judson
+avenue, Evanston; body identified by father.
+
+DYRENFORTH, RUTH, daughter of Harold Dyrenforth, Evanston; body identified
+and taken away by relatives.
+
+DRYDEN, TAYLOR, 12 years old, 5803 Washington avenue; body identified by
+father.
+
+DRYDEN, MRS. JOHN, 5803 Washington avenue, mother of Taylor; body
+identified by husband.
+
+DAWSON, MRS. WILLIAM, Barrington, Ill.
+
+DECKER, MYRON, 3237 Groveland avenue.
+
+DELEE, VIOLA, 22 years old, daughter of the late Lieut. W. J. Delee, of
+Central police detail, 7822 Union avenue; body identified by M. J. Delee,
+her uncle.
+
+DIFFENDORF, MRS., 45 years old, Lincoln, Ill.
+
+DIXON, LEAH, 100 Flournoy street.
+
+DUNLAVEY, J., 6050 Wabash avenue.
+
+DIXON, EDNA, 9 years old, 100 Flournoy street.
+
+DODD, MRS. J. F., 45 years old, Delaware, O.
+
+DODD, MISS RUTH, 12 years old, Delaware, O.; identified by Dr. E. S. Coe.
+
+DOLAN, MARGARET.
+
+DONALDSON, CLARA E.
+
+DORR, LILLIAN, 16 years old, 4924 Champlain avenue.
+
+DOWST, MRS. CHARLES, 927 Hinman avenue, Evanston; body identified by
+husband.
+
+DRYCHAU, MRS. JOHN, of St. Louis.
+
+DU VALL, MRS. ELIZABETH, 498 Fullerton avenue, 40 years old.
+
+DU VALL, SARAH, 10 years old. South Zanesville, O.; identified by aunt.
+
+DECKHUT, MAE, Quincy, Ill.; body identified.
+
+DAWSON, GRACE, 5 years old, 334 Harding street; identified by her father.
+
+DANNER, J. M., 55 years old, Burlington, Ia.; identified by his
+son-in-law, Harry Wunderlich, Wilson avenue and Clark street.
+
+DAVY, MRS. ELIZABETH, 53 years old, 34 Roslyn place.
+
+DAVY, MISS HELEN, 15 years old, 35 Roslyn place.
+
+DAWSON, THERESA, 25 years, 10 Market avenue, Pullman; identified by
+husband.
+
+DAY, MRS. SARAH, 50 years old, colored.
+
+DECKER, KATE K., 58 years old, 3228 Groveland avenue.
+
+DECKER, MAMIE, 33 years old, 3237 Groveland avenue.
+
+DEE, EDDIE, 7 years old, 3133 Wabash avenue.
+
+DEE, LOUISE, 2 years, 3133 Wabash avenue.
+
+DEVINE, MARGARET, 22 years old, 95 Kendall street.
+
+DICKIE, EDITH, 25 years old, school teacher, 619 Sixty-fifth place.
+
+DIFFENDORFER, LEANDER, 16 years old, Lincoln, Ill.
+
+DINGFELDER, WINIFRED E., 18 years old, Jonesville, Mich.
+
+DONAHUE, MARY E., 18 years old, 1040 West Taylor street.
+
+DOOLEY, MRS., Claremont avenue, near Ohio street.
+
+DOTTS, MARGARET S., 32 years old, 188 North Elizabeth street; identified
+by husband.
+
+DOW, FLORENCE, 17 years old, 642 West Sixtieth street.
+
+DRAY, VICTORIA, 22 years old, Indiana avenue.
+
+DREISEL, CLARA, 30 years old, North Robey street and Potomac avenue.
+
+
+E.
+
+EDWARDS, MARGERY, 14 years old, Clinton, Ia., identified by father,
+William Edwards; father and daughter were guests at 700 Fullerton avenue.
+
+EBERSTEIN, FRANK B., 20 years old, 84 Twenty-sixth street, identified by
+his father.
+
+EISENDRATH, MRS. S. M., 10 Crilly court.
+
+EISENDRATH, NATALIE, 10 years old, 10 Crilly court.
+
+EBERSTEIN, MRS. J. A., 84 Twenty-sixth street, identified by husband and
+sister.
+
+ENGEL, MAURICE, 73 Dawson avenue, identified by name on charm.
+
+ELAND, ALMA, nurse, with two children of Harold Dyrenforth, 832 Judson
+avenue, Evanston.
+
+ESPER, EMIL, 31 years, 190 Osgood street.
+
+ERNST, ROSENE, 202 Twenty-fourth place. Identified by mother.
+
+ESTEN, ROSA, 23 years, 305 Halsted street; identified by M. Eighberg.
+
+EBBERT, MRS. J. H., 48 years old, 5516 Marshfield avenue.
+
+EDDUZE, HARRY, 16 years old, Mattoon.
+
+EDWARDS, MRS. M. L., Clinton, Ia.
+
+EGER, MRS. GUS, 3760 Indiana avenue.
+
+EISENSTAEDT, HERBERT S., 16 years old, 4549 Forrestville avenue.
+
+ELDRIDGE, HARRY, 17 years old, Mattoon.
+
+ELDRIDGE, MONTEK, 18 years old, 6063 Jefferson avenue.
+
+ELKAU, ROSE, 14 years old, 3434 South Park avenue.
+
+ELLIS, MRS. ANNIE, 40 years old, 207 East Sixty-second street.
+
+ENGELS, MINNIE, 36 years old, 73 Dawson avenue.
+
+ERSIG, TYRONE, 17 years old, 239 West Sixty-sixth street.
+
+EVANS, MATTIE, Burlington, Ia.
+
+
+F.
+
+FAIR, MISS ELLEN, 45 years old, 7564 Bond avenue.
+
+FALK, GERTRUDE, 20 years old, 3839 Elmwood place.
+
+FITZGIBBON, ANNA G., 17 years old, 2954 Michigan avenue.
+
+FLANNAGAN, THOMAS J., 24 years old, employed at Iroquois.
+
+FOLICE, NELLIE, 22 years old, 301 Claremont avenue.
+
+FOWLER, ELVA, 17 years, 3450 West Sixty-third place.
+
+FRAZER, MRS. EDWARD S., Aurora, Ill.
+
+FRIEDRICH, MRS. HELEN, 35 years old, 341 Center street.
+
+FREER, JENNIE E. CHRISTY, 53 years old, Galesburg, Ill.
+
+FRICKELTON, EDITH, 23 years old, 632 Peoria street.
+
+FRICKELTON, GEORGE E., 17 years old, 5632 Peoria street.
+
+FROST, P. O.
+
+FOX, MRS. EVELYN, Winnetka, daughter of W. M. Hoyt; was accompanied by
+three children, all of whom are dead; body of mother found by Graeme
+Stewart.
+
+FOX, GEORGE SYDNEY, 15 years old, son of Mrs. Fox.
+
+FOX, EMILY, 9 years old, daughter of Mrs. Fox.
+
+FOX, HOYT, 12 years old, son of Mrs. Fox.
+
+FRADY, MRS. E. C., 4356 Forrestville avenue.
+
+FRADY, LEON, 4356 Forrestville avenue.
+
+FOLTZ, MRS. C. O., 1886 Diversey boulevard.
+
+FOLEY, H.
+
+FALKENSTEIN, GERTRUDE, identified by card in clothing.
+
+FITZGIBBONS, JOHN J., 18 years old, 2954 Michigan avenue.
+
+FEISER, MARY, 793 North Springfield avenue, wife of a Larrabee street
+patrolman.
+
+FAHEY, MARY, 25 years old, 4860 Kimbark avenue; identified by T. H. Fahey.
+
+FOLKE, ADA, 23 years old, Berwyn.
+
+FORBUSCH, MRS. C. W., 35 years old, 927 Hinman avenue, Evanston;
+identified by W. P. Marsh.
+
+FOLTZ, ALICE, 1886 Diversey boulevard.
+
+FORT, PHOEBE IRENE, principal of Myra Bradwell school, 146 Thirty-sixth
+street.
+
+FRACK, ODESSA, Ottawa, Ill.
+
+FRANTZEN, LINDA, Winnetka.
+
+
+G.
+
+GARN, MRS. FRANK WARREN, 831 West Monroe street, daughter of L. Wolff,
+1319 Washington boulevard, attended the theater with her sons, Frank, 10
+years old, and Willie, 9 years old. All perished. Mrs. Garn was identified
+by her husband.
+
+GARN, FRANK L., 10 years old, 831 West Monroe street.
+
+GARN, WILLIE, 9 years old, 831 West Monroe street.
+
+GUSTAFSON, MISS ALMA, 10003 Avenue N, teacher in the John L. Marsh school
+at South Chicago. She attended the theater with Miss Carrie Sayre and a
+party of school teachers from South Chicago.
+
+GOULD, MRS. B. E., identified by friends through jewelry.
+
+GOULD, B. E., Elgin, Ill., clerk of the Circuit court of Kane county. Mr.
+Gould was accompanied to the play by his wife, who also perished.
+
+GARTZ, HARRY, 4860 Kimbark avenue.
+
+GARTZ, MARY DORETHEA, 4860 Kimbark avenue, 12 years old, daughter of A. F.
+Gartz, treasurer of the Crane company; attended theater with sister,
+Barbara, maid and nurse; all perished.
+
+GARTZ, BARBARA, 4 years, 4863 Kimbark avenue; identified by Maud Purcell.
+
+GERON, MRS. MABLE, Winnetka; body identified by her brother.
+
+GAHAN, JOSEPHINE, 129 Twenty-fifth place.
+
+GASS, MRS. JOSEPH, 243 Grace street.
+
+GEARY, PAULINE, 21 years old, 4627 Indiana avenue.
+
+GEIK, MRS. EMILE, died at St. Luke's hospital.
+
+GESTREN, ALMA.
+
+GRAFF, MRS. REINHOLD, Bloomington, Ill.
+
+GRAVES, MRS. CLARA, wife of W. C. Graves, 723 East Chicago avenue;
+identified by sister-in-law, Lucetta Graves.
+
+GUDELMANS, SOFIA, 327 North Ashland avenue.
+
+GOOLSBY, MISS VERA, of Americus, Ga.; attending college in Chicago.
+
+GERHART, BERRY, 25 years old.
+
+GOERK, DORA, 1030 Bryan avenue, 10 years old.
+
+GUERNI, JENNIE, 135 North Sangamon street.
+
+GUTHARDT, MISS LIBBY, 16 years old, 159 One Hundred and Thirteenth street.
+
+
+H.
+
+HAINSLEY, FRANCES, 5 years, Logansport, Ind.; identified by father.
+
+HARBAUGH, MARY E., 30 years old, 6653 Harvard avenue.
+
+HOFFEIN, MISS ADELINE J. C., 24 years old, 292 Haddon avenue.
+
+HARTMAN, JOHN, 5705 South Halsted street.
+
+HENNING, CHARLES, 6 years old, 5743 Prairie avenue.
+
+HENNING, WILLIAM, 14 years old.
+
+HENNESSY, WILLIAM, 14 years old, 4411 Calumet avenue.
+
+HICKMAN, MRS. CHARLES, 24 years old, 4743 Calumet avenue.
+
+HIGGINSON, JANITHE B., 2 years old, Winnetka, Ill.; identified by P. D.
+Sexton, 418 East Huron street.
+
+HIPPACH, ROBERT A., 14 years old, 2928 Kenmore avenue.
+
+HIVE, ENA M., 15 years old, 613 West Sixty-first place.
+
+HOLLAND, JOHN H., 60 years old, 6429 Evans avenue.
+
+HOLST, MRS. MARY W., 36 years old, 2088 Van Buren street.
+
+HOLST, AMY, 7 years old, 2088 Van Buren street.
+
+HOWARD, MRS. MARY E., 54 years old, Jonesville, Mich.; identified by son,
+Frank Howard, 3812 Prairie avenue.
+
+HOLM, HULDA, 176 North Western avenue.
+
+HULL, MARIANNE K., 32 years old, 244 Oakwood boulevard.
+
+HULL, HELEN, 12 years old, 244 Oakwood boulevard.
+
+HULL, DWIGHT, 6 years old, 244 Oakwood boulevard.
+
+HULL, DONALD, 8 years old, 244 Oakwood boulevard.
+
+HAYES, FRANK, 22 years old, son of Police Sergeant Dennis Hayes, Larrabee
+street station; identified by younger brother.
+
+HAVELAND, LEIGH, daughter of J. P. Haveland, 31 Humboldt boulevard; body
+identified by father. Later father found the body of Clyde O. Thompson,
+Wisconsin university student, who was guest at Haveland home and had
+accompanied the daughter to the theater.
+
+HUDHART, ADELAIDE, 41 years old, 159 One Hundred and Thirteenth street;
+identified by her husband, James Hudhart.
+
+HIPPACH, JOHN, 8 years old, son of senior member of firm of Tyler &
+Hippach.
+
+HART, MRS. NELLIE E., Atkinson, Ill.; identified by father, John English.
+
+HUTCHINS, MISS JEANETTE, 22 years old, teacher at Winnetka; identified by
+brother.
+
+HOWARD, HELEN, 16 years old, 6565 Yale avenue; was a student at Englewood
+High School.
+
+HICKMAN, CHARLES, 4743 Calumet avenue; identified by Dr. H. H. Steele.
+
+HALL, EMERY M., husband of E. Grace Hall, the Vermont, 571 East
+Fifty-first street.
+
+HOLST, GERTRUDE, 12 years old, 2088 Van Buren street; identified by her
+father.
+
+HRODY, MRS. ANNA, 35 years old, 1353 South Fortieth avenue.
+
+HEWINS, DR. EMERY, Petersburg, Ind.; body identified by daughter.
+
+HELMS, OTTO H., 77 Maple street.
+
+HENNING, EDDIE, 14 years old, 4753 Prairie avenue.
+
+HENSLEY, MRS. GUY, Logansport, Ind.
+
+HENSLEY, GENEVIEVE, 8 years old, Logansport, Ind.
+
+HEWINS, MRS. L., 20 years old, Petersburg, Ind.; identified by friends.
+
+HENRY, MRS. G. A., 1198 Wilton avenue.
+
+HERRON, BESSIE L., 133 Conduit street, Hammond, Ind.
+
+HIGGINS, ROGER G., 9 years old, 419 East Huron street.
+
+HIGGINSON, MISS JEANETTE, Winnetka; body identified by her brother.
+
+HENNESSY, WILLIAM, 4411 Calumet avenue.
+
+HOLMES, MRS.
+
+HUTCHINS, MISS FLORENCE, Waukegan.
+
+HART, MISS ELIZABETH, Sherman avenue and Dempster street, Evanston.
+
+HERGER, BERTHA, Hammond, Ind.; identified by Thomas Weisman.
+
+HIRSCH, MARY, 19 years old, 617 Halsted street.
+
+HOLBERTON, E. R.
+
+HOLST, ALLAN B., 12 years old, 2088 Van Buren street; son of William M.
+Holst; identified by father.
+
+HENSLEY, MARIAN, 5 years old, Logansport, daughter of G. Hensley.
+
+
+I.
+
+IRLE, MRS. ANDREW, 32 years old, 1240 Lawrence avenue, wife of Andrew
+Irle, assistant superintendent of the Pinkerton National Detective Agency;
+body identified by name in wedding ring.
+
+
+J.
+
+JAMES, C. D., 40 years old, Davenport, Ia.
+
+JAMES, C. O.; identified by card in clothing.
+
+JONES, MRS. ANNA, 46 East Fifty-third street.
+
+JACKSON, VERA R., 19 years old, 216 Humboldt boulevard.
+
+JONES, MRS. WARNER E., 38 years old, Tuscola, Ill.; visiting at 46 East
+Fifty-third street.
+
+
+K.
+
+KOCHEMS, JACOB A., 17 years, 262 Warren avenue; identified by father.
+
+KENNEDY, AGNES, 6528 Ross avenue, former teacher at Hendricks and Melville
+W. Fuller schools.
+
+KENNEDY, FRANCES, Winnetka.
+
+KELL, MRS. CHARLES.
+
+KAUFFMAN, ALICE, 5 years old, Hammond, Ind.
+
+KOCHEMS, MRS. FRANK, 262 Warren avenue; identified by husband.
+
+KRANZ, MRS. SARAH, Racine, Wis.; died at Samaritan hospital.
+
+KUEBLER, LOLA, 16 years old, 344 Fiftieth street.
+
+KULAS, MRS. GEORGIANA, 349 Chestnut street; identified by Mrs. C. J.
+Benshaw.
+
+KURLEY, MINNIE, 5 years old, Logansport, Ind.
+
+KEKMAN, FRAMELLES, 525 Austin avenue.
+
+KOUTHES, MRS. E. K., Montreal.
+
+KWASUIEWSKI, JOHN, 25 years old, 122 Cleaver street.
+
+
+L.
+
+LAKE, MRS. ALFRED, 60 years old, 278 Belden avenue.
+
+LANGE, HERBERT, 16 years old, 1632 Barry avenue.
+
+LANGE, AGNES, 14 years old, 1632 Barry avenue; body identified by her
+father.
+
+LA ROSE, LAURA, 12 years, 833 N. Clark street.
+
+LA ROSE, JOSEPHINE, 8 years old, 833 N. Clark street.
+
+LA ROSE, MATILDA, 10 years old, 833 N. Clark street.
+
+LEATON, FRED W., 24 years old, University of Chicago.
+
+LEAVENWORTH, MRS. CARRIE, 45 years old, Decatur.
+
+LEFMAN, MRS. SUSIE, 38 years old, Laporte, Ind.
+
+LEHMAN, MISS FRANCES M., 525 North Austin avenue, Oak Park, a teacher in
+the H. H. Nash school.
+
+LEMENAGER, MRS. JESSIE, 38 years old, 53 Waveland Park.
+
+LEVENSON, ROSE, 28 years old, 268 Ogden avenue.
+
+LONG, RYAN, 12 years old, Geneva, Ill.
+
+LONG, HELEN, 14 years old, Geneva, Ill.
+
+LONG, KATHERINE, 9 years old, Geneva, Ill.
+
+LUDWIG, MISS EUGENIE, 18 years old, Norwood Park.
+
+LASSMANN, MRS. SUSIE, Laporte, Ind.; identified by Frederick M. Burdick, a
+friend.
+
+LIVINGSTON, MRS. DAISY, 271 Oakwood boulevard; body identified by her
+brother, T. B. Livingston.
+
+LOWITZ, MRS. NATHAN, 274 Sheffield avenue; identified by means of ring,
+"Nat to Minnie."
+
+LOWITZ, MRS. N. S., Keokuk, Ia.
+
+LEATON, FRED W., aged 25 years, 537 East Fifty-fifth street; medical
+student at the University of Chicago; home at Terry, S. D.
+
+LINDEN, ELLA, 21 years old, 4625 Lake avenue; identified by her brother,
+Frank Linden.
+
+LOVE, MARGARET, Fulton street.
+
+
+M.
+
+MAHLER, EDITH L., 8 years old, 2141 Jackson Boulevard.
+
+MANN, MISS EMMA D., teacher of music in public schools; 1388 Washington
+boulevard; identified by Louis Mann, her brother.
+
+MACKAY, ROLAND S., 6 years old, 5029 Indiana avenue.
+
+MARTIN, HAROLD C., 14 years old, 11 Market circle.
+
+MARTIN, ROBERT B., 12 years old, Pullman, Ill.
+
+M'CHRISTIE, MISS ANNA, 27 years old, 6315 Lexington avenue.
+
+M'GUNIGLE, MISS MAYME, 30 years old, New York; visiting Miss Reidy, 614
+South Sawyer avenue.
+
+MEAGLER, MISS MARIA, 656 Orchard street, a school teacher.
+
+MEYER, ELSA, H., 10 years old, lived at Grossdale, Ill.
+
+MILLER, HELEN, 23 years old, 369 West Huron street.
+
+MILLS, CHARLES V., 623 Sedgwick street.
+
+MILLS, MRS. W. A., 623 Sedgwick street.
+
+MILLS, ISABELLA, 21 years old, 6263 Jefferson street.
+
+MOORE, MRS. MATTIE, 33 years old, Hart, Mich.; staying with sister-in-law,
+Mrs. Bond, at 4123 Indiana avenue; identified by Herman Mathias, 107
+Madison street.
+
+MOSSLER, PEARLINE, 13 years old, Rensselaer, Ind.
+
+MUIR, S. A., 35 years old, 301 Winthrop avenue; connected with the Chase
+Furniture Company, 1411 Michigan avenue; identified by George B. Chase,
+vice-president of the company.
+
+M'CLURG, ROY, 14 years old, 5803 Superior street, Austin.
+
+M'MILLEN, MABEL, 20 years old, 2824 North Hermitage avenue.
+
+M'KENNA, BERNARD, 2 years old, 758 Kedzie avenue; body identified by the
+father.
+
+MOLONEY, ALICE, daughter of former Attorney General Moloney, Ottawa, Ill.;
+body identified by her father and brother.
+
+MARTIN, EARL, 7 years old, son of Z. E. Martin, Oak Park; body identified
+by father.
+
+MUIR, MAMIE, Peoria, Ill.; identified by name on clothing.
+
+MURRAY, CHARLES; identified by letters found in clothing.
+
+MARKS, MISS MAY, 19 years old, 69 North Humboldt boulevard.
+
+McCAUGHAN, HELEN, 16 years old, 6565 Yale avenue.
+
+MEAD, MRS., 278 Belden avenue; identified from clothing.
+
+MERRIAM, MRS. H. H., 489 Fullerton avenue; body identified by Dr.
+Hequenbourg.
+
+MERRIMAN, MILDRED, daughter of W. A. Merriman, manager of George A.
+Fuller's.
+
+MITCHELL, MISS DORA, 20 years old, Laporte, Ind.; identified by friends.
+
+MYERS, ELSIE, 8 years, Grossdale, Ill.
+
+McKEE, J. W., 64 years old; identified by Lola Lee.
+
+MOAK, ANNA, 278 Belden avenue.
+
+MANN, MISS EMMA D., 18 years old, 1388 Washington boulevard; identified by
+Louis Mann, her brother.
+
+MATCHETTE, EMILY, 21 years old, 636 Sixtieth street.
+
+MOOHAN, H. B., 30 years old.
+
+MOORE, MRS. KITTIE, 45 years old, 119 West Fifty-ninth street.
+
+MUIR, MRS. EUGENIA, 301 Winthrop avenue.
+
+MILLER, WILLARD, 9 years old, 4919 Vincennes avenue.
+
+McCLELLAND, JOSEPH, Harvard, Ill.; identified by uncle.
+
+McCLURE, LAWRENCE, 230 East Superior street; identified by George, his
+brother.
+
+McGILL, ELIZABETH, 12 years old, Pittsburg, Pa., guest at residence of
+Charles Koll, 496 Ashland avenue; identified by her mother.
+
+McKENNA, MRS. JOHN L., 758 Kedzie avenue.
+
+MEAD, LUCILLE, 11 years old, Berwyn.
+
+McLAUGHLIN, WILLIAM L., nephew of Mrs. Frank W. Gunsaulus, died at 9:30 p.
+m., at Presbyterian hospital.
+
+MENDEL, MRS. HERMAN, 53 years, 5555 Washington avenue; the body was
+shipped to Neola, Ia., for burial on Sunday; Mr. Mendel is a retired
+banker.
+
+MENGER, MISS ANNIE, 222 Twenty-fourth place; identified by Elta Menzeh.
+
+MILLS, PEARL M., 5613 Kimbark avenue; identified by Ward Mills.
+
+MOAK, LENA, 19 years old, Watertown, Wis.; guest at 278 Belden avenue.
+
+MOORE, BENJAMIN, 119 West Fifty-ninth street; identified by grandson.
+
+MOORE, MISS SYBIL, Hart, Mich.; identified by letter.
+
+MURPHY, DEWITT J., 1340 Sheffield avenue; identified by father.
+
+MURRAY, CHARLES, 36 years old, Martinsburg, O.; identified by J. H. Dodd.
+
+MUELLER, MRS. EMELIA, 60 years, Milwaukee; identified by daughter, Mrs.
+Herman Groth.
+
+MORRIS, MABEL A., 17 years old, 5124 Dearborn street.
+
+MULHOLLAND, JOSEPHINE, 33 years, 4409 Wabash avenue; identified by Clarke
+Griffith.
+
+
+N.
+
+NEWMAN, MRS. MARY, 32 years old, housekeeper for the Rev. Father J. C.
+Ocenasek, pastor of Our Lady of Lourdes church.
+
+NEWBY, MRS. LUTHER G., Drexel hotel; identified by her father.
+
+NEWMAN, MRS. ANNA, West Grossdale; identified by her rings.
+
+NORTON, MATTIE, Ontonagon, Mich., attending school at Academy of the
+Visitation, Ridge avenue and Emerson street, Evanston.
+
+NORTON, EDITH N., Ontonagon, Mich., attending school at Academy of the
+Visitation, Evanston.
+
+NEWMAN, ARTHUR, 10 years, West Grossdale.
+
+NORRIS, MRS. LIBBIE A., 30 years old, 5124 Dearborn street.
+
+NORRIS, MABEL, 20 years old, 5124 Dearborn street.
+
+
+O.
+
+ORLE, MABEL M., 1240 Lawrence avenue.
+
+OWEN, DR., Wheaton, Ill., died at the Homeopathic Hospital.
+
+OWEN, MRS. MARY, 44 years, Wheaton.
+
+OAKLEY, DR. ALBERT J., 40 years old, Sixty-fifth and Stewart avenue;
+identified by Dr. L. Phillips.
+
+OXNAM, FLORENCE, 16 years old, 435 Englewood avenue.
+
+OAKEY, LUCILE, 13 years old, daughter of A. J. Oakey, Sixty-fifth street
+and Stewart avenue.
+
+OAKEY, MARIAN, 11 years old, Sixty-fifth street and Stewart avenue;
+identified by F. R. Bradford.
+
+OLSEN, MRS. O. M., 833 Walnut street; identified by husband.
+
+OLSON, MISS AUGUSTA, 27 years old, 218 Seventy-ninth place; identified by
+brother-in-law.
+
+OWEN, WILLIAM MURRAY, 12 years old; body identified by father.
+
+OWENS, AMY, daughter of Mrs. Owens, 6241 Kimbark avenue.
+
+OWENS, MRS. FRANCES O., 6241 Kimbark avenue.
+
+OLSON, ELVIRA, 18 years old, daughter of William H. Olson, 7010 Stewart
+avenue.
+
+
+P.
+
+PERSINGER, HEWITT, 10 years old, 50 Florence avenue, identified by J. W.
+Harrison, a cousin.
+
+PASSE, ELIZABETH, 6 years old, 552 East Forty-ninth street; identified by
+her father.
+
+PAGE, CHARLES T., 6562 Stewart avenue; body identified.
+
+PAGE, HARROLD, 6562 Stewart avenue, 12 years old.
+
+PAULMAN, WILLIAM, 22 years old, 3738 State street.
+
+PAYSON, RUTH, 14 years old, 1 Elizabeth street, Oak Park.
+
+PECK, WILLIS W., 2644 North Hermitage avenue.
+
+PIERCE, MRS. L. H., 32 years old, Plainwell, Mich.; guest at home of her
+brother, R. B. Carter, 3821 Lake avenue, who identified body.
+
+POWER, MISS LILLY, 442 West Seventieth street, 21 years old.
+
+POLZIN, HENRIETTA, Knox, Ind.
+
+PAGE, BERTHA, 45 years old, 6562 Stewart avenue identified by a brother.
+
+PEASE, MRS. GRACE, wife of P. S. Pease, 6140 Ingleside avenue; body
+identified.
+
+PEASE, ELIZABETH, 7 years old, daughter of P. S. Pease.
+
+PECK, ETHEL M., 16 years old, 2042 Hermitage avenue; identified by Dr.
+Steele.
+
+PELTON, MISS LILLIAN, 30 years old, Des Moines; identified by W. F. Wilson
+of Des Moines.
+
+PERSINGER, MRS. FRANK, 50 Florence avenue; identified from clothing.
+
+PINNEY, MRS. BELLE, 353 South Leavitt street.
+
+PALMER, MRS. KATIE, 33 years old, 1141 Judson avenue, Evanston.
+
+PALMER, RICHARD G., 14 years old, 1141 Judson avenue, Evanston.
+
+PALMER, WILLIAM, 42 years old; salesman; 1141 Judson avenue, Evanston.
+
+PALMER, HOWARD, 10 years old, 1141 Judson avenue, Evanston.
+
+POLTE, LINDEN W., 14 years old, Lakeside, Ill.; body identified by John W.
+Willard, uncle.
+
+PATTERSON, CRAWFORD JULIAN, 12 years old, 4467 Oakenwald avenue.
+
+PATTERSON, WILLIAM ADDISON, 10 years old, 4467 Oakenwald avenue.
+
+PAYNE, MRS. JAMES, 357 Garfield boulevard, 35 years.
+
+PEASE, MRS. AUGUSTA, 55 years, 552 East Forty-ninth street.
+
+PILAT, JOSEPHINE, 13 years old, 34 Humboldt boulevard.
+
+POND, MRS. EVA, 1272 Lyman avenue.
+
+POND, RAYMOND, 14 years old, 1272 Lyman avenue, Ravenswood.
+
+POND, HELEN, 7 years old, 1272 Lyman avenue, Ravenswood.
+
+POTTLITZER, JACK, 11 years old, Lafayette, Ind.
+
+PRIDEMORE, EDITH S., 32 years old, Fifty-eighth and Kimbark avenue.
+
+
+Q.
+
+QUITCH, MRS. W. J., 249 North Ashland avenue.
+
+
+R.
+
+RATTEY, WILLIAM A., 917 North Artesian avenue, died at the county hospital
+from burns and internal injuries; identified by Charles J. Rattey, 980
+Talman avenue, his brother.
+
+REED, NELLIE, 66 Rush street, leader of the flying ballet in the "Mr.
+Bluebeard" company, died at the county hospital from burns on the body;
+she was identified by Hermann Schultz of New York, a member of the
+company.
+
+REGENSBURG, HELEN, daughter of Samuel H. Regensburg, Vendome hotel,
+Sixty-second street and Monroe avenue.
+
+REGENSBURG, HAZEL, daughter of Samuel H. Regensburg, Vendome hotel.
+
+REIDY, ANNA, 614 South Sawyer avenue, daughter of Policeman John Reidy.
+
+REISS, ERNEST, 11 years old, 4244 Vincennes avenue; identified by uncle.
+
+REIDY, MARY, 614 Sawyer avenue, sister of Anna.
+
+REIDY, NELLIE, 614 Sawyer avenue, and sister of other two women,
+identified by Catherine Campbell, 623 South Sawyer avenue.
+
+REISS, ERNA, 3760 Indiana avenue.
+
+REITER, MISS REINA, 55 years old, 3000 Michigan avenue; with Miss Reiter
+at the play was her sister, Miss Pet Bell, Potomac apartments.
+
+REITER, MRS. M. S., 3000 Michigan avenue; identified by C. F. Cooper.
+
+ROBERTSON, MINNIE, 15 years old, Park Ridge; body identified by brother.
+
+RANKIN, MRS. MARTHA, 498 Fullerton avenue.
+
+RANKIN, LOUISE, South Zanesville, O.
+
+REID, COL. W. M., Waukegan, aged 70 years, formerly assessor; identified
+by papers in his pocket, by R. G. Lyon.
+
+REID, MRS. W. M., Waukegan.
+
+RICHARDSON, THE REV. H. L., 44 years old, 5737 Drexel avenue, pastor of
+Congregational Church in Whiting, Ind.; also student in the divinity
+school of the University of Chicago; was pastor of a Congregational Church
+in Ripon, Wis., for twelve years.
+
+RIFE, MRS. WILLIAM, 516 East Forty-sixth street.
+
+RIMES, DR. M. B., 6331 Wentworth avenue; attended theater with wife and
+three sons.
+
+RIMES, MRS. M. B., wife of Dr. Rimes.
+
+RIMES, MYRON, 10 years old, son of Dr. Rimes.
+
+RIMES, THOMAS M., 7 years old, son of Dr. Rimes.
+
+RIMES, LLOYD B., 5 years old, son of Dr. Rimes.
+
+ROGERS, ROSE, 32 years, 1342 North Sangamon street; identified by husband.
+
+ROBERTS, THEODORE.
+
+RUBLY, MRS. LOUISE, 60 years old, 838 Wilson avenue; identified by her
+son, G. H. Rubly.
+
+RADCLIFFE, ANNA, 6404 Calumet avenue.
+
+RAYNOLDS, DORA, 18 years old, 4216 Forty-fifth street.
+
+REIDY, ELENORA, 20 years old, 614 South Sawyer avenue.
+
+REIDY, JOHN J., 614 South Sawyer avenue.
+
+REISS, ERNEST, 11 years old, 4244 Vincennes avenue.
+
+REYNOLDS, MARIE, 30 years, Sunnyside park.
+
+ROBBINS, RUTH W., Madison, Wis.
+
+ROETCHE, LILLIAN, 20 years old.
+
+ROTTIE, LILLIAN, 10 years old, 7218 Lafayette avenue.
+
+RUHLEMAN, CLARA, 63 years old, Detroit.
+
+RUTIGAR, MRS. ELEANOR, 55 years old, 750 South Trumbull avenue.
+
+
+S.
+
+SANDS, MRS. H. F., 40 years old, Tolona, Ill.
+
+SANDS, KITTIE, Tolona, Ill., 15 years old, visiting Miss L. Barnett and
+Miss J. Dawson, 1006 West Fifty-fourth street.
+
+SCHNEIDER, GEORGE GRINER, 20 years old, 437 Belden avenue.
+
+SCHNEIDER, JAMES, 157 Roscoe boulevard.
+
+SCHNEIDER, MRS. JAMES, 22 years old, 157 Roscoe boulevard.
+
+SCHREINER, MRS. MAMIE L., 30 years old, 2183 West Monroe street.
+
+SCHREINER, IRMA MAY, 5 years old, 2183 West Monroe street.
+
+SECHRIST, MISS HATTIE, 2928 North Paulina street.
+
+SECHRIST, JUNE, 8 years old, 2928 North Paulina street.
+
+SCHAFFNER, MISS MINNIE, 25 years old, 578 Forty-fifth place; teacher in
+Forrestville school.
+
+SHINNERS, MRS. ALICE, 24 years old, 4344 Oakenwald avenue.
+
+SIMPSON, ADA, 40 years old, visiting at 537 West Sixty-fifth street,
+Denver.
+
+SMITH, MISS BONNIE, 15 years old, 2177 Washington boulevard.
+
+SMITH, RUTH M., 15 years old, 2177 Washington boulevard.
+
+STAFFORD, BESSIE M., 1253 Wilcox avenue.
+
+STRATMAN, RUTH, 18 years old, 421 East Forty-fifth street.
+
+STERN, MARTIN, 1385 Congress street.
+
+SAYRE, MISS CARRIE, of 7646 Bond avenue, school teacher in Myra Bradwell
+school, Windsor Park; identified by friends; she was in the party of
+school teachers with Miss Alma Gustafson.
+
+SWARTZ, MISS MARJORIE, student at Washington college, Washington, D. C.,
+20 years old, daughter of Dr. Thomas Benton Swartz, 146 Thirty-sixth
+street; died at St. Luke's hospital.
+
+SAVILLE, WARREN E., 19 years old, 46 East Fifty-third street; formerly
+lived at Kankakee, Ill.
+
+SEYMORE, A. L., 758 West Lake street.
+
+SMITH, MRS., Desplaines, Ill.
+
+STAFFORD, MISS ROSIE, 18 years old, address not known.
+
+STILLMAN, MISS CARRIE, daughter of Prof. Stillman of Leland Stafford
+university, California; was in seat in first row of first balcony.
+
+SHERIDAN, ANDREW, 35 years old, 4155 Wentworth avenue; identified as
+engineer of Wabash railroad company, by F. J. Herlihy.
+
+STODDARD, DONALD, 11 years old, Lanark, Ill.; body identified by the
+father, B. M. Stoddard.
+
+SYLVESTER, ELECTRA, 30 years old, Plainview, Mo., visiting Mrs. Andrew
+Irle, 1240 Lawrence avenue; body identified by name on handkerchief.
+
+SUTTEN, HARRY P., 17 years old, 1595 West Adams street.
+
+SEGRINT, MRS. A. N., 40 years old, Paulina street and Lawrence avenue,
+Irving Park; identified by husband.
+
+STEINMETZ, MRS. O. T. P., 2541 Halsted street.
+
+STRONG, E. K., 10 Oakland Crescent.
+
+SAWYER, MRS. J., 102 Cleaver street.
+
+SCHMIDT, ROSAMOND, 18 years old, daughter of H. G. Schmidt, 335 West
+Sixty-first street.
+
+SCHOENBECK, ANNA, 408 East Division street; identified by mother.
+
+SCHOENBECK, ELVINA, 408 East Division street.
+
+SCHREINER, ARLENE, 6 years old, 2183 West Monroe street; identified by
+relatives.
+
+SILL, LUCILE, 7604 Union avenue, 25 years old; identified by E. S. Hall.
+
+SMITH, MARINE, Desplaines, daughter of Mrs. Smith.
+
+SHABAD, MYRTLE, 14 years old, 3041 Indiana avenue.
+
+SPECHT, MRS. B., 6542 Stewart avenue.
+
+SPECHT, MISS EVA, 6542 Stewart avenue.
+
+SPINDLER, MRS. J. H., Lowe, Ind.; visiting sister, Mrs. E. C. Frady, 4356
+Forrestville avenue.
+
+SPINDLER, BURDETTE, Lowe, Ind., son of Mrs. J. H. Spindler.
+
+SQUIRE, MISS OLIVE E., 914 Cuyler avenue; identified by her father.
+
+SQUIRE, OSCAR, 7 years old, 942 Cuyler avenue; identified by father.
+
+STARK, MRS. N. M., Des Moines, Ia.
+
+STODDARD, ZABELLA, 27 years old, daughter of D. M. Stoddard of Minonk,
+Ill.; was accompanied by young brother.
+
+STRONG, MRS. JAMES N., 23 years old, 10 Oakland Crescent.
+
+STUDLEY, THE REV. G. H., 3139 Parnell avenue, pastor of the Asbury
+Methodist Episcopal church, at Thirty-first street and Parnell avenue.
+
+SUETSCH, W. J., 33 years old, 2496 North Ashland avenue.
+
+SUTTLER, MRS. L. J., Des Moines, Ia.
+
+SWARTZ, IRENE, 12 years old, 143 Thirty-fifth street.
+
+SULLIVAN, ELLA, Knoxville, Ia., body identified by L. C. Flurnit.
+
+
+T.
+
+TAYLOR, MRS. J. M., 31 years old, 1222 Morse avenue, Rogers Park;
+identified by daughter-in-law, Mrs. A. Taylor, 1028 Farwell avenue, Rogers
+Park.
+
+THOMPSON, CLYDE, O., Madison, Wis.; student at University of Wisconsin;
+Thompson had taken his fianc�e, Miss Leigh Haveland, to the theater; both
+perished.
+
+TAYLOR, JAMES M., 60 years, 1222 Morse avenue, Rogers Park; identified by
+Albert A. Taylor.
+
+TAYLOR, REAM, 1204 Morris avenue.
+
+TORNEY, MRS. EDNA, 28 years old; lived at Francisco avenue and Adams
+street.
+
+TRASK, MRS. E. W., Ottawa, Ill.
+
+TAYLOR, MISS FLORA, 22 years old, at St. Luke's Hospital.
+
+TEASTER, F. W.
+
+THOMAS, REMINGTON HEWITT, 18 years old, 62 Woodland Park, son of Frank H.
+Thomas.
+
+THONI, CLARA, 4644 Evans avenue; identified by Maud Partell.
+
+TRASK, MRS. R. H., Ottawa, Ill.; identified at Carroll's.
+
+TURNEY, MRS. SUSIE, 40 years old, 534 East Fiftieth street; identified by
+her son.
+
+TARNEY, CARRIE, 534 East Fiftieth street.
+
+TAYLOR, RENE MARY, 12 years, 1222 Morse avenue.
+
+THATCHER, WALTER, 38 years old, 341 West Sixtieth place.
+
+THOMPSON, C. J. (supposed); name on collar.
+
+TOBIAS, FLORENCE, 1182 Flournoy street.
+
+
+V.
+
+VALLELY, MRS. J. T., 858 Sawyer avenue.
+
+VALLELY, BERNICE, daughter of Mrs. Vallely.
+
+VAN INGEN, ELIZABETH,. 9 years old, Kenosha, Wis.
+
+VAN INGEN, JOHN, Kenosha, Wis., 20 years old, famed golf player, son of H.
+F. Van Ingen; was at the theater with parents, three sisters, and two
+brothers; died at Sherman house, where he and his parents were taken.
+
+VAN INGEN, GRACE, Kenosha, 23 years old, daughter of H. F. Van Ingen.
+
+VAN INGEN, NED, 18 years old, son of H. F. Van Ingen, Kenosha.
+
+VAN INGEN, MARGARET, 16 years old, daughter of H. F. Van Ingen, Kenosha.
+
+
+W.
+
+WOLFF, HARRIET, daughter of L. Wolff, president of L. Wolff Manufacturing
+Company, 1319 Washington boulevard.
+
+WACHS, MRS. ELLA, of Laporte, Ind.; body identified by her brother, F. C.
+Flentye.
+
+WASHINGTON, MISS FREDA, 22 years old, 1897 Melrose street.
+
+WEINDER, PAUL, 17 years old, 201 South Harvey avenue, Oak Park; identified
+by father.
+
+WELLS, DONALD, 12 years old, 1228 Diversey boulevard.
+
+WALDMAN, SAM, 20 years, 608 Milwaukee avenue.
+
+WALMAN, SIMON, Austin. Identified by Edward Williams.
+
+WASHINGTON, JOHN, 22 years old, 1847 Melrose street.
+
+WILCOX, MRS. EVA M., 45 years old, 109 South Leavitt street.
+
+WHITE, MRS. W. K., Washington Heights. Identified by Secretary White of
+the finance committee, city hall.
+
+WHITE, MISS FLORENCE O., 22 years old, 437 West Thirty-eighth street.
+Identified by F. J. Shaw.
+
+WHITE, MRS. HIRAM, and child, Logansport, Ind.
+
+WIEMER, MRS. THOMAS, 30 years old, 838 Wilson avenue. Identified by
+husband.
+
+WILLIAMS, HOWARD, 18 years old, Cornell student.
+
+WENTON, MISS ALICE, 6241 Kimbark avenue.
+
+WAGNER, MARY ANNA, 629 Sedgwick street.
+
+WECK, ERICK, Milwaukee; guest of Joseph Schneider, Chicago.
+
+WIRE, EVA, 15 years old, 613 West Sixty-first place. Identified by her
+uncle, E. A. Mayo.
+
+WOOD, MRS. J., 545 West Sixty-fifth street.
+
+WULSON, HOWARD J., 213 Halsted street Identified by E. J. Blair.
+
+WEBBER, JOSEPH, Janesville, Wis.
+
+WEBER, MRS. CARRIE, aged 49 years, wife of John J. Weber, 402 Garfield
+avenue.
+
+WUNDERLICH, MRS. HARRY, 34 years old. Identified by her husband.
+
+WESKOPS, IRMA, aged 15 years, 4939 Champlain avenue. Identified by
+brother.
+
+WEIHERS, IDA, 1970 Kimball avenue.
+
+WEINFELD, HANNAH, 20 years old, 3745 Wabash avenue.
+
+WERNISH, MRS. MARY, 341 Center street.
+
+WERSKOWSKY, MRS., 125 Sangamon street.
+
+WINDER, BARRY, 12 years old, 201 South Harvey avenue, Oak Park.
+
+WOLF, SADIE, 26 years old, Hammond, Ind.
+
+WOODS, MRS. J. L., 49 years old, 437 Sixty-fifth street.
+
+
+Z.
+
+ZEISLER, WALTER B., aged 17 years, University of Chicago student, son of
+Dr. Joseph Zeisler, 3256 Lake Park avenue. Identified by name on watch
+charm.
+
+ZIMMERMAN, MISS BESSIE, 954 St. Louis avenue, teacher in public schools,
+died at St. Luke's hospital.
+
+ZIMMERMAN, MARY E., 20 years old, 841 South Turner avenue.
+
+
+RESIDENCE OF VICTIMS.
+
+  Aurora, Ill.                1
+  Barrington, Ill.            2
+  Bartlett, Ill.              2
+  Battle Creek, Mich.         2
+  Berwyn, Ill.                2
+  Binghamton, N. Y.           1
+  Bloomington, Ill.           1
+  Brush, Colo.                1
+  Burlington, Iowa            1
+  Cedar Rapids, Iowa          3
+  Chicago, Ill.             300
+  Clinton, Iowa               2
+  Custer Park, Ill.           1
+  Davenport, Iowa             1
+  Decatur, Ill.               1
+  Decorah, Iowa               1
+  Delaware, O.                8
+  Des Moines, Iowa            5
+  Des Plaines, Ill.           2
+  Detroit, Mich.              2
+  Dodgeville, Ind.            1
+  Elgin, Ill.                 2
+  Eola, Ill.                  2
+  Evanston. Ill.             12
+  Fargo, Minn.                1
+  Freeport, Ill.              1
+  Galesburg, Ill.             1
+  Geneva, Ill.                3
+  Gibson City, Ill.           1
+  Glen View, Ill.             1
+  Granville, Mich.            2
+  Grossdale, Ill.             1
+  Hammond, Ind.               4
+  Hart, Mich.                 3
+  Harvard, Ill.               2
+  Janesville, Wis.            1
+  Jonesville, Mich.           1
+  Kansas City, Mo.            1
+  Kenosha, Wis.               7
+  Keokuk, Iowa                1
+  Kirkville, Mo.              1
+  Knox, Ind.                  1
+  Knoxville, Iowa             1
+  Lafayette, Ind.             1
+  Lake Geneva, Ill.           1
+  Lakeside, Ill.              1
+  Laporte, Ind.               2
+  Lena, Ill.                  1
+  Lincoln, Ill.               1
+  Lockport, Ill.              1
+  Logansport, Ind.            3
+  Lowell, Ind.                2
+  Madison, Wis.               1
+  Madison, S. D.              1
+  Martinsburg, O.             2
+  Mattoon, Ill.               1
+  Milwaukee, Wis.             3
+  Minonk, Ill.                2
+  New York City               2
+  Norwood Park, Ill.          3
+  Oak Park, Ill.              5
+  Ontonagon, Mich.            2
+  Ottawa, Ill.                3
+  Palo Alto, Cal.             1
+  Petersburg, Ind.            2
+  Pittsburg, Pa.              1
+  Plainwell, Mich.            2
+  Quincy, Ill.                2
+  Racine, Wis.                3
+  Rensselaer, Ind.            1
+  Rock Island, Ill.           1
+  Savannah, Ill.              1
+  St. Louis, Mo.              3
+  St. Mary's, Ind.            1
+  Thief River Falls, Minn.    1
+  Tolono, Ill.                2
+  Washington Heights, Ill.    3
+  Watertown, Wis.             2
+  Waukegan, Ill.              3
+  West Grossdale, Ill.        4
+  West Superior, Wis.         2
+  Wheaton, Ill.               3
+  Winnetka, Ill.              8
+  Woodford, O.                1
+  Woodstock, Ill.             2
+  Zanesville, O.              3
+                           ----
+      Total                 570
+
+This remarkable table shows that victims of the fire were from thirteen
+states and eighty-six cities and towns.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XXVI.
+
+THE STORY OF THE BURNING OF BALTIMORE.
+
+
+All the world was startled on Sunday, February 7, 1904, just 39 days after
+the Iroquois theater horror, by another sickening visitation of the fire
+fiend. This time the devouring element fell upon the city of Baltimore and
+all but effaced it from the map. Millions upon millions in property were
+swept away, old established firms annihilated and miles of streets
+occupied by business houses laid waste. Fortunately this disaster was
+accompanied by no loss of life.
+
+Twenty-seven hours elapsed before the conflagration was checked. Fire
+fighters hurried to the scene from a number of near by cities and aided
+the local fire department in subduing the flames. Strangely enough it was
+a coal yard that broke the onward sweep of the sea of fire and enabled the
+firemen to bring the fire under control. Even then it burned for days,
+feeding on the debris and wreckage that marked its early progress. The
+greatest danger past troops and police relieved the firemen who sought
+rest exhausted and maddened by the terrible ordeal through which they had
+passed.
+
+History affords no parallel of the conditions in fire-swept Baltimore on
+the following Tuesday when its people awoke to the mighty task of
+reconstruction looming up before them. After having suffered a loss
+estimated at $125,000,000 a cry of rejoicing went up among them because of
+the absence of casualties. Not a life was lost in the avalanche of flame
+and only one person was seriously injured--Jacob Inglefritz, a volunteer
+fireman from York, Pa. While the hospitals were full to overflowing the
+injuries sustained were of a minor nature. A strange comparison with the
+Iroquois theater fire of a month before! In that instance 600 met death
+and a host were seriously injured in a fire of fifteen minutes' duration
+confined to one building that suffered insignificant damage. Here in a
+fire that swept for days over the business heart of a great city not a
+life was lost. Such is the strange operation of providence.
+
+Other conflagrations suffered by American cities have nothing in common
+with Baltimore experience. Fire destroyed 674 buildings in New York on
+Dec. 26, 1835, causing a property loss of $17,000,000 without causing loss
+of life. Thirty-six years later Chicago burned, wiping out 17,450
+buildings and 250 lives and entailing a loss estimated at $200,000,000.
+The following year, 1872, fire laid waste 65 acres of property in Boston,
+causing a property loss of $80,000,000 and killing fourteen persons. The
+partial destruction of Ottawa and Hull, Canada, April 26, 1900, inflicted
+a loss of $17,000,000 and brought death to seven. On June 30 of the same
+year the North German Lloyd dock fire in Hoboken, N. J., cost 150 lives
+and $7,000,000 in property. Jacksonville, Fla., lost $10,000,000 through a
+visitation of fire that swept through an area 13 blocks wide and two miles
+long. The last in the list was the Paterson, N. J., fire of Feb. 8, 1902,
+which destroyed 75 buildings valued at $18,000,000.
+
+As fire and water have ever been recognized as the most potent agencies of
+death and destruction it will readily appear that seared, scorched
+Baltimore was fortunate indeed in the absence of casualties. On the calm
+of a restful Sabbath, marred only by the presence of a high wind, the
+consuming storm broke upon the doomed city. To that wind and the presence
+of hundreds of old fashioned highly inflammable structures nestling among
+the sky scrapers may be attributed the indescribably rapid spread of the
+flames.
+
+The start of the fire was in the basement of Hurst & Co.'s wholesale dry
+goods house. After burning for about ten minutes there was a loud report
+from the interior of the building as the gasoline tank used for the engine
+in the building exploded. Instantly the immense structure collapsed,
+sending destruction to adjacent buildings in all directions and causing
+the fire to be beyond control of the firemen.
+
+Spreading throughout the wholesale section, the fire burned out every
+wholesale house of note in the city, swept along through the Baltimore and
+Fayette street retail sections, destroyed all the prominent office
+buildings, leveled banks and brokerage offices, as well as the Chamber of
+Commerce and Stock Exchange, in the financial section, then sped on
+through the wholesale and export trade sections centering about Exchange
+place. It finally stopped at Jones falls, a creek that runs through
+Baltimore, but swept along the creek to the lumber district and the docks.
+
+As soon as the threatening character of the fire was realized appeals were
+sent broadcast for help and desperate measures were adopted to prevent the
+spread of the flames. To gain that end huge buildings were leveled through
+the agency of dynamite. Eleven fire engines and crews were hurried from
+New York by a fast special train and they joined in the battle early and
+fought like demons until exhausted. Philadelphia, Wilmington, Washington,
+Frederick, Md., Westminster, Md., and York, Pa., each sent brave
+contingents of men with an equipment of apparatus to reinforce the
+desperate firemen of Baltimore.
+
+The first attempt at dynamiting was in the large building of Armstrong,
+Cator & Co., but it failed to collapse and attention was turned to the
+building at the southwest corner of Charles and German streets, where six
+charges of dynamite, each charge containing 100 pounds, were exploded. The
+tremendous force of the explosion tore out the massive granite columns
+that supported the building and left it with apparently almost no support,
+but the walls failed to collapse and stood until the flames had crossed
+Charles street and were eating into the block between Charles and Light
+streets.
+
+Meantime the fire had been communicated to the row of buildings on South
+Charles street, between German and Lombard streets, and all those places,
+occupied principally by wholesale produce and grain dealers, were in
+flames. Before midnight the Carrollton hotel was in flames and the fire
+was sweeping toward Calvert street with irresistible fury.
+
+It was a terrible Sunday afternoon and night! People forgot their usual
+devotions at church to pack their most valued possessions ready for
+flight. Men of wealth left their families and firesides to join in the
+work of suppressing the flames. Women prepared to flee with their
+valuables before the wave of fire they momentarily expected to roll down
+upon them. Wealth and employment were disappearing under the advance of
+the fiery element and gloom, fear and dark forebodings settled down upon
+the doomed municipality. But there was neither sleep nor rest for man,
+woman or child.
+
+Firemen working on the south side had succeeded in checking the flames at
+Lombard street and, as the wind was blowing from the northwest, there was
+no danger of it spreading farther in that direction. The western limit had
+also been reached at Howard street and the danger was confined to the east
+and north.
+
+The progress of the flames toward the north had in the meantime been so
+rapid as to be simply appalling. From structure to structure they flew,
+licking up the massive buildings as if they were composed of paper. In the
+block between German and Baltimore streets they flew along and almost
+before it could be realized the buildings along Baltimore street were
+blazing from roof to basement.
+
+For a time it was hoped the fire could be kept from crossing the north
+side of Baltimore street and the firemen made a desperate effort to
+prevent it. The effort was useless, however, and soon the tall, narrow
+building of Mullin's hotel began to dart out tongues of flame and the
+remainder of the buildings between Sharp and Liberty streets were ablaze
+and the fire was marching north. The flames flew rapidly from place to
+place and soon the entire south side of Fayette street was in their grasp.
+Down Fayette to Charles they swept and in a short space of time the
+building occupied by Putts & Co. was doomed.
+
+Seeing that nothing could save it, it was decided to destroy the building
+with dynamite in the hope of preventing the fire from crossing Charles
+street. The explosion was successful in accomplishing the object as the
+entire corner collapsed instantly. This had, apparently, no effect upon
+the progress of the fire, for almost before the sound of the falling walls
+had died away the building on the east side of Charles street began to
+blaze, and it was evident the block between Charles and St. Paul streets
+were doomed.
+
+In a desperate but futile effort to prevent the fire going further to the
+east building after building was dynamited in this block, but it was all
+of no avail and the fire swept steadily onward.
+
+The Daily Record building was soon in flames and not many minutes later
+the fire had leaped over St. Paul street and the lofty and massive Calvert
+building began to emit smoke and flame. The Equitable building, just over
+a narrow alley, quickly followed and these two immense buildings gave
+forth a glare that lighted the city for miles around.
+
+It was thought that the fire could be prevented from crossing to the north
+side of Fayette street and here again a desperate stand was made by the
+firemen. Again it was useless and soon the large building of Hall,
+Headlington & Co., on the northwest corner of Charles and Fayette streets,
+was blazing brightly. With scarcely a pause the fire leaped across to the
+east side of Charles street and enveloped the handsome building of the
+Union Trust company, while at the same time the large buildings to the
+west of Hall, Headlington & Co., occupied by Wise Bros. & Oppenheim,
+Oberndorf & Co., were aflame throughout.
+
+Down Fayette street to the east the flames swept, and soon the new
+courthouse was ablaze. The fire area then extended along Liberty street
+north to Fayette, east to Charles, north to Lexington, south on Charles to
+Baltimore street, east on Baltimore to Holliday and from there in spots to
+Center Market space.
+
+When it was seen the courthouse could not be saved the court records were
+all removed to the northern police station, two miles and half away. The
+Continental Trust building, a thirteen-story structure, caught at the
+tenth floor and was totally destroyed after burning like a great torch.
+The private bank of Alexander Brown, located at Baltimore and Calvert
+streets, in the very heart of the fire district, a one story stone
+structure, miraculously escaped annihilation, the surviving building out
+of a great spread of two square miles of costly structures that caught the
+early morning sun that fateful day. Sunrise that disclosed naught save
+ruin, chaos and confusion.
+
+Thus raged the warfare of man against a relentless hungry element for 27
+hours. It was 11:40 Sunday morning when the fire started. At 2:40 Monday
+afternoon the joyful news was spread that the allied fire departments had
+the flames within control. Hotels, banks, business houses, factories--in
+fact everything in the heart of the city was swept away. All the local
+newspapers save one were destroyed, the street car systems were without
+power to operate and the lighting facilities were sadly crippled. Towering
+ruins loomed up on every hand, swaying in the breeze and jeopardizing
+life. And still the countless fires in the burned district raged on,
+illuminating the heavens and clouding the atmosphere with dense smoke
+against which myriads of sparks twinkled like miniature stars.
+
+The last places to go before the fire started to burn itself out, were the
+icehouse and coal yard of the American Ice company. The coal yard, which
+spread out about 200 yards south of the icehouse, was the means of staying
+the march of the flames on the south and Jones falls on the east. The
+Norfolk wharf of the Baltimore steam-packet company, which was stocked
+with barrels of resin and other miscellaneous merchandise, was destroyed
+before the ice company's plant was reached.
+
+At 10 o'clock Monday the fire was reported under control, but a little
+later the flames were sweeping along the harbor and river men began taking
+their vessels rapidly out into the middle of the stream. There were about
+seventy-five of these vessels and they were hastily anchored down the bay.
+The buildings of the Standard Oil company and the Buckman Fruit company
+along the water front were soon in flames. This renewal of the energy of
+the fire continued until well along into the afternoon of the second day.
+
+Following is a partial list of the principal buildings destroyed in the
+baptism of fire or by dynamite in an effort to stay the flames:
+
+    The courthouse, loss, $4,000,000
+
+    The postoffice, $1,000,000
+
+    Equitable building, twelve stories, $1,135,000
+
+    Union Trust Company building, 11 stories, $1,000,000
+
+    Continental Trust building, 16 stories, $1,125,000
+
+    Baltimore & Ohio general offices, $1,125,000
+
+    Calvert building, $1,125,000
+
+    Hopkins bank.
+
+    Holliday Street theater.
+
+    Guardian Trust building.
+
+    Chesapeake and Potomac Telephone company.
+
+    Maryland Trust company.
+
+    Alexander Brown Banking company.
+
+    Bell Telephone building.
+
+    Custom house.
+
+    Western Union building.
+
+    National Exchange bank.
+
+    United States Express office.
+
+    Mercantile Trust building.
+
+    Baltimore American.
+
+    Baltimore Herald.
+
+    Baltimore Sun.
+
+    Baltimore Evening News.
+
+    Baltimore Record.
+
+    John E. Hurst, dry goods, $1,500,000.
+
+    William Koch Importing company, $150,000.
+
+    Daniel Miller company, dry goods, $1,500,000.
+
+    Dixon & Bartlett company, shoes, $175,000.
+
+    Joyner, Wilse & Co., hats and caps, $100,000.
+
+    Spragins, Buck & Co., shoes, $125,000.
+
+    Cohen-Adler Shoe company, $125,000.
+
+    L. S. Fitman, women's wrappers; Jacob R. Seligman, paper, and Nathan
+    Rosen, women's cloaks, $100,000.
+
+    Morton, Samuels & Co., boots and shoes, and Strauss Bros., storage,
+    $100,000.
+
+    Bates Rubber company, $135,000.
+
+    Guggenheimer, Wells & Co., lithographers and printers, $125,000.
+
+    M. Friedman & Sons, clothing, and F. Schleunes, clothing, $150,000.
+
+    Schwarzkopf Toy company, $100,000.
+
+    National Exchange bank, building and contents, $125,000.
+
+    S. Lowman & Co., clothing, $125,000.
+
+    John E. Hurst & Co., storage, $150,000.
+
+    Lawrence & Gould Shoe company and Bates Hat company, $125,000.
+
+    S. Ginsberg & Co., clothing, $125,000.
+
+    Winkelmann & Brown Drug company, $125,000.
+
+    R. M. Sutton & Co., dry goods, $1,500,000.
+
+    Chesapeake Shoe company, $100,000.
+
+    S. F. & A. F. Miller, clothing manufacturers, $150,000.
+
+    S. Halle Sons, boots and shoes, $100,000.
+
+    Strauss Bros., dry goods, $250,000.
+
+    A. C. Meyer & Co., patent medicines, $150,000.
+
+    Strauss, Eiseman & Co., shirt manufacturers, $150,000.
+
+    North Bros. & Strauss, $150,000.
+
+    McDonald & Fisher, wholesale paper, $100,000.
+
+    Wiley, Bruster & Co., dry goods, and F. W. & E. Dammam, cloth,
+    $125,000.
+
+    Henry Oppenheimer & Co., clothing, and Van Sant, Jacobs & Co., shirts,
+    $175,000.
+
+    Lewis Lauer & Co., shirts, $100,000.
+
+    Champion Shoe Manufacturing company and Driggs, Currin & Co., shoes,
+    $100,000.
+
+    Mendels Bros., women's wrappers, $125,000.
+
+    Blankenberg, Gehrmann & Co., notions, $125,000.
+
+    Leo Keene & Co., women's cloaks, and Henry Pretzfelder & Co., boots
+    and shoes, $125,000.
+
+    Peter Rohe & Son, harness manufacturers, $125,000.
+
+    James Roberts Manufacturing company, plumbers' supplies, $100,000.
+
+    R. J. Anderf & Co., boots and shoes, and James Robertson Manufacturing
+    company, storage, $100,000.
+
+    L. Grief & Bros., clothing, $150,000.
+
+    Maas & Kemper, embroidery and laces, $125,000.
+
+Within 72 hours of the start of the fire the people of Baltimore were
+giving thought to reconstruction. After an investigation it was announced
+that the vaults of the Continental Trust company, which contained
+securities to the value of $200,000,000, were intact and that most of the
+great bank and safety deposit vaults escaped destruction. To relieve banks
+and citizens from the embarrassment of financial transactions the next ten
+days were declared legal holidays in the commonwealth of Maryland.
+
+Mayor McLane reflected local public sentiment when he sent out the
+following declaration to the world at large:
+
+"Baltimore will now enter undaunted into the task of resurrection. A
+greater and more beautiful city will rise from the ruins and we shall make
+of this calamity a future blessing. We are staggered by the terrible blow,
+but we are not discouraged, and every energy of the city as a municipality
+and its citizens as private individuals will be devoted to a
+rehabilitation that will not only prove the stuff we are made of but be a
+monument to the American spirit."
+
+With the exception of the Baltimore World all the local newspapers
+suffered the loss of their plants, moved their staffs to Washington and
+issued editions regularly from there devoted to Baltimore news. The World,
+published in the thick of the ruin and desolation, gave voice to its
+sentiment in the following editorial:
+
+"God be merciful unto those who suffered from the awful calamity that
+swept down on Baltimore.
+
+"Tongue fails; pen is inadequate and refuses to comprehend the extent of
+the disaster that has overtaken us. We have heard of awful calamities to
+others; in fancied security we have looked on in sympathy while others
+have suffered. Now the pain, the anxiety, the suffering is ours and we
+stand appalled, unable to realize the immensity of the terrible affair.
+
+"The World is the only newspaper office in the city that is standing. Once
+it was on fire and was saved only by the earnest, valiant and courageous
+work of the World employes and the goodness of God. To our suffering
+contemporaries we extend the greatest sympathy and to the hundreds of
+other sufferers also. For those thousands who are thrown out of work in
+the dead of winter, with sorrow and suffering staring them in the face,
+our heart throbs with a feeling that we cannot express. All we can say is,
+'God help them.'"
+
+Local and national military authorities took immediate charge of the
+situation to prevent looting and disorder, possible because of the vast
+sums of money in the various safes and vaults scattered about in the
+ruins. Recognition of the disaster came from the nation in another
+practical form. A bill was promptly and appropriately introduced in
+Washington by Representative Martin Emerich of Illinois reciting the
+destruction by fire in preamble and then continuing:
+
+    Whereas, The fire has so crippled the merchants and business interests
+    in the City of Baltimore that they are unable adequately and properly
+    to provide and care for the many who are rendered homeless and
+    penniless by this calamity, and
+
+    Whereas, The City of Baltimore and its people are probably unable in
+    the face of the unlooked for catastrophe to provide proper means for
+    effectually checking the fire and promptly to remove the embers and
+    debris; and
+
+    Whereas, The same, while remaining, are constantly a menace to the
+    safety of many citizens, it is enacted that the Secretary of the
+    Treasury be authorized and directed to pay upon the order of the City
+    Council of Baltimore, certified by the Mayor of the city, to any
+    designated authority of said city, any necessary sum of money not
+    exceeding the sum of $1,000,000 out of any money in the treasury of
+    the United States not otherwise appropriated, to be used for the
+    purpose of providing shelter for those rendered homeless by the said
+    fire, and also to be used for the purpose of clearing the streets and
+    localities devastated by the fire and in order to render the city
+    available for the use of residents and others as speedily as possible.
+
+The bill was referred to the committee on appropriations.
+
+Two days after the fire insurance men estimated the loss at $125,000,000
+and the insurance carried at $90,000,000.
+
+For the thousands of clerks and other employes whose positions are gone
+forever there seemed to be nothing before them but to move to other
+cities.
+
+In the work of rebuilding came employment for another army, but it offered
+no avenue of escape to those whose doom was sounded by the explosions of
+dynamite and the crash of falling walls. Few of the men were fitted for
+the heavy labor of the building trades.
+
+Baltimore's great wholesale houses and wharf district have been
+ruined--not irrevocably, but to such an extent that the fear grips the
+heart of every Baltimore business man that the city may be unable to
+recover from it for many years.
+
+Amid ruins still hot and smoking Baltimore began its resurrection and made
+known its determination to rise, Phoenix-like, through its own efforts, by
+politely, yet firmly declining proffers of help that poured in from all
+sides. The blow that befell Baltimore aroused an intense civic pride that
+found expression in an effort to work out its own salvation. In declining
+financial assistance Mayor McLane was actuated by the spirit shown by the
+Chamber of Commerce, Stock Exchange and practically every local commercial
+body, which came forward with offers of all the money needed by the city
+for immediate use. It was decided that should the Herculean task prove too
+great for the municipality there would still be ample time to seek outside
+assistance.
+
+While heavily armed soldiers marched about the blistering ruins with
+stately tread holding back those who only a few hours before had fought
+the police to save their valuables at the risk of their lives, the
+latter--energetic business men--were already preparing to re-open their
+establishments. Old buildings, long unused, private residences near the
+business section, in fact, every available structure to be secured
+blossomed forth within 24 hours with crudely lettered signs on board or
+cloth announcing that within was the temporary office of a firm. The names
+on some of these signs were those that rank high in the financial and
+commercial circles of the world, and in these temporary offices men who
+for years have known only mahogany desks worked on cheap tables and plain
+boards.
+
+One of the surprises of the fire was the discovery after the excitement
+was over that two financial concerns whose homes were directly in the path
+of the flames escaped practically unharmed. These were the Mercantile
+Trust company and Brown Brothers' Bank. The escape of these buildings was
+due to their lack of height. They do not exceed four stories, and as they
+were surrounded by lofty structures the flames swept over them.
+
+Unconcealed joy greeted the discovery and the information that millions
+upon millions in securities in various vaults escaped destruction, whereas
+all was at first believed to have been swept away. Practically all of the
+vaults and strong rooms and safes of the financial concerns whose
+buildings were destroyed were found unhurt. A tremendous loss in
+securities had been anticipated at first, and when vault after vault
+yielded up its treasures unharmed the joy of the guardians was boundless.
+
+From one trust company's safes alone papers to the amount of more than
+$200,000,000 were recovered. Merchants and their assistants, smoke soiled
+and begrimed and hollow-eyed from anxiety and loss of sleep, worked like
+laborers in the smoking ruins to uncover their safes, and in nearly every
+instance they were rewarded by intact contents.
+
+
+[Illustration: MRS. L. H. MELMS, 117 GROSVENOR AVENUE, CHICAGO.
+
+Mrs. Melms was before her marriage an Athens (O.) girl and was a great
+favorite there. For a number of years she conducted a millinery store in
+that place, her maiden name being Blanche Cornell.]
+
+[Illustration: MRS. CHARLES F. BOETTCHER, 4140 INDIANA AVENUE, CHICAGO.
+
+Mrs. Boettcher was the wife of Charles F. Boettcher, a butcher on the
+south side. She was the only one of the family who perished in the fire.]
+
+[Illustration: MISS MELISSA J. CROCKER, 3730 LAKE AVENUE, CHICAGO.
+
+Miss Crocker was for seventeen years a teacher of the higher grades in the
+Oakland school, coming to Chicago from Princeton, Ill. She attended the
+theater with a friend, Mrs. L. H. Pierce, and little girl of Plainville,
+Mich. All were lost.]
+
+[Illustration: MRS. EMMA STEINMETZ, 2541 HALSTED STREET, CHICAGO.
+
+Mrs. Steinmetz was fifty-one years of age and the wife of O. T. P.
+Steinmetz. She was born in Galena, Ill., her maiden name being Emma
+Garner.]
+
+[Illustration: MRS. WM. C. LEVENSON, 268 OGDEN AVENUE, CHICAGO.
+
+This victim of the Iroquois fire, 28 years of age, was a Russian by birth,
+and left a husband and two children. The latter were girls, four and two
+years of age, respectively.]
+
+[Illustration: MARY HERISH, 710 SO. HALSTED STREET, CHICAGO.
+
+A Russian girl, only eighteen years of age. She was one of only three or
+four of that nationality to lose her life in the disaster.]
+
+[Illustration: LUCILE BOND, 4123 INDIANA AVENUE, CHICAGO.
+
+Daughter of Mr. and Mrs. George R. Bond, and granddaughter of Benjamin
+Moore, ten years of age. Her mother did not attend the matinee and her
+father was absent in Nome, Alaska, where he holds a government position.]
+
+[Illustration: SIBYL MOORE, HART, MICH.
+
+Daughter of Mrs. Perry Moore, 13 years old, who also perished in the fire,
+and granddaughter of Benjamin Moore. At the time of the calamity her
+father was on his way home from Nome, Alaska.]
+
+[Illustration: THE DEE CHILDREN, 3133 WABASH AVENUE, CHICAGO.
+
+The three children of William Dee attended the matinee with their nurse.
+Louise was two years of age and the two boys, twins, Edward Mansfield and
+Samuel Allerton Dee, were seven years old. Eddie (the boy to the right of
+the group) and his baby sister were killed. Samuel escaped, but the nurse
+was found badly mangled, burned and unconscious.]
+
+[Illustration: LOUISE DEE, CHICAGO.
+
+The child of William Dee, who was killed with her brother at the Iroquois
+fire. She was not burned, but is supposed to have been suffocated or died
+of shock and exposure.]
+
+[Illustration: MRS. MARY W. HOLST, 2088 VAN BUREN STREET, CHICAGO.
+
+Wife of Wm. H. Hoist, and daughter of ex-Chief of Police Badenoch, who,
+with her three children, Allan, Gertrude and Amy, perished in the fire.
+She was identified by her husband by means of her wedding ring and a
+diamond ring.]
+
+[Illustration: GERTRUDE HOLST, 2088 VAN BUREN STREET, CHICAGO.
+
+Gertrude was ten years of age and with her younger sister, Amy, and her
+older brother, Allan, was a pupil of the Sumner school. All were burned in
+the fire. The picture was taken some time ago when she was a flower girl
+at a wedding.]
+
+[Illustration: AMY HOLST, 2088 VAN BUREN STREET, CHICAGO.
+
+The daughter of Mr. and Mrs. Wm. H. Holst. Amy was seven years of age and
+a pupil of the Sumner School. She, with her mother, brother and sister,
+was a victim of the fire.]
+
+[Illustration: MRS. CLARA RUHLMAN, CHICAGO.
+
+The mother of Mrs. Sidonic (Herman) Fellman, who was burned in the fire
+with her son-in-law and his mother.]
+
+[Illustration: HERMAN FELLMAN, 3113 VERNON AVENUE, CHICAGO.
+
+Mr. and Mrs. Fellman attended the matinee with their little girl, twelve
+years of age, and their mothers. All except Mrs. Fellman and her daughter
+perished.]
+
+[Illustration: MRS. BERTHA FELLMAN, CHICAGO.
+
+The mother of Mr. Herman Fellman, who, with her son and Mrs. Herman
+Fellman's mother, were victims of the fire.]
+
+[Illustration: MYRON A. DECKER, 3237 GROVELAND AVENUE, CHICAGO.
+
+Mr. Decker, who, with his wife and daughter, perished in the fire, was a
+prosperous real estate dealer, 65 years of age. He had a particular horror
+of fire and seldom attended a theater. Only one member of the family
+survives, a daughter and bride of a few months, Mrs. Blanche D. Kinsey,
+wife of Carl D. Kinsey, of the Chicago Beach Hotel.]
+
+[Illustration: MISS MAYME A. DECKER, CHICAGO.
+
+Daughter of Mr. and Mrs. Myron A. Decker, who, with her parents, met her
+death in the fire. She was thirty-three years of age.]
+
+[Illustration: MRS. MARIA E. BRENNAN, 608 FULTON STREET, CHICAGO.
+
+Mrs. Brennan was the wife of P. G. Brennan, connected with the
+stereotyping department of the "Chicago American." Before marriage she was
+Miss Maria Hogan. Mrs. Brennan and her boy were lost.]
+
+[Illustration: JAMES PAUL BRENNAN, CHICAGO.
+
+Jimmy Brennan, as he was generally known, was the son of Mr. and Mrs. P.
+G. Brennan, and, with his mother, was burned in the fire. He was eleven
+years of age, sturdy and bright.]
+
+[Illustration: MRS. ETTIE EISENDRATH, 10 CRILLY COURT, CHICAGO.
+
+Mrs. Eisendrath attended the matinee with her talented little daughter,
+Natalie. When identified they were found locked in each other's arms.]
+
+[Illustration: NATALIE EISENDRATH, 10 CRILLY COURT, CHICAGO.
+
+Mrs. S. M. Eisendrath and her daughter, Natalie, ten years of age, were
+both lost in the fire. They were in the first balcony and were smothered
+and crushed. Natalie was a bright child and an especial favorite in church
+entertainments.]
+
+[Illustration: MRS. BARBARA L. REYNOLDS, 1286 E. RAVENSWOOD PARK, CHICAGO.
+
+Mrs. Reynolds, her daughter, sister and sister's two boys attended the
+theater together. When entering the auditorium she remarked: "What a
+death-trap!" Soon afterward she and her little daughter were burned. Her
+sister and boys escaped.]
+
+[Illustration: JOSEPHINE E. REYNOLDS, E. RAVENSWOOD PARK, CHICAGO.
+
+The daughter of Mrs. Reynolds who perished with her mother in the theater
+disaster was only seven years of age. Both were burned beyond
+recognition.]
+
+[Illustration: MYRTLE SHABAD, 14 YEARS OLD. 4041 INDIANA AVENUE, CHICAGO.
+
+Myrtle and her brother Theodore, attending the grammar grades, were at the
+matinee with a girl friend, Rose Elkan. They all met death in the fire.]
+
+[Illustration: THEODORE SHABAD, CHICAGO.
+
+Theodore was a bright boy, eleven years of age, and, as stated, formed one
+of the merry party of three which met their fate on that terrible
+afternoon.]
+
+[Illustration: MRS. ANNA H. DIXON, 100 FLOURNOY ST., CHICAGO.
+
+Mrs. Dixon attended the matinee with her two daughters, 15 and 9 years of
+age respectively, all being lost in the fire. She was the wife of A. Z.
+Dixon, a well known West Side grocer.]
+
+[Illustration: DORA L. REYNOLDS, 421 E. 45TH ST., CHICAGO.
+
+Dora attended the fateful matinee in company with her mother and her
+cousin, Ruth Stratman, of Dodgeville, Wis. Both the girls were burned to
+death. Mrs. Reynolds being the first to cross the plank to the university
+building.]
+
+[Illustration: LEAH F. DIXON, 100 FLOURNOY ST., CHICAGO.
+
+The daughter of Mr. and Mrs. A. Z. Dixon, fifteen years of age, who with
+her mother and younger sister, was burned to death in the Iroquois theater
+fire.]
+
+[Illustration: EDNA A. DIXON, 100 FLOURNOY ST., CHICAGO.
+
+The younger daughter of Mr. and Mrs. A. Z. Dixon, 9 years old, who with
+her mother and sister, lost her life in the holocaust.]
+
+[Illustration: WALTER BISSINGER, 15 YEARS OLD, CHICAGO.
+
+The son of Benjamin Bissinger, the real estate man. The boy had an unusual
+poetic gift. He attended the theater with his cousin and sister, Miss
+Tessie. The latter only was saved.]
+
+[Illustration: MISS TESSIE BISSINGER.
+
+Who was in the gallery and made a heroic but unsuccessful attempt to save
+her brother, Walter Bissinger, the Boy Poet of Illinois, and her cousin,
+Jack Pottlitzer, of Lafayette, Ind.]
+
+
+
+
+
+
+End of Project Gutenberg's Chicago's Awful Theater Horror, by Various
+
+*** END OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK CHICAGO'S AWFUL THEATER HORROR ***
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+    <meta http-equiv="Content-Type" content="text/html;charset=iso-8859-1" />
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+      Chicago's Awful Theater Horror&mdash;A Project Gutenberg eBook
+    </title>
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+<pre>
+
+The Project Gutenberg EBook of Chicago's Awful Theater Horror, by Various
+
+This eBook is for the use of anyone anywhere at no cost and with
+almost no restrictions whatsoever.  You may copy it, give it away or
+re-use it under the terms of the Project Gutenberg License included
+with this eBook or online at www.gutenberg.org
+
+
+Title: Chicago's Awful Theater Horror
+
+Author: Various
+
+Release Date: March 27, 2012 [EBook #39280]
+
+Language: English
+
+Character set encoding: ISO-8859-1
+
+*** START OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK CHICAGO'S AWFUL THEATER HORROR ***
+
+
+
+
+Produced by The Online Distributed Proofreading Team at
+http://www.pgdp.net (This file was produced from images
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+</pre>
+
+
+
+<div class="bbox" style="width: 360px; height: 500px;"><img src="images/img01.jpg" alt="" /></div>
+<p class="caption">IN FRONT OF THE THEATER AT THE TIME OF THE FIRE,<br />December 30th, 1903, 4 P.M.</p>
+<p>&nbsp;</p><p>&nbsp;</p>
+
+
+<p class="center"><span class="large">"LEST WE FORGET"</span></p>
+<h1>Chicago's Awful Theater Horror</h1>
+<p class="center"><span class="large">By THE SURVIVORS AND RESCUERS</span></p>
+<p>&nbsp;</p>
+<p class="center"><small>WITH INTRODUCTION BY</small><br />
+BISHOP FALLOWS</p>
+<p>&nbsp;</p>
+<p class="center">Presenting a Vivid Picture, both by Pen and Camera, of One of the Greatest<br />
+Fire Horrors of Modern Times.</p>
+<p>&nbsp;</p>
+<p class="center">Embracing a Flash-Light Sketch of the Holocaust, Detailed Narratives by Participants in the<br />
+Horror, Heroic Work of Rescuers, Reports of the Building Experts as to the Responsibility<br />
+for the Wholesale Slaughter of Women and Children, Memorable Fires of the Past, etc., etc.</p>
+<p>&nbsp;</p>
+<p class="center">PROFUSELY ILLUSTRATED WITH VIEWS OF THE SCENE OF<br />
+DEATH BEFORE, DURING AND AFTER THE FIRE</p>
+<p>&nbsp;</p>
+<p class="center">MEMORIAL PUBLISHING CO.</p>
+
+
+<p>&nbsp;</p>
+<p class="center">Copyright, 1904, by<br />
+D. B. McCURDY</p>
+
+
+
+<p>&nbsp;</p><p>&nbsp;</p>
+<div class="bbox" style="width: 357px; height: 500px;"><img src="images/img02.jpg" alt="" /></div>
+<p class="caption">HON. CARTER H. HARRISON,<br />Mayor of Chicago.</p>
+
+<p>&nbsp;</p>
+<div class="bbox" style="width: 362px; height: 500px;"><img src="images/img03.jpg" alt="" /></div>
+<p class="caption">LEADING ACTRESS IN THE "BLUEBEARD, JR.,"<br />COMPANY. MISS BONNIE MAGINN.</p>
+
+<p>&nbsp;</p>
+<div class="bbox" style="width: 358px; height: 500px;"><img src="images/img04.jpg" alt="" /></div>
+<p class="caption">DOOR TO THE FIRE ESCAPE THAT COULD<br />NOT BE OPENED; MANY DIED HERE.</p>
+
+<p>&nbsp;</p>
+<div class="bbox" style="width: 600px; height: 415px;"><img src="images/img05.jpg" alt="" /></div>
+<p class="caption">FRONT VIEW OF THE IROQUOIS THEATER.</p>
+
+<p>&nbsp;</p>
+<div class="bbox" style="width: 600px; height: 376px;"><img src="images/img06.jpg" alt="" /></div>
+<p class="caption">MEASURING THE EXIT WHERE HUNDREDS WERE KILLED AND BURNED.</p>
+
+<p>&nbsp;</p>
+<div class="bbox" style="width: 600px; height: 371px;"><img src="images/img07.jpg" alt="" /></div>
+<p class="caption">FIREMEN RESCUING THE LIVING.</p>
+
+<p>&nbsp;</p>
+<div class="bbox" style="width: 600px; height: 377px;"><img src="images/img08.jpg" alt="" /></div>
+<p class="caption">JEWELRY AND CLOTHING OF THE VICTIMS OF THE FIRE.</p>
+
+<p>&nbsp;</p>
+<div class="bbox" style="width: 600px; height: 428px;"><img src="images/img09.jpg" alt="" /></div>
+<p class="caption">IN FRONT OF THE THEATER; LAYING DEAD ON THE SIDEWALK.</p>
+
+<p>&nbsp;</p>
+<div class="bbox" style="width: 600px; height: 425px;"><img src="images/img10.jpg" alt="" /></div>
+<p class="caption">FRONT ROWS OF SEATS AND FRONT OF STAGE.</p>
+
+<p>&nbsp;</p>
+<div class="bbox" style="width: 600px; height: 424px;"><img src="images/img11.jpg" alt="" /></div>
+<p class="caption">RUINS ON THE STAGE.</p>
+
+<p>&nbsp;</p>
+<div class="bbox" style="width: 600px; height: 370px;"><img src="images/img12.jpg" alt="" /></div>
+<p class="caption">SKYLIGHT ON ROOF OF THEATER, WHICH WAS NAILED DOWN DURING THE FIRE.</p>
+
+<p>&nbsp;</p>
+<div class="bbox" style="width: 299px; height: 500px;"><img src="images/img13.jpg" alt="" /></div>
+<p class="caption">BACK PART OF THE THEATER<br />WHILE THE FIRE RAGED.</p>
+
+
+
+<p>&nbsp;</p><p>&nbsp;</p>
+<hr style="width: 50%;" />
+<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_ix" id="Page_ix">[Pg ix]</a></span></p>
+<h2>INTRODUCTION.</h2>
+<p class="center">By the <span class="smcap">Rt. Rev. Samuel Fallows</span>, D.D., LL.D.</p>
+
+
+<p>When Chicago was burning, a little girl in a christian home in a
+neighboring city stamped her foot indignantly on the floor and said: "Why
+doesn't God put out the fire?"</p>
+
+<p>The cry of many an agonized heart, beating in children of a larger growth,
+has been: "Why doesn't a God of wisdom and love prevent such an awful
+occurrence as the Iroquois fire?" "I have lost all faith in God," said a
+dear friend of mine, as its full meaning began to break upon him.</p>
+
+<p>When we were carrying out the dying and the dead from that horrible
+darkness and choking smoke to the outer air, those of us who were wont to
+pray could only say, "O God have mercy! O God have mercy!"</p>
+
+<p>But there must be no panic in our faculties. Reason must not desert her
+rightful throne. Blinded by tears, we must not in our consuming passion of
+resentment against the sickening catastrophe, attempt with our puny arms
+to strike against God. He did not cause the calamity. No responsibility
+for it can be rolled upon Him. God is law; and his laws had been palpably
+broken by human negligence and incompetency. God is love; and human greed
+and selfishness had violated every principle of love which "worketh no ill
+to his neighbor."</p>
+
+<p>God cannot coerce man, as one by sheer brute force can another. The savage
+father may break both the body and soul of his child. Not so God, those of
+his children. Man must render a voluntary obedience to the Divine command.
+By pains and crosses and sorrows and shame he may be led to<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_x" id="Page_x">[Pg x]</a></span> that
+surrender. But he must say with a free, princely spirit at last, "I will
+to do thy will O God."</p>
+
+<p>It is the old problem of evil with which this terrible tragedy has brought
+us face to face. The generic evil, out of which all evils spring, every
+giant intellect of the ages has grappled with, and it has thrown them all.
+The question is not "Why should God permit this special evil to come to
+us, which has well nigh paralyzed our city and thrilled the civilized
+world both with horror and sympathy, but why did he create the world at
+all and put man upon it?" The finite cannot measure the Infinite.
+Imperfection belongs to the one; perfection to the other. Where there is
+imperfection there is always the possibility of evil.</p>
+
+<p>A reverent faith will bow before the mystery and yet master it with an
+undaunted courage. Evil must exist if the Universe is to be. The Universe
+is, and it is the best possible Universe God can create. If he could have
+given us a better one he would not be the God we revere.</p>
+
+<p>Evil is the vast, dark background against which He brings out the
+brightest pictures of beauty and life. From a "Paradise Lost" comes forth
+a "Paradise Regained" with its transcendent glory of progress, and
+allegiance to law and love.</p>
+
+<p class="poem">"Calvary and Easter Day,<br />
+<span style="margin-left: 1em;">Earth's saddest day and gladdest day,</span><br />
+<span style="margin-left: 1em;">Were but one day apart."</span></p>
+
+<p>God did not forsake his son in that supreme hour of anguish upon the
+Cross, when he cried out "My God, My God, why hast thou forsaken me?" He
+has never forsaken his world, nor the sinning and suffering souls that are
+in it. "God in history," is faith's jubilant assertion. He is in its
+minutest incidents and in its mightiest events, "in the rocking of a
+baby's cradle and the shaking of a monarch's throne," in the fiery furnace
+of the Iroquois Theater and in the most joyous assembly of his adoring
+saints.</p>
+
+<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_xi" id="Page_xi">[Pg xi]</a></span>God permitted this great evil in harmony with man's free will; he did not
+cause it. The evidence is overwhelming that human law, as well as divine
+law, had been consciously or unconsciously defied. Two thousand lives or
+more were brought together in a building professedly fire-proof, and
+warranted as the best, because the latest of its kind, in the city if not
+of the continent. It was not fire proof. The law forbade the crowding of
+aisles; they were filled from end to end, until almost every inch of
+standing room was taken up. The unusual number of exits was boasted of.
+Most of them were unseen or actually bolted and locked. The alleged fire
+proof curtain was a flimsy sham, and was resolved in almost a moment of
+time, into scattered fragments by the surging flames. The scenery was of
+the most combustible material, loaded down with paint and oil. Not a
+bucket of water was on the stage, and only one water stand-pipe without
+any hose. There never had been a fire apparatus of any kind in the balcony
+or the gallery. There was none in the auditorium except one small water
+stand pipe. There was not a fireman to answer the call for help. At no
+time had there been a fire drill by the employes of the theater. There
+were no notices posted to tell what to do in case of fire. There was no
+fire alarm box anywhere in the structure. Common prudence and common sense
+were completely set aside. Coroner Traeger in advance of the final finding
+of the jury, is reported to have said: "Sufficient proof has been already
+found to show that there was gross mismanagement and carelessness. There
+is no need of denial. Instead of being the safest theater in Chicago, the
+Iroquois was the unsafest."</p>
+
+<p>But He who "maketh the wrath of man to praise him," who is ever bringing
+good out of evil, will overrule and is<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_xii" id="Page_xii">[Pg xii]</a></span> already overruling this dire
+calamity for the well being of mankind.</p>
+
+<p>As I looked upon the charred and mangled and bruised bodies of tender
+women and little children and once strong men; as I listened to the moans
+of agony, and the cry of the living, tortured ones for help and for loved
+friends whom they had left behind or been separated from as the fiery
+blast swept them onward and outward, I said in my haste, "you all are
+'martyrs by the pang without the palm'." I do not say it now. Martyrs
+indeed they were, by the criminal neglect of recreant men. But the palm is
+theirs. They have saved others, themselves they could not save. Thousands,
+perhaps millions, will in the future be secure in their places of resort,
+because these went on that fateful day to their inevitable doom. Mayors,
+architects, fire-inspectors, managers, stage carpenters, electricians,
+ushers and chiefs of police in every city have had their duty burned into
+their inmost consciousness by this consuming fire.</p>
+
+<p>Human law, which has been so flagrantly set at naught, demands punishment.
+The public conscience will be outraged if the guilty parties do not meet
+stern, inexorable justice. It is not vengeance that is sought, for
+"Vengeance is mine, I will repay, saith the Lord."</p>
+
+<p>But those who are immediately responsible, have not been the only
+transgressors, although they must suffer for their own guilt, and also
+vicariously for the sins of omission by others. For we have all sinned and
+come short of our duty. A common blame rests upon the whole community.
+Many a minister has been preaching upon the fire, but has his own church,
+perhaps crowded to the door, been safe while his eager congregation has
+listened to his impassioned utterances? Suppose the unexpected had
+happened, and the cry of<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_xiii" id="Page_xiii">[Pg xiii]</a></span> fire had been heard and bursting flames been
+seen, would his hearers have escaped unhurt? Not if the church doors swung
+inward instead of outward; not if the means of escape were not abundant;
+not if camp chairs blocked the passages to the street. Who then would have
+been responsible? The clergymen, the church officers, the janitor, with
+the municipal or legal authorities would have had to share the blame.</p>
+
+<p>Nearly two score of our city school teachers perished in the theater. How
+many school buildings are in such an imperfect condition today that
+thousands of young lives are in constant danger? Suppose again the
+unexpected should happen and tragedies be enacted which might even surpass
+the Iroquois disaster, would the Mayor, and his subordinates and the Board
+of Education and the teachers be held guiltless? Yet that fearful
+contingency might have taken place.</p>
+
+<p>It is a question seriously to be considered whether or not the great
+majority of the apartment buildings in Chicago have the doors of the main
+entrance swinging outwards. I have climbed to the fourth and fifth stories
+of some of these edifices in which there are dark, narrow stair cases, and
+all the doors swing inwards. There is not a single element of fire
+proofing in them. I have gone up, in open elevators, in manufactories and
+office buildings where scores and hundreds of persons are employed, and
+have never felt safe a moment while remaining in them. They are fire traps
+of the worst description.</p>
+
+<p>There are hotels whose very construction invites the devouring flames.
+There are stores crowded literally with thousands of persons on special
+occasions, where the consequences in case of fire would eclipse by far the
+Iroquois holocaust. No coaxing, or pleading, or grafting, or business
+considerations should stand in the way both of speedy condemnation and
+renovation in all these cases by our city officers.</p>
+
+<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_xiv" id="Page_xiv">[Pg xiv]</a></span>Man is greater than Mammon. The sanctity of human life must be held
+supreme. The body is more than raiment and the soul than the body. A new
+civic spirit must pervade the people as the saltness the sea. Duty must
+tower infinitely above self-indulgence. Law must take the place of luck.</p>
+
+<p>The plain lesson for our whole country and the world is to be alert to
+meet the dangers which may menace human life in the home, the workshop,
+the manufactory, the hotel, the theater, the church. Let ample means of
+exit be provided and always known to audiences. The tendency to a panic is
+always increased when people are apprehensive of danger and believe that
+they are hemmed in. Fear is contagious. A crowd feels and does not reason.
+Self-preservation, the first law of nature, asserts itself the more
+vehemently when the way of escape is uncertain. Panics may not always be
+prevented, but their dangers will be greatly diminished if every
+individual knows that he may with comparative leisure get out when he
+wishes so to do.</p>
+
+<p>In the theater let it be known that every modern contrivance has been
+employed to secure safety. Let the curtain be of steel and so arranged
+that it will have full play to work in its grooves. Let automatic
+sprinklers be provided. Let the firemen in costume be in plain sight. Let
+the policemen be in full evidence. Let the aisles always be clear. Let
+there be ample room between the seats, and let the seats be easily raised
+to afford rapid departure. Let the ushers be drilled like soldiers to keep
+their places and allay confusion. All these and other things of like
+character appeal forcibly to the reasoning powers and tend to give an
+audience self command.</p>
+
+<p>In many of our public schools the pupils are occasionally called from
+their rooms, during recitation hours, and promptly<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_xv" id="Page_xv">[Pg xv]</a></span> assembling are marched
+in an orderly way out of the building. This is an excellent plan.</p>
+
+<p>Two marked instances of superb self-control among children in the panic at
+the Iroquois theater have been brought to my notice. Two little daughters
+of a highly esteemed friend slid down the balusters from the upper balcony
+and reached the main floor unhurt. One of my Sunday School teachers met a
+young lad she knew, leading by the hand a girl younger than himself to her
+home. They were sitting together when the stampede took place. "Jump on my
+shoulders," said the boy. Then holding her fast by her feet, he said: "Now
+use your fists and fight for all you're worth." Bending his head he forced
+his way with his conquering heroine to life. Let every safeguard that
+human ingenuity can devise be furnished and yet there always remains the
+personal element to be taken into the account. Habitual practice of
+self-control in daily life will help give coolness and calmness in times
+of peril. Keeping one's head in the ordinary things prevents its losing
+when the extraordinary occurs.</p>
+
+<p class="right"><img src="images/img14.jpg" alt="Samuel Fallows." /></p>
+
+
+
+<p>&nbsp;</p><p>&nbsp;</p>
+<hr style="width: 50%;" />
+<p class="title">TABLE OF CONTENTS</p>
+
+<table width="65%" border="0" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="5" summary="table">
+<tr><td>&nbsp;</td><td align="right">Page</td></tr>
+<tr><td align="center"><a href="#CHAPTER_I">CHAPTER I.</a></td></tr>
+<tr><td align="center">THE STORY OF THE FIRE</td>
+    <td align="right"><a href="#Page_33">33</a></td></tr>
+<tr><td><span class="smcap">Wave of Flame Greets Audience&mdash;Few Realize Appalling Result&mdash;Drop Where They Stand&mdash;Many Heroes Are
+Developed&mdash;Dead Piled in Heaps&mdash;Exits Were Choked with Bodies&mdash;Survey Scene with Horror&mdash;Find Bushels of Purses.</span></td></tr>
+<tr><td>&nbsp;</td></tr>
+<tr><td align="center"><a href="#CHAPTER_II">CHAPTER II.</a></td></tr>
+<tr><td align="center">FIRST AID TO THE INJURED AND CARE FOR THE DEAD</td>
+    <td align="right"><a href="#Page_51">51</a></td></tr>
+<tr><td><span class="smcap">Great Piles of Charred Bodies Found Everywhere in the Theater&mdash;Moan Inspires Workers in Mad Effort to
+Save&mdash;None Left Alive in Gallery&mdash;Dead and Dying Carried into Nearby Restaurant by Scores&mdash;Terrible Reality Comes to Awestricken
+Crowd&mdash;One Life Brought Back from Death&mdash;One Hundred Feet in Air, Police Carry Injured Across Alley&mdash;Crowds of Anxious
+Friends&mdash;Balcony and Gallery Cleared&mdash;Finance Committee of City Council Acts Promptly.</span></td></tr>
+<tr><td>&nbsp;</td></tr>
+<tr><td align="center"><a href="#CHAPTER_III">CHAPTER III.</a></td></tr>
+<tr><td align="center">TAKING AWAY AND IDENTIFYING THE DEAD</td>
+    <td align="right"><a href="#Page_67">67</a></td></tr>
+<tr><td><span class="smcap">Heartrending Scenes Witnessed at the Undertaking Establishments&mdash;Friends and Relatives Eagerly Search
+for Loved Ones Missing After Theater Holocaust.</span></td></tr>
+<tr><td>&nbsp;</td></tr>
+<tr><td align="center"><a href="#CHAPTER_IV">CHAPTER IV.</a></td></tr>
+<tr><td align="center">SCENES OF HORROR AS VIEWED FROM THE STAGE</td>
+    <td align="right"><a href="#Page_77">77</a></td></tr>
+<tr><td><span class="smcap">Story of How a Small Blaze Terminated in Terrible Loss&mdash;Orchestra Plays in Face of Death&mdash;Clown Proves a
+Hero&mdash;All Hope Lost for Gallery.</span></td></tr>
+<tr><td>&nbsp;</td></tr>
+<tr><td align="center"><a href="#CHAPTER_V">CHAPTER V.</a></td></tr>
+<tr><td align="center">EXCITING EXPERIENCES IN THE FIRE</td>
+    <td align="right"><a href="#Page_86">86</a></td></tr>
+<tr><td><span class="smcap">Experience of Chicago University Men&mdash;Bishop Braves Danger in Heroic Work of Rescue&mdash;Women and Four
+Children Suffer&mdash;Learns Children Have Escaped&mdash;Finds His Daughter&mdash;Mr. Field's Narrative&mdash;Narrow
+Escapes of Young and Old&mdash;Pulls Women from Mass on Floor.</span></td></tr>
+<tr><td>&nbsp;</td></tr>
+<tr><td align="center"><a href="#CHAPTER_VI">CHAPTER VI.</a></td></tr>
+<tr><td align="center">HEROES OF THE FIRE</td>
+    <td align="right"><a href="#Page_94">94</a></td></tr>
+<tr><td><span class="smcap">Piles of Dead in the Gallery&mdash;Eddie Foy's Heroism&mdash;An
+Elevator Boy Hero&mdash;Two Balcony Heroes&mdash;The Musical Director's Story&mdash;Child Saves His Brother.</span></td></tr>
+<tr><td>&nbsp;</td></tr>
+<tr><td align="center"><a href="#CHAPTER_VII">CHAPTER VII.</a></td></tr>
+<tr><td align="center">THE ORIGIN OF THE FIRE&mdash;THE ASBESTOS CURTAIN AND THE LIGHTS</td>
+    <td align="right"><a href="#Page_105">105</a></td></tr>
+<tr><td><span class="smcap">Account of the Fire's Origin&mdash;Were Electric Lights Turned Out?&mdash;Statement of Messrs. Davis and Powers,
+Managers of the Theater&mdash;First Reliable Statement as to Why the Curtain Did Not Come Down&mdash;Another
+Story as to Why the Curtain Did Not Lower&mdash;The Theater Fireman's Narrative&mdash;The Stage Carpenter&mdash;The
+Chief Electrical Inspector's Tale&mdash;One of the Comedians Speaks&mdash;About the Lights.</span></td></tr>
+<tr><td>&nbsp;</td></tr>
+<tr><td align="center"><a href="#CHAPTER_VIII">CHAPTER VIII.</a></td></tr>
+<tr><td align="center">SUGGESTIONS OF ARCHITECTS AND OTHER EXPERTS AS TO AVOIDING LIKE CALAMITIES</td>
+    <td align="right"><a href="#Page_116">116</a></td></tr>
+<tr><td><span class="smcap">Robert S. Lindstrom's Suggestions&mdash;The Architect Speaks&mdash;Examination
+by Architectural Editor&mdash;Proposed Precautions for New York Theaters.</span></td></tr>
+<tr><td>&nbsp;</td></tr>
+<tr><td align="center"><a href="#CHAPTER_IX">CHAPTER IX.</a></td></tr>
+<tr><td align="center">THIRTY EXITS, YET HUNDREDS PERISH IN AWFUL BLAST</td>
+    <td align="right"><a href="#Page_123">123</a></td></tr>
+<tr><td><span class="smcap">Horrible Sight Met the Firemen upon Entering Auditorium&mdash;The Gallery Horror&mdash;Girl's Miraculous Escape&mdash;An
+Account from the Boxes&mdash;Inspection After the Fire&mdash;A Young Heroine&mdash;A Narrow Escape&mdash;Finds Wife in Hospital&mdash;A Miraculous
+and Unconscious Escape&mdash;Little Girl's Marvelous Escape&mdash;Four Generations Represented&mdash;Daughters and Granddaughters Gone.</span></td></tr>
+<tr><td>&nbsp;</td></tr>
+<tr><td align="center"><a href="#CHAPTER_X">CHAPTER X.</a></td></tr>
+<tr><td align="center">HOW THE NEW YEAR WAS USHERED IN</td>
+    <td align="right"><a href="#Page_137">137</a></td></tr>
+<tr><td><span class="smcap">Mourning in Every Street&mdash;Noise Seems a Sacrilege&mdash;Mayor
+Asks for Silence&mdash;Merriment is Subdued&mdash;City of Mourning&mdash;Business World in Mourning.</span></td></tr>
+<tr><td>&nbsp;</td></tr>
+<tr><td align="center"><a href="#CHAPTER_XI">CHAPTER XI.</a></td></tr>
+<tr><td align="center">A SABBATH OF WOE</td>
+    <td align="right"><a href="#Page_143">143</a></td></tr>
+<tr><td><span class="smcap">Seven Turner Victims&mdash;Sad Scenes at Wolff Home&mdash;Pathetic Scene at Church&mdash;Bury Children and
+Grand-children&mdash;Five Dead in One House&mdash;Entire Family is Buried&mdash;Mrs. Fox and Three Children&mdash;Mrs. Arthur E. Hull and
+Children&mdash;Herbert and Agnes Lange&mdash;Sweethearts Buried at the Same Time&mdash;Five Buried in One Grave&mdash;Boys as
+Pallbearers&mdash;Winnetka Saddened&mdash;Mother and Daughters Buried Together&mdash;Hold Triple Funeral&mdash;Women Faint in Church&mdash;Life-Long
+Friends Meet in Death&mdash;Edward and Margaret Dee&mdash;Miss E. D. Mann and Niece&mdash;Ella and Edith Freckelton&mdash;Miss Frances Lehman.</span></td></tr>
+<tr><td>&nbsp;</td></tr>
+<tr><td align="center"><a href="#CHAPTER_XII">CHAPTER XII.</a></td></tr>
+<tr><td align="center">WHAT OF THE PLAYERS?</td>
+    <td align="right"><a href="#Page_152">152</a></td></tr>
+<tr><td><span class="smcap">The Chorus Girl&mdash;The Musical Director&mdash;The Joy of the Opening&mdash;Spendthrift Habits&mdash;Gambling, Pure and
+Simple&mdash;The Show on the Road&mdash;The One-Night Stand&mdash;The "Mr. Bluebeard" Company.</span></td></tr>
+<tr><td>&nbsp;</td></tr>
+<tr><td align="center"><a href="#CHAPTER_XIII">CHAPTER XIII.</a></td></tr>
+<tr><td align="center">OTHER HOLOCAUSTS</td>
+    <td align="right"><a href="#Page_181">181</a></td></tr>
+<tr><td>&nbsp;</td></tr>
+<tr><td align="center"><a href="#CHAPTER_XIV">CHAPTER XIV.</a></td></tr>
+<tr><td align="center">STORIES AND NARRATIVES OF THE HOLOCAUST</td>
+    <td align="right"><a href="#Page_193">193</a></td></tr>
+<tr><td><span class="smcap">Mrs. Schweitzler's Story of the Burning of the Curtain&mdash;Escape of Mother and Two Small Children&mdash;Expression
+of the Dead&mdash;Only Survivor of Large Theater Party&mdash;All His Family Gone&mdash;A Family Party Burned&mdash;Carries Daughter's Body Home in
+His Arms&mdash;Sad Error in Identification&mdash;The Hanger of the Asbestos Curtain&mdash;Keepsakes of the Dead&mdash;The Scene at
+Thompson's Restaurant&mdash;Like a Field of Battle&mdash;Women Eager to Help&mdash;Steady Stream of Bodies&mdash;Clothing Torn to
+Shreds&mdash;Prayers for the Dying&mdash;Child Saved from Death by Ballet Girl&mdash;Priest Gives Absolution to Dying Fire Victims&mdash;Little Boy Thanks
+God for Changing His Luck&mdash;Use Placer Miner Methods&mdash;Daughter of A. H. Revell Escapes&mdash;Philadelphia Partner in Theater Horrified&mdash;All
+Kenosha in Mourning&mdash;Five of One Family Dead&mdash;Cooper Brothers Deeply Mourned.</span></td></tr>
+<tr><td>&nbsp;</td></tr>
+<tr><td align="center"><a href="#CHAPTER_XV">CHAPTER XV.</a></td></tr>
+<tr><td align="center">SOCIETY WOMEN AND GIRLS' CLUBS</td>
+    <td align="right"><a href="#Page_214">214</a></td></tr>
+<tr><td><span class="smcap">Miss Charlotte Plamondon's Account of the Fire&mdash;Screams of Terror Heard&mdash;Chorus Girls Escape, Partly Clad&mdash;Foy
+Tries to Prevent Panic&mdash;Escape of Another Society Woman&mdash;Minneapolis Woman's Story of the Fire&mdash;Girls' Clubs Sorely Stricken.</span></td></tr>
+<tr><td>&nbsp;</td></tr>
+<tr><td align="center"><a href="#CHAPTER_XVI">CHAPTER XVI.</a></td></tr>
+<tr><td>&nbsp;</td>
+    <td align="right"><a href="#Page_220">220</a></td></tr>
+<tr><td><span class="smcap">Eddie Foy's Sworn Testimony&mdash;Describes Stage Box&mdash;Curtain Would Not Come Down&mdash;Light Near the Fire&mdash;Saw
+no Extinguishers&mdash;Talks of Apparatus&mdash;Only One Exit Open&mdash;Wire Across Auditorium.</span></td></tr>
+<tr><td>&nbsp;</td></tr>
+<tr><td align="center"><a href="#CHAPTER_XVII">CHAPTER XVII.</a></td></tr>
+<tr><td align="center">EFFECT OF THE FIRE NEAR AND FAR</td>
+    <td align="right"><a href="#Page_230">230</a></td></tr>
+<tr><td><span class="smcap">New York Theaters and Schools&mdash;Crusade in Pittsburg&mdash;Washington Theater Owners Arrested&mdash;Massachusetts
+Theaters Investigated&mdash;Action in Milwaukee&mdash;Precautions at St. Louis&mdash;Orders Affecting Omaha Theaters&mdash;Effect Abroad&mdash;Horror
+Felt in London&mdash;London Theater Precautions&mdash;Present Rules for London Theaters&mdash;Curtain Often Tested&mdash;Close Watch
+for Fire&mdash;Tree Tells of Ruse&mdash;Fortune for Safety&mdash;W. C. Zimmerman on European Theaters&mdash;The Effect on Gay Paris&mdash;Upheaval
+of Berlin Theatrical World&mdash;Mr. Shaver on Berlin Theaters&mdash;Vienna Recalls a Horror of Its Own&mdash;The Netherlands and Scandinavia.</span></td></tr>
+<tr><td>&nbsp;</td></tr>
+<tr><td align="center"><a href="#CHAPTER_XVIII">CHAPTER XVIII.</a></td></tr>
+<tr><td align="center">SUGGESTIONS FOR SAFE THEATERS</td>
+    <td align="right"><a href="#Page_243">243</a></td></tr>
+<tr><td><span class="smcap">Francis Wilson Says "No Steps"&mdash;Staircases with Railings&mdash;Precautions Enforced in London&mdash;What the
+Chicago City Engineer Says&mdash;Opinion of a Fireproof Expert&mdash;Illuminated Exit Signs.</span></td></tr>
+<tr><td>&nbsp;</td></tr>
+<tr><td align="center"><a href="#CHAPTER_XIX">CHAPTER XIX.</a></td></tr>
+<tr><td align="center">THE SWORN TESTIMONY OF THE SURVIVORS</td>
+    <td align="right"><a href="#Page_251">251</a></td></tr>
+<tr><td><span class="smcap">The First Witness&mdash;Marlowe's Experience&mdash;Musical Director's Sworn Statement&mdash;Mrs. Petry's Escape&mdash;Up
+Against Locked Doors&mdash;Blown into the Alley&mdash;Just Out in Time&mdash;Sporting Men Testify&mdash;An Elgin Physician's
+Tale&mdash;Mr. Menhard's Difficult Exit&mdash;The Theater Engineer&mdash;A School Girl's Account.</span></td></tr>
+<tr><td>&nbsp;</td></tr>
+<tr><td align="center"><a href="#CHAPTER_XX">CHAPTER XX.</a></td></tr>
+<tr><td align="center">LACK OF FIRE SAFEGUARDS</td>
+    <td align="right"><a href="#Page_271">271</a></td></tr>
+<tr><td><span class="smcap">A University Student's Story&mdash;A Clergyman's Story&mdash;The Fly Man's Story&mdash;School Teacher's Thrilling
+Experience&mdash;Glen View Man's Experience&mdash;The Light Operator&mdash;The Jammed Theater&mdash;Gas Explosion Hours Before the
+Fire&mdash;Panic Among Theater Employees&mdash;An Ex-Usher's Words.</span></td></tr>
+<tr><td>&nbsp;</td></tr>
+<tr><td align="center"><a href="#CHAPTER_XXI">CHAPTER XXI.</a></td></tr>
+<tr><td align="center">IRON GATES, DEATH'S ALLY</td>
+    <td align="right"><a href="#Page_300">300</a></td></tr>
+<tr><td><span class="smcap">Evidence of George M. Dusenberry, Superintendent of the Theater&mdash;Purpose of the Two Iron Gates&mdash;Never Any
+Fire Drills&mdash;Gates Were Battered&mdash;Didn't Bother About Locked Doors.</span></td></tr>
+<tr><td>&nbsp;</td></tr>
+<tr><td align="center"><a href="#CHAPTER_XXII">CHAPTER XXII.</a></td></tr>
+<tr><td align="center">DANCED IN PRESENCE OF DEATH</td>
+    <td align="right"><a href="#Page_306">306</a></td></tr>
+<tr><td>&nbsp;</td></tr>
+<tr><td align="center"><a href="#CHAPTER_XXIII">CHAPTER XXIII.</a></td></tr>
+<tr><td align="center">JOIN TO AVENGE SLAUGHTER OF INNOCENTS</td>
+    <td align="right"><a href="#Page_312">312</a></td></tr>
+<tr><td><span class="smcap">Attorney T. D. Knight Speaks&mdash;Coroner's Work Through&mdash;Remarks by Elizabeth Haley.</span></td></tr>
+<tr><td>&nbsp;</td></tr>
+<tr><td align="center"><a href="#CHAPTER_XXIV">CHAPTER XXIV.</a></td></tr>
+<tr><td align="center">AWFUL PROPHECY FULFILLED</td>
+    <td align="right"><a href="#Page_317">317</a></td></tr>
+<tr><td><span class="smcap">Mourning and Indignation&mdash;Nothing Else so Horrible&mdash;Unfortunate Victims&mdash;Fire! Fire!&mdash;Before the Disaster&mdash;The
+Holocaust&mdash;The Stampede Begins&mdash;One of Stupendous Horrors&mdash;Cursed and Blasphemed&mdash;Dead Bodies Found&mdash;Suddenly and Forever Parted&mdash;The
+Frenzy of Friends&mdash;Too Horrible to Dwell Upon&mdash;How the Theaters Should be Built.</span></td></tr>
+<tr><td>&nbsp;</td></tr>
+<tr><td align="center"><a href="#CHAPTER_XXV">CHAPTER XXV.</a></td></tr>
+<tr><td align="center">LIST OF THE DEAD</td>
+    <td align="right"><a href="#Page_325">325</a></td></tr>
+<tr><td>&nbsp;</td></tr>
+<tr><td align="center"><a href="#CHAPTER_XXVI">CHAPTER XXVI.</a></td></tr>
+<tr><td align="center">THE STORY OF THE BURNING OF BALTIMORE</td>
+    <td align="right"><a href="#Page_358">357</a></td></tr></table>
+
+
+<p>&nbsp;</p><p>&nbsp;</p>
+<h2>MEMORIAL PRAYER.</h2>
+
+<p>The Rt. Rev. Samuel Fallows wrote this prayer for Chicago on its appointed
+day of mourning. It is a prayer for all mourners of all creeds:</p>
+
+<div class="blockquot"><p>"O God, our Heavenly Father, we pray for an unshaken faith in Thy
+goodness as our hearts are bowed in anguish before Thee.</p>
+
+<p>Come with Thy touch of healing to those who are suffering fiery pain.</p>
+
+<p>Open wide the gates of Paradise to the dying.</p>
+
+<p>Comfort with the infinite riches of Thy grace the bereaved and
+mourning ones.</p>
+
+<p>Forgive and counteract all our sins of omission and commission.</p>
+
+<p>All this we ask for Thy dear name and mercy's sake. Amen."</p></div>
+
+
+
+<p>&nbsp;</p><p>&nbsp;</p>
+<h2>MEMORIAL HYMN.</h2>
+
+<p>Bishop Muldoon selected as the one familiar hymn most deeply expressive of
+the city's mourning, "Lead, Kindly Light," which he declared should be the
+united song of all Chicagoans on Memorial Day.</p>
+
+<table border="0" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="5" summary="table">
+<tr><td>"Lead, kindly Light, amid th' encircling gloom,<br />
+<span style="margin-left: 5em;">Lead Thou me on;</span><br />
+The night is dark, and I am far from home,<br />
+<span style="margin-left: 5em;">Lead Thou me on.</span><br />
+Keep Thou my feet; I do not ask to see<br />
+The distant scene; one step enough for me.<br />
+<br />
+I was not ever thus, nor prayed that Thou<br />
+<span style="margin-left: 5em;">Shouldst lead me on;</span><br />
+I loved to choose and see my path; but now<br />
+<span style="margin-left: 5em;">Lead Thou me on.</span><br />
+I loved the garish day, and, spite of fears,<br />
+Pride ruled my will: remember not past years.<br />
+<br />
+So long Thy power hath blessed me, sure it still<br />
+<span style="margin-left: 5em;">Will lead me on</span><br />
+O'er moor and fen, o'er crag and torrent, till<br />
+<span style="margin-left: 5em;">The night is gone,</span><br />
+And with the morn those angel faces smile,<br />
+Which I have loved long since, and lost awhile."</td></tr></table>
+
+
+
+<p>&nbsp;</p><p>&nbsp;</p>
+<h2>POEM BY A CHILD VICTIM.</h2>
+
+<p>The following poem, written by Walter Bissinger, a boy victim of the
+Iroquois Theater fire, fifteen years old, was composed two years ago, in
+honor of the tenth anniversary of the youthful poet's uncle and aunt, Mr.
+and Mrs. Max Pottlitzer, of Lafayette, Ind., whose son Jack, aged ten,
+perished with his cousin in the terrible disaster:</p>
+
+<p class="center">HAVE A THOUGHT.</p>
+
+<table border="0" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="5" summary="table">
+<tr><td align="center">I.</td></tr>
+<tr><td>Have a thought for the days that are long gone by<br />
+<span style="margin-left: 2em;">To the country of What-has-been,</span><br />
+And a thought for the ones that unseen lie<br />
+<span style="margin-left: 4em;">'Neath the mystic veil</span><br />
+<span style="margin-left: 4em;">Of the future pale,</span><br />
+<span style="margin-left: 2em;">As the years roll out and in.</span></td></tr>
+<tr><td>&nbsp;</td></tr>
+<tr><td align="center">II.</td></tr>
+<tr><td>Have a thought for the host and hostess here,<br />
+<span style="margin-left: 2em;">Aunt Emily and Uncle Max,</span><br />
+And a thought for our friends to our hearts so dear<br />
+<span style="margin-left: 4em;">That around us tonight</span><br />
+<span style="margin-left: 4em;">In the joyous light</span><br />
+<span style="margin-left: 2em;">Of pleasure their souls relax</span></td></tr>
+<tr><td>&nbsp;</td></tr>
+<tr><td align="center">III.</td></tr>
+<tr><td>Have a thought for the happy two tonight<br />
+<span style="margin-left: 2em;">Who have passed their tenth wedded year,</span><br />
+And the best of wishes, kind and bright,<br />
+<span style="margin-left: 4em;">Which we impart</span><br />
+<span style="margin-left: 4em;">With a loving heart</span><br />
+<span style="margin-left: 2em;">That is faithful and sincere.</span></td></tr></table>
+
+
+
+<p>&nbsp;</p><p>&nbsp;</p>
+<h2>VERDICT OF CORONER'S JURY.</h2>
+
+<p>From the testimony presented to us we, the jury, find the following were
+the causes of said fire:</p>
+
+<p>Grand drapery coming in contact with electric flood or arc light, situated
+on iron platform on the right hand of stage, facing the auditorium.</p>
+
+<p>City laws were not complied with relating to building ordinances
+regulating fire-alarm boxes, fire apparatus, damper or flues on and over
+the stage and fly galleries.</p>
+
+<p>We also find a distinct violation of ordinance governing fireproofing of
+scenery and all woodwork on or about the stage.</p>
+
+<p>Asbestos curtain totally destroyed; wholly inadequate, considering the
+highly inflammable nature of all stage fittings, and owing to the fact
+that the same was hung on wooden bottoms.</p>
+
+<p>Building ordinances violated inclosing aisles on each side of lower boxes
+and not having any fire apparatus, dampers or signs designating exits on
+balcony.</p>
+
+
+<p>&nbsp;</p>
+<p class="center">LACK OF FIRE APPARATUS.</p>
+
+<p>Building ordinances violated regulating fire apparatus and signs
+designating exits on dress circle.</p>
+
+<p>Building ordinances violated regulating fire apparatus and signs
+designating exits on balcony.</p>
+
+<p>Generally the building is constructed of the best material and well
+planned, with the exception of the top balcony, which was built too steep
+and therefore difficult for people to get out of especially in case of an
+emergency.</p>
+
+<p>We also note a serious defect in the wide stairs in extreme top east
+entrance leading to ladies' lavatory and gallery promenade, same being
+misleading, as many people mistook this for a regular exit, and, going as
+far as they could, were confronted with a locked door which led to a
+private stairway preventing many from escape and causing the loss of
+fifty to sixty lives.</p>
+
+
+<p>&nbsp;</p>
+<p class="center">HOLDING OF DAVIS AND HARRISON.</p>
+
+<p>We hold Will J. Davis, as president and general manager, principally
+responsible for the foregoing violations in the failure to see that the
+Iroquois theater was properly equipped as required by city ordinances, and
+that his employes were not sufficiently instructed and drilled for any and
+all emergencies; and we, the jury, recommend that the said Will J. Davis
+be held to the grand jury until discharged by due course of law.</p>
+
+<p>We hold Carter H. Harrison, mayor of the city of Chicago, responsible, as
+he has shown a lamentable lack of force in his efforts to shirk
+responsibility, evidenced by testimony of Building Commissioner George
+Williams and Fire Marshal William H. Musham as heads of departments under
+the said Carter H. Harrison; following this weak course has given Chicago
+inefficient service, which makes such calamities as the Iroquois theater
+horror a menace until the public service is purged of incompetents; and
+we, the jury, recommend that the said Carter H. Harrison be held to the
+grand jury until discharged by due course of law.</p>
+
+
+<p>&nbsp;</p>
+<p class="center">RESPONSIBILITY OF WILLIAMS.</p>
+
+<p>We hold the said George Williams, as building commissioner, responsible
+for gross neglect of his duty in allowing the Iroquois Theater to open its
+doors to the public when the said theater was incomplete, and did not
+comply with the requirements of the building ordinances of the city of
+Chicago; and we, the jury, recommend that the said George Williams be held
+to the grand jury until discharged by due process of law.</p>
+
+<p>We hold Edward Loughlin, as building inspector, responsible for gross
+neglect of duty and glaring incompetency in reporting the Iroquois theater
+"O. K." on a most superficial inspection; and we, the jury, recommend
+that the said Edward Loughlin be held to the grand jury until discharged
+by due course of law.</p>
+
+<p>We hold William H. Musham, fire marshal, responsible for gross neglect of
+duty in not enforcing the city ordinances as they relate to his
+department, and failure to have his subordinate, William Sallers, fireman
+at the Iroquois Theater, report the lack of fire apparatus and appliances
+as required by law; and we, the jury, recommend that the said William H.
+Musham be held to the grand jury until discharged by due course of law.</p>
+
+
+<p>&nbsp;</p>
+<p class="center">NEGLECT OF DUTY BY SALLERS.</p>
+
+<p>We hold the said William Sallers, as fireman of Iroquois Theater, for
+gross neglect of duty in not reporting the lack of proper fire apparatus
+and appliances; and we, the jury, recommend that the said William Sallers
+be held to the grand jury until discharged by due course of law.</p>
+
+<p>We hold William McMullen, electric-light operator, for gross neglect and
+carelessness in performance of duty; and we, the jury, recommend that the
+said William McMullen be held to the grand jury until discharged by due
+process of law.</p>
+
+<p>We hold James E. Cummings, as stage carpenter and general superintendent
+of stage, responsible for gross carelessness and neglect of duty in not
+equipping the stage with proper fire apparatus and appliances; and we, the
+jury, recommend that the said James E. Cummings be held to the grand jury
+until discharged by due course of law.</p>
+
+<p>From testimony presented to this jury, same shows a laxity and
+carelessness in city officials and their routine in transacting business,
+which calls for revision by the mayor and city council; and we, the jury
+demand immediate action on the following:</p>
+
+
+<p>&nbsp;</p>
+<p class="center">BUILDING DEPARTMENT.</p>
+
+<p>Should have classified printed lists, to be filled out by an inspector,
+then signed by head of department, before any public building can secure
+amusement license, and record kept thereof in duplicate carbon book.</p>
+
+<p>All fire escapes should have separate passageways to the ground, without
+passing any openings in the walls.</p>
+
+<p>All scenery and paraphernalia of any kind kept on the stage should be
+absolutely fireproof.</p>
+
+<p>Asbestos curtains should be reinforced by steel curtains and held by steel
+cables.</p>
+
+<p>There should be two electric mains entering all places of amusement, one
+from the front, with switchboard in box office, controlling entire
+auditorium and exits, and one on stage, to be used for theatrical
+purposes.</p>
+
+<p>All city officials and employes should familiarize themselves with city
+ordinances as they relate to their respective departments, and pass a
+rigid and signed examination on same before they are given positions. This
+same rule should be made to apply to those holding office.</p>
+
+
+<p>&nbsp;</p>
+<p class="center">FIRE DEPARTMENT.</p>
+
+<p>All theaters and public places should be supplied with at least two city
+firemen, who shall be under the direction of the fire department and paid
+by the proprietors of said places.</p>
+
+<p>We recommend that the office and detail work of the fire department, as
+imposed on the fire marshal, be made a separate and distinct work from
+fire fighting, as it is hardly to be expected of any fire marshal to give
+good and efficient service in both of these branches.</p>
+
+<p>Also a police officer in full uniform detailed in and about said place at
+each and every performance.</p>
+
+<p>In testimony wherof, the said coroner and jury of this inquest have
+hereunto set their hands the day and year aforesaid.</p>
+
+<table style="margin-left: 4%;" border="0" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" summary="table">
+<tr><td><span class="smcap">L. H. Meyer</span>, Foreman,</td>
+    <td><span class="smcap">Peter Byrnes</span>,</td></tr>
+<tr><td><span class="smcap">J. A. Cummings</span>,</td>
+    <td><span class="smcap">Walter D. Clingman</span>,</td></tr>
+<tr><td><span class="smcap">John E. Finn</span>,</td>
+    <td><span class="smcap">George W. Atkin</span>.</td></tr>
+<tr><td><span style="margin-left: 2em;"><span class="smcap">John E. Traeger</span>, Coroner.</span></td></tr></table>
+
+
+
+<p>&nbsp;</p><p>&nbsp;</p>
+<hr style="width: 50%;" />
+<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_33" id="Page_33">[Pg 33]</a></span></p>
+<h2><a name="CHAPTER_I" id="CHAPTER_I"></a>CHAPTER I.</h2>
+<p class="title">THE STORY OF THE FIRE.</p>
+
+
+<p>No disaster, by flood, volcano, wreck or convulsion of nature has in
+recent times aroused such horror as swept over the civilized world when on
+December 30, 1903, a death-dealing blast of flame hurtled through the
+packed auditorium of the Iroquois theater, Chicago, causing the loss of
+nearly 600 lives of men, women and children, and injuries to unknown
+scores.</p>
+
+<p>Strong words pale and appear meaningless when used in describing the full
+enormity of this disaster, which has no recent parallel save in the
+outbreaks of nature's irresistible forces. There have been greater losses
+of life by volcanoes, earthquakes and floods, but no fire horror of modern
+times has equaled this one, which in a brief half-hour turned a beautiful
+million-dollar theater into an oven piled high with corpses, some burned
+and mutilated and others almost unmarked in death.</p>
+
+<p>Coming, as it did, in the midst of a holiday season, when the second
+greatest city in the United States was reveling in the gaiety of Christmas
+week, this sudden transformation of a playhouse filled with a
+pleasure-seeking throng into an inferno filled with shrieking living and
+mutilated dead, came as a thunderbolt from a clear sky.</p>
+
+<p>It was a typical holiday matinee crowd, composed mostly of women and
+children, with here and there a few men. The production was the gorgeous
+scenic extravaganza "<i>Mr. Bluebeard</i>," with which the handsome new theater
+had been opened<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_34" id="Page_34">[Pg 34]</a></span> not a month before. "Don't fail to have the children see
+'<i>Mr. Bluebeard</i>,'" was the advertisement spread broadcast throughout the
+city, and the children were there in force when the scorching sheet of
+flame leaped from the stage into the balcony and gallery where a thousand
+were packed.</p>
+
+<p>The building had been heralded abroad as a "fireproof structure," with
+more than enough exits. Ushers and five men in city uniform were in the
+aisles. All was apparently safety, mirth and good cheer.</p>
+
+<p>Then came the transformation scene!</p>
+
+<p>The auditorium and the stage were darkened for the popular song "The Pale
+Moonlight." Eight dashing chorus girls and eight stalwart men in showy
+costume strolled through the measures of the piece, bathed in a flood of
+dazzling light. Up in the scenes a stage electrician was directing the
+"spot-light" which threw the pale moonlight effect on the stage.</p>
+
+<p>Suddenly there was a startled cry. Far overhead where the "spot" was
+shooting forth its brilliant ray of concentrated light a tiny serpentine
+tongue of flame crept over the inside of the proscenium drape. It was an
+insignificant thing, yet the horrible possibilities it entailed flashed
+over all in an instant. A spark from the light had communicated to the
+rough edge of the heavy cloth drape. Like a flash it stole across the
+proscenium and high up into the gridiron above.</p>
+
+<p>Accustomed as they were to insignificant fire scares and trying ordeals
+that are seldom the lot of those who lead a less strenuous life, the
+people of the stage hurried silently to the task of stamping out the
+blaze. In the orchestra pit it could readily be seen that something was
+radically wrong, but the trained musicians played on.</p>
+
+<p>Members of the octette cast their eyes above and saw the tiny tongue of
+flame growing into a whirling maelstrom of<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_35" id="Page_35">[Pg 35]</a></span> fire. But it was a sight they
+had seen before. Surely something would happen to extinguish it. America's
+newest and most modern fireproof playhouse was not going to disappear
+before an insignificant fire in the rigging loft. So they continued to
+sway in sinuous steps to the rhythm of the throbbing orchestra. Their
+presence stilled the nervousness of the vast audience, which knew that
+something was wrong, but had no means of realizing what that something
+was.</p>
+
+<p>So the gorgeously attired men and dashing, voluptuous young women danced
+on. The throng feasted its eyes on the moving scene of life and color,
+little knowing that for them it was the last dance&mdash;the dance of death!</p>
+
+<p>That dance was not the only one in progress. Far above the element of
+death danced from curtain to curtain. The fire fiend, red and glowing with
+exultation, snapping and crackling in anticipation of the feast before it,
+grew beyond all bounds. Glowing embers and blazing sparks&mdash;crumbs from its
+table&mdash;began to shower upon the merry dancers, and they fell back with
+blanched faces and trembling limbs. Eddie Foy rushed to the front of the
+stage to reassure the spectators, who now realized the peril at hand and
+rose in their seats struggling against the impulse to fly. Others joined
+the comedian in his plea for calmness.</p>
+
+<p>Suddenly their voices were drowned in a volley of sounds like the booming
+of great guns. The manila lines by which the carloads of scenery in the
+loft above was suspended gave way before the fire like so much paper and
+the great wooden batons fell like thunder bolts upon the now deserted
+stage.</p>
+
+<p>Still the audience stood, terror bound.</p>
+
+<p>"Lower the fire curtain!" came a hoarse cry.</p>
+
+<p>Something shot down over the proscenium, then stopped before the great
+opening was closed, leaving a yawning space of<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_36" id="Page_36">[Pg 36]</a></span> many feet beneath. With
+the dropping of the curtain a door in the rear had been opened by the
+performers, fleeing for their lives and battling to escape from the
+devouring element fast hemming them in on every side. The draft thus
+caused transformed the stage in one second from a dark, gloomy, smoke
+concealed scene of chaos into a seething volcano. With a great puff the
+mass of flame swept out over the auditorium, a withering blast of death.
+Before it the vast throng broke and fled.</p>
+
+<p>Doors, windows, hallways, fire escapes&mdash;all were jammed in a moment with
+struggling humanity, fighting for life. Some of the doors were jammed
+almost instantly so that no human power could make egress possible. Behind
+those in front pushed the frenzied mass of humanity, Chicago's elect, the
+wives and children of its most prosperous business men and the flower of
+local society, fighting like demons incarnate. Purses, wraps, costly furs
+were cast aside in that mad rush. Mothers were torn from their children,
+husbands from their wives. No hold, however strong, could last against
+that awful, indescribable crush. Strong men who sought to the last to
+sustain their feminine companions were swept away like straws, thrown to
+the floor and trampled into unconsciousness in the twinkling of an eye.
+Women to whom the safety of their children was more than their own lives
+had their little ones torn from them and buried under the mighty sweep of
+humanity, moving onward by intuition rather than through exercise of
+thought to the various exits. They in turn were swept on before their
+wails died on their lips&mdash;some to safety, others to an unspeakably
+horrible death.</p>
+
+<p>While some exits were jammed by fallen refugees so as to become useless,
+others refused to open. In the darkness that fell upon the doomed theater
+a struggle ensued such as was<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_37" id="Page_37">[Pg 37]</a></span> never pictured in the mind of Dante in his
+visions of Inferno. With prayers, curses and meaningless shrieks of terror
+all faced their fate like rats in a trap. The darkness was illumined by a
+fearful light that burst from the sea of flame pouring out from the
+proscenium, making Dore's representations of Inferno shrink into the
+commonplace. Like a horizontal volcano the furnace on the stage belched
+forth its blast of fire, smoke, gas and withering, blighting heat. Like a
+wave it rolled over every portion of the vast house, dancing.</p>
+
+<p>Dancing! Yes, the pillars of flame danced! To the multitude swept into
+eternity before the hurricane of flame and the few who were dragged out
+hideously disfigured and burned almost beyond all semblance of human
+beings it seemed indeed a dance of death.</p>
+
+<p>Withering, crushing, consuming all in its path, forced on as though by the
+power of some mighty blow pipe, impelled by the fearful drafts that
+directed the fiery furnace outward into the auditorium instead of upward
+into the great flues constructed to meet just such an emergency, the sea
+of fire burned itself out. There was little or nothing in the construction
+of the building itself for it to feed upon, and it fell back of its own
+weight to the stage, where it roared and raged like some angry demon.</p>
+
+<p>And those great flues that supposedly gave the palatial Iroquois increased
+safety! Barred and grated, battened down with heavy timbers they resisted
+the terrific force of the blast itself. There they remained intact the
+next day. Anxiety to throw open the palace of pleasure to the public
+before the builders had time to complete in detail their Herculean task
+had resulted in converting it into a veritable slaughter pen.</p>
+
+<p>"Mr. Bluebeard's" chamber of horrors, lightly depicted in satire to
+settings of gold and color, wit and music, had evolved<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_38" id="Page_38">[Pg 38]</a></span> within a few
+minutes into an actuality. Chamber of horrors indeed&mdash;grim, silent,
+smoldering and sending upon high the fearful odor of burning flesh.</p>
+
+<p>Policemen and firemen, hardened to terrible sights, crept into the
+smoldering sepulchre only to turn back sickened by the sight that met
+their eyes. Tears and groans fell from them and they were unnerved as they
+gazed upon the scene of carnage. Some gave way and were themselves the
+subjects of deep concern. It was a scene to wring tears from the very
+stones. No words can adequately describe it.</p>
+
+<p>Perhaps the best description of that quarter hour of carnage and the sense
+of horror when the seared, scorched sepulchre was entered for the removal
+of the dead and dying is found in the words of the veteran descriptive
+writer, Mr. Ben H. Atwell, who was present from the beginning to the end
+of the holocaust, and after visiting the deadly spot in the gray dawn of
+the following day wrote his impressions as follows:</p>
+
+<p>"Where at 3:15 yesterday beauty and fashion and the happy amusement seeker
+thronged the palatial playhouse to fall a few moments later before a
+deadly blast of smoke and flame sweeping over all with irresistible force,
+the dawn of the last day of the passing year found confusion, chaos and an
+all-pervading sense of the awful. It seemed to radiate the chilling,
+depressing volume from the streaked, grime-covered walls and the
+flame-licked ceilings overhead. Against this fearful background the few
+grim firemen or police, moving silently about the ruins, searching for
+overlooked dead or abandoned property, loomed up like fitful ghosts.</p>
+
+
+<p>&nbsp;</p>
+<p class="center">WAVE OF FLAME GREETS AUDIENCE.</p>
+
+<p>"The progress of their noiseless and ghastly quest proved one circumstance
+survivors are too unsettled to realize. With<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_39" id="Page_39">[Pg 39]</a></span> the opening of the stage
+door to permit the escape of the members of the 'Mr. Bluebeard' company
+and the breaking of the skylight above the flue-like scene loft that tops
+the stage, the latter was converted into a furnace through which a
+tremendous draft poured like a blow pipe, driving billows of flame into
+the faces of the terrified audience. With exits above the parquet floor
+simply choked up with the crushed bodies of struggling victims, who made
+the first rush for safety, the packed hundreds in balcony and gallery
+faced fire that moved them up in waves.</p>
+
+<p>"With a swirl that sounded death, the thin bright sheet of fire rolled on
+from stage to rear wall. It fed on the rich box curtains, seized upon the
+sparse veneer of subdued red and green decorations spread upon wall,
+ceiling and balcony facings. It licked the fireproof materials below clean
+and rolled on with a roar. Over seat tops and plush rail cushions it sped.
+Then it snuffed out, having practically nothing to feed upon save the
+tangled mass of wood scene frames, batons and paint-soaked canvas on the
+stage.</p>
+
+
+<p>&nbsp;</p>
+<p class="center">FEW REALIZED APPALLING RESULT.</p>
+
+<p>"There firemen were directing streams of water that poured over the
+premises in great cascades in volume, aggregating many tons. A few streams
+were directed about the body of the house, where vagrant tongues of flame
+still found material on which to feed. Silence reigned&mdash;the silence of
+death, but none realized the appalling story behind the awful calm.</p>
+
+<p>"The stampede that followed the first alarm, a struggle in which most
+contestants were women and children, fighting with the desperation of
+death, terminated with the sudden sweep of the sea of flames across the
+body of the house. The awful battle ended before the irresistible hand of
+death, which fell<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_40" id="Page_40">[Pg 40]</a></span> upon contestants and those behind alike. Somehow those
+on the main floor managed to force their way out. Above, where the
+presence of narrower exits, stairways that precipitated the masses of
+humanity upon each other and the natural air current for the billows of
+flame to follow, spelled death to the occupants of the two balconies, the
+wave of flame, smoke and gas smote the multitude.</p>
+
+
+<p>&nbsp;</p>
+<p class="center">DROP WHERE THEY STAND.</p>
+
+<p>"Dropping where they stood, most of the victims were consumed beyond
+recognition. Some who were protected from contact with the flames by
+masses of humanity piled upon them escaped death and were dragged out
+later by rescuers, suffering all manner of injury. The majority, however,
+who beheld the indescribably terrifying spectacle of the wave of death
+moving upon them through the air died then and there without a moment for
+preparation. Few survived to tell the tale. The blood-curdling cry of
+mingled prayers and curses, of pleas for help and meaningless shrieks of
+despair died away before the roar of the fire and the silence fell that
+greeted the firemen upon their entry.</p>
+
+<p>"Survivors describe the situation as a parallel of the condition at
+Martinique when a wave of gas and fire rolled down the mountain side and
+destroyed everything in its path. Here, however, one circumstance was
+reversed, for the wave of death leaped from below and smote its victims,
+springing from the very air beneath them.</p>
+
+
+<p>&nbsp;</p>
+<p class="center">MANY HEROES ARE DEVELOPED.</p>
+
+<p>"In a few minutes it was all over&mdash;all but the weeping. In those few
+minutes obscure people had evolved into heroes; staid business men drove
+out patrons to convert their stores<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_41" id="Page_41">[Pg 41]</a></span> into temporary hospitals and morgues;
+others converted their trucks and delivery wagons into improvised
+ambulances; stocks of drugs, oils and blankets were showered upon the
+police to aid in relief work and a corps of physicians and surgeons
+sufficient to the needs of an army had organized.</p>
+
+<p>"Rescues little short of miraculous were accomplished and life and limb
+were risked by public servants and citizens with no thought of personal
+consequences. Public sympathy was thoroughly aroused long before the
+extent of the horror was known and before the sickening report spread
+throughout the city that the greatest holocaust ever known in the history
+of theatricals had fallen upon Chicago.</p>
+
+<p>"While the streets began to crowd for blocks around with weeping and
+heartbroken persons in mortal terror because of knowledge that loved ones
+had attended the performance, patrol wagons, ambulances and open wagons
+hurried the injured to hospitals. Before long they were called upon to
+perform the more grewsome task of removing the dead. In wagon loads the
+latter were carted away. Undertaking establishments both north, south and
+west of the river threw open their doors.</p>
+
+
+<p>&nbsp;</p>
+<p class="center">DEAD PILED IN HEAPS.</p>
+
+<p>"Piled in windows in the angle of the stairway where the second balcony
+refugees were brought face to face and in a death struggle with the
+occupants of the first balcony, the dead covered a space fifteen or twenty
+feet square and nearly seven feet in depth. All were absolutely safe from
+the fire itself when they met death, having emerged from the theater
+proper into the separate building containing the foyer. In this great
+court there was absolutely nothing to burn and the doors were only a few
+feet away. There the ghastly pile lay, a mute <span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_42" id="Page_42">[Pg 42]</a></span>monument to the powers of
+terror. Above and about towered shimmering columns and facades in polished
+marble, whose cold and unharmed surfaces seemed to bespeak contempt for
+human folly. In that portion of the Iroquois structure the only physical
+evidences of damages were a few windows broken during the excitement.</p>
+
+
+<p>&nbsp;</p>
+<p class="center">EXITS WERE CHOKED WITH BODIES.</p>
+
+<p>"To that pile of dead is attributed the great loss of life within. The
+bodies choked up the entrance, barring the egress of those behind. Neither
+age nor youth, sex, quality or condition were sacred in the awful battle
+in the doorway. The gray and aged, rich, poor, young and those obviously
+invalids in life lay in a tangled mass all on an awful footing of equality
+in silent annihilation.</p>
+
+<p>"Within and above equal terrors were encountered in what at first seemed
+countless victims. Lights, patience and hard work brought about some
+semblance of system and at last word was given that the last body had been
+removed from the charnel house. A large police detail surrounded the place
+all night and with the break of day search of the premises was renewed,
+none being admitted save by presentation of a written order from Chief of
+Police O'Neill. Fire engines pumped away removing the lake of water that
+flooded the basement to the depth of ten feet. As the flood was lowered it
+began to be apparent that the basement was free of dead.</p>
+
+
+<p>&nbsp;</p>
+<p class="center">SURVEY SCENE WITH HORROR.</p>
+
+<p>"Searchers gazing down from the heights of the upper balcony surveyed the
+scene of death below with horror stamped upon their faces. Fire had left
+its terrifying blight in a colorless, garish monotony that suggests the
+burned-out crater of<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_43" id="Page_43">[Pg 43]</a></span> an extinct volcano. In the wreckage, the scattered
+garments and purses, fragments of charred bodies and other debris strewn
+within thousands of bits of brilliantly colored glass, lay as they fell
+shattered in the fight against the flames. A few skulls were seen.</p>
+
+
+<p>&nbsp;</p>
+<p class="center">FIND BUSHELS OF PURSES.</p>
+
+<p>"Five bushel baskets were filled with women's purses gathered by the
+police. A huge pile of garments was removed to a near-by saloon, where an
+officer guards them pending removal to some more appropriate place. The
+shoes and overshoes picked up among the seats fill two barrels to
+overflowing.</p>
+
+<p>"The fire manifested itself in the flies above the stage during the second
+act. The double octette was singing 'In the Pale Moonlight' when the
+tragedy swept mirth and music aside, to give way to a more somber and
+frightful performance. Confusion on the stage, panic in the auditorium,
+phenomenal spread of the incipient blaze, failure of the asbestos fire
+curtain to fall in place when lowered followed in rapid progress, with the
+holocaust as the climax."</p>
+
+<p>But to return to the narrative of what happened immediately after the
+first alarm, as gathered by the collaborators of this work. There was a
+wild, futile dash&mdash;futile because few of the terrified participants
+succeeded in reaching the outer air. Persons in the rear of the theater
+building knew full well that a holocaust was in progress. There fire
+escapes and stage doors thronged with refugees, half clad and hysterical
+chorus girls flocking into the alley, and crackling flames leaping higher
+and higher from the flimsy stage and bursting from windows, told only too
+plainly what was in progress within. At the front, half a block distant,
+in Randolph street, ominous silence maintained. A mere handful of people
+burst out, those<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_44" id="Page_44">[Pg 44]</a></span> who had occupied rear seats and pushed by the ushers who
+sought to restrain them and quiet their fears. Loiterers about the ornate
+lobby scarcely sniffed a suggestion of impending disaster before the fire
+apparatus began to arrive with clanging bells.</p>
+
+<p>Those ushers who held back the straining, anxious spectators who sought
+escape at the first mild suggestion of danger&mdash;for what widespread woe are
+they responsible!</p>
+
+<p>Mere boys of tender years and meager experience, what knew they of the
+awful possibilities behind the spell of excitement upon the stage? Only
+two weeks before there had been an incipient blaze there that had been
+extinguished without the knowledge of the audience.</p>
+
+<p>Like all the rest of the world that now stands in shuddering wonderment,
+these boys scoffed at the thought of real danger in the massive pile of
+steel, stone and terra cotta, with its brave and shimmering veneer of
+glistening marble, stained glass of many hues, rich tapestries and
+drapings, and cold, aristocratic tints of red and old gold. And so with
+uplifted hands they turned back those whose sense of caution prompted them
+to leave at the outset. Surely disaster could not overtake the regal
+Iroquois in its first flush of pomp, pride and superiority. It was their
+sacred duty to see that no unseemly break marred the decorum established
+for the guidance of audiences at the Iroquois, and that duty was fully
+discharged.</p>
+
+<p>Thus it was that the wild hegira did not begin from the front until the
+arrival of the fire department. Then pandemonium itself broke loose. All
+restraining influences from the stage had ceased. At the appearance of the
+all-consuming wave of flame sweeping across the auditorium the boy ushers
+abandoned their posts and fled for their lives, leaving the packed
+audience to do the same unhampered.</p>
+
+<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_45" id="Page_45">[Pg 45]</a></span>Unhampered&mdash;not quite! Darkness descending upon the scene, doors locked
+against the frightened multitude, fire escapes cut off by tongues of flame
+and exits and stairways choked with the bodies of those who died fighting
+to reach safety hampered many&mdash;at least the six hundred carried out later
+mangled and roasted, their features and limbs twisted and distorted until
+little semblance to humanity remained. After the first wild dash, in which
+a large portion of those on the main floor escaped, the blackness of night
+settled upon the long marble foyer leading from Randolph street to the
+auditorium. It settled in a cloud of black, fire laden smoke&mdash;death in
+nebulous forms defying fire fighter and rescuer alike to enter the great
+corridor. None entered, and, more pitiful still, none came forth.</p>
+
+<p>While this situation maintained in front a vastly different scene unfolded
+in the rear. The theater formed a great L, extending north from Randolph
+street to an alley and, in the rear, west to Dearborn street. This last
+projection, the toe of the L, was occupied by the stage, theoretically the
+finest in America, if not in the world. Thus the auditorium and stage
+occupied the extreme northern part of the structure, paralleling an alley
+extending on a line with Randolph street from State street to Dearborn
+street. This alley wall was pierced by many windows and emergency exits
+and was studded with fire escapes built in the form of iron galleries, and
+stairways hugging close to the wall leading to the alley.</p>
+
+<p>To these exits and the long, grim galleries of fire escapes the herded,
+fire-hunted audience surged. Those who reached doors that responded to
+their efforts found themselves pushed along the galleries by the
+resistless crush behind. As was the case in front, half way to safety
+another stream of humanity was encountered pouring out at right angles
+from another portion<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_46" id="Page_46">[Pg 46]</a></span> of the house. Coming together with the impact of
+opposing armies the two hosts of refugees gave unwilling and terrible
+answer to the time worn problem as to the outcome of an irresistible force
+encountering an immovable body. Both in front and rear great mounds of
+dead spelled annihilation as the answer. In front over 200 corpses piled
+in a twenty-foot angle of a stairway where two balcony exits merged told
+the terrible tale, and rendered both passages useless for egress, the dead
+being piled up in wall-like formation ten feet high.</p>
+
+<p>In the rear an alley strewn with mangled men, women and children writhing
+in agony on the icy pavement, or relieved of their sufferings by death,
+lent eloquent corroboration to the solution of the problem.</p>
+
+<p>It was in the rear that the true horror of the fire was most fully
+disclosed. There no towering mosaic studded walls or kindly mantle of
+smoke shut out the horrid sight. From its opening scene to its silent,
+ghastly denouement the successive details of this greatest of modern
+tragedies was forced upon the view to be stamped upon the memory of the
+unwilling beholder with an impressiveness that only death will blot out.</p>
+
+<p>After the first great impact had hurled the overflow of the fire-escape
+gallery into the alley yawning far below, the crush of humanity swept
+onward, downward to where safety beckoned. When the advance guard had all
+but reached the precious goal, with only a few feet of iron gallery and
+one more stairway to traverse, the crowning horror of the day unfolded
+itself. Right in the path of the advancing horde a steel window shutter
+flew back, impelled by the terrific energy of an immeasurable volume of
+pent up superheated air.</p>
+
+<p>The clang of the steel shutter swinging back on its hinges against the
+brick wall sounded the death knell of another host of victims, for in its
+wake came a huge tongue of lurid flame,<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_47" id="Page_47">[Pg 47]</a></span> leaping on high in the ecstasy of
+release from its stifling furnace. Fiercely in the faces of the refugees
+beat this agency of death. Before its withering blast the victims fell
+like prairie grass before an autumn blaze. Those further back waited for
+no more, but precipitated themselves headlong into the alley rather than
+face the fiery furnace that loomed up barring the way to hope.</p>
+
+<p>It would be well to draw the curtain upon this awful scene of suffering
+and death in the gloomy alley were it not for one circumstance that stands
+forth a glorious example of the heights that may be attained by the modest
+hero who moves about unsuspected in his daily life until calamity affords
+opportunity to show the stuff he is made of. High up in the building
+occupied by the law, dental and pharmacy schools of the Northwestern
+University, directly across the alley from the burning theater, a number
+of such men were at work. They were horny handed sons of toil&mdash;painters,
+paper hangers and cleaners repairing minor damage caused by an
+insignificant fire in the university building a few weeks before. One
+glance at the seething vortex of death below transformed them into heroes
+whose deeds would put many a man to shame whose memory is kept alive by
+stately column or flattering memorial tablet.</p>
+
+<p>Trailing heavy planks used by them in the erection of working scaffolds,
+they rushed to a window in the lecture room of the law school directly
+opposite the exit and fire escape platform leading from the topmost
+balcony of the theater. By almost superhuman effort and ingenuity they
+raised aloft the planks, scarce long enough to span the abyss, and dropped
+them. The prayers of thousands below and a multitude stifling in the
+aperture opposite were raised that the planks might fall true. All eyes
+followed their course as they poised in <span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_48" id="Page_48">[Pg 48]</a></span>mid-air, then descended. Slow
+seemed their fall, a veritable period of torture, and awed silence reigned
+as they dropped.</p>
+
+<p>Then there arose a glad cry. With a crash the great planks landed true,
+the free ends squarely upon the edge of the platform of the useless fire
+escape, the others resting firmly upon the narrow window ledge where the
+painters stood defying flame, smoke and torrents of burning embers and
+blazing sparks hurled upon them as from the crater of a volcano.</p>
+
+<p>Death alley had been bridged! Across the narrow span came a volume of
+bedraggled humanity as though shot from a gun. A mad, screaming stream,
+pushed on by those behind, simply whirled across the frail support, direct
+from the very jaws of death, the blistering gates of hell.</p>
+
+<p>Only for a moment, a brief second it seemed, the wild procession moved.
+Yet in that limited period scores, perhaps hundreds, poured from the
+seething inferno&mdash;practically all that escaped from the lofty balcony that
+was a moment later transformed into the death chamber of helpless
+hundreds. Then the wave of flame, previously described, swept over the
+interior of the theater, greedily searching every nook and corner as
+though hungry for the last victim within reach.</p>
+
+<p>The last refugees to cross the narrow span, the dizzy line sharply drawn
+between life and death in its most terrifying aspect, staggered over with
+their clothing in flames, gasping, fainting with pain and terror. The
+workmen, students and policemen who had rushed to their assistance dashed
+across into the heat and smoke and dragged forth many more who had reached
+the platform only to fall before the deadly blast. Then the rescuers were
+beaten back and the fire fiend was left to claim its own.</p>
+
+<p>And claim them it did, searching them out with ruminating tongues of
+flame. Over every inch of paint and decoration,<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_49" id="Page_49">[Pg 49]</a></span> every tapestry, curtain
+and seat top it licked its way with insinuating eagerness. It pursued its
+victims beyond the confines of the theater walls, grasping in its deadly
+embrace those who lay across windows or prostrate on galleries and
+platforms. Thousands gazed on in helpless horror, watching the flames
+bestow a fatal caress upon many who had crept far, far from the blaze and
+almost into a zone of safety. With a gliding, caressing movement that made
+beholders' blood run cold it crept upon such victims, hovered a moment and
+glided on with sinuous motion and what approached a suggestion of
+intelligence in searching out those who fled before it. A shriek, a
+spasmodic movement and the victims lay still, their earthly troubles over
+forever.</p>
+
+<p>A few minutes later, possibly not more than half an hour after the
+discovery of the fire, when the firemen had beaten back the flames to the
+raging stage another procession moved across that same plank again. It
+moved in silence, for it was a procession of death. The great tragedy
+began and ended in fifteen minutes. Its echoes may roll down as many
+centuries, compelling the proper safeguarding of all places of amusement,
+in America at least. If so, the Iroquois victims did not give up their
+lives in vain.</p>
+
+<p>When the removal of the victims across the improvised bridge over death
+alley ended the tireless official in charge of that work, James Markham,
+secretary to Chief of Police O'Neill, had checked off 102 corpses. No
+attempt was made to keep count of the dead as they were removed from other
+portions of the theater and by other exits. The counting was done when the
+patrol wagons, ambulances, trucks and delivery wagons used in removing the
+dead deposited their ghastly loads at the morgues.</p>
+
+<p>The instance cited was not an isolated example of heroism,<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_50" id="Page_50">[Pg 50]</a></span> but rather
+merely a striking instance among scores. Police, firemen and citizens vied
+with each other in the work of humanity. Merchants drove out customers and
+threw open their business houses as temporary hospitals and morgues.
+Others donated great wagon loads of blankets and supplies of all kinds and
+the municipal government was embarrassed by the unsolicited relief funds
+that poured in. All manner of vehicles were given freely for the removal
+of dead and injured. So informal was the removal of the latter that many
+may have reached their homes unreported. For that reason a complete list
+of the injured may never be secured.</p>
+
+<p>An illustration of the possibilities in that direction is found in the
+case of one man who wrapped the dead body of his wife in his overcoat and
+carried it to Evanston, many miles away, where the circumstances became
+known days later when a burial permit was sought. Another is the case of
+an injured man who revived on a dead wagon en route to a morgue and was
+removed by friends.</p>
+
+<p>All these and other details are elaborated upon elsewhere, together with
+the touching story of the scores of young women employed in the
+production, "Mr. Bluebeard," who would have been stranded penniless in a
+strange city a thousand miles from home but for the prompt and noble
+relief afforded by Mrs. Ogden Armour.</p>
+
+
+
+<p>&nbsp;</p><p>&nbsp;</p>
+<hr style="width: 50%;" />
+<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_51" id="Page_51">[Pg 51]</a></span></p>
+<h2><a name="CHAPTER_II" id="CHAPTER_II"></a>CHAPTER II.</h2>
+<p class="title">FIRST AID TO THE INJURED AND CARE FOR THE DEAD.</p>
+
+
+<p>On the heels of the firemen came the police, intent on the work of rescue.
+Chief O'Neill and Assistant Chief Schuettler ordered captains from a dozen
+stations to bring their men, and then they rushed to the theater and led
+the police up the stairs to the landing outside the east entrance to the
+first balcony.</p>
+
+<p>The firemen, rushing blindly up the stairs in the dense pall of smoke, had
+found their path suddenly blocked by a wall of dead eight or ten feet
+high. They discovered many persons alive and carried them to safety. Other
+firemen crawled over the mass of dead and dragged their hose into the
+theater to fight back the flames that seemed to be crawling nearer to turn
+the fatal landing into a funeral pyre.</p>
+
+<p>O'Neill and Schuettler immediately began carrying the dead from the
+balcony, while other policemen went to the gallery to begin the work
+there.</p>
+
+<p>In the great mass of dead at the entrance to the first balcony the bodies
+were so terribly interwoven that it was impossible at first to take any
+one out.</p>
+
+<p>"Look out for the living!" shouted the chief to his men. "Try to find
+those who are alive."</p>
+
+<p>From somewhere came a faint moaning cry.</p>
+
+<p>"Some one alive there, boys," came the cry. "Lively, now!"</p>
+
+<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_52" id="Page_52">[Pg 52]</a></span>The firemen and police long struggled in vain to move the bodies.</p>
+
+<p>The raging tide of humanity pouring out of the east entrance of the
+balcony during the panic had met the fighting, struggling crowd coming
+down the stairs from the third balcony at right angles. The two streams
+formed a whirlpool which ceased its onward progress and remained there on
+the landing where people stamped each other under foot in that mad circle
+of death.</p>
+
+<p>In a short time the blockade in the fatal angle must have been complete.
+Then into this awful heap still plunged the contrary tides of humanity
+from each direction. Many tried to crawl over the top of the heap, but
+were drawn down to the grinding mill of death underneath. The smoke was
+heavy at the fatal angle, for the majority of those taken out at that
+point bore no marks of bruises.</p>
+
+<p>Many, and especially the children, were trampled to death, but others were
+held as in a vise until the smoke had choked the life from their bodies.</p>
+
+<p>It was toward this that the firemen directed O'Neill and Schuettler as
+they rushed into the theater. The smoke was still heavy and the great
+gilded marble foyer of the "handsomest theater in America" was somber and
+dark and still as a tomb, except for the whistling of the engines outside
+and now and then the shouting of the firemen. Water was dripping
+everywhere and stood inches deep on the floor and stairs.</p>
+
+<p>Two flickering lanterns shed the only light by which the policemen worked,
+and this very fact, perhaps, made their task more horrible and gruesome,
+if such a thing were possible.</p>
+
+
+<p>&nbsp;<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_53" id="Page_53">[Pg 53]</a></span></p>
+<p class="center">GREAT PILE OF CHARRED BODIES FOUND EVERYWHERE IN THEATER.</p>
+
+<p>All through the gallery the bodies were found. Some were those of persons
+who had decided to stay in their seats and not to join in the mad rush for
+the doors and run the risk of being trampled to death. Many of them no
+doubt had trusted to the cries, "There is no danger; keep your seats!"</p>
+
+<p>They had stuck to their seats until, choked by the heavy smoke, they had
+been unable to move.</p>
+
+<p>Some bodies were in a sitting position, while others had fallen forward,
+with the head resting on the seat in front, as though in prayer. Almost
+all were terribly burned.</p>
+
+<p>In the aisles lay women and children who had staid in their seats until
+they finally were convinced that the danger was real. Then they had
+attempted to get to the door.</p>
+
+<p>The smoke was so heavy the firemen worked with difficulty, but finally it
+cleared and workmen who were hastily sent by the Edison company equipped
+forty arc lights, which shone bravely through the smoke. With this help
+the firemen searched to better effect, and found bodies that in the
+blackness they had missed.</p>
+
+<p>"Give that girl to some one else and get back there," shouted Chief Musham
+to a fireman. The fireman never answered but kept on with his burden.</p>
+
+<p>"Hand that girl to some one else," shouted the battalion chief.</p>
+
+<p>The fireman looked up. Even in the flickering light of the lantern the
+chief carried one could see the tears coming from the red eyes and falling
+down the man's blackened cheeks.</p>
+
+<p>"Chief," said the fireman, "I've got a girl like this at home. I want to
+carry this one out."</p>
+
+<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_54" id="Page_54">[Pg 54]</a></span>"Go ahead," said the chief. The little group working at the head of the
+stairs broke apart while the fireman, holding the body tightly, made his
+way slowly down the stairs.</p>
+
+<p>One by one the dead were taken from the pile in the angle. The majority of
+them were women. On some faces was an expression of terrible agony, but on
+others was a look of calmness and serenity, and firemen sometimes found it
+hard to believe they were dead. Three firemen carried the body of a young
+woman down the stairs in a rubber blanket. She appeared alive. Her hands
+were clasped and held flowers. Her eyes were closed and she seemed almost
+to smile. She looked as though she was asleep, but it was the sleep of
+death.</p>
+
+<p>In the dark and smoke, with the dripping water and the dead piled in heaps
+everywhere, the Iroquois theater had been turned into a tomb by the time
+the rescue parties had begun their work.</p>
+
+
+<p>&nbsp;</p>
+<p class="center">MOAN INSPIRES WORKERS IN MAD EFFORT TO SAVE.</p>
+
+<p>The moan that the frantic workers heard as they struggled to untangle the
+mass of bodies gave the police hope that many in the heap might be alive.</p>
+
+<p>"We can't do it, chief," shouted one of the policemen. "We can't untangle
+them."</p>
+
+<p>"We must take these bodies out of the way to get down to those who are
+alive," replied the chief. "This man here is dead; lay hold, now, boys,
+and pull him out."</p>
+
+<p>Two big firemen caught the body by the shoulders and struggled and pulled
+until they had it free. Then another body was taken out, and then again
+the workers seemed unable to unloose the dead. Again came that terrible
+moan through the mass.</p>
+
+<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_55" id="Page_55">[Pg 55]</a></span>"For God's sake, get down to that one who's alive," implored O'Neill,
+almost in despair.</p>
+
+<p>The policemen pulled off their heavy overcoats and worked frantically at
+the heap. Often a body could not be moved except when the firemen and
+police dragged with a "yo, heave," like sailors hauling on a rope. As fast
+as the bodies were freed one policeman, or sometimes two or three, would
+stagger down the stairs with their burdens.</p>
+
+<p>Over the heap of bodies crawled a fireman carrying something in his arms.</p>
+
+<p>"Out of the way, men, let me out! The kid's alive."</p>
+
+<p>The workers fell back and the fireman crawled over the heap and was helped
+out. He ran down the stairs three steps at a time to get the child to a
+place where help might be given before it was too late. Then other firemen
+from inside the theater passed out more bodies, which were handed from one
+policeman to another until some on the outside of the heap could take the
+dead and carry them downstairs.</p>
+
+<p>Suddenly a policeman pulling at the heap gave a shout.</p>
+
+<p>"I've got her, chief!" he said. "She's alive, all right!"</p>
+
+<p>"Easy there, men, easy," cried Schuettler; "but hurry and get that woman
+to a doctor!"</p>
+
+<p>A girl, apparently 18 years old, was moaning faintly. The policeman
+released her from the tangled heap, and a big fireman, lifting her
+tenderly in his arms, hurried with her to the outside of the building.</p>
+
+<p>"There must be more alive," said the chief. "Work hard, boys."</p>
+
+<p>There was hardly any need to ask the men to work harder, for they were
+pulling and hauling as though their own lives depended on their efforts.
+Everybody worked.</p>
+
+<p>The reporters, the only ones in the theater besides the police<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_56" id="Page_56">[Pg 56]</a></span> and
+firemen, laid aside their pencils and note books and struggled down the
+wet, slippery stairs, carrying the dead. Newspaper artists threw their
+sketch books on the floor to jump forward and pick up the feet or head of
+a body that a fireman or policeman found too heavy to carry alone.
+Constantly now a stream of workers was passing slowly down the stairs.
+Usually two men supported each body, but often some giant policeman or
+fireman strode along with a body swung over his shoulders. Coming down the
+stairs was a fireman with a girl of 16 clasped in his arms.</p>
+
+<p>"Isn't that girl alive?" asked the chief.</p>
+
+<p>"No," shouted two or three men, who had jumped to see. "She's dead, poor
+thing, rest her soul," said the fireman reverently, and then he picked his
+way down the stairs. Half-way down the marble steps two arms suddenly
+clasped the fireman's neck.</p>
+
+<p>He started so he missed his footing and would have fallen had not a
+policeman steadied him.</p>
+
+<p>"She's alive, she's alive!" shouted the fireman. "Git out of the way,
+there, out of the way, men," and he went dashing headlong out into the
+open air and through the crowd to a drug store.</p>
+
+<p>One child after another was taken from the heap and passed out to be
+carried downstairs. Some were little boys in new suits, sadly torn, and
+with their poor little faces wreathed in agony. On their foreheads was the
+seal of death.</p>
+
+<p>A big fireman came crawling from the heavy smoke of the inner balcony. He
+carried a girl of 10 years in his arms. Her long, flaxen hair half covered
+the pure white face.</p>
+
+<p>A gray haired man with a gash on his head apparently had fallen down the
+stairs. A woman's face bore the mark of a boot heel. A woman with a little
+boy clasped tight in her<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_57" id="Page_57">[Pg 57]</a></span> arms was wedged into a corner. Her clothes were
+almost torn from her, and her face was bruised. The child was unmarked, as
+she had thrown her own body over his to protect him.</p>
+
+<p>Out of the mass of bodies when the police began their work protruded one
+slender little white hand, clinching a pair of pearl opera glasses, which
+the little owner had tried to save, in spite of the fact that her own life
+was being crushed out of her. Watches, pocketbooks and chatelaine bags
+were scattered all through the pile. One man was detailed to make a bag
+out of a rubber coat and take care of the property that was handed to him.</p>
+
+<p>While the police were working so desperately at the fatal angle, another
+detail of police and firemen were working on the third floor. At the main
+entrance of the gallery lay another heap of bodies, and there was still
+another at the angle of the head of the stairs leading to the floor below.
+Here the sight was even worse than the terrible scene presented at the
+landing of the first balcony.</p>
+
+<p>The bodies on the landing were not burned. A jam had come there, and many
+had been stamped under foot and either killed outright or left to
+suffocate. Many of the bodies were almost stripped of clothing and bore
+the marks of remorseless heels.</p>
+
+<p>After these had been carried out, the firemen returned again and again
+from the pitchy blackness of the smoke-filled galleries, dragging bodies,
+burned sometimes beyond recognition.</p>
+
+
+<p>&nbsp;</p>
+<p class="center">NONE LEFT ALIVE IN GALLERY.</p>
+
+<p>While now and then some one had been found alive in the other fatal angle,
+no one was rescued by searchers in the top gallery. The bodies had to be
+laid along the hall until the<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_58" id="Page_58">[Pg 58]</a></span> merchants in State street began sending
+over blankets. Men from the streets came rushing up the stairs, bending
+under the weight of the blankets they carried on their shoulders. Soon
+they went back to the street again, this time carrying their blankets
+weighed down with a charred body.</p>
+
+
+<p>&nbsp;</p>
+<p class="center">DEAD AND DYING CARRIED INTO NEARBY RESTAURANT BY SCORES.</p>
+
+<p>The scenes in John R. Thompson's restaurant in Randolph street, adjoining
+the theater, were ghastly beyond words.</p>
+
+<p>Few half hours in battle bring more of horror than the half hour that
+turned the cafe into a charnel house, with its tumbled heaps of corpses,
+its shrieks of agony from the dying, and the confusion of doctors and
+nurses working madly over bodies all about as they strove to bring back
+the spark of life.</p>
+
+<p>Bodies were everywhere&mdash;piled along the walls, laid across tables, and
+flung down here and there&mdash;some charred beyond recognition, some only
+scorched, and others black from suffocation; some crushed in the rush of
+the panic, others but the poor, broken remains of those who leaped into
+death. And most of them&mdash;almost all of them&mdash;were the forms of women and
+children. It is estimated that more than 150 bodies were accounted for in
+Thompson's alone.</p>
+
+<p>The continuous tramp of the detachments of police bearing in more bodies,
+the efforts of the doctors to restore life, and the madness of those who
+surged in through the police lines to ransack piles of bodies for
+relatives and friends, made up a scene of pandemonium of which it is hard
+to form a conception. There was organization of the fifty physicians and
+nurses who fought back death in the dying; there was organization of the
+police and firemen; but still the restaurant was a chaos that left the
+head bewildered and the heart sick.</p>
+
+<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_59" id="Page_59">[Pg 59]</a></span>The work was too much for even the big force of doctors that had flocked
+there to volunteer their services. Everybody in which there was the
+slightest semblance of life was given over to the physicians, who with
+oxygen tanks and resuscitative movements sought to revive the heart beats.
+As soon as death was certain the body was drawn from the table and laid
+beneath, to give place to another. But systematic as was this effort,
+heaps of bodies remained which the doctors had not touched.</p>
+
+<p>In a dozen instances, even when the end of the work was in sight, a hand
+or foot was seen to move in this or that heap. Instantly three or four
+doctors were bending over rolling away the dead bodies to drag forth one
+still warm with life. In a thrice the body was on a table and the oxygen
+turned on while the doctors worked with might and main to force
+respiration. Almost always it was in vain&mdash;life went out. Two or three
+were resuscitated, though it is uncertain with what chances of ultimate
+recovery. One of these was a Mrs. Harbaugh, who had been brought in for
+dead and her body tossed among the lifeless forms that ranged the walls.</p>
+
+<p>When the first rush of people from the theater gave notice of the fire to
+persons in the street there were less than a score of patrons in the
+restaurant. These rushed into the street, too, while a panic spread among
+the waitresses and kitchen force. By this time fire company 13 was on the
+ground in the alley side of the theater and the police were at the front
+attempting to lead the audience from its peril with some semblance of
+order. In another minute women and children with blistered faces were
+dashing screaming into the street, taking refuge in the first doorways at
+hand.</p>
+
+<p>Another minute, and every policeman knew in his heart the horror that was
+at hand. A patrolman dashed into Thompson's<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_60" id="Page_60">[Pg 60]</a></span> and ordered the tables
+cleared and arranged to care for the injured. Captain Gibbons dispatched
+another policeman to issue a general call for physicians and a detachment
+to take charge of the restaurant and the first aid to be administered
+there. Within five minutes the first of the injured were being laid on the
+marble topped dining tables where the police ambulance corps were getting
+at work.</p>
+
+<p>These steps scarcely had been taken when word came from the burning
+theater that the fire was under control, but that the loss of life would
+be appalling. Chief O'Neill hurried to the scene, sending back word as he
+ran that Secretary James Markham should summon doctors and ambulances from
+every place available. The west side district of the medical schools and
+hospitals was called upon to send all the volunteers possible, together
+with hospital equipment. One hundred students from Rush Medical College
+were soon on their way by street car and patrol wagon to the scene.</p>
+
+
+<p>&nbsp;</p>
+<p class="center">TERRIBLE REALITY COMES TO AWESTRICKEN CROWD.</p>
+
+<p>It was only fifteen minutes after the first tongue of flame shot out from
+behind the scenes that a lull came in the awful drama of death within the
+theater. The firemen had quenched the fire and all the living had escaped.
+All that remained were dead. But now the scenes within the improvised
+hospital and morgue rose to the height of their horror.</p>
+
+<p>But for a narrow lane the length of the cafe the floor was covered with
+bodies or the tumbled bundles of clothing that told where a body was
+concealed. And over the scene of the dead rose the groans of the tortured
+beings who writhed upon the tables in the throes of their passing. And
+over the cries of the suffering rose the shouts of command of the Red
+Cross<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_61" id="Page_61">[Pg 61]</a></span> corps&mdash;now the directions of Dr. Lydston as to attempts at
+resuscitation, now the megaphone shouts of Senator Clark ordering the
+disposition of bodies and the organization of the constantly arriving
+volunteer nurses.</p>
+
+<p>In the narrow lane of the dead surged the policemen, bringing ever more
+and more forms to cord up beneath the tables. Then came the press of
+people, who, frantic with anxiety, had beaten back the police guard to
+look for loved ones in the charnel house. There was Louis Wolff, Jr.,
+searching for two nephews and his sister. There was Postmaster Coyne, who
+had hurried from a meeting of the crime committee to lend his aid. There
+were Aldermen Minwegen and Alderman Badenoch, and besides them scores of
+men and women anxiously looking and looking, and nerving themselves to
+fear the worst.</p>
+
+<p>"Have you found Miss Helen McCaughan?" shrieked a hysterical woman. "She's
+from the Yale apartments, and&mdash;&mdash;"</p>
+
+<p>"I'm looking for a Miss Errett&mdash;she's a nurse," cried another.</p>
+
+<p>"My little boy&mdash;Charles Hennings&mdash;have you found him, doctor?" came from
+another.</p>
+
+<p>From every side came the heartrending appeals, while the din was so great
+that no single plaint rose above the volume of sounds. And all the time
+the doorway was a place of frightful sights.</p>
+
+<p>"O, please go back for my little girl," gasped a woman whose face and
+hands were a blister and whose clothing was burned to the skin. She
+staggered across the threshold and fell prone. Her last breath had gone
+out of her when two policemen snatched up the body and bore it to an
+operating table.</p>
+
+<p>"O, where's my Annie?" screamed another woman, horribly burned, whom two
+policemen supported between them into the<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_62" id="Page_62">[Pg 62]</a></span> restaurant. But at the word she
+collapsed, and, though three physicians worked over her for ten minutes,
+she never breathed again.</p>
+
+
+<p>&nbsp;</p>
+<p class="center">ONE LIFE BROUGHT BACK FROM DEATH.</p>
+
+<p>Of a sudden Dr. E. E. Vaughan saw a finger move in a mass of the dead
+against the far wall of the restaurant.</p>
+
+<p>"Men, there's a live one in there," he cried, and, while others came
+running, the physician flung aside the bodies till he had uncovered a
+woman of middle age, terribly burned about the face, and with her outer
+garments a mass of charred shreds.</p>
+
+<p>In a second the woman was undergoing resuscitative treatment on a table,
+while the oxygen streamed into her lungs. Two doctors worked her arms like
+pumps, while a nurse manipulated the region of the heart. At length there
+was a flutter of a respiration, while a doctor bending over with his
+stethoscope announced a heart beat just perceptible. Another minute passed
+and the eyelids moved, while a groan escaped the lips.</p>
+
+<p>"She lives!" simply said Dr. Vaughan, as he ordered the oxygen tube
+removed and brandy forced between the lips. In five minutes the woman was
+saved from immediate death, at least, though suffering terribly from
+burns. She was just able to murmur that her name was Mrs. Harbaugh, but
+that was all that could be learned of her identity before she was taken
+away to a hospital.</p>
+
+
+<p>&nbsp;</p>
+<p class="center">ONE HUNDRED FEET IN AIR, POLICE CARRY INJURED ACROSS ALLEY.</p>
+
+<p>Over a narrow, ice covered bridge made of scaffold planks, more than 100
+feet above the ground the police carried more than 100 bodies from the
+rear stage and balcony exits of the Iroquois theater to the Northwestern
+University building,<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_63" id="Page_63">[Pg 63]</a></span> formerly the Tremont house. The planks rested on the
+fire escape of the theater and on the ledge of a window in the Tremont
+building.</p>
+
+<p>Two men who first ventured on this dangerous passageway in their efforts
+to reach safety, blinded by the fire and smoke, lost their footing and
+fell to the alley below. They were dead when picked up.</p>
+
+<p>The bridge led directly into the dental school of the university, and at
+one time there were more than a score of charred bodies lying under
+blankets in the room. The dead were carried from the pile of bodies at the
+theater exits faster than the police could take them away in the
+ambulances and patrol wagons.</p>
+
+<p>As soon as the police began to take the injured into the university
+building the classrooms were drawn upon for physicians, and in a few
+minutes professors and dental students gathered in the offices and stores
+to lend their assistance. Wounds were dressed, and in cases of less
+serious injury the unfortunates were sent to their homes. In other cases
+they were sent to hospitals.</p>
+
+<p>When the smoke had cleared away the rescuers first realized the extent of
+the horror. From the bridge could be seen the rows of balcony and gallery
+seats, many occupied by a human form. Incited by the sight, the police
+redoubled their efforts, and heedless of the dangers of the narrow,
+slippery bridge, pressed close to each other as they worked.</p>
+
+<p>While a dozen policemen were removing the dead from the theater, twice as
+many were engaged in carrying them to the patrol wagons and ambulances at
+the doors of the university building. All the afternoon the elevators
+carried down police in twos and fours carrying their burdens of dead in
+blankets. So fast were they carried down that many of the<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_64" id="Page_64">[Pg 64]</a></span> patrol wagons
+held five and more bodies when they were driven away.</p>
+
+
+<p>&nbsp;</p>
+<p class="center">CROWDS OF ANXIOUS FRIENDS.</p>
+
+<p>Behind the lines of police that guarded the passage of the dead, hundreds
+of anxious men and women crowded with eager questions. The rotunda of the
+building between 3 and 7 p. m. was thronged by those seeking knowledge of
+friend or relative who had been in the play. Some made their way to the
+third floor and looked hopelessly at the charred bodies lying there. In
+one corner lay the bodies of husband and wife, clasped in each other's
+arms. From under one sheltering blanket protruded the dainty high heeled
+shoes of some woman, and from the next blanket the rubber boots of a
+newsboy.</p>
+
+<p>A Roman Catholic priest made his way into the room. He was looking for a
+little girl, the daughter of a parishioner.</p>
+
+<p>"Have you the name of Lillian Doerr in your list?" he asked James Markham,
+Chief O'Neill's secretary, who was in charge of the police. Markham shook
+his head.</p>
+
+<p>"She and another little girl named Weiskopp were with three other girls,"
+continued the priest. "Three of the girls in the party have got home, but
+Lillian and the Weiskopp girl are missing. I suppose we must wait until
+all the bodies are identified before we can find her."</p>
+
+<p>The priest's mission and its futile results were duplicated scores of
+times by anxious inquirers.</p>
+
+
+<p>&nbsp;</p>
+<p class="center">BALCONY AND GALLERY CLEARED.</p>
+
+<p>The rescue work went on until the balcony and gallery had been cleared of
+the dead, and then the police were called away. The exits were barred and
+the hotel building cleared of <span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_65" id="Page_65">[Pg 65]</a></span>visitors. While the work of rescue was
+going on inside the building, the streets about the entrances were
+thronged with thousands of curious spectators. As soon as an ambulance
+backed up to the entrance the crowd pressed forward to get a view of the
+bundles placed in the wagon. Even after this work had ended the crowds
+remained in the cold and darkness.</p>
+
+<p>Many of the small shops and offices in the University building threw open
+their doors to the injured and those who had been separated from their
+friends. When those who had escaped by the alley exits reached Dearborn
+street they found the doors of the Hallwood Cash Register offices, 41
+Dearborn street, open to them. L. A. Weismann, Harry Snow, Harry Dewitt,
+and C. J. Burnett of the office force at once prepared to care for the
+injured. More than fifty persons were cared for.</p>
+
+<p>While these men were caring for strangers they themselves were haunted by
+the dread that Manager H. Ludwig of the company with his wife and two
+daughters were among the dead. The Ludwig family lives in Norwood Park,
+and the father had left the office with them early in the afternoon. At 6
+o'clock he had not returned for his overcoat.</p>
+
+
+<p>&nbsp;</p>
+<p class="center">FINANCE COMMITTEE OF CITY COUNCIL ACTS PROMPTLY.</p>
+
+<p>"Spare no expense," was the order given by the finance committee of the
+council which was in session when the extent of the disaster became known
+at the city hall. First to grasp the import of the news was Ald. Raynier,
+whose wife and four children had left him at noon to attend the matinee.
+With a gasp he hurried from the room to go to the scene.</p>
+
+<p>"You are instructed," said Chairman Mavor to Acting Mayor McGann, "to
+direct the fire marshal, the chief of <span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_66" id="Page_66">[Pg 66]</a></span>police, and the commissioner of
+public works to proceed in this emergency without any restrictions as to
+expense. Do everything needful, spend all the money needed, and look to
+the council for your warrant. We will be your authority."</p>
+
+<p>A telegram at once was sent to Mayor Harrison informing him of the fire
+and the executive returned from Oklahoma on the first train.</p>
+
+<p>Acting Commissioner of Public Works Brennan sent word to Chief O'Neill and
+Fire Marshal Musham that the public works department was at their service.</p>
+
+<p>"We want men and lanterns," Chief Musham answered.</p>
+
+<p>Supt. Solon was sent to a store near the theater with an order for as many
+lanterns as might be needed. Supt. Doherty assembled 150 men in Randolph
+street and seventy wagons employed on First ward streets. They were placed
+at the disposal of the two chiefs.</p>
+
+<p>Chief O'Neill was in the council chamber when the news arrived, hearing
+charges against a police officer. Lieut. Beaubien came from his office and
+whispered to him. The chief hurried to the fire. The trial board continued
+its work.</p>
+
+<p>On the ground floor of the city hall the fire trial board was in executive
+session trying six firemen on a charge of carrying tales to insurance men
+against the chief.</p>
+
+<p>At 3:33 o'clock the alarm rang. Chief, assistant chiefs, and accused
+firemen listened. Then the news of the magnitude of the fire reached
+headquarters. The board hurriedly adjourned and Chief Musham led accusers
+and accused to fight the fire.</p>
+
+
+
+<p>&nbsp;</p><p>&nbsp;</p>
+<hr style="width: 50%;" />
+<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_67" id="Page_67">[Pg 67]</a></span></p>
+<h2><a name="CHAPTER_III" id="CHAPTER_III"></a>CHAPTER III.</h2>
+<p class="title">TAKING AWAY AND IDENTIFYING THE DEAD.</p>
+
+
+<p>In drays and delivery wagons they carried the dead away from the Iroquois
+theater ruins. The sidewalk in front of the playhouse and Thompson's
+restaurant was completely filled with dead bodies, when it was realized
+that the patrol wagons and ambulances could not remove the bodies.</p>
+
+<p>Then Chief O'Neill and Coroner Traeger sent out men to stop drays and
+press them into service. Transfer companies were called up on telephone
+and asked to send wagons. Retail stores in State street sent delivery
+wagons.</p>
+
+<p>Into these drays and wagons were piled the bodies. They lay outstretched
+on the sidewalk, covered with blankets. Much care in the handling was
+impossible. As soon as a space on the walk was made by the removal of a
+body two were brought down to fill it.</p>
+
+<p>One of the wagons of the Dixon Transfer Company was so heavily loaded with
+the dead that the two big horses drawing it were unable to start the
+truck. Policemen and spectators put their shoulders to the wheels.</p>
+
+<p>When the drays were filled and started there was a struggle to get them
+through the crowds, densely packed, even within the fire lines which the
+police had established across Randolph street at State and Dearborn
+streets.</p>
+
+<p>Policemen with clubs preceded many of the wagons. The<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_68" id="Page_68">[Pg 68]</a></span> crowds through
+which they forced their way were composed mostly of men who had sent wives
+and children to the theater and had reason to believe that one of the
+drays might carry members of their own families.</p>
+
+<p>Eight and ten wagons at a time, half of them trucks and delivery wagons,
+were backed up to the curb waiting for their loads of dead.</p>
+
+<p>Two policemen would seize a blanket at the corners and swing it, with its
+contents, up to two other men in the wagon. This would be continued until
+a wagonload of bodies had been handled. Then the police forced a way
+through the crowd and another wagon took the place.</p>
+
+<p>Occasionally a body would be identified, and then efforts were made to
+remove it direct to the residence. Coroner Traeger discovered the wife of
+Patrick P. O'Donnell, president of the O'Donnell &amp; Duer Brewing Company.</p>
+
+<p>"Telephone to some undertaking establishment and have them take Mrs.
+O'Donnell's body home," he ordered one of his assistants. It was taken to
+the residence, at 4629 Woodlawn avenue.</p>
+
+<p>Friends of another woman who were positive they identified the body among
+the dead in Thompson's were allowed by the coroner to remove it to Ford's
+undertaking establishment, in Thirty-fifth street.</p>
+
+
+<p>&nbsp;</p>
+<p class="center">HEARTRENDING SCENES WITNESSED AT THE UNDERTAKING ESTABLISHMENTS.</p>
+
+<p>The bodies of the fire victims were distributed among the undertaking
+rooms and morgues most convenient. By 8:30 o'clock 135 bodies lay on the
+floors in the establishment of C. H. Jordan, 14-16 East Madison street,
+and in the temporary annex across the alley. The first were brought in
+ambulances<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_69" id="Page_69">[Pg 69]</a></span> and in police patrol wagons. Later all sorts of conveyances
+were pressed into service, and during more than two hours there was a
+procession of two-horse trucks, delivery wagons, and cabs, all bringing
+dead. It soon became evident that the capacity of the place would be
+exhausted and the men, who sat drinking and talking at the tables in the
+big ante-room in a saloon across the alley were driven out, and this also
+was arranged for use as a temporary morgue.</p>
+
+<p>Two policemen were in charge of each load of the dead, and as soon as the
+first few bodies were received, they began searching for possible marks of
+identification. All jewelry and valuables, as well as letters, cards, and
+other papers were put in sealed envelopes, marked with a number
+corresponding with that on the tag attached to the body. When this work
+was completed all the envelopes were sent to police headquarters, and all
+inquirers after missing friends and relatives were referred to the city
+hall to inspect the envelopes.</p>
+
+<p>The scenes in the two long rooms of the morgue in the saloon annex across
+the alley were so overpowering that they appeared to lose their effect.
+Many of the bodies last brought from the theater were sadly burned and
+disfigured and almost all of the faces were discolored and the clothing
+rumpled and wet.</p>
+
+<p>The condition of many of the bodies evidenced a vain battle for life.
+Almost all of them were women or children, and the majority had been well
+dressed. Among them were several old women. The men were few. In many
+cases the hands were torn, as if violent efforts had been made to wrench
+away some obstruction.</p>
+
+<p>As quickly as the work of searching the bodies was completed, the
+attendants stretched strips of muslin over the forms, partly hiding the
+pitiful horror of the sight.</p>
+
+<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_70" id="Page_70">[Pg 70]</a></span>Persons were slow in coming to the undertakers in search of friends. Many
+had their first suspicion of the catastrophe when members of theater
+parties failed to return at the usual hour.</p>
+
+<p>Among the first to arrive at Jordan's were George E. McCaughan, attorney
+for the Chicago &amp; Rock Island railroad, 6565 Yale avenue, who came in
+search of his daughter, Helen, who had attended a theater party with other
+young women. A friend had been in Dearborn street when the fire started
+and soon after had discovered in Thompson's restaurant the body of Miss
+McCaughan. He attached a card bearing her name to the body, and, leaving
+it in the custody of a physician, went to the telephone to notify the
+father. When he returned to the restaurant the body already had been
+removed and the friend and the father searched last night without finding
+it.</p>
+
+<p>As it grew later the crowd around the doors increased, but almost every
+one was turned away. It would have been impossible for persons to have
+passed through the long rooms for the purpose of inspecting the bodies,
+they were so close together. Women came weeping to the doors of the
+undertaking shop and beat upon the glass, only to be referred to the city
+hall or told "to come back in the morning."</p>
+
+<p>Later it was learned that physicians would be admitted for the purpose of
+inspecting and identifying the dead, and many persons came accompanied by
+their family doctors for that purpose. Two women, who pressed by the
+officer at the door, sank half fainting into chairs in the outer office.
+They were looking for Miss Hazel J. Brown, of 94 Thirty-first street, and
+Miss Eloise G. Swayze, of Fifty-sixth street and Normal avenue. A single
+glance at the long lines of bodies stretched on the floor was enough to
+satisfy them. They were told to<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_71" id="Page_71">[Pg 71]</a></span> return in the morning or to send their
+family physician to make the identification.</p>
+
+<p>"The poor girls had come from the convent to spend the holiday vacation,"
+sobbed one of the women.</p>
+
+<p>During the evening the telephone bell constantly was ringing, and persons
+whose relatives had failed to return on time were asked for information.</p>
+
+<p>"Have you found a small heart-shaped locket set with a blue stone?" would
+come a call over the wire, and the answer would be, "We can tell nothing
+about that until morning."</p>
+
+<p>At Rolston's undertaking rooms were 182 bodies, lying four rows deep in
+the rear of 18 Adams street and three rows deep in the rear of 22 Adams
+street.</p>
+
+<p>On the floors, tagged with the numerals of the coroner's scheme for
+identification, were bodies of men, women, and children awaiting
+identification. One was that of a little girl with yellow hair in a tangle
+of curls around her face. She appeared as if she slept. A silk dress of
+blue was spread over her and the sash of white ribbon scarcely was soiled.</p>
+
+<p>Over the long lines of the dead the police hovered in the search for
+identifying marks and for valuables. Most of the bodies were partly
+covered with blankets.</p>
+
+<p>Outside a big crowd surged and struggled with the police. Not till 10
+o'clock were the doors opened. Then Coroner Traeger arrived, and in groups
+of twelve or fifteen the crowd was permitted to pass through the doors.</p>
+
+<p>There was a pathetic scene at Rolston's morgue when the body of John Van
+Ingen, 18 years old, of Kenosha, Wis., was identified. Friends of the Van
+Ingen family had spent the entire evening searching at the request of Mr.
+and Mrs. Van Ingen, who were injured. At midnight four of the Van Ingen
+children, who were believed to have perished in the fire, had not<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_72" id="Page_72">[Pg 72]</a></span> been
+accounted for. They were: Grace, 2 years old; Dottie, 5 years old; Mary,
+13 years old; and Edward, 20 years old.</p>
+
+<p>In the undertaking rooms of J. C. Gavin, 226 North Clark street, and
+Carroll Bros., 203 Wells street, forty-five bodies swathed in blankets
+were awaiting identification at midnight. Of the fifty-four brought to
+these places only nine had been identified by the hundreds of relatives
+and friends who filed through the rooms, and in several cases the
+recognition was doubtful.</p>
+
+<p>An atmosphere of awe appeared to pervade the places, and no hysterical
+scenes followed the pointing out of the bodies. The morbid crowds usually
+attendant on a smaller calamity were absent, and few except those seeking
+missing relatives sought admission. Only one of the men, James D. Maloney,
+wept as he stood over the body of his dead wife.</p>
+
+<p>"I can't go any further," he said. "Her sister, Tennie Peterson, who lived
+in Fargo, N. D., was with her, and her body probably is there," motioning
+to the row of blanket-covered forms, "but I can't look. I must go back to
+the little ones at home, now motherless."</p>
+
+<p>In Inspector Campbell's office at the Chicago avenue station Sergeant Finn
+monotonously repeated the descriptions, as the scores of frantic seekers
+filled and refilled the little office. Several times he was interrupted by
+hysterical shrieks of women or the broken voices of men.</p>
+
+<p>"Read it again, please," would be the call, and, as the description again
+was read off, the number of the body was taken and the relatives hurried
+to the undertaking rooms. The bodies of Walter B. Zeisler, 12 years old,
+Lee Haviland and Walter A. Austrian were partly identified from the police
+descriptions.</p>
+
+<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_73" id="Page_73">[Pg 73]</a></span>The list of hospital patients also was posted in the station and aided
+friends in the search for injured.</p>
+
+<p>Sheldon's undertaking rooms at 230 West Madison street were the scene of
+pathetic incidents. Forty-seven bodies, some of them with the clothing
+entirely burned away, and with few exceptions with features charred beyond
+recognition, had been taken there. Late in the night only four had been
+identified. The first body recognized was that of Mrs. Brindsley, of 909
+Jackson boulevard, who had attended the matinee with Miss Edna Torney,
+daughter of Mr. and Mrs. P. Torney, 1292 Adams street. Mr. Torney could
+find no trace of the young woman.</p>
+
+<p>Of the forty-seven bodies thirty-six were of matured women and five of
+men. There were bodies of six children, three boys and three girls.</p>
+
+<p>Dr. J. H. Bates, of 3256 South Park avenue, was searching for the bodies
+of Myrtle Shabad and Ruth Elken, numbered among the missing.</p>
+
+<p>There were similar scenes at all of the undertaking rooms to which bodies
+were taken.</p>
+
+<p>"When the fire broke out I was taking tickets at the door," said E.
+Lovett, one of the ushers. "The crowd began to move toward the exits on
+the ground floor, and I rushed to the big entrance doors and threw three
+of them open. From there I hurried to the cigar store and called up the
+police and fire departments.</p>
+
+<p>"When I returned I tried to get more of the doors open, but was shoved
+aside and told that I was crazy. The crowd acted in a most frenzied manner
+and no one could have held them in check. Conditions on the balconies must
+have been appalling. They were well filled, but the exits, had they been
+opened, would have proved ample for all."</p>
+
+<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_74" id="Page_74">[Pg 74]</a></span>Michael Ohle, who was ushering on the first balcony, noticed the fire
+shortly after it started. He hurried to the entrances and cleared the way
+for the people to get out. Then, he says, he started downstairs to find
+out how serious the fire was. Before he could return the panic was on and
+he fled to the street for safety.</p>
+
+<p>"Mrs. Phillipson, Phillipson&mdash;is Mrs. Phillipson here?"</p>
+
+<p>That cry sounded in drug stores, cigar stores, and hotels until three
+little girls, Adeline, Frances, and Teresa, had found their mother, from
+whom they were separated in the panic. At last at the Continental hotel
+the call was weakly answered by a woman who lay upon a couch, more
+frightened than hurt. In another moment three little girls were sobbing in
+their mother's lap.</p>
+
+
+<p>&nbsp;</p>
+<p class="center">FRIENDS AND RELATIVES EAGERLY SEARCH FOR LOVED ONES MISSING AFTER THEATER HOLOCAUST.</p>
+
+<p>Friends sought for information of friends; husbands asked for word of
+wives; fathers and mothers sought news of sons and daughters; men and
+women begged to be told if there was any knowledge of their sweethearts;
+parents asked for children; and children fearfully told the names of
+missing playmates.</p>
+
+<p>The early hours of the evening were marked by many sad scenes. Men would
+rush to the desk where the names of the missing were being compiled and
+asked if anything had been heard of some member of their families, then
+turn away and hurry out, barely waiting to be told that there would be no
+definite news until nearly midnight.</p>
+
+<p>"Just think!" said one gray headed man, leaning on the arm of a younger
+man who was leading him down the stairs,<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_75" id="Page_75">[Pg 75]</a></span> "I bought the matinee tickets
+for the children as a treat, and insisted that they take their little
+cousin with them."</p>
+
+<p>"Have you heard anything of my daughter?" asked a woman.</p>
+
+<p>"What was her name?"</p>
+
+<p>"Lily. She had seats in the first balcony with some girl friends. You
+would know her by her brown hair. She wore a white silk shirt waist and a
+diamond ring I gave her for Christmas. I went to the theater, but I
+couldn't get near it, and they said they were still carrying out bodies."</p>
+
+<p>"And her name? Who was she?"</p>
+
+<p>"She was my daughter&mdash;my only one!"</p>
+
+<p>The woman walked away, weeping, without giving the name, and the only
+response she would make to questions from those who followed her was:</p>
+
+<p>"My daughter!"</p>
+
+<p>Two men, with two little boys, came in. "Our wives," they said, "came to
+the matinee with some neighbors. They have not yet come home."</p>
+
+<p>Before they could give their names a third man ran up and cried:</p>
+
+<p>"I just got word the folks have been taken home in ambulances. They are
+alive."</p>
+
+<p>The men gave a shout and were gone in an instant.</p>
+
+<p>Men with children in their arms came to ask for others of the family who
+had become separated from them in the panic at the theater. Women, tears
+dampening their cheeks, hushed the chatter of their little ones while they
+gave the names of husbands and brothers, or told of other children who had
+been lost.</p>
+
+<p>One man yielded to his fears at the last minute and went<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_76" id="Page_76">[Pg 76]</a></span> away without
+asking for information or giving any name. He said:</p>
+
+<p>"I went to the theater with my wife. We have only been married a year.
+When the rush came I was torn away from her, and the last thing I remember
+is of hearing her call my name. Then I was lifted off my feet and can
+recall nothing more except that I found myself in the street. I have been
+to all the hospitals and morgues, and now I am going back to the theater
+again."</p>
+
+<p>So it went until the last dreaded news began coming in. Identifications
+were being made and hearts were being broken. After that time the
+inquiries were not for information; they were pleas to be told that a
+mistake had been made or that one was possible.</p>
+
+
+
+<p>&nbsp;</p><p>&nbsp;</p>
+<hr style="width: 50%;" />
+<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_77" id="Page_77">[Pg 77]</a></span></p>
+<h2><a name="CHAPTER_IV" id="CHAPTER_IV"></a>CHAPTER IV.</h2>
+<p class="title">SCENE OF HORROR AS VIEWED FROM THE STAGE.</p>
+
+
+<p>All but one of the 348 members of the "Bluebeard" company escaped,
+although many had close calls for their lives. Some of the chorus girls
+displayed great coolness in the face of grave peril. Eddie Foy, who had a
+thrilling experience, said:</p>
+
+<p>"I was up in my dressing room preparing to come on for my turn in the
+middle of the second act when I heard an unusual commotion on the stage
+that I knew could not be caused by anything that was a part of the show. I
+hurried out of my dressing room, and as I looked I saw that the big drop
+curtain was on fire.</p>
+
+<p>"The fire had caught from the calcium and the paint and muslin on the drop
+caused the flames to travel with great rapidity Everything was excitement.
+Everybody was running from the stage. My 6 year old son, Bryan, stood in
+the first entrance to the stage and my first thought naturally was to get
+him out. They would not let me go out over the footlights, so I picked up
+the boy and gave him to a man and told him to rush the boy out into the
+alley.</p>
+
+<p>"I then rushed out to the footlights and called out to the audience, 'Keep
+very quiet. It is all right. Don't get excited and don't stampede. It is
+all right.'</p>
+
+<p>"I then shouted an order into the flies, 'Drop the curtain,' and called
+out to the leader of the orchestra to 'play an <span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_78" id="Page_78">[Pg 78]</a></span>overture. Some of the
+musicians had left, but those that remained began to play. The leader sat
+there, white as a ghost, but beating his baton in the air.</p>
+
+<p>"As the music started I shouted out to the audience, 'Go out slowly. Leave
+the theater slowly.' The audience had not yet become panic stricken, and
+as I shouted to them they applauded me. The next minute the whole stage
+seemed to be afire, and what wood there was began to crackle with a sound
+like a series of explosions.</p>
+
+<p>"When I first came out to the footlights about 300 persons had left the
+theater or were leaving it. They were those who were nearest the door.
+Then the policemen came rushing in and tried to stem the tide towards the
+door.</p>
+
+<p>"All this happened in fifteen seconds. Up in the flies were the young
+women who compose the aerial ballet. They were up there waiting to do
+their turn, and as I stood at the front of the stage they came rushing
+out. I think they all got out safely.</p>
+
+<p>"The fire seemed to spread with a series of explosions. The paint on the
+curtains and scenery came in touch with the flames and in a second the
+scenery was sputtering and blazing up on all sides. The smoke was fearful
+and it was a case of run quickly or be smothered."</p>
+
+<p>Stage Director William Carleton, who was one of the last to leave the
+stage when the flames and smoke drove the members of the company out,
+said:</p>
+
+<p>"I was on the stage when the flames shot out from the switchboard on the
+left side. It seemed that some part of the scenery must have touched the
+sparks and set the fire. Soon the octette which was singing "In the Pale
+Moonlight," discovered the fire over their heads and in a few moments we
+had the curtain run down. It would not go down the full<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_79" id="Page_79">[Pg 79]</a></span> length, however,
+leaving an opening of about five feet from the floor. Then the crowd out
+in front began to stampede and the lights went out. Eddie Foy, who was in
+his dressing room, heard the commotion, and, rushing to the front of the
+stage, shouted to the spectators to be calm. The warning was useless and
+the panic was under way before any one realized what was going on.</p>
+
+<p>"Only sixteen members of the company were on the stage at the time. They
+remained until the flames were all about them and several had their hair
+singed and faces burned. Almost every one of these went out through the
+stage entrance on Dearborn street. In the meantime all of those who were
+in the dressing room had been warned and rushed out through the front
+entrance on Randolph street. There was no panic among the members of the
+company, every one seeming to know that care would result in the saving of
+life. Most of the members were preparing for the next number in their
+dressing rooms when the fire broke out, and they hurriedly secured what
+wraps they could and all dashed up to the stage, making their exit in
+safety.</p>
+
+<p>"The elevator which has been used for the members of the company, in going
+from the upper dressing rooms to the stage, was one of the first things to
+go wrong, and attempts to use it were futile.</p>
+
+<p>"It seems that the panic could not be averted, as the great crowd which
+filled the theater was unable to control itself. Two of the women
+fainted."</p>
+
+<p>"When the fire broke out," said Lou Shean, a member of the chorus, "I was
+in the dressing room underneath the stage. When I reached the top of the
+stairs the scenery nearby was all in flames and the heat was so fierce
+that I could not reach the stage door leading toward Dearborn street. I
+returned<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_80" id="Page_80">[Pg 80]</a></span> to the basement and ran down the long corridor leading toward
+the engine room, near which doors led to the smoking room and buffet. Both
+doors were locked. I began to break down the doors, assisted by other
+members of the company, while about seventy or eighty other members
+crowded against us. I succeeded in bursting open the door to the smoking
+room, when all made a wild rush. I was knocked down and trampled on and
+received painful bruises all over my body."</p>
+
+<p>"I was just straightening up things in our dressing room upstairs," said
+Harry Meehan, a member of the chorus, who also acted as dresser for Eddie
+Foy and Harry Gilfoil, "when the fire started. Both Mr. Foy and Mr.
+Gilfoil were on the stage at the time. I opened Mr. Foy's trunk and took
+out his watch and chain and rushed out, leaving my own clothes behind. I
+was so scantily dressed that I had to borrow clothes to get back to the
+hotel. Mr. Gilfoil saved nothing but his overcoat."</p>
+
+<p>Herbert Cawthorn, the Irish comedian who took the part of Pat Shaw in the
+play "Bluebeard," assisted many of the chorus girls from the stage exits
+in the panic.</p>
+
+<p>"While the stage fireman was working in an endeavor to use the chemicals
+the flames suddenly swooped down and out, Eddie Foy shouted something
+about the asbestos curtain and the fireman attempted to use it, and the
+stage hands ran to his assistance, but the curtain refused to work.</p>
+
+<p>"In my opinion the stage fireman might have averted the whole terrible
+affair if he had not become so excited. The chorus girls and everybody, to
+my mind, were less excited than he. There were at least 500 people behind
+the scenes when the fire started. I assisted many of the chorus girls from
+the theater."</p>
+
+<p>Said C. W. Northrop, who took the part of one of <span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_81" id="Page_81">[Pg 81]</a></span>Bluebeard's old wives:
+"Many of us certainly had narrow escapes. Those who were in the dressing
+rooms underneath the stage at the time had more difficulty in getting out.
+I was in the dressing room under the stage when the fire broke out, and
+when I found that I could not reach the stage I tried to get out through
+the door connecting the extreme north end of the C shaped corridor with
+the smoking room. I joined other members of the company in their rush for
+safety, but when we reached the door we found it closed. Some of the
+members crawled out through a coal hole, while others broke down the
+locked door, through which the others made their way out."</p>
+
+<p>Lolla Quinlan, one of Bluebeard's eight dancers, saved the life of one of
+her companions, Violet Sidney, at the peril of her own. The two girls,
+with five others, were in a dressing room on the fifth floor when the
+alarm was raised. In their haste Miss Sidney caught her foot and sank to
+the floor with a cry of pain. She had sprained her ankle. The others, with
+the exception of Miss Quinlan, fled down the stairs.</p>
+
+<p>Grasping her companion around the waist Miss Quinlan dragged her down the
+stairs to the stage and crossed the boards during a rain of fiery brands.
+These two were the last to leave the stage. Miss Quinlan's right arm and
+hand were painfully burned and her face was scorched. Miss Sidney's face
+was slightly burned. Both were taken to the Continental hotel.</p>
+
+<p>Herbert Dillon, musical director, at the height of the panic broke through
+the stage door from the orchestra side, hastily cleared away obstructions
+with an ax, and assisted in the escape of about eighty chorus girls who
+occupied ten dressing rooms under the stage.</p>
+
+<p>"We were getting ready for the honey and fan scene," said<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_82" id="Page_82">[Pg 82]</a></span> Miss Nina Wood,
+"talking and laughing, and not thinking of danger. We were so far back of
+the orchestra that we did not hear sounds of the panic for several
+moments. Then the tramping of feet came to our ears. We made our way
+through the smoking room and one of the narrow exits of the theater."</p>
+
+<p>Miss Adele Rafter, a member of the company, was in her dressing room when
+the fire broke out.</p>
+
+<p>"I did not wait an instant," said Miss Rafter. "I caught up a muff and boa
+and rushed down the stairs in my stage costume and was the first of the
+company to get out the back entrance. Some man kindly loaned me his
+overcoat and I hurried to my apartments at the Sherman house. Several of
+the girls followed, and we had a good crying spell together."</p>
+
+<p>Miss Rafter's mother called at the hotel and spent the evening with her.
+Telegrams were sent to her father, who is rector of a church at Dunkirk,
+N. Y.</p>
+
+<p>Edwin H. Price, manager of the "Mr. Bluebeard" company, was not in the
+building when the fire started. He said:</p>
+
+<p>"I stepped out of the theater for a minute, and when I got back I saw the
+people rushing out and knew the stage was on fire. I helped some of the
+girls out of the rear entrance. With but one or two exceptions all left in
+stage costume.</p>
+
+<p>"One young woman in the chorus, Miss McDonald, displayed unusual coolness.
+She remained in her dressing room and donned her entire street costume,
+and also carried out as much of her stage clothing as she could carry."</p>
+
+<p>Quite a number of the chorus girls live in Chicago, and Mr. Price
+furnished cabs and sent them all to their homes.</p>
+
+<p>Through some mistake it was reported that Miss Anabel Whitford, the fairy
+queen of the company, was dying at one of the hospitals. She was not even
+injured, having safely made her way out through the stage door.</p>
+
+<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_83" id="Page_83">[Pg 83]</a></span>Miss Nellie Reed, the principal of the flying ballet, which was in place
+for its appearance near the top part of the stage, was so badly burned by
+the flames before she was able to escape that she afterward died at the
+county hospital. The other members of the flying ballet were not injured.</p>
+
+<p>Robert Evans, one of the principals of the Bluebeard company, was in his
+dressing room on the fourth floor. He dived through a mass of flame and
+landed three stairways below. He helped a number of chorus girls to escape
+through the lower basement. His hands and face are burned severely. He
+lost all his wardrobe and personal effects.</p>
+
+
+<p>&nbsp;</p>
+<p class="center">STORY OF HOW A SMALL BLAZE TERMINATED IN TERRIBLE LOSS.</p>
+
+<p>The fire started while the double octet was singing "In the Pale
+Moonlight." Eddie Foy, off the stage, was making up for his "elephant"
+specialty.</p>
+
+<p>On the audience's left&mdash;the stage right&mdash;a line of fire flashed straight
+up. It was followed by a noise as of an explosion. According to nearly all
+accounts, however, there was no real explosion, the sound being that of
+the fuse of the "spot" light, the light which is turned on a pivot to
+follow and illuminate the progress of the star across the stage.</p>
+
+<p>This light caused the fire. On this all reports of the stage folk agree.
+As to manner, accounts differ widely. R. M. Cummings, the boy in charge of
+the light, said that it was short circuited.</p>
+
+<p>Stage hands, as they fled from the scene, however, were heard to question
+one another, "Who kicked over the light?" The light belonged to the
+"Bluebeard" company.</p>
+
+<p>The beginning of the disaster was leisurely. The stage hands had been
+fighting the line of wavering flame along the<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_84" id="Page_84">[Pg 84]</a></span> muslin fly border for some
+seconds before the audience knew anything was the matter.</p>
+
+<p>The fly border, made of muslin and saturated with paint, was tinder to the
+flames.</p>
+
+<p>The stage hands grasped the long sticks used in their work. They forgot
+the hand grenades that are supposed to be on every stage.</p>
+
+<p>"Hit it with the sticks!" was the cry. "Beat it out!" "Beat it out!"</p>
+
+<p>The men struck savagely. A few yards of the border fell upon the stage and
+was stamped to charred fragments.</p>
+
+<p>That sight was the first warning the audience had. For a second there was
+a hush. The singers halted in their lines; the musicians ceased to play.</p>
+
+<p>Then a murmur of fear ran through the audience. There were cries from a
+few, followed by the breaking, rumbling sound of the first step toward the
+flight of panic.</p>
+
+<p>At that moment a strange, grotesque figure appeared upon the stage. It
+wore tights, a loose upper garment, and the face was one-half made up. The
+man was Eddie Foy, chief comedian of the company, the clown, but the only
+man who kept his head.</p>
+
+<p>Before he reached the center of the stage he had called out to a stage
+hand: "Take my boy, Bryan, there! Get him out! There by the stage way!"</p>
+
+<p>The stage hand grabbed the little chap. Foy saw him dart with him to
+safety as he turned his head.</p>
+
+<p>Freed of parental anxiety, he faced the audience.</p>
+
+<p>"Keep quiet!" he shouted. "Quiet."</p>
+
+<p>"Go out in order!" he shouted. "Don't get excited!"</p>
+
+<p>Between exclamations he bent over toward the orchestra leader.</p>
+
+
+<p>&nbsp;<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_85" id="Page_85">[Pg 85]</a></span></p>
+<p class="center">ORCHESTRA PLAYS IN FACE OF DEATH.</p>
+
+<p>"Start an overture!" he commanded. "Start anything. For God's sake play,
+play, play, and keep on playing."</p>
+
+<p>The brave words were as bravely answered. Gillea raised his wand, and the
+musicians began to play. Better than any one in the theater they knew
+their peril. They could look slantingly up and see that the 300 sets of
+the "Bluebeard" scenery all were ablaze. Their faces were white, their
+hands trembled, but they played, and played.</p>
+
+<p>Foy still stood there, alternately urging the frightened people to avoid a
+panic and spurring the orchestra on. One by one the musicians dropped
+fiddle, horn, and other instruments and stole away.</p>
+
+
+<p>&nbsp;</p>
+<p class="center">"CLOWN" PROVES A HERO.</p>
+
+<p>Finally the leader and Foy were left alone. Foy gave one glance upward and
+saw the scenery all aflame. Dropping brands fell around him, and then he
+fled&mdash;just in time to save his own life. The "clown" had proved himself a
+hero.</p>
+
+<p>The curtain started to come down. It stopped, it swayed as from a heavy
+wind, and then it "buckled" near the center.</p>
+
+
+<p>&nbsp;</p>
+<p class="center">ALL HOPE LOST FOR GALLERY.</p>
+
+<p>From that moment no power short of omnipotent could have saved the
+occupants of the upper gallery.</p>
+
+<p>The coolness of Foy, of the orchestra leader and of other players, who
+begged the audience to hold itself in check, however, probably saved many
+lives on the parquet floor. Tumultuous panic prevailed, but the maddest of
+it&mdash;save in the doomed gallery&mdash;was at the outskirts of the ground floor
+crowd.</p>
+
+
+
+<p>&nbsp;</p><p>&nbsp;</p>
+<hr style="width: 50%;" />
+<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_86" id="Page_86">[Pg 86]</a></span></p>
+<h2><a name="CHAPTER_V" id="CHAPTER_V"></a>CHAPTER V.</h2>
+<p class="title">EXCITING EXPERIENCES IN THE FIRE.</p>
+
+
+<p>"If you ever saw a field of timothy grass blown flat by the wind and rain
+of a summer storm, that was the position of the dead at the exits of the
+second balcony," said Chief of Police O'Neill.</p>
+
+<p>"In the rush for the stairs they had jammed in the doorway and piled ten
+deep; lying almost like shingles. When we got up the stairs in the dark to
+the front rows of the victims, some of them were alive and struggling, but
+so pinned down by the great weight of the dead and dying piled upon them
+that three strong men could not pull the unfortunate ones free.</p>
+
+<p>"It was necessary first to take the dead from the top of the pile, then
+the rest of the bodies were lifted easily and regularly from their
+positions, save as their arms had intertwined and clutched.</p>
+
+<p>"Nothing in my experience has ever approached the awfulness of the
+situation and it may be said that from the point of physical exertion, the
+police department has never been taxed as it has been taxed tonight. Men
+have been worn out simply with the carrying out of dead bodies, to say
+nothing of the awfulness of their burdens."</p>
+
+<p>The strong hand of the chief was called into play when the dead had been
+removed and when the theater management appeared at the exit of the second
+balcony, seeking to pass the<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_87" id="Page_87">[Pg 87]</a></span> uniformed police who guarded the heaps of
+sealskins, purses, and tangled valuables behind them. A spokesman for the
+management, backed up by a negro special policeman of the house, stood
+before the half dozen city police on guard, asking to be admitted that
+these valuables might be removed to the checkrooms of the theater.</p>
+
+<p>"But these things are the property of the coroner," replied the chief,
+coming up behind the delegation.</p>
+
+<p>"But the theater management wishes to make sure of the safety of these
+valuables," insisted the spokesman.</p>
+
+<p>"The department of police is responsible," replied Chief O'Neill.</p>
+
+
+<p>&nbsp;</p>
+<p class="center">EXPERIENCE OF CHICAGO UNIVERSITY MEN.</p>
+
+<p>Clyde A. Blair, captain of the University of Chicago track team, and
+Victor S. Rice, 615 Yale avenue, a member of the team, accompanied Miss
+Majorie Mason, 5733 Monroe avenue, and Miss Anne Hough, 361 East
+Fifty-eighth street, to the matinee. They were sitting in the middle of
+the seventh row from the rear of the first floor. When the first flames
+broke through from the stage Miss Mason became alarmed. Seizing the girl,
+and leaving his overcoat and hat, Blair dragged her through the crush
+toward the door, closely followed by Rice and Miss Hough.</p>
+
+<p>"The crush at the door," said Blair, "was terrific. Half of the double
+doors opening into the vestibule were fastened. People dashed against the
+glass, breaking it and forcing their way through. One woman fell down in
+the crowd directly in front of me. She looked up and said, 'For God's
+sake, don't trample on me.' I stepped around her, unable to help her up,
+and the crowd forced me past. I could not learn whether she was trampled
+over or not."</p>
+
+
+<p>&nbsp;<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_88" id="Page_88">[Pg 88]</a></span></p>
+<p class="center">BISHOP BRAVES DANGER IN HEROIC WORK OF RESCUE.</p>
+
+<p>"I was passing the theater when the panic began," said Bishop Samuel
+Fallows of the St. Paul's Reformed Episcopal church. "I heard the cry for
+volunteers and joined the men who went into the place to carry out the
+dead and injured. I had no idea of the extent of the disaster until I
+became actively engaged in the work.</p>
+
+<p>"The sight when I reached the balconies was pitiful beyond description. It
+grew in horror as I looked over the seats. The bodies were in piles. Women
+had their hands over their faces as if to shield off a blow. Children lay
+crushed beneath their parents, as if they had been hurled to the marble
+floors.</p>
+
+<p>"I saw the great battlefields of the civil war, but they were as nothing
+to this. When we began to take out the bodies we found that many of the
+audience had been unable to get even near the exits. Women were bent over
+the seats, their fingers clinched on the iron sides so strongly that they
+were torn and bleeding. Their faces and clothes were burned, and they must
+have suffered intensely.</p>
+
+<p>"I ministered to all I could and some of them seemed to welcome the
+presence of a clergyman as it were a gift from God. There appeared to be
+little system in the work of rescue, but that was due, I believe, to the
+intense excitement."</p>
+
+
+<p>&nbsp;</p>
+<p class="center">WOMEN AND FOUR CHILDREN SUFFER.</p>
+
+<p>Mrs. Anna B. Milliken, who is staying at Thompson's hotel, had four
+children in her charge, Felix, Jessie, Tony, and Jennie Guerrier, of 135
+North Sangamon street, their ages ranging from 11 to 17 years. She and her
+charges<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_89" id="Page_89">[Pg 89]</a></span> were in the balcony, standing against the wall, when the fire
+started.</p>
+
+<p>"Something told me to be calm," said Mrs. Milliken. "I had passed through
+one dreadful experience in the Chicago fire, and, though there was a great
+deal of confusion, I kept the children together, telling them not to be
+frightened. Men and women hurried past me, shouting like wild beasts, and
+if I had joined them the children and I would have been trampled under
+foot. It was minutes before I could leave with the two younger children.
+The two elder are lost. What shall I tell their folks," and the poor woman
+began to weep. Her face, as she stood in the lobby of the Northwestern
+building, was blistered and swollen. The back of her dress was burned
+through.</p>
+
+<p>"What are the names of the missing children?" inquired a physician. "They
+are in here," and he led the distracted woman into one of the "first aid
+hospitals." There Mrs. Milliken saw her two charges so swathed in bandages
+that they could not be recognized.</p>
+
+
+<p>&nbsp;</p>
+<p class="center">LEARNS CHILDREN HAVE ESCAPED.</p>
+
+<p>"I'm looking for two little girls&mdash;Berien is the name," shouted H. E.
+Osborne. "They live in Aurora."</p>
+
+<p>"They've been here," answered Mr. Weisman. "They are all right and have
+been sent to their home in Aurora."</p>
+
+<p>With a glad shout Osborne ran back to the office of the National Cash
+Register company, 50 State street, to inform Miss Mary Stevenson, whom the
+children had been visiting.</p>
+
+<p>The Berien children were among the first to reach the offices of the
+Hallwood company after the fire broke out. By some chance they had made
+their way out uninjured. The story of their plight touched a stranger, who
+took them to a<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_90" id="Page_90">[Pg 90]</a></span> railway station and bought them tickets to their home in
+Aurora. One was about 14 and the other about 9 years old.</p>
+
+
+<p>&nbsp;</p>
+<p class="center">FINDS HIS DAUGHTER.</p>
+
+<p>One young woman, terrified but uninjured, had found her way to this office
+and was sitting in a frightened stupor, when an elderly man hurried in
+from the street.</p>
+
+<p>"Have you seen&mdash;" he started to ask, and then, catching sight of the
+forlorn little figure, he stopped. With a glad cry, father and daughter
+rushed into each other's arms, and the father bore his child away. Their
+names were not learned.</p>
+
+<p>James Sullivan of Woodstock was probably the last man who got out of the
+parquet uninjured. With him was George Field, also of Woodstock, and the
+two fought their way out together.</p>
+
+
+<p>&nbsp;</p>
+<p class="center">MR. FIELD'S NARRATIVE.</p>
+
+<p>"We were seated in the twelfth row," said Mr. Field, "when we saw fire at
+the top of the proscenium arch. At the same time some sparks fell on the
+stage.</p>
+
+<p>"Eddie Foy came out and told the audience not to be afraid, to avoid a
+panic, and there would be no trouble. While he was speaking, however, a
+burning brand fell alongside of him, and then came what looked like a huge
+globe of fire. The moment it struck the stage fire spread everywhere.</p>
+
+<p>"The panic started at once and everybody rushed for the doors. Sullivan
+and I were in the rear of the fleeing mass and made our way out as best we
+could without getting mixed up in the panic. As long as the women and
+children were struggling through the straight aisles there was not so much
+trouble except that some of the fugitives fell to the floor and had to be
+helped on their feet again. At times the women<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_91" id="Page_91">[Pg 91]</a></span> and children would be
+lying four deep on the floor of the aisles, and in several instances we
+had to set them on their feet before we could go further. There was not
+much smoke and had the aisles been straight to the entrances every one
+could have got out practically unhurt.</p>
+
+<p>"But when it came to the turns where they focus into the lobby the poor
+women and children were piled up into indiscriminate heaps. The screams
+and cries they uttered were something terrible. It was an impossibility to
+allay the panic and the frightened people simply trampled on those in
+front of them.</p>
+
+<p>"Some of the people in the orchestra chairs immediately in front of the
+stage must have been burned by the fire. The fire darted directly among
+them and the chairs began burning at once. Those on this floor far enough
+in the rear to escape these flames would have been all right except for
+the crush of the panic.</p>
+
+<p>"Sullivan, who was with me, was the last man out of the orchestra chairs
+who was not injured. Whoever was behind us must have been suffocated or
+burned to death. How many there were I have no means of knowing."</p>
+
+
+<p>&nbsp;</p>
+<p class="center">NARROW ESCAPES OF YOUNG AND OLD.</p>
+
+<p>One of the narrow escapes in the first rush for the open air was that of
+Winnie Gallagher, 11 years old, 4925 Michigan avenue. The child, who was
+with her mother in the third row, was left behind in the rush for safety.
+She climbed to the top of the seat and, stepping from one chair to
+another, finally reached the door. There she was nearly crushed in the
+crowd. At the Central police station the child was restored to her mother.</p>
+
+<p>Miss Lila Hazel Coulter, of 4760 Champlain avenue, was<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_92" id="Page_92">[Pg 92]</a></span> sitting with Mr.
+Kenneth Collins and Miss Helen Dickinson, 3637 Michigan avenue, in the
+eighth row in the parquet. She escaped in safety.</p>
+
+<p>"I was sitting in the fifth seat from the aisle," said Miss Coulter, "but
+the fire, which was bursting out from both sides of the stage, had such a
+fascination for me."</p>
+
+<p>D. W. Dimmick, of Apple River, Ill., an old man of 70, with a long, white
+beard, was standing in the upper gallery when the fire broke out.</p>
+
+<p>"I was with a party of four," said Mr. Dimmick. "I saw small pieces of
+what looked like burning paper dropping down from above at the left of the
+curtain. At the same time small puffs of smoke seemed to shoot out into
+the house. A boy in the gallery near me called 'fire,' but there were
+plenty of people to stop him.</p>
+
+<p>"'Keep quiet!' I told him. 'If you don't look out, you'll start a panic.'</p>
+
+<p>"Then all of a sudden the whole front of the stage seemed to burst out in
+one mass of flame. Then everybody seemed to get up and start to get out of
+the place at once. From all over the house came shrieks and cries of
+'fire,' I started at once, hugging the wall on the outside of the stairway
+as we went down.</p>
+
+<p>"When we got down to the platform where the first balcony opens it seemed
+to me that people were stacked up like cordwood. There were men, women,
+and children in the lot. At the same time there were some people whom I
+thought must be actors, who came running out from somewhere in the
+interior of the house, and whose wigs and clothes were on fire. We tried
+to beat out the flames as we went along. By crowding out to the wall we
+managed to squeeze past the mass of people who were writhing on the floor,
+and practically<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_93" id="Page_93">[Pg 93]</a></span> blocking the entrance so far as the people still in the
+gallery were concerned.</p>
+
+
+<p>&nbsp;</p>
+<p class="center">PULLS WOMEN FROM MASS ON FLOOR.</p>
+
+<p>"As we got by the mass on the floor I turned and caught hold of the arms
+of a woman who was lying near the bottom pinned down by the weight resting
+on her feet. I managed to pull her out, and I think she got down in
+safety. One of the men with me also pulled out another woman from the
+heap. I tried to rescue a man who was also caught by the feet, but,
+although I braced myself against the stairs, I was unable to move him.</p>
+
+<p>"I came in from Apple River to see the sights in Chicago, and I have seen
+all I can stand."</p>
+
+<p>Six little girls from Evanston, in a party occupying seats in the parquet,
+escaped by the side entrance. In the crush they lost most of their
+clothing. Four of the children stayed together, the other two being for
+the time lost in the street. The four were Hannah Gregg, 12 years old,
+1038 Sheridan road; Florence and May Lang, 14 and 13 years old, Buena
+Park; Beatrice Moore, 12 years old, Buena Park.</p>
+
+
+
+<p>&nbsp;</p><p>&nbsp;</p>
+<hr style="width: 50%;" />
+<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_94" id="Page_94">[Pg 94]</a></span></p>
+<h2><a name="CHAPTER_VI" id="CHAPTER_VI"></a>CHAPTER VI.</h2>
+<p class="title">HEROES OF THE FIRE.</p>
+
+
+<p>One of the heroes of the Iroquois theater fire was Peter Quinn, chief
+special agent of the Atchison, Topeka &amp; Santa Fe railroad system, who
+assisted in saving the lives of 100 or more of the performers. But for the
+prompt service of Quinn and two citizens who assisted him it is believed
+that most of the performers would have met the fate of the victims in the
+theater proper.</p>
+
+<p>Mr. Quinn had attended a trial in the Criminal court and in the middle of
+the afternoon started for the downtown district, intending to proceed to
+his office. Reaching Randolph and Dearborn streets the railroad official
+had his attention attracted to a man who rushed from the theater
+bare-headed and without his coat. What followed Quinn describes as
+follows:</p>
+
+<p>"The actions of the man and the fact that he was without coat and hat
+attracted my attention and I watched him through curiosity. He ran so
+swiftly that he collided with several pedestrians, and I saw him rush
+toward a policeman on the street crossing. He said something to the
+policeman and then I saw the bluecoat rush excitedly away. My curiosity
+was then aroused to such an extent that I followed the young man who ran
+into the alley in the rear of the theater. He disappeared there and I was
+about to go on my way when my attention was attracted to the door leading
+upon the stage.</p>
+
+<p>"As I passed I heard a commotion and saw the door was<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_95" id="Page_95">[Pg 95]</a></span> slightly open, and,
+peeping into the opening, I asked what was the trouble. Then, for the
+first time, I learned that the theater was on fire. A number of strangers
+arrived at the door about the same time.</p>
+
+<p>"The players, men, women, and children, had rushed to this small trap-door
+for escape, got caught in a solid mass, and were so firmly wedged together
+that they could not move. They were banked solidly against the little
+door, and it could not be opened. Nearly all of the players were in their
+stage costumes.</p>
+
+<p>"The women screamed and begged us to rescue them, and the cries of the
+children could be heard above the hoarse shouts of the men. I did not
+realize it at that moment, but it develops that the players were in the
+same position as the unfortunates who met death in the front end of the
+house.</p>
+
+<p>"Had we been unable to get that trap-door open when we did every member of
+that struggling crowd of men, women and children, would have perished
+where they stood, too tightly wedged together to permit even a slight
+struggle against death.</p>
+
+<p>"Nobody at that time had the slightest idea of the serious state of
+affairs. We tried to force the door open, but the crowd was banked up too
+tightly against it. I shouted through the opening and commanded those in
+the rear to step back far enough to permit the door to be opened. It was
+like talking to empty space, however, and for a few moments we stood there
+helpless and without any means to assist those in distress.</p>
+
+<p>"Then came a volume of smoke, and far in the rear of the crowd we could
+see the illumination from the flames. I had a number of small tools in my
+pocket, and immediately proceeded to remove the metal attachments which
+held the door<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_96" id="Page_96">[Pg 96]</a></span> in place. This was accomplished with some difficulty, and
+then we managed to force the crowd back probably an inch, but that was
+sufficient. The door was then permitted to drop from its place, and one by
+one the imprisoned players were assisted into the alley.</p>
+
+<p>"They were then in scanty costumes, but were quickly assisted to places of
+shelter. Even when the last player and stage hand had reached the alley we
+could not realize the awfulness of what had happened. I walked in upon the
+stage and found it a seething furnace. The players had been rescued just
+in time. A minute later and the flames and smoke would have reached the
+imperiled ones, and they would have been suffocated or burned where they
+stood."</p>
+
+
+<p>&nbsp;</p>
+<p class="center">THE PILES OF DEAD IN THE GALLERY.</p>
+
+<p>William ("Smiling") Corbett was one of the first to penetrate the smoke
+and reach the balcony and gallery of the theater where the most fearful
+loss of life occurred. Charley Dexter, the Boston National league player,
+and Frank Houseman, the old Chicago second baseman, went to his
+assistance.</p>
+
+<p>Corbett was stopped by a fear-frenzied little woman, who begged him to
+save her two children.</p>
+
+<p>"They're up in the gallery," she cried.</p>
+
+<p>Corbett made a dash for the balcony entrance on the right.</p>
+
+<p>"Don't go up there," admonished some of the firemen about; "you'll get
+hemmed in."</p>
+
+<p>Corbett groped his way onward and upward, stumbling over bodies lying
+prostrate on the staircase, and finally reached the gallery entrance.</p>
+
+<p>"There they were," said Corbett afterward. "Positively the most sickening
+spectacle I ever saw. They were piled up in bunches, in all manner of
+disarray. I grabbed for the<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_97" id="Page_97">[Pg 97]</a></span> topmost body, a girl about 6 years old.
+Catching her by the wrist I felt the flesh curl up under my grasp. I
+hurried down with the little one, then back again, each time with the body
+of a child.</p>
+
+<p>"I then realized that no good could come of any further effort. Everybody
+was stark dead. I turned away and fled. I never again want to go near the
+place."</p>
+
+
+<p>&nbsp;</p>
+<p class="center">EDDIE FOY'S HEROISM.</p>
+
+<p>Eddie Foy, leading comedian in "Mr. Bluebeard," said:</p>
+
+<p>"I was in my dressing room, one tier up off the stage, when I smelled
+smoke. The 'Moonlight ballet' was on, and it was three minutes before the
+time for my entrance on the first scene of the second act.</p>
+
+<p>"I looked up and immediately over me, in the left first entrance, I saw
+sparks and a small cloud of smoke. The members of the company and of the
+chorus had already started off the stage. My eldest boy, Bryan, was
+standing under the light bridge in the first entrance, and, taking him by
+the hand, I turned him over to one of the stage hands with orders to get
+him out of the theater. In less time than it takes to tell it, the little
+wreath of smoke and the tiny sparks had grown in volume. The smoke and
+some of the sparks had already made their way into the main part of the
+house, curling down and around the lower edge of the proscenium arch.</p>
+
+<p>"I looked at the house through an opening, and that was enough. I tried to
+appear as calm as possible under the conditions, realizing what a stampede
+would mean. Just what I said I cannot for the life of me now recall. In
+effect, though, this is about it:</p>
+
+<p>"'Ladies and gentlemen, there is no danger. Don't get excited. Walk out
+calmly.'</p>
+
+<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_98" id="Page_98">[Pg 98]</a></span>"Between each breath, and these were coming in short, sharp gasps, I kept
+yelling out from the corner of my lips: 'Lower that iron curtain; drop the
+fire curtain!'</p>
+
+<p>"The balcony and gallery were packed with women and children, and fully
+aware of what was in store for these hapless ones, my heart sank.</p>
+
+<p>"The cracking of the timbers above increased. The smoke was growing more
+dense. I knew the material aloft&mdash;flimsy, dry linens, parched canvas, and
+paint-coated tapestries and drops.</p>
+
+<p>"Without raising my voice to a pitch calculated to alarm, and yet
+unmistakably urgent in its appeal, I repeated: 'Get out&mdash;get out slowly.'</p>
+
+<p>"The northeast corner of the fly gallery was now a furnace. Just as I made
+the last appeal to the balcony and the gallery a fiercely blazing ember
+dropped at my feet. Another, a smaller one, was caught in the draft and
+forced out into the theater proper.</p>
+
+<p>"'Drop the fire curtain,' I shouted again, looking in vain for it to come
+down. I know that not a soul in the theater proper would be in danger if
+this was done. The switchboard was there&mdash;but no one to work it. I cried
+out for Carleton, our stage manager. He was gone. I called for 'Pete,' one
+of the electricians. He, too, was gone.</p>
+
+<p>"'Does any one know how this iron curtain is worked?' I yelled at the mob
+of fleeing stage hands, members of the company, property men, and
+musicians. Not an answer.</p>
+
+<p>"At the first sign of danger, after reaching the footlights, I said to
+Dillea, our orchestra leader:</p>
+
+<p>"'An overture, Herbert, an overture.'</p>
+
+<p>"Dillea&mdash;God bless him, his ranks already thinning out in the orchestra
+pit&mdash;struck up the 'Sleeping Beauty and the<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_99" id="Page_99">[Pg 99]</a></span> Beast' overture. Of the
+thirty odd musicians in the pit not over half a dozen remained to follow
+Dillea and his baton. But the little fellow, ashen pale, his eyes glued on
+the raging mass of flame above, never whimpered. He kept right on, and
+only left his post when the flames drove him away from his leader's stand.
+When Dillea disappeared down the opening in the orchestra pit half of the
+lower floor had been emptied. This I noticed only in an aside, for my eyes
+were fastened on the sea of agonized, distracted little ones in the
+balcony and gallery."</p>
+
+
+<p>&nbsp;</p>
+<p class="center">AN ELEVATOR BOY HERO.</p>
+
+<p>The bottom of the elevator shaft in the doomed theater was a scene of
+pandemonium when the stage hands tried to get the girls out. Archie
+Barnard headed the chain gang and behind him were J. R. O'Mally, Arthur
+Hart and William Price. As soon as the women reached the floor they began
+to run wild, and had to be caught and tossed from one man to another. The
+women in the first tier of dressing rooms were the first down and they
+were helped out without much trouble.</p>
+
+<p>On his second trip up with the elevator young Robert Smith ascended into
+an atmosphere that was so thick with smoke that he could not see or
+breathe. He found one of the girls on the sixth floor and then took on
+another load from the fifth. By the time he had come down with these, the
+flames and smoke were threatening the men in the chain. The clothing of
+Barnard and William Price was on fire and their hair was burning.
+Nevertheless they threw the girls out and waited for the third load.</p>
+
+<p>This load came near not arriving. The smoke was so thick that Smith had to
+find the girls and drag them into the <span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_100" id="Page_100">[Pg 100]</a></span>elevator and by the time he had
+done this he was almost overcome. The elevator was burning at the place
+where the controller was located, and Smith had to place his left hand in
+the flame to start the car. The hand was badly burned, but the car was
+started and came down in time for the girls to receive assistance from the
+men who were waiting. When the last girl was out the men left the
+building.</p>
+
+<p>Up in the gridiron, where the smoke was thickest, the four German boys who
+worked the aerial apparatus were caught, fully sixty feet from the stage
+floor, and no one had time to come to their assistance or to pay any
+attention to them, because there were too many other people to be saved.</p>
+
+<p>At first, they did not know what to do. As the smoke became thicker and
+the heat more intense they moved to get out. One of them, who was some
+distance from his companions, was caught in the flames of one of the
+burning pieces of draperies, and either because he lost his presence of
+mind or because he could not hold out any longer, he jumped. Some of the
+people on the stage floor heard him fall, but he did not move and no one
+could help him. He could not be found after the other people escaped from
+the stage. His three companions climbed over the gridiron scaffolding and
+made their way down the stairway to safety.</p>
+
+<p>"I heard the little fellow fall," said Arthur Hart, "and that is the last
+I knew of him. It was a long jump, and I presume that he was badly
+injured."</p>
+
+<p>"I stuck to the car until the ropes parted," said young Smith, the
+elevator boy, "and then I began to get faint. Someone reached in and
+pulled me out just in time to save my life. The larger part of the girls
+were in the dressing rooms when the fire broke out, and they all tried to
+get out at once. A<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_101" id="Page_101">[Pg 101]</a></span> great many tried to crowd into the elevator and it was
+hard work to keep it going. I made as many trips as I could."</p>
+
+
+<p>&nbsp;</p>
+<p class="center">TWO BALCONY HEROES.</p>
+
+<p>A man who gave his name as Chester, with his wife and two daughters, was a
+hero who escaped without letting the police know who he was. This man was
+in the lower balcony of the theater and in the panic he succeeded in
+reaching the fire escape with his children and wife. After getting on the
+fire escape, the flames swept up and set the clothing of his wife and
+girls on fire. Burned himself, he fought the flame and then realizing that
+delay meant certain death he dropped the children to the ground, a
+distance of ten feet, and then dropped his wife. Then he leaped himself.</p>
+
+<p>W. G. Smith of the Chicago Teaming Company, 37 Dearborn street, saw them
+jumping and with some of his men he picked them up and carried them into
+his store. This was before the fire department arrived.</p>
+
+<p>When all had been taken in Smith rushed back into the alley to find the
+lower fire escape filled with screaming, struggling women. All were
+hatless and their faces were scorched by the intense heat. He shouted to
+them to wait a moment, as the firemen were coming, but one woman leaped as
+he spoke. She too was taken into Smith's store and all his patients were
+taken later to nearby hotels, where their injuries were attended to.</p>
+
+<p>After Smith left the alley Morris Eckstrom, assistant engineer, and M. J.
+Tierney, engineer of the university building, ran to the rescue of the
+women on the fire escape. The firemen had not yet arrived, and the screams
+of the women with the flames creeping upon them were frightful to hear.</p>
+
+<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_102" id="Page_102">[Pg 102]</a></span>"Jump one by one," shouted Eckstrom, "and we'll catch you."</p>
+
+<p>Tierney grabbed a long blanket from the engine room, and the women,
+realizing it was their only chance, leaped into it. In some cases they
+were injured, but none was seriously hurt.</p>
+
+<p>"I know we caught twenty women that way, before the flames got so terrific
+that none of them could reach the fire escape," said Eckstrom. "I saw a
+dozen women and children and some men, through the open door to the fire
+escape, fall back into the flames."</p>
+
+
+<p>&nbsp;</p>
+<p class="center">THE MUSICAL DIRECTOR'S STORY.</p>
+
+<p>Musical Director Herbert Dillea of the "Mr. Bluebeard" company, who was
+one of the first of the members of the orchestra to see the fire, had
+several narrow escapes from death while he endeavored to rescue four of
+the chorus girls who had fainted in the passageway which leads from the
+armor-room to the front smoking apartment.</p>
+
+<p>Dillea was nearly overcome by the thick smoke which filled the areaway,
+but, with the assistance of some of the stage employes, he succeeded in
+carrying the unconscious actresses to the street. The young women, upon
+reaching the fresh air, soon revived, and they were taken care of in
+stores until they got their street clothing.</p>
+
+<p>Dillea said that several other members of the orchestra vainly endeavored
+to persuade some of the audience who were occupying front seats to enter
+the passageway, but no attention was paid to them.</p>
+
+<p>In describing his experiences Dillea said:</p>
+
+<p>"It was during the second verse of the 'Pale Moonlight' song that I
+suddenly saw a red light to my left in the proscenium arch. The moment I
+saw the red glare I knew there<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_103" id="Page_103">[Pg 103]</a></span> was a fire, and in whispers I ordered the
+other members of the orchestra to play as fast as they could, as I thought
+the asbestos would be lowered. We had hardly begun to play when the
+asbestos started to come down, but right in the middle it stopped, and it
+remained so.</p>
+
+<p>"By this time the chorus girls were shrieking with terror, as the fire
+brands were falling among them on the stage. As soon as the audience saw
+the fire brands they began to arise, but Eddie Foy ran out and begged them
+to remain quiet, assuring them that there was no danger. The audience paid
+no attention to him and the panic followed. Then I thought it was time to
+make our escape, and I turned to the orchestra men and told them to follow
+me to the passageway. While I was running through the areaway I shouted to
+the actresses. They ran from their rooms, and four of them fainted. It was
+only with the greatest difficulty they were carried out."</p>
+
+
+<p>&nbsp;</p>
+<p class="center">CHILD SAVES HIS BROTHER.</p>
+
+<p>Willie Dee, the 12-year-old son of Mr. and Mrs. W. E. Dee, who lost two
+children in the fire, by a presence of mind and bravery that would have
+been commendable in a person of mature years saved himself and a smaller
+brother not 7 years old.</p>
+
+<p>The four children of Mr. and Mrs. Dee attended the theater on the fatal
+afternoon in company with their nurse, Mrs. G. H. Errett. Besides Willie,
+the oldest of the children, there were two twin boys, Allerton and Edward,
+between 6 and 7 years of age, and the baby 2&#189; years old. Willie was one
+of the first to notice the fire and called to the nurse to go out. The
+nurse did not grasp the situation, thinking the flames a part of the act,
+and hesitated. Noticing her hesitation, Willie seized the nearest one of
+the children, Allerton and pulled the<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_104" id="Page_104">[Pg 104]</a></span> smaller boy with him down the
+stairs from the first balcony in which the party was seated. The two boys
+were unable to move fast enough to keep ahead of the crowd, although they
+were the first ones out. They were overtaken and both of them shoved
+through the doors in front, where they became separated. Willie thought
+his little brother lost and went home without him. The smaller boy was
+later picked up and taken into Thompson's restaurant, from which place he
+was taken home, practically uninjured.</p>
+
+<p>The other twin, Edward, was killed where he sat. The nurse and baby
+succeeded in reaching the first landing, where they were trampled
+underfoot. A fireman took the baby from the nurse's arms and placed it in
+charge of Dr. Bridge. The doctor succeeded in resuscitating it and took it
+to his home at Forty-ninth street and Cottage Grove avenue, where it died
+early the following morning.</p>
+
+
+
+<p>&nbsp;</p><p>&nbsp;</p>
+<hr style="width: 50%;" />
+<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_105" id="Page_105">[Pg 105]</a></span></p>
+<h2><a name="CHAPTER_VII" id="CHAPTER_VII"></a>CHAPTER VII.</h2>
+<p class="title">THE ORIGIN OF THE FIRE&mdash;THE ASBESTOS CURTAIN AND THE LIGHTS.</p>
+
+
+<p>The real story of the origin of the fire was told by William McMullen,
+assistant electrician. He said: "The spot light was completely
+extinguished at the time of the fire. I am positive of this, because I was
+working on it. Three feet above my head was the flood light. I noticed the
+curtain swaying directly above it and suddenly a spark shot up and it was
+ablaze in a second."</p>
+
+<p>McMullen called the attention of his assistant to the flame.</p>
+
+<p>"Put the fire out," he said.</p>
+
+<p>"All right," said the other man, reaching down, using his hands to put out
+the small flame.</p>
+
+<p>"Put it out! Put it out!" shouted McMullen.</p>
+
+<p>"I am! I am!" said the other, clapping the flimsy stuff between his hands.</p>
+
+<p>Some of the stage hands at this moment noticed the fire.</p>
+
+<p>"Look at that fire!" these called out. "Can't you see that you're on fire
+up there! Put it out!"</p>
+
+<p>"D&mdash;&mdash; it, I am trying to," said the man who was clapping away at the
+burning paint impregnated muslin.</p>
+
+<p>Then a flame a foot high shot up and caught the draperies above those on
+fire.</p>
+
+<p>"Look at that other one. It's on fire," some one on the stage yelled.</p>
+
+<p>"Put it out!" shouted another.</p>
+
+<p>"All right," said the man on the perch. But he did not<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_106" id="Page_106">[Pg 106]</a></span> clap hard enough
+or fast enough, and in ten seconds the flames were beyond his reach.</p>
+
+<p>It was after these hand clapping attempts to extinguish the fire had
+proved futile that McMullen shouted a call for the asbestos curtain to be
+put down.</p>
+
+<p>"I did not see the curtain move."</p>
+
+
+<p>&nbsp;</p>
+<p class="center">ANOTHER ACCOUNT OF THE FIRE'S ORIGIN.</p>
+
+<p>W. H. Aldridge, who was employed to operate one of the so-called calcium
+lights, told how the fire started.</p>
+
+<p>"I was about twenty feet above the lights which were being used, having
+left my place to watch the performance," he said. "While I was looking
+down on the performers I noticed a flash of light where the electric wires
+connect with the calcium light. The flash seemed to be about six inches
+long. As I looked a curtain swayed against the flame. In a moment the
+loose edges of the canvas were in a blaze, which rapidly ran up the edge
+of the canvas and across its upper end.</p>
+
+<p>"A man named McNulty was in charge of the light. Whether he accidentally
+broke the wire and caused the flash I do not know. The light was about
+twenty feet from the floor. It consisted of a 'spot' light, used to follow
+the principal performer, and a 'flood' light, which was used to produce
+the moonlight effect."</p>
+
+
+<p>&nbsp;</p>
+<p class="center">WERE ELECTRIC LIGHTS TURNED OUT?</p>
+
+<p>James B. Quinn, general manager of the Standard Meter company, who was
+present throughout the panic, said on this point: "Had the electrician who
+had charge of the switches for the foyer lights remained at his post long
+enough to have turned on the lights in the foyer there would not have been
+one-half the loss of life in the foyer and balcony stairs. When<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_107" id="Page_107">[Pg 107]</a></span> that
+awful darkness fell on the house the frenzied people did not know where to
+turn. They had not become fully acquainted with the turns because the
+theater was new. I was there and assisted in removing the dead and dying,
+and having been connected with lighting plants all my life I know what I
+am talking about. We did not have an electric light turned on for two
+hours after the fire. It was too late then. True, we had lanterns, but
+they were inadequate and would not have been needed had the electrician or
+his assistant done their duty. When the lights were turned on it was done
+by outside electricians."</p>
+
+
+<p>&nbsp;</p>
+<p class="center">STATEMENT OF MESSRS. DAVIS AND POWERS, MANAGERS OF THE THEATER.</p>
+
+<p>When the fire broke out Manager Will J. Davis of the Iroquois was
+attending a funeral. A telephone message was quietly whispered to him and,
+after hesitating a moment, Davis unostentatiously slipped on his overcoat
+and left the place.</p>
+
+<p>Mr. Davis and Harry J. Powers later stated as follows:</p>
+
+<p>"So far as we have been able to ascertain the cause or causes of the most
+unfortunate accident of the fire in the Iroquois, it appears that one of
+the scenic draperies was noticed to have ignited from some cause. It was
+detected before it had reached an appreciable flame, and the city fireman
+who is detailed and constantly on duty when the theater is open noticed it
+simultaneously with the electrician.</p>
+
+<p>"The fireman, who was only a few feet away, immediately pulled a tube of
+kilfire, of which there were many hung about the stage, and threw the
+contents upon the blaze, which would have been more than enough, if the
+kilfire had been effective, to have extinguished the flame at once; but
+for some cause<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_108" id="Page_108">[Pg 108]</a></span> inherent in the tube of kilfire it had no effect. The
+fireman and electrician then ordered down the asbestos curtain, and the
+fireman threw the contents of another tube of kilfire upon the flame, with
+no better result.</p>
+
+<p>"The commotion thus caused excited the alarm of the audience, which
+immediately started for the exits, of which there are twenty-five of
+unusual width, all opening out, and ready to the hand of any one reaching
+them. The draft thus caused, it is believed, before the curtain could be
+entirely lowered, produced a bellying of the asbestos curtain, causing a
+pressure on the guides against the solid brick wall of the proscenium,
+thus stopping its descent.</p>
+
+<p>"Every effort was made by those on the stage to pull it down, but the
+draft was so great, it seems, that the pressure against the proscenium
+wall and the friction caused thereby was so strong that they could not be
+overcome. The audience became panic-stricken in their efforts to reach the
+exits and tripped and fell over each other and blocked the way.</p>
+
+<p>"The audience was promptly admonished and importuned by persons employed
+on the stage and in the auditorium to be calm and avoid any rush; that the
+exits and facilities for emptying the theater were ample to enable them
+all to get out without confusion.</p>
+
+<p>"No expense or precaution was omitted to make the theater as fireproof as
+it could be made, there being nothing combustible in the construction of
+the house except the trimmings and furnishings of the stage and
+auditorium. In the building of the theater we sacrificed more space to
+aisles and exits than any theater in America."</p>
+
+
+<p>&nbsp;<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_109" id="Page_109">[Pg 109]</a></span></p>
+<p class="center">FIRST RELIABLE STATEMENT AS TO WHY THE CURTAIN DID NOT COME DOWN.</p>
+
+<p>The man who gave the first reliable explanation of the failure of the
+"asbestos" curtain to operate properly was John C. Massoney, a carpenter,
+who was working as a scene shifter.</p>
+
+<p>"The reflector was constructed of galvanized iron or some similar
+material, with a concave surface covered with quicksilver about two feet
+in width," he said.</p>
+
+<p>"The reflector was twenty feet long and was set on end. The inner edge was
+attached to the stage side of the jamb of the proscenium walls with
+hinges. Along the inner edge, next the hinges, was a row of incandescent
+electric lamps.</p>
+
+<p>"When the reflector was not in use it was set back in a niche in the
+proscenium wall, and the curtain, when lowered, passed over it. When used
+it was swung around to the desired position, and projected from the wall.
+When the reflector was in use it prevented the curtain being lowered."</p>
+
+<p>"I have not ascertained whether the reflector was in use. The one on the
+south side of the stage was not, and from this I infer that the one on the
+north was not being used. If it was not in use, then somebody must have
+been careless."</p>
+
+<p>Massoney said he was on the south side of the stage when the fire started.</p>
+
+<p>"I did not see the fire start, but I saw it soon after it began," he said.
+"The fire was in the arch drapery curtain, which is the fourth curtain
+back of the 'asbestos' curtain. I saw the 'asbestos' curtain coming down
+soon after, but I noticed that the south end was very much lower than the
+north end. The south end was within four or five feet of the stage floor,
+while the north end was much higher.</p>
+
+<p>"I ran round to the north side and up the stairs to the north<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_110" id="Page_110">[Pg 110]</a></span> bridge. I
+found the north end of the curtain was resting on the reflector. I tried
+to reach the curtain to push it off the reflector, but could just touch
+it. I could not get hold of it. I am 5 feet 11 inches tall, and I can
+reach a foot above my head at least, so I figure that the north end of the
+curtain was nineteen or twenty feet from the floor.</p>
+
+<p>"When I first reached the bridge sparks were flying in one little place
+near me, but before I got down I saw a great sheet of circular flame going
+out under the curtain into the audience room. I stayed on the bridge as
+long as I could trying to move the curtain. I half fell down the stairs of
+the bridge and got out as fast as I could."</p>
+
+<p>"Why didn't you call some one to help you?"</p>
+
+<p>"There was no one on the bridge when I got there and no one on duty, that
+I could see, on the north side of the stage."</p>
+
+<p>"Was the reflector in use?"</p>
+
+<p>"I do not know."</p>
+
+<p>"Whose duty was it to look after the reflector?"</p>
+
+<p>"I do not know."</p>
+
+<p>"Did the curtain blow to pieces?"</p>
+
+<p>"It seemed all right. There was no hole in it that I saw."</p>
+
+
+<p>&nbsp;</p>
+<p class="center">ANOTHER STORY AS TO WHY THE CURTAIN DID NOT LOWER.</p>
+
+<p>Joe Dougherty, the man who attempted to lower the asbestos curtain, says
+that the reason it stuck and would not come down was that it stuck on the
+arc spot light in the first entrance near the top of the proscenium arch.
+He was the last man to leave the fly loft and at the time he attempted to
+lower the asbestos curtain he was twenty feet or more above it, so that
+when it caught on the arc spot light he was unable to extricate it. The
+opening of the big double doors<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_111" id="Page_111">[Pg 111]</a></span> at the rear of the stage, he says, caused
+such a draft that the curtain could not be raised again to free it from
+the obstruction.</p>
+
+<p>Dougherty denies that the wire used by the flying ballet had anything to
+do with the obstruction of the curtain. The regular curtain was within a
+few inches of the asbestos sheet and had been operated a few minutes
+before the fire occurred. If one curtain worked the other would if the
+flying ballet rigging was not in the way.</p>
+
+
+<p>&nbsp;</p>
+<p class="center">THE THEATER FIREMAN'S NARRATIVE.</p>
+
+<p>W. C. Saller was the fireman employed by the theater managers to look
+after fire protection. He was formerly connected with the city fire
+department.</p>
+
+<p>"I was on the floor of the stage about twenty feet from the light," he
+said. "The base of the light was on a bridge fifteen feet from the floor.
+The light was about five feet high and was within a foot and a half or two
+feet of the edge of the proscenium arch and close to the curtains. I saw
+the flame running up the edge of the curtain and ran to the bridge. I
+threw kilfire on the burning curtain but saw it did not stop the blaze and
+yelled to those below to lower the asbestos curtain. When the curtain was
+within fifteen feet of the stage floor the draft caused it to bulge out
+and stick fast. It was impossible to lower the curtain further, and after
+that nothing could be done to stop the fire.</p>
+
+<p>"In my opinion the draft was caused by the doors opening off the stage
+into the alley and Dearborn street. There were no explosions except the
+blowing out of fuses in the electric lighting system."</p>
+
+<p>Saller was severely burned about the hands and face.</p>
+
+
+<p>&nbsp;<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_112" id="Page_112">[Pg 112]</a></span></p>
+<p class="center">THE STAGE CARPENTER.</p>
+
+<p>Edward Cummings, stage carpenter, and his son, R. N. Cummings, his
+assistant, of 1116 California avenue, testified that the fire started in
+the curtains at the south end of the stage. Both asserted that the draft
+or suction caused the asbestos curtain to stick. They said the fire spread
+with remarkable rapidity among the curtains, which were about two feet
+apart, and when the asbestos curtain stopped they said that no human
+agency could have prevented the disaster that followed.</p>
+
+
+<p>&nbsp;</p>
+<p class="center">THE CHIEF ELECTRICAL INSPECTOR'S TALE.</p>
+
+<p>Chief Electrical Inspector H. H. Hornsby of the city electrician's
+department declared the electric wires in the theater were in the best
+condition of any building in Chicago.</p>
+
+<p>"The wire leading to the calcium arc light might have been broken or
+detached," he said. "It requires no volts of electricity to operate one of
+those lights. The man operating the light may have got his legs or arms
+entangled in the wires and broken one of them at the point of connection
+or he may have pulled the light too far and broken or detached the wire.
+The arc created would have produced intense heat and readily ignited the
+inflammable curtain. If the light had not been set so close to the scenery
+the curtain could not have blown into the arc.</p>
+
+<p>"While the theater was being wired Inspector B. H. Tousley made
+twenty-five or thirty inspections. Though the ordinance requires only such
+wires as are concealed to be placed in iron conduits, in the Iroquois all
+wires were put in iron tubes. The switchboard was of marble, with the
+connecting wires behind it in iron conduits. The management seemed
+desirous of making the electric system the best possible and adopted every
+suggestion we offered to improve its safety. I<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_113" id="Page_113">[Pg 113]</a></span> am satisfied there was not
+a better job in Chicago. I do not believe it could have been made safer.</p>
+
+<p>"It is impossible to guard against a wire being broken. The wire leading
+from the switchboard could not be inclosed in an iron conduit. It had to
+be flexible to permit the light being moved around. The arc light was
+encased in a closed box to prevent sparks falling on the floor or being
+blown into the scenery. All the fusible plugs were in cartridges to
+prevent sparks from falling if the plugs burned out. Every precaution we
+could think of was taken to make the system absolutely safe."</p>
+
+
+<p>&nbsp;</p>
+<p class="center">ONE OF THE COMEDIANS SPEAKS.</p>
+
+<p>Herbert Cawthorn, the Irish comedian, who took the part of Pat Shaw in
+"Mr. Bluebeard," assisted many of the chorus girls from the stage exits in
+the panic. After being driven from the building he made two attempts to
+enter his dressing room, but was driven back by the firemen, who feared
+lest he be overcome by the dense smoke.</p>
+
+<p>With several others of the leading actors in the play Mr. Cawthorn took
+refuge in a store on Dearborn street after the fire. He was still in his
+abbreviated stage costume and was suffering considerably from the cold.</p>
+
+<p>He gave a graphic description of the origin of the fire and of the panic
+among the stage hands and actors. He described the scene as follows:</p>
+
+<p>"I was in a position to see the origin of the fire plainly, and I feel
+positive that it was an electric calcium light that started the fire. The
+calcium lights were being used to illuminate the stage in the latter part
+of the second act, when the song, 'In the Pale Moonlight,' was being sung.</p>
+
+<p>"I was standing behind a wing on the lefthand side, which<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_114" id="Page_114">[Pg 114]</a></span> would be the
+righthand side to the audience, when my attention was attracted above by a
+peculiar sputtering of what seemed to me to be one of the calciums. It
+appears to me that one of the calciums had flared up and the sparks
+ignited the lint on the curtain. Instantly I turned my attention toward
+the stage and saw that many of the actors and actresses had not yet
+discovered the blaze.</p>
+
+<p>"Just then the fireman who is kept behind the scenes rushed up with some
+kind of a patent fire extinguisher. Instead of the stream from the
+apparatus striking the flames it went almost in the opposite direction.
+While the stage fireman was working the flames suddenly swooped down and
+out. Eddie Foy shouted something about the asbestos curtain, and the
+firemen attempted to use it and the stage hands ran to his assistance.</p>
+
+<p>"The asbestos curtain refused to work, and the stage hands and players
+began to hurry from the theater. There was at least 500 people behind the
+scenes when the fire started. I assisted many of the chorus girls to get
+out, and some of them were only partly attired. Two of the young women in
+particular were naked from their waists up. They had absolutely no time to
+even snatch a bit of clothing to throw over their shoulders."</p>
+
+
+<p>&nbsp;</p>
+<p class="center">ABOUT THE LIGHTS.</p>
+
+<p>A dozen different stories from a dozen different people were told about
+the extinguishment of the electric lights. Assistant City Electrician
+Hyland, who was the acting head of the city's department during the
+absence of City Electrician Ellicott, stated:</p>
+
+<p>"The switchboard controlling the electric lighting apparatus is located
+under the place where the fire started at the left<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_115" id="Page_115">[Pg 115]</a></span> side of the stage. It
+was made of metal and marble and practically indestructible. The wires
+were led into the switchboard through iron tubes, and those tubes and
+wires are there yet. I visited the theater after the fire and turned on
+five sets of lights. Those five were in working order, but I think they
+controlled the lights into the foyer and halls. The lights in the theater
+were burned out. That I know, because when I paid my first visit to the
+switchboard I found the switch affecting the lights in the auditorium
+turned on. The terrific heat in the theater when the fire was sweeping
+across it must have burst the glass bulbs and may have melted the wires
+leading into the lights in the auditorium. How many minutes it took to
+explode these incandescent lights and melt the wires running to them
+depends entirely upon the length of time it took the theater to turn into
+a furnace.</p>
+
+<p>"I have been told that a moonlight scene was on the stage just before the
+fire broke out. In such a scene it would be customary to turn off most if
+not all of the lights in the auditorium, so as to darken the place where
+the audience was and concentrate upon the stage what little light was
+used. Yet, the way I found the switchboard, with the circuit leading to
+the auditorium turned on, the knob melted off and the condition of the
+board showing that it could not have been tampered with since the fire,
+convinces me that the lights must have been on when the fire broke out, or
+else they were turned on after the first flames were discovered. It is
+hard to discover the facts even from people who were in the theater at the
+time it was burned. Almost every one tells a different story."</p>
+
+
+
+<p>&nbsp;</p><p>&nbsp;</p>
+<hr style="width: 50%;" />
+<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_116" id="Page_116">[Pg 116]</a></span></p>
+<h2><a name="CHAPTER_VIII" id="CHAPTER_VIII"></a>CHAPTER VIII.</h2>
+<p class="title">SUGGESTIONS OF ARCHITECTS AND OTHER EXPERTS AS TO AVOIDING LIKE CALAMITIES.</p>
+
+
+<p>Robert S. Lindstrom, a well known Chicago architect, makes the following
+suggestions: "It is earnestly requested that the following suggestions be
+published for the benefit and warning of patrons of public places, also as
+an aid to city officials, architects and builders, as a possible means of
+averting another horror such as has been witnessed in the Iroquois theater
+fire.</p>
+
+<p>"Every theater in Chicago is virtually a death trap set for patrons even
+under ordinary conditions. Barring fires and panics, the playhouses are
+not amply provided with exits, and are unsafe on account of overcrowding.
+Thereby each person attending a performance in any of Chicago's theaters
+does so at a risk of his own life. This also applies to all halls that are
+hurriedly arranged for public meetings and especially during the election
+campaign work and convention gatherings.</p>
+
+<p>"A theater may be absolutely fire-proof, but when the seating capacity of
+the house has been overcrowded by reducing sizes of stairs, aisles and
+exits the building is really worse than a non-fire-proof building, for in
+the latter the smoke would have a chance to escape.</p>
+
+<p>"The following suggestions will partially avert such a horror as has been
+witnessed at the Iroquois, which was advertised as the safest fire-proof
+theater in Chicago:</p>
+
+<p>"All seats throughout the house should be placed far enough apart from
+back to back so that an open passageway running<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_117" id="Page_117">[Pg 117]</a></span> from aisle to aisle shall
+be large enough to allow a person to get out without disturbing all the
+people seated in the section. In the Iroquois the seats in the gallery are
+so closely spaced from back to back that one cannot sit in a comfortable
+position at any time. All seats should be made of iron framework, with
+seats fixed so that danger of catching clothing on upturned edges may be
+averted, which in the present theater seats causes very much delay in a
+rush. The upholstering should be done with asbestos wool and all covering
+done with asbestos fire-resisting cloth.</p>
+
+<p>"An aisle should be left between the orchestra and the front row of seats.
+Main aisles should be made so that they connect with the aisle in front,
+also the aisle in rear, without any obstructions, and an exit door placed
+at end of each aisle leading directly to the vestibule. The present system
+is one large door at the center so that people from the side aisles
+collide with those from the center aisles and no one can get out. It is
+also very important that the door opening, with doors open, is a trifle
+larger than the aisle; all seats that face on aisles to be plain to
+prevent clothing from catching on same.</p>
+
+<p>"Carpets should be prohibited in all halls and aisles and replaced by
+interlocking rubber tile or some similar covering to prevent slipping in a
+rush.</p>
+
+<p>"All steps should have safety treads, composed of steel and lead, in place
+of slate or marble, which becomes slippery and dangerous. Stairs to be
+straight without winds or turns and at every ten feet from the sidewalk
+there should be a landing twice as long as the width of the stairs and
+doors at the foot of the stairs should be a trifle larger than the stair
+opening.</p>
+
+<p>"All balconies and galleries above the first floor should have a metal
+hand rail back of each row of seats securely fastened to the floor
+construction.</p>
+
+<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_118" id="Page_118">[Pg 118]</a></span>"Doors should swing out; in addition to door handle threshold to have an
+automatic opening device so as to throw doors open in case of fire or
+accident. Also at each fire exit there should be in view of the audience a
+box containing saw and tools and plainly marked for use in case of fire,
+providing locks on doors fail to work. In addition an attendant should be
+placed at each fire exit and remain there until the house is vacated
+during every performance.</p>
+
+<p>"Fire escapes should be made of regular stair pattern with treads eleven
+inches and rises seven inches, and treads provided with steel and lead
+composition covering and risers closed.</p>
+
+<p>"Instead of sloping the ceiling toward the stage it should be made level
+with a cone shape toward the center and there connect with a down draft
+ventilator and an emergency damper controlled by a three-way switch from
+stage, box office and each balcony, made large enough to form a smoke flue
+in case of fire. Wires controlling this ventilator should run in conduit
+fireproofed and in addition to switch an electric emergency switch
+weighted with a fused link to make a contact when link breaks. Same to
+apply to stage, halls and stairways, except that fireproof ducts will
+connect halls and stairs with outer air. In addition to the ventilator
+every part of the house should be equipped with a system of sprinklers
+operated automatically by a gravity system. A large glass chandelier such
+as used at the Iroquois should be prohibited.</p>
+
+<p>"Emergency lights in case of fire and accidents during the performance to
+light up the house should be placed on ceiling of main auditorium,
+balconies, halls and stairs and built of fire-proof boxes with wired
+plate-glass face. These lights should be operated on a separate system and
+run in fireproof<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_119" id="Page_119">[Pg 119]</a></span> conduits, and controlled from the street front, also to
+have a fusible weighted switch on stage.</p>
+
+<p>"Fire doors should be constructed of steel with wired plate-glass panels
+so that fire can be prevented from outside sources, but if in case of
+accident the lock should fail to work from the inside, the glass panel can
+be broken with tools that should be placed in reach and plainly marked.</p>
+
+<p>"Calcium lights should be prohibited anywhere in the auditorium. The place
+is generally on the gallery. In the Iroquois the scenic lights were placed
+at the extreme top of the upper gallery, with a supporting framework that
+rested on the aisle floor and obstructed aisle to audience.</p>
+
+<p>"Counter-weights of curtain should be made in sections with fusible link
+connections so that in case of fire curtain will drop of its own weight.</p>
+
+<p>"Curtain should be constructed of steel framework and made rigid and run
+in steel guides of sufficient size to allow for expansion in case of fire.
+Stage floor should be four inches thick, solid, laid on concrete bed.</p>
+
+<p>"A special waiting room with a special exit, entrance to same to be from
+main foyer, should be used especially for patrons using carriages so as to
+prevent the present system of blocking exits and vestibule with people
+waiting for carriages and preventing exit of crowd.</p>
+
+<p>"On stage of every theater there should be a fire plug, also a hose long
+enough to reach any part of the house, to run on a reel.</p>
+
+<p>"A loss of life in a panic cannot be entirely prevented, but some of the
+above suggestions if carried out will, at least, prevent a wholesale loss
+of human life.</p>
+
+<p>"All theaters should be thoroughly investigated and where the slightest
+detail is found to conflict with the law and the<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_120" id="Page_120">[Pg 120]</a></span> safety of an audience
+the city officials should prevent the use of such house until it has been
+properly constructed."</p>
+
+
+<p>&nbsp;</p>
+<p class="center">THE ARCHITECT SPEAKS.</p>
+
+<p>Benjamin H. Marshall, architect of the theater, received the news of the
+disaster in Pittsburg, Pa., and at once started for Chicago. He was
+stunned by the intelligence, and, speaking of it, said:</p>
+
+<p>"This seems to be a calamity that has no precedent, and I can not
+understand how so many people were caught in the balconies unless they
+were stunned by the shock of an explosion. There were ample fire exits and
+they were available. The house could have been emptied in less than five
+minutes if they were all utilized. The fact that so many people were
+caught in the balconies would prove that they were stunned and
+panic-stricken by the report rather than by the fear of a fire. It is
+difficult for me at this time to even guess as to the cause for the great
+loss of life.</p>
+
+<p>"I am completely upset by this disaster, more so because I have built many
+theaters and have studied every playhouse disaster in history to avoid
+errors."</p>
+
+
+<p>&nbsp;</p>
+<p class="center">EXAMINATION BY ARCHITECTURAL EDITOR.</p>
+
+<p>Robert Craik McLean, editor of the <i>Inland Architect</i>, who spent some time
+investigating the claim that the theater was equipped with an asbestos
+fire curtain, said: "After a careful investigation, I am convinced that
+the theater was not equipped with a curtain such as is demanded by the
+city ordinances.</p>
+
+<p>"I visited the damaged theater, but there was no sign of an asbestos
+curtain. Fire will not destroy asbestos, and if there was a curtain there
+when the holocaust occurred it had been<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_121" id="Page_121">[Pg 121]</a></span> removed, and an investigation
+should be made to learn what became of it. If no curtain had been removed,
+as is claimed, I cannot understand how the claim can be set up that the
+theater had a fire curtain. No one denies that there was a curtain there,
+but had it been made of asbestos, as required by the ordinance, it would
+not have been destroyed by the draft of air, as is claimed by the
+management of the house. An asbestos curtain must have a foundation of
+wire or some other material, and had the Iroquois been equipped with such
+a drop the wire screen, at least, would be there to prove it."</p>
+
+<p>"Mr. Samuel Frankenstein of the Frankenstein Calcium Light company, made
+the statement to me that he had had a conversation with the stage manager
+of the Iroquois regarding the fire drop. Mr. Frankenstein said that the
+stage manager told him that the Iroquois stage was not equipped with a
+true fire curtain. According to Mr. Frankenstein, the stage manager went
+further than this, and declared that there were only three theaters in
+Chicago equipped with real asbestos drops."</p>
+
+
+<p>&nbsp;</p>
+<p class="center">PROPOSED PRECAUTIONS FOR NEW YORK THEATERS.</p>
+
+<p>Charles H. Israels of the firm of Israels &amp; Harder, architects of the new
+Hudson theater, and several of the large hotels, suggested a number of
+precautions which might be adopted in New York theaters. Among other
+things he advocated an ordinance requiring all the theater emergency exits
+to be used after each performance.</p>
+
+<p>"Nearly every modern theater in this city," Mr. Israels said, "is
+adequately provided with exits, with which the audience are not familiar,
+and which are used so seldom that the employes are unused to having the
+audience pass out<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_122" id="Page_122">[Pg 122]</a></span> through them. Besides the one exit ordinarily in use
+there are four emergency exits, and the law requires them to open either
+on a brick enclosed alley at the side of the theater or directly into the
+street.</p>
+
+<p>"The people in the gallery, who are in the place of the greatest danger,
+would undoubtedly become thoroughly accustomed to using these outside
+stairways.</p>
+
+<p>"The main advantage to be gained by this suggestion over all others is
+that it could be put into immediate operation without the spending of a
+single cent on the part of the owners of most of New York's playhouses.</p>
+
+<p>"In a few of the theaters it might be argued that the stairways at the
+emergency exits were not sufficiently inclosed to allow the crowds to pass
+down in safety. The law now requires the stairways to be covered at the
+top, and covering the outside rail with heavy wire mesh raised about two
+feet above its present level would prevent any one from falling over the
+side.</p>
+
+<p>"Fireproof scenery or scenery which will at least not flame, is a
+practical possibility now. The building code should compel the use of
+scenery on frames of light metal covered with canvas that has been
+saturated in a fireproof solution. Fireproof paint is compulsory on the
+woodwork behind the proscenium wall, but in painting scenery combustible
+paint may be used.</p>
+
+<p>"The law should be most strictly enforced as to the cleaning out of
+rubbish beneath the stage. In a number of the theaters of New York this is
+done only occasionally."</p>
+
+
+
+<p>&nbsp;</p><p>&nbsp;</p>
+<hr style="width: 50%;" />
+<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_123" id="Page_123">[Pg 123]</a></span></p>
+<h2><a name="CHAPTER_IX" id="CHAPTER_IX"></a>CHAPTER IX.</h2>
+<p class="title">THIRTY EXITS, YET HUNDREDS PERISH IN AWFUL BLAST.</p>
+
+
+<p>Those in greatest danger through proximity to the stage did not throw
+their weight against the mass ahead. Not many died on the first floor,
+proof of the contention that some restraint existed in this section of the
+audience.</p>
+
+<p>Women were trodden under foot near the rear; some were injured. The most
+at this point, however, were rescued by the determined rush of the
+policeman at the entrance and of the doorkeeper and his assistants.</p>
+
+<p>The theater had thirty exits. All were opened before the fire reached full
+headway, but some had to be forced opened. Only one door at the Randolph
+street entrance was open, the others being locked, according, it appears,
+to custom.</p>
+
+<p>From within and without these doors were shattered in the first two
+minutes after the fire broke out&mdash;by theater employes, according to one
+report, by the van of the fleeing multitude and the first of the rescuers
+from the street, according to another.</p>
+
+<p>The doors to the exits on the alley side, between Randolph and Lake
+streets, in one or more instances, are declared by those who escaped to
+have been either frozen or rusted. They opened to assaults, but priceless
+seconds were lost.</p>
+
+<p>Before this time Foy had run back across the stage and reached the alley.
+With him fled the members of the aerial ballet, the last of the performers
+to get out. The aerialists<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_124" id="Page_124">[Pg 124]</a></span> owed their lives to the boy in charge of the
+fly elevator. They were aloft, in readiness for their flight above the
+heads of the audience. The elevator boy ran his cage up even with the line
+of fire, took them in, and brought them safely down.</p>
+
+<p>As Foy and the group reached the outer doorway the stage loft collapsed
+and tons of fire poured over the stage.</p>
+
+<p>The lights went out in the theater with this destruction of the
+switchboard and all stage connections. One column of flame rose and
+swished along the ceiling of the theater. Then this awful illumination
+also was swallowed up. None may paint from personal understanding that
+which took place in that pit of flame lit darkness. None lives to tell it.</p>
+
+<p>To those still caught in the structure the light of life went out when the
+electric globes grew dark.</p>
+
+<p>In spite of the terrible form of their destruction, it came swiftly enough
+to shorten pain. This at least was true of those who died in the second
+balcony, striving to reach the alley exits abreast of them.</p>
+
+<p>Six and seven feet deep they were found, not packed in layers but jumbled
+and twisted in the struggle with one another.</p>
+
+<p>Opposite the westernmost exit of the balcony&mdash;on the alley&mdash;was a room in
+the Northwestern University building (the old Tremont house) where
+painters were working, wiping out the traces of another fire.</p>
+
+<p>They heard the sound of the detonation of the fuse; they heard the rush of
+feet toward the exit across the way. Out on the iron stairway came a man,
+pushed by a power behind, himself crazy with fear. He would have run down
+the iron fire escape, but flames burst out of the exit beneath and wrapped
+themselves around the iron ladder.</p>
+
+
+<p>&nbsp;<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_125" id="Page_125">[Pg 125]</a></span></p>
+<p class="center">HORRIBLE SIGHT MET THE FIREMEN UPON ENTERING AUDITORIUM.</p>
+
+<p>The postures in which death was met showed how the end had come to many.</p>
+
+<p>A husband and wife were locked so tightly in one another's arms that the
+bodies had to be taken out together. A woman had thrown her arms around a
+child in a vain effort to save her. Both were burned beyond recognition.</p>
+
+<p>The sight of the children's bodies broke down the composure of the most
+restrained of the rescuers. As little form after form was brought out the
+tears ran down the faces of policemen, firemen and bystanders. Small hands
+were clenched before childish faces&mdash;fruitless attempts at protection from
+the scorching blast.</p>
+
+<p>Most of the children could be recognized. Fate allowed that thin shadow of
+mercy. They fell beneath their taller companions. The flames reached them,
+but they were face downward, other forms were above them, and generally
+their features were spared.</p>
+
+<p>The persons crowded off the fire escape platform, and those who jumped
+voluntarily by their own death saved persons on the lower floor from
+injury. Scores jumped from the exits at the first balcony, the first to
+death and injury, the ones behind to comparative safety on the thick
+cushion of the bodies of those who preceded them and who fell from the
+balcony above. Other hundreds from the main floor jumped on to the same
+cushion&mdash;an easy distance of six feet&mdash;without any injury.</p>
+
+<p>When the firemen came they spread nets, but the nets were black, and in
+the gloom they could not be seen. They saved few lives&mdash;argument for the
+use of white nets hereafter.</p>
+
+<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_126" id="Page_126">[Pg 126]</a></span>The chain of mishaps surrounding the catastrophe extended to the fire
+alarm. There was no fire alarm box in front of the theater, as at other
+theaters. A stage hand ran down the alley to South Water street and by
+word of mouth turned in a "still" alarm to No. 13. The box alarm did not
+follow for some precious minutes. At least four minutes were lost in this
+way.</p>
+
+<p>Of the 900 persons seated in the first and second balconies few if any
+escaped without serious injury.</p>
+
+<p>So fiercely the fire burned during the short time in which hundreds of
+lives were sacrificed that the velvet cushions of the balcony seats were
+burned bare.</p>
+
+<p>The crowds fought so in their efforts to escape that they tore away the
+iron railings of the balconies, leaping upon the people below.</p>
+
+<p>From 3 o'clock, when the alarm was sent in, to 7:30 o'clock, when the
+doors of the theater were closed, the charred, torn, and blistered bodies
+were carried from the building at the rate of four a minute. One hundred
+were taken out across the plank way.</p>
+
+<p>Many blankets filled with fragments of human bodies were taken from the
+building.</p>
+
+<p>Hundreds of bodies were taken from the building, their clothing gone,
+their faces charred beyond recognition. Under pretense of serving as
+rescuers ghouls gained entrance to the theater and robbed the dead and
+dying in the midst of the fire.</p>
+
+<p>Men fell on their knees and prayed. Men and women cursed. A rush was made
+for the Randolph street exits. In their fear the crowds forgot the many
+side exits, and rushed for the doors at which they had entered the
+theater. Little boys and girls were thrown to one side by their stronger
+companions.</p>
+
+<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_127" id="Page_127">[Pg 127]</a></span>Ten baskets of money and jewelry thrown in this manner were picked up from
+the main floor when the fire was extinguished.</p>
+
+<p>Men and women tore their clothing from them. As the first rush was made
+for the foyer entrance to the balconies men, women and children were
+thrown bodily down the steps.</p>
+
+<p>A few score of those nearest the doorways escaped by falling or being
+thrown down the stairs of the main balcony entrances.</p>
+
+<p>Scores were wedged in the doorways, pinned by the force of those behind
+them. There in the narrow aisle at the balcony entrances they were
+suffocated and fell&mdash;tons of human weight.</p>
+
+<p>All succeeded in leaving their seats in the first balcony. Climbing over
+the seats and rushing up the slanting aisles to the level aisles above,
+they fought their way. Those at the bottom of the mass were burned but
+little. The top layer of bodies was burned till they never can be
+identified.</p>
+
+<p>Darkness shrouded the theater with its hundreds of dead when the fire was
+under control that the building could be entered. The firemen were forced
+to work in smoky darkness when they started carrying the bodies from the
+balconies.</p>
+
+
+<p>&nbsp;</p>
+<p class="center">THE GALLERY HORROR.</p>
+
+<p>James M. Strong, a Chicago board of trade clerk, the sole survivor of all
+the occupants of the gallery who tried to escape through the locked door,
+smashed with his fist a glass transom and climbed through it. Three
+members of his family, who followed him down the passageway, shared the
+fate of others. Their bodies since have been discovered, burned almost
+beyond recognition.</p>
+
+<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_128" id="Page_128">[Pg 128]</a></span>"If the door hadn't been locked hundreds of persons could have saved their
+lives," said Strong.</p>
+
+<p>The passageway, along which Strong and many now dead ran to supposed
+safety, led toward the front of the theater, past the top entrance to the
+gallery. Strong had been unable to secure seats and was standing in the
+rear of the gallery with his mother, Mrs. B. K. Strong, his wife, and his
+niece, Vera, 16 years old, of Americus, Ga. When the fire started all ran
+toward the nearest exit.</p>
+
+<p>"The exit was crowded," said Strong. "We ran on down a passage at the side
+of it, followed by many others. At the end, down a short flight of steps,
+was a door. It was locked. In desperation I threw myself against it. I
+couldn't budge it. Then, standing on the top step of the little stairway,
+I smashed the glass above with my fist and crawled through the transom.</p>
+
+<p>"When I fell on the outside I heard the screams on the other side, and,
+scrambling to my feet, I tried again to open the door, but couldn't. The
+key was not there. I ran down a stairway to the floor below, where I found
+a carpenter. I asked him to give me something to break down the door, and
+he got me a short board. I ran back with this and began pounding, but the
+door was too heavy to be broken.</p>
+
+<p>"I scarcely know what happened afterward. Smoke was pouring over the
+transom and I felt myself suffocating. Alone, or with the assistance of
+the carpenter, I at last found myself at the bottom of the stairway
+opening into the lobby of the theater. From there I pushed my way to the
+street. Until then I didn't know I was burned."</p>
+
+
+<p>&nbsp;</p>
+<p class="center">GIRL'S MIRACULOUS ESCAPE.</p>
+
+<p>The most miraculous escape was that of Winnie Gallagher, an 11-year-old
+girl, who occupied a seat with her aunt <span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_129" id="Page_129">[Pg 129]</a></span>almost directly under the stage.
+When the panic was started she jumped to her feet and after being thrown
+about and trampled upon and having her clothing torn from her she managed
+to climb over the seats and reach the street in safety. What few pieces of
+wearing apparel she had on at the time were in ribbons and a messenger
+boy, seeing her predicament, pulled off his overcoat and wrapped it around
+her. She went to the Central station, where she gave the police her name
+and asked that someone take her to her home, 4925 Michigan avenue.</p>
+
+
+<p>&nbsp;</p>
+<p class="center">AN ACCOUNT FROM THE BOXES.</p>
+
+<p>The first two lower boxes on the left of the stage were occupied by a
+party of young women who were being entertained by Mrs. Rollin A. Keyes of
+Evanston, in honor of her young daughter, Miss Catherine Keyes, who was
+home from school in Washington for the holidays.</p>
+
+<p>"We arrived at the theater shortly after the first act," said Miss Emily
+Plamondon of Astoria, Ore., a member of the party, in describing the fire.
+"As far as I could see the house was filled with women and children, who
+occupied seats on the first floor and in the galleries. It was about a
+quarter to 3 when one of the young women in the party asked Mrs. Keyes if
+she did not smell something burning and an instant afterward a great cloud
+of smoke spread across the stage and into the body of the house.
+Immediately we realized the danger we were in, as did all around us.
+Instead of a rush to the doors, the audience gazed for a moment at the
+stage, and as a whole the people appeared very calm, under the
+circumstances, and as if contemplating how they would escape.</p>
+
+<p>"Again another cloud of smoke issued from the stage and several stage
+hands appeared, shouting at the top of their<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_130" id="Page_130">[Pg 130]</a></span> voices for the people to sit
+down. But it was only for an instant that they obeyed, for by that time
+the smoke had spread through the theater and men, women and children were
+gasping for breath. Then a mad rush was made for the doors and for the
+supposed exits, but in vain. Mrs. Pearson and Mrs. Keyes commanded us to
+keep together by all means and just as we were leaving the boxes the
+theater became darkened, which, I suppose, was caused by the burning out
+of the electric light, and thus made our escape the harder. We plodded
+through the aisles until we came within about ten feet of the main
+entrance without encountering any violence from the panic-stricken women
+and children who were fighting for their lives. Then the crush became
+terrible and the members of our party, Mrs. Rollin A. Keyes, Mrs. Pearson,
+Misses Charlotte Plamondon, Catherine Keyes, Elmore of Oregon, Amelia
+Ormsby, Grace Hills, Josephine Eddy and Miss Elizabeth Eddy realized that
+it would be impossible to get to the street through that door.</p>
+
+<p>"It was only a short time, however, when somebody knocked down two doors,
+which had been locked, and the majority of the people on the first floor
+escaped through them without serious injury. Miss Charlotte Plamondon, who
+was bruised about the face and hands, and I were the only ones in the
+party who escaped with our wraps. The others had their clothes torn almost
+from them, as they were hurrying from the burning theater.</p>
+
+<p>"Before we had left the boxes the fire had spread to the first row of
+seats and the stage hands were endeavoring to lower the asbestos curtain.
+When it was about half down it became caught and the attempt to drop it
+was abandoned. A great gush of fire then spread to the draperies over the
+boxes. The people were wonderfully calm, it seemed to me, for so<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_131" id="Page_131">[Pg 131]</a></span> crucial
+a moment and it was not until the smoke filled the house that they became
+frantic and screamed for help. We could hardly breathe and I believe had
+we been in the theater a few minutes longer we, too, would have been
+suffocated, as the heat and smoke were becoming unendurable. Had the exits
+been open and unlocked the loss of life would not have been nearly so
+great."</p>
+
+<p>"We were seated for half an hour before the fire broke out. Our attention
+was first attracted by a wreath of flame, which crept slowly along the red
+velvet curtain. We all noticed it. So did the audience and I could see
+little girls and boys in the orchestra chairs point upward at the slowly
+moving line of flame. As the fire spread the people in the balcony and on
+the first floor arose to their feet as if to rush out of the place. Then
+Eddie Foy hurried to the front of the stage and commanded the people to be
+quiet, saying that if they would remain seated the danger would be
+averted. All the people who were then on the stage maintained remarkable
+presence of mind and the chorus girls endeavored to divert the attention
+of their auditors off the fire by going on with their parts.</p>
+
+<p>"I looked over the faces of the audience and remarked how many children
+were present. I could see their faces filled with interest and their eyes
+wide open as they watched the burning curtain.</p>
+
+<p>"Then I looked behind me and realized the awful consequence should the
+people become alarmed. The doors, except for the one through which we
+entered the theater, were closed and apparently fastened. Up in the
+balcony I could see people crowding forward in order to obtain a better
+view. Again the audience arose as if to flee.</p>
+
+<p>"Eddie Foy again rushed on the stage and waved his arms in a gesture for
+the people to be seated. But just then the<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_132" id="Page_132">[Pg 132]</a></span> shrill cry of a woman caused
+the women and children to rise to their feet, filled with a sudden and
+uncontrollable terror.</p>
+
+<p>"'Fire!' I heard her exclaim, and in another instant the eyes of the
+audience were turned to the exits in the rear. The flames lighted up the
+stage as the light tinsel stuffs blazed up, and the scene changed from
+mimicry to tragedy. A confused, rumbling noise filled the theater from the
+pit to the dome. I knew it was the sound of a thousand people preparing to
+leave their seats and rush madly from the impending danger. The noise of
+their footsteps in the balcony was soon deadened by the cries for aid from
+those who were hemmed in by the struggling mass.</p>
+
+<p>"On the stage the chorus girls, who had exhibited rare presence of mind,
+turned to flee. Many were overcome before they could stir a step. They
+fell to the floor and I saw the men in the cast and the stage hands lift
+them to their feet and carry them to the rear of the stage. By this time
+the scenery was a mass of flames."</p>
+
+
+<p>&nbsp;</p>
+<p class="center">INSPECTION AFTER THE FIRE.</p>
+
+<p>Deputy Building Commissioner Stanhope with three inspectors made a
+thorough examination of the theater building yesterday.</p>
+
+<p>"I first examined the building with respect to the safety of its walls and
+found them in perfect condition," said Mr. Stanhope. "They are not out of
+plumb an inch and are as good as they ever were. The steel structure is
+not injured except that portion which supported the stage. The heat has
+twisted some of the supports but they can be replaced at little cost.
+Except the backs of the seats and the floor of the stage the interior of
+the auditorium was not injured by the fire. The<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_133" id="Page_133">[Pg 133]</a></span> carpets in the gallery,
+where most of the people were killed, were not even scorched."</p>
+
+
+<p>&nbsp;</p>
+<p class="center">A YOUNG HEROINE.</p>
+
+<p>Verma Goss is one of the young heroines of the fire. She attended the
+theater in a party composed of her mother, Mrs. Joseph Goss; her
+5-year-old sister, Helen; Mrs. Greenwald of 536 Byron street and her young
+son Leroy. In the rush for the door Miss Verma caught her young sister's
+hand and pulled her out of the crowd and carried the child to safety. She
+thought her mother was following, but she and her sister were the only
+ones of the party who escaped.</p>
+
+
+<p>&nbsp;</p>
+<p class="center">A NARROW ESCAPE.</p>
+
+<p>Mrs. William Mueller, with her two children, Florence Marie, 5 years of
+age, and Barbara Belle, 7, occupied a seat in the parquet.</p>
+
+<p>"I was not in the theater auditorium," said Mrs. Mueller. "I was in one of
+the waiting rooms, but was on my way to our seats. As I entered the doors
+somebody yelled fire. I looked up and saw the curtain ablaze. Then came
+the stampede. I picked up my children and ran toward the door. I was
+caught in the jam and it seemed that I would fail to reach it. Some man
+saw my plight and jumped to my assistance. He picked up Florence and threw
+her over the heads of the rushing people. She fell upon the pavement, but
+was not badly injured."</p>
+
+
+<p>&nbsp;</p>
+<p class="center">FINDS WIFE IN HOSPITAL.</p>
+
+<p>The first woman to be rescued over the temporary bridge between the
+theater and the Northwestern university building was Mrs. Mary Marzein of
+Elgin, Ill. She was severely<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_134" id="Page_134">[Pg 134]</a></span> burned and lost consciousness after her
+rescue. A score or more suffered death on every side as she crept over the
+ladder. They were thrown aside and knocked down, but she clung to the
+ladder and escaped. She was taken to the Michael Reese hospital and did
+not regain consciousness until the following day. Her husband, who is an
+employe of the Elgin Watch Company, searched all the morgues and was
+making a tour of the hospitals when he found his wife.</p>
+
+<p>When Mrs. Marzein recovered in the afternoon the first person she inquired
+for was her husband, who at that moment was being ushered into the room.
+Their eyes met as she was whispering his name to the nurse, and an
+affecting scene followed.</p>
+
+
+<p>&nbsp;</p>
+<p class="center">A MIRACULOUS AND UNCONSCIOUS ESCAPE.</p>
+
+<p>One of the most miraculous escapes from the fire was that of Miss Winifred
+Cardona. She was one of a party of four and with her friends occupied
+seats in the seventh row of the parquet.</p>
+
+<p>"The first intimation I had of the danger was when I saw one of the chorus
+girls look upward and turn pale. My eyes immediately followed her glance
+and I saw the telltale sparks shooting about through the flies. The
+singing continued until the blaze broke out. Then Mr. Foy appeared and
+asked the audience to keep their seats, assuring them that the theater was
+thoroughly fireproof. We obeyed, but when we saw the seething mass behind
+struggling for the door we rushed from our seats. I became separated from
+the other girls and had not gone far before I stumbled over the prostrate
+body of a woman who was trampled almost beyond recognition. For an instant
+I thought it was all over. Then I felt someone lift me and I knew no more
+until I revived in the street. It was<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_135" id="Page_135">[Pg 135]</a></span> the most awful experience I have
+ever had and I consider my escape nothing short of miraculous."</p>
+
+
+<p>&nbsp;</p>
+<p class="center">LITTLE GIRL'S MARVELOUS ESCAPE.</p>
+
+<p>"I'm the most grateful man in all Chicago," said J. R. Thompson, who owns
+the restaurant. "My sister was in the theater with my two children&mdash;John,
+aged 9, and Ruth, aged 7. Sister got almost to the door with both of them.
+Then Ruthie disappeared. She told me she knew the child must be safe, but
+I was like a maniac. It was an hour before we found her. How it happened I
+didn't know, but she ran back into the theater and out under the stage,
+out through the stage entrance."</p>
+
+<p>"Where is the little girl now?" I asked him.</p>
+
+<p>"I sent her home to her mother," he said.</p>
+
+<p>Only ten feet away lay the chestnut-haired girl who "was a great one to
+scamper."</p>
+
+
+<p>&nbsp;</p>
+<p class="center">FOUR GENERATIONS REPRESENTED.</p>
+
+<p>Members of four generations of a family were turned into mourners, only
+one member remaining from a party of nine made up of Benjamin Moore and
+eight of his relatives, of whom only one, Mrs. W. S. Hanson, Hart, Mich.,
+escaped. Following are the names of the eight victims: Mrs. Joseph
+Bezenek, 41 years old, West Superior, Wis., daughter of Benjamin Moore;
+Benjamin Moore, 72 years old, Chicago; Roland Mackay, 6 years old,
+Chicago, grandson of Mrs. Joseph Bezenek and great grandson of Benjamin
+Moore; Mrs. Benjamin Moore, 47 years old, wife of Benjamin Moore; Joseph
+Bezenek, 38 years old, West Superior, Wis., husband of Mrs. Bezenek and
+son-in-law of Benjamin Moore; Mrs. Perry<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_136" id="Page_136">[Pg 136]</a></span> Moore, 33 years old, Hart,
+Mich., daughter-in-law of Benjamin Moore; Miss Sibyl Moore, Hart, Mich.,
+13 years old, daughter of Mrs. Perry Moore and granddaughter of Benjamin
+Moore; Miss Lucile Bond, 10 years old, daughter of George H. Bond and
+granddaughter of Benjamin Moore, Chicago.</p>
+
+
+<p>&nbsp;</p>
+<p class="center">DAUGHTERS AND GRANDCHILDREN GONE.</p>
+
+<p>Three daughters and two grandchildren, constituting the entire family of
+Mr. and Mrs. Morris Eger, Chicago, perished in the fire. The daughters
+were Miss S. Eger, who was a teacher in the Mosely school; Mrs. Marion
+Rice, wife of A. Rice, and Mrs. Rose Bloom, wife of Max Bloom, and the
+children were: Erna, the 10-year-old daughter of Mrs. Rice, and her
+11-year-old brother, Ernest.</p>
+
+<p>After a long search among the many morgues of the city the bodies were all
+identified, two of them being found there.</p>
+
+
+
+<p>&nbsp;</p><p>&nbsp;</p>
+<hr style="width: 50%;" />
+<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_137" id="Page_137">[Pg 137]</a></span></p>
+<h2><a name="CHAPTER_X" id="CHAPTER_X"></a>CHAPTER X.</h2>
+<p class="title">HOW THE NEW YEAR WAS USHERED IN.</p>
+
+
+<p>The New Year came to Chicago with muffled drums, two days after the
+calamity that threw the great metropolis into mourning.</p>
+
+<p>Scarcely a sound was heard as 1904 entered.</p>
+
+<p>Jan. 1&mdash;day of funerals&mdash;was received in silence. Streets were almost
+deserted, even downtown. Men hurried silently along the sidewalks. There
+were not half a dozen tin horns in the downtown district where ordinarily
+the blare of trumpets, screech of steam whistles, volleys of shots and the
+merriment of late wayfarers make the entrance of a new year a period of
+deafening pandemonium.</p>
+
+<p>Merrymakers were quiet when in the streets and subdued even in the
+restaurants. Noise, except in a few scattered districts, was unknown.</p>
+
+<p>It was a remarkable, spontaneous testimony to the prevalent spirit
+throughout the city. Mayor Harrison had asked, in an official
+proclamation, that there be no noise, but few of those who desisted from
+the usual practices of greeting the New Year knew that they had been
+requested to be silent.</p>
+
+
+<p>&nbsp;</p>
+<p class="center">MOURNING IN EVERY STREET.</p>
+
+<p>There were mourning families in every neighborhood; crepe in every street;
+grief stricken relatives throughout the city; unidentified dead in the
+morgues, and sufferers in the hospital. The citizens did not need to be
+requested to be quiet.</p>
+
+<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_138" id="Page_138">[Pg 138]</a></span>Jan. 1, 1904, meant the beginning of funerals and the burial of dead who
+were to have lived to take part in merrymaking.</p>
+
+<p>A year before in downtown Chicago the din was an ear-splitting racket of
+horns, whistles, yells, songs, and exploding cannon.</p>
+
+<p>A year before the downtown streets were filled with hundreds of laughing
+men and women, roystering parties filling the air with the uproar of tin
+horns and revolvers.</p>
+
+
+<p>&nbsp;</p>
+<p class="center">NOISE SEEMS A SACRILEGE.</p>
+
+<p>That night there were a messenger boy in La Salle street blowing a tin
+horn and a man at Wabash avenue and Harrison street. The other pedestrians
+looked at them as if they considered the noise a sacrilege. It was with
+the same feeling that they heard the blowing of the factory whistles in
+the few cases where the engineers forgot.</p>
+
+<p>A year before the outlying districts were awakened by the firing of cannon
+and the shouts of people in noisy celebrations. That dread night there was
+nothing to keep residents awake except grief.</p>
+
+
+<p>&nbsp;</p>
+<p class="center">MAYOR ASKS FOR SILENCE.</p>
+
+<p>To insure this condition, as the only fitting one, Mayor Harrison had
+issued a proclamation in which he said:</p>
+
+<p>"On each recurring New Year's eve annoyance has been caused the sick and
+infirm by the indulgence of thoughtless persons in noisy celebrations of
+the passage of the old year. The city authorities have at all times
+discouraged this practice, but now, when Chicago lies in the shadow of the
+greatest disaster in her history for a generation, noisemaking, whether by
+bells, whistles, cannon, horns or any other means, is particularly
+objectionable.</p>
+
+<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_139" id="Page_139">[Pg 139]</a></span>"As mayor of Chicago I would, therefore, request all persons to refrain
+from this indulgence, and I would particularly ask all railway officials
+and all persons in control of factories, boats, and mills to direct their
+employes not to blow whistles between the hours of 12 and 1 o'clock
+tonight."</p>
+
+<p>Persons not reached by this proclamation had seen the lines waiting
+entrance at the morgues. The few peddlers who had tin horns for sale found
+no buyers. This market, which in other years has been a profitable one, on
+Dec. 31, 1903, was dead. The venders slunk up to the building walls and,
+even in trying to sell, made little noise with their wares.</p>
+
+
+<p>&nbsp;</p>
+<p class="center">MERRIMENT IS SUBDUED.</p>
+
+<p>In such restaurants as the Auditorium Annex, the Wellington, and Rector's
+there were gay crowds, but the merriment was subdued. "No music" was the
+general rule throughout the city. At Rector's the management took down
+flowers which were to have decorated the restaurant and sent them to the
+hospitals where the injured theater victims were.</p>
+
+<p>At the Annex and the Wellington the lobbies had been filled with gayly
+decorated tables, and this space as well as the cafes was entirely
+occupied. Congress street was filled with carriages and cabs for the
+guests at the Annex.</p>
+
+
+<p>&nbsp;</p>
+<p class="center">CITY OF MOURNING.</p>
+
+<p>Even these gatherings, which were the least affected by the gloom over the
+city, were ghastly as compared with those of former years. There were
+exceptions to the general rule, but even in the places which felt the
+effect the least there was abundant testimony to the fact that Chicago was
+a city of woe.</p>
+
+<p>The aspect of the downtown district was evidence that there<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_140" id="Page_140">[Pg 140]</a></span> was scarcely
+a neighborhood in the city which had not at least one sorrowing family.</p>
+
+<p>Not only was this indicated by the lack of noise on the noisiest night of
+the year but by the absence of lights. Many electric signs and
+illuminations which usually lighted up the streets had been closed, and
+gay, wicked, noisy Chicago was clothed with gloom such as it had never
+before known.</p>
+
+<p>Dark and solemn as was the opening day of the new year it was no
+circumstance compared with the day that followed. At the suggestion of the
+mayor Saturday, Jan. 2, was set apart to bury the dead. The proclamation
+issued in that connection follows:</p>
+
+<p>"Chicago, Dec. 31.&mdash;To the citizens of Chicago: Announcement is hereby
+made that the city hall will be closed on Saturday, Jan. 2, 1904, on
+account of the calamity occurring at the Iroquois theater. All business
+houses throughout the city are respectfully requested to shut down on that
+day.</p>
+
+<p><span style="margin-left: 4em;">"Respectfully,</span><br />
+<span style="margin-left: 6em;">"<span class="smcap">Carter H. Harrison</span>, Mayor."</span></p>
+
+<p>The request was generally followed, and on that mournful day the interment
+of the victims of the holocaust began, filling the streets with
+processions moving to the grave. From daybreak until evening funeral
+corteges moved through the streets. Church bells at noon tolled a requiem.
+The machinery of business was hushed in the downtown district, and long
+lines of carriages, preceded by hearses or plain black wagons, followed
+the theater victims to the grave.</p>
+
+<p>In no public place, in no home was the grief of the bereft not felt. Many
+of the dead were taken directly from the undertaking rooms to the
+cemeteries and buried with simple ceremony. Before dark nearly 200 victims
+were borne to the<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_141" id="Page_141">[Pg 141]</a></span> grave. A score were taken to railroad stations, to be
+followed by the mourning back to their homes.</p>
+
+
+<p>&nbsp;</p>
+<p class="center">BUSINESS WORLD IN MOURNING.</p>
+
+<p>The board of trade closed at 11 o'clock. The doors of the stock exchange
+were not opened. Few of the downtown mercantile houses and few of the
+offices were open after noon. There was little business.</p>
+
+<p>It was a day of mourning, and the army of the sorrowful that for days had
+searched for its dead performed the last rites. At noon bells in all the
+church towers were rung to the rhythm of "The Dead March in Saul." Those
+who heard the solemn dirge stood still for the space of five minutes with
+bared heads. The proclamation of the mayor generally was observed.
+Everywhere there was gloom and no one could escape from the pall that
+enshrouded Chicago.</p>
+
+<p>The demand for hearses was so great that the undertakers were compelled to
+make up schedules in which the different hours of the day were allotted to
+the grief-stricken.</p>
+
+<p>Flags were at half-mast, while white hearses bearing the bodies of
+children and black hearses with the bodies of others took their way to the
+various churches. In some blocks three and four hearses were standing, and
+at the churches one cortege would wait until another moved away.</p>
+
+<p>The pall seemed to pervade the air itself. Pedestrians halted on the
+sidewalk, and in the cold stood with bared heads while the funeral
+processions passed.</p>
+
+<p>Children saw their parents laid away; parents followed the coffins of
+their child. Students just reaching manhood or womanhood were laid at
+rest, while relatives and companions mourned. Kindly clergymen wept as
+they spoke words of<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_142" id="Page_142">[Pg 142]</a></span> comfort to those bereft of father, mother, brother,
+sister, or even of all.</p>
+
+<p>Two double funerals passed through the downtown districts just as the
+department stores were dismissing their thousands of employes. Sisters
+were being taken to their last resting place, and this cortege was
+followed by two white hearses containing the bodies of another brother and
+sister. Both funeral processions went to the same depot, and all four
+victims were buried in the same cemetery.</p>
+
+<p>The numerous funeral trains which left Chicago contained in nearly every
+instance more than one coffin. Hearse after hearse and carriage after
+carriage arrived in the blinding snow and stopped at the depots, opening
+an epoch of funerals that continued daily until the last victim was laid
+to rest.</p>
+
+<p>Thus opened the year 1904 in Chicago, the stricken and desolate.</p>
+
+
+
+<p>&nbsp;</p><p>&nbsp;</p>
+<hr style="width: 50%;" />
+<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_143" id="Page_143">[Pg 143]</a></span></p>
+<h2><a name="CHAPTER_XI" id="CHAPTER_XI"></a>CHAPTER XI.</h2>
+<p class="title">A SABBATH OF WOE.</p>
+
+
+<p>A majority of the victims of the fire were laid to rest, however, during
+the Sabbath succeeding the awful calamity. The main thoroughfares of the
+benumbed city leading north and west toward the resting places of the dead
+were crowded with funeral processions, sometimes four and five hearses
+together showing as white as the snow on the ground, bearing as they did
+the bodies of children.</p>
+
+<p>As one funeral procession after another passed through the streets the
+numbers of the sorrowing at the cemeteries increased. A few hundred feet
+from one freshly made grave there was another and a short distance away
+still another that told the mourners at one funeral that others were
+bereaved.</p>
+
+<p>The work of burying the dead began early in the morning and lasted until
+late in the evening. Sometimes the homes of several of the dead were
+grouped in a few blocks and in one instance a glance down a single street
+would reveal the thickly crowded carriages for half a dozen funerals that
+had thrown an entire neighborhood into mourning. Where hearses could not
+be furnished they were improvised from other kinds of vehicles and
+mourners who could not get cabs rode in carriages. As the night closed
+down on hundreds of mourning homes, in every cemetery in the city the
+speaking mounds of fresh earth told of the end of families broken and
+altogether destroyed.</p>
+
+
+<p>&nbsp;<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_144" id="Page_144">[Pg 144]</a></span></p>
+<p class="center">SEVEN TURNER VICTIMS.</p>
+
+<p>More than a thousand turners joined in the services for seven victims who
+were members of their societies. The Chicago Turnbezirk, the central body
+of the turners, had charge of the exercises. Representatives of the Aurora
+Turnverein, Schweitzer Turnverein, Forward Turnverein, Social Turnverein,
+and other turner organizations joined in the services.</p>
+
+<p>The exercises were held at the Social Turner hall, Belmont avenue and
+Paulina street. The coffins of the victims were placed in front of the
+stage at the end of the hall. After the services the coffins were taken by
+uniformed turners through the hall to black wagons and the march to
+Graceland cemetery began. Three drum corps, with muffled drums, beat a
+funeral march.</p>
+
+<p>Women turners, in their gymnasium suits, escorted the bodies of the women
+victims, and uniformed turners watched the coffins of the men.</p>
+
+<p>Short services were held at the cemetery.</p>
+
+
+<p>&nbsp;</p>
+<p class="center">SAD SCENES AT WOLFF HOME.</p>
+
+<p>At the residence of Ludwig Wolff, 1329 Washington boulevard, the bodies of
+his daughter, Mrs. William M. Garn and her three children, Willie, 11,
+John, 7, and Harriet, 10 years old, lay. All day long until the time for
+the funeral services a stream of sympathizing friends poured in. A crowd
+of more than a thousand surrounded the house and the policemen stationed
+there were compelled to force a way for the caskets when they were borne
+to the hearses. The service was read by the Rev. William C. Dewitt of St.
+Andrew's church. Twelve boys acted as pallbearers for their former
+playfellows and followed the little white hearses to Graceland. The
+funeral was one of<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_145" id="Page_145">[Pg 145]</a></span> the largest ever seen on the west side of the city,
+more than one hundred carriages being in the funeral train.</p>
+
+
+<p>&nbsp;</p>
+<p class="center">PATHETIC SCENE AT CHURCH.</p>
+
+<p>Far different in all except the grief was the funeral from the little
+frame church at Congress street and Forty-second avenue. Inside lay the
+bodies of Mrs. Mary W. Holst and her three children, Allan, 13, Gertrude,
+10, and Amy, 8 years. They were in the ill fated second balcony of the
+theater and met death trying to reach the fire escape. Of the family only
+the father and a 6 months old son survive. Mrs. Holst was the sister of
+former Chief of Police Badenoch. Interment was at Forest Home.</p>
+
+<p>The building was still gay with its Christmas decorations and a large
+motto, "Peace on earth, good will to men," which the Holst children had
+assisted in making.</p>
+
+
+<p>&nbsp;</p>
+<p class="center">BURY CHILDREN AND GRANDCHILDREN.</p>
+
+<p>Another quadruple funeral was that of the daughters and the grandchildren
+of Jacob and Elizabeth Beder of 697 Ogden avenue. The two women, Mrs.
+Edyth Vallely, 835 Sawyer avenue, and Mrs. Amy Josephine McKenna of 758
+South Kedzie avenue, went to the theater accompanied by their two
+children, Bernice Vallely, aged 11, and Bernard McKenna, aged 3. The
+bodies were found after the fire by the husbands of the dead women at the
+morgues. The services were in charge of Rev. D. F. Fox of the California
+Avenue Congregational church. Interment was at Forest Home.</p>
+
+
+<p>&nbsp;</p>
+<p class="center">FIVE DEAD IN ONE HOUSE.</p>
+
+<p>Memorial services were held in the afternoon for Mrs. Eva Pond, wife of
+Fred S. Pond, their children, Raymond, 14, Helen, 7, and Miss Grace
+Tuttle, sister of Mrs. Pond, at the<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_146" id="Page_146">[Pg 146]</a></span> family residence, 1272 Lyman avenue.
+The services were conducted by the Rev. Mr. Bowles of All Saints'
+Episcopal church.</p>
+
+<p>Miss Tuttle had been for eighteen years a teacher in the Chicago public
+schools. She attended the performance at the Iroquois with her sister and
+her sister's children, and none of them emerged alive. Mrs. Pond was the
+wife of Fred S. Pond, for thirty years cashier of the Deering Harvester
+Company, who is the only survivor of a once happy family circle. The four
+bodies were taken to Beloit, Wis., for burial.</p>
+
+
+<p>&nbsp;</p>
+<p class="center">ENTIRE FAMILY IS BURIED.</p>
+
+<p>None but friends attended the Beyer funeral service during the afternoon
+at Sheldon's undertaking rooms, for the entire family, mother, father, and
+child, were numbered among the Iroquois dead. Otto H. Beyer, his wife
+Minnie, and their 4 year old daughter Grace, were the victims. The bodies
+were taken to Elkader, Iowa, for burial. This was perhaps the saddest of
+all the sad services conducted during the day, as no relatives were
+present to mourn the dead.</p>
+
+
+<p>&nbsp;</p>
+<p class="center">MRS. FOX AND THREE CHILDREN.</p>
+
+<p>Mrs. Emilie Hoyt Fox, daughter of William M. Hoyt, the wholesale grocer;
+George Sidney Fox, her 15-year-old son; Hoyt Fox, 14 years old, and Emilie
+Fox, 9 years old, were all buried side by side in Graceland cemetery. The
+funeral services were held in Graceland chapel and were conducted by Rev.
+Henry G. Moore of Christ Episcopal church, Winnetka.</p>
+
+
+<p>&nbsp;</p>
+<p class="center">MRS. A. E. HULL AND CHILDREN.</p>
+
+<p>Simple and short were the funeral services at Boydston's chapel,
+Forty-second place and Cottage Grove avenue, over the remains of four
+members of the Hull family. Mrs. Hull, the<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_147" id="Page_147">[Pg 147]</a></span> mother, was the wife of Arthur
+E. Hull, 244 Oakwood boulevard, and attended the theater with her little
+daughter, Helen, and two nephews, adopted sons, Donald and Dwight. The
+services were directed by Rev. J. H. McDonald of the Oakland Methodist
+Episcopal church and consisted simply of a prayer and the reading of a
+poem found in the desk of Mrs. Hull, and which had evidently been clipped
+from some newspaper. At the conclusion of the services the caskets were
+carried to the Thirty-ninth street station of the Michigan Central
+railroad, over which they were taken to Troy, N. Y., for burial.</p>
+
+
+<p>&nbsp;</p>
+<p class="center">HERBERT AND AGNES LANGE.</p>
+
+<p>"We were four of the happiest mortals in all Chicago until that awful
+thing blasted our lives forever," sobbed Mrs. Louis Lange of 1632 Barry
+avenue at the close of the funeral of her only two children, Herbert
+Lange, 17 years old, and his sister Agnes, 14. The service was held at the
+Johannes Evangelical Lutheran church at Garfield avenue and Mohawk street.</p>
+
+
+<p>&nbsp;</p>
+<p class="center">SWEETHEARTS BURIED AT THE SAME TIME.</p>
+
+<p>While the last rites were being held for Albert Alfson in Chicago, the
+body of his sweetheart, Miss Margaret Love, was being buried in the
+cemetery at Woodstock. Two hundred persons, 125 from Woodstock, attended
+Alfson's funeral at 24 Keith street.</p>
+
+
+<p>&nbsp;</p>
+<p class="center">FIVE BURIED IN ONE GRAVE.</p>
+
+<p>The largest funeral at Oakwoods was that of Dr. M. B. Rimes, 6331
+Wentworth avenue, his wife and three children, Lloyd, Martin, and Maurice.
+The five from one family were buried together in one large grave.</p>
+
+
+<p>&nbsp;<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_148" id="Page_148">[Pg 148]</a></span></p>
+<p class="center">BOYS AS PALLBEARERS.</p>
+
+<p>At the home of Ludwig Wolff, 1329 Washington boulevard the body of his
+daughter, Mrs. William M. Garn, and her three children, Willie, John and
+Harriet, lay. All day long until the time for the funeral services, a
+stream of sympathizing friends poured in, bearing many floral tributes to
+the dead. The impressive service of the Episcopal church was read by the
+Rev. William C. Dewitt of St. Andrew's church, of which Mrs. Garn was a
+member. Twelve boys acted as pallbearers to their late playfellows, and
+followed the little white hearses to Graceland cemetery. The funeral was
+one of the largest ever seen on the West Side, more than one hundred
+carriages being in the train.</p>
+
+
+<p>&nbsp;</p>
+<p class="center">WINNETKA SADDENED.</p>
+
+<p>A funeral was held which saddened the hearts of all Winnetka. The little
+north shore suburb lost eight of its residents in the fire, and the
+funeral of four of the Fox family was held yesterday. The services were
+conducted by the Rev. Henry G. Moore of Christ Episcopal church, Winnetka.</p>
+
+
+<p>&nbsp;</p>
+<p class="center">MOTHER AND DAUGHTERS BURIED TOGETHER.</p>
+
+<p>Three hearses carried away the bodies of Mrs. Louise Ruby and her
+daughters, Mrs. Ida Weimers and Mrs. Mary Feiser. The services were held
+at the late home of Mrs. Ruby, 838 Wilson avenue. Father F. N. Perry of
+the Church of Our Lady of Lourdes celebrated mass for the two daughters,
+who were members of his parish. The Rev. John G. Kircher of Bethlehem
+Evangelical church read the service for the mother.</p>
+
+
+<p>&nbsp;</p>
+<p class="center">HOLD TRIPLE FUNERAL.</p>
+
+<p>Triple funeral services were held at the residence of Henry M. Shabad,
+4041 Indiana avenue, for his two children, Myrtle,<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_149" id="Page_149">[Pg 149]</a></span> aged 14 years, and
+Theodore, aged 12 years, and little Rose Elkan, daughter of Mr. and Mrs.
+N. Elkan. The three children attended the matinee together and all were
+killed. Rabbi Jacobson of the Thirty-fifth street synagogue conducted the
+service and at the conclusion referred to the Iroquois fire as one of the
+"greatest calamities of the age." The interment took place at Waldheim.</p>
+
+
+<p>&nbsp;</p>
+<p class="center">WOMEN FAINT IN CHURCH.</p>
+
+<p>Attended by many grief stricken schoolmates and friends, the funeral of
+Robert and Archie Hippach, sons of Louis A. and Ida S. Hippach, was held
+at the Church of the Atonement, Kenmore and Ardmore avenues. They lived at
+2928 Kenmore avenue. At the church several women fainted and had to be
+taken from the church.</p>
+
+
+<p>&nbsp;</p>
+<p class="center">LIFE-LONG FRIENDS MEET IN DEATH.</p>
+
+<p>Miss Viola Delee of 7822 Union avenue, and Miss Florence Corrigan of 218
+Dearborn avenue, victims of the Iroquois theater fire, whose remains were
+buried, were life-long friends. They were schoolmates at St. Xavier's
+College, where both graduated two years ago. On the afternoon of the fire
+Miss Delee had arranged to meet her friend downtown and attend the
+matinee. It is thought they secured seats on the main floor about eight
+rows from the front. Their bodies were found lying some distance apart.</p>
+
+<p>The body of Miss Delee showed marks that must have caused her excruciating
+pain. Her face was badly burned and disfigured. Miss Corrigan was burned
+almost beyond recognition. She was not identified until after the identity
+of Viola's body had been established through a card which she carried in
+the pocket of her dress.</p>
+
+<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_150" id="Page_150">[Pg 150]</a></span>The funerals of two friends who had perished together in the fire met in
+Forest Home cemetery when Mrs. Floy Irene Olson of 835 Walnut street and
+Bessie M. Stafford were buried in graves not thirty feet apart. The two
+women had been life-long friends and were co-workers in the Warren Avenue
+Congregational church. Rev. Frank G. Smith conducted the services over
+each of the bodies.</p>
+
+
+<p>&nbsp;</p>
+<p class="center">EDWARD AND MARGARET DEE.</p>
+
+<p>Rev. Father Quinn of St. James' Roman Catholic church, conducted the
+obsequies for Edward Mansfield and Margaret Louise Dee, the children of
+William Dee, at the residence, 3133 Wabash avenue. The funeral procession
+was the largest ever seen on the south side for children, seventy-five
+carriages following the white hearse that bore the two white caskets.</p>
+
+
+<p>&nbsp;</p>
+<p class="center">MISS E. D. MANN AND NIECE.</p>
+
+<p>Miss Emma D. Mann, supervisor of music in the Chicago public schools, and
+her niece, Olive Squires, 14 years old, were buried at Rosehill after
+impressive ceremonies at the Centenary Methodist Episcopal church. Miss
+Mann had been connected with the schools of the city for many years.</p>
+
+
+<p>&nbsp;</p>
+<p class="center">ELLA AND EDYTH FRECKLETON.</p>
+
+<p>The funeral services over the remains of Ella and Edyth Freckleton,
+daughters of William J. Freckleton, 5632 Peoria street, were conducted by
+Rev. R. Keene Ryan at Boulevard hall, Fifty-fifth and Halsted streets.
+More than 2,000 persons were in the hall and 500 others stood in the
+street for hours waiting for the funeral cortege to pass on its way to
+Oakwoods, where interment was made.</p>
+
+
+<p>&nbsp;</p>
+<p class="center">MISS FRANCES LEHMAN.</p>
+
+<p>Hundreds of pupils of the Nash school, Forty-ninth avenue and Ohio street,
+members of the Ridgeland fire department and<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_151" id="Page_151">[Pg 151]</a></span> a delegation of employes of
+the Cicero and Proviso Electric Street railway attended the funeral
+services over the remains of Miss Frances Lehman, at the residence of her
+parents, 525 North Austin avenue, in the morning. Rev. Clayton Youker,
+pastor of the Euclid Avenue Methodist Episcopal church, officiating. Many
+beautiful floral tributes were sent by the teachers and the pupils of the
+Nash school.</p>
+
+<p>And so during this Sabbath of woe, tragedies of life and death such as
+these, but far too numerous to be all recorded, were being enacted in all
+parts of the stricken city. Although nature had bestowed upon the
+countless mourners a day bright and clear, their spirits were dark with
+sorrow and for years to come their memories will revert to that time as
+the saddest of their lives; and those whose dear ones were not among the
+dead, if their natures were blessed with any sympathy whatever, were
+oppressed, as never before, with the heavy burden which others must bear.</p>
+
+
+
+<p>&nbsp;</p><p>&nbsp;</p>
+<hr style="width: 50%;" />
+<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_152" id="Page_152">[Pg 152]</a></span></p>
+<h2><a name="CHAPTER_XII" id="CHAPTER_XII"></a>CHAPTER XII.</h2>
+<p class="title">WHAT OF THE PLAYERS?</p>
+
+
+<p>Never before in the history of amusements has so excellent an opportunity
+been afforded to look behind the scenes of the mimic world and study the
+real life of the actor. To one and all, whether religionist unalterably
+opposed to the theater and all its ramifications, or the devotee finding
+life's chiefest pleasures contributed by musician and mummer, the stage
+looms up a mystic realm, affording more interest and comment than almost
+any other department of earthly effort.</p>
+
+<p>When Shakespeare wrote "See the players well bestowed" in his immortal
+masterpiece, "Hamlet," the term player meant something very different from
+what it does today. In this day and age it is not only the poetic,
+lofty-minded and learned tragedian who is rightfully accorded the title
+"actor," but through time-honored custom and common usage the specialty
+performer, slap-stick comedian and the interesting chorus girl are
+recognized as members of the "profession"; and be it noted, although a sad
+commentary on the stage, they far outnumber those of the old, legitimate
+school.</p>
+
+<p>So it is that in dealing with the player folk, to whom the terrifying
+Iroquois experience was but an incident in a long career of vicissitudes
+unknown to those who make up the great commercial, industrial and
+agricultural world, it is necessary to consider the sleek, well-groomed
+executive staff, the better-paid and more widely-known stellar lights of
+the "Mr. Bluebeard" company, the less distinguished principals, both men<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_153" id="Page_153">[Pg 153]</a></span>
+and women, the struggling chorus boy, the saucy, piquant and greatly
+envied chorus girl and a small army of unheard-of yet equally important
+stage mechanics.</p>
+
+<p>Upwards of 150 persons&mdash;a little world of their own&mdash;made up the company
+that found its merry-making tour brought to a sudden termination by a
+blast that came upon them like a visitation from the bottomless pit. What
+they endured, what conditions the fatal fire imposed upon them, will never
+be fully known or appreciated. Merry minstrels in name, but homeless,
+purposeless wanderers in fact, the dead sweep of the elements tore asunder
+their little universe and left them stranded and more purposeless still,
+practically penniless and among strangers, overburdened with their own
+woes.</p>
+
+<p>With such an organization as "Mr. Bluebeard" there are to be found two or
+three fortunate mortals, whose powers to amuse and whose popularity with
+the amusement-loving public place their salaries at a figure anywhere
+between $150 and $300 a week. In this particular company "Eddie Foy," in
+private life Edward Fitzgerald, stood out preeminently as such a player.
+Then came more than a score of principals whose salaries will range from
+$60 to $150 a week, depending entirely upon ability and the extent to
+which fortune has favored them in casting the various parts, as the
+characters are known. Next in order are the less important people, who
+play "bits" (very unimportant parts), and who act as understudies for the
+principals, ready to replace them in an emergency. They are largely
+graduates from the chorus or comparative novices in the profession. Their
+compensation may be from $30 to $50 a week, according to beauty, grace and
+general usefulness.</p>
+
+<p>All have their railroad fares paid and their baggage <span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_154" id="Page_154">[Pg 154]</a></span>transported at the
+expense of the management. They are required to furnish their own
+wardrobe, however, in many instances an item of no small expense.</p>
+
+
+<p>&nbsp;</p>
+<p class="center">THE CHORUS GIRL.</p>
+
+<p>And then&mdash;the chorus girl! No living creature excites such general
+curiosity, interest, and perhaps admiration and envy, as this footlight
+queen. She is popularly supposed to devote her time exclusively to
+delightful promenades with susceptible "Johnnies" in the millionaire
+class, automobile rides, after-the-show wine suppers and all manner and
+form of unconventional and soul-stirring diversions that for her more
+sedate and useful sister, the ordinary American girl, would mean to be
+ostracized socially. Hers is generally regarded as a voluptuous life of
+music, mirth and color, an endless, extravagant pursuit of pleasure.</p>
+
+<p>To the wide, wide world her triumphs and escapades are heralded by
+newspaper, press agent, and the callow youth of the land, who regard
+themselves as "real sports" and clamor for an opportunity to provide a
+supper for one of the chorus at the expense of going without cigarettes
+for the rest of the month.</p>
+
+<p>Whoever hears of the little, disorderly bunk of a room the chorus girl's
+salary provides her with at some cheap hotel; of her struggles for
+existence during the months she is out of employment almost every season;
+of the glass of beer and nibble of free lunch that is often her only meal
+during the long weeks of endless rehearsal that precede the opening of the
+show, when absolutely without income she lives on her scant savings, what
+she can borrow, and hope and anticipation of what is in store when the
+tour begins! For three or four weeks she rehearses morning and afternoon
+while the production<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_155" id="Page_155">[Pg 155]</a></span> is being put in shape. No salaries are paid during
+that period, and it is a particularly soft-hearted manager who allows the
+girl carfare. Most of the day there are marches, dances and evolutions to
+be gone through with maddening monotony. She must remain on her feet, for
+chairs are few about stages, and courtesy scant so far as chorus people
+are concerned.</p>
+
+<p>And at night, when she goes home worn with effort, there are songs to be
+learned, and then to be repeated over and over again in chorus the next
+day, to the accompaniment of a battered and expressionless piano shoved
+into the brightest spot on the gloomy half-dark stage, or, if there be no
+such thing, placed in the orchestra pit, where the musical director can
+enjoy the advantage of an electric light.</p>
+
+
+<p>&nbsp;</p>
+<p class="center">THE MUSICAL DIRECTOR.</p>
+
+<p>The musical director! What an autocrat he is! His rules are arbitrary and
+irrevocable. His criticism stings and burns. He is tired, overworked and
+under the strain of responsibility for the successful development of the
+aggregation of young men and women who confront him, and who appear to him
+weighted down with all the stupidity naturally intended for distribution
+among a vastly larger number of individuals. He swears, raves, coaxes as
+his moods change. He weeds out one here and engages a new member there.
+And with every change the difficulties increase. The tunes that seem so
+inspiring when heard from the comfort of a parquet seat grow dreary to
+those who are living with them hourly during this period. The "catchy"
+songs become so much hateful drivel and maddening nonsense, when done over
+and over again to the inspiring declaration of the half-crazed director
+that "the<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_156" id="Page_156">[Pg 156]</a></span> whole bunch ought to go back to the farm, back to the dishpan."</p>
+
+<p>It is a tired, world-worn, weary creature that creeps away after such a
+rehearsal&mdash;a woman who would be hard to recognize as the sprightly,
+dashing blonde in blue tights, who tosses her head saucily in the third
+act and sets the hearts of the youth of the one-night-stands aflame a few
+weeks later.</p>
+
+
+<p>&nbsp;</p>
+<p class="center">THE JOY OF THE OPENING.</p>
+
+<p>At last the chaos and confusion end, the great mass of detail is blended
+into a production and the stage manager begins his term of storming and
+fussing. The dress rehearsal is called, the shimmering silken costumes are
+donned and all hands are agreeably surprised to find that there really is
+a plot to the piece and some rhyme and reason behind the efforts of the
+few preceding weeks' labor. The opening is at hand.</p>
+
+<p>What joy it brings to all, both those of high and low degree. Brave
+costumes, light, color and a mellow orchestra, in place of the old tin-pan
+of a piano, work great changes in their spirits. And best of all&mdash;salaries
+begin. To the chorus girl it means from $18 to $25 a week, and if she be
+particularly clever perhaps a little more. That is hers, free from all
+charges for transportation, baggage delivery or the furnishing or
+maintenance of wardrobe. She must furnish her own "make-up" of paints,
+powder and cosmetics, to be sure, and of this she uses no small amount;
+but that is a minor expense.</p>
+
+<p>The opening over, the critics of the press either praise or flay the
+production&mdash;something that means much in determining what its future will
+be. For a few weeks, possibly a month or two, it remains the attraction at
+the theater where it had its birth. Conditions become pleasanter, yet a
+vast<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_157" id="Page_157">[Pg 157]</a></span> amount of rehearsing continues in order to bring about improvement
+or make changes in the personnel of the company. Every time a girl drops
+out, voluntarily or otherwise, her successor must be put through the ropes
+in order to be able to replace her. That means all those in the same
+scenes must go through the dreary details again. In fact, from the time
+such a show opens until it closes rehearsals never really cease, the
+causes necessitating them being almost without number.</p>
+
+
+<p>&nbsp;</p>
+<p class="center">SPENDTHRIFT HABITS.</p>
+
+<p>During the "run" in the opening house the chorus girl has a chance to live
+at comparatively small expense. She may pay off her small debts, if she is
+troubled with a conscience. What is far more important, she can replenish
+her threadbare street wardrobe, for it is an unwritten managerial law that
+all stage people must dress well both on and off the stage. So when the
+"run" terminates and the road tour begins, nearly all the company are
+pretty short financially, although they may be even with the world if they
+are particularly fortunate. All actors are naturally "spenders." Their
+mode of life compels it. With few family ties, the majority without a
+home, their every expense is double that of the every-day sort of a man.
+Their meeting place and their lounging place, whether it be for business
+or social reasons, is necessarily the hotel or the bar. Under those
+conditions it would be difficult for the most conservative to cultivate
+frugality or economy. And actors have never been known to injure
+themselves in an effort to attain either unless under stress of temporary
+compulsion.</p>
+
+
+<p>&nbsp;</p>
+<p class="center">GAMBLING, PURE AND SIMPLE.</p>
+
+<p>Perhaps the show has made a "hit." Perhaps not. One can never tell in
+advance, for it is gambling, pure and simple, so<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_158" id="Page_158">[Pg 158]</a></span> the oldest managers
+openly assert. If it proves a failure all the capital, labor and trouble
+has been thrown away like a flash in the pan. The actors arrive some night
+to find the house dark, the box-office receipts, scenery and properties
+seized on an attachment, and their salaries and prospects gone. What
+happens then with weeks, possibly months, of idleness ahead of them, can
+be better imagined than described. Somehow, the people struggle through
+and survive and bob up to face the same experience again. It is hard
+enough on the principals with good salaries and friends purchased through
+profligate expenditure of their money when all was sunshine and
+prosperity, but it is a worse blow to the chorus. Yet they pass through
+seemingly unscathed. They are used to it and know how.</p>
+
+<p>But this is a dreary side of the picture, and all productions are by no
+means doomed to flunk; those that do not go forth upon the road with a
+flourish of trumpets, the glitter and glamor of carloads of courts and
+palaces of canvas, tinsel and papier-mache and with everyone looking
+forward to the rapid acquirement of a fortune. Verily, your actor is a
+born optimist. Were it not for ambition, hope, egotism and inherent love
+of publicity, notoriety and admiration, where would the stage get its
+recruits?</p>
+
+
+<p>&nbsp;</p>
+<p class="center">THE SHOW ON THE ROAD.</p>
+
+<p>After the production has taken to the road it may still prove a
+"frost"&mdash;the theatrical term for failure. Then it is the same grim story,
+with additional discouragements. There are cold, clammy hotelkeepers whose
+one anxiety is to see their bills paid, and commercially inclined
+railroads who will transport none, not even actors, without payment in
+something more tangible than promises. Then comes the benefit
+<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_159" id="Page_159">[Pg 159]</a></span>performance, the appeal to local lodges of orders the actors may be
+identified with and the mad scramble to induce the railroad to carry the
+people home "on their trunks." If they can get their baggage out of the
+hotels the performers usually find it possible to secure transportation by
+leaving their trunks with the railroads as a pawn to be released when they
+raise money enough to settle the bill. Surely a pleasant prospect&mdash;to go
+"home" penniless and without personal effects, clothing or even prospects.</p>
+
+<p>And all this time where is the manager? He may have fled in desperation
+with the few dollars that came into his hands the preceding night, or he
+may be shut up in his room worse off than his employes. It all depends
+upon circumstances.</p>
+
+<p>All shows do not meet disaster on the road, however. Yet there is always
+the distressing possibility to confront the actor. Many go on their glad,
+successful way, for a time, like "Mr. Bluebeard," piling up profits and
+bringing joy to the hearts of managers and owners and continued employment
+to the players. Yet even then all is not as roseate as might be thought
+from a casual glance taken from the front. There are epidemics, railroad
+accidents, hotel fires and all manner of emergencies to be considered, not
+to speak of the one-night stand.</p>
+
+
+<p>&nbsp;</p>
+<p class="center">THE ONE-NIGHT STAND.</p>
+
+<p>Of all the terrors the actor faces the one-night stand is the worst. That
+is the technical name applied to the city or town where the company lights
+for a single performance as it flits across the continent. It is almost
+impossible to so route an attraction that its time will be placed
+exclusively in large cities, so they fall back on the one-night stand.
+Imagine the joy of leaving Chicago Sunday morning, playing at South<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_160" id="Page_160">[Pg 160]</a></span>
+Chicago Sunday afternoon and evening, taking a train after the performance
+and jogging into Michigan City, Ind., with the early dawn, catching a bit
+of sleep during the day, playing at night and skipping out for Logansport.
+With the same programme at Logansport, Fort Wayne, Richmond, and Lima,
+Mansfield or Dayton, Ohio, the company is within striking distance of
+Cleveland, Cincinnati, Louisville or Indianapolis, as its bookings may
+elect. And that is precisely what they all do. This is a sample week. It
+is not an uncommon thing for a big attraction to cover two or three weeks
+of unbroken one-night stands, and those going to and from the Pacific
+coast are often compelled to play four and five, without the friendly
+relief of an engagement covering a week.</p>
+
+<p>Truly life under these circumstances is a horror. Train-worn, broken in
+rest, with scarcely opportunity to unpack to change their linen, such
+weeks mean to the performer an existence not calculated to tempt recruits
+to the profession. To the principal, stopping at the best hotels and
+making use of sleeping cars whenever possible, it is wearing enough and a
+burden. To the chorus girl, it is a hideous nightmare. Out of her meager
+salary she must pay during such weeks from $1.25 to $1.75 a day for hotel
+accommodations that are far from tempting. She is driven to resort to
+sleepers through self-preservation at an average of $2 a night for long
+night trips, and her laundry and other incidental expenses mount up into
+startling figures. Her clothing is ruined by almost ceaseless crushing
+aboard trains, and unless she be thoroughly broken to such a life she is
+wrecked physically.</p>
+
+<p>&nbsp;<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_161" id="Page_161">[Pg 161]</a></span></p>
+<div class="bbox" style="width: 353px; height: 500px;"><img src="images/img15.jpg" alt="" /></div>
+<p class="caption">AMBULANCE LOADED WITH FIRE VICTIMS.</p>
+
+<p>&nbsp;<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_162" id="Page_162">[Pg 162]</a></span></p>
+<div class="bbox" style="width: 303px; height: 500px;"><img src="images/img16.jpg" alt="" /></div>
+<p class="caption">ARCH AT TOP OF STAIRWAY<br />PACKED WITH DEAD.</p>
+
+<p>&nbsp;<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_163" id="Page_163">[Pg 163]</a></span></p>
+<div class="bbox" style="width: 306px; height: 500px;"><img src="images/img17.jpg" alt="" /></div>
+<p class="caption">CARRYING OUT SOME DEAD,<br />SOME STILL LIVING.</p>
+
+<p>&nbsp;<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_164" id="Page_164">[Pg 164]</a></span></p>
+<div class="bbox" style="width: 308px; height: 500px;"><img src="images/img18.jpg" alt="" /></div>
+<p class="caption">FIREMEN CARRYING OUT<br />THE DEAD CHILDREN.</p>
+
+<p>&nbsp;<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_165" id="Page_165">[Pg 165]</a></span></p>
+<div class="bbox" style="width: 308px; height: 500px;"><img src="images/img19.jpg" alt="" /></div>
+<p class="caption">HEROIC RESCUE OF THE LIVING<br />BY CHICAGO FIREMEN.</p>
+
+<p>&nbsp;<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_166" id="Page_166">[Pg 166]</a></span></p>
+<div class="bbox" style="width: 308px; height: 500px;"><img src="images/img20.jpg" alt="" /></div>
+<p class="caption">SCENE IN DEATH ALLEY&mdash;<br />REAR OF THE THEATRE.</p>
+
+<p>&nbsp;<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_167" id="Page_167">[Pg 167]</a></span></p>
+<div class="bbox" style="width: 299px; height: 500px;"><img src="images/img21.jpg" alt="" /></div>
+<p class="caption">CARRYING OUT BODIES<br />FROM SECOND BALCONY.</p>
+
+<p>&nbsp;<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_168" id="Page_168">[Pg 168]</a></span></p>
+<div class="bbox" style="width: 305px; height: 500px;"><img src="images/img22.jpg" alt="" /></div>
+<p class="caption">MISS NELLIE REED,<br />Leader of the Flying Ballet,<br />killed by the fire.</p>
+
+<p>&nbsp;<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_169" id="Page_169">[Pg 169]</a></span></p>
+<div class="bbox" style="width: 303px; height: 500px;"><img src="images/img23.jpg" alt="" /></div>
+<p class="caption">FIREMEN HELPING THE CHORUS GIRLS<br />OUT OF THE THEATER.</p>
+
+<p>&nbsp;<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_170" id="Page_170">[Pg 170]</a></span></p>
+<div class="bbox" style="width: 406px; height: 500px;"><img src="images/img24.jpg" alt="" /></div>
+<p class="caption">PHOTOGRAPH OF THE STAGE<br />OF THE THEATER IN RUINS.</p>
+
+<p>&nbsp;<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_171" id="Page_171">[Pg 171]</a></span></p>
+<div class="bbox" style="width: 600px; height: 463px;"><img src="images/img25.jpg" alt="" /></div>
+<p class="caption">FRONT OF THEATER, PILING DEAD IN THE STREET.</p>
+
+<p>&nbsp;<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_172" id="Page_172">[Pg 172]</a></span></p>
+<div class="bbox" style="width: 600px; height: 371px;"><img src="images/img26.jpg" alt="" /></div>
+<p class="caption">IN THE THEATER, DOORS LOCKED, PANIC, FIRE, AND DEATH.</p>
+
+<p>&nbsp;<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_173" id="Page_173">[Pg 173]</a></span></p>
+<div class="bbox" style="width: 600px; height: 366px;"><img src="images/img27.jpg" alt="" /></div>
+<p class="caption">INSIDE THE IROQUOIS THEATER WHILE THE FIRE RAGED.</p>
+
+<p>&nbsp;<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_174" id="Page_174">[Pg 174]</a></span></p>
+<div class="bbox" style="width: 600px; height: 473px;"><img src="images/img28.jpg" alt="" /></div>
+<p class="caption">LOOKING FOR HER CHILDREN AMONG THE DEAD.</p>
+
+<p>&nbsp;<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_175" id="Page_175">[Pg 175]</a></span></p>
+<div class="bbox" style="width: 600px; height: 386px;"><img src="images/img29.jpg" alt="" /></div>
+<p class="caption">A LINE OF VICTIMS OF THE FIRE AWAITING IDENTIFICATION.</p>
+
+<p>&nbsp;<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_176" id="Page_176">[Pg 176]</a></span></p>
+<div class="figcenter"><img src="images/img30.jpg" alt="" /></div>
+<p class="caption">DIAGRAM SHOWING HOW PEOPLE GOT OUT OF THE GALLERY.</p>
+<p>&nbsp;</p>
+
+
+<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_177" id="Page_177">[Pg 177]</a></span>When she reaches a big city again she can once more creep to bed after her
+work at midnight and find in unbroken hours of sleep balm for all she has
+passed through. She may secure a decent room at a second or third class
+European hotel for $6 a week and buy her meals where she chooses. If some
+callow youth buys them for her in consideration of the pleasure of basking
+in her smiles, she is that much ahead. She can live within her means in
+the city and save money&mdash;if she wants to. But she seldom does, and no one
+can blame her, for she feels that nothing save the pleasures secured by
+extravagance can compensate her for what she has lost&mdash;comfort, repose,
+dignity, social recognition, and, most of all, home.</p>
+
+<p>These same conditions are experienced to a varying degree by all players
+save those within the sacred circle drawn by the finger of phenomenal
+success. That small handful with private cars, lackies and all the
+comforts of a portable home, is so insignificant in number that it
+requires no consideration here.</p>
+
+
+<p>&nbsp;</p>
+<p class="center">THE "MR. BLUEBEARD" COMPANY.</p>
+
+<p>In the best and most prosperous organizations, such as "Mr. Bluebeard"
+was, life is not all sunshine and roses. To be true, its members escaped
+the manifold terrors of playing in the barns to be found in many large
+one-night stands and dressing in their stalls, dignified by the term
+dressing-rooms. The women were not compelled to dress and undress behind
+inclosures made of flimsy scenery with a sheet thrown over for additional
+protection. Nor did they have to live in the barn-like hotels many such
+towns boast. But they had their own troubles, such as they were. The
+chorus girls did not escape having to be thrown into involuntary contact
+with all classes and conditions of mankind, nor did they avoid the sharp
+social distinction drawn by the principals in all organizations.</p>
+
+<p>Only a few weeks before the Iroquois horror they passed through a serious
+fire scare in the theater where they were playing in Cleveland, an
+experience that for the moment promised to rival the one that finally
+overtook them. Flames in<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_178" id="Page_178">[Pg 178]</a></span> the scenery endangered their lives, but the fire
+was extinguished. Therefore the incident "amounted to nothing" and little
+or nothing was heard about it.</p>
+
+<p>When the dread hour arrived at the Iroquois, the majority lost their all.
+It was not to be expected they would leave their jewelry and money about
+hotels of which they knew little. Quite naturally, they took both to their
+dressing-rooms. Many were on the stage when the cry of fire came, and were
+fortunate to escape with their lives, without thought of clothing, money
+or jewelry, all of which were swept away. With employment, valuables,
+everything gone save their hotel baggage, they were in a sorry plight,
+indeed. But with the optimism that only the actor knows they rejoiced in
+their escape from the fate that overtook little Nellie Reed and from the
+terrible scars and burns suffered by many of their number.</p>
+
+<p>A score of their number were under arrest, held as witnesses, men and
+women alike. The management came to their relief to the extent of
+furnishing bonds that secured their temporary release. Klaw and Erlanger
+also furnished transportation back to New York for such as were at liberty
+to go. Then another obstacle arose. Few had the means to settle their
+hotel bills, and the proprietors of the places would not release their
+baggage. At this juncture relief came from outside sources. Mrs. Ogden
+Armour provided for the chorus girls, contributing $500 to settle their
+bills. That night over a hundred of the players were headed back to the
+great metropolis they call home, to seek new engagements, and if
+unsuccessful, to do the best they could. And the majority started with
+certain failure staring them in the face.</p>
+
+<p>It was on Sunday, January 3, 1904, four days after the fire, that the
+members of the "Mr. Bluebeard" company turned their faces homeward, for to
+all players New York is "home."<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_179" id="Page_179">[Pg 179]</a></span> Just before the train started a plain
+white box was put on board the baggage car. It contained all that was
+mortal of Nellie Reed, the sprightly little girl who had delighted scores
+of thousands by her mid-air flights from the stage at each performance.</p>
+
+<p>It was her last railroad "jump." Poor little thing, still in her early
+teens, she closed her earthly career with the close of the show, and went
+back "home" with it! If the future has for her any further flights they
+will be of celestial character, and not through the agency of an invisible
+wire such as guided her above the heads of Iroquois theater audiences and
+which was at first thought to have interfered with the fall of the curtain
+and to have been directly responsible for the appalling holocaust.</p>
+
+<p>It was a sad departure. Nearly 150 persons comprised the "Mr. Bluebeard"
+party, and nearly as many more took the trip from "The Billionaire"
+company, also owned by the same management. Only a day or two before the
+fire that closed the "Bluebeard" show death had laid its hand heavily upon
+"The Billionaire," playing at the Illinois theater only a few blocks
+distant. "The Billionaire" himself died&mdash;big, rollicking Jerome Sykes, who
+made famous the part "Foxy Quiller" and the opera of that name and who a
+few years ago made such a hit as the fat boy in "An American Beauty" that
+he outshone Lillian Russell, its star. Sykes contracted a cold at a
+Christmas celebration for the members of the two companies and when he
+died the production died with him.</p>
+
+<p>So with the Iroquois catastrophe there were two big, obviously successful,
+companies wiped out of the theatrical world at one blow and without
+notice. The members of each had half a week's salary due; that was their
+all. It was promptly paid and with that and their tickets all set forth in
+the happy<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_180" id="Page_180">[Pg 180]</a></span> possession of their baggage, many through the charity of Mrs.
+Armour.</p>
+
+<p>All&mdash;not quite! There were two members of "The Billionaire" who did not
+make the last "jump," two who were in the audience at the Iroquois and
+perished in the maelstrom of flame and smoke. The curtain had been rung
+down for them forever. They, at least, would know no more of pitiful
+quests for engagements, of wearying rehearsal and momentary, superficial
+conquest. They had played their last stand.</p>
+
+<p>"This is the saddest day of my life," declared one of the chorus members
+in the presence of the writer. "Here I am, 1,000 miles from home, no
+prospects of another engagement this season, and only $5 in the world."</p>
+
+<p>"I have less than you," said a frail appearing girl, with tears in her
+eyes. "I lost my savings, $22, in the fire, and I have only $3 to go home
+with."</p>
+
+<p>"It is the life of the stage," said a matronly wardrobe woman. "The poor
+girls are penniless, and if the injured were left hind it would be as
+charity patients. The responsibility of the managers of the show ceases
+when the production is closed. I know many of these girls are without
+sufficient money to pay for a week's lodging, and it is a sad outlook for
+some of them this winter."</p>
+
+<p>And the wardrobe woman told the truth&mdash;it was merely a striking example, a
+pitiful vicissitude of "the life of the stage."</p>
+
+
+
+<p>&nbsp;</p><p>&nbsp;</p>
+<hr style="width: 50%;" />
+<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_181" id="Page_181">[Pg 181]</a></span></p>
+<h2><a name="CHAPTER_XIII" id="CHAPTER_XIII"></a>CHAPTER XIII.</h2>
+<p class="title">OTHER HOLOCAUSTS.</p>
+
+
+<p>Since the time that civilized man first met with fellow man to enjoy the
+work of the primitive playwright, humanity has paid a toll of human life
+for its amusements. Oftener than history tells the tiny flicker of a
+tongue of flame has thrown a gay, laughing audience into a wild,
+struggling mob, and instead of the curtain which would have been rung down
+on the comedy on the stage, a pall of black smoke covered the struggles of
+the living and dying.</p>
+
+<p>Of all the theater disasters of history, none ever occurred in America
+equaling the loss of life in the Iroquois fire. Only two in the history of
+the civilized world surpass it. There have been fires accompanied by
+greater loss of life, but not among theater audiences.</p>
+
+<p>But the grand total of persons killed in theater holocausts is large and
+the saddest comment on this list is that most of the victims were from
+holiday audiences of women and children. Lehman's playhouse in St.
+Petersburg, Russia, was destroyed in Christmas week, 1836, and 700 persons
+lost their lives. The Ring theater, Vienna, Austria, was destroyed Dec. 8,
+1881, and 875 persons lost their lives. These are the only theater
+holocausts whose deadliness surpasses that of the Iroquois.</p>
+
+<p>To all have been the same accompaniments of panic, futile struggle and
+suffocation. In the last century with the introduction of the modern style
+of playhouse, these fatal fires have<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_182" id="Page_182">[Pg 182]</a></span> increased. The annals of the stage
+are replete with dark pages that cause the tragedy of the mimic drama
+depicted behind the footlights to pale and shrivel into comparative
+nothingness.</p>
+
+<p>Perhaps it is a fatal legacy from the time when civilized society gathered
+in its marble coliseums and amphitheaters to witness the mortal combats of
+human soldiers or the death struggles of Christians waging a vain battle
+against famished wild beasts. Whatever it may be, death has always stalked
+as the dread companion of the god of the muse and drama.</p>
+
+<p>An English statistician published six years ago a list of fires at places
+of public entertainment in all countries in the preceding century. He
+showed that there had been 1,100 conflagrations, with 10,000 fatalities,
+and he apologized for the incompleteness of his figures. Another authority
+says that in the twelve years from 1876 to 1888 not less than 1,700 were
+killed in theater disasters in Brooklyn, Nice, Vienna, Paris, Exeter and
+Oporto, and that in every case nearly all the victims were dead within ten
+minutes from the time the smoke and flame from the stage reached the
+auditorium. As in the Iroquois fire, it was mainly in the balconies and
+galleries that death held its revels.</p>
+
+<p>Fire wrought havoc at Rome in the Amphitheater in the year 14 B. C., and
+the Circus Maximus was similarly destroyed three times in the first
+century of the Christian era. Three other theaters were razed by flames in
+the same period, and Pompeii's was burned again almost two centuries
+later, but the exact loss of life is not recorded in either instance. The
+Greek playhouses, built of stone in open spaces, were never endangered by
+fire.</p>
+
+<p>No theaters were built on the modern plan until in the sixteenth century
+in France, and not until the seventeenth did any catastrophe worthy of
+record occur. When Shakespeare<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_183" id="Page_183">[Pg 183]</a></span> lived plays were generally produced in
+temporary structures, sometimes merely raised platforms in open squares,
+and it was after his time that scenic effects began to be amplified and
+the use of illuminants increased. Thus it was that dangers, both to
+players and auditors, were vastly increased.</p>
+
+<p>In the Teatro Atarazanas, in Seville, Spain, many people were killed and
+injured at a fire in 1615. The first conflagration of this kind in England
+worth noting happened in 1672, when the Theater Royal, or Drury Lane,
+standing on the site of the playhouse in which "Mr. Bluebeard" was
+produced before it was brought to Chicago, was burned to the ground. Sixty
+other buildings were destroyed, but no loss of life is recorded.</p>
+
+<p>Two hundred and ten people lost their lives and the whole Castle of
+Amalienborg, in Copenhagen, was laid in ashes in 1689 from a rocket that
+ignited the scenery in the opera house. Eighteen persons perished at the
+theater in the Kaizersgracht, Amsterdam, in 1772, and six years later the
+Teatro Colisseo, at Saragossa, Spain, went up in flames and seventy-seven
+lives were lost. The governor of the province was among the victims.
+Twenty players were suffocated in the burning of the Palais Royal in Paris
+in 1781.</p>
+
+<p>In the nineteenth century there were twelve theater fires marked by great
+loss of life, and the first of these occurred in the United States. At
+Richmond, on the day after Christmas in 1811, a benefit performance of
+"Agnes and Raymond, or the Bleeding Nun," was being given, and the theater
+was filled with a wealthy and fashionable audience. The governor of
+Virginia, George W. Smith, ex-United States Senator Venable, and other
+prominent persons were in the audience and were numbered among the seventy
+victims. The last act was on when the careless hoisting of a stage
+chandelier with lighted<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_184" id="Page_184">[Pg 184]</a></span> candles set fire to the scenery. Most of those
+killed met death in the jam at the doors.</p>
+
+<p>The Lehman Theater and circus in St. Petersburg was the scene of a fire in
+1836, in which 800 people perished. A stage lamp hung high ignited the
+roof, a panic ensued, and there was such a mad rush that most of the
+people slew each other trying to get out. Those not trampled to death were
+incinerated by the fire that rapidly enveloped the temporary wooden
+building.</p>
+
+<p>A lighted lamp, upset in a wing, caused a stampede in the Royal Theater,
+Quebec, June 12, 1846, and 100 people were either burned or crushed into
+lifelessness. The exits were poor and the playhouse was built of
+combustible material. Less than a year later the Grand Ducal Theater at
+Carlsruhe, Baden, Germany, was destroyed by a fire, due to the careless
+lighting of the gas in the grand ducal box. Most of the 150 victims were
+suffocated. Between fifty and one hundred people met a fiery death in the
+Teatro degli Aquidotti at Leghorn, Italy, June 7, 1857. Fireworks were
+being used on the stage and a rocket set fire to the scenery.</p>
+
+<p>One of the most serious fires from the standpoint of loss of life was that
+in the Jesuit church of Santiago, South America, in 1863. Fire broke out
+in the building during service. A panic started and the efforts of the
+priests to calm the immense crowd and lead them quietly from the edifice
+were vain. The few doors became jammed with a struggling mass of men,
+women and children. The next day 2,000 bodies were taken from the church,
+most of them suffocated or trampled to death.</p>
+
+<p>The Brooklyn theater fire was long memorable in this country. Songs,
+funeral marches and poems without number were written commemorating the
+sad event. Vastly different from<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_185" id="Page_185">[Pg 185]</a></span> the Iroquois horror, most of the victims
+of the Brooklyn theater were burned beyond recognition. At Greenwood
+cemetery in Brooklyn there now stands a marble shaft to the unidentified
+victims of the holocaust.</p>
+
+<p>Kate Claxton was playing "The Two Orphans" at Conway's Theater in Brooklyn
+on the night of Dec. 5, 1876. In the last scene of the last act Miss
+Claxton, as Louise, the poor blind girl, had just lain down on her pallet
+of straw, when she saw above her in the flies a tiny flame. An actor of
+the name of Murdoch, on the stage with her, saw it about the same time,
+and was so excited that he began to stammer his lines. Miss Claxton tried
+to reassure him and partly succeeded.</p>
+
+<p>Then the audience realized that the theater was on fire, and a movement
+began. The star, with Mr. Murdoch and Mrs. Farren, joined hands, walked to
+the footlights and begged the audience to go out in an orderly manner.
+"You see, we are between you and the fire," said Miss Claxton. The people
+were proceeding quietly, when a man's voice shouted, "It is time to be out
+of this," and every one seemed seized with a frenzy. The main entrance
+doors opened inwardly, and there was such a jam that these could not be
+manipulated.</p>
+
+<p>The crowds from the galleries rushed down the stairways and fell or jumped
+headlong into the struggling mass below. Of the 1,000 people in the
+theater 297 perished. They were either burned, suffocated or trampled to
+death. The actor Murdoch was one of the victims.</p>
+
+<p>That same year, 1876, a panic resulted in the Chinese theater of San
+Francisco from a cry of fire. A lighted cigar which someone playfully
+dropped into a spectator's coat pocket caused a smell of burning wool. The
+audience became panic stricken and rushed madly for the exits. At the time
+there<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_186" id="Page_186">[Pg 186]</a></span> were about 900 Americans in the auditorium, and of this number
+one-quarter were seriously injured. The fire itself was of no consequence.</p>
+
+<p>The destruction of the Ring theater at Vienna, Dec. 8, 1881, remains the
+greatest horror of the kind in the history of civilization. It was
+preceded on March 23 of the same year, by the burning of the Municipal
+theater in Nice, Italy, caused by an explosion of gas, and in which
+between 150 and 200 people perished miserably, but the magnitude of the
+Vienna holocaust made the world forget Nice for the time. The feast of the
+Immaculate Conception was being celebrated by the Viennese, and
+Offenbach's "Les Contes d'Hoffman," an opera bouffe, was the play. The
+audience numbered 2,500.</p>
+
+<p>Fire was suddenly observed in the scenery, and a wild panic started. An
+iron curtain, designed for just such emergencies, was forgotten, and the
+flames, which might thus have been confined to the stage, spread furiously
+through the entire building. The scene was changed from light-hearted
+revelry, with gladsome music, to one of lurid horror.</p>
+
+<p>The exits from the galleries were long and tortuous and quickly became
+choked. As in the Iroquois theater fire, those who had occupied the
+gallery seats were the ones who lost their lives. But few escaped from the
+galleries. The great majority of the spectators were burned beyond
+recognition by their nearest relatives. One hundred and fifty were so
+charred that they were buried in a common grave, and the city's mourning
+was shared by all the world.</p>
+
+<p>The next fire of this nature to attract the world's attention and sympathy
+was the destruction of the Circus Ferroni at Berditscheff, Russian Poland.
+Four hundred and thirty people were killed and eighty mortally injured.
+Many children were crushed and suffocated in the jam, and horses and
+other<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_187" id="Page_187">[Pg 187]</a></span> trained animals perished by the score. This was on Jan. 13, 1883,
+and the origin of the conflagration was traced to a stableman who smoked a
+cigarette while lying in a heap of straw.</p>
+
+
+<p>&nbsp;</p>
+<p class="center">TWO GREAT PARISIAN HORRORS.</p>
+
+<p>The burning of the Opera Comique in Paris, May 25, 1887, was a spectacular
+horror. Here again an iron curtain that would have protected the audience
+was not lowered. The first act of "Mignon" was on, when the scenery was
+observed to be ablaze. The upper galleries were transformed into infernos,
+in which men knocked other men and women down and trampled them in their
+eagerness to save themselves, while the flames reached out and enveloped
+them all.</p>
+
+<p>Many of the actors and actresses escaped only in their costumes, and some
+rushed nude into the streets. The scenes in the thoroughfares where men
+and women in tights and ball dresses and men in gorgeous theatrical robes
+mingled with the naked, and the dead and dying were strewn about, made a
+picture fantastically terrible. The official list of dead was
+seventy-five, but many others died from the fire's effects.</p>
+
+<p>The theater at Exeter, England, burned Sept. 5, 1887, was ignited from gas
+lights, and so much smoke filled the edifice in a short time that near 200
+were suffocated in their seats. They were found sitting there afterward,
+just as though they were still watching the play. This was the eleventh,
+and the Oporto fire the twelfth of the big conflagrations of the country.
+One hundred and seventy dead were taken from the ruins of the Portuguese
+playhouse after the flames which destroyed it on the evening of March 31,
+1888, had been subdued. Many sailors and marine soldiers in the galleries
+used knives<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_188" id="Page_188">[Pg 188]</a></span> to kill persons standing in their way, and scores of the
+victims were found with their throats cut.</p>
+
+<p>Ten years after the Opera Comique fire occurred the greatest of all
+Parisian horrors, the destruction by flames of the charity bazar, May 4,
+1897. Members of the nobility, and even royalty, were among the victims.
+All of fashionable Paris were under the roof of a temporary wooden edifice
+known to visitors to the exposition of 1889 as "Old Paris." The annual
+bazar in the interest of charity had always been one of the most imposing
+of the spring functions. The wealthy and distinguished, titled and modish
+were there in larger numbers than on any previous occasion.</p>
+
+<p>The fire broke out with a suddenness that so dazed everyone that the small
+chance of escape from the flimsy structure was made even less. Duchesses,
+marquises, countesses, baronesses and grand dames joined in the mad rush
+for the exits. The men present are said to have acted in a particularly
+cowardly manner, knocking down and trampling upon women and children. The
+death list of more than 100 included the Duchesses d'Alencon and De St.
+Didier, the Marquise de Maison, and three barons, three baronesses, one
+count, eleven countesses, one general, five sisters of charity and one
+mother superior. The Duchess d'Alencon was the favorite sister of the
+Empress of Austria and had been a fiance of the mad King Ludwig of
+Bavaria. The Duchess d'Uzes was badly burned. The shock of the news and
+the death of his niece, the Duchess d'Alencon, accounted for the death on
+May 7 of the Duc d'Aumale.</p>
+
+<p>The Gaiety Theater in Milwaukee on November 5, 1869, furnished more than
+thirty victims to the fire fiend, but only two of these were burned to
+death. The Central Theater in Philadelphia was destroyed April 28, 1892,
+and six persons<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_189" id="Page_189">[Pg 189]</a></span> perished. A panic occurred at the Front Street playhouse
+in Baltimore December 27, 1895, among an audience composed entirely of
+Polish Jews. There was no fire, but a woman who had seen a bright light on
+the stage thought there was, and her cries caused a stampede that resulted
+in twenty-four deaths.</p>
+
+<p>Statisticians show that theaters as a rule do not attain an old age, but
+that their average life in all countries is but twenty-two and
+three-fourths years. In the United States the average is but eleven to
+thirteen years, and here almost a third are destroyed before they have
+been built five years. More playhouses feed the flames just prior to and
+after than during performances, because of the added precautions of
+employes.</p>
+
+<p>Two deadly conflagrations occurred in New York in 1900. The first the
+Windsor hotel fire, which resulted in the death of 80 persons. Fire broke
+out in the old hotel on Fifth avenue about midnight. With lightning
+rapidity the flames shot up the light and air shafts, filling the rooms
+with smoke and making them as light as day. The guests suddenly aroused
+from sleep became panic stricken. The fire department was unable to throw
+up ladders and give aid as fast as frightened faces appeared at the
+windows. The result was that many jumped to death. They were picked up
+dead and dying in the streets. Others ran from their rooms into the
+fire-swept hallways and were burned to death.</p>
+
+<p>A short time later fire broke out one afternoon on the docks across the
+river from New York at Hoboken. The fire was on a pier piled high with
+combustible material. It burned like powder, spreading to the ocean liners
+tied to the pier and the efforts of the fire department were not effective
+in checking it. The cables which held the blazing vessels to the piers
+burned through and they drifted into the river, carrying fire and death
+among the shipping. Longshoremen unloading and<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_190" id="Page_190">[Pg 190]</a></span> loading the vessels jumped
+in panic into the river. Others found themselves cut off from both land
+and water by the flames on all sides and were burned like rats in a trap.
+It was estimated that 300 lives were lost. Many bodies were never
+recovered and others were found miles down the river.</p>
+
+<p>Property losses are seldom proportionate to the financial losses from
+fire. In the Iroquois theater fire the property loss was almost
+inconsequential, while at the burning of Moscow by the Russians, Sept. 4,
+1812, the property loss amounted to more than $150,000,000, while no lives
+were lost.</p>
+
+<p>Constantinople, with its squalid and crowded streets, has always been a
+fruitful spot for fires. They are of annual occurrence and as the Turkish
+fire department is a travesty, are usually of considerable magnitude. The
+great fire of that city was in 1729, when 12,000 houses were destroyed and
+7,000 persons burned to death. Aug. 12, 1782, a three days' fire started
+in which 10,000 houses, 50 corn mills and 100 mosques were burned and 100
+lives lost. In February of the same year, 600 houses were burned, and in
+June 7,000 more. Fires are the best safeguards for Constantinople's
+health.</p>
+
+<p>Great Britain has had comparatively few fires. In 1598 one at Tiverton
+destroyed 400 houses and 33 lives. In 1854 50 persons were killed at
+Gateshead. The great fire of London raged from Sept. 2 to 6, 1666. It
+began in a wooden building in Pudding Lane and consumed the buildings on
+436 acres, blotting out 400 streets, 13,200 houses, St. Paul's and 86
+other churches, 58 halls and all public buildings, three of the city gates
+and four stone bridges. The property loss was $53,652,500, while only six
+persons were killed.</p>
+
+<p>Nearly every large city of the United States has had its great fire. That
+of Boston was on Nov. 9 and 10, 1872. Fire<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_191" id="Page_191">[Pg 191]</a></span> started at Summer and Kingston
+streets and 65 acres were burned over. The property loss was about
+$75,000,000 and there was no loss of life.</p>
+
+<p>The great fire in New York began in Merchant street, Dec. 16, 1835. No
+lives were lost, but the property loss was $15,000,000 and 52 acres were
+devastated, 530 buildings being destroyed. Ten years later a much smaller
+fire in the same district caused the death of 35 persons.</p>
+
+<p>July 9, 1850, thirty lives were lost in Philadelphia, and February 8,
+1865, twenty persons were killed by another fire. Large fires in that city
+have almost invariably been accompanied by loss of life.</p>
+
+<p>As the result of a Fourth of July celebration in 1866, nearly half of
+Portland, Md., was swept away by fire. The property loss was $10,000,000,
+but there was no loss of life. In September and October of 1871 forest
+fires raged in Wisconsin and Michigan. An immense territory was swept over
+and more than 1,000 persons lost their lives.</p>
+
+<p>The greatest fire of modern times was the one which started in Chicago,
+October 8, 1871. A strip through the heart of the city, four miles long
+and a mile and a half wide, was burned over. The total loss was
+$196,000,000 and 250 persons lost their lives. By the fire 17,450
+buildings were destroyed and 98,860 persons were made homeless. Within
+four years the entire burned district had been rebuilt.</p>
+
+<p>Fires in Chicago attended with loss of life have been of increasing
+frequency in the past few years. Fire in the Henning &amp; Speed building on
+Dearborn street, in 1900, caused four girls to lose their lives. Since it
+and before the Iroquois disaster have come: The St. Luke Sanitarium
+horror, 10 lives lost, 43 injured; the Doremus laundry explosion, 8 lives
+lost;<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_192" id="Page_192">[Pg 192]</a></span> the American Glucose Sugar refinery blaze, 8 killed; Northwestern
+railroad boiler explosion, 8 killed, Stock Yards boiler explosion, 18
+killed, and about a year ago the Lincoln hotel fire, 14 visiting stockmen
+suffocated.</p>
+
+<p>In view of this terrible array of suffering and death, it would seem that
+no precaution could be too great to avert future calamities. But although
+human life is beyond price, it is probable that the world at large will
+move on very much in the same old way&mdash;an arousing and an upheaval of
+public sentiment for a time after the burned and maimed have been laid
+away, and then a gradual return of carelessness. It would seem impossible,
+however, that the United States could forget for many generations the
+Iroquois disaster, and that it must result in a final reform of all
+arrangements looking to the safety of theater goers.</p>
+
+
+
+<p>&nbsp;</p><p>&nbsp;</p>
+<hr style="width: 50%;" />
+<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_193" id="Page_193">[Pg 193]</a></span></p>
+<h2><a name="CHAPTER_XIV" id="CHAPTER_XIV"></a>CHAPTER XIV.</h2>
+<p class="title">STORIES AND NARRATIVES OF THE HOLOCAUST.</p>
+
+
+<p>From two women who sat within a few feet of the stage when the fire broke
+out in the theater, and who remained calm enough to observe the actual
+beginning of the holocaust, there came one of the most thrilling and
+significant stories of that afternoon of panic.</p>
+
+<p>Mrs. Emma Schweitzler and Mrs. Eva Katherine Clapp Gibson, of Chicago,
+were the two women who told this story. They occupied seats in the fifth
+row of the orchestra circle. Mrs. Schweitzler was the last woman to walk
+out unassisted from the first floor. Mrs. Gibson was carried out badly
+burned.</p>
+
+<p>"The curtain that was run down," said Mrs. Schweitzler, "was the regular
+drop curtain painted with the 'autumn scene,' It was the same curtain that
+was lowered before the show started and the same one used during the
+interval following the first act. No other curtain was lowered.</p>
+
+<p>"As soon as the drop curtain came down it caught fire. A hole appeared at
+the left hand side. Then the blaze spread rapidly, and instantly a great
+blast of hot air came from the stage through the hole in the curtain and
+into the audience. Big pieces of the curtain were loosened by the terrific
+rush of air and were blown into the people's faces. Scores of women and
+children must have been burned to death by these fragments of burning
+grease and paint. I was in the theater until the curtain had entirely
+burned. It went up in the flames as if it had been paper, and did more
+damage than good."</p>
+
+<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_194" id="Page_194">[Pg 194]</a></span>"So far as could be observed from the audience, the asbestos curtain was
+not lowered at all," said Mrs. Schweitzler. "I was particularly interested
+in that 'autumn-scene' curtain because I paint oil pictures myself.</p>
+
+<p>"Before the show started I sat for a long time examining the painting.
+From our seats in the fifth row we could see every detail. The 'autumn
+scene' was done in heavy red and in order to get some of the effects the
+artist had to use great daubs of paint, smearing it on pretty thick in
+some places. I am certain that the backing was common canvas and if this
+was so it must have been covered with wax before the paint was put on.
+This same curtain came down after the first act, so I had plenty of time
+to know it.</p>
+
+<p>"When the fire started my first feeling was that the stage people were
+acting recklessly. For several minutes the fire was no bigger than a
+handkerchief. A bucket of water would have saved the lives of every one.
+But there seemed to be no water on the stage.</p>
+
+<p>"One of the stage hands first took his hand and then used a piece of plank
+to smother the flames. It kept spreading. After Eddie Foy had made his
+speech the 'autumn scene' curtain came down. 'Pull down the curtain,' was
+all the cry I heard. They did not say 'Pull down the asbestos curtain,'
+nor was there any mention of any fireproof curtain. The 'autumn scene,'
+with its highly inflammable paint, came down, and it was like pouring fire
+into the people's faces. It was a great piece of bungling&mdash;far worse than
+if no curtain had been lowered at all.</p>
+
+<p>"It has been said that noise and panic-like screaming followed the burning
+of the curtain. This is absolutely not true. The whole place was almost
+gruesomely silent.</p>
+
+<p>"Mrs. Gibson and I were half way in from the aisle and<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_195" id="Page_195">[Pg 195]</a></span> had to wait for
+many to go out before we started. At the aisle some one stepped on Mrs.
+Gibson's dress and she fell to the floor. Men, women and children trampled
+over her, and having done all I could I started out. In the lobby I begged
+some men to return for Mrs. Gibson, but they said it was no use. The
+curtain by that time was burned up."</p>
+
+<p>Mrs. Gibson, wife of Dr. Charles B. Gibson, confirmed Mrs. Schweitzler's
+assertions that no asbestos curtain was visible from the audience. "From
+the place where I fell," said Mrs. Gibson, "I crawled on hands and knees
+to the entrance. When I got to the rear the curtain was all burned away."</p>
+
+
+<p>&nbsp;</p>
+<p class="center">ESCAPE OF MOTHER AND TWO SMALL CHILDREN</p>
+
+<p>Mrs. William Mueller, Jr., 3330 Calumet avenue, who at the time was
+confined to her bed from injuries sustained by trying to get out of the
+Iroquois as the panic began and from bruises sustained by being trampled
+upon, tells the story that she with her two children, Florence, 5 years
+old, and Belle, 3 years old, occupied three seats in the second row from
+the back on the ground floor on the right side of the theater. The
+children became restless as the second act began and Mrs. Mueller took
+them to a retiring room.</p>
+
+<p>After the children had been in the retiring room for some minutes, they
+wanted to go back and see the performance. Mrs. Mueller started back into
+the lobby to go to her seats, when she saw, in a glass, the reflection of
+the flames. She hurried back into the retiring room and asked for the
+children's wraps, saying she thought something was wrong and did not want
+to stay in the theater any longer. The maid in the room asked her what was
+the matter and Mrs. Mueller told her.</p>
+
+<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_196" id="Page_196">[Pg 196]</a></span>"Oh, that's all right. I won't give you the things now," the maid replied.
+"I'll go and see what is the matter."</p>
+
+<p>Mrs. Mueller demanded the children's wraps, but they were refused. Just
+then Mrs. Mueller thinks she must have heard the first cry of alarm and
+she ran to the front doors with the children. She tried one door and found
+it locked. Then she tried another, and that was locked. She pushed against
+it and then threw herself against it, trying to force it open. She does
+not remember seeing any employee near the outer door.</p>
+
+<p>Mrs. Mueller then heard people in the audience shrieking and then she
+fainted. It is thought that the oldest little girl, Florence, also
+fainted.</p>
+
+<p>As the people pushed out of the theater they trampled upon Mrs. Mueller
+and the child. Mrs. Mueller was horribly bruised and was either kicked in
+the eyes or else some one stepped on her face. It was at first feared she
+would lose her eyesight.</p>
+
+<p>The first person carried out when the rescue began was Mrs. Mueller; she
+was right in front of the doors. Near her was Florence. Just before the
+men entered, and after every one else seemed to be out, little Belle came
+walking out. A man ran to her, picked her up and took her to a barber
+shop, where she continued to cry for her mother. The little girl,
+Florence, was also carried out and was taken to the same barber shop,
+where the two children were later found by Mr. Mueller. Mrs. Mueller was
+taken to the Samaritan hospital, where she was found that night.</p>
+
+
+<p>&nbsp;</p>
+<p class="center">EXPRESSION OF THE DEAD.</p>
+
+<p>John Maynard Harlan visited the morgue in search of the body of Mrs. F.
+Morton Fox and her three children, who were<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_197" id="Page_197">[Pg 197]</a></span> intimate friends of Mrs.
+Harlan. In speaking of his experience he said:</p>
+
+<p>"I was profoundly impressed by the expressions on the faces of many of the
+dead. Perhaps it was only a fancy, but it seemed to me that the faces of
+those having the higher order of intelligence showed less horror and more
+resignation. Some of these seemed to have passed away almost with a smile
+of faith, so serene were their countenances. But the faces of the less
+intelligent were uniformly struck with suffering to a terrible degree.</p>
+
+<p>"When I found Mrs. Fox's little boy the smile of courage on his face was
+one of the most noble sights that I ever saw. It seemed to me that I could
+see the brave little fellow trying to reassure his mother and facing death
+with a heroism not expected of his years."</p>
+
+
+<p>&nbsp;</p>
+<p class="center">ONLY SURVIVOR OF LARGE THEATER PARTY.</p>
+
+<p>Mrs. W. F. Hanson, of Chicago, was the only member of a theater party of
+nine to escape. She wept as she talked of her companions and shuddered as
+she recalled the manner of their death.</p>
+
+<p>"I cannot tell how I got out of the theater," she said. "I remember
+starting for one of the aisles when the panic was at its height. I was
+separated from my friends. We had a row of seats in the second balcony.
+Suddenly someone seized me and I was tossed and dragged along the aisle
+and I lost consciousness. When I came to my senses I was in a store across
+the street. Every one of my companions perished. We composed a holiday
+theater party and we were all related by marriage."</p>
+
+
+<p>&nbsp;<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_198" id="Page_198">[Pg 198]</a></span></p>
+<p class="center">ALL HIS FAMILY GONE.</p>
+
+<p>Arthur E. Hull, of Chicago, who lost his entire family in the Iroquois
+fire, tells the following pathetic story:</p>
+
+<p>"It is too terrible to contemplate. I can never go to my home again. To
+look at the playthings left by the children just where they put them, to
+see how my dear dead wife arranged all the details of her home so
+carefully, the very walls ring with the names of my dear dead ones. I can
+never go there again.</p>
+
+<p>"Mrs. Hull had called the children from their play to go and see the show.
+They were laughing and shouting about the house in childish glee, when
+she, all radiant with smiles, came to tell them of the surprise she had
+planned for them.</p>
+
+<p>"They left their toys just where they were. She fixed the things about the
+house a bit, and then took them with her.</p>
+
+<p>"Mary, our maid, went with them. She, too, was joyous at the prospect, and
+a happier party never started anywhere. Everything was smiles and
+sunshine.</p>
+
+<p>"They had planned for a day of joy, and it turned out a day of sorrow.
+Sorrow more deep than can be fathomed by human mind. Sorrow so acute that
+it is indescribable."</p>
+
+<p>The party consisted of Mrs. Hull, her little daughter, Helen Muriel, her
+two adopted sons, Donald DeGraff and Dwight Moody, together with Mary
+Forbes.</p>
+
+<p>The two boys had been adopted by Mr. and Mrs. Hull but three weeks before,
+and had lately come from Topeka, Kan., where their father, Fred J. Hull,
+had died.</p>
+
+<p>The party was gotten up for them particularly, and it was the first and
+last time they were ever to witness a stage production. This was only one
+of a score of recorded cases where the unselfish desire to give pleasure
+to the young caused their death.</p>
+
+
+<p>&nbsp;<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_199" id="Page_199">[Pg 199]</a></span></p>
+<p class="center">A FAMILY PARTY BURNED.</p>
+
+<p>Dr. Charles S. Owen, a physician and one of the most prominent men in
+Wheaton, died at the Chicago homeopathic hospital from injuries sustained
+at the Iroquois fire. On Christmas day Dr. Owen held a family reunion, and
+eight relatives came from Ohio to spend the holiday week. Wednesday a
+theater party was arranged and twelve seats were secured at the Iroquois
+in the front row of the first balcony. Out of the entire party of twelve
+Dr. Owen was the only one to escape.</p>
+
+
+<p>&nbsp;</p>
+<p class="center">CARRIES DAUGHTER'S BODY HOME IN HIS ARMS.</p>
+
+<p>It appears that Miss Blackburn had attended the matinee with her father,
+James Blackburn. They had seats in the first balcony. In the panic father
+and daughter became separated. The father escaped to the Randolph street
+lobby and then started back for his daughter. He found her body on the
+staircase horribly burned. Catching up the lifeless form and wrapping it
+in his overcoat, Mr. Blackburn rushed to the street and procured a cab, in
+which he was driven with his burden directly to the Northwestern station.
+He caught the first train for Glen View and had the body of his child at
+home in half an hour.</p>
+
+
+<p>&nbsp;</p>
+<p class="center">SAD ERROR IN IDENTIFICATION.</p>
+
+<p>Mrs. Lulu Bennett, Chicago, whose daughter, Gertrude Eloise Swayze, 16
+years old, was a victim of the holocaust, thought she would avoid the
+gruesome task of making a tour of the morgues, so she asked a friend to
+search for her daughter's body. After visiting a number of morgues he
+finally found the body of a girl at Rolston's, in Adams street, which he
+identified as Miss Swayze. The body was conveyed to the mother's
+residence, but when she looked at the body she turned<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_200" id="Page_200">[Pg 200]</a></span> away with a moan
+and said: "That is not my Gertrude; take it away, take it away. There has
+been some terrible mistake made."</p>
+
+<p>Mrs. Bennett made a personal tour of the morgues afterward and found her
+daughter's body.</p>
+
+
+<p>&nbsp;</p>
+<p class="center">THE HANGER OF THE ASBESTOS CURTAIN.</p>
+
+<p>The asbestos curtain at the Iroquois theater was not hung in a manner
+satisfactory to Lyman Savage, the stage carpenter who put it up, according
+to a statement he made to his son, C. B. Savage, head electrician at
+Power's theater, a short time before his death which occurred indirectly
+as a result of the fire.</p>
+
+<p>Mr. Savage, who lived at 1750 Wrightwood avenue and who was a stage
+carpenter in Chicago for twenty-five years, worked at the Iroquois theater
+until two weeks before the fire, when he was compelled to leave because of
+kidney trouble. His son ascribes his death to excitement over the Iroquois
+fire. That disaster was uppermost in his mind.</p>
+
+<p>Mr. Savage said: "I asked my father if he hung the asbestos curtain at the
+Iroquois theater and he said he did. I then asked him if he hung the
+curtain according to his own ideas, and he replied in substance: 'No, that
+curtain was not hung my way, but Cummings' (the stage carpenter's) way. If
+you want to see a curtain hung my way you should see the curtain in a
+theater I worked on in Michigan last fall.'</p>
+
+<p>"My father did not specify what point about the hanging of the curtain he
+did not approve, and I do not know what feature of the work he was not
+satisfied with.</p>
+
+<p>"I asked my father if the curtain was hung on Manila ropes, and he said
+that it was not, but that it was hung on wire cables. I know that to be a
+fact, for I saw the cables myself.</p>
+
+<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_201" id="Page_201">[Pg 201]</a></span>"I do not desire to shield any negligent person, but Stage Carpenter
+Cummings was not responsible for the lowering of the curtain only in so
+far as he was responsible for having some one there to lower it.</p>
+
+<p>"I was on the stage when the fire broke out, having gone to the theater to
+see Archie Bernard, the chief electrician. The statement has been made
+that the lights were not thrown on in the auditorium after the fire was
+discovered. Just before the fire broke out Bernard was stooping down
+preparing to change the lights, and he had just said to me: 'I will show
+you how I change my lights.'</p>
+
+<p>"When the fire was discovered I saw him reach down to throw a switch.
+Whether he threw the switch that lights the auditorium I do not know, but
+I do know that the fire from the draperies fell all around the switchboard
+and burned out the fuses. Consequently if the lights had been turned on
+the fact that the fuses were burned out would cause them to go out.</p>
+
+<p>"The first I knew of the fire was when I heard some one behind and above
+me clapping his hands. I looked up and saw McMullen trying to put out the
+blaze with his hands. If he could have reached far enough he would have
+extinguished the fire. He did the best he could.</p>
+
+<p>"I carried four women out of the theater and burned my hands. I stayed on
+the stage as long as it was possible for me to do so."</p>
+
+
+<p>&nbsp;</p>
+<p class="center">KEEPSAKES OF THE DEAD.</p>
+
+<p>Many Chicago people spent a part of the Sabbath following the fire in the
+dingy little storeroom at 58 Dearborn street, where the effects and the
+valuables of the Iroquois theater victims are kept.</p>
+
+<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_202" id="Page_202">[Pg 202]</a></span>The storeroom was crowded all day. The line formed at Randolph street and
+pushed its way to the north. A mother stepped to one of the show cases.
+She had lost a boy and she had come to find his effects. She was looking
+through the glass when she called one of the policemen to her side.</p>
+
+<p>"That's it. That's my little boy's," and she pointed at a prayer book.</p>
+
+<p>The policeman took it from the case.</p>
+
+<p>"Yes, that's it," she murmured.</p>
+
+<p>From the street came the tolling of the half hour.</p>
+
+<p>"Just a week ago he started for Sunday school with it. It was a Christmas
+present and he took it to church for the first time."</p>
+
+<p>A young man, well dressed and prosperous looking, came in and walked along
+the wall, gazing at the dresses and the furs. Suddenly he seized a fur boa
+and kissed it.</p>
+
+<p>"It was her's," he cried. "May I take it with me?"</p>
+
+<p>The officer told him to visit the coroner and get a certificate.</p>
+
+<p>Two young men entered the place and began making flippant remarks. The
+officers overheard their conversation and escorted them to the threshold
+of the door. Two heavy boots assisted in making their exit into the street
+a rapid one.</p>
+
+
+<p>&nbsp;</p>
+<p class="center">THE SCENE AT THOMPSON'S RESTAURANT.</p>
+
+<p>John R. Thompson's restaurant at 3 o'clock in the afternoon of the fatal
+day was an eating-house, decked here and there with late lunchers; at 3:20
+it was a hospital, with the dead and dying stretched on the marble eating
+tables; at 4 o'clock it was a morgue, heaped with the dead; at 7:30 it was
+again a restaurant, but with chairs turned on top of the tables that had
+been the slabs of death, with the aisles cleared of the human debris, and
+the scrub woman at work mopping out the relics of human<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_203" id="Page_203">[Pg 203]</a></span> flesh, charred
+and as dust, and sweeping in pans the pieces of skulls that had lain about
+the mosaic floors, yet damp with the flowing length of woman's hair.</p>
+
+<p>The terror, the horror, the tragedies, the martyrdom, the piercing screams
+of the dying, the agonized groans, the excitement of the surging mob, the
+hurrying back and forth of the police with their burdens of death and life
+that only lasted a moment, the pushing of physicians, the casting of dead
+about on the floors like cord wood, one on top of the other, to make room
+on the marble slabs of tables for the oncoming living, the cries of
+children, the sobbing of persons recognizing their loved one dead, or
+worse than dead&mdash;this unutterable horror can never be imagined, and was
+never known before in Chicago, not excepting the horrors of the great
+fire, or the martyrdom of war.</p>
+
+
+<p>&nbsp;</p>
+<p class="center">LIKE A FIELD OF BATTLE.</p>
+
+<p>The scene presented was most horrible. It was like a battlefield where the
+dead are being brought to the church or the residence that has at a
+moment's notice been turned into a hospital. In they came, the dead and
+the injured, at first at the rate of one every three minutes; then faster,
+several at a time, until the restaurant was heaped with maimed bodies
+lying on the tables or the floor, with surgeons bending over them, and on
+the cashier's counter, with the girl there sobbing with her face hidden in
+her hands, afraid to look at the ghastly spectacle.</p>
+
+<p>There were scores of physicians, three to each table, and they worked with
+vigor and earnestness and skill, but with the tears coursing down the
+cheeks of many a one. At first the bodies were carried into Thompson's,
+then they went across the street; many of them were put in ambulances and
+taken to<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_204" id="Page_204">[Pg 204]</a></span> the emergency room for women in Marshall Field's store, and
+still many others of the injured&mdash;those yet able to walk&mdash;were half
+dragged, half carried to the offices of physicians in the Masonic temple.</p>
+
+
+<p>&nbsp;</p>
+<p class="center">WOMEN EAGER TO HELP.</p>
+
+<p>Women fought and shoved and pushed their way through the crowd to get to
+the door of the improvised hospital, that became a morgue only too
+rapidly.</p>
+
+<p>"I am a nurse. Let me help," said some.</p>
+
+<p>"I am a mother. My boy may be dead inside. For God's sake, let me save a
+life," said another, a woman in middle age.</p>
+
+<p>Others came in from the crowds, neither mothers nor nurses, women with the
+spirit of heroism who longed to serve humanity when humanity was at so low
+an ebb.</p>
+
+<p>"She's dead," was more often than not the verdict after much work. "Next!"
+and the cold and stiffened form of the victim was dragged, head first,
+from the marble eating table, thrown quickly under the tables, and another
+form, perhaps that of a tiny child, took its place.</p>
+
+
+<p>&nbsp;</p>
+<p class="center">STEADY STREAM OF BODIES.</p>
+
+<p>So fast came the bodies for a time that there was one steady stream of
+persons carried in&mdash;the still living&mdash;while without the morgue stood the
+ambulances waiting for their burdens. The sidewalk, muddy and crowded, was
+strewn with the dead, lying on blankets or else thrown down in the mud,
+waiting to be taken to the various morgues of the city.</p>
+
+<p>There was a figure of a man&mdash;a large man with broad shoulders and dressed
+in black&mdash;whose entire face was burned away, only the back of the head
+remaining to show he had ever<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_205" id="Page_205">[Pg 205]</a></span> had a head; yet below the shoulders he was
+untouched by the fire.</p>
+
+<p>There lay women with their arms gone, or their legs, while one had one
+side burned off, with only the cross shoulder-bone remaining. She had worn
+a pink silk waist and black skirt; the fragments of the garments still
+clung to her like a shroud that had lain in the grave.</p>
+
+<p>There was a little boy, with a shock of red-brown hair, whose tiny mouth
+was open in terror and whose baby hands were burned off so that his tiny
+wrists showed like red stumps.</p>
+
+
+<p>&nbsp;</p>
+<p class="center">CLOTHING TORN TO SHREDS.</p>
+
+<p>There was one young girl, her garments so torn from her splendid figure
+that her arms and white bosom rose uncovered from the tattered and
+torn&mdash;not burned&mdash;shreds of her clothing, and the shreds of a
+turquoise-blue silk petticoat draped her limbs. She had died from
+suffocation&mdash;fought and struggled and died. On her finger sparkled a
+diamond ring, and about her slender throat was a string of pearl beads.</p>
+
+<p>There was another body of a girl that several persons said they knew, yet
+no one could speak her name. She was beautiful in her terrible death, with
+a wealth of blonde hair, and staring blue eyes. She was dressed in a
+blue-black velvet shirt waist, with gold buttons, a mixed white and tan
+and gray walking skirt, with a pink silk petticoat beneath. She had died
+of suffocation, and, as she lay on the marble table dead, a tiny blue
+chatelaine watch, ticking merrily the hour, was pinned upon her breast.</p>
+
+<p>The crowding, the howling, the screaming in Thompson's was so highly
+pitched, that no one could hear the orders of the physicians. Bedlam
+reigned&mdash;no order, no leader, everyone doing what he could to help. At
+length came the loud voice of<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_206" id="Page_206">[Pg 206]</a></span> a man, and those who could hear, stopped
+and listened, while those at the front of the restaurant said: "Some man
+has gone crazy with grief."</p>
+
+<p>It was State Senator Clark, who, seeing the need of an order, jumped to a
+table and gave one.</p>
+
+<p>"Everyone get out," he cried, "and make room for the doctors. Let there be
+three doctors to a table and one nurse while they last."</p>
+
+<p>Skillfully, cleverly, worked the looters of the dead. Rings were torn from
+stiffened fingers, watches, bracelets, chains, purses taken from bosoms,
+then out in the surging crowd of excited humanity went the thieves, lost
+to recognition by those who saw them loot in the terribleness of the
+scene.</p>
+
+
+<p>&nbsp;</p>
+<p class="center">PRAYERS FOR THE DYING.</p>
+
+<p>Through the mangled mass of humanity moved a priest with a crucifix in his
+white hands&mdash;Father McCarthy of Holy Name Cathedral, saying the prayers
+for the dying&mdash;not for the dead, but to give the last words of a hope
+beyond. Many persons died with the words of Father McCarthy sounding like
+music in their ears.</p>
+
+<p>"I was with the Army of the Potomac during the Civil War," said Dr. H. L.
+Montgomery as he worked over the dying. "I rescued 150 people during the
+great Chicago fire. I have seen the wreckage of explosions. But I never
+saw anything so grimly horrible as this."</p>
+
+<p>"Will Davis is in the theater now and acting like crazy," interrupted the
+voice of a boy. "Can't no one speak to him?"</p>
+
+<p>And out dashed all the employes of the burning theater to find Mr. Davis
+as he paced the destroyed gallery floor and looked at the ruin below and
+at the dead as they were hauled out of the debris.</p>
+
+<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_207" id="Page_207">[Pg 207]</a></span>Little Ruth Thompson, the seven-year-old daughter of John R. Thompson, was
+in the fire and almost to the front exit when the mob hurled her back. The
+tiny child fought and was yet forced back. She climbed onto the stage,
+burning as it was, and worked her way to the rear door and out into the
+alley, then through into the scene of death and pain in her father's
+restaurant.</p>
+
+<p>"Papa, I got out. Where's grandpa?" she cried.</p>
+
+<p>There was one old man, with white beard and hair, who wept over the body
+of his aged wife. He was Patrick P. O'Donnell of the firm of O'Donnell &amp;
+Duer.</p>
+
+<p>Death, pain, tragedy&mdash;and at 7:30 o'clock the place was a restaurant
+again.</p>
+
+
+<p>&nbsp;</p>
+<p class="center">CHILD SAVED FROM DEATH IN FIRE BY BALLET GIRL.</p>
+
+<p>Left under the burning stage during the mad rush by the members of the
+"Mr. Bluebeard" company at the Iroquois theater fire a four-year-old girl,
+who appeared in the performance as one of the Japanese children, was
+heroically rescued by Elois Lillian, one of the ballet girls, who was the
+last to escape from the theater.</p>
+
+<p>"I was the last to escape from under the stage," said Miss Lillian, "and
+as I rushed headlong through the smoke I saw the little girl screaming
+with fright and almost suffocated. The rest had escaped, leaving the child
+behind. I took the little one under my arm in a death-like grip and
+succeeded in getting into the aisle behind the boxes; and ran through the
+smoking-room and out the front door. I don't know how I managed to hold on
+to the struggling child, or how I came to get out the front way.</p>
+
+<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_208" id="Page_208">[Pg 208]</a></span>"I was dressed in tights, and as soon as I reached the street ran into
+Thompson's, and there soon had her revived. The mother, frantic with
+grief, came in, and when she saw her daughter and heard my story she fell
+upon her knees, thanking me for saving her little girl's life."</p>
+
+
+<p>&nbsp;</p>
+<p class="center">PRIEST GIVES ABSOLUTION TO DYING FIRE VICTIMS.</p>
+
+<p>When the Rev. F. O'Brien of the Holy Name Cathedral learned of the fire
+and heard that so many were dying he rushed into the Northwestern Medical
+University, into which many victims had been taken, to administer the last
+sacraments to members of the Catholic Church. Finding he was unable to
+attend the great number being brought in, he announced that he would give
+a general absolution to all the Catholics among the victims.</p>
+
+<p>The scene of that last absolution beggars description. During the brief
+moment the priest, with uplifted hands, besought God to pardon all the
+frailties of his dying servants, the poor, mangled men and women seemed to
+realize that they were face to face with the inevitable. Though crazed
+with pain, they ceased to moan, and fastened their fast-dimming eyes on
+the priest.</p>
+
+<p>When the absolution was given many of the victims, horribly burned, with
+the flesh of their head and face blackened, and in most cases so burned as
+to expose the bones, put out their hands imploringly toward the priest,
+for one handclasp, one word of sympathy before they passed away.</p>
+
+<p>Even the stalwart policemen were affected by the touching spectacle.
+Another priest of the Holy Ghost order arrived shortly after, and both
+clergymen administered absolution,<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_209" id="Page_209">[Pg 209]</a></span> remaining until the injured were
+removed to various hospitals and the dead to the morgues.</p>
+
+
+<p>&nbsp;</p>
+<p class="center">LITTLE BOY THANKS GOD FOR CHANGING HIS LUCK.</p>
+
+<p>Warren is the ten-year-old son of former Governor Joseph K. Toole of
+Montana, prominent for years in national politics. In the last four months
+the boy has been the victim of three accidents, each of which bore serious
+consequences for the little fellow.</p>
+
+<p>Thursday night, when he knelt down at his bedside in the Auditorium hotel
+to say the evening prayer which his mother had taught him, he mumbled:</p>
+
+<p>"I thank you, God, that you did not let me go to the theater Wednesday
+afternoon. You see, if you had not delayed my mamma when she went down
+town shopping that day, my little brother and I would have been in the
+fire. I thank you, God, for changing my luck."</p>
+
+<p>Warren's mamma and papa heard the prayer. Before he had reached the "Amen"
+both had silently bowed their heads.</p>
+
+<p>"Yes, Warren, your luck has changed," said the former Governor, as he bent
+over his son to say "Good night."</p>
+
+<p>Less than four months ago Warren was playing with a gun. The firearm
+exploded and the boy was seriously injured. He had not fully recovered
+when he fell from the top of a cart and broke his arm. Then, a few weeks
+ago, a dog upon whom he lavished much of his youthful affection suddenly
+sprang at him and bit him between the eyes. He was badly scarred, but his
+parents were thankful that he did not lose his sight.</p>
+
+<p>On Wednesday he importuned his nurse to take him to see "Mr. Bluebeard,
+Jr." The nurse referred him to his father,<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_210" id="Page_210">[Pg 210]</a></span> and the latter told him that
+he and his brother could go if his mother returned from her shopping trip
+in time to take them. The holiday crowds detained Mrs. Toole until quite
+late in the afternoon. Now little Warren is convinced that good fortune
+has at last deigned to smile upon him.</p>
+
+
+<p>&nbsp;</p>
+<p class="center">USE PLACER MINER METHODS.</p>
+
+<p>Methods of the California placer miner were used by the Chicago police in
+recovering the valuables lost in the mad rush for safety by the Iroquois
+theater fire victims. Big wagon loads of dirt and ashes taken from the
+theater floor were taken down under police guard to a basement at Lake
+street and Fifth avenue. There a placer mining outfit, including sieves
+and gold pans, had been erected and City Custodian Dewitt C. Cregier thus
+searched for valuables in the rubbish.</p>
+
+
+<p>&nbsp;</p>
+<p class="center">DAUGHTER OF A. H. REVELL ESCAPES.</p>
+
+<p>Margaret Revell, daughter of Alexander H. Revell, with her friend,
+Elizabeth Harris, accompanied by a maidservant, sat in the parquet of the
+theater, fortunately next to the aisle. At the first alarm they were swept
+to the door by the crowd, and were among those who got out early, escaping
+with only minor bruises. Mr. Revell was among the early searchers on the
+scene, and remained giving assistance after learning of the safety of his
+daughter.</p>
+
+
+<p>&nbsp;</p>
+<p class="center">PHILADELPHIA PARTNER IN THEATER HORRIFIED.</p>
+
+<p>The news of the terrible Chicago calamity was a severe blow to S. A. Nixon
+of Philadelphia, part owner of the Iroquois theater. When the news was
+confirmed he broke down and wept bitterly.</p>
+
+<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_211" id="Page_211">[Pg 211]</a></span>Fred G. Nixon, son of Mr. Nixon, said: "We were at the dinner table
+Wednesday evening when the telephone bell rang and I answered. A newspaper
+man told me that the Iroquois theater in Chicago had been destroyed and
+many persons killed. I could not believe it and I asked: 'Are you sure it
+was the Iroquois?' 'Positive,' came the answer. My father had paid no
+attention to what I said, but the word 'Iroquois' attracted him, and as I
+returned to my seat he asked: 'What was that you said about the Iroquois?'
+'Oh, nothing,' I replied, trying to be calm.</p>
+
+<p>"But my face betrayed me. The news had paled me, and my father, suspecting
+something was wrong, insisted, and I told him. He refused to believe it
+and went to the telephone to satisfy himself. In five minutes he heard the
+worst. Then he collapsed and sobbed like a child. For eight hours we sat
+up waiting for full particulars, and at 3 o'clock Thursday morning, when
+father went to bed, he was almost a nervous wreck."</p>
+
+
+<p>&nbsp;</p>
+<p class="center">ALL KENOSHA IN MOURNING.</p>
+
+<p>Next to Chicago the blow of death at the Iroquois fell heavier on Kenosha,
+Wis., than any of the other cities whose residents perished in the
+disaster. Two of the leading manufacturers of the city, Willis W. Cooper
+and Charles H. Cooper, and the children of Mr. and Mrs. S. H. Van Ingen
+were among the dead.</p>
+
+<p>Kenosha was in deep mourning. Trade was practically suspended and the
+people gathered on the streets in little groups discussing the one topic.
+Four bodies were brought to the city on the evening train, and a crowd of
+over a thousand people gathered at the railway station, and walked in
+silence through the streets behind the hearses. All the bodies were<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_212" id="Page_212">[Pg 212]</a></span> taken
+to the morgue, from which place they will be removed to the stricken
+homes.</p>
+
+
+<p>&nbsp;</p>
+<p class="center">FIVE OF ONE FAMILY DEAD.</p>
+
+<p>The story of the wiping out of the children of H. S. Van Ingen, the former
+manager of the Pennsylvania Coal Company in Chicago, and a resident of
+Kenosha, is one of the saddest stories of the tragedy. Following the
+custom established years ago, Mr. and Mrs. Van Ingen and their five
+children, Grace, twenty-three years old; Jack, twenty; Edward L.,
+nineteen; Margaret, fourteen; and Elizabeth, nine, had all come to Chicago
+for a matinee party. Schuyler, another son, the sole survivor of the
+children, was to join the family for a dinner and family reunion at the
+Wellington hotel after the matinee. The seven persons were seated in the
+front row of the balcony when the panic ensued, and Mr. Van Ingen,
+marshaling his little force, started for the exit at the aisle, but the
+mighty crush of people separated the parents from the children, and Mr.
+Van Ingen, putting his arm around Mrs. Van Ingen, carried her one way,
+while the children were swept the other.</p>
+
+<p>The last Mr. Van Ingen saw of the children was when Jack, the oldest boy,
+took his little sister, Elizabeth, in his arms and shouted to his father:
+"You save mother and I'll look after the rest." In another moment the
+party, including the children, was trampled down.</p>
+
+<p>Mr. and Mrs. Van Ingen started to return to the theater for the children
+and both of them were fearfully burned in the attempt. The bodies of the
+two boys were located in the evening. Margaret and Elizabeth were found
+the next day. Grace, the oldest daughter, and one of the best known young
+women of Kenosha, was identified still later. Mr. and Mrs. Van Ingen, both
+terribly burned, were taken to the Illinois Hospital.</p>
+
+
+<p>&nbsp;<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_213" id="Page_213">[Pg 213]</a></span></p>
+<p class="center">COOPER BROTHERS DEEPLY MOURNED.</p>
+
+<p>Willis Cooper was one of the best known men in Kenosha. He was the
+secretary of the great Twentieth Century movement in the Methodist
+Episcopal Church which resulted in $20,000,000 being raised for missions.
+He was last year the prohibition candidate for governor of Wisconsin, and
+was recently elected head of the lay delegation of the Wisconsin churches
+at the general conference of the Methodist Church. Mr. Cooper was a
+millionaire, and his gifts to church charities often exceeded $10,000 a
+year. In Kenosha he was the general manager of the Chicago Kenosha Hosiery
+Works, the largest stocking making plant in the world.</p>
+
+<p>Charles F. Cooper, his brother, was the factory manager and general
+salesman of the company. He was the president of the Kenosha
+Manufacturers' Association, of the Kenosha Hospital Association, and the
+Masonic Temple Association. He was the founder of profit-sharing in the
+Kenosha plant, and under his direction it became known as the plant "where
+the life of the worker is flooded with sunshine." He was most popular with
+the working classes in Kenosha, and when his body was taken to the morgue
+hundreds of men and women stood with uncovered heads while it passed.</p>
+
+<p>There occurred between the acts at the Century theater, St. Louis, on New
+Year's night, an unusual incident, when C. H. Congdon, of Chicago, arose
+from his seat and related incidents of the Iroquois theater tragedy.</p>
+
+<p>He had proceeded only for a few minutes when some one in the audience
+began singing "Nearer, My God, to Thee," which was immediately taken up by
+the whole audience, the orchestra joining in with the accompaniment.</p>
+
+
+
+<p>&nbsp;</p><p>&nbsp;</p>
+<hr style="width: 50%;" />
+<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_214" id="Page_214">[Pg 214]</a></span></p>
+<h2><a name="CHAPTER_XV" id="CHAPTER_XV"></a>CHAPTER XV.</h2>
+<p class="title">SOCIETY WOMEN AND GIRLS' CLUBS.</p>
+
+
+<p>Miss Charlotte Plamondon, daughter of the vice-president of the Chicago
+board of education, who waited until the fire had caught in the curtains
+over the front box, in which she sat, before attempting to get out,
+related her experience at the Chicago Beach Hotel:</p>
+
+<p>"I can't tell you how I escaped the awful fate of others," she said. "I
+only know that when the flames began to crackle over my head and dart down
+from the curtains of our box I leaped over the railing of the box and fell
+in the arms of some man. I think he was connected with the theater, for he
+immediately set me down in a seat and told me to be quiet for a moment.</p>
+
+
+<p>&nbsp;</p>
+<p class="center">SCREAMS OF TERROR HEARD.</p>
+
+<p>"Then I think I lost all reason. I have a vague recollection of having
+been pushed up along the side aisle that runs by the boxes. It was as
+quiet as death for a moment. The great audience rose like a single person,
+but no sound escaped it until those in front were wedged in the doorway.
+Then a scream of terror went up that I shall never forget. It rings in my
+ears now. Women screamed and children cried. Men were shouting and rushing
+for the entrance, leaping over the prostrate forms of children and women
+and carrying others down with them.</p>
+
+<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_215" id="Page_215">[Pg 215]</a></span>"Back of me, I remember, there was a sheet of flame that seemed to be
+gathering volume and reaching out for us. Then I forgot again, and not
+until the crowd surged toward the wall and caught me between it and the
+marble pillar did I realize what the danger was. The pain revived me. I
+know I was almost crushed to death, but it didn't hurt. Nothing could
+hurt, with the screaming, the agonizing cries of the women and children
+ringing in your ears.</p>
+
+
+<p>&nbsp;</p>
+<p class="center">CHORUS GIRLS ESCAPE PARTLY CLAD.</p>
+
+<p>"And then, somehow, I found myself out on the street and the dead and
+dying were around me. When I realized that I was out of the place and safe
+from the fire and crush, all my strength seemed to leave me. But the cold
+air braced me after a moment and I went around to the drug store, where
+the dead were being brought in and the poor actresses and chorus girls
+were coming in with scarcely anything on them.</p>
+
+<p>"I never felt as I did when it dawned upon us that the theater was on
+fire. It seemed like a dream at first. The border curtain right near our
+box blew back, and I think it hit a light or something, for when it fell
+back into place I saw it was on fire.</p>
+
+<p>"The chorus girls kept right on singing for a couple of minutes, it
+seemed. Then one of the stage men rushed out and shouted: 'Keep your
+seats.'</p>
+
+<p>"Oh, the stage men behaved like heroes! As I think of it now, they
+conducted themselves with rare courage. I saw a couple of the girls fall
+down, and I knew that they were overcome."</p>
+
+
+<p>&nbsp;</p>
+<p class="center">FOY TRIES TO PREVENT PANIC.</p>
+
+<p>"Just then Eddie Foy ran out on the stage, partly made up, and cried:</p>
+
+<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_216" id="Page_216">[Pg 216]</a></span>"'My God, people, keep your seats!'</p>
+
+<p>"When Foy said this I regained my senses, and when the asbestos curtain
+did not come down I felt that the situation was critical. The flames had
+taken hold of the front row of seats behind the orchestra and were
+creeping up the curtains over our box, when I jumped to my feet and leaped
+over the railing.</p>
+
+<p>"I saw the children lying in heaps under our feet. Their little lives were
+ended, and rough feet were bruising their flesh; and such innocent
+children! Men leaped over the rows of prostrate forms and fought like they
+were mad, trying to get out of the entrance."</p>
+
+
+<p>&nbsp;</p>
+<p class="center">ESCAPE OF ANOTHER SOCIETY WOMAN.</p>
+
+<p>Mrs. A. Sorge, Jr., whose husband is a consulting engineer, with offices
+in the Monadnock Building, and who lives at the Chicago Beach Hotel,
+attended the theater in company with Dr. Jager, who is a guest of Mr. and
+Mrs. Sorge. They occupied a seat well down in the parquet.</p>
+
+<p>"When the fire started," said Mrs. Sorge, "persons on the stage told us to
+keep our seats. Dr. Jager also told me to sit still, and we did until the
+flames began to come near us. Then we clasped hands and started for the
+door.</p>
+
+<p>"I was not half so much afraid of the fire as I was of being crushed to
+death, and I tried in every way to keep out of the crush. Dr. Jager got
+separated from me by catching his foot in an upturned chair, but he soon
+found me. We later managed to get out on the street without suffering any
+injuries of a serious nature.</p>
+
+<p>"The saddest thing I saw inside the burning building was a little girl
+looking for her baby sister. The two had got separated in the rush for the
+entrance, and it is quite likely<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_217" id="Page_217">[Pg 217]</a></span> that both were killed in that crush, for
+it was something awful."</p>
+
+
+<p>&nbsp;</p>
+<p class="center">MINNEAPOLIS WOMAN'S STORY OF THE FIRE.</p>
+
+<p>Mrs. Baldwin, wife of Dr. F. R. Baldwin of Minneapolis, immediately after
+her return from the scene of the awful Chicago catastrophe, through which
+she had passed, overwhelmed with the horror of the sights and sounds she
+had seen and heard, gave the following account:</p>
+
+<p>"It was too unutterably shocking for one to realize at the time. The
+horror of the thing has grown upon me ever since. It fills my mind and
+imagination, so I can hardly think of anything else. I cannot help feeling
+almost ashamed to be here, safe and unharmed, while whole families were
+burned and crushed to death in that awful place. I cannot say how glad I
+am to be home and see my babies safe, when so many mothers are crying
+aloud in Chicago for their children to come back to them.</p>
+
+<p>"At first nobody seemed to realize the awful danger. No water was used to
+put out the flames on the stage. It was only flimsy, gauzy scenery at
+first that was burning, and the people on the stage tried to tear it down
+and stamp it out as it fell. I heard no screams, and the people for many
+moments kept their seats. I did not hear the cry of 'fire.'</p>
+
+<p>"But all at once a great ball of fire or sheet of flame&mdash;I don't know how
+to express it&mdash;shot out and the whole theater above us seemed to be full
+of fire. Then there was a smothered sound as of a sighing by all in the
+theater.</p>
+
+<p>"By that time I began to realize that it was time to see what could be
+done about getting out. It so happened that I could not have chosen a
+better place from which to get out of the building. We were on the alley
+side, opposite the Randolph<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_218" id="Page_218">[Pg 218]</a></span> street side of the building, and only two
+seats from the wall.</p>
+
+<p>"I did not know that there was an entrance here, but all at once the doors
+seemed to be opened close to us. We had but to take two or three steps and
+then were thrown forward out of the doors by the crowd behind us. My
+mother, who was with me, was unhurt, and I had but a few bruises.</p>
+
+<p>"One of the first things I saw as I got up was a girl lying on one of the
+fire escape platforms with the flames shooting over her through the
+window. One man, who jumped from the platform, had not taken two steps
+before a woman who jumped a moment later from a height of about forty feet
+came right down upon him, killing him upon the spot.</p>
+
+<p>"The sights all about the city have been many times described, but nothing
+can picture those terrible scenes. In a flat just below my mother's five
+out of a family of six perished, leaving but one demented girl.</p>
+
+<p>"Of another family living near us, only the husband and father was left,
+his wife and four boys and his mother all having been killed in the fire.
+As I passed near the theater the next day I saw a man walking up and down
+in front of the building muttering to himself, and every now and then he
+would sit upon the curb and look up at the building, breaking out into
+peals of laughter. He had been through the fire."</p>
+
+
+<p>&nbsp;</p>
+<p class="center">GIRLS' CLUBS SORELY STRICKEN.</p>
+
+<p>Mrs. Walter Raymer, wife of the alderman, attended the Iroquois in charge
+of the "F. P. C.," a club of young girls, of which her daughter was
+treasurer. Of the eight members only two escaped uninjured. Miss Mabel
+Hunter, the president, was killed; Miss Edna Hunter was taken to her
+residence, 85 Humboldt boulevard, severely injured; Miss Lillian Ackerman<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_219" id="Page_219">[Pg 219]</a></span>
+was borne to the Samaritan Hospital, burned about the head and body.</p>
+
+<p>Edna Hoveland was badly injured, and her little sister, who accompanied
+her, was burned to death. May Marks is dead. Viva Jackson, missing all
+Wednesday night, was found in the morning at an undertaker's rooms. The
+two who escaped injury were Miss Abigail Raymer, daughter of the alderman,
+and Miss Florence Nicholson.</p>
+
+<p>The eight girls, all between sixteen and eighteen years old, had organized
+their little club a few weeks ago for the purpose of literary study and
+recreation, and the theater party was arranged by Mrs. Raymer as a
+surprise for the members.</p>
+
+<p>The Theta Pi Zeta club of the junior class of the Englewood High School,
+with the exception of two members, was wiped out of existence. The club
+was composed of eight young women living in Englewood and Normal Park.
+Seven had purchased seats in the sixth row of the dress circle. What they
+encountered after the panic started no one knows, for of the seven only
+one, Miss Josephine Spencer, 7110 Princeton avenue, was saved and she was
+taken to the West Side Hospital terribly burned. The only member who
+entirely escaped was Miss Edith Mizen of 6917 Eggleston avenue, daughter
+of Mr. and Mrs. George K. Mizen. Her parents objected to her attending a
+theatrical performance.</p>
+
+<p>Those who perished are Helen Howard, 6565 Yale avenue; Helen McCaughan,
+6565 Yale avenue; Elvira Olson, 7010 Stewart avenue; Florence Oxnam, 435
+Englewood avenue; Lillie Power, 442 West Seventieth street; and Rosamond
+Schmidt, 335 West Sixty-first street.</p>
+
+
+
+<p>&nbsp;</p><p>&nbsp;</p>
+<hr style="width: 50%;" />
+<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_220" id="Page_220">[Pg 220]</a></span></p>
+<h2><a name="CHAPTER_XVI" id="CHAPTER_XVI"></a>CHAPTER XVI.</h2>
+<p class="title">EDDIE FOY'S SWORN TESTIMONY.</p>
+
+
+<p>Eddie Foy, whose real name is Edwin Fitzgerald, has faced many audiences
+under all conditions and circumstances during his stage career of a
+quarter of a century, during which he rose from a street urchin to the
+distinction of one of America's most entertaining and unctuous comedians.
+Never before had such interest centered in his appearance as when on
+Thursday afternoon, January 7, 1904, he took the witness stand to relate
+under oath what he knew concerning the calamity of the preceding week.</p>
+
+<p>The actor's face was a study. His deep-lined countenance, ordinarily
+irresistibly funny without effort on his part, took on a truly tragic
+aspect as he entered upon his story. His indescribable, husky voice that
+has made hundreds of thousands laugh with merriment, was broken; there was
+no suggestion of humor in it. Instead it was a wail from the tomb, the
+utterance of a man broken with the weight of the woe he had beheld in a
+few brief, fleeting moments.</p>
+
+<p>The questions were propounded by Coroner Traeger and Major Lawrence
+Buckley, his chief deputy, and were promptly and fully answered by the
+comedian.</p>
+
+<p>The full text, as secured through a stenographic report, follows:</p>
+
+<p>Q. Will you kindly tell us, Mr. Foy, or Fitzgerald, in your own way, what
+transpired?</p>
+
+<p>A. Well, I went to the matinee with my little boy, six years old, and I
+wanted to put him in the front of the theater<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_221" id="Page_221">[Pg 221]</a></span> to see the show. I sent him
+out before the first act by the stage manager, and he took him out and
+brought him back and said there were no seats. I sent him downstairs and
+put him in a little alcove that is next to the switchboard, underneath
+where they claim the fire started, and where I saw the fire first.</p>
+
+<p>Q. That is on what side of the stage?</p>
+
+<p>A. On my right facing the audience. On the south side of the stage. The
+second act was on. I was in my dressing-room tying my shoes, and I heard a
+noise, and I didn't pay much attention to it at first. I says to myself,
+"Are they fighting again down there"&mdash;there was a fight there about a week
+or two ago; and I says, "They are fighting again." I looked out of the
+door and heard the buzz getting stronger and stronger, with this
+excitement, and I thought of my boy and I ran down the steps. I was in the
+middle dressing-room on the side, and I ran down screaming "Bryan." I got
+him at the first entrance right in front of the switchboard, and looked up
+and saw a fireman there. I don't know what he was doing; he was trying to
+put the fire out. Then the two lower borders running up the side of this
+canvas were burning. I grabbed my boy and rushed to the back door, and
+there was a lot of people trying to get out.</p>
+
+
+<p>&nbsp;</p>
+<p class="center">DESCRIBES STAGE BOX.</p>
+
+<p>Q. What door?</p>
+
+<p>A. The little stage door on Dearborn street.</p>
+
+<p>Q. How did you find that door&mdash;was it open?</p>
+
+<p>A. No. I knew where the door was.</p>
+
+<p>Q. Was the door open when you got there?</p>
+
+<p>A. Yes; they were breaking through it.</p>
+
+<p>Q. Who?</p>
+
+<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_222" id="Page_222">[Pg 222]</a></span>A. All of our people.</p>
+
+<p>Q. Employees on the stage?</p>
+
+<p>A. Not many of them. It was crowded there, and I threw my boy to a man. I
+says: "Take this boy out," and ran out on the footlights to the audience.
+When I did they were in a sort of panic, as I thought, and what I said
+exactly I don't remember, but this was the substance&mdash;my idea was to get
+the curtain down and quietly stop the stampede. I yelled, "Drop the
+curtain and keep up your music." I didn't want a stampede, because it was
+the biggest audience I ever played to of women and children. I told them
+to be quiet and take it easy "Don't get excited"&mdash;and they started up on
+this second balcony on my left to run, and I says, "Sit down; it is all
+right; don't get excited." And they were going that way, and I said to the
+policeman, "Let them out quietly," and they moved then, and I says, "Let
+down the curtain," and I looked up and this curtain was burning&mdash;the
+fringe on the edge of it.</p>
+
+
+<p>&nbsp;</p>
+<p class="center">WOULD NOT COME DOWN.</p>
+
+<p>Q. It was caught, was it?</p>
+
+<p>A. It did not come down.</p>
+
+<p>Q. How near to the bottom of the stage was it?</p>
+
+<p>A. Three feet above my head. I would have been outside if the curtain had
+come down.</p>
+
+<p>Q. It was lowered down after you hallooed?</p>
+
+<p>A. I hallooed for it to come down.</p>
+
+<p>Q. And it came down that far and then caught?</p>
+
+<p>A. I did not see it come down, but it was there when I looked up.</p>
+
+<p>Q. When you looked up it was caught, was it?</p>
+
+<p>A. Yes, sir, it must have been caught&mdash;it didn't come down. Then when I
+was hallooing, I kept hallooing for the<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_223" id="Page_223">[Pg 223]</a></span> curtain to come down&mdash;how many
+times I don't know&mdash;and talked to this man to let them out quietly, there
+was a sort of a cyclone; the thing was flying behind me; I felt it coming.</p>
+
+<p>Q. What do you mean by a cyclone&mdash;cyclone of what?</p>
+
+<p>A. It was a whirl of smoke when I looked around&mdash;the scenery had broken
+the slats it was nailed to; it came down behind me, and I didn't know
+whether to go in front or behind. The stage was covered with smoke, and it
+was a cold draft, and there was an explosion of some kind like you light a
+match and the box goes off. I didn't know whether to go front or not, so I
+thought of my boy&mdash;maybe the man did not take him out&mdash;so I rushed out the
+first thing and went back of the stage.</p>
+
+<p>Q. You went out yourself, then?</p>
+
+<p>A. Yes, sir, and I was looking for my boy all the way in. I wasn't sure he
+was out. I found him in the street.</p>
+
+<p>Q. Do you know what started the fire, Mr. Fitzgerald?</p>
+
+<p>A. No, sir.</p>
+
+
+<p>&nbsp;</p>
+<p class="center">LIGHT NEAR THE FIRE.</p>
+
+<p>Q. Was there any light of any kind near where you first saw the fire?</p>
+
+<p>A. Yes, sir.</p>
+
+<p>Q. What kind of a light?</p>
+
+<p>A. A lens light&mdash;one that you throw spot light on people with.</p>
+
+<p>Q. How close was that to the drop that was on fire?</p>
+
+<p>A. That I could not tell&mdash;there were three or four drops on fire when I
+got there for the boy.</p>
+
+<p>Q. They were all close together?</p>
+
+<p>A. Yes.</p>
+
+<p>Q. Too high up for anybody to reach?</p>
+
+<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_224" id="Page_224">[Pg 224]</a></span>A. Impossible.</p>
+
+<p>Q. Were there any other fires of any kind, fires or lights, near those
+drops or the fire, besides this drop light?</p>
+
+<p>A. That was the only one I saw.</p>
+
+<p>Q. Then there would not be anything else able to ignite those drops, only
+this light?</p>
+
+<p>A. I should think so, yes.</p>
+
+<p>Q. You are satisfied in your own mind that it was caused from that light.</p>
+
+<p>A. That it was caused from that light.</p>
+
+<p>Q. You have been playing there in the theater since "Mr. Bluebeard, Jr.,"
+started, or since the theater opened, haven't you?</p>
+
+<p>A. Yes, sir.</p>
+
+<p>Q. Do you know of any drill or any precautions that were taken by the
+management or parties in charge of the theater in emergency cases in the
+case of fire&mdash;that is, drilling or handling the employees as to what they
+should do in case of fire?</p>
+
+<p>A. No. I know I couldn't smoke in the theater; the policeman was around
+there all the time in the dressing-rooms.</p>
+
+
+<p>&nbsp;</p>
+<p class="center">SAW NO EXTINGUISHERS.</p>
+
+<p>Q. Did you notice any fire extinguishers of any kind on the stage?</p>
+
+<p>A. No, sir, I did not.</p>
+
+<p>Q. Any appliances of any kind to be used in case of fire?</p>
+
+<p>A. No. I don't think I did; there might have been.</p>
+
+<p>Q. Did you notice any fire extinguishers in your dressing-room?</p>
+
+<p>A. No, sir.</p>
+
+<p>Q. Did you ever notice while in the theater whether there<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_225" id="Page_225">[Pg 225]</a></span> was any
+policeman or fireman stationed on the stage or around the stage?</p>
+
+<p>A. Yes, sir, there was a fireman there always on the stage.</p>
+
+<p>Q. Did you ever hear while in the theater of an asbestos curtain there?</p>
+
+<p>A. I cannot say that I did.</p>
+
+<p>Q. Did you ever hear of a fireproof curtain there?</p>
+
+<p>A. Yes, sir.</p>
+
+<p>Q. Did it take long for this curtain that you say was down and stuck to
+burn?</p>
+
+<p>A. I couldn't stay there long enough to see if it was burning&mdash;it was on
+fire.</p>
+
+<p>Q. You have had a good deal of experience in theaters?</p>
+
+<p>A. Thirty-five years.</p>
+
+<p>Q. Would you consider that there was as good a protection taken at the
+Iroquois theater as there was in the average theater throughout the
+country in cases of fire?</p>
+
+<p>A. You mean in the construction of the theater?</p>
+
+<p>Q. Not the construction, but I would say in the management, and in the
+furnishing of fire extinguishers and appliances to extinguish fires.</p>
+
+<p>A. Well, I never took notice of the fire extinguisher. If a man would look
+at that stage he would naturally think they couldn't possibly have a fire
+without everybody getting out in front of the theater.</p>
+
+<p>Q. I didn't ask you that. My question was, in your experience in traveling
+through the theaters in different cities, would you consider there was as
+good protection taken on the Iroquois stage to extinguish fire, as there
+was in the average theater throughout the country?</p>
+
+<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_226" id="Page_226">[Pg 226]</a></span>A. Well, I couldn't say; I never took notice of what was on the stage to
+extinguish fires.</p>
+
+<p>Q. Did you at any other theater?</p>
+
+<p>A. Well, I have seen fire extinguishers around at times.</p>
+
+
+<p>&nbsp;</p>
+<p class="center">TALKS OF APPARATUS.</p>
+
+<p>Q. In theaters where you have noticed these fire extinguishers, what part
+of the theater did you see them in?</p>
+
+<p>A. Well, they were fire extinguishers like a man would put on his back,
+with a strap to it.</p>
+
+<p>Q. Where were they?</p>
+
+<p>A. On the platform in the theater.</p>
+
+<p>Q. Did you notice anything of that kind at the Iroquois theater?</p>
+
+<p>A. No, sir, I did not; I cannot say that I did.</p>
+
+<p>Q. Now, if you did not see those appliances, you did not see them when you
+went in the stage entrance?</p>
+
+<p>A. No, sir.</p>
+
+<p>Q. You say you saw them in other stage entrances?</p>
+
+<p>A. Yes, sir.</p>
+
+<p>Q. You didn't see them at the Iroquois theater?</p>
+
+<p>A. No, sir, not any time I was there.</p>
+
+<p>Q. Did you see any hose of any kind that could be used in cases of fire?</p>
+
+<p>A. I don't know whether there was any; I didn't see any.</p>
+
+<p>Q. Did you know of any other fire that occurred in the theater previous to
+this one?</p>
+
+<p>A. No, sir.</p>
+
+<p>Q. You have been with the company for how long?</p>
+
+<p>A. I played right along with it in Wisconsin and New York last season, and
+opened in Pittsburg with it and have been with it ever since.</p>
+
+<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_227" id="Page_227">[Pg 227]</a></span>Q. Did you play at Cleveland?</p>
+
+<p>A. Yes, sir.</p>
+
+<p>Q. What was the date of the fire in Cleveland?</p>
+
+<p>A. I don't know the date; there was a fire on the stage.</p>
+
+<p>Q. Was the cause the same as at this fire?</p>
+
+<p>A. No; the flies caught fire at this fire. This was on the stage. They
+could not get at this fire.</p>
+
+<p>Q. What caused it?</p>
+
+<p>A. That I don't know, sir.</p>
+
+<p>Q. Did you consider it a dangerous lot of scenery to travel with, lights
+and scenery combined?</p>
+
+<p>A. I don't know; I consider all scenery dangerous.</p>
+
+<p>Q. Did you consider this dangerous?</p>
+
+<p>A. No, sir.</p>
+
+
+<p>&nbsp;</p>
+<p class="center">ONLY ONE EXIT OPEN.</p>
+
+<p>Q. Were both of the exits on the stage open?</p>
+
+<p>A. Only one door, a little door that we go through always was open when I
+went out.</p>
+
+<p>Question by Foreman Meyer of the Jury: Mr. Foy, when you came out to the
+footlights to try to quiet the people and you cried for the curtain to
+come down, did you see the curtain come down?</p>
+
+<p>A. I did not see the curtain come down. I screamed for the curtain to come
+down, and I told the orchestra to keep up the music, and then I addressed
+the audience, thinking I would get the curtain down. I would have been in
+front of the curtain if it came down.</p>
+
+<p>Q. You said at the same time you looked around?</p>
+
+<p>A. I looked around, yes, sir.</p>
+
+<p>Q. What was the color of the curtain as you looked at it?</p>
+
+<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_228" id="Page_228">[Pg 228]</a></span>A. I couldn't tell the color. It was right over my head.</p>
+
+<p>Q. Could you tell from any observation at any time before that?</p>
+
+<p>A. No, sir.</p>
+
+<p>Question by Juror Cummings: When you counseled the audience to keep quiet
+were you working on the assumption that there was a fire brigade on the
+stage?</p>
+
+<p>A. Well, my idea was to get the curtain down and stop the panic. The
+audience was composed of women and children.</p>
+
+<p>Question by Deputy Buckley: From the time that you first heard the noise,
+when you were in the dressing-room until you got out, about what time
+elapsed?</p>
+
+<p>A. Well, I have been trying to figure that out in my own mind. I don't
+think it was ninety seconds.</p>
+
+
+<p>&nbsp;</p>
+<p class="center">WIRE ACROSS AUDITORIUM.</p>
+
+<p>Q. Do you know, Mr. Foy, whether there was a wire extending from the stage
+across the auditorium to any of the balconies or any part of the theater
+or auditorium outside?</p>
+
+<p>A. Yes, sir.</p>
+
+<p>Q. Where was that wire located?</p>
+
+<p>A. The wire hung from the center of the auditorium to the side of the
+stage, to where the fire, they say, started, on my right-hand side facing
+the audience.</p>
+
+<p>Q. Was that the side of the stage where the curtain was caught?</p>
+
+<p>A. I could not say. I have been trying to fix that in my mind.</p>
+
+<p>Q. You cannot say whether it was hung on the wire on the right or left
+hand side?</p>
+
+<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_229" id="Page_229">[Pg 229]</a></span>A. No, sir. I should not think that it had anything to do with it.</p>
+
+<p>Q. Was that stationary?</p>
+
+<p>A. It hung from the front, and it was unhooked and put on the woman when
+she went out in the air.</p>
+
+<p>Q. Did any part of it go behind the curtain?</p>
+
+<p>A. Yes, it went behind the curtain, but that could not have possibly
+stopped it, because it would have broken it. I don't think the curtain was
+low enough down to touch it, because the girl is only a little girl, Miss
+Reed, and they had to hook it on her.</p>
+
+<p>Q. About how high up was the wire?</p>
+
+<p>A. Well, so that a man like the stage manager would take it off and the
+man that was assisting in this flying ballet would hook it on this little
+girl that flew out.</p>
+
+<p>Q. She was killed?</p>
+
+<p>A. She was killed.</p>
+
+
+
+<p>&nbsp;</p><p>&nbsp;</p>
+<hr style="width: 50%;" />
+<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_230" id="Page_230">[Pg 230]</a></span></p>
+<h2><a name="CHAPTER_XVII" id="CHAPTER_XVII"></a>CHAPTER XVII.</h2>
+<p class="title">EFFECT OF THE FIRE NEAR AND FAR.</p>
+
+
+<p>Many of the members of the "Mr. Bluebeard, Jr.," company were arrested and
+retained as witnesses in the trial, on a charge of manslaughter, of
+Messrs. Davis and Powers, Building Commissioner Williams and the stage
+manager, electricians and carpenters especially concerned in the
+manipulation of the lights and curtains. On the Saturday night succeeding
+the fire Mayor Harrison closed all the theaters in the city, numbering
+thirty-seven, for a period of two weeks, or until a thorough investigation
+could be made as to whether they were complying with the city ordinances
+in every detail.</p>
+
+<p>People with seat checks were turned away from the doors of the theaters.
+Even the fireproof Auditorium was not permitted to remain open, and
+Theodore Thomas and his musicians returned to their homes without playing.</p>
+
+<p>Theatrical people in the dressing-rooms of the theaters took off their
+makeup and left. Ushers turned out the lights and the managers locked the
+doors. It was a condition without precedent in any large city of this or
+any other country&mdash;every public place of theatrical amusement closed by
+command, as the result of a great disaster.</p>
+
+<p>And not only did the terrible calamity close every theater in Chicago, but
+it sent the city authorities, fire inspectors, aldermen and all, scurrying
+through the city, examining the big department stores and their means of
+escape for their thousands of employees. The alarm and inspection also
+extended<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_231" id="Page_231">[Pg 231]</a></span> to the public schools of the city. Nor was the awful upheaval
+felt with startling force only at home, but like an earthquake its
+vibrations reached distant cities and countries. The monarchs of Europe,
+with the great public men of America, sent words of sympathy over the
+throbbing wires, those which came from Emperor William being:</p>
+
+<p>"<span class="smcap">Neues Palais</span>, Dec. 31.&mdash;To the President of the United States: Aghast at
+the terrible news of the catastrophe that has befallen the citizens of
+Chicago the empress and myself wish to convey to you how deeply we feel
+for the American people who have been so cruelly visited in this week of
+joy. Please convey expression of our sincerest sympathy to the city of
+Chicago. Many thanks for your kind letter. In coming years may Providence
+shield you and America from harm and such accidents.</p>
+
+<p><span style="margin-left: 4em;">"<span class="smcap">Wilhelm</span> I. R."</span></p>
+
+<p>Within a few days there was abundant evidence that profound sympathy had
+given place, in all the large cities of the world, to practical endeavors
+to avert like calamities.</p>
+
+
+<p>&nbsp;</p>
+<p class="center">NEW YORK THEATERS AND SCHOOLS.</p>
+
+<p>As his first official act, Nicholas J. Hayes, who on New Year's became
+fire commissioner of New York, ordered an investigation of all the
+theaters of that city. He declared that he intended to ascertain whether
+the New York playhouses were so constructed and equipped as to safeguard
+human life in case of fire or panic.</p>
+
+<p>"The protection of human life is the first and most important duty of the
+fire commissioner," said Mr. Hayes. "In this work no one shall hinder me
+from doing my full duty."</p>
+
+<p>In each battalion district where a theater was located the new fire
+commissioner designated a competent assistant foreman as theater inspector
+and provided for weekly inspection of<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_232" id="Page_232">[Pg 232]</a></span> theaters. These inspectors were
+under the supervision of a general theater inspector. One of the tests at
+once applied by Commissioner Hayes was to have the inspector pour gasoline
+on the asbestos curtain and then apply fire. Several houses were at once
+closed, as the curtains failed to stand the test.</p>
+
+<p>City Superintendent of Schools Maxwell, of New York, also issued special
+fire instructions to the district superintendents and principals of
+schools, whom he directed to perfect fire drills and the rapid dismissal
+of school children under their care.</p>
+
+
+<p>&nbsp;</p>
+<p class="center">CRUSADE IN PITTSBURG.</p>
+
+<p>The Pittsburg department of public safety immediately began a crusade
+against the violation of the ordinances regarding theater construction and
+equipment. Managers were compelled to arrange their fire escapes, curtains
+and apparatus so that everything worked with facility. At the Nixon
+theater, at the close of a performance, the people were rapidly dismissed
+after a fire alarm, and ushered out into the alley exits and down fire
+escapes in two and one-half minutes. Other theaters were put through
+similar drills.</p>
+
+
+<p>&nbsp;</p>
+<p class="center">WASHINGTON THEATER OWNERS ARRESTED.</p>
+
+<p>Warrants were issued for the arrest of the proprietors of three of the
+seven Washington theaters. Failure to comply with building regulations in
+making improvements resulted in the withholding of the license of one
+theater. The two other proprietors were arrested for failure to provide
+proper exit lights, fire escapes and stage stairways.</p>
+
+
+<p>&nbsp;</p>
+<p class="center">MASSACHUSETTS THEATERS INVESTIGATED.</p>
+
+<p>As a result of the fire Chief Rufus R. Wade, of the Massachusetts state
+police, at once issued orders for his inspectors<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_233" id="Page_233">[Pg 233]</a></span> to make immediate and
+thorough inspection of every theater in the commonwealth outside of
+Boston. The statutes give no jurisdiction over Boston, but his orders
+meant that more than 100 theaters under his supervision would receive
+immediate attention.</p>
+
+<p>The Chicago theater horror caused such a decreased attendance at Boston
+theaters as to mean comparatively empty houses for some time afterward.
+Huge areas of vacant seats were to be observed and the crowds at theater
+exits at 10:45 were prominent for their absence.</p>
+
+
+<p>&nbsp;</p>
+<p class="center">ACTION IN MILWAUKEE.</p>
+
+<p>Spurred to action by the theater horror in Chicago, the city officials of
+Milwaukee, Wis., closed four theaters. The orders to darken the houses
+followed an investigation by the chief of the fire department. In the
+Academy and the Bijou, popular-priced houses, and in the two vaudeville
+houses, the Star and the Crystal, the chief found the "fire" curtains were
+made of thin canvas.</p>
+
+
+<p>&nbsp;</p>
+<p class="center">PRECAUTIONS AT ST. LOUIS.</p>
+
+<p>In St. Louis the commissioner of public buildings and the chief of the
+fire department served notice on theater managers that the provisions of
+the city ordinances designed to prevent fire and panic must be rigidly
+carried out. A new ordinance revising the building laws was at once laid
+before the city council. One of its new features insists on a metal
+skylight or fire vent over the stage. This vent must be so constructed as
+to open instantly and automatically. Fire Chief Swingle sent notice to the
+managers that all aisles must be kept cleared.</p>
+
+
+<p>&nbsp;<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_234" id="Page_234">[Pg 234]</a></span></p>
+<p class="center">ORDERS AFFECTING OMAHA THEATERS.</p>
+
+<p>Building Inspector Withnell ordered several radical changes in theaters
+and large department stores as a result of the fire. All the theaters were
+required to increase their exit facilities, and one theater was ordered to
+put in additional aisles and remove 150 rear seats in the parquet circle
+and balconies, which would interfere with a free exit in case of panic.
+Asbestos curtains were ordered into use at all the theaters.</p>
+
+
+<p>&nbsp;</p>
+<p class="center">EFFECT ABROAD.</p>
+
+<p>The news of the awful calamity shocked the great cities of Europe beyond
+expression, and its discussion excluded even such large agitating
+questions as the Eastern&mdash;possible war between Japan and Russia, which
+might involve the entire Old World. The so-called American colonies of
+London, Paris and Berlin were especially shocked, many members of whom
+sought for news of friends and relatives who might be among the list of
+dead or injured. As the complete list could not be cabled for several days
+thereafter their suspense was, in many cases, unbearable, and scores took
+the first steamers for America.</p>
+
+
+<p>&nbsp;</p>
+<p class="center">HORROR FELT IN LONDON.</p>
+
+<p>Upon the receipt of the first news all local and foreign topics of
+interest were forgotten in London in the universal horror over the
+tragedy. The extra editions of the newspapers giving the latest details
+were eagerly bought up and newspaper placards bore in flaring type the
+announcement of further news from Chicago. The flags over the American
+steamship offices were half-masted.</p>
+
+<p>The accounts of the deadly panic were read by the English people with
+peculiar sympathy and horror, for the pantomime<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_235" id="Page_235">[Pg 235]</a></span> season was at its height
+and the London theaters were daily packed with women and children.</p>
+
+<p>Yet certainly the first night after the news was generally known, which
+was Thursday, no appreciable effect was felt on the attendance of most of
+the London theaters. The usual number were waiting in line at the Drury
+Lane box office early in the evening. The vaudeville had "house full"
+boards prominently displayed. Still another playhouse in the Strand showed
+only a slight falling off in attendance, but when the actual list of dead,
+injured and missing was received by cable and posted in the newspaper
+offices, hotels and other public places, there was a very marked decrease
+in the number of theater goers. Later still came the detailed information
+called for by the fire committee of the London county council, which
+indicated that the Chicago theater offered better chances of escape than a
+number of houses in the very heart of London. This was the first step
+toward a thorough overhauling of the theaters of the world's metropolis.</p>
+
+
+<p>&nbsp;</p>
+<p class="center">LONDON THEATER PRECAUTIONS.</p>
+
+<p>With the story of the horror upon the pale lips of all, there was at the
+same time, in the minds of many of the theater goers of London, a feeling
+that the regulations of the lord chamberlain and the London county council
+reduced to a minimum the possibility of the occurrence of a similar
+tragedy in their midst. Nevertheless theatrical men of experience agree
+that, after all, the most elaborate precautions may be taken, and when the
+crucial moment arrives they may prove of not the slightest value.</p>
+
+
+<p>&nbsp;</p>
+<p class="center">PRESENT RULES FOR LONDON THEATERS.</p>
+
+<p>On the programme of every theater in London is printed the following
+extract from rules made by the lord chamberlain:</p>
+
+<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_236" id="Page_236">[Pg 236]</a></span>"The name of the actual responsible manager of the theater must be printed
+on every playbill. The public can leave the theater at the end of the
+performance by all exit entrance doors, which must open outward.</p>
+
+<p>"Where there is a fireproof screen to the proscenium opening it must be
+lowered at least once during every performance, to insure it being in
+proper working order.</p>
+
+<p>"All gangways, passages and staircases must be kept free from chairs or
+any other obstructions."</p>
+
+<p>To guard against the possibility of a person in a moment of fright jumping
+from a balcony, the London county council insists on a brass railing being
+fixed on the tier in front of the upper circle.</p>
+
+
+<p>&nbsp;</p>
+<p class="center">CURTAIN OFTEN TESTED.</p>
+
+<p>His Majesty's Theater is one of the largest and best equipped theaters in
+London. The precautions taken there may be mentioned as representative of
+what many London theater managers do to protect their patrons. A big iron
+asbestos curtain is worked by a lever in the "prop" corner on the
+prompter's side. The curtain is lowered just after the audience has been
+seated, before the play begins, not only to test it, but to give the
+audience confidence. Thursday night following the Iroquois fire Beerbohm
+Tree, the proprietor, ordered the curtain to be lowered twice, the second
+time after the first act, and this will be done in the future.</p>
+
+
+<p>&nbsp;</p>
+<p class="center">CLOSE WATCH FOR FIRE.</p>
+
+<p>Two firemen belonging to the fire department, but paid by the theater,
+come on duty at 7 o'clock. Every light or naked torch carried on the stage
+it is their duty to watch. It is the custom here, as at all theaters, to
+keep blankets dripping wet<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_237" id="Page_237">[Pg 237]</a></span> hanging at certain points all round the stage.
+Cutting-away apparatus and buckets are kept in the flies.</p>
+
+<p>"I have never heard of a great theater fire," said Mr. Dana, acting
+manager, "where trouble has been caused by flames in the front of the
+house. The exits in London theaters must be direct to the streets, not
+false exits, as I am afraid is too often the case in America.
+Nevertheless, when all is done, the fact remains that no one has ever
+invented a patent for stopping a panic."</p>
+
+
+<p>&nbsp;</p>
+<p class="center">TREE TELLS OF RUSE.</p>
+
+<p>"It is certainly the most terrible tragedy I ever heard of," said Mr.
+Tree, the proprietor. "It is quite easy at times to prevent a panic from
+the stage by a little presence of mind. I was playing once in Belfast when
+suddenly behind a transparency I saw a reddish blaze and guessed it was a
+fire, but went quietly on until a convenient pause. Then I announced to
+the audience that something was out of order and the curtain would descend
+quietly and remain down a few minutes. I assured them there was absolutely
+no danger. The curtain descended amid applause, and while the band played
+the fire was quickly smothered. The curtain rose and the play went on
+without a soul leaving the house.</p>
+
+<p>"It is quite possible at such a time for a person to hypnotize an
+audience. In all cases of theater disasters it has been the panic, not the
+fire, that has caused the big loss of life.</p>
+
+<p>"It is probable if the audience had known where the exits were the
+Iroquois theater might have been cleared in two minutes. I think that
+every night uniformed attendants should be stationed in all theaters,
+whose duty it should be to call out 'This way out' when the audience is
+leaving. I am surprised there appeared to be no outside balconies with
+stairways, as is<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_238" id="Page_238">[Pg 238]</a></span> the case in most American theaters, which is an
+advantage which we have not got here."</p>
+
+
+<p>&nbsp;</p>
+<p class="center">FORTUNE FOR SAFETY.</p>
+
+<p>Sidney Smith, business manager of the Drury Lane theater, where "Mr.
+Bluebeard, Jr.," was produced two years ago, said: "The kernel of the
+whole matter is that human beings will be human beings. There is no
+possible provision against a panic. Our theater is the only isolated one
+in London."</p>
+
+
+<p>&nbsp;</p>
+<p class="center">W. C. ZIMMERMAN ON EUROPEAN THEATERS.</p>
+
+<p>W. Carbys Zimmerman, of Chicago, the well-known architect, sailed for
+America on the Saturday succeeding the fire, with his wife, in a state of
+intense anxiety as to whether his children had been caught in the Iroquois
+disaster.</p>
+
+<p>Mr. Zimmerman had just completed a tour of inspection of the theaters of
+Vienna, Paris and London. "My work in London," he said, "was interfered
+with by the appalling news from Chicago. I had seen only a few theaters
+here when I heard of the Iroquois fire. After that I had no heart to make
+further investigation. My observation leads me to think the Vienna
+theaters the safest in Europe. Many of them are quite detached from other
+buildings. They are splendidly furnished with exits and fire-fighting
+appliances. The theaters of Paris, except the best ones, are extremely
+dangerous.</p>
+
+<p>"From what I saw in London I judge that fire in many theaters would result
+in great loss of life. The passages are often so narrow that two people
+can scarcely pass. The managers naturally put a rosy face on the matter.
+They pretend that the Chicago fire has not reduced their bookings, but
+intelligent observers know better. Immense improvements are certain to be
+effected in London theaters in the immediate future.</p>
+
+<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_239" id="Page_239">[Pg 239]</a></span>"Every theater should be isolated from other structures. It should have
+exits all round and these should be used regularly. There should be no
+emergency exits whatever. The fireproof curtain should be used constantly
+in place of the ordinary drop curtain. All passages should be straight and
+wide and all scenery noncombustible. Lastly, professional fire fighters
+should be properly posted throughout the performance. Europe recognizes
+that amateur firemen are useless in a crisis."</p>
+
+
+<p>&nbsp;</p>
+<p class="center">THE EFFECT ON GAY PARIS.</p>
+
+<p>Thousands of Parisians, both French and Americans, including all those who
+had friends and relatives in Chicago, eagerly scanned the list of the dead
+and injured in the Iroquois disaster, as it was posted at the newspaper
+offices and distributed throughout the hotels and public places in the
+city. This step greatly relieved the anxiety of many of the American
+colony, while at the same time it confirmed the fears of those whose
+friends or acquaintances were caught in the fire.</p>
+
+<p>The theater managers complained at once that the Chicago catastrophe had a
+most damaging effect on receipts. All the popular matinees were
+comparatively deserted and the children's New Year pantomimes were
+complete failures. Cool heads pointed out that the Parisian theaters, as a
+rule, are better equipped against fire than those of Chicago, but without
+effect. The lesson of terror had seized the public.</p>
+
+
+<p>&nbsp;</p>
+<p class="center">UPHEAVAL OF BERLIN THEATER WORLD.</p>
+
+<p>The Berlin evening papers of the fateful day expressed horror and sympathy
+over the Chicago catastrophe, comparing the details with those of the
+Vienna and Paris theater fires. The fire department of the city announced
+that it would immediately make a fresh study of the protective
+arrangements of the local<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_240" id="Page_240">[Pg 240]</a></span> theaters, so as to prevent, if possible, a
+disaster similar to the one at Chicago.</p>
+
+<p>Directors of all the Berlin theaters were promptly summoned to police
+headquarters and apprised of the kaiser's demand that fire protection be
+made more adequate. The directors of many houses came before their
+audiences and publicly stated their intention to install the new
+facilities ordered by the kaiser. These precautions included the lowering
+of the iron curtain five minutes before each performance and during the
+intermissions; an increase in the number of firemen on and off the stage,
+and illuminated exit signs, incapable of extinguishment by smoke or flame.
+Before each performance the firemen were also to make minute inspection of
+the building and furnish a formal report that all was right before the
+curtain was raised.</p>
+
+<p>The greatest bomb, however, cast into the theater world of Berlin was
+Emperor Wilhelm's order summarily closing the Royal Opera House until
+certain alterations, necessary for protection from fire and possible
+panic, were made. The kaiser's action attracted the attention of the whole
+community, which concluded that if the largest and best-equipped playhouse
+in Prussia was unsafe many minor establishments must be positively
+dangerous. Berlin, without doubt, contained a dozen music halls and other
+places of amusement where a fire panic would be deadly, and they followed
+the fate of the Royal Opera House and were closed until safeguards
+approved by the proper authorities were provided. In the future
+proprietors of Berlin theaters will also station special policemen in
+their houses for the sole purpose of controlling audiences in case of
+fire, or panic, or both. Thus did the Chicago tragedy profoundly affect
+one of the great theater centers of the world.</p>
+
+
+<p>&nbsp;<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_241" id="Page_241">[Pg 241]</a></span></p>
+<p class="center">MR. SHAVER ON BERLIN THEATERS.</p>
+
+<p>Cornelius H. Shaver, president of the Railroad News Company of Chicago,
+who was in Berlin at the time of the fire, said: "Many of the theaters in
+Germany strike me as firetraps. Several Berliners assure me that the
+ushers are the only ones sure of escaping with their lives from at least
+three of their best houses. The auditoriums in many German theaters are
+150 feet back from the street and to reach them one must journey through a
+labyrinth of courts, corridors and sudden turnings. In the interior the
+precautions against fire are excellent, including iron curtains, automatic
+sprinklers and squads of city firemen; but German theaters and hotels are
+lacking in so essential an equipment as outside fire escapes."</p>
+
+
+<p>&nbsp;</p>
+<p class="center">VIENNA RECALLS A HORROR OF ITS OWN.</p>
+
+<p>The catastrophe at Chicago aroused the most painful interest and the
+utmost sympathy everywhere in Austria, the Viennese having a keen
+recollection of the disaster at the Ring theater in 1881, when 875 people
+lost their lives. Intense anxiety prevailed in the American colony, as
+many doctors and musical students who form the bulk of the colony come
+from the Middle West of the United States.</p>
+
+<p>Herr Lueger, the burgomaster of Vienna, sent a cable message to Mayor
+Harrison, expressing sympathy and deep condolence over the terrible
+catastrophe.</p>
+
+
+<p>&nbsp;</p>
+<p class="center">THE NETHERLANDS AND SCANDINAVIA.</p>
+
+<p>Upon receipt of definite news of the Iroquois theater disaster the
+theaters and music halls in The Hague were overhauled by the authorities.
+Amsterdam and Rotterdam demanded strict enforcement of the regulations
+against fire and new legislation looking to that end was at once put in
+force.</p>
+
+<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_242" id="Page_242">[Pg 242]</a></span>In Copenhagen, Stockholm and Christiania the Danish, Swedish and Norwegian
+licensing authorities for public amusements caused a rigid inspection to
+be made of all playhouses with a view to better safeguards against fire,
+and that inspection is still progressing and will doubtless bear good
+results as in other European centers.</p>
+
+<p>Enough has been said to indicate that virtually the entire hemisphere of
+the West has been stirred to practical action by the terrible calamity
+which this book records. It is not within the range of human possibility
+that theaters can be made absolutely perfect, any more than other human
+institutions, nor is it possible that the awful lesson furnished by the
+Iroquois theater disaster will have been forgotten before substantial
+improvements are made in the amusement houses of the world for the present
+and future protection of human life.</p>
+
+
+
+<p>&nbsp;</p><p>&nbsp;</p>
+<hr style="width: 50%;" />
+<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_243" id="Page_243">[Pg 243]</a></span></p>
+<h2><a name="CHAPTER_XVIII" id="CHAPTER_XVIII"></a>CHAPTER XVIII.</h2>
+<p class="title">SUGGESTIONS FOR SAFE THEATERS.</p>
+
+
+<p>Clarence J. Root, of Chicago, an assistant of Prof. Cox in the weather
+bureau, makes the following suggestions in connection with the
+safe-theater agitation:</p>
+
+<p>"Location&mdash;All theaters to be in buildings by themselves, like the
+Illinois and Iroquois. No stores or offices to be located in them.
+Buildings should be isolated, with wide private or public alleys or courts
+entirely around the rear and sides. A false wall could be built in front
+of the side courts where they project upon the street, thus helping the
+appearance of the block. These should, however, have wide arches through
+them.</p>
+
+<p>"Construction&mdash;All buildings to be absolutely fireproof. The buildings
+should be built of steel, fireproof tiling, steel lathing, etc. Scenery of
+asbestos or aluminum would be practicable. Aluminum is light and easily
+handled. The seats to be upholstered in leather. The floor to be
+constructed of metal, cement, mosaic or composition, with thin rubber
+matting over them, such as is used on sleeping-car steps. Ornamental iron
+work can be used on boxes, front of balconies, etc. Stair railings of
+brass or fancy copper. The fire curtain to be of steel and asbestos both.
+The heavy steel would prevent any bulging from a draft.</p>
+
+<p>"Exits&mdash;No steps or stairs should be used in the aisles or exits or
+anywhere in the theater. Easy inclines, similar to the ones in the new
+Pittsburg theater, should be used in the aisles,<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_244" id="Page_244">[Pg 244]</a></span> the inside entrances and
+exits, and the outside exits, all to be covered with rubber to prevent
+slipping. Two or three very wide exits ought to be provided on each side
+of the theater, and in addition, one (say twice as wide as the aisle) at
+the rear end of each aisle, the hallway leading from these rear exits, if
+not opening outdoors, to be wide enough to accommodate the entire number
+of exits. These rules should apply in the balconies, also. The outside
+fire-escapes to be long, easy inclines, with high sides, to prevent people
+from jumping. Each exit to have its own independent incline, so that the
+crowd from the first balcony cannot block those from the upper gallery, as
+in the Iroquois fire. All doors to swing outward and not to be locked
+during the performance. They should be inspected before each play and
+should be so connected, electrically, that every door in the house could
+be thrown open instantly, merely by the touching of a button, these
+buttons to be located on the stage and other places convenient to the
+ushers and employees. Theaters should not be built 'L' shape. That was one
+fault of the Iroquois. The crowd naturally followed the aisles to the back
+of the house and then, instead of finding themselves at the outdoor exits,
+as in most playhouses, they had to go clear to one side of the theater.
+This mixed them up with the crowds from the other aisles and concentrated
+too many people in one place.</p>
+
+<p>"Summary&mdash;A theater as described above could not burn, but a sprinkler
+system would do no harm. Heating and power plant in another building would
+prevent danger of an explosion. The aisles should be very wide and no
+standing room or portable chairs allowed. It may seem unnecessary in a
+fireproof theater to have such elaborate exits, but panics will occur from
+other causes than fires. A plan of the house should be printed on the
+cover of the program; this should plainly show<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_245" id="Page_245">[Pg 245]</a></span> the exits. A description
+of the fireproof qualities of the theater should also be printed. This
+will secure the confidence of the audience, and perhaps avert a panic. In
+a house built and equipped, strictly in accordance with the above ideas, a
+fire would be impossible and a serious panic unlikely."</p>
+
+
+<p>&nbsp;</p>
+<p class="center">FRANCIS WILSON SAYS "NO STEPS."</p>
+
+<p>Francis Wilson, the well known actor, in speaking of the fire, said:</p>
+
+<p>"I suppose similar scenes always will follow a sudden rush in any building
+crowded with men and women, but I feel strongly that theater buildings
+could be improved so as to reduce the danger in a stampede to a minimum.
+It is my opinion that there should not be a single step in a theater. The
+descents should be gentle inclines. That this is possible is shown by the
+construction of a new theater in Pittsburg, where even the gallery is
+reached by inclines.</p>
+
+<p>"It is the thought of the many stairways that must be passed quickly, and
+possibly in darkness, that drives the occupants of the galleries to panic
+at any alarm. If they were sure of a clear pathway straight to the street
+half their fear would be allayed. In doing away with steps in the
+auditoriums of theaters the builders should not forget the actors."</p>
+
+
+<p>&nbsp;</p>
+<p class="center">STAIRCASES WITH RAILINGS.</p>
+
+<p>Suggestion by W. B. Chamberlain, of London:</p>
+
+<p>"In nearly all fires in theaters loss of life seems to be at the head of
+stairs. This is natural, as persons who come first to the head of the
+stairs, hold back, being afraid to go down quickly lest they be pushed
+down by those behind them. People seem to think a broad staircase safer
+than a narrow one. I don't think this is the case, as in a narrow one you
+can put<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_246" id="Page_246">[Pg 246]</a></span> your hands on two sides, and go down with less fear of being
+thrown forward. All wide staircases should be provided with handrails, for
+if you have both hands on handrails you can run down quickly. If theaters
+were below ground you would in case of fire run up instead of down. They
+would be much safer for want of air to feed the flames."</p>
+
+
+<p>&nbsp;</p>
+<p class="center">PRECAUTIONS ENFORCED IN LONDON.</p>
+
+<p>According to Sir Algernon West, of London, since 1858 not a single life
+has been lost in a properly licensed theater building in that city, except
+of a fireman, who perished in the performance of duty at the Alhambra in
+1882. During the few days following the Iroquois disaster, theater
+managers and the public praised the wisdom of the rules of the county
+council, whereas some of the former had been wont to find them rather
+irksome. In addition to the main rules about lowering the asbestos curtain
+once during the performance, doors opening outward, stairways and passages
+to be kept free, there are some other precautions which must be observed.
+All doors used for the purpose of exit must, if fastened during the time
+the public are in the building, be secured during such time only by
+automatic bolts only of a pattern and position approved by the council.
+The management must allow the public to leave by all exit doors. All gas
+burners within reach of the audience must be protected by glass or wire
+globes. All gas taps within reach of the public must be made secure.</p>
+
+<p>An additional means of lighting for use in the event of the principal
+system being extinguished must be provided in the auditorium, corridors,
+passages, exits and staircases. If oil or candle lamps are used for this
+purpose, they must be of a pattern approved by the council, and properly
+secured to a noninflammable base, out of reach of the public. Such lamps<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_247" id="Page_247">[Pg 247]</a></span>
+must be kept lighted during the whole time the public is in the premises.
+No mineral oil must be used in them. All hangings, curtains and draperies
+must be rendered noninflammable. Scenery is painted on canvas that has
+been first prepared with a solution recommended by the county council, to
+make it noninflammable. The paints used by the scenic artists contain no
+oils.</p>
+
+
+<p>&nbsp;</p>
+<p class="center">WHAT THE CHICAGO CITY ENGINEER SAYS.</p>
+
+<p>John Ericson, the city engineer of Chicago, has this to offer:</p>
+
+<p>"A theater building should have an open space on all sides with exits and
+entrances leading directly out, and not, as now is mostly the case, be
+wedged in tight between other large buildings, with a number of exits all
+leading to one or two not too wide hallways which again, together with the
+stairways from the balconies and galleries, merge into one entrance. These
+halls and stairways are only too easily blocked by the frantic people in
+case of a panic. The aisles in most of our theaters are also too narrow
+and should be made considerably wider.</p>
+
+<p>"The excuse that space is too valuable for such extravagance cannot hold.
+If the return for the capital invested in such a case does not seem
+sufficiently large to the investor, then rather charge a little more for
+the entertainment or reduce the number of playhouses so as to insure full
+houses, but in the name of humanity construct those that are used in such
+a way that calamities such as have occurred will be an impossibility.</p>
+
+<p>"I am also of the opinion that perforated water pipes over the stage, into
+which water can be turned at a moment's notice so as to drench the whole
+stage if necessary, would add greatly to the safety of life and property.</p>
+
+<p>"An automatic sprinkler system would probably have been<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_248" id="Page_248">[Pg 248]</a></span> less effective in
+the case of the Iroquois fire, as great damage to life would have probably
+been done before such sprinklers would have been put into action."</p>
+
+
+<p>&nbsp;</p>
+<p class="center">OPINION OF A FIREPROOF EXPERT.</p>
+
+<p>William Clendennin, editor of the <i>Fireproof Magazine</i>, condemned the
+Iroquois Theater building as long ago as last August. Here is his opinion,
+which he asserts is based on a personal investigation:</p>
+
+<p>"The Iroquois theater was a firetrap. The whole thing was a rush
+construction. It was beautiful but it was cheap. Everything but the
+structural members was of wood; the roller on the asbestos curtain, the
+pulleys, all of a cheap compromise.</p>
+
+<p>"I made an investigation of the theater last August and condemned it on
+four different points. My condemnation was published in the August number
+of the <i>Fireproof</i>. The points are:</p>
+
+<p>"1. The absence of an intake, or stage draft shaft.</p>
+
+<p>"2. The exposed re-enforcement of the concrete arch.</p>
+
+<p>"3. The presence of wood trim on everything.</p>
+
+<p>"4. The inadequate provision of exits.</p>
+
+<p>"A theater has two parts&mdash;the stage and the house or audience part. There
+should be a roll shutter between the two and the best sort of a curtain is
+a compromise. The poor stuff in the curtain at the Iroquois theater made
+it doubly a compromise; a great danger, a terrible trap.</p>
+
+<p>"The stage may be compared to a closet. When you open a closet door the
+draft is outward, not inward. So when the fire started on the stage the
+draft pulled it toward the audience. It was a quick flame puff.</p>
+
+<p>"The arch, or ceiling, was covered with a cheap concrete. The first puff
+of flame destroyed this. It crumbled away, <span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_249" id="Page_249">[Pg 249]</a></span>exposing the twisted mass of
+steel re-enforcement and girders, and fell on the audience. This killed
+many. Looking from below, the bewildered, choking and maddened crowd
+thought it was the result of a panic above. They believed the galleries
+were falling and in the rush resulting many more were killed.</p>
+
+<p>"The Iroquois theater was the most-talked-of construction in the country
+at the time of its building. It was believed to be the expression of the
+most modern ideas in regard to theater building; to be about as near
+fireproof as one could be. My investigation satisfied me that it was one
+of the worst firetraps in the city. There was so much wood and so much
+plush and inflammable trimming about everything. The insufficient exits
+tell the rest of the story."</p>
+
+
+<p>&nbsp;</p>
+<p class="center">ILLUMINATED EXIT SIGNS.</p>
+
+<p>On this point T. B. Badt, a consulting electrical engineer of Chicago,
+writes:</p>
+
+<p>"It has been stated that in the Iroquois no exit signs were over the
+doors, and it has been suggested that this was one of the causes of loss
+of life. The question arises, what would signs have been good for if the
+
+theater was thrown in darkness? The signs would not have been seen any
+more than the doors underneath the draperies. In order to avoid such
+trouble I should propose the following:</p>
+
+<p>"Have over each door a transparent sign made out of metal with glass
+crystal letters, and have same illuminated from the outside of the
+building wall by means of a lantern attached on the outside, and have this
+lantern supplied by a source of light independent of the theater lighting
+system, either electric or gas. The sign would be illuminated at all times
+during the performance; it would not be an objection during dark scenes,
+because there would be practically no light thrown through<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_250" id="Page_250">[Pg 250]</a></span> the glass
+letters to interfere with the darkness inside; at the same time the sign
+would stand there glaring the word 'exit,' no matter how dark the theater
+or how light the theater. The main point I am trying to raise is that any
+device which has to be operated in case of an emergency is liable to fail,
+but an illuminated sign that will be illuminated at all times will be
+there no matter what trouble may happen, because nobody can forget to
+light it during the excitement, as it is already lighted before the
+performance commences. This, in my opinion, is the keynote for all devices
+which are intended to prevent panics in theaters. An automatic device is
+dependent upon certain conditions, usually rise of temperature near the
+ceiling. A manually operated safety device depends upon the presence of
+mind and cool-headedness of a certain employee and in my opinion all these
+features should be eliminated. Everything should be ready for an emergency
+and not be dependent upon somebody or something to make it ready. All exit
+doors ought to be unlocked and swing open towards the outside, and this,
+in connection with the permanently illuminated sign above the door saying
+'exit,' in my opinion, would prevent any of the calamities heretofore
+experienced in theater disasters."</p>
+
+
+
+<p>&nbsp;</p><p>&nbsp;</p>
+<hr style="width: 50%;" />
+<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_251" id="Page_251">[Pg 251]</a></span></p>
+<h2><a name="CHAPTER_XIX" id="CHAPTER_XIX"></a>CHAPTER XIX.</h2>
+<p class="title">THE SWORN TESTIMONY OF THE SURVIVORS.</p>
+
+
+<p>Scores and scores of witnesses assembled in the little committee rooms and
+antechambers of the council hall in the great Chicago administrative
+building, each with his story to add to the story of horror, when the
+inquest over the dead began on Thursday, January 7, 1904, one week and a
+day after the disaster.</p>
+
+<p>Some were muffled under great rolls of bandages that concealed frightful
+scars and burns. Others gave no outward indication of the season of terror
+they had passed and survived to tell the tale. Fashionable theater goers,
+actors, actresses and stage hands, chorus girls, belted policemen and grim
+firemen, all met on terms of temporary equality, forming a heterogeneous
+assemblage waiting the call to take the stand. One by one they were
+admitted to the vast council chamber where for days the inquisition
+continued.</p>
+
+<p>Vast throngs of curious besieged the place, clamoring for opportunity to
+view the proceedings. None, save the favored few citizens to whom tickets
+were issued, municipal, county and state officials and representatives of
+the press, enjoyed that opportunity. To them day after day a growing tale
+of suffering and death was unfolded such as has not fallen upon mortal
+ears for half a century. It was a harrowing recital that satiated and
+sickened the auditors and left them faint at each adjournment.</p>
+
+<p>For days preceding the opening session Coroner Traeger<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_252" id="Page_252">[Pg 252]</a></span> his deputies and
+the six jurors had been engaged in a canvass of hospitals, undertaking
+establishments and morgues, viewing the dead. Nor was that ghastly work
+over when they entered upon the semi-judicial task of taking testimony.
+Ever and anon they halted the inquiry to proceed to the bedside of some
+victim that had died after lingering suffering. This formality was
+necessary before burial permits could issue. Each succeeding call brought
+to the jurors a shudder. Theirs was a gruesome task for the public service
+and they felt its burden keenly.</p>
+
+<p>The trend of the statements taken were the same. Details formed the only
+variations. Some of the statements follow:</p>
+
+
+<p>&nbsp;</p>
+<p class="center">THE FIRST WITNESS.</p>
+
+<p>John C. Galvin, 1677 West Monroe street, Chicago, the first witness heard,
+said:</p>
+
+<p>"On the day the fire occurred I stepped into the vestibule to buy tickets
+for the following evening. It must have been a little after half past
+three. As I stepped into the entrance I looked into the lobby and turned
+to the ticket office, and as I did so the center doors of the lobby foyer
+and the outside entrance doors were blown open as though by a gust of hot
+air. I looked into the foyer and I saw people running toward the entrance.
+I realized at once what the trouble was, and went to the lobby doors and
+tried to open the west door there, that being the nearest to me. It was
+locked on the inside and I couldn't do anything with it.</p>
+
+<p>"Then I tried to pacify the people from rushing or crowding, tried to save
+the panic, but it was no use. I would judge there were probably a dozen,
+not more than a dozen, cleared the door before the crush came. I recollect
+the first person to go down seemed to be a rather stout woman, who seemed<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_253" id="Page_253">[Pg 253]</a></span>
+to be free herself, somebody stepping on her skirt. She turned to gather
+up her skirts and she was borne down by the crowd, and then they piled on
+top of each other. I did what I could to release the jam, pulling the
+people from under the crowd and getting them out into the entrance, out
+into the street, but all the while the vestibule was filling up by those
+returning to help their friends, and people rushing into the street and
+helping to bring the crowd to. I tried to open the outside entrance door,
+the west door, which I found was bolted on the inside at that time. I
+tried to lift the bolt, but I couldn't do that.</p>
+
+<p>"Then I kicked out two of the panels. I kicked the glass out of the
+panels, and I then returned to the west vestibule door and I kicked out
+the panels of these two doors, that is, the west door, and tried to take
+some of the people out through the openings. After we got out of the
+doorway I walked back into the entrance gallery and walked around, and
+there was a dense smoke coming from the theater.</p>
+
+<p>"I was expecting a big crush in the vestibule, a much larger crush than I
+saw. I thought there would be a jam on that stair, but nobody came down
+the stairs to my recollection, not a soul. They never lived to reach it.
+All the time I was there I saw no one whose dress or demeanor would
+indicate they were policemen, firemen or attaches of the theater. I
+remained doing what I could to relieve the situation until driven out by
+the smoke. I then went across the street and watched the destruction of
+the theater."</p>
+
+
+<p>&nbsp;</p>
+<p class="center">MARLOWE'S EXPERIENCE.</p>
+
+<p>James C. McGurn, 2 Rosemont street, Dorchester, Mass., known on the stage
+as James C. Marlowe:</p>
+
+<p>"I was in the Garrick theater, a block distant, to see the<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_254" id="Page_254">[Pg 254]</a></span> show. At the
+first alarm I hurried out and went down to the Iroquois theater entrance.
+I went inside and the firemen were in working at the time, getting lines
+of hose in there. Some of the firemen were already pouring streams through
+into the lobby. There was a tremendous draft there and the lobby was
+clear, but directly inside the door that had been opened there were dense
+volumes of smoke. The first thought that struck my mind, being conversant
+with theaters, was that there might be somebody in the house. Just then a
+man came in there, followed by another man, a citizen, and we were the
+only men in the lobby outside of the firemen. He asked for the gallery
+stairway and immediately after that I saw him going up the stairs to the
+right as you go in the lobby. He went up these stairs with his men and a
+fireman followed him.</p>
+
+<p>"I was watching the stairs, and they were up there thirty seconds, about,
+when the fireman came down with the first body, a little girl, about eight
+years old. He shouted out to the firemen for God's sake to get up there,
+and all the firemen I saw in the lobby dropped everything and went up, and
+they weren't up there but a few seconds before they came tumbling down
+with bodies, and after I had remained there about three minutes more I saw
+dozens of bodies brought down. One fireman slipped with the body of an old
+lady about the fourth step and fell down on the marble floor and I helped
+put her into the fireman's arms. The smoke was so dense I could not see
+much and as I could do nothing to help any one I hurried out of the
+foyer."</p>
+
+
+<p>&nbsp;</p>
+<p class="center">MUSICAL DIRECTOR'S SWORN STATEMENT.</p>
+
+<p>Antonio Frosolono, 170 Seminary avenue, Chicago, musical director at the
+ill-fated theater:</p>
+
+<p>"I was in the Iroquois theater playing at that performance<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_255" id="Page_255">[Pg 255]</a></span> in the
+orchestra. I was not directing the performance, as the company has its own
+director. I was sitting sideways, facing the east door of the stage. The
+stage was to my left. I do not know how the fire started, only I heard a
+confusion.</p>
+
+<p>"The 'Pale Moonlight' scene was on and sixteen people, the double octette,
+occupied the stage. Some of them did not sing, and some of them went out
+of their places. Eddie Foy came out and announced that if everybody would
+keep quiet everything would be all right. Then, when I turned around, the
+stage fireman had kicked a piece of blazing curtain down in the orchestra.</p>
+
+<p>"Then the bassoon player made a terrible scramble to get out, and I think
+he succeeded in getting out. Then after that Mr. Dolere, the musical
+director for the company, went out like a shot out of a gun; he went over
+the stand and everything. He went under the stage. Then everybody else got
+out. I still sat there, because I did not see much danger to myself, as I
+thought, or anybody else. I saw the people when they went out, and I heard
+the cries, and that is what attracted my attention. I stayed there until
+everybody else had gone out of the orchestra. The time when I thought it
+was time to get out was when the bass fiddle and the 'cello got to
+burning.</p>
+
+<p>"All were excited on the stage. Some tried to put the fire out and others
+ran. Some one was trying to lower the curtain, but it would not come down
+all the way. Of a sudden it bulged out over my head like a balloon. Then
+the flames began to rush out from under the curtain. I saw the people
+rushing out, some jumping over, hallooing and screaming; then I turned
+around at that instant to my right and saw that the violin and 'cello and
+bass fiddle had caught on fire at one of the music stands, and then I went
+out."</p>
+
+
+<p>&nbsp;<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_256" id="Page_256">[Pg 256]</a></span></p>
+<p class="center">MRS. PETRY'S ESCAPE.</p>
+
+<p>Mrs. Josephine Petry, 6014 Morgan street:</p>
+
+<p>"On Wednesday afternoon at 2:15 I went to the Iroquois theater. It was
+late; the performance had begun. My ticket entitled me to what I thought
+was the balcony, but it was at the top of the house, and when I went up
+there the theater was dark and the people were standing four deep behind
+my seat.</p>
+
+<p>"It was the second act, the moonlight octette, if I am not mistaken, when
+I saw on the left hand side behind the proscenium arch a bright light. I
+kept my eyes on that, because to me it did not look right, and it got
+brighter all the time. Eddie Foy came right beside the proscenium arch,
+right where the fire was on the side, over him, and told the people they
+should keep their seats, there was no danger. Naturally a few got up, but
+they sat down again. Some people said: 'Keep your seats.' I got up and
+some one said beside me: 'Sit down, there is nothing the matter.' I sat
+down again, but the glare was getting much brighter and pieces of charred
+cloth were falling down, although the flames by then had not come forward.
+They were all behind, but you could see the light so brightly I picked up
+my wraps and went out.</p>
+
+<p>"I went out by the same way I entered. At the lower floor about a hundred
+people were trying to get out. The doors were locked. When I left the
+charred remnants of the scenery were falling down in large chunks onto the
+stage, and the lights were so bright that they scared me, and I got up,
+but the flames had not reached the stage yet when I left, but when I got
+down to the exit and I turned my head there was a mass of flames behind;
+it was all flames, and yet I did not hear a sound."</p>
+
+
+<p>&nbsp;<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_257" id="Page_257">[Pg 257]</a></span></p>
+<p class="center">UP AGAINST LOCKED DOORS.</p>
+
+<p>Ebson Ryburn, stock broker, 3449 Prairie avenue, Chicago:</p>
+
+<p>"I was at the box office with the intention of purchasing tickets for the
+night; I went to the box office about 3:30 p. m., and when I went in there
+were three or four others ahead of me. Suddenly I heard some commotion on
+the inside and several persons rushed out, and there must have been as
+many as five or six, I guess, got out, and then I heard a woman cry
+'Fire.' Up to that time I did not think it was anything serious. I thought
+probably it was a scare and I looked in through the door and I saw more
+coming&mdash;rushing&mdash;and I rushed over to hold the doors open, and did so for
+a length of time until quite a number got out, and I noticed several going
+to the door next to it; that is, the last door west; and then came over to
+this other door.</p>
+
+<p>"They tried to push it open. I left where I was and went to that door and
+tried to force it open and could not. I saw between the two doors a bolt
+or a bar, and there was quite a number coming out the other door then and
+I saw there was no chance to come out, and I tried to open the other door
+opposite that leading into the street, and that door was in the same
+condition, locked or bolted; it was fastened; I could not get out of that
+door and I could not get in the other. Then there were quite a number
+coming out, and I noticed several men, and by that time I could see smoke,
+a little haze of smoke, and every one coming out seemed to be frightened,
+crazy-like, and so I got out myself into the street. The fire department
+had not yet arrived."</p>
+
+
+<p>&nbsp;</p>
+<p class="center">BLOWN INTO THE ALLEY.</p>
+
+<p>Mrs. James D. Pinedo, 478 North Hoyne avenue, Chicago:</p>
+
+<p>"I reached the theater to attend the fatal matinee late, about<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_258" id="Page_258">[Pg 258]</a></span> 2:25
+o'clock. The performance was in progress and we could not secure seats, so
+we got standing room tickets and entered. When I reached the extreme right
+of the theater the people were only standing one deep. There was a space
+there where I could see the stage, especially the left part of the stage
+where the sparks started, and the curtain had just rung up for the second
+act, a few minutes after the chorus was singing, when I saw a man using
+his hands trying to put out the sparks. When I saw those few sparks I
+quietly turned around to see if there was any fire escape or exit on that
+floor in case there should be a fire, and I didn't move because I was
+afraid of precipitating a panic. I simply turned my head and I saw what I
+supposed was an exit. I couldn't tell.</p>
+
+<p>"I saw drapery and naturally supposed, being a theater-goer, that it
+masked an exit. I turned back to the stage then, and in the meantime these
+sparks had changed into flames, and I put on my rubbers&mdash;I was very calm
+at the time&mdash;and I got ready to move out. Eddie Foy told us to be
+perfectly quiet and avoid a panic, and there were also some men and women
+in the back part of the audience who also told the people to sit down. I
+have never seen an audience who were saner than these women and children.
+
+They sat perfectly still I should say for at least two minutes, while
+those sparks changed into flames. They were perfectly calm. I think most
+of these women realized there were little children there. The audience was
+nearly packed full of children.</p>
+
+<p>"Then I saw the big ball of flame come out from the stage and fall in the
+auditorium of the theater on the heads of those in front, and I thought,
+'Now is the time to get out.' I walked quietly to what I thought was an
+exit, and there was a little man there before me, who had torn aside the
+drapery, and I saw an iron door or doors heavily bolted, and we couldn't
+get<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_259" id="Page_259">[Pg 259]</a></span> them open. It was bolted and I heard this man ask the usher to please
+unlock the door, and he refused. The usher was standing there and we were
+frantically, of course, trying to get the door open, but it would not
+open, and I judge we were standing at least two minutes, probably a minute
+and a half&mdash;time that seemed long enough in a case like that.</p>
+
+<p>"Finally the man induced this usher to try and open the door. At least
+they were trying to, the two of them, and I was right behind them&mdash;trying
+to open that door&mdash;when all of a sudden there was a rush of wind. I
+thought at the time it was an explosion, because I didn't know of any
+force powerful enough to open those iron doors, and those iron doors blew
+open, and blew us into the alley. Of course that is my last recollection.
+I was then safe."</p>
+
+
+<p>&nbsp;</p>
+<p class="center">JUST OUT IN TIME.</p>
+
+<p>Ella M. Churcher, 850 Washington boulevard, Chicago:</p>
+
+<p>"I occupied the fourth row from the front in the top gallery, seats 42, 43
+and 44, with my mother and nephew. I was sitting in the middle. A shower
+of sparks was the first suggestion of fire. Then the curtain was lowered
+and Eddie Foy stepped out. I couldn't hear his words, but his motions were
+to sit down and keep our seats, and we did so until I saw the red curtain
+that went down after the first act give away in the upper left hand corner
+and pieces fell, making a large opening. It was on fire.</p>
+
+<p>"Then we got up and had to go about ten feet, that took us to the wall, and
+three steps to go up to the exit leading to the marble stairway. As we
+turned the last look I caught was a tongue of fire leaping to the gallery
+and a cloud of smoke with it, and we got the heat from it, scorching and
+blistering both of my<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_260" id="Page_260">[Pg 260]</a></span> ears and both my nostrils and scorching my hair and
+chiffon boa on my neck. At that instant we stepped out on the marble
+stairway, right out of it, and we got down stairs safely, and then we
+passed out to the street."</p>
+
+
+<p>&nbsp;</p>
+<p class="center">SPORTING MEN TESTIFY.</p>
+
+<p>Frank Houseman, 293 Warren avenue, Chicago:</p>
+
+<p>"Dexter, the baseball player, and I dropped into the Iroquois that
+afternoon about 2:20 and found the house sold out with the exception of
+two boxes and standing room. We bought a couple of seats in an upper box
+and went in. The house was crowded and it was dark, for the performance
+was in progress. We found an usher and started up the stairway to the box.
+The stairway was pitch dark.</p>
+
+<p>"'This is a dark stairway; this is funny they don't have a light or
+something here,' I said to my friend. I stumbled a couple of times going
+up the stairway. Finally we got to where we were seated. Well, during the
+intermission between the first and second acts we had a good view of the
+audience, being up high, and I remarked to my friend that there were a
+great many women and children present in event of any trouble.</p>
+
+<p>"When the curtain rose for the second act, if I can remember, probably
+five or ten minutes after, I noticed a spark directly on the opposite side
+to the stage in behind. We were sitting up where we viewed the audience
+and it was very easy for us to distinguish the spark, and I saw a man&mdash;it
+looked as though he was on a pedestal of some kind; it must have been a
+bridge of some kind that he was standing on&mdash;working to put out the light,
+so I quietly said to my friend: 'Do you see those sparks over there?' He
+says: 'Yes; they will put that out all right.'</p>
+
+<p>"Well, I instantly thought about the stairway that I had to<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_261" id="Page_261">[Pg 261]</a></span> come up
+getting into this box, and somehow or other I could not get it out of my
+mind. I said: 'Well, now, I don't know; we better get down near the
+door&mdash;it looks pretty good&mdash;the outside.' So we finally started, and as we
+started out of the box I suggested that he tell the gentleman and lady
+that were in the box with us that they had better come on, which I
+understand he did. He came down the stairs.</p>
+
+<p>"It was a blast of flame or fire, a sort of ball or something that
+appeared to me like it was a lot of scenery that was burning down, scenery
+or flimsy work. It burnt a great deal on the order of paper. All I thought
+of was the opening of that door, because the people at that time were
+crowding close to me and screaming and hallooing, and I don't just
+remember just how I got that door open, but anyway it opened and carried
+the crowd out. I tried to do what I could around there for the people that
+were being trampled on, trying to pull them out from the middle of the
+alley and start them on their way if they were not too badly hurt, until
+they began jumping off the fire escapes above, and I noticed and looked up
+and saw that the people were not moving.</p>
+
+<p>"The flames by that time had come out of the top exits that were open, and
+the fire escape held all the people it could and the flames were
+surrounding them, and they were jumping, and those that were not pushed
+off jumped off. I was trying to get the people on the lower fire escape,
+which&mdash;I can guess at it&mdash;was probably ten or fifteen feet from the
+ground. We got a couple of them to jump down because it was but a little
+ways up; they began jumping right from overhead and of course I had to
+look out that no one fell on me, or would jump on me, and I could not do
+very much of anything, only to pull out the people being trampled upon,
+and<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_262" id="Page_262">[Pg 262]</a></span> pull them to one side, until one man jumped on, I think, three
+bodies, and started to get up and go away, and was just about in a rising
+position when there was a lady fell on him, and he didn't move after that.
+It became so dangerous then that I had to get away.</p>
+
+<p>"My intentions were to go around and out the same way I got in, or to get
+near the door, because I remarked to him when I got down stairs: 'We may
+have to help some of these little children here in case they don't put
+this out,' although I thought they would put it out. Well, there were
+three or four people standing along there, and when we reached the main
+floor just about that time the audience began to notice there was a fire.</p>
+
+<p>"Previous to this time they had not seen it and they began to mumble and
+some of them to rise, and Mr. Foy came out and tried to quiet them by
+stating that it was merely a little curtain fire; that they would put it
+out, and to be as quiet as possible. It seemed to relieve them. A great
+many of them returned to their seats. I thought I could hear Mr. Foy speak
+to some one back in the scenery as though he was waiting for the drop
+curtain.</p>
+
+<p>"Well, it began to look pretty bad about that time and I looked around and
+I saw the curtains, the first I had noticed of the exits there. I said to
+some one standing there, 'Where does this lead?' He says, 'Outside;' so I
+stayed there probably thirty seconds, when the bits of scenery and pieces
+of fire began to drop down all around the stage, and one or two of the
+girls that were on the stage at the time of the octette, fainted; well, I
+pushed this fellow aside, and for a moment&mdash;momentarily&mdash;looked at the
+lock, and it happened to be a lever that lifts up.</p>
+
+<p>"I am familiar with it, as I have one in my home, and I didn't have much
+trouble with it, but I was kind of <span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_263" id="Page_263">[Pg 263]</a></span>disappointed when I opened it, because
+I thought it would lead outside&mdash;when I faced the iron doors. At that time
+there was a big blast came out from the stage."</p>
+
+<p>Charles Dexter, professional baseball player:</p>
+
+<p>"I met Mr. Houseman and he invited me to go to the theater with him, and
+we went together and we were a little bit late. We got seats in an upper
+box.</p>
+
+<p>"The house was quite dark when we went in, and we were ushered into the
+right hand box, that is, to the right of the stage; I guess that is the
+north box, and we got to see about the last part of the first act, and
+just about two minutes after we came in a lady and gentleman came in and
+we gave them our seats; they sat directly in front of us; I took the back
+seat, and just as the moonlight scene came on, the octette, Mr. Houseman
+turned to me and said: 'Do you see that little blaze?' And I told him I
+did.</p>
+
+<p>"He said: 'I think it is about time for us to get out of here.' I told him
+I thought everything would be all right; that he had better not start down
+stairs or say anything that would be liable to cause a panic, and he said
+he would go down quietly, and for me to tell the people ahead of me what
+to do. The stairway was so dark I tried to follow out.</p>
+
+<p>"I knew he had started down the steps, and I had to wait and light a match
+to tell where I was going down the steps, from the box down to the first
+floor. I lost Mr. Houseman then; I looked for him but could not find him,
+and I walked around and stood very near the first box. By that time the
+blaze had gone up.</p>
+
+<p>"Mr. Foy was on the stage telling the people to be quiet or pass out
+quietly. I couldn't tell exactly what he said, and I noticed the orchestra
+seemed inclined to leave, and I could hear him yelling to the leader to
+play, which he did.</p>
+
+<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_264" id="Page_264">[Pg 264]</a></span>"They played for quite a little while; then the fire commenced dropping
+all around Mr. Foy, and I thought that I would get out, go out from the
+front door; I didn't know any other means of exit, and I started out that
+way. By that time the people had started out of their seats and I found
+that I could not get out that way very well. I thought that the best thing
+that I could do would be to come back and jump on the stage, hoping to get
+out the stage door. People were running around, and I didn't know what to
+do, and I ran into a crowd of little children.</p>
+
+<p>"The people were running over one another. I saw some draperies hanging
+and I opened them. I didn't know where I was going, and I found two doors
+of glass or wood. I didn't stop to examine them but I opened them. I found
+myself up against some iron doors. I didn't know how to work them. The
+only thing I could see was a cross-bar, and I started to shove that up,
+and I couldn't shove very well, and I started to beat at it. By that time
+the people were pushed up against me, and I didn't know whether I would be
+able to get it open or not. I had all the poor little kids around me, and
+I beat the thing until finally it went up, and as it did of course the
+people behind me&mdash;we went out into the alley.</p>
+
+<p>"I turned and looked back and saw a wave of fire sweeping over the whole
+inside of the theater."</p>
+
+
+<p>&nbsp;</p>
+<p class="center">AN ELGIN PHYSICIAN'S TALE.</p>
+
+<p>"Dr. De Lester Sackett, Elgin, III.:</p>
+
+<p>"I attended the fateful matinee performance, accompanied by my wife, my
+sister-in-law and my little girl. We occupied seats in the third row of
+the first balcony at the extreme north end of the theater, next to the
+alley. At the time the fire broke out we were sitting where we could look
+right over to<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_265" id="Page_265">[Pg 265]</a></span> the extreme left of the stage, and what seemed to be a
+couple of limes, or an electric light; we could see sparks dropping from
+that sometimes. We could not see the light itself, but could see those
+sparks, evidently dropping from that kind of a light.</p>
+
+<p>"That was my first impression upon seeing it. And instantly there was more
+or less excitement, and the party who played the part of "Bluebeard" came
+to the extreme front of the stage at our extreme left and tried to allay
+the excitement by making motions with his hands, keeping the orchestra
+playing and the girls dancing, at the same time trying to get the audience
+to keep quiet. He said that there was danger from excitement, but not much
+danger from the fire.</p>
+
+<p>"There was much excitement in the immediate vicinity of my seats, with no
+gentlemen nearer than the three gentlemen sitting a little further to my
+right and back in the second section from us towards the rear were two
+young men; all others were women and children. There seemed to be perfect
+confusion and I rose to my feet and tried to quiet them, and counseled
+that they should not become excited; that there was more danger from a
+panic than there was from the fire. I never dreamed that the fire could
+reach us there, and we had to keep our positions in our seats, as I had
+counseled others to keep quiet, and it would not look very well for us to
+take the lead then and run, so we remained there until my wife said to me,
+'Every one has left their seats, and we must get out of here.'</p>
+
+<p>"I then turned and looked at the stage and saw how the fire had progressed
+and said to her: 'It is a race with death,' and I tried then to get my
+little girl, who was eleven years old, next to me. She was sitting next to
+the aisle. I reached beyond my wife and sister-in-law and I got my little
+girl and then I tried to crowd them into the aisle.</p>
+
+<p>"The pressure was so great I could not get them into the<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_266" id="Page_266">[Pg 266]</a></span> aisle. People
+crowded up the aisle so thick I could not get them in there, and I
+discovered the seats in our rear had been vacated. Everybody was getting
+to the aisle, and I told my wife our only show was over these seats, and I
+took my little girl and started and told them to follow me, which they
+did. At that time in the extreme left-hand corner back of us we could see
+light coming up&mdash;they had got an opening there in the rear of this
+balcony.</p>
+
+<p>"We couldn't see any opening, but we could see the light from the opening,
+and then we went over the seats. I didn't look back after I started. My
+wife and sister-in-law followed us, and we went over the seats and out of
+that rear exit back of the seats to the extreme north into the alley,
+where we found a fire escape.</p>
+
+<p>"The doors were open when we got there, but I cannot help but feel that if
+we had started sooner we would not have got to those doors. If we had
+waited longer we certainly would not have got through. My ears are still
+not healed from the burning they got. My nose was burned, and my
+sister-in-law's bandages have not been removed from her face yet, she was
+burned so bad, and it was all from hot air coming from that stage.</p>
+
+<p>"On the first landing from the exit we went out of, evidently two ladies
+had turned and were coming up the fire escape, instead of going the other
+way, they were so confused. I told them to turn and go down. They did not
+until I reached them and I took hold of one lady and turned her around and
+started her down and pushed the shutter back against the wall&mdash;I remember
+that very distinctly&mdash;and then we went on down and when I got to the foot
+of the escape I turned my child over to my wife and went back for my
+sister-in-law and crowded my way up between the people by keeping to the
+<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_267" id="Page_267">[Pg 267]</a></span>extreme outside railing, and got up probably to the first landing and
+found her coming down.</p>
+
+<p>"It is my impression that the curtain that was lowered was burned. I know
+that when the party playing the part of "Bluebeard" was out there he kept
+those girls dancing until one of them fainted, and they lifted her up, and
+I thought it was the most heroic thing I ever saw, those girls remaining
+there with the fire dropping all about them and still dancing in an effort
+to quiet the audience. The draft was something fearful. It carried the
+fire with it. The flames came clear out over the parquet, and so much so
+that after I started up those steps we didn't dare to look back."</p>
+
+
+<p>&nbsp;</p>
+<p class="center">MR. MEMHARD'S DIFFICULT EXIT.</p>
+
+<p>Albert A. Memhard, 750 Greenleaf avenue, Rogers Park, Chicago:</p>
+
+<p>"I attended the matinee performance at the Iroquois, December 30, 1903. I
+was sitting in section A, the tenth seat in the first row in the first
+balcony or dress circle on the north side of the house, and on the right
+hand with reference to the stage. I was between two aisles just about the
+middle of the section. I was there before the orchestra started to play
+and saw the curtain go up before the first act and the same curtain come
+down and then be raised before the second act. I was in company with a
+theater party made up of Mr. Gurnsey, who is employed at the same store as
+myself, and our families. Soon after the second act started we saw, almost
+all of us at about the same time, sparks of fire coming from the left hand
+corner of the stage, perhaps eight feet from the top, but we sat still
+until it began to come out in flames, the flames dropping on the stage.
+Then we started out.</p>
+
+<p>"I could not open the first exit door I reached. I then went<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_268" id="Page_268">[Pg 268]</a></span> to the
+second exit and after some trouble I got it open by lifting up a brass
+lever. Then the inside doors opened, which were wood and glass. I had the
+iron doors to open next. I opened them by lifting a long bar. I went out
+on the fire escape with my friends, who were with me with the exception of
+my son, who had gone ahead, following the crowd. When I saw he was not
+with us I went back and ran almost to the top of the stairs. I brought him
+back. We went down the fire escape and out the alley to Dearborn street.</p>
+
+<p>"The fire exits were all covered by heavy draperies that might readily be
+mistaken for simple decorations and were not marked or labeled in any way.
+Neither was there any one on hand to direct the crowd how to get out. The
+only light was the illumination afforded by the fire."</p>
+
+
+<p>&nbsp;</p>
+<p class="center">THE THEATER ENGINEER.</p>
+
+<p>Robert E. Murray, 676 Jackson boulevard, Chicago, engineer at the Iroquois
+theater:</p>
+
+<p>"I was down stairs underneath the stage when I heard some confusion about
+3:30 o'clock. I rushed upstairs onto the stage and the first person I saw
+was the house fireman. He had some kilfyre and was trying to sprinkle it
+on the fire. I saw the curtain down about ten feet from the stage and I
+tried to jump up and grab it to pull it down, but it was out of my reach.
+By that time there was fire coming down so I had to get away from there. I
+went to the elevator and saw that the boy was making trips and bringing
+people down as fast as he could. When I saw he was doing his duty I went
+downstairs and told my fireman to shut off steam in the house and pull the
+fires, so as to prevent the possibility of an explosion.</p>
+
+
+<p>&nbsp;<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_269" id="Page_269">[Pg 269]</a></span></p>
+<p class="center">RUSH OF CHORUS GIRLS.</p>
+
+<p>"Then some of the musicians and chorus girls came rushing through and they
+wanted to know which way out. There was a door in the smoking room in the
+basement and I opened it for them. Some went out that way. The smoke was
+so thick that some of them ran back. I took them to the coal hole and
+shoved them out of the coal hole. The smoke was getting so thick in there
+we could hardly stand it, so I told the fireman to take our clothes and go
+to the coal hole and get out. I stayed there and shut the steam off in the
+boilers, and was trying to get the fire out to save any boiler explosion
+if the fire should get too hot.</p>
+
+<p>"After I thought everybody was out of there I made a trip around the
+dressing rooms in the basement and hallooed, 'Everybody out down here.'
+Then I met a girl by the name of Nellie Reed. She was up against the wall
+scratching it and screaming. I grabbed her and went out with her to the
+street. I went back to the boiler. My toolbox was there, and I grabbed the
+toolbox and jerked it back on the coal pile and then I crawled out of the
+coal hole myself into the fresh air."</p>
+
+
+<p>&nbsp;</p>
+<p class="center">A SCHOOL GIRL'S ACCOUNT.</p>
+
+<p>Ruth Michel, school girl, 698 North Robey street, Chicago:</p>
+
+<p>"I was sitting in the top balcony in the second row near the north or
+alley wall when the fire broke out. There were four in our party, all
+girls, and we reached our seats about five minutes before the performance
+began. The curtain went up for the second act and there was, I think,
+about twelve actresses on the stage. There was a green light thrown over
+the stage, to represent the moonlight, a greenish blue. I saw a man at the
+side of the stage making motions with his hands; I didn't know whether he
+was coming in at the wrong time or not, and then I<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_270" id="Page_270">[Pg 270]</a></span> saw a spark come from
+above the stage. Then a spark fell down, and one of the women in our party
+said, 'We will get out of here,' and a man rose and said he would knock
+our heads off if we got out, so we sat there. Then they tried to drop a
+curtain and it didn't come down very far.</p>
+
+<p>"Then they dropped another curtain. It came down beyond the one that got
+stuck, came down all the way, I think. That one caught fire right away,
+even before it reached the stage. Then an awful draft came and it blew the
+flames right out over the audience. We got out of our seats, got out of an
+exit all right and went out on the fire escape. I got down two or three
+steps and we were driven back by the flames below us. The heat came up
+just like a furnace and I went up two or three steps and then I got under
+the railing and dropped to the alley. I lit on my toes and a man caught me
+at the same time, so I was not hurt. The distance was the same as from the
+fourth story window of the building across the alley. Men in the alley
+called to me not to jump, but I knew I had to jump or else burn up,
+because the flames were coming up so right behind me."</p>
+
+<p>"I am only surprised that you escaped alive to tell of it," softly
+commented the coroner.</p>
+
+
+
+<p>&nbsp;</p><p>&nbsp;</p>
+<hr style="width: 50%;" />
+<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_271" id="Page_271">[Pg 271]</a></span></p>
+<h2><a name="CHAPTER_XX" id="CHAPTER_XX"></a>CHAPTER XX.</h2>
+<p class="title">LACK OF FIRE SAFEGUARDS.</p>
+
+
+<p>Examination of Robert E. Murray, engineer of the theater, and through that
+fact, the man in charge of its machinery and mechanical equipment,
+revealed in a startling way the absolute unpreparation for fire or
+emergency that characterized the palatial opera house. Coroner, jury and
+spectators alike were stirred by the confession of absolute disregard for
+life evinced by the management and the certainty that no thought had been
+given to the possibility of a fire.</p>
+
+<p>The entire fire equipment of the Iroquois as described by Murray consisted
+of two kilfyre tubes on the stage and one below the stage; a two inch
+stand pipe on the stage, two under the stage, and one near the coatroom in
+the front of the house. Only one of these, that in the front of the house,
+was equipped with hose. The kilfyre tubes were two inches in diameter and
+eighteen inches long. Incidentally Murray said that the ferrule along the
+bottom of the "asbestos" curtain was of wood, and not iron.</p>
+
+<p>Questions and answers touching on these conditions, as given under oath,
+follow:</p>
+
+<p>Q. Do you know whether the employees of the theater were at any time
+instructed by anybody to use these kilfyres or hose in case of fire?</p>
+
+<p>A. No, sir.</p>
+
+<p>Q. Was there anything on the reel of hose in the coatroom to indicate what
+it was there for?</p>
+
+<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_272" id="Page_272">[Pg 272]</a></span>A. No, there was no sign on it.</p>
+
+<p>Q. Was there anything there to tell you or anybody else how to use the
+hose in case of fire?</p>
+
+<p>A. No, sir. The hose was on the reel and all you would have to do&mdash;&mdash;</p>
+
+<p>Q. Never mind what you would have to do. Was there anything there for
+anybody to know what to do?</p>
+
+<p>A. No, sir.</p>
+
+<p>The witness testified that when he reached the stage after attending to
+his engines, the "asbestos" curtain was caught part way down.</p>
+
+<p>Q. No signs saying "Exits" or "This way out" or any-thing?</p>
+
+<p>A. No, sir.</p>
+
+<p>Q. Any fire alarm boxes that you know of in case of fire?</p>
+
+<p>A. No, sir.</p>
+
+<p>Q. No bells to ring in case of fire?</p>
+
+<p>A. No.</p>
+
+<p>Q. No appliance to call the fire department in case of fire?</p>
+
+<p>A. No, not that I know of.</p>
+
+<p>Q. What would you have to do in case of a fire, go out in the street for a
+fire alarm or fire box?</p>
+
+<p>A. If I could not put it out I would run to the box or to the telephone.</p>
+
+<p>Q. Do you know where the wires were that worked the ventilators, where
+they were located?</p>
+
+<p>A. On the north side of the stage, on the proscenium wall.</p>
+
+<p>Q. Who had charge of working them?</p>
+
+<p>A. The people on the stage.</p>
+
+<p>Q. What do you know about the skylights, how were they opened?</p>
+
+<p>A. I never noticed.</p>
+
+
+<p>&nbsp;<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_273" id="Page_273">[Pg 273]</a></span></p>
+<div class="bbox" style="width: 363px; height: 500px;"><img src="images/img31.jpg" alt="" /></div>
+<p class="caption">HARRY J. POWERS,<br />One of the Theater Managers Arrested for Manslaughter.</p>
+
+<p>&nbsp;<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_274" id="Page_274">[Pg 274]</a></span></p>
+<div class="bbox" style="width: 308px; height: 500px;"><img src="images/img32.jpg" alt="" /></div>
+<p class="caption">MONROE FULKERSON,<br />Attorney for the Fire Department.</p>
+
+<p>&nbsp;<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_275" id="Page_275">[Pg 275]</a></span></p>
+<div class="bbox" style="width: 357px; height: 500px;"><img src="images/img33.jpg" alt="" /></div>
+<p class="caption">EDDIE FOY, Leading Actor,<br />who told the audience to go out slowly.</p>
+
+<p>&nbsp;<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_276" id="Page_276">[Pg 276]</a></span></p>
+<div class="bbox" style="width: 600px; height: 271px;"><img src="images/img34.jpg" alt="" /></div>
+<p class="caption">SCENE ON THE STAGE WHEN THE FIRE STARTED.<br />The star shows where the fire started.</p>
+
+<p>&nbsp;<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_277" id="Page_277">[Pg 277]</a></span></p>
+<div class="bbox" style="width: 600px; height: 359px;"><img src="images/img35.jpg" alt="" /></div>
+<p class="caption">PROMENADE IN FRONT PART OF IROQUOIS THEATER.</p>
+
+<p>&nbsp;<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_278" id="Page_278">[Pg 278]</a></span></p>
+<div class="bbox" style="width: 600px; height: 373px;"><img src="images/img36.jpg" alt="" /></div>
+<p class="caption">RELATIVES TRYING TO FIND THEIR DEAD.</p>
+
+<p>&nbsp;<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_279" id="Page_279">[Pg 279]</a></span></p>
+<div class="bbox" style="width: 600px; height: 418px;"><img src="images/img37.jpg" alt="" /></div>
+<p class="caption">WAITING THEIR TURN TO GET INTO THE MORGUE.</p>
+
+<p>&nbsp;<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_280" id="Page_280">[Pg 280]</a></span></p>
+<div class="bbox" style="width: 600px; height: 428px;"><img src="images/img38.jpg" alt="" /></div>
+<p class="caption">POLICE MAKING LIST OF UNIDENTIFIED BODIES.</p>
+
+<p>&nbsp;<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_281" id="Page_281">[Pg 281]</a></span></p>
+<div class="bbox" style="width: 600px; height: 370px;"><img src="images/img39.jpg" alt="" /></div>
+<p class="caption">CARTING AWAY THE DEAD.</p>
+
+<p>&nbsp;<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_282" id="Page_282">[Pg 282]</a></span></p>
+<div class="bbox" style="width: 600px; height: 427px;"><img src="images/img40.jpg" alt="" /></div>
+<p class="caption">MAIN EXIT FROM FIRST BALCONY, WHERE OCCURRED THE GREATEST LOSS OF LIFE.</p>
+
+<p>&nbsp;<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_283" id="Page_283">[Pg 283]</a></span></p>
+<div class="bbox" style="width: 600px; height: 371px;"><img src="images/img41.jpg" alt="" /></div>
+<p class="caption">MANAGERS DAVIS AND POWERS GIVING $10,000 BONDS AFTER THEIR ARREST.</p>
+
+<p>&nbsp;<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_284" id="Page_284">[Pg 284]</a></span></p>
+<div class="bbox" style="width: 293px; height: 400px;"><img src="images/img42.jpg" alt="" /></div>
+<p class="caption">MISS MINNIE H. SCHAFFNER,<br />578 45TH PLACE, CHICAGO.</p>
+<table border="0" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="5" summary="table">
+<tr><td class="descrip">Miss Schaffner, 25 years of age, had been a teacher for a number of years,
+and at the time she met her death was connected with the Forrestville
+school. She attended the matinee with two friends, one of whom was among the victims.</td></tr></table>
+
+<p>&nbsp;</p>
+<div class="bbox" style="width: 295px; height: 400px;"><img src="images/img43.jpg" alt="" /></div>
+<p class="caption">JACK POTTLITZER, LAFAYETTE, IND.</p>
+<table border="0" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="5" summary="table">
+<tr><td class="descrip">The ten-year-old boy who lost his life at the fire while in company with
+his cousins, Miss Tessie Bissinger and Walter Bissinger. Miss Bissinger
+only escaped. Jack's mother died six months before.</td></tr></table>
+
+<p>&nbsp;<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_285" id="Page_285">[Pg 285]</a></span></p>
+<div class="bbox" style="width: 293px; height: 400px;"><img src="images/img44.jpg" alt="" /></div>
+<p class="caption">MRS ARTHUR BERGCH,<br />4926 CHAMPLAIN AVENUE. CHICAGO.</p>
+<table border="0" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="5" summary="table">
+<tr><td class="descrip">Mrs. Bergch attended the theater with her son, who was also killed. She
+was terribly burned, the body being identified by her rings. She left a husband and a baby two years old.</td></tr></table>
+
+<p>&nbsp;</p>
+<div class="bbox" style="width: 297px; height: 400px;"><img src="images/img45.jpg" alt="" /></div>
+<p class="caption">ARTHUR J. BERGCH, 11 YEARS OLD. CHICAGO.</p>
+<table border="0" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="5" summary="table">
+<tr><td class="descrip">The boy was burned beyond recognition, the body being identified by a
+favorite jackknife, which was found by the father in his trousers pocket.</td></tr></table>
+
+<p>&nbsp;<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_286" id="Page_286">[Pg 286]</a></span></p>
+<div class="bbox" style="width: 293px; height: 400px;"><img src="images/img46.jpg" alt="" /></div>
+<p class="caption">ARTHUR E. HULL,<br />244 OAKWOOD BOULEVARD, CHICAGO.</p>
+<table border="0" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="5" summary="table">
+<tr><td class="descrip">Mr. Hull lost his wife and three children in the fire, and took the first
+steps toward the arrest of the proprietors of the Iroquois Theater and the formation of the Iroquois Memorial Association.</td></tr></table>
+
+<p>&nbsp;</p>
+<div class="bbox" style="width: 290px; height: 400px;"><img src="images/img47.jpg" alt="" /></div>
+<p class="caption">THOMAS D. KNIGHT, CHICAGO.</p>
+<table border="0" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="5" summary="table">
+<tr><td class="descrip">Mr. Knight is the legal representative of Arthur E. Hull in the affairs of
+the Iroquois Memorial Association, organized by Mr. Hull to safeguard the
+interests of the fire victims and to concentrate public opinion on the question of safe theaters.</td></tr></table>
+
+<p>&nbsp;<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_287" id="Page_287">[Pg 287]</a></span></p>
+<div class="bbox" style="width: 295px; height: 400px;"><img src="images/img48.jpg" alt="" /></div>
+<p class="caption">DONALD D. AND DWIGHT M. HULL,<br />244 OAKWOOD BOULEVARD, CHICAGO.</p>
+<table border="0" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="5" summary="table">
+<tr><td class="descrip">Two nephews and adopted children of Arthur E. Hull 8 and 6 years of age
+who with his daughter Helen and wife were burned to death. Mr. Hull headed the movement for safe theaters.</td></tr></table>
+
+<p>&nbsp;</p>
+<div class="bbox" style="width: 294px; height: 400px;"><img src="images/img49.jpg" alt="" /></div>
+<p class="caption">HELEN MURIEL HULL, 12 YEARS OLD CHICAGO</p>
+<table border="0" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="5" summary="table">
+<tr><td class="descrip">The daughter of Arthur E. Hull made one of a little theater party
+organized by his wife for the amusement of the three children. All the party perished.</td></tr></table>
+
+<p>&nbsp;<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_288" id="Page_288">[Pg 288]</a></span></p>
+<div class="bbox" style="width: 176px; height: 500px;"><img src="images/img50.jpg" alt="" /></div>
+<p class="caption">WILL J. DAVIS,<br />One of the Theater Managers Arrested for Manslaughter.</p>
+
+
+<p>&nbsp;<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_289" id="Page_289">[Pg 289]</a></span></p>
+<p class="center">A UNIVERSITY STUDENT'S STORY.</p>
+
+<p>Equally damaging testimony was given by Fred H. Rea, 3231 South Park
+avenue, a student at the Northwestern University Dental School. After
+telling of the scenes when "death alley" was bridged by planks and ladders
+thrust from the school windows he told of the death jam on the fire
+escapes.</p>
+
+<p>Rea's story was one of the most graphic told which narrated the horrors of
+Death's Alley, and the narrow escape of those who were fortunate enough to
+be rushed over the planks thrown to them from the University building. It
+was not only a story, but an additional evidence of the total lack of
+preparation for the meeting of just such an emergency.</p>
+
+<p>"At the time the fire broke out I was in the Northwestern University
+building on the third floor in the law school," he said. "I heard
+something that sounded like an explosion and all the students present
+immediately ran to the lecture room. There we met some painters who were
+repairing the ceiling in the corridor. They joined us, bringing with them
+three planks and ladders. These planks we placed from the back window of
+the lecture room across to the upper landing of the gallery. One ladder
+was placed across from the fire escape of the lecture room to the second
+landing. Across the ladder, I think, only one person came, as the flames
+from the exit were so hot that nobody could reach it.</p>
+
+<p>"Fourteen or fifteen persons came across the plank, and all but three or
+four were badly burned. I saw at least three persons try to pass down the
+fire escape from the top landing, but they were unable to do so, because
+at the second landing from the top the doors were not swung clear back
+against the wall. The doors were at right angles to the wall, and through
+the exit smoke was pouring and part of the time flames. Several<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_290" id="Page_290">[Pg 290]</a></span> people on
+the upper landing deliberately climbed over the railing and dropped to the
+alley below.</p>
+
+<p>"I saw one woman drop and strike a ladder which was placed to the fire
+escape and bound off into the alley. A man climbed out over and was
+clinging by his hands, when one of the firemen came up from below and held
+him until a ladder could be run up. A number of people who fell in the jam
+on the exit burned right there before our eyes. We could see their clothes
+on fire. That was on the landing of the fire escape, partly in and partly
+out of the exit."</p>
+
+
+<p>&nbsp;</p>
+<p class="center">A CLERGYMAN'S STORY.</p>
+
+<p>The Rev. Albertus Perry, 5940 Princeton avenue, Chicago, was passing the
+theater when the panic started. He ran into the vestibule and thence into
+the foyer, where he saw men breaking open the doors. He remained but a
+short time, and left, overcome by the terrible sight.</p>
+
+<p>"The great marble hall was filled with madmen and hysterical women fleeing
+for life," he declared. "The doors, of which there appeared to be several
+sets, were locked against them with the exception of the center door of
+each set. Men were beating against the steel and glass barriers and women
+crowded with the desperation of death stamped upon their faces. Smoke was
+puffing out, filling the beautiful foyer and telling in awful eloquence of
+the triumph of death further in. I could do nothing to relieve the
+situation for there was nothing within the power of mortal man to do to
+stop the horror. So I left, overcome by the terrible sight that had met my
+eyes."</p>
+
+
+<p>&nbsp;</p>
+<p class="center">THE FLY MAN'S STORY.</p>
+
+<p>Charles Sweeney, 186 North Morgan street, Chicago, "fly man" on first
+flying gallery, nearest point where the fire started:</p>
+
+<p>"In the second act, in the 'Pale Moonlight' scene, I was<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_291" id="Page_291">[Pg 291]</a></span> sitting on a
+bench, and there were two or three more of the boys. About ten feet from
+the front of the fly gallery I saw a bright light. The other boys saw it,
+I guess, at the same time and we ran over there. I saw a small blaze on
+one of the borders. I don't know exactly which one. I hallooed across the
+stage to Joe Dougherty. He was the man taking Seymour's place. Seymour was
+sick. I said, 'Down with the asbestos curtain.' Smithey and I got
+tarpaulins and we slapped the flame with them. We did the best we could
+and then it got out of our reach. It went right along the border toward
+the center. Then it burned and one end of it fell down, bent like. Then it
+blazed all over and I saw there was no possibility of doing anything. I
+ran upstairs to the sixth floor and hallooed to the girls. I led them down
+in front of me, and I kept telling them to be careful and not to have a
+stampede or anything of that kind, and then I came down and went outside
+the building."</p>
+
+
+<p>&nbsp;</p>
+<p class="center">SCHOOL TEACHER'S THRILLING EXPERIENCE.</p>
+
+<p>Alice Kilroy, 67 Oregon avenue, Chicago, a Chicago school teacher:</p>
+
+<p>"During the performance I stood in the upper balcony, right near the
+alley; a few feet from the top exit south, about the third or fourth seat
+from the end. I stood right back of that. When the fire first began we
+thought it was part of the performance and my sister said to me, very
+calmly, 'Even if there is no fire, let us go out in the exit.' We knew
+this was an exit because we had seen it opened. An usher had been out and
+we stepped out there.</p>
+
+<p>"As soon as we stepped out the heat was intense and we saw we could not go
+down the steps, so we stood there on the platform of the fire escape. I
+tried to get in the theater again, but the people were rushing out and I
+could not go against the<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_292" id="Page_292">[Pg 292]</a></span> mob. I saw that the mob was trying to get out of
+the exit, and so I had to stand right where I was. We stood there it
+seemed to me, about six minutes, and we knew we were burning, and there
+wasn't anything to do but to stay there. We couldn't go any other place.
+After a few minutes some water fell on us. I did not see very much because
+I held a collarette up to my face to protect it from the hot air, which
+was unutterably awful. When the water came that kind of refreshed us and
+dampened the fire so we could stand up for a few minutes longer, and then
+a plank was put from the opposite building and we went over the plank and
+escaped to the Northwestern University building. The crowd behind us that
+had been fighting and pushing so hard seemed to die away and collapse all
+in an instant. The scrambling and pushing ceased. This crowd was at the
+entrance to the door. Something happened to them and they did not have any
+life, because they did not push when I turned back. When I first started
+to go in&mdash;when I turned back&mdash;there was lots of life, then I turned and
+faced them, the mob going out, because it was so hot out there I thought I
+could go back in the theater. Part of them fell on the floor and part
+outside on the fire escape platform. I think I was the last to escape
+alive over the planks across the alley. I was terribly burned; you can see
+by the bandages that I don't dare to take off yet."</p>
+
+
+<p>&nbsp;</p>
+<p class="center">GLEN VIEW MAN'S EXPERIENCE.</p>
+
+<p>Walter Flentye, Glen View:</p>
+
+<p>"I occupied seat 7 in section R, handy to the entrance. I think it was
+about half-past 3, while that octet was singing there in the pale
+moonlight, that I just noticed a kind of a hesitation on the part of the
+octet, and pretty soon I saw a few sparks begin to come down about the
+size of those from a <span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_293" id="Page_293">[Pg 293]</a></span>roman candle. They were coming down from the upper
+left hand corner of the stage, and pretty soon the fire began to grow more
+and more, and I should say that pieces of burning rags dropped down of
+different sizes. About that time Eddie Foy came out and tried to calm the
+audience. I don't just exactly remember what he said, and I kept my seat.
+I had no idea that there was to be anything of that kind; that the fire
+was to be as large as it was, and the audience down below were going out.
+I had a friend beside me that left. I don't remember just what I said to
+him. He said he was going and he went out and a little later I got up,
+and, without any trouble, went through the door, and I went immediately to
+the check room. I had checked a valise and umbrella, and at that time I
+had no idea of any such a fire as that. So I thought I had plenty of time
+and I took my valise and umbrella and set them on a settee to the left of
+the foyer and put on my overcoat and hat.</p>
+
+<p>"When I first came out I noticed that there were a lot of women that were
+almost frenzied by the excitement and they were around toward the
+entrance, and I noticed one man carrying a woman. That was while I was
+going to the checkroom, and after I had put on my coat I looked and there
+were two women and a man that went to the door to look in, and I kind of
+thought the woman might rush in, so I said, 'Don't go back, it is too late
+now.' And they all turned around and I looked once more and by that time
+it looked as though there was a mass of fire belched out, and I remember
+seeing it catch the front seats, and after I went out and walked across
+the street and I talked to a policeman who stood in front of Vaughn's
+store and by that time about eight or ten policemen came along from down
+Randolph street, and shortly after the firemen came. Then for the first
+time I realized what a terrible<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_294" id="Page_294">[Pg 294]</a></span> thing I had escaped and the true horror
+of the situation unfolded itself."</p>
+
+
+<p>&nbsp;</p>
+<p class="center">THE LIGHT OPERATOR.</p>
+
+<p>William Wertz, 12024 Union avenue, West Pullman, Ill.:</p>
+
+<p>"I was operating a light on the rear part of the stage on the afternoon of
+the fire. I noticed that the actors, eight boys, were looking up toward
+the right hand of their places, and as soon as they did that I stepped
+back one or two feet, still holding my lamp in sight so as to attend to it
+should it go down. I looked toward the place that the people had gazed and
+I noticed a small blaze there upon a little platform used for throwing a
+light on the front of the stage. As I looked there I saw the fireman of
+the house, who was back on the stage, running forward hallooing, 'Lower
+down the curtain!' and climb up to the little platform. He had either
+taken a tube of kilfyre in his hand or there was one up there, as I very
+distinctly saw him sprinkle it on the fire. Then the man took his hands
+and tried to tear down the blazing pieces of scenery.</p>
+
+<p>"Then I saw one drop after another go into the flame. I saw a lot of
+people running up to that point of the fire, others from the balcony
+dressing rooms come running down, and on the side of me, or close to the
+door were several girls becoming hysterical, excited. That was at the
+stage door opening onto a little bridge-like platform leading to Dearborn
+street. I went up to the girls and said, 'Come on, girls, get out of here
+as soon as possible.' I took one by the arm and put her out.</p>
+
+<p>"When I came out there the girls started to run forward, and I went in
+again, because I was in my shirt sleeves and I wanted to take my coat and
+save what goods I had. As soon as I entered the stage again I heard a lot
+of noise and crying and calling and I went forward to that point and
+succeeded<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_295" id="Page_295">[Pg 295]</a></span> in pulling some more of the young ladies out. Then when I got
+on the little bridge leading from the stage to Dearborn street, I noticed
+that the whole scenery was in a blaze, that it was falling down and I
+tried to get in again, but through the enormous heat, and I believe that
+the city fire people just had arrived there with the hose and pulled me
+back so I couldn't get in there any more.</p>
+
+<p>"I know there was an asbestos curtain in the theater and that it was used.
+During the time I have been connected with different theaters through the
+country I have always looked up to the curtains, and often put my hands on
+them. What was called by employees in the house the asbestos curtain, and
+also in several theaters in Chicago, has written on it, 'asbestos
+curtain.' When I entered this house on several occasions before the show I
+saw this particular curtain hanging there, a dirty white color, and on one
+or two occasions, in passing by, I pushed my hand against it and it felt
+to me exactly like other curtains hanging in Chicago, and on which
+'asbestos' is written. One, for instance, in the Grand opera house, has
+written on it 'asbestos,' and is the same color in the back and has the
+same feeling when you put your hands on it as this one in the Iroquois
+theater.</p>
+
+<p>"It was that curtain Sallers, the house fireman, was shouting for when I
+heard him. The fireman said, 'Down with that curtain,' and the other
+voice, which I thought was Mr. Carleton's, the stage manager, said, 'For
+God's sake lower that curtain.' Several other voices hallooed out, 'What
+is the matter with the curtain? Down with the curtain.' But it didn't fall
+and the holocaust followed."</p>
+
+
+<p>&nbsp;<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_296" id="Page_296">[Pg 296]</a></span></p>
+<p class="center">THE JAMMED THEATER.</p>
+
+<p>The unlawful and deadly crowded condition of the theater at the time of
+the fire was emphasized by the testimony of Rupert D. Laughlin, 1505
+Wrightwood avenue, who, although he reached the theater before the curtain
+went up, found the spaces behind the seats crowded and people sitting on
+the steps in the aisles. Laughlin and Miss Lucy Lucas, his niece, had
+seats in the second balcony, or gallery.</p>
+
+<p>"We went into the theater about ten minutes before the orchestra come out
+and had some difficulty in getting into our seats," he said, "on account
+of the people standing in the aisles and at the back. The people were
+sitting on the steps.</p>
+
+<p>"The steps were very steep and people occupied them quite a way down. They
+had to rise and stand aside to let us make our way to our seats. There was
+a man and a woman sitting on the step right beside our seats. At the end
+of the first act I went out to the foyer. I had considerable difficulty
+getting out. There was a great deal larger crowd in the aisles and sitting
+on the steps than there was when we came down first. They were strung
+along the aisle and there were a great many women on the steps. I went out
+and walked around for a while and then came back and took my seat. I had
+to make the women get up as I was coming down the aisle again.</p>
+
+<p>"When the fire started I went right to the first exit and out on the fire
+escape platform. When I got to the door there were flames and a great deal
+of smoke coming out from a window that was near there, and we couldn't go
+out at that time, so we waited for a few seconds, and the fire died down.
+Then we went down the fire escape to the alley.</p>
+
+<p>"Many other people escaped by the same means before us&mdash;at least I should
+judge there was, because we saw a number of hats and furs and things of
+that sort on the steps. There wasn't<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_297" id="Page_297">[Pg 297]</a></span> anybody coming down in back or in
+front of us while we were going down."</p>
+
+
+<p>&nbsp;</p>
+<p class="center">GAS EXPLOSION HOURS BEFORE THE FIRE.</p>
+
+<p>That the explosion of a gas tank came near destroying the Iroquois theater
+a few hours previous to the performance on the opening night, about a
+month before, was testified to by John Bickles, 6711 Rhodes avenue.
+According to Bickles, a gas tank under the stage exploded with such force
+that flames shot over an eight-foot partition. It was only after a hard
+fight on the part of employes of the theater and the fact that there was
+little inflammable material near the fire that the flames were subdued.
+Bickles stated that he did not know what sort of a gas tank exploded, as
+he did not inquire of the other employees. At the time he was standing in
+a room opposite the one in which the gas tank exploded.</p>
+
+<p>"The flames leaped over an eight-foot partition, but did not burn me,"
+said Bickles. "I went on to the stage soon after the explosion and the
+next day was discharged by the George A. Fuller company, builders of the
+theater, by whom I was employed as a carpenter. There was no work was the
+reason. There were a number of actresses and sewing women in the theater
+at the time of the explosion. The first performance was to be given that
+evening and everybody was making ready. I was the person who fixed the
+wall plates for the skylights, but I never saw them after they were
+finished."</p>
+
+<p>From Bickles' testimony it seemed the George A. Fuller company had kept a
+number of its men in the theater after it was occupied by the Iroquois
+Theater company. They were completing unfinished details. The fact of the
+fire, he said, was hushed up.</p>
+
+
+<p>&nbsp;<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_298" id="Page_298">[Pg 298]</a></span></p>
+<p class="center">PANIC AMONG THEATER EMPLOYEES.</p>
+
+<p>Gilbert McLean, a scene shifter, at work on the stage when the fire
+started, told of the failure of the fire extinguisher to put out the
+blaze, and declared that the failure of the fire curtain to drop was due
+to a misunderstanding among the men in the flies who were supposed to
+operate it. Then men appeared not to know what was wanted and lost
+priceless time hesitating. McLean's story would indicate that the stage
+employees ran away long before the audience knew that there was danger.
+Speaking of the efforts of the stage fireman to put out the blaze soon
+after it started in the grand drapery, McLean said:</p>
+
+<p>"If the extinguisher had been effective he could not have reached the fire
+at that time, though the part he did reach did not seem to be affected at
+all. Then there was a commotion, everybody was running back and forth, and
+I yelled as loud as I could to send the curtain. I saw the men did not
+understand the signal; they were signaling from the first entrance then by
+a bell. I could hear the bell ringing and I could see the fly men, as they
+called them, and saw they didn't understand. I yelled as loud as I could
+and they did not seem to understand me or to know why the curtain should
+be sent at that time, as it was not the regular time for the curtain.</p>
+
+<p>"Well, the fire kept making headway towards the back of the stage. It
+spread rapidly right straight back. There seemed to have been a draft from
+the front of the theater. The show people started to go out fast, coming
+from the basement and from the stage and leaving the stage by the regular
+stage entrance. Somebody hallooed, 'She is gone. Everybody run for your
+lives.' I went towards the rear door then and made my way out as best I
+could.</p>
+
+<p>"There had never been any fire drill on the stage so far as I know and I
+never heard any fire instructions. Many were<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_299" id="Page_299">[Pg 299]</a></span> out before I left and I
+guess all the stage people got out some way or another. It was every man
+for himself then."</p>
+
+
+<p>&nbsp;</p>
+<p class="center">AN EX-USHER'S WORDS.</p>
+
+<p>Willard Sayles, 382 North avenue, Chicago: "I was formerly an usher at the
+Iroquois theater. During my period of employment the fire escape exits at
+the alley side of the house were always kept locked. There was one
+exception. The opening night Mr. Dusenberry, the head usher, had me open
+the inner set, the wooden doors that concealed the big outside iron ones.
+The people on the aisle were complaining that it was too warm. He gave
+orders to the director and myself to open the wooden inner doors to the
+auditorium. Later on Mr. Davis came up and told me to close them and not
+to open them unless I got instructions from him. That was the only time I
+got instructions from either one of them. We had not got instructions as
+to what doors we were to attend to in case of fire. The only time we got
+instructions was the Sunday before the house opened; Mr. Dusenberry called
+us all down there and told us to get familiar with the house. There was no
+fire drill or anything of that kind."</p>
+
+
+
+<p>&nbsp;</p><p>&nbsp;</p>
+<hr style="width: 50%;" />
+<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_300" id="Page_300">[Pg 300]</a></span></p>
+<h2><a name="CHAPTER_XXI" id="CHAPTER_XXI"></a>CHAPTER XXI.</h2>
+<p class="title">IRON GATES, DEATH'S ALLY.</p>
+
+
+<p>That two iron gates, securely padlocked, across stairways in the Randolph
+street entrance, held scores of women and children as prisoners of death
+at the Iroquois theater fire horror, was the startling evidence secured on
+Saturday, Jan. 9, ten days after the holocaust by Fire Department Attorney
+Monroe Fulkerson.</p>
+
+<p>In a statement under oath George M. Dusenberry, superintendent of the
+auditorium of the playhouse, admitted that these gates had remained locked
+against the frantic crowds through all the terrible rush to escape.
+Against these, bodies were piled high in death of those who might have
+gained the open air had they not been penned in by the immovable bars.</p>
+
+<p>Not until the sworn statement had been secured from Dusenberry were the
+investigators brought to a full realization of the horrors of the
+imprisoned victims.</p>
+
+<p>These deadly iron gates, four to five feet high, according to Dusenberry's
+testimony, were quietly removed after the fire. One of the gates was at
+the landing of the dress circle. The other was on the stairway which led
+from the dress circle entrance to the landing above. At the Randolph
+street entrance were two grand staircases. Passage down one of these
+staircases was shut off completely by the iron gates.</p>
+
+<p>According to Dusenberry, the gates were locked with a padlock, requiring a
+key to open them. It was the custom to open these gates after the
+intermission at the close of the second act,<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_301" id="Page_301">[Pg 301]</a></span> so as to give the people an
+unobstructed passageway for leaving the house at the close of the play.</p>
+
+<p>The exact condition made by the locked gates and the extent to which they
+contributed to the immense loss of life may be realized by Dusenberry's
+sworn testimony in detail on this point.</p>
+
+
+<p>&nbsp;</p>
+<p class="center">DUSENBERRY'S TESTIMONY.</p>
+
+<p>It was as follows:</p>
+
+<p>Q. Do you recall an inspection which I made of the stairway of the second
+floor of that theater the next day after the fire? A. Yes, sir.</p>
+
+<p>Q. And showed you two iron gates that folded up like an accordion? A. Yes,
+sir.</p>
+
+<p>Q. Please state whether or not these two gates were locked at the time of
+the fire. A. Yes, sir.</p>
+
+<p>Q. State where the lower one was located. A. At the landing of the dress
+circle.</p>
+
+<p>Q. And do I understand that one side of it was solidly hinged with an iron
+rod and that the other side of the gate was fastened by a chain locked by
+a padlock? A. A small lock.</p>
+
+<p>Q. The lock required a key to open it? A. Yes, sir; a small key.</p>
+
+<p>Q. How high was this gate? A. I should think four or five feet.</p>
+
+<p>Q. And was I correct in saying it folded up like an accordion when not in
+use? A. Yes, sir.</p>
+
+<p>Q. Where was the other one located? A. On the stairway which led from the
+dress circle entrance up to the landing above.</p>
+
+<p>Q. And was it secured and locked in the same manner as the other gate? A.
+Yes, sir.</p>
+
+
+<p>&nbsp;<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_302" id="Page_302">[Pg 302]</a></span></p>
+<p class="center">PURPOSE OF THE TWO GATES.</p>
+
+<p>Q. Consider the first one; what was its function? A. In order that we
+could have system in handling the house.</p>
+
+<p>Q. Yes; but what was it used for? A. When people were going upstairs that
+gate simply turned them for the balcony stairway.</p>
+
+<p>Q. You are talking about the lower gate? A. Yes, sir.</p>
+
+<p>Q. So, by reason of this gate, when the people started out they could have
+only one direction in which to leave, instead of two, as would be the case
+if no gate were there? A. Yes, sir.</p>
+
+<p>Q. Let us consider the other gate; what was it for? A. To keep the people
+from going down into the dress circle, and to keep them on the regular
+stairway for the balcony.</p>
+
+<p>Q. I believe you told me that you locked these gates yourself just before
+this matinee began? A. Yes, sir.</p>
+
+<p>Q. That is correct, is it? A. Yes, sir.</p>
+
+<p>Q. Did you ever say anything to Mr. Noonan or Mr. Powers or Mr. Davis as
+to the importance of having men stationed there, instead of a gate, so
+that in case of fire this would not be an obstruction? A. No, sir; they
+were always unlocked after the second intermission.</p>
+
+<p>Q. In what act was that? A. At the close of the second act they would be
+always unlocked. They were exits.</p>
+
+<p>Q. At the time this fire began and people started out, were they still
+locked or unlocked? A. They were locked.</p>
+
+
+<p>&nbsp;</p>
+<p class="center">NEVER ANY FIRE DRILLS.</p>
+
+<p>Dusenberry admitted that at the time of the fire's outbreak he was
+descending from the top balcony after having made an inspection of the
+entire house. This was his custom, to see that the ushers were in their
+places. He said that 100 persons<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_303" id="Page_303">[Pg 303]</a></span> were standing in the passageway back of
+the last row of seats on the first floor and about twenty-five persons
+occupied standing room in the rear of the first balcony, and seventy-five
+in the rear of the top balcony.</p>
+
+<p>He admitted that he had never received any instructions from any of the
+owners or managers of the theater as to what to do in case of fire. He
+said that he had been told in a general way by Will J. Davis that he was
+to instruct the boys in their duties as ushers and make them familiar with
+the house.</p>
+
+<p>There had never been any fire drills, he said. He did not know, he said,
+from what point or in what manner the large cylindrical ventilator over
+the auditorium was worked. It was because this ventilator was open and
+those above the stage closed that the fire was drawn into the front of the
+house. He said the nine exits on the north side, three of which were on
+each floor, were all bolted at the time of the fire; also that the nine
+pairs of iron shutters outside the inner doors were bolted at the time,
+and that he had never received orders from any one to have these unbolted
+while the audience was in the house.</p>
+
+
+<p>&nbsp;</p>
+<p class="center">GATES WERE BATTERED.</p>
+
+<p>"I found these gates in a battered condition by personal inspection, the
+next morning after the fire," Fire Department Attorney Fulkerson added. "I
+hunted up Mr. Dusenberry and took him to the place and examined him on the
+spot as to each minute detail. The examination was with reference to their
+being locked, and as to why a man had not been stationed there, in place
+of a gate, to direct the people.</p>
+
+<p>"I called two policemen as witnesses. The reason I have kept this matter
+secret until now was the fact that this is the first day I have had an
+opportunity of examining Mr. <span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_304" id="Page_304">[Pg 304]</a></span>Dusenberry under oath and taking his
+statements in shorthand to be used in any proceeding that may follow.</p>
+
+<p>"The importance of his testimony is that he is the man the theater
+management had put in direct control of the audience and auditorium, and
+the facts which he has testified to speak for themselves. Let the public
+draw its own conclusions.</p>
+
+<p>"I wish to say, however, with reference to those iron gates that they are
+no part of the building or the stairway as turned over by the builders and
+were not a part of the plans of the same, but a feature installed by the
+management after the stairways were finished and accepted, and no permit
+was obtained from the city building department to place the gates there.
+They proved to be the gates of death. Until this time they have been
+overlooked in the general investigation and silence has been maintained by
+the fire department for the purpose of clinching the evidence concerning
+them. This was rendered necessary through the fact that those best
+qualified to tell of their danger gave up their lives in acquiring that
+knowledge. They were gathered from behind the deadly barriers and now lie
+in eternal silence beyond the reach of all earthly summonses and the
+jurisdiction of our tribunals."</p>
+
+<p>Ernest Stern, 3423 South Park avenue, Chicago:</p>
+
+<p>"There was nothing left in the playhouse but standing room when my sister
+and I arrived, so we bought tickets according that privilege and took up a
+position in the middle of the first balcony. We were standing there when
+we saw the first evidence of fire and at once ran out. We owe our lives to
+that fact.</p>
+
+<p>"It was about the middle of the second act when I noticed the blaze on the
+upper left-hand corner of the stage. Those on the stage seemed to be in
+semi-panic. The people didn't know what to do. Then there seemed to be
+somebody giving <span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_305" id="Page_305">[Pg 305]</a></span>directions for them to put down the curtains after a
+burning piece of scenery or something fell on the stage. A man came out
+and gave instructions for them to pull down the curtain and after that we
+went out the door, downstairs and came to a door on the left hand side in
+the foyer, facing the street, and in the inner vestibule. There was a man
+there. He was not in uniform. He was trying to open the door, which was
+locked. There was a pair&mdash;two doors&mdash;and one of them was open and a great
+crowd was going out. This man was trying to unlock the other door and he
+could not do it. I broke the glass, and that wouldn't do either, so I
+kicked the whole door out and we escaped."</p>
+
+
+<p>&nbsp;</p>
+<p class="center">DIDN'T BOTHER ABOUT LOCKED DOORS.</p>
+
+<p>That the foyer doors, which the van of the fleeing audience found closed,
+were locked during the performance was the statement of Harry Weisselbach
+of Chicago. He was at the ticket office in the outer vestibule off
+Randolph street, some time before the fire and saw two men in an argument
+regarding the doors. They were coming out of the theater.</p>
+
+<p>"That's a mean trick, to lock the doors so people can't get out," said one
+of the men. "They have locked the doors again," he continued, looking back
+at the door man. "I wonder if there is a policeman around here."</p>
+
+<p>The man's companion replied that he wasn't going to bother about the
+matter and the two left the theater. Weisselbach went around to the
+Northwestern University school and was there only a short time when the
+fire in the theater started. His story of the fire from that viewpoint was
+similar to that told by Witness Fred H. Rea.</p>
+
+
+
+<p>&nbsp;</p><p>&nbsp;</p>
+<hr style="width: 50%;" />
+<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_306" id="Page_306">[Pg 306]</a></span></p>
+<h2><a name="CHAPTER_XXII" id="CHAPTER_XXII"></a>CHAPTER XXII.</h2>
+<p class="title">DANCED IN PRESENCE OF DEATH.</p>
+
+
+<p>Heroes and heroines&mdash;every one of them&mdash;the members of the octette told
+the coroner how they sang and danced to reassure the vast audience of
+women and children while death lowered overhead and swept through the
+scene loft, a chariot of flame. Modestly they revealed the part they
+played in the catastrophe while billows of flame, death's red banners,
+menaced their lives.</p>
+
+<p>Madeline Dupont, 145 Franklin avenue, New York:</p>
+
+<p>"I first saw just a little bit of flame, which was on the right hand side
+of the first entrance on the west, the first drop of the curtain. It was
+just above the lamp that was reflecting on the moonlight girls. It was a
+calcium light. I went back and got in my place with the pale moonlight
+girls and the boys came out and sang their lines. Then we eight girls went
+on the stage&mdash;as we always did&mdash;went down to the front of the stage&mdash;and
+going down stage I saw the flame getting larger. Mr. Plunkett, the
+assistant stage manager, was in the entrance, ringing for the asbestos
+curtain to come down. He rang the bell until we reached the front of the
+stage, where we went on singing. We sang one verse of 'The Pale Moonlight'
+song, and then Mr. Foy came out and spoke to the audience. What he said I
+don't know, and then Miss Williams fainted. She was one of the 'pale
+moonlight' girls, and stood alongside of me. She was taken out, and then
+Miss Lawrence and myself were the last girls to leave the stage. I went
+downstairs to<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_307" id="Page_307">[Pg 307]</a></span> notify the girls down in the basement in the dressing
+rooms. I called to them that there was a fire, and advised them to run for
+their lives. Nobody was coming up then. Then I went out of the regular
+stage door entrance."</p>
+
+<p>Ethel Wynne, New York City:</p>
+
+<p>"When I was about to make my exit I noticed a very small flame to the
+right of the stage at the first entrance. It was really above the short
+fellow&mdash;a little gentleman, rather&mdash;who stands on the bridge. This flame
+was above his head. When he noticed it he put both hands up to get the
+burning material&mdash;just grabbed up to get the material that was burning.
+But the flame was away beyond his reach.</p>
+
+<p>"The calcium light is below that, and it appeared to me as though it was
+the side of the curtain where the curtains are drawn up, or something. The
+flames spread very rapidly. I remember seeing Mr. Plunkett very plainly in
+the first entrance and hearing bells ringing for the curtain to fall. I
+said to Miss Dupont and Miss Williams, 'The curtain will fall in the
+meantime, the bells have rung.' We went to the back to make our entrance
+and the bell still continued to ring. I remember very plainly that I heard
+some one yell, 'Drop the curtain.'</p>
+
+<p>"I noticed clearly that the curtain was caught, and it must have been on
+our left. It came down on the right hand side. The flames were going up
+very rapidly. I very foolishly lost my reason and walked back to the back
+steps, where I had made my entrance. From there I unfortunately had to
+watch the awful sights that we know of. I don't know to this hour how I
+got out of the burning theater."</p>
+
+<p>Gertrude Lawrence, 5 West 125th street, New York:</p>
+
+<p>"I was the leader of the octet, and I was on the platform going to meet my
+partner when I first saw the flame. I went on working as usual, down to
+the front, and paid no more <span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_308" id="Page_308">[Pg 308]</a></span>attention to it because I thought it would
+soon be out. It was on the right hand side of the stage, above the stage.
+I noticed there was quite an excitement on the other side, but I went on
+working. I thought if there was an awful fire there would be a panic, and
+I thought by working I would quiet the people. Then I turned and saw the
+flames and went up the steps, there looking back and seeing the audience
+in the awful panic. Then I went out the usual stage door."</p>
+
+<p>Daisy Beaute, 178 West 94th street, New York:</p>
+
+<p>"I was standing in the third wing ready to go on, and I saw a flame on the
+left hand side, facing the audience, from the draperies above the first
+entrance on my right hand side. It was in the draperies clear at the top
+of the arch in the stage opening. We kept on dancing, but Miss Williams
+fainted. I ran for my life without waiting to see anything more."</p>
+
+<p>Miss Edith Williams, the member of the octet who fainted on the stage,
+swooned again soon after she took the witness stand. Deputy Coroner
+Buckley had just administered the oath and asked the young woman to be
+seated, when she fell backwards. The fall was broken by a stenographer,
+and the woman saved from serious injury. She was assisted to the witness
+room and revived. Another witness was called.</p>
+
+<p>Miss Anna Brand, another member of the octet, testified to the facts
+similar to those related by Miss Dupont and Miss Wynne, Miss Lawrence,
+Miss Beaute, Miss Richards and Miss Romaine, the remaining members
+testifying in a similar strain. None admitted knowing who opened the rear
+stage door leading to Dearborn street, the door through which came the
+cold blast that forced the fire into the auditorium.</p>
+
+<p>"Jack" Strause, 31 West 11th street, New York:</p>
+
+<p>"The octet had just made its entrance, walked four steps and danced eight,
+bringing the members to the center of the<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_309" id="Page_309">[Pg 309]</a></span> stage, when I discovered the
+fire overhead at the side of the proscenium arch. My partner in the scene,
+a young woman, cried out that she was fainting. She braced up, however,
+did a few more steps and collapsed. As I stooped to pick her up I saw the
+curtain fall possibly six or seven feet. From that time on I observed
+nothing more of the progress of the fire, being engrossed in an effort to
+carry out the unconscious young woman. Upon reaching the big scene door at
+the north of the stage, a strong blast of air blew us both into the alley.
+The rush of air was occasioned by the falling of a partition behind me, I
+think. I carried the girl into a neighboring restaurant, where she
+revived."</p>
+
+<p>Samuel Bell (Beverly Mars):</p>
+
+<p>"We saw the fire start about the time we made our entrance, but continued
+with our 'turn,' reaching the center of the stage. The fire was spreading
+and large sparks and fragments of burning material were falling, but we
+kept on until Miss Williams fainted. I saw the people in front commence to
+get excited and I put up my hands and told the people to keep as quiet and
+move out as easily as they could and not to get excited. I looked up again
+and I saw the drop curtain coming down. I should call it the asbestos
+curtain. It came down, as near as I could judge, about six or eight feet.
+Then I turned to look for my partner and she had gone. I looked on the
+stage to see her and I could not find her. She had gone off the stage. I
+merely went off the stage, out of the same side I had entered&mdash;I could not
+say exactly which entrance&mdash;and then out of the stage door, which was wide
+open."</p>
+
+<p>Victor Lozard, 235 Bower street, Jersey City:</p>
+
+<p>"I was coming out with the boys, eight of us, at the right side. We came
+up and met our partners and we got down as far front as the footlights,
+when Miss Williams fainted, which<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_310" id="Page_310">[Pg 310]</a></span> attracted my attention to some flames
+up at the first entrance on the right side. I then immediately turned
+around and helped pick Miss Williams up, and by that time my partner had
+left me, and I left the stage on the right side. I went up and was going
+to leave by the stage door, but people were going out there, and so I went
+over to the back drop, to the right of the stage, and there, about the
+middle of the stage, I was blown down or knocked down, I don't know what
+happened to me, and the next I knew of myself I was out in the alley. I
+don't know how I got there."</p>
+
+<p>John J. Russell, Boston, Mass.:</p>
+
+<p>"I had taken the first twelve steps of the dance when I first noticed the
+fire. It was in the first entrance, prompt side, about fifteen feet above
+the stage. The flame then was about five inches in length.</p>
+
+<p>"I noticed that for about a second. I continued on with the rest of the
+business, and me and my partner, as I always had done in that number, went
+down to the footlights. When we got there we continued in the business for
+about three or four seconds after getting down. Then Miss Williams
+fainted. The flames were falling to the stage, large pieces of burning
+material, and seemed to create quite a little disturbance among the people
+in the audience. I spoke to a number and tried to quiet them.</p>
+
+<p>"I told them to be seated, that everything would be all right, and to
+quiet down, and quite a number did. After Miss Williams fainted it
+attracted my attention, of course, to what was going on on the stage. I
+saw one of the moonlight boys pick Miss Williams up in his arms and go
+toward the stage entrance, other members of the octet following, except
+myself. I staid until they were out of sight. I left the stage by the
+second<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_311" id="Page_311">[Pg 311]</a></span> entrance on the prompt side. I went down stairs by the stairway
+beside the stage elevator.</p>
+
+<p>"I came back on the stage again, made one more trip down stairs, and then
+I came to the stage once more. I went partly up stage, toward the stage
+entrance, that was all in flames. I looked to the other side of the stage
+and that was all in flames. I went down to the footlights, crossing again
+across the stage, and jumped over the footlights into the auditorium and
+made my way out to the first exit on my left, looking into the auditorium
+from the stage, into the alley. The panic was on at that time and it was a
+dreadful sight."</p>
+
+<p>The statements of the remaining members were almost identical with those
+quoted.</p>
+
+
+
+<p>&nbsp;</p><p>&nbsp;</p>
+<hr style="width: 50%;" />
+<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_312" id="Page_312">[Pg 312]</a></span></p>
+<h2><a name="CHAPTER_XXIII" id="CHAPTER_XXIII"></a>CHAPTER XXIII.</h2>
+<p class="title">JOIN TO AVENGE SLAUGHTER OF INNOCENTS.</p>
+
+
+<p>Ten days after the fire horror, while blood curdling disclosures were
+coming to light revealing the fate of the penned-in fire victims in a new
+and more ghastly aspect, and while school officials and pupils gathered to
+express grief for the 39 teachers and 102 pupils who were gathered in the
+grim harvest, an inspired movement sprang from the aftermath of woe. It
+was a cry for justice.</p>
+
+<p>In an upper chamber in a towering sky-scraper in the heart of teeming,
+bustling Chicago, scores of sad visaged men and women assembled to lay
+aside their burden of woe and enter upon the prosecution of those whose
+avarice, neglect or incompetency had snuffed out all happiness and
+sunshine from their lives. A preliminary organization of relatives of
+victims of the Iroquois theater fire was effected in consequence on
+Saturday, January 9, for that purpose, at a meeting held in the offices of
+the Western Society of Engineers, in the Monadnock building.</p>
+
+<p>The meeting was held in response to a call sent out by Arthur E. Hull,
+asking that concerted action be taken by the relatives and survivors to
+cause the speedy prosecution and punishment of any who were criminally
+responsible for the disaster and to learn those financially liable for
+claims. Mr. Hull lost his wife and three children in the catastrophe.</p>
+
+<p>Long before 3 o'clock, the time set for the meeting, many fathers,
+mothers, brothers, sisters and near relatives of <span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_313" id="Page_313">[Pg 313]</a></span>victims began to gather.
+Nearly every seat was taken when the meeting was called to order. There
+were perhaps 125 people present, among whom over a hundred lost near and
+dear relatives in the fire.</p>
+
+<p>Attorney W. J. Lacey announced the object of the gathering by reading the
+call and suggested the formation of a temporary organization. Mr. Hull was
+elected chairman and Edward T. Noble secretary.</p>
+
+
+<p>&nbsp;</p>
+<p class="center">MR. HULL'S STATEMENT.</p>
+
+<p>Mr. Hull spoke briefly of his reason for calling the meeting.</p>
+
+<p>"The last time I saw my wife and little ones," he said, "was on the
+morning of the fire. I did not know until late in the evening that they
+had perished in the flames. There are many others who have suffered as
+deeply as I have, on account of this horror. There are some families,
+perhaps, whose means of support have been wrested from them. There is
+suffering and sorrow throughout this great city. It is my desire that we
+work together in the effort to find out who the men are that are
+criminally and financially responsible for our terrible loss and bring
+them before the bar of justice.</p>
+
+<p>"It was the duty of the contractors who built the Iroquois theater to see
+that the building was complete in every detail before turning it over to
+the management. This, in my opinion, establishes their responsibility. The
+architect may also be held responsible.</p>
+
+<p>"As to the building inspector, I think he should be prosecuted to the
+fullest extent of the law. It was his failure to hold the management to a
+strict adherence to the law that brought about the destruction of nearly
+600 precious lives. We have recourse to the courts of justice. Let us
+stand together and see that punishment is meted out to the guilty."</p>
+
+
+<p>&nbsp;<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_314" id="Page_314">[Pg 314]</a></span></p>
+<p class="center">ATTORNEY T. D. KNIGHT SPEAKS.</p>
+
+<p>Chairman Hull then called for an expression from his attorney, Thomas D.
+Knight, who spoke as follows:</p>
+
+<p>"Mr. Hull's object in calling this meeting is to place the responsibility
+where it belongs, not upon the scene shifter and the stage hand, but upon
+men high in authority&mdash;the management and owners of the theater. They are
+the men he regards as financially and criminally liable for the disaster
+that destroyed his family and families of many of those present here
+today. It was Mr. Hull who caused the arrest of Mr. Davis and Mr. Powers
+of the theater management, and Building Commissioner Williams. As Mr. Hull
+is so deeply affected by his loss he has requested me to state that it is
+his desire that a permanent organization be effected.</p>
+
+<p>"I believe an executive committee should be appointed to ascertain just
+what is best to be done and do it. I would suggest also the appointment of
+subcommittees on civil authority, permanent organization and finance. This
+last committee would be an important adjunct of this organization. It
+should be the aim of the finance committee to learn how many families are
+destitute as a result of the loss of their means of support in the fire
+and see that they are provided for. There are plenty of men of wealth in
+the city today who would gladly contribute to such a worthy cause.</p>
+
+
+<p>&nbsp;</p>
+<p class="center">CORONER'S WORK THOROUGH.</p>
+
+<p>"As to the question of who are financially responsible the coroner's
+investigation has been thorough, careful and fair. The coroner's
+questioning has been competent and complete in every respect. It is
+probable that he will be able to determine just which men are to blame.
+Enough has been developed <span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_315" id="Page_315">[Pg 315]</a></span>already to prove that there was gross and
+culpable negligence on the part of the proprietors of that theater.</p>
+
+<p>"As far as Klaw &amp; Erlanger are concerned we have evidence connecting them
+already. The blaze that ignited the draperies and scenery was proved to
+have come from the 'spot' light, which was operated by an employee of the
+'Mr. Bluebeard' company, which is owned by these men, who control the
+theatrical trust. If it can be shown that Mayor Harrison and other city
+officials by their negligence contributed to the loss, then they can also
+be held responsible. There is no doubt but that those who are liable can
+be attacked in the civil courts."</p>
+
+
+<p>&nbsp;</p>
+<p class="center">REMARKS BY ELIZABETH HALEY.</p>
+
+<p>A general discussion followed, during which Miss Elizabeth Haley, residing
+at 419 Sixtieth place, arose and made some revelations in regard to the
+lack of fire protection in various public schools. She said:</p>
+
+<p>"I presume the gentleman who has just spoken is an attorney and I would
+like to ask him if the men who allowed such criminal conditions to
+exist&mdash;the mayor, aldermen and city trustees&mdash;if they could not be held
+liable, both civilly and criminally? I am a school teacher, and I would
+like to know if men who time after time have completely ignored reports
+about the absolute absence of fire protection in school buildings are not
+liable?</p>
+
+<p>"To my personal knowledge reports have been made month after month to
+them, and nothing was ever heard of them. I know of schools where there is
+no fire hose, no fire extinguishers, no fire apparatus of any kind, no
+fire alarms, no telephones, no fire escapes&mdash;not a thing that would enable
+the hundreds of children to save their lives in the event of a fire. And
+these buildings are locked at 9 o'clock, with only one exit left open. Are
+not the mayor, the aldermen, and the trustees directly <span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_316" id="Page_316">[Pg 316]</a></span>responsible for
+this state of things, and are they not the men who should be prosecuted
+along with the proprietors of that theater?</p>
+
+<p>"On November 2 last, the newspapers reported that a complaint had been
+made before the city council that the theaters were violating the laws.
+That report went to a subcommittee and has never been heard of since; and
+a day or two later Mayor Harrison came out with a statement in which he
+defied criticism and declared that there was no truth in the complaints.
+The whole thing strikes me as a splendid lesson in civics&mdash;that we cannot
+shirk our duty, even as high officials."</p>
+
+<p>The following committee, the majority residents of Chicago, was named to
+act, pending further action: J. L. McKenna, 758 South Kedzie avenue; Henry
+M. Shabad, 4041 Indiana avenue; J. J. Reynolds, 421 East Forty-fifth
+street; E. S. Frazier, Aurora, Ill.; Morris Schaffner, 578 East
+Forty-fifth street.</p>
+
+<p>All of these men lost members of their families in the fire, Mr. McKenna
+losing his whole family.</p>
+
+
+
+<p>&nbsp;</p><p>&nbsp;</p>
+<hr style="width: 50%;" />
+<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_317" id="Page_317">[Pg 317]</a></span></p>
+<h2><a name="CHAPTER_XXIV" id="CHAPTER_XXIV"></a>CHAPTER XXIV.</h2>
+<p class="title">AWFUL PROPHECY FULFILLED.</p>
+
+
+<p>More than a quarter of a century ago the prophecy was made by the <i>Chicago
+Times</i> that a terrible calamity was in store for the public on account of
+the lax provision made for escape from burning theaters. The prophecy was
+put forth in the guise of a pretended report of such a horror in the issue
+of that publication for February 13, 1875, and was as follows:</p>
+
+<p>"Scores of houses are saddened this beautiful winter morning by the fate
+which overtook so many unsuspecting people in Chicago last night. The
+hearts of thousands will be stirred to their depths with sympathy for the
+unfortunates. It was a catastrophe awful in its results, yet grand in its
+horror. Nothing has equaled it for years; it is to be hoped that its
+counterpart will never be known.</p>
+
+<p>"There are smoking ruins down in the heart of the city&mdash;ruins of one of
+the finest theaters in Chicago, which fell a prey to the devouring element
+last night. There are mourning households and rows of dead bodies at the
+morgue. There will be anxious inquiries on the lips of many persons with
+whom one will meet manifesting an eagerness to know whether friends were
+swallowed up in the flames or made good their escape.</p>
+
+<p>"While it cannot be said that the catastrophe was entirely unexpected, yet
+it came so suddenly and so little had been done to obviate it, that its
+results are fearful to contemplate. For months the frequenters of the
+various places of amusement in Chicago had often questioned themselves
+whether<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_318" id="Page_318">[Pg 318]</a></span> there would not come the day when in some of these buildings
+grisly death would stalk forth, like a thief in the night, and lay his
+cold hands upon the unsuspecting throng; at last the terrible moment and
+the horrible reality dawned.</p>
+
+<p>"With all her experience in conflagrations and attendant horrors, Chicago
+has nothing to compare with this catastrophe. Even the fire of 1871, which
+swept over a vast extent of country and reduced proud and formidable
+looking buildings and scattered their strength to the winds, lacked the
+comparative loss of life which this one disaster has entailed. Property
+may be dissipated, but it can be recovered once more.</p>
+
+<p>"Death robs us forever of our dear ones, and leaves a void which time can
+never fully fill.</p>
+
+
+<p>&nbsp;</p>
+<p class="center">MOURNING AND INDIGNATION.</p>
+
+<p>"As we tread today upon the very heels of this latest sad event and take a
+comprehensive view of its details and results, no one, not even though he
+have no personal interest in the loss entailed, can help joining in the
+expression of mourning which will go up, and at the same time give vent to
+the already too long-suppressed feelings of indignation, which have from
+time to time arisen when thinking of the flimsy manner in which theaters
+are built, their lack of protection against fire and the inadequate means
+afforded inmates to escape therefrom in the event of an undue excitement
+that should spread a panic, ere the breaking out of a fire.</p>
+
+<p>"The sympathy for the dead will be equally balanced by vigorous
+denunciation of the criminality of everybody who, in an official or
+proprietary capacity, is interested therein.</p>
+
+
+<p>&nbsp;</p>
+<p class="center">NOTHING ELSE SO HORRIBLE.</p>
+
+<p>"In the history of the country there are few events that can match this
+one. The burning of the Richmond theater, the<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_319" id="Page_319">[Pg 319]</a></span> falling of the Pemberton
+mill, the burning of the cotton mill at Fall River, the breaking loose of
+the Haydenville mill pond, with now and then of late years the engulfing
+of some steamer on inland lakes or the ocean, have for the time cast a
+great pall of mourning over the land, but they only stand in the same
+category with this last disaster, and can hardly rival it in swiftness of
+culmination or suddenness of origin.</p>
+
+<p>"For the time being this will furnish the chief topic for conversation,
+and if the <i>Times</i> mistakes not, it will as well arouse the public to a
+complete realization of the unsafeness of theaters in general, and have
+the beneficial effect even in its tragic nature of moving the people to
+insist upon the adoption of a certain amount of safeguards against a like
+event in the future. The time to move in this matter is at this critical
+juncture, even while the charred remains of the</p>
+
+<p class="center">UNFORTUNATE VICTIMS</p>
+
+<p>are lying stark upon their biers and friends are stabbed with the grief of
+the untimely taking off of their friends.</p>
+
+<p>"In the excitement of this hour it is no time to deal in sentimental
+reflections. The scenes of the past night are too fresh to warrant lengthy
+dwelling upon the morale of the occurrence. It is sufficient that it is
+distinctly understood that the catastrophe was more the result of
+insufficient means of egress from the theater than was the primary cause
+of the development of the fire, although the latter, aided by the first
+and helped on by the panic stricken people, who from the outset
+appreciated the terrible position in which they were placed, augmented to
+a large degree the number of deaths.</p>
+
+<p>"Chicago theaters as a general thing are tinder boxes into which humanity
+are packed by avaricious managers without any regard to their safety or
+thought of the imminent risk<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_320" id="Page_320">[Pg 320]</a></span> which is nightly impending. Evidently their
+only desire is to fill the house, gather in as much money as possible,
+while they take no heed to the dangers which surround their patrons on
+every hand.</p>
+
+<p>"The lesson had to be taught some time, it was inevitable; it had to be
+located at some one of the places of amusement, although all of them
+were&mdash;and those remaining are still&mdash;liable to share the same fate at any
+moment. If the experience of one should teach the others a little wisdom,
+the existing evil may perhaps be remedied, although it shall have been at
+the sacrifice of human life.</p>
+
+
+<p>&nbsp;</p>
+<p class="center">FIRE! FIRE!</p>
+
+<p>"The gallery was overflowing and the gate that opened to the stairway
+which led to the floor below, as usual, was locked, so that those who
+bought cheap tickets could not make their way to higher-priced sections on
+the lower floor. In the uppermost gallery&mdash;where the 'gods' are supposed
+to assemble, and from which comes much of the inspiration which upholds
+the ambitious actor and transports the ranting comedian and raging
+tragedian to the seventh heaven of bliss&mdash;in this gallery there was a
+motley crowd.</p>
+
+<p>"They were there in large numbers, because the play had something that
+savored of blood; there was a broadsword combat and a murder scene. For
+reasons the very antitheses of these were the people downstairs drawn
+thither&mdash;there were love scenes and heart-burnings and statuesque posings,
+and artistic excellencies of varied kinds. It was a play that touched the
+feelings of humanity, the vulgar as well as the refined.</p>
+
+
+<p>&nbsp;</p>
+<p class="center">BEFORE THE DISASTER.</p>
+
+<p>"The auditorium was ablaze with light, the audience were lit up with
+gaiety. Handsome women, richly clad, ogled one<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_321" id="Page_321">[Pg 321]</a></span> another and cast
+coquettish glances at dashing gentlemen. Fond mothers, chaperoning
+blooming daughters, chatted pleasantly, while indulgent fathers, although
+seeking relief from the cares of the day in the charming play, found
+neighbors near at hand with whom to discuss sordid business or perplexing
+politics.</p>
+
+
+<p>&nbsp;</p>
+<p class="center">THE HOLOCAUST.</p>
+
+<p>"As has been stated, the house was filled with spectators. When the
+premonition of the impending disaster had been given out, and after the
+first great thrill of horror had, for the instant, frozen the blood of
+every spectator and caused an involuntary check to every heart, there came
+quickly the manifestation of a determination to 'do or die,' to escape
+from the angry flames if possible. And with this determination came the
+positive assurance of the growing calamity, through the person of one of
+the actors, who but a short time previous had been playing the buffoon,
+setting staid people agape with amusement and turning dull care into
+festivity. Hastily drawing the foot of the curtain back from the
+proscenium pillars, he thrust his blanched countenance into view and
+screamed with terrified voice:</p>
+
+<p>"'Hurry to the door for your lives; the stage is afire!'</p>
+
+
+<p>&nbsp;</p>
+<p class="center">THE STAMPEDE BEGINS.</p>
+
+<p>"It hardly needed these words of warning to perfect the demoralization
+which had seized upon the terrified crowd. The stampede had already
+commenced; the work of death had been inaugurated.</p>
+
+<p>"Those who escaped, and with whom the <i>Times</i> reporter had the good
+fortune to talk, on last evening, say that the detail of the horrors of
+that scene would defy description. One<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_322" id="Page_322">[Pg 322]</a></span> or two of these informants were so
+far down in the dress circle that they saw the whole of the catastrophe
+and measured its horrible magnitude as best they could under the
+excitement that prevailed. How they escaped is more than they could tell,
+but they found themselves borne along, lifted and pushed forward till the
+door was reached, and the outside and safety gained. They describe the
+scene inside the theater as</p>
+
+<p class="center">ONE OF STUPENDOUS HORRORS.</p>
+
+<p>"The affrighted audience, rising from their seats, began simultaneously to
+attempt to reach the means of egress. Timid females raised their hands to
+heaven, shrieked wild, despairing cries and fell to be trampled into
+eternity by the heels of the wild rushing throng. Mothers pleaded
+piteously in the tumult and the roar that their darling daughters might be
+spared, while they themselves were resigned to the fate which was
+inevitable. Stout men with muscles of iron and cheeks blanched with terror
+clasped wives and sweethearts to their breasts and</p>
+
+<p class="center">CURSED AND BLASPHEMED,</p>
+
+<p>and piteously prayed&mdash;the one that their progress was impeded, the other
+to those who, like them, prayed for a safe deliverance, but who were
+unable to afford the slightest assistance.</p>
+
+<p>"Meanwhile the flames had eaten their way to the front, and with one fell
+swoop licked up the combustible drop curtain, spread themselves across the
+proscenium and were working up towards the ceiling. Reaching this point
+the destroying element seemed to pause a moment as though pitying the
+position of the puny individuals who were fleeing its approach, and then
+remorselessly swept down in forked fury and pierced venom. The
+terror-stricken crowd felt the hot breath of the monster and surged and
+swayed and tried to escape its fury.</p>
+
+
+<p>&nbsp;<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_323" id="Page_323">[Pg 323]</a></span></p>
+<p class="center">DEAD BODIES FOUND.</p>
+
+<p>"The corpses recovered were, as has been before stated, taken to the
+street, removed two blocks away from the scene of the disaster, and, for
+the time being, laid out upon the pavement, awaiting the recognition of
+friends. Fathers and mothers, who in the tumult of the stampede had become
+separated from children; husbands who, despite their efforts, had felt
+themselves torn away from wives; friends who had been</p>
+
+<p class="center">SUDDENLY AND FOREVER PARTED</p>
+
+<p>from friends; young men, who, while they had no friends to lose in the
+building, yet felt themselves bereft by reason of the common sympathy of
+the human heart; all these had, during the time preceding the recovery of
+the bodies, filled the streets and poured out their inconsolable grief in
+loudest tones. The <i>Times</i> reporter to whose lot fell the recording of the
+scenes depicted under this head hopes that it may never again be his to
+witness a repetition of the scene. The anguish, the frenzy, the loud
+wailings, the heart-broken demonstrations were, indeed, overpowering and
+calculated to make an impression upon even the most stony heart that will
+last as long as reason holds its sway.</p>
+
+
+<p>&nbsp;</p>
+<p class="center">THE FRENZY OF FRIENDS.</p>
+
+<p>"The silent bearers of these bodies, as they came and went, could not but
+be moved to tears at the reception which their burdens met. Here a
+charming girl, cut off in the flower of her youth and at the height of her
+pleasure; there a promising lad, full of hope but an hour before. Again,
+the silvered head of a loved mother, and soon the sturdy frame of one who
+had passed the heydey of youth and was beginning to enjoy the fruits of
+his youthful labors. There were people well known, whose sudden taking
+away will shock many a friend this<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_324" id="Page_324">[Pg 324]</a></span> morning; and there were others, too,
+male and female, who, lacking friends in life, found no mourners save the
+full heart of a sympathetic public to regret their departure.</p>
+
+
+<p>&nbsp;</p>
+<p class="center">TOO HORRIBLE TO DWELL UPON.</p>
+
+<p>"But these scenes are too painful to be dwelt upon. One by one the dead
+were removed, some to near hotels, to await the coming dawn, when they
+might be taken to their late homes, and others being sent to the morgue by
+the police. At 2 o'clock officers were still searching, and the populace
+who had been drawn together by the awful catastrophe had dispersed in the
+main, although a few still lingered about the ruins, anxious to offer
+assistance where it might most be needed, while two streams of water
+continued to be poured into the building that every spark might be
+extinguished.</p>
+
+
+<p>&nbsp;</p>
+<p class="center">HOW THEATERS SHOULD BE BUILT.</p>
+
+<p>"Granting that the conflagration detailed never happened, it is something
+liable to occur at any time in this city. Newspaper accounts more
+sensational in headlines and more shocking in narrative are to be expected
+almost any morning. The above is but a suggestion of what may at any time
+become a reality. Theaters are so built and so crammed with inflammable
+materials that a fire once started in them would in an incredibly short
+period gain such headway that nothing under heaven could check its mad and
+devouring career. Furthermore, the means of exit and all other avenues of
+escape are so limited that a panic once inaugurated in a crowded house
+would bring destruction upon the heads of a large proportion of the
+audience. Have theater-goers in Chicago ever thought of this, as, crowded
+into a seat, with means of hasty exit cut off, they have sat and looked
+around them upon the hundreds of others similarly situated?</p>
+
+
+
+<p>&nbsp;</p><p>&nbsp;</p>
+<hr style="width: 50%;" />
+<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_325" id="Page_325">[Pg 325]</a></span></p>
+<h2><a name="CHAPTER_XXV" id="CHAPTER_XXV"></a>CHAPTER XXV.</h2>
+<p class="title">LIST OF THE DEAD.</p>
+
+
+<p class="title">A.</p>
+
+<p class="hang">ADAMEK, JOHN, MRS., 40 years old, Bartlett, Ill.</p>
+
+<p class="hang">ALEXANDER, LULU B., 36 years old, 3473 Washington boulevard; identified by
+husband, W. G. Alexander.</p>
+
+<p class="hang">ALLEN, MRS. MARY S., 27 years old, 5546 Drexel boulevard.</p>
+
+<p class="hang">ANDERSON, RAGNE, 39 years old, scrubwoman, Iroquois; 229 Grand avenue.</p>
+
+<p class="hang">ANDREWS, HARRIET, 20 years old, West Superior, Wis.</p>
+
+<p class="hang">ALEXANDER, BOYER, 8 years old, 475 Washington boulevard; body identified
+by his father, Dr. W. A. Alexander.</p>
+
+<p class="hang">ADAMS, MRS. JOHN, Iola, Ill., identified by R. H. Ostrander.</p>
+
+<p class="hang">ALDRIDGE, LUELLA M'DONALD, 792 West Monroe street.</p>
+
+<p class="hang">ALFSON, ALFRED, 24 Keith street; identified by father.</p>
+
+<p class="hang">ANDERSON, ANNIE, 29 years old, 2141 Jackson boulevard.</p>
+
+<p class="hang">ANNEN, MARGARET, 299 Webster avenue; identified by Charles Annen.</p>
+
+
+<p>&nbsp;</p>
+<p class="title">B.</p>
+
+<p class="hang">BARRY, WILMA, 17 years old, 4330 Greenwood avenue, stepdaughter of E. P.
+Berry, the insurance man, was with Mrs. Barry, who escaped.</p>
+
+<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_326" id="Page_326">[Pg 326]</a></span></p>
+
+<p class="hang">BARRY, MISS MAGGIE, 26 years old, 236 Lincoln avenue.</p>
+
+<p class="hang">BARNHEISEL, CHARLES H., 3622 Michigan avenue; unknown to family that he
+had attended theater, and published list of dead containing name conveyed
+the first information to family; body identified by relatives.</p>
+
+<p class="hang">BISSINGER, WALTER, 15 years old, 4934 Forrestville avenue, son of Benjamin
+Bissinger, real estate man; attended Howe Military academy at Lima, Ind.;
+was with sister, Tessie, 20 years, and cousin, Jack Pottlitzer, of
+Lafayette, Ind., who was killed; the sister escaped.</p>
+
+<p class="hang">BURNSIDE, MRS. ESTHER, 437 West Sixty-fourth street; body identified by
+her son, C. W. Burnside, and the family physician, Dr. Schultz.</p>
+
+<p class="hang">BYRNE, CONSILA, 16 years old, 616 West Fifteenth street; Identified by
+sister.</p>
+
+<p class="hang">BICKFORD, GLENN, 16 years old, son of C. M. Bickford, 947 Farwell avenue,
+Rogers Park.</p>
+
+<p class="hang">BICKFORD, HELEN, 14 years old, daughter of C. M. Bickford.</p>
+
+<p class="hang">BREWSTER, MARY JULIA, 116 Thirty-first street, daughter of Mr. and Mrs. L.
+H. Brewster.</p>
+
+<p class="hang">BRENNAN, PAUL, 608 West Fulton street; identified at Rolston's.</p>
+
+<p class="hang">BAGLEY, MISS HELEN DEWEY, 18 years, 24 Madison Park; identified by J. J.
+Mahoney.</p>
+
+<p class="hang">BARKER, ETHEL M., 27 years old, 1925 Washington boulevard; identified by
+father.</p>
+
+<p class="hang">BATTENFIELD, MRS. D. W., 43 years old; Delaware, O.</p>
+
+<p class="hang">BATTENFIELD, JOHN, 23 years old; Delaware, O.</p>
+
+<p class="hang">BATTENFIELD, ROBERT, 15 years old; Delaware, O.</p>
+
+<p class="hang">BATTENFIELD, RUTH, 21 years old; Delaware, O.</p>
+
+<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_327" id="Page_327">[Pg 327]</a></span></p>
+
+<p class="hang">BESMICK, JOSEPH, West Superior, Wis.</p>
+
+<p class="hang">BEYER, infant.</p>
+
+<p class="hang">BIRD, MISS MARION, Iola, Ill.; identified by cousin.</p>
+
+<p class="hang">BLOOM, MRS. ROSE, 3760 Indiana avenue, 30 years old.</p>
+
+<p class="hang">BOEAM, PAUL, 608 West Fulton street.</p>
+
+<p class="hang">BOETCHER, MRS. CHARLES, 4140 Indiana avenue.</p>
+
+<p class="hang">BOICE, W. H., 5721 Rosalie court.</p>
+
+<p class="hang">BOICE, Mrs. W. H., 5721 Rosalie court.</p>
+
+<p class="hang">BOICE, MISS BESSIE, 15 years old, 5721 Rosalie court.</p>
+
+<p class="hang">BOLTIE, HELEN, Winnetka, aged 14.</p>
+
+<p class="hang">BOND, LUCILE, Hart, Mich.; identified by an aunt.</p>
+
+<p class="hang">BOWMAN, MRS. JOSEPHINE, 20 Chalmers place; identified by B. F. Jenkins, a
+neighbor.</p>
+
+<p class="hang">BOWMAN, BEATRICE M., 33 years old, 20 Chalmers place, daughter of Mrs.
+Josephine Bowman.</p>
+
+<p class="hang">BOWMAN, LUCIEN, 14 years old, 20 Chalmers place.</p>
+
+<p class="hang">BRADWELL, MISS MYRA, Windsor hotel.</p>
+
+<p class="hang">BRADY, LEON, 4356 Forrestville avenue.</p>
+
+<p class="hang">BROWN, HAROLD, 16 years old, 94 Thirty-first street, identified by Ella
+Huggins.</p>
+
+<p class="hang">BUEHRMANN, MARGARET, 13 years, 46 East Fifty-third street.</p>
+
+<p class="hang">BUTLER, MRS. F. S., 649 Michigan street, Evanston; suffocated by smoke in
+first balcony; body identified by sister.</p>
+
+<p class="hang">BOTSFORD, MABEL A., 21 years old, Racine, Wis.</p>
+
+<p class="hang">BARTLETT, MRS. WILLIAM, Grossdale, Ill.</p>
+
+<p class="hang">BERGH ARTHUR, 4926 Champlain avenue.</p>
+
+<p class="hang">BOGGS, MRS. M., 6933 Princeton avenue.</p>
+
+<p class="hang">BRENNAN, MARGARET, 40 years, 608 West Fulton street.</p>
+
+<p class="hang">BAKER, MISS ADELAIDE, 17 years old, 4410 Ellis avenue.</p>
+
+<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_328" id="Page_328">[Pg 328]</a></span></p>
+
+<p class="hang">BANSHEP, GEORGE, 28 years old, engineer, 4847 Forrestville avenue.</p>
+
+<p class="hang">BARTESCH, WILLIAM C., 24 years old, 464 Racine avenue.</p>
+
+<p class="hang">BARTLETT, ARTHUR, 6 years old, West Grossdale, Ill.</p>
+
+<p class="hang">BECKER, MASON A., 3237 Groveland avenue.</p>
+
+<p class="hang">BELL, MISS PET, 60 years old, 3000 Michigan avenue.</p>
+
+<p class="hang">BERG, OLGA, 11 years old, 408 West One Hundred and Eleventh street;
+identified by father.</p>
+
+<p class="hang">BERG, FRANK.</p>
+
+<p class="hang">BERG, MRS. HELEN, 408 West One Hundred and Eleventh street.</p>
+
+<p class="hang">BERG, VICTOR, 11 years old, 408 West One Hundred and Eleventh street;
+identified by Frank Berg, father.</p>
+
+<p class="hang">BERGCH, Mrs. Annie, 30 years old, 4926 Champlain avenue.</p>
+
+<p class="hang">BERRY, MISS EMMA, 19 years old, 236 Lincoln avenue.</p>
+
+<p class="hang">BERRY, MRS. C. C., 56 years old, 236 Racine avenue.</p>
+
+<p class="hang">BERRY, OTTO, Battle Creek, Mich., visiting at 236 Lincoln avenue.</p>
+
+<p class="hang">BEUTEL, WILLIAM, 33 years old, Englewood avenue, near Halsted street.</p>
+
+<p class="hang">BEYER, OTTO, 38 years old, Diversey boulevard.</p>
+
+<p class="hang">BEZENACK, MRS. NELLIE, 40 years old.</p>
+
+<p class="hang">BIEGLER, MISS SUSAN MARSHALL, 27 years old, 6518 Minerva avenue.</p>
+
+<p class="hang">BLISS, HAROLD F., 23 years old, Racine, Wis.</p>
+
+<p class="hang">BLUM, MRS. ROSE, 30 years old, 5248 Prairie avenue.</p>
+
+<p class="hang">BOLTE, LINDA W., 14 years old, Lakeside, Ill.; identified by uncle, John
+H. Willard, 2942 Indiana avenue.</p>
+
+<p class="hang">BRINSLEY, EMMA L., 29 years old, 909 Jackson boulevard.</p>
+
+<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_329" id="Page_329">[Pg 329]</a></span></p>
+
+<p class="hang">BROWNE, HAZEL GRACE, 14 years old, South Bend, Ind.</p>
+
+<p class="hang">BURKE, BERTHA, 41 years old, 511 West Monroe street; taken to Reedsville,
+Wis.</p>
+
+<p class="hang">BUSCHWAH, LOUISE ALICE, 12 years old, 1810 Wellington avenue.</p>
+
+<p class="hang">BUTLER, BENNETT, 13 years old, 649 Michigan street, Evanston.</p>
+
+
+<p>&nbsp;</p>
+<p class="title">C.</p>
+
+<p class="hang">CALDWELL, ROBERT PORTER, 15 years old, St. Louis grain dealer.</p>
+
+<p class="hang">CALVEN, MRS. HENRIETTA, Knox, Ind.</p>
+
+<p class="hang">CAVILLE, ARTHUR, 24 years old, 54 Twenty-sixth street.</p>
+
+<p class="hang">CHAPMAN, MISS NINA, 23 years old, Cedar Rapids, Ia.</p>
+
+<p class="hang">CHRISTOPHERSON, MRS. MINNIE, 35 years old, 231 N. Harvey avenue.</p>
+
+<p class="hang">CLAY, MISS SUSIE, 36 years old, 6409 Monroe avenue.</p>
+
+<p class="hang">CLAYTON, JOHN V., 13 years old, 534 Morse avenue.</p>
+
+<p class="hang">COGANS, MRS. MARGARETHA, 26 years old, 5904 Normal avenue.</p>
+
+<p class="hang">CUMINGS, IRENE, 18 years, 5135 Madison avenue. Was with Miss Baker, 4410
+Ellis avenue, who was injured. They were in the third row of the balcony.</p>
+
+<p class="hang">CROCKER, MRS. LILLIE J., 3730 Lake avenue, teacher at Oakland school. She
+went to the theater with Mrs. Pierce and daughter, of Plainville, Mich.</p>
+
+<p class="hang">CANTWELL, MRS. THOMAS, 733 West Adams street, mother of Attorney Robert E.
+Cantwell; identified by James Roche, a cousin.</p>
+
+<p class="hang">COHN, MRS. JACOB, 222 Ogden avenue.</p>
+
+<p class="hang">COPLER, LOLA, 18 years old, address not known.</p>
+
+<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_330" id="Page_330">[Pg 330]</a></span></p>
+
+<p class="hang">CHAPMAN, BESSIE, 19 years old, Cedar Rapids, Ia., 211 Lincoln avenue;
+identified by her uncle, C. W. Pierson, with whom she was visiting. Was at
+theater with her sister Nina.</p>
+
+<p class="hang">CHAPMAN, NINA, 23 years old, 211 Lincoln avenue; identified by her uncle,
+C. W. Pierson, Cedar Rapids, Ia.</p>
+
+<p class="hang">COULTTS, R. H., 1616 Wabash avenue. Body identified by granddaughter.</p>
+
+<p class="hang">CASPER, CHARLES E., Kenosha, Wis.; body identified by G. H. Curtis of
+Kenosha.</p>
+
+<p class="hang">CURBIN, VERNON W., 10 years, 6938 Wentworth avenue. Identified by uncle,
+Carlos B. Hinckley.</p>
+
+<p class="hang">CALDWELL, ROY A. G., supposed; identified by cards in clothing.</p>
+
+<p class="hang">CLARK, E. D., 30 years old, 5432 Lexington avenue.</p>
+
+<p class="hang">CHRISTIANSON, HENRIETTA, 18 years old, 445 West Sixty-fifth street;
+identified by W. A. Douglas.</p>
+
+<p class="hang">CHRISTOPHER, MISS BELL, Decorah, Ia.</p>
+
+<p class="hang">COOPER, MRS. HELEN S., 27 years old, Lena, Ill.</p>
+
+<p class="hang">COOPER, WILLIS W., Kenosha, Wis., son of Charles F. Cooper, Kenosha.</p>
+
+<p class="hang">COOPER, CHARLES F., Kenosha, Wis.</p>
+
+<p class="hang">CORBIN, LOUISA, 37 years old, 6938 Wentworth avenue.</p>
+
+<p class="hang">CORCORAN, MISS FLORENCE, 218 Dearborn avenue; identified by brother.</p>
+
+<p class="hang">CHAPIN, AGNES, 4458 Berkeley avenue.</p>
+
+<p class="hang">CORBIN, NORMAN, 9 years, Peoria, Ill.; identified by Victor B. Corbin.</p>
+
+
+<p>&nbsp;</p>
+<p class="title">D.</p>
+
+<p class="hang">DEVINE, CLARA, 29 years, 259 La Salle avenue; identified by M. Reece.</p>
+
+<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_331" id="Page_331">[Pg 331]</a></span></p>
+
+<p class="hang">DYRENFORTH, HELEN, 8 years old, daughter of Harold Dyrenforth, 832 Judson
+avenue, Evanston; body identified by father.</p>
+
+<p class="hang">DYRENFORTH, RUTH, daughter of Harold Dyrenforth, Evanston; body identified
+and taken away by relatives.</p>
+
+<p class="hang">DRYDEN, TAYLOR, 12 years old, 5803 Washington avenue; body identified by
+father.</p>
+
+<p class="hang">DRYDEN, MRS. JOHN, 5803 Washington avenue, mother of Taylor; body
+identified by husband.</p>
+
+<p class="hang">DAWSON, MRS. WILLIAM, Barrington, Ill.</p>
+
+<p class="hang">DECKER, MYRON, 3237 Groveland avenue.</p>
+
+<p class="hang">DELEE, VIOLA, 22 years old, daughter of the late Lieut. W. J. Delee, of
+Central police detail, 7822 Union avenue; body identified by M. J. Delee,
+her uncle.</p>
+
+<p class="hang">DIFFENDORF, MRS., 45 years old, Lincoln, Ill.</p>
+
+<p class="hang">DIXON, LEAH, 100 Flournoy street.</p>
+
+<p class="hang">DUNLAVEY, J., 6050 Wabash avenue.</p>
+
+<p class="hang">DIXON, EDNA, 9 years old, 100 Flournoy street.</p>
+
+<p class="hang">DODD, MRS. J. F., 45 years old, Delaware, O.</p>
+
+<p class="hang">DODD, MISS RUTH, 12 years old, Delaware, O.; identified by Dr. E. S. Coe.</p>
+
+<p class="hang">DOLAN, MARGARET.</p>
+
+<p class="hang">DONALDSON, CLARA E.</p>
+
+<p class="hang">DORR, LILLIAN, 16 years old, 4924 Champlain avenue.</p>
+
+<p class="hang">DOWST, MRS. CHARLES, 927 Hinman avenue, Evanston; body identified by
+husband.</p>
+
+<p class="hang">DRYCHAU, MRS. JOHN, of St. Louis.</p>
+
+<p class="hang">DU VALL, MRS. ELIZABETH, 498 Fullerton avenue, 40 years old.</p>
+
+<p class="hang">DU VALL, SARAH, 10 years old. South Zanesville, O.; identified by aunt.</p>
+
+<p class="hang">DECKHUT, MAE, Quincy, Ill.; body identified.</p>
+
+<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_332" id="Page_332">[Pg 332]</a></span></p>
+
+<p class="hang">DAWSON, GRACE, 5 years old, 334 Harding street; identified by her father.</p>
+
+<p class="hang">DANNER, J. M., 55 years old, Burlington, Ia.; identified by his
+son-in-law, Harry Wunderlich, Wilson avenue and Clark street.</p>
+
+<p class="hang">DAVY, MRS. ELIZABETH, 53 years old, 34 Roslyn place.</p>
+
+<p class="hang">DAVY, MISS HELEN, 15 years old, 35 Roslyn place.</p>
+
+<p class="hang">DAWSON, THERESA, 25 years, 10 Market avenue, Pullman; identified by
+husband.</p>
+
+<p class="hang">DAY, MRS. SARAH, 50 years old, colored.</p>
+
+<p class="hang">DECKER, KATE K., 58 years old, 3228 Groveland avenue.</p>
+
+<p class="hang">DECKER, MAMIE, 33 years old, 3237 Groveland avenue.</p>
+
+<p class="hang">DEE, EDDIE, 7 years old, 3133 Wabash avenue.</p>
+
+<p class="hang">DEE, LOUISE, 2 years, 3133 Wabash avenue.</p>
+
+<p class="hang">DEVINE, MARGARET, 22 years old, 95 Kendall street.</p>
+
+<p class="hang">DICKIE, EDITH, 25 years old, school teacher, 619 Sixty-fifth place.</p>
+
+<p class="hang">DIFFENDORFER, LEANDER, 16 years old, Lincoln, Ill.</p>
+
+<p class="hang">DINGFELDER, WINIFRED E., 18 years old, Jonesville, Mich.</p>
+
+<p class="hang">DONAHUE, MARY E., 18 years old, 1040 West Taylor street.</p>
+
+<p class="hang">DOOLEY, MRS., Claremont avenue, near Ohio street.</p>
+
+<p class="hang">DOTTS, MARGARET S., 32 years old, 188 North Elizabeth street; identified
+by husband.</p>
+
+<p class="hang">DOW, FLORENCE, 17 years old, 642 West Sixtieth street.</p>
+
+<p class="hang">DRAY, VICTORIA, 22 years old, Indiana avenue.</p>
+
+<p class="hang">DREISEL, CLARA, 30 years old, North Robey street and Potomac avenue.</p>
+
+
+<p>&nbsp;<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_333" id="Page_333">[Pg 333]</a></span></p>
+<p class="title">E.</p>
+
+<p class="hang">EDWARDS, MARGERY, 14 years old, Clinton, Ia., identified by father,
+William Edwards; father and daughter were guests at 700 Fullerton avenue.</p>
+
+<p class="hang">EBERSTEIN, FRANK B., 20 years old, 84 Twenty-sixth street, identified by
+his father.</p>
+
+<p class="hang">EISENDRATH, MRS. S. M., 10 Crilly court.</p>
+
+<p class="hang">EISENDRATH, NATALIE, 10 years old, 10 Crilly court.</p>
+
+<p class="hang">EBERSTEIN, MRS. J. A., 84 Twenty-sixth street, identified by husband and
+sister.</p>
+
+<p class="hang">ENGEL, MAURICE, 73 Dawson avenue, identified by name on charm.</p>
+
+<p class="hang">ELAND, ALMA, nurse, with two children of Harold Dyrenforth, 832 Judson
+avenue, Evanston.</p>
+
+<p class="hang">ESPER, EMIL, 31 years, 190 Osgood street.</p>
+
+<p class="hang">ERNST, ROSENE, 202 Twenty-fourth place. Identified by mother.</p>
+
+<p class="hang">ESTEN, ROSA, 23 years, 305 Halsted street; identified by M. Eighberg.</p>
+
+<p class="hang">EBBERT, MRS. J. H., 48 years old, 5516 Marshfield avenue.</p>
+
+<p class="hang">EDDUZE, HARRY, 16 years old, Mattoon.</p>
+
+<p class="hang">EDWARDS, MRS. M. L., Clinton, Ia.</p>
+
+<p class="hang">EGER, MRS. GUS, 3760 Indiana avenue.</p>
+
+<p class="hang">EISENSTAEDT, HERBERT S., 16 years old, 4549 Forrestville avenue.</p>
+
+<p class="hang">ELDRIDGE, HARRY, 17 years old, Mattoon.</p>
+
+<p class="hang">ELDRIDGE, MONTEK, 18 years old, 6063 Jefferson avenue.</p>
+
+<p class="hang">ELKAU, ROSE, 14 years old, 3434 South Park avenue.</p>
+
+<p class="hang">ELLIS, MRS. ANNIE, 40 years old, 207 East Sixty-second street.</p>
+
+<p class="hang">ENGELS, MINNIE, 36 years old, 73 Dawson avenue.</p>
+
+<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_334" id="Page_334">[Pg 334]</a></span></p>
+
+<p class="hang">ERSIG, TYRONE, 17 years old, 239 West Sixty-sixth street.</p>
+
+<p class="hang">EVANS, MATTIE, Burlington, Ia.</p>
+
+
+<p>&nbsp;</p>
+<p class="title">F.</p>
+
+<p class="hang">FAIR, MISS ELLEN, 45 years old, 7564 Bond avenue.</p>
+
+<p class="hang">FALK, GERTRUDE, 20 years old, 3839 Elmwood place.</p>
+
+<p class="hang">FITZGIBBON, ANNA G., 17 years old, 2954 Michigan avenue.</p>
+
+<p class="hang">FLANNAGAN, THOMAS J., 24 years old, employed at Iroquois.</p>
+
+<p class="hang">FOLICE, NELLIE, 22 years old, 301 Claremont avenue.</p>
+
+<p class="hang">FOWLER, ELVA, 17 years, 3450 West Sixty-third place.</p>
+
+<p class="hang">FRAZER, MRS. EDWARD S., Aurora, Ill.</p>
+
+<p class="hang">FRIEDRICH, MRS. HELEN, 35 years old, 341 Center street.</p>
+
+<p class="hang">FREER, JENNIE E. CHRISTY, 53 years old, Galesburg, Ill.</p>
+
+<p class="hang">FRICKELTON, EDITH, 23 years old, 632 Peoria street.</p>
+
+<p class="hang">FRICKELTON, GEORGE E., 17 years old, 5632 Peoria street.</p>
+
+<p class="hang">FROST, P. O.</p>
+
+<p class="hang">FOX, MRS. EVELYN, Winnetka, daughter of W. M. Hoyt; was accompanied by
+three children, all of whom are dead; body of mother found by Graeme
+Stewart.</p>
+
+<p class="hang">FOX, GEORGE SYDNEY, 15 years old, son of Mrs. Fox.</p>
+
+<p class="hang">FOX, EMILY, 9 years old, daughter of Mrs. Fox.</p>
+
+<p class="hang">FOX, HOYT, 12 years old, son of Mrs. Fox.</p>
+
+<p class="hang">FRADY, MRS. E. C., 4356 Forrestville avenue.</p>
+
+<p class="hang">FRADY, LEON, 4356 Forrestville avenue.</p>
+
+<p class="hang">FOLTZ, MRS. C. O., 1886 Diversey boulevard.</p>
+
+<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_335" id="Page_335">[Pg 335]</a></span></p>
+
+<p class="hang">FOLEY, H.</p>
+
+<p class="hang">FALKENSTEIN, GERTRUDE, identified by card in clothing.</p>
+
+<p class="hang">FITZGIBBONS, JOHN J., 18 years old, 2954 Michigan avenue.</p>
+
+<p class="hang">FEISER, MARY, 793 North Springfield avenue, wife of a Larrabee street
+patrolman.</p>
+
+<p class="hang">FAHEY, MARY, 25 years old, 4860 Kimbark avenue; identified by T. H. Fahey.</p>
+
+<p class="hang">FOLKE, ADA, 23 years old, Berwyn.</p>
+
+<p class="hang">FORBUSCH, MRS. C. W., 35 years old, 927 Hinman avenue, Evanston;
+identified by W. P. Marsh.</p>
+
+<p class="hang">FOLTZ, ALICE, 1886 Diversey boulevard.</p>
+
+<p class="hang">FORT, PHOEBE IRENE, principal of Myra Bradwell school, 146 Thirty-sixth
+street.</p>
+
+<p class="hang">FRACK, ODESSA, Ottawa, Ill.</p>
+
+<p class="hang">FRANTZEN, LINDA, Winnetka.</p>
+
+
+<p>&nbsp;</p>
+<p class="title">G.</p>
+
+<p class="hang">GARN, MRS. FRANK WARREN, 831 West Monroe street, daughter of L. Wolff,
+1319 Washington boulevard, attended the theater with her sons, Frank, 10
+years old, and Willie, 9 years old. All perished. Mrs. Garn was identified
+by her husband.</p>
+
+<p class="hang">GARN, FRANK L., 10 years old, 831 West Monroe street.</p>
+
+<p class="hang">GARN, WILLIE, 9 years old, 831 West Monroe street.</p>
+
+<p class="hang">GUSTAFSON, MISS ALMA, 10003 Avenue N, teacher in the John L. Marsh school
+at South Chicago. She attended the theater with Miss Carrie Sayre and a
+party of school teachers from South Chicago.</p>
+
+<p class="hang">GOULD, MRS. B. E., identified by friends through jewelry.</p>
+
+<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_336" id="Page_336">[Pg 336]</a></span></p>
+
+<p class="hang">GOULD, B. E., Elgin, Ill., clerk of the Circuit court of Kane county. Mr.
+Gould was accompanied to the play by his wife, who also perished.</p>
+
+<p class="hang">GARTZ, HARRY, 4860 Kimbark avenue.</p>
+
+<p class="hang">GARTZ, MARY DORETHEA, 4860 Kimbark avenue, 12 years old, daughter of A. F.
+Gartz, treasurer of the Crane company; attended theater with sister,
+Barbara, maid and nurse; all perished.</p>
+
+<p class="hang">GARTZ, BARBARA, 4 years, 4863 Kimbark avenue; identified by Maud Purcell.</p>
+
+<p class="hang">GERON, MRS. MABLE, Winnetka; body identified by her brother.</p>
+
+<p class="hang">GAHAN, JOSEPHINE, 129 Twenty-fifth place.</p>
+
+<p class="hang">GASS, MRS. JOSEPH, 243 Grace street.</p>
+
+<p class="hang">GEARY, PAULINE, 21 years old, 4627 Indiana avenue.</p>
+
+<p class="hang">GEIK, MRS. EMILE, died at St. Luke's hospital.</p>
+
+<p class="hang">GESTREN, ALMA.</p>
+
+<p class="hang">GRAFF, MRS. REINHOLD, Bloomington, Ill.</p>
+
+<p class="hang">GRAVES, MRS. CLARA, wife of W. C. Graves, 723 East Chicago avenue;
+identified by sister-in-law, Lucetta Graves.</p>
+
+<p class="hang">GUDELMANS, SOFIA, 327 North Ashland avenue.</p>
+
+<p class="hang">GOOLSBY, MISS VERA, of Americus, Ga.; attending college in Chicago.</p>
+
+<p class="hang">GERHART, BERRY, 25 years old.</p>
+
+<p class="hang">GOERK, DORA, 1030 Bryan avenue, 10 years old.</p>
+
+<p class="hang">GUERNI, JENNIE, 135 North Sangamon street.</p>
+
+<p class="hang">GUTHARDT, MISS LIBBY, 16 years old, 159 One Hundred and Thirteenth street.</p>
+
+
+<p>&nbsp;</p>
+<p class="title">H.</p>
+
+<p class="hang">HAINSLEY, FRANCES, 5 years, Logansport, Ind.; identified by father.</p>
+
+<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_337" id="Page_337">[Pg 337]</a></span></p>
+
+<p class="hang">HARBAUGH, MARY E., 30 years old, 6653 Harvard avenue.</p>
+
+<p class="hang">HOFFEIN, MISS ADELINE J. C., 24 years old, 292 Haddon avenue.</p>
+
+<p class="hang">HARTMAN, JOHN, 5705 South Halsted street.</p>
+
+<p class="hang">HENNING, CHARLES, 6 years old, 5743 Prairie avenue.</p>
+
+<p class="hang">HENNING, WILLIAM, 14 years old.</p>
+
+<p class="hang">HENNESSY, WILLIAM, 14 years old, 4411 Calumet avenue.</p>
+
+<p class="hang">HICKMAN, MRS. CHARLES, 24 years old, 4743 Calumet avenue.</p>
+
+<p class="hang">HIGGINSON, JANITHE B., 2 years old, Winnetka, Ill.; identified by P. D.
+Sexton, 418 East Huron street.</p>
+
+<p class="hang">HIPPACH, ROBERT A., 14 years old, 2928 Kenmore avenue.</p>
+
+<p class="hang">HIVE, ENA M., 15 years old, 613 West Sixty-first place.</p>
+
+<p class="hang">HOLLAND, JOHN H., 60 years old, 6429 Evans avenue.</p>
+
+<p class="hang">HOLST, MRS. MARY W., 36 years old, 2088 Van Buren street.</p>
+
+<p class="hang">HOLST, AMY, 7 years old, 2088 Van Buren street.</p>
+
+<p class="hang">HOWARD, MRS. MARY E., 54 years old, Jonesville, Mich.; identified by son,
+Frank Howard, 3812 Prairie avenue.</p>
+
+<p class="hang">HOLM, HULDA, 176 North Western avenue.</p>
+
+<p class="hang">HULL, MARIANNE K., 32 years old, 244 Oakwood boulevard.</p>
+
+<p class="hang">HULL, HELEN, 12 years old, 244 Oakwood boulevard.</p>
+
+<p class="hang">HULL, DWIGHT, 6 years old, 244 Oakwood boulevard.</p>
+
+<p class="hang">HULL, DONALD, 8 years old, 244 Oakwood boulevard.</p>
+
+<p class="hang">HAYES, FRANK, 22 years old, son of Police Sergeant Dennis Hayes, Larrabee
+street station; identified by younger brother.</p>
+
+<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_338" id="Page_338">[Pg 338]</a></span></p>
+
+<p class="hang">HAVELAND, LEIGH, daughter of J. P. Haveland, 31 Humboldt boulevard; body
+identified by father. Later father found the body of Clyde O. Thompson,
+Wisconsin university student, who was guest at Haveland home and had
+accompanied the daughter to the theater.</p>
+
+<p class="hang">HUDHART, ADELAIDE, 41 years old, 159 One Hundred and Thirteenth street;
+identified by her husband, James Hudhart.</p>
+
+<p class="hang">HIPPACH, JOHN, 8 years old, son of senior member of firm of Tyler &amp;
+Hippach.</p>
+
+<p class="hang">HART, MRS. NELLIE E., Atkinson, Ill.; identified by father, John English.</p>
+
+<p class="hang">HUTCHINS, MISS JEANETTE, 22 years old, teacher at Winnetka; identified by
+brother.</p>
+
+<p class="hang">HOWARD, HELEN, 16 years old, 6565 Yale avenue; was a student at Englewood
+High School.</p>
+
+<p class="hang">HICKMAN, CHARLES, 4743 Calumet avenue; identified by Dr. H. H. Steele.</p>
+
+<p class="hang">HALL, EMERY M., husband of E. Grace Hall, the Vermont, 571 East
+Fifty-first street.</p>
+
+<p class="hang">HOLST, GERTRUDE, 12 years old, 2088 Van Buren street; identified by her
+father.</p>
+
+<p class="hang">HRODY, MRS. ANNA, 35 years old, 1353 South Fortieth avenue.</p>
+
+<p class="hang">HEWINS, DR. EMERY, Petersburg, Ind.; body identified by daughter.</p>
+
+<p class="hang">HELMS, OTTO H., 77 Maple street.</p>
+
+<p class="hang">HENNING, EDDIE, 14 years old, 4753 Prairie avenue.</p>
+
+<p class="hang">HENSLEY, MRS. GUY, Logansport, Ind.</p>
+
+<p class="hang">HENSLEY, GENEVIEVE, 8 years old, Logansport, Ind.</p>
+
+<p class="hang">HEWINS, MRS. L., 20 years old, Petersburg, Ind.; identified by friends.</p>
+
+<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_339" id="Page_339">[Pg 339]</a></span></p>
+
+<p class="hang">HENRY, MRS. G. A., 1198 Wilton avenue.</p>
+
+<p class="hang">HERRON, BESSIE L., 133 Conduit street, Hammond, Ind.</p>
+
+<p class="hang">HIGGINS, ROGER G., 9 years old, 419 East Huron street.</p>
+
+<p class="hang">HIGGINSON, MISS JEANETTE, Winnetka; body identified by her brother.</p>
+
+<p class="hang">HENNESSY, WILLIAM, 4411 Calumet avenue.</p>
+
+<p class="hang">HOLMES, MRS.</p>
+
+<p class="hang">HUTCHINS, MISS FLORENCE, Waukegan.</p>
+
+<p class="hang">HART, MISS ELIZABETH, Sherman avenue and Dempster street, Evanston.</p>
+
+<p class="hang">HERGER, BERTHA, Hammond, Ind.; identified by Thomas Weisman.</p>
+
+<p class="hang">HIRSCH, MARY, 19 years old, 617 Halsted street.</p>
+
+<p class="hang">HOLBERTON, E. R.</p>
+
+<p class="hang">HOLST, ALLAN B., 12 years old, 2088 Van Buren street; son of William M.
+Holst; identified by father.</p>
+
+<p class="hang">HENSLEY, MARIAN, 5 years old, Logansport, daughter of G. Hensley.</p>
+
+
+<p>&nbsp;</p>
+<p class="title">I.</p>
+
+<p class="hang">IRLE, MRS. ANDREW, 32 years old, 1240 Lawrence avenue, wife of Andrew
+Irle, assistant superintendent of the Pinkerton National Detective Agency;
+body identified by name in wedding ring.</p>
+
+
+<p>&nbsp;</p>
+<p class="title">J.</p>
+
+<p class="hang">JAMES, C. D., 40 years old, Davenport, Ia.</p>
+
+<p class="hang">JAMES, C. O.; identified by card in clothing.</p>
+
+<p class="hang">JONES, MRS. ANNA, 46 East Fifty-third street.</p>
+
+<p class="hang">JACKSON, VERA R., 19 years old, 216 Humboldt boulevard.</p>
+
+<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_340" id="Page_340">[Pg 340]</a></span></p>
+
+<p class="hang">JONES, MRS. WARNER E., 38 years old, Tuscola, Ill.; visiting at 46 East
+Fifty-third street.</p>
+
+
+<p>&nbsp;</p>
+<p class="title">K.</p>
+
+<p class="hang">KOCHEMS, JACOB A., 17 years, 262 Warren avenue; identified by father.</p>
+
+<p class="hang">KENNEDY, AGNES, 6528 Ross avenue, former teacher at Hendricks and Melville
+W. Fuller schools.</p>
+
+<p class="hang">KENNEDY, FRANCES, Winnetka.</p>
+
+<p class="hang">KELL, MRS. CHARLES.</p>
+
+<p class="hang">KAUFFMAN, ALICE, 5 years old, Hammond, Ind.</p>
+
+<p class="hang">KOCHEMS, MRS. FRANK, 262 Warren avenue; identified by husband.</p>
+
+<p class="hang">KRANZ, MRS. SARAH, Racine, Wis.; died at Samaritan hospital.</p>
+
+<p class="hang">KUEBLER, LOLA, 16 years old, 344 Fiftieth street.</p>
+
+<p class="hang">KULAS, MRS. GEORGIANA, 349 Chestnut street; identified by Mrs. C. J.
+Benshaw.</p>
+
+<p class="hang">KURLEY, MINNIE, 5 years old, Logansport, Ind.</p>
+
+<p class="hang">KEKMAN, FRAMELLES, 525 Austin avenue.</p>
+
+<p class="hang">KOUTHES, MRS. E. K., Montreal.</p>
+
+<p class="hang">KWASUIEWSKI, JOHN, 25 years old, 122 Cleaver street.</p>
+
+
+<p>&nbsp;</p>
+<p class="title">L.</p>
+
+<p class="hang">LAKE, MRS. ALFRED, 60 years old, 278 Belden avenue.</p>
+
+<p class="hang">LANGE, HERBERT, 16 years old, 1632 Barry avenue.</p>
+
+<p class="hang">LANGE, AGNES, 14 years old, 1632 Barry avenue; body identified by her
+father.</p>
+
+<p class="hang">LA ROSE, LAURA, 12 years, 833 N. Clark street.</p>
+
+<p class="hang">LA ROSE, JOSEPHINE, 8 years old, 833 N. Clark street.</p>
+
+<p class="hang">LA ROSE, MATILDA, 10 years old, 833 N. Clark street.</p>
+
+<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_341" id="Page_341">[Pg 341]</a></span></p>
+
+<p class="hang">LEATON, FRED W., 24 years old, University of Chicago.</p>
+
+<p class="hang">LEAVENWORTH, MRS. CARRIE, 45 years old, Decatur.</p>
+
+<p class="hang">LEFMAN, MRS. SUSIE, 38 years old, Laporte, Ind.</p>
+
+<p class="hang">LEHMAN, MISS FRANCES M., 525 North Austin avenue, Oak Park, a teacher in
+the H. H. Nash school.</p>
+
+<p class="hang">LEMENAGER, MRS. JESSIE, 38 years old, 53 Waveland Park.</p>
+
+<p class="hang">LEVENSON, ROSE, 28 years old, 268 Ogden avenue.</p>
+
+<p class="hang">LONG, RYAN, 12 years old, Geneva, Ill.</p>
+
+<p class="hang">LONG, HELEN, 14 years old, Geneva, Ill.</p>
+
+<p class="hang">LONG, KATHERINE, 9 years old, Geneva, Ill.</p>
+
+<p class="hang">LUDWIG, MISS EUGENIE, 18 years old, Norwood Park.</p>
+
+<p class="hang">LASSMANN, MRS. SUSIE, Laporte, Ind.; identified by Frederick M. Burdick, a
+friend.</p>
+
+<p class="hang">LIVINGSTON, MRS. DAISY, 271 Oakwood boulevard; body identified by her
+brother, T. B. Livingston.</p>
+
+<p class="hang">LOWITZ, MRS. NATHAN, 274 Sheffield avenue; identified by means of ring,
+"Nat to Minnie."</p>
+
+<p class="hang">LOWITZ, MRS. N. S., Keokuk, Ia.</p>
+
+<p class="hang">LEATON, FRED W., aged 25 years, 537 East Fifty-fifth street; medical
+student at the University of Chicago; home at Terry, S. D.</p>
+
+<p class="hang">LINDEN, ELLA, 21 years old, 4625 Lake avenue; identified by her brother,
+Frank Linden.</p>
+
+<p class="hang">LOVE, MARGARET, Fulton street.</p>
+
+
+<p>&nbsp;</p>
+<p class="title">M.</p>
+
+<p class="hang">MAHLER, EDITH L., 8 years old, 2141 Jackson Boulevard.</p>
+
+<p class="hang">MANN, MISS EMMA D., teacher of music in public schools; 1388 Washington
+boulevard; identified by Louis Mann, her brother.</p>
+
+<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_342" id="Page_342">[Pg 342]</a></span></p>
+
+<p class="hang">MACKAY, ROLAND S., 6 years old, 5029 Indiana avenue.</p>
+
+<p class="hang">MARTIN, HAROLD C., 14 years old, 11 Market circle.</p>
+
+<p class="hang">MARTIN, ROBERT B., 12 years old, Pullman, Ill.</p>
+
+<p class="hang">M'CHRISTIE, MISS ANNA, 27 years old, 6315 Lexington avenue.</p>
+
+<p class="hang">M'GUNIGLE, MISS MAYME, 30 years old, New York; visiting Miss Reidy, 614
+South Sawyer avenue.</p>
+
+<p class="hang">MEAGLER, MISS MARIA, 656 Orchard street, a school teacher.</p>
+
+<p class="hang">MEYER, ELSA, H., 10 years old, lived at Grossdale, Ill.</p>
+
+<p class="hang">MILLER, HELEN, 23 years old, 369 West Huron street.</p>
+
+<p class="hang">MILLS, CHARLES V., 623 Sedgwick street.</p>
+
+<p class="hang">MILLS, MRS. W. A., 623 Sedgwick street.</p>
+
+<p class="hang">MILLS, ISABELLA, 21 years old, 6263 Jefferson street.</p>
+
+<p class="hang">MOORE, MRS. MATTIE, 33 years old, Hart, Mich.; staying with sister-in-law,
+Mrs. Bond, at 4123 Indiana avenue; identified by Herman Mathias, 107
+Madison street.</p>
+
+<p class="hang">MOSSLER, PEARLINE, 13 years old, Rensselaer, Ind.</p>
+
+<p class="hang">MUIR, S. A., 35 years old, 301 Winthrop avenue; connected with the Chase
+Furniture Company, 1411 Michigan avenue; identified by George B. Chase,
+vice-president of the company.</p>
+
+<p class="hang">M'CLURG, ROY, 14 years old, 5803 Superior street, Austin.</p>
+
+<p class="hang">M'MILLEN, MABEL, 20 years old, 2824 North Hermitage avenue.</p>
+
+<p class="hang">M'KENNA, BERNARD, 2 years old, 758 Kedzie avenue; body identified by the
+father.</p>
+
+<p class="hang">MOLONEY, ALICE, daughter of former Attorney General Moloney, Ottawa, Ill.;
+body identified by her father and brother.</p>
+
+<p class="hang">MARTIN, EARL, 7 years old, son of Z. E. Martin, Oak Park; body identified
+by father.</p>
+
+<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_343" id="Page_343">[Pg 343]</a></span></p>
+
+<p class="hang">MUIR, MAMIE, Peoria, Ill.; identified by name on clothing.</p>
+
+<p class="hang">MURRAY, CHARLES; identified by letters found in clothing.</p>
+
+<p class="hang">MARKS, MISS MAY, 19 years old, 69 North Humboldt boulevard.</p>
+
+<p class="hang">McCAUGHAN, HELEN, 16 years old, 6565 Yale avenue.</p>
+
+<p class="hang">MEAD, MRS., 278 Belden avenue; identified from clothing.</p>
+
+<p class="hang">MERRIAM, MRS. H. H., 489 Fullerton avenue; body identified by Dr.
+Hequenbourg.</p>
+
+<p class="hang">MERRIMAN, MILDRED, daughter of W. A. Merriman, manager of George A.
+Fuller's.</p>
+
+<p class="hang">MITCHELL, MISS DORA, 20 years old, Laporte, Ind.; identified by friends.</p>
+
+<p class="hang">MYERS, ELSIE, 8 years, Grossdale, Ill.</p>
+
+<p class="hang">McKEE, J. W., 64 years old; identified by Lola Lee.</p>
+
+<p class="hang">MOAK, ANNA, 278 Belden avenue.</p>
+
+<p class="hang">MANN, MISS EMMA D., 18 years old, 1388 Washington boulevard; identified by
+Louis Mann, her brother.</p>
+
+<p class="hang">MATCHETTE, EMILY, 21 years old, 636 Sixtieth street.</p>
+
+<p class="hang">MOOHAN, H. B., 30 years old.</p>
+
+<p class="hang">MOORE, MRS. KITTIE, 45 years old, 119 West Fifty-ninth street.</p>
+
+<p class="hang">MUIR, MRS. EUGENIA, 301 Winthrop avenue.</p>
+
+<p class="hang">MILLER, WILLARD, 9 years old, 4919 Vincennes avenue.</p>
+
+<p class="hang">McCLELLAND, JOSEPH, Harvard, Ill.; identified by uncle.</p>
+
+<p class="hang">McCLURE, LAWRENCE, 230 East Superior street; identified by George, his
+brother.</p>
+
+<p class="hang">McGILL, ELIZABETH, 12 years old, Pittsburg, Pa., guest at residence of
+Charles Koll, 496 Ashland avenue; identified by her mother.</p>
+
+<p class="hang">McKENNA, MRS. JOHN L., 758 Kedzie avenue.</p>
+
+<p class="hang">MEAD, LUCILLE, 11 years old, Berwyn.</p>
+
+<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_344" id="Page_344">[Pg 344]</a></span></p>
+
+<p class="hang">McLAUGHLIN, WILLIAM L., nephew of Mrs. Frank W. Gunsaulus, died at 9:30 p.
+m., at Presbyterian hospital.</p>
+
+<p class="hang">MENDEL, MRS. HERMAN, 53 years, 5555 Washington avenue; the body was
+shipped to Neola, Ia., for burial on Sunday; Mr. Mendel is a retired
+banker.</p>
+
+<p class="hang">MENGER, MISS ANNIE, 222 Twenty-fourth place; identified by Elta Menzeh.</p>
+
+<p class="hang">MILLS, PEARL M., 5613 Kimbark avenue; identified by Ward Mills.</p>
+
+<p class="hang">MOAK, LENA, 19 years old, Watertown, Wis.; guest at 278 Belden avenue.</p>
+
+<p class="hang">MOORE, BENJAMIN, 119 West Fifty-ninth street; identified by grandson.</p>
+
+<p class="hang">MOORE, MISS SYBIL, Hart, Mich.; identified by letter.</p>
+
+<p class="hang">MURPHY, DEWITT J., 1340 Sheffield avenue; identified by father.</p>
+
+<p class="hang">MURRAY, CHARLES, 36 years old, Martinsburg, O.; identified by J. H. Dodd.</p>
+
+<p class="hang">MUELLER, MRS. EMELIA, 60 years, Milwaukee; identified by daughter, Mrs.
+Herman Groth.</p>
+
+<p class="hang">MORRIS, MABEL A., 17 years old, 5124 Dearborn street.</p>
+
+<p class="hang">MULHOLLAND, JOSEPHINE, 33 years, 4409 Wabash avenue; identified by Clarke
+Griffith.</p>
+
+
+<p>&nbsp;</p>
+<p class="title">N.</p>
+
+<p class="hang">NEWMAN, MRS. MARY, 32 years old, housekeeper for the Rev. Father J. C.
+Ocenasek, pastor of Our Lady of Lourdes church.</p>
+
+<p class="hang">NEWBY, MRS. LUTHER G., Drexel hotel; identified by her father.</p>
+
+<p class="hang">NEWMAN, MRS. ANNA, West Grossdale; identified by her rings.</p>
+
+<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_345" id="Page_345">[Pg 345]</a></span></p>
+
+<p class="hang">NORTON, MATTIE, Ontonagon, Mich., attending school at Academy of the
+Visitation, Ridge avenue and Emerson street, Evanston.</p>
+
+<p class="hang">NORTON, EDITH N., Ontonagon, Mich., attending school at Academy of the
+Visitation, Evanston.</p>
+
+<p class="hang">NEWMAN, ARTHUR, 10 years, West Grossdale.</p>
+
+<p class="hang">NORRIS, MRS. LIBBIE A., 30 years old, 5124 Dearborn street.</p>
+
+<p class="hang">NORRIS, MABEL, 20 years old, 5124 Dearborn street.</p>
+
+
+<p>&nbsp;</p>
+<p class="title">O.</p>
+
+<p class="hang">ORLE, MABEL M., 1240 Lawrence avenue.</p>
+
+<p class="hang">OWEN, DR., Wheaton, Ill., died at the Homeopathic Hospital.</p>
+
+<p class="hang">OWEN, MRS. MARY, 44 years, Wheaton.</p>
+
+<p class="hang">OAKLEY, DR. ALBERT J., 40 years old, Sixty-fifth and Stewart avenue;
+identified by Dr. L. Phillips.</p>
+
+<p class="hang">OXNAM, FLORENCE, 16 years old, 435 Englewood avenue.</p>
+
+<p class="hang">OAKEY, LUCILE, 13 years old, daughter of A. J. Oakey, Sixty-fifth street
+and Stewart avenue.</p>
+
+<p class="hang">OAKEY, MARIAN, 11 years old, Sixty-fifth street and Stewart avenue;
+identified by F. R. Bradford.</p>
+
+<p class="hang">OLSEN, MRS. O. M., 833 Walnut street; identified by husband.</p>
+
+<p class="hang">OLSON, MISS AUGUSTA, 27 years old, 218 Seventy-ninth place; identified by
+brother-in-law.</p>
+
+<p class="hang">OWEN, WILLIAM MURRAY, 12 years old; body identified by father.</p>
+
+<p class="hang">OWENS, AMY, daughter of Mrs. Owens, 6241 Kimbark avenue.</p>
+
+<p class="hang">OWENS, MRS. FRANCES O., 6241 Kimbark avenue.</p>
+
+<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_346" id="Page_346">[Pg 346]</a></span></p>
+
+<p class="hang">OLSON, ELVIRA, 18 years old, daughter of William H. Olson, 7010 Stewart
+avenue.</p>
+
+
+<p>&nbsp;</p>
+<p class="title">P.</p>
+
+<p class="hang">PERSINGER, HEWITT, 10 years old, 50 Florence avenue, identified by J. W.
+Harrison, a cousin.</p>
+
+<p class="hang">PASSE, ELIZABETH, 6 years old, 552 East Forty-ninth street; identified by
+her father.</p>
+
+<p class="hang">PAGE, CHARLES T., 6562 Stewart avenue; body identified.</p>
+
+<p class="hang">PAGE, HARROLD, 6562 Stewart avenue, 12 years old.</p>
+
+<p class="hang">PAULMAN, WILLIAM, 22 years old, 3738 State street.</p>
+
+<p class="hang">PAYSON, RUTH, 14 years old, 1 Elizabeth street, Oak Park.</p>
+
+<p class="hang">PECK, WILLIS W., 2644 North Hermitage avenue.</p>
+
+<p class="hang">PIERCE, MRS. L. H., 32 years old, Plainwell, Mich.; guest at home of her
+brother, R. B. Carter, 3821 Lake avenue, who identified body.</p>
+
+<p class="hang">POWER, MISS LILLY, 442 West Seventieth street, 21 years old.</p>
+
+<p class="hang">POLZIN, HENRIETTA, Knox, Ind.</p>
+
+<p class="hang">PAGE, BERTHA, 45 years old, 6562 Stewart avenue identified by a brother.</p>
+
+<p class="hang">PEASE, MRS. GRACE, wife of P. S. Pease, 6140 Ingleside avenue; body
+identified.</p>
+
+<p class="hang">PEASE, ELIZABETH, 7 years old, daughter of P. S. Pease.</p>
+
+<p class="hang">PECK, ETHEL M., 16 years old, 2042 Hermitage avenue; identified by Dr.
+Steele.</p>
+
+<p class="hang">PELTON, MISS LILLIAN, 30 years old, Des Moines; identified by W. F. Wilson
+of Des Moines.</p>
+
+<p class="hang">PERSINGER, MRS. FRANK, 50 Florence avenue; identified from clothing.</p>
+
+<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_347" id="Page_347">[Pg 347]</a></span></p>
+
+<p class="hang">PINNEY, MRS. BELLE, 353 South Leavitt street.</p>
+
+<p class="hang">PALMER, MRS. KATIE, 33 years old, 1141 Judson avenue, Evanston.</p>
+
+<p class="hang">PALMER, RICHARD G., 14 years old, 1141 Judson avenue, Evanston.</p>
+
+<p class="hang">PALMER, WILLIAM, 42 years old; salesman; 1141 Judson avenue, Evanston.</p>
+
+<p class="hang">PALMER, HOWARD, 10 years old, 1141 Judson avenue, Evanston.</p>
+
+<p class="hang">POLTE, LINDEN W., 14 years old, Lakeside, Ill.; body identified by John W.
+Willard, uncle.</p>
+
+<p class="hang">PATTERSON, CRAWFORD JULIAN, 12 years old, 4467 Oakenwald avenue.</p>
+
+<p class="hang">PATTERSON, WILLIAM ADDISON, 10 years old, 4467 Oakenwald avenue.</p>
+
+<p class="hang">PAYNE, MRS. JAMES, 357 Garfield boulevard, 35 years.</p>
+
+<p class="hang">PEASE, MRS. AUGUSTA, 55 years, 552 East Forty-ninth street.</p>
+
+<p class="hang">PILAT, JOSEPHINE, 13 years old, 34 Humboldt boulevard.</p>
+
+<p class="hang">POND, MRS. EVA, 1272 Lyman avenue.</p>
+
+<p class="hang">POND, RAYMOND, 14 years old, 1272 Lyman avenue, Ravenswood.</p>
+
+<p class="hang">POND, HELEN, 7 years old, 1272 Lyman avenue, Ravenswood.</p>
+
+<p class="hang">POTTLITZER, JACK, 11 years old, Lafayette, Ind.</p>
+
+<p class="hang">PRIDEMORE, EDITH S., 32 years old, Fifty-eighth and Kimbark avenue.</p>
+
+
+<p>&nbsp;</p>
+<p class="title">Q.</p>
+
+<p class="hang">QUITCH, MRS. W. J., 249 North Ashland avenue.</p>
+
+
+<p>&nbsp;<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_348" id="Page_348">[Pg 348]</a></span></p>
+<p class="title">R.</p>
+
+<p class="hang">RATTEY, WILLIAM A., 917 North Artesian avenue, died at the county hospital
+from burns and internal injuries; identified by Charles J. Rattey, 980
+Talman avenue, his brother.</p>
+
+<p class="hang">REED, NELLIE, 66 Rush street, leader of the flying ballet in the "Mr.
+Bluebeard" company, died at the county hospital from burns on the body;
+she was identified by Hermann Schultz of New York, a member of the
+company.</p>
+
+<p class="hang">REGENSBURG, HELEN, daughter of Samuel H. Regensburg, Vendome hotel,
+Sixty-second street and Monroe avenue.</p>
+
+<p class="hang">REGENSBURG, HAZEL, daughter of Samuel H. Regensburg, Vendome hotel.</p>
+
+<p class="hang">REIDY, ANNA, 614 South Sawyer avenue, daughter of Policeman John Reidy.</p>
+
+<p class="hang">REISS, ERNEST, 11 years old, 4244 Vincennes avenue; identified by uncle.</p>
+
+<p class="hang">REIDY, MARY, 614 Sawyer avenue, sister of Anna.</p>
+
+<p class="hang">REIDY, NELLIE, 614 Sawyer avenue, and sister of other two women,
+identified by Catherine Campbell, 623 South Sawyer avenue.</p>
+
+<p class="hang">REISS, ERNA, 3760 Indiana avenue.</p>
+
+<p class="hang">REITER, MISS REINA, 55 years old, 3000 Michigan avenue; with Miss Reiter
+at the play was her sister, Miss Pet Bell, Potomac apartments.</p>
+
+<p class="hang">REITER, MRS. M. S., 3000 Michigan avenue; identified by C. F. Cooper.</p>
+
+<p class="hang">ROBERTSON, MINNIE, 15 years old, Park Ridge; body identified by brother.</p>
+
+<p class="hang">RANKIN, MRS. MARTHA, 498 Fullerton avenue.</p>
+
+<p class="hang">RANKIN, LOUISE, South Zanesville, O.</p>
+
+<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_349" id="Page_349">[Pg 349]</a></span></p>
+
+<p class="hang">REID, COL. W. M., Waukegan, aged 70 years, formerly assessor; identified
+by papers in his pocket, by R. G. Lyon.</p>
+
+<p class="hang">REID, MRS. W. M., Waukegan.</p>
+
+<p class="hang">RICHARDSON, THE REV. H. L., 44 years old, 5737 Drexel avenue, pastor of
+Congregational Church in Whiting, Ind.; also student in the divinity
+school of the University of Chicago; was pastor of a Congregational Church
+in Ripon, Wis., for twelve years.</p>
+
+<p class="hang">RIFE, MRS. WILLIAM, 516 East Forty-sixth street.</p>
+
+<p class="hang">RIMES, DR. M. B., 6331 Wentworth avenue; attended theater with wife and
+three sons.</p>
+
+<p class="hang">RIMES, MRS. M. B., wife of Dr. Rimes.</p>
+
+<p class="hang">RIMES, MYRON, 10 years old, son of Dr. Rimes.</p>
+
+<p class="hang">RIMES, THOMAS M., 7 years old, son of Dr. Rimes.</p>
+
+<p class="hang">RIMES, LLOYD B., 5 years old, son of Dr. Rimes.</p>
+
+<p class="hang">ROGERS, ROSE, 32 years, 1342 North Sangamon street; identified by husband.</p>
+
+<p class="hang">ROBERTS, THEODORE.</p>
+
+<p class="hang">RUBLY, MRS. LOUISE, 60 years old, 838 Wilson avenue; identified by her
+son, G. H. Rubly.</p>
+
+<p class="hang">RADCLIFFE, ANNA, 6404 Calumet avenue.</p>
+
+<p class="hang">RAYNOLDS, DORA, 18 years old, 4216 Forty-fifth street.</p>
+
+<p class="hang">REIDY, ELENORA, 20 years old, 614 South Sawyer avenue.</p>
+
+<p class="hang">REIDY, JOHN J., 614 South Sawyer avenue.</p>
+
+<p class="hang">REISS, ERNEST, 11 years old, 4244 Vincennes avenue.</p>
+
+<p class="hang">REYNOLDS, MARIE, 30 years, Sunnyside park.</p>
+
+<p class="hang">ROBBINS, RUTH W., Madison, Wis.</p>
+
+<p class="hang">ROETCHE, LILLIAN, 20 years old.</p>
+
+<p class="hang">ROTTIE, LILLIAN, 10 years old, 7218 Lafayette avenue.</p>
+
+<p class="hang">RUHLEMAN, CLARA, 63 years old, Detroit.</p>
+
+<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_350" id="Page_350">[Pg 350]</a></span></p>
+
+<p class="hang">RUTIGAR, MRS. ELEANOR, 55 years old, 750 South Trumbull avenue.</p>
+
+
+<p>&nbsp;</p>
+<p class="title">S.</p>
+
+<p class="hang">SANDS, MRS. H. F., 40 years old, Tolona, Ill.</p>
+
+<p class="hang">SANDS, KITTIE, Tolona, Ill., 15 years old, visiting Miss L. Barnett and
+Miss J. Dawson, 1006 West Fifty-fourth street.</p>
+
+<p class="hang">SCHNEIDER, GEORGE GRINER, 20 years old, 437 Belden avenue.</p>
+
+<p class="hang">SCHNEIDER, JAMES, 157 Roscoe boulevard.</p>
+
+<p class="hang">SCHNEIDER, MRS. JAMES, 22 years old, 157 Roscoe boulevard.</p>
+
+<p class="hang">SCHREINER, MRS. MAMIE L., 30 years old, 2183 West Monroe street.</p>
+
+<p class="hang">SCHREINER, IRMA MAY, 5 years old, 2183 West Monroe street.</p>
+
+<p class="hang">SECHRIST, MISS HATTIE, 2928 North Paulina street.</p>
+
+<p class="hang">SECHRIST, JUNE, 8 years old, 2928 North Paulina street.</p>
+
+<p class="hang">SCHAFFNER, MISS MINNIE, 25 years old, 578 Forty-fifth place; teacher in
+Forrestville school.</p>
+
+<p class="hang">SHINNERS, MRS. ALICE, 24 years old, 4344 Oakenwald avenue.</p>
+
+<p class="hang">SIMPSON, ADA, 40 years old, visiting at 537 West Sixty-fifth street,
+Denver.</p>
+
+<p class="hang">SMITH, MISS BONNIE, 15 years old, 2177 Washington boulevard.</p>
+
+<p class="hang">SMITH, RUTH M., 15 years old, 2177 Washington boulevard.</p>
+
+<p class="hang">STAFFORD, BESSIE M., 1253 Wilcox avenue.</p>
+
+<p class="hang">STRATMAN, RUTH, 18 years old, 421 East Forty-fifth street.</p>
+
+<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_351" id="Page_351">[Pg 351]</a></span></p>
+
+<p class="hang">STERN, MARTIN, 1385 Congress street.</p>
+
+<p class="hang">SAYRE, MISS CARRIE, of 7646 Bond avenue, school teacher in Myra Bradwell
+school, Windsor Park; identified by friends; she was in the party of
+school teachers with Miss Alma Gustafson.</p>
+
+<p class="hang">SWARTZ, MISS MARJORIE, student at Washington college, Washington, D. C.,
+20 years old, daughter of Dr. Thomas Benton Swartz, 146 Thirty-sixth
+street; died at St. Luke's hospital.</p>
+
+<p class="hang">SAVILLE, WARREN E., 19 years old, 46 East Fifty-third street; formerly
+lived at Kankakee, Ill.</p>
+
+<p class="hang">SEYMORE, A. L., 758 West Lake street.</p>
+
+<p class="hang">SMITH, MRS., Desplaines, Ill.</p>
+
+<p class="hang">STAFFORD, MISS ROSIE, 18 years old, address not known.</p>
+
+<p class="hang">STILLMAN, MISS CARRIE, daughter of Prof. Stillman of Leland Stafford
+university, California; was in seat in first row of first balcony.</p>
+
+<p class="hang">SHERIDAN, ANDREW, 35 years old, 4155 Wentworth avenue; identified as
+engineer of Wabash railroad company, by F. J. Herlihy.</p>
+
+<p class="hang">STODDARD, DONALD, 11 years old, Lanark, Ill.; body identified by the
+father, B. M. Stoddard.</p>
+
+<p class="hang">SYLVESTER, ELECTRA, 30 years old, Plainview, Mo., visiting Mrs. Andrew
+Irle, 1240 Lawrence avenue; body identified by name on handkerchief.</p>
+
+<p class="hang">SUTTEN, HARRY P., 17 years old, 1595 West Adams street.</p>
+
+<p class="hang">SEGRINT, MRS. A. N., 40 years old, Paulina street and Lawrence avenue,
+Irving Park; identified by husband.</p>
+
+<p class="hang">STEINMETZ, MRS. O. T. P., 2541 Halsted street.</p>
+
+<p class="hang">STRONG, E. K., 10 Oakland Crescent.</p>
+
+<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_352" id="Page_352">[Pg 352]</a></span></p>
+
+<p class="hang">SAWYER, MRS. J., 102 Cleaver street.</p>
+
+<p class="hang">SCHMIDT, ROSAMOND, 18 years old, daughter of H. G. Schmidt, 335 West
+Sixty-first street.</p>
+
+<p class="hang">SCHOENBECK, ANNA, 408 East Division street; identified by mother.</p>
+
+<p class="hang">SCHOENBECK, ELVINA, 408 East Division street.</p>
+
+<p class="hang">SCHREINER, ARLENE, 6 years old, 2183 West Monroe street; identified by
+relatives.</p>
+
+<p class="hang">SILL, LUCILE, 7604 Union avenue, 25 years old; identified by E. S. Hall.</p>
+
+<p class="hang">SMITH, MARINE, Desplaines, daughter of Mrs. Smith.</p>
+
+<p class="hang">SHABAD, MYRTLE, 14 years old, 3041 Indiana avenue.</p>
+
+<p class="hang">SPECHT, MRS. B., 6542 Stewart avenue.</p>
+
+<p class="hang">SPECHT, MISS EVA, 6542 Stewart avenue.</p>
+
+<p class="hang">SPINDLER, MRS. J. H., Lowe, Ind.; visiting sister, Mrs. E. C. Frady, 4356
+Forrestville avenue.</p>
+
+<p class="hang">SPINDLER, BURDETTE, Lowe, Ind., son of Mrs. J. H. Spindler.</p>
+
+<p class="hang">SQUIRE, MISS OLIVE E., 914 Cuyler avenue; identified by her father.</p>
+
+<p class="hang">SQUIRE, OSCAR, 7 years old, 942 Cuyler avenue; identified by father.</p>
+
+<p class="hang">STARK, MRS. N. M., Des Moines, Ia.</p>
+
+<p class="hang">STODDARD, ZABELLA, 27 years old, daughter of D. M. Stoddard of Minonk,
+Ill.; was accompanied by young brother.</p>
+
+<p class="hang">STRONG, MRS. JAMES N., 23 years old, 10 Oakland Crescent.</p>
+
+<p class="hang">STUDLEY, THE REV. G. H., 3139 Parnell avenue, pastor of the Asbury
+Methodist Episcopal church, at Thirty-first street and Parnell avenue.</p>
+
+<p class="hang">SUETSCH, W. J., 33 years old, 2496 North Ashland avenue.</p>
+
+<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_353" id="Page_353">[Pg 353]</a></span></p>
+
+<p class="hang">SUTTLER, MRS. L. J., Des Moines, Ia.</p>
+
+<p class="hang">SWARTZ, IRENE, 12 years old, 143 Thirty-fifth street.</p>
+
+<p class="hang">SULLIVAN, ELLA, Knoxville, Ia., body identified by L. C. Flurnit.</p>
+
+
+<p>&nbsp;</p>
+<p class="title">T.</p>
+
+<p class="hang">TAYLOR, MRS. J. M., 31 years old, 1222 Morse avenue, Rogers Park;
+identified by daughter-in-law, Mrs. A. Taylor, 1028 Farwell avenue, Rogers
+Park.</p>
+
+<p class="hang">THOMPSON, CLYDE, O., Madison, Wis.; student at University of Wisconsin;
+Thompson had taken his fianc&eacute;e, Miss Leigh Haveland, to the theater; both
+perished.</p>
+
+<p class="hang">TAYLOR, JAMES M., 60 years, 1222 Morse avenue, Rogers Park; identified by
+Albert A. Taylor.</p>
+
+<p class="hang">TAYLOR, REAM, 1204 Morris avenue.</p>
+
+<p class="hang">TORNEY, MRS. EDNA, 28 years old; lived at Francisco avenue and Adams
+street.</p>
+
+<p class="hang">TRASK, MRS. E. W., Ottawa, Ill.</p>
+
+<p class="hang">TAYLOR, MISS FLORA, 22 years old, at St. Luke's Hospital.</p>
+
+<p class="hang">TEASTER, F. W.</p>
+
+<p class="hang">THOMAS, REMINGTON HEWITT, 18 years old, 62 Woodland Park, son of Frank H.
+Thomas.</p>
+
+<p class="hang">THONI, CLARA, 4644 Evans avenue; identified by Maud Partell.</p>
+
+<p class="hang">TRASK, MRS. R. H., Ottawa, Ill.; identified at Carroll's.</p>
+
+<p class="hang">TURNEY, MRS. SUSIE, 40 years old, 534 East Fiftieth street; identified by
+her son.</p>
+
+<p class="hang">TARNEY, CARRIE, 534 East Fiftieth street.</p>
+
+<p class="hang">TAYLOR, RENE MARY, 12 years, 1222 Morse avenue.</p>
+
+<p class="hang">THATCHER, WALTER, 38 years old, 341 West Sixtieth place.</p>
+
+<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_354" id="Page_354">[Pg 354]</a></span></p>
+
+<p class="hang">THOMPSON, C. J. (supposed); name on collar.</p>
+
+<p class="hang">TOBIAS, FLORENCE, 1182 Flournoy street.</p>
+
+
+<p>&nbsp;</p>
+<p class="title">V.</p>
+
+<p class="hang">VALLELY, MRS. J. T., 858 Sawyer avenue.</p>
+
+<p class="hang">VALLELY, BERNICE, daughter of Mrs. Vallely.</p>
+
+<p class="hang">VAN INGEN, ELIZABETH,. 9 years old, Kenosha, Wis.</p>
+
+<p class="hang">VAN INGEN, JOHN, Kenosha, Wis., 20 years old, famed golf player, son of H.
+F. Van Ingen; was at the theater with parents, three sisters, and two
+brothers; died at Sherman house, where he and his parents were taken.</p>
+
+<p class="hang">VAN INGEN, GRACE, Kenosha, 23 years old, daughter of H. F. Van Ingen.</p>
+
+<p class="hang">VAN INGEN, NED, 18 years old, son of H. F. Van Ingen, Kenosha.</p>
+
+<p class="hang">VAN INGEN, MARGARET, 16 years old, daughter of H. F. Van Ingen, Kenosha.</p>
+
+
+<p>&nbsp;</p>
+<p class="title">W.</p>
+
+<p class="hang">WOLFF, HARRIET, daughter of L. Wolff, president of L. Wolff Manufacturing
+Company, 1319 Washington boulevard.</p>
+
+<p class="hang">WACHS, MRS. ELLA, of Laporte, Ind.; body identified by her brother, F. C.
+Flentye.</p>
+
+<p class="hang">WASHINGTON, MISS FREDA, 22 years old, 1897 Melrose street.</p>
+
+<p class="hang">WEINDER, PAUL, 17 years old, 201 South Harvey avenue, Oak Park; identified
+by father.</p>
+
+<p class="hang">WELLS, DONALD, 12 years old, 1228 Diversey boulevard.</p>
+
+<p class="hang">WALDMAN, SAM, 20 years, 608 Milwaukee avenue.</p>
+
+<p class="hang">WALMAN, SIMON, Austin. Identified by Edward Williams.</p>
+
+<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_355" id="Page_355">[Pg 355]</a></span></p>
+
+<p class="hang">WASHINGTON, JOHN, 22 years old, 1847 Melrose street.</p>
+
+<p class="hang">WILCOX, MRS. EVA M., 45 years old, 109 South Leavitt street.</p>
+
+<p class="hang">WHITE, MRS. W. K., Washington Heights. Identified by Secretary White of
+the finance committee, city hall.</p>
+
+<p class="hang">WHITE, MISS FLORENCE O., 22 years old, 437 West Thirty-eighth street.
+Identified by F. J. Shaw.</p>
+
+<p class="hang">WHITE, MRS. HIRAM, and child, Logansport, Ind.</p>
+
+<p class="hang">WIEMER, MRS. THOMAS, 30 years old, 838 Wilson avenue. Identified by
+husband.</p>
+
+<p class="hang">WILLIAMS, HOWARD, 18 years old, Cornell student.</p>
+
+<p class="hang">WENTON, MISS ALICE, 6241 Kimbark avenue.</p>
+
+<p class="hang">WAGNER, MARY ANNA, 629 Sedgwick street.</p>
+
+<p class="hang">WECK, ERICK, Milwaukee; guest of Joseph Schneider, Chicago.</p>
+
+<p class="hang">WIRE, EVA, 15 years old, 613 West Sixty-first place. Identified by her
+uncle, E. A. Mayo.</p>
+
+<p class="hang">WOOD, MRS. J., 545 West Sixty-fifth street.</p>
+
+<p class="hang">WULSON, HOWARD J., 213 Halsted street Identified by E. J. Blair.</p>
+
+<p class="hang">WEBBER, JOSEPH, Janesville, Wis.</p>
+
+<p class="hang">WEBER, MRS. CARRIE, aged 49 years, wife of John J. Weber, 402 Garfield
+avenue.</p>
+
+<p class="hang">WUNDERLICH, MRS. HARRY, 34 years old. Identified by her husband.</p>
+
+<p class="hang">WESKOPS, IRMA, aged 15 years, 4939 Champlain avenue. Identified by
+brother.</p>
+
+<p class="hang">WEIHERS, IDA, 1970 Kimball avenue.</p>
+
+<p class="hang">WEINFELD, HANNAH, 20 years old, 3745 Wabash avenue.</p>
+
+<p class="hang">WERNISH, MRS. MARY, 341 Center street.</p>
+
+<p class="hang">WERSKOWSKY, MRS., 125 Sangamon street.</p>
+
+<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_356" id="Page_356">[Pg 356]</a></span></p>
+
+<p class="hang">WINDER, BARRY, 12 years old, 201 South Harvey avenue, Oak Park.</p>
+
+<p class="hang">WOLF, SADIE, 26 years old, Hammond, Ind.</p>
+
+<p class="hang">WOODS, MRS. J. L., 49 years old, 437 Sixty-fifth street.</p>
+
+
+<p>&nbsp;</p>
+<p class="title">Z.</p>
+
+<p class="hang">ZEISLER, WALTER B., aged 17 years, University of Chicago student, son of
+Dr. Joseph Zeisler, 3256 Lake Park avenue. Identified by name on watch
+charm.</p>
+
+<p class="hang">ZIMMERMAN, MISS BESSIE, 954 St. Louis avenue, teacher in public schools,
+died at St. Luke's hospital.</p>
+
+<p class="hang">ZIMMERMAN, MARY E., 20 years old, 841 South Turner avenue.</p>
+
+
+<p>&nbsp;<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_357" id="Page_357">[Pg 357]</a></span></p>
+<p class="center">RESIDENCE OF VICTIMS.</p>
+
+<table border="0" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" summary="table">
+<tr><td>Aurora, Ill.</td>
+    <td><span class="spacer">&nbsp;</span></td>
+    <td align="right">1</td></tr>
+<tr><td>Barrington, Ill.</td>
+    <td>&nbsp;</td>
+    <td align="right">2</td></tr>
+<tr><td>Bartlett, Ill.</td>
+    <td>&nbsp;</td>
+    <td align="right">2</td></tr>
+<tr><td>Battle Creek, Mich.</td>
+    <td>&nbsp;</td>
+    <td align="right">2</td></tr>
+<tr><td>Berwyn, Ill.</td>
+    <td>&nbsp;</td>
+    <td align="right">2</td></tr>
+<tr><td>Binghamton, N. Y.</td>
+    <td>&nbsp;</td>
+    <td align="right">1</td></tr>
+<tr><td>Bloomington, Ill.</td>
+    <td>&nbsp;</td>
+    <td align="right">1</td></tr>
+<tr><td>Brush, Colo.</td>
+    <td>&nbsp;</td>
+    <td align="right">1</td></tr>
+<tr><td>Burlington, Iowa</td>
+    <td>&nbsp;</td>
+    <td align="right">1</td></tr>
+<tr><td>Cedar Rapids, Iowa</td>
+    <td>&nbsp;</td>
+    <td align="right">3</td></tr>
+<tr><td>Chicago, Ill.</td>
+    <td>&nbsp;</td>
+    <td align="right">300</td></tr>
+<tr><td>Clinton, Iowa</td>
+    <td>&nbsp;</td>
+    <td align="right">2</td></tr>
+<tr><td>Custer Park, Ill.</td>
+    <td>&nbsp;</td>
+    <td align="right">1</td></tr>
+<tr><td>Davenport, Iowa</td>
+    <td>&nbsp;</td>
+    <td align="right">1</td></tr>
+<tr><td>Decatur, Ill.</td>
+    <td>&nbsp;</td>
+    <td align="right">1</td></tr>
+<tr><td>Decorah, Iowa</td>
+    <td>&nbsp;</td>
+    <td align="right">1</td></tr>
+<tr><td>Delaware, O.</td>
+    <td>&nbsp;</td>
+    <td align="right">8</td></tr>
+<tr><td>Des Moines, Iowa</td>
+    <td>&nbsp;</td>
+    <td align="right">5</td></tr>
+<tr><td>Des Plaines, Ill.</td>
+    <td>&nbsp;</td>
+    <td align="right">2</td></tr>
+<tr><td>Detroit, Mich.</td>
+    <td>&nbsp;</td>
+    <td align="right">2</td></tr>
+<tr><td>Dodgeville, Ind.</td>
+    <td>&nbsp;</td>
+    <td align="right">1</td></tr>
+<tr><td>Elgin, Ill.</td>
+    <td>&nbsp;</td>
+    <td align="right">2</td></tr>
+<tr><td>Eola, Ill.</td>
+    <td>&nbsp;</td>
+    <td align="right">2</td></tr>
+<tr><td>Evanston. Ill.</td>
+    <td>&nbsp;</td>
+    <td align="right">12</td></tr>
+<tr><td>Fargo, Minn.</td>
+    <td>&nbsp;</td>
+    <td align="right">1</td></tr>
+<tr><td>Freeport, Ill.</td>
+    <td>&nbsp;</td>
+    <td align="right">1</td></tr>
+<tr><td>Galesburg, Ill.</td>
+    <td>&nbsp;</td>
+    <td align="right">1</td></tr>
+<tr><td>Geneva, Ill.</td>
+    <td>&nbsp;</td>
+    <td align="right">3</td></tr>
+<tr><td>Gibson City, Ill.</td>
+    <td>&nbsp;</td>
+    <td align="right">1</td></tr>
+<tr><td>Glen View, Ill.</td>
+    <td>&nbsp;</td>
+    <td align="right">1</td></tr>
+<tr><td>Granville, Mich.</td>
+    <td>&nbsp;</td>
+    <td align="right">2</td></tr>
+<tr><td>Grossdale, Ill.</td>
+    <td>&nbsp;</td>
+    <td align="right">1</td></tr>
+<tr><td>Hammond, Ind.</td>
+    <td>&nbsp;</td>
+    <td align="right">4</td></tr>
+<tr><td>Hart, Mich.</td>
+    <td>&nbsp;</td>
+    <td align="right">3</td></tr>
+<tr><td>Harvard, Ill.</td>
+    <td>&nbsp;</td>
+    <td align="right">2</td></tr>
+<tr><td>Janesville, Wis.</td>
+    <td>&nbsp;</td>
+    <td align="right">1</td></tr>
+<tr><td>Jonesville, Mich.</td>
+    <td>&nbsp;</td>
+    <td align="right">1</td></tr>
+<tr><td>Kansas City, Mo.</td>
+    <td>&nbsp;</td>
+    <td align="right">1</td></tr>
+<tr><td>Kenosha, Wis.</td>
+    <td>&nbsp;</td>
+    <td align="right">7</td></tr>
+<tr><td>Keokuk, Iowa</td>
+    <td>&nbsp;</td>
+    <td align="right">1</td></tr>
+<tr><td>Kirkville, Mo.</td>
+    <td>&nbsp;</td>
+    <td align="right">1</td></tr>
+<tr><td>Knox, Ind.</td>
+    <td>&nbsp;</td>
+    <td align="right">1</td></tr>
+<tr><td>Knoxville, Iowa</td>
+    <td>&nbsp;</td>
+    <td align="right">1</td></tr>
+<tr><td>Lafayette, Ind.</td>
+    <td>&nbsp;</td>
+    <td align="right">1</td></tr>
+<tr><td>Lake Geneva, Ill.</td>
+    <td>&nbsp;</td>
+    <td align="right">1</td></tr>
+<tr><td>Lakeside, Ill.</td>
+    <td>&nbsp;</td>
+    <td align="right">1</td></tr>
+<tr><td>Laporte, Ind.</td>
+    <td>&nbsp;</td>
+    <td align="right">2</td></tr>
+<tr><td>Lena, Ill.</td>
+    <td>&nbsp;</td>
+    <td align="right">1</td></tr>
+<tr><td>Lincoln, Ill.</td>
+    <td>&nbsp;</td>
+    <td align="right">1</td></tr>
+<tr><td>Lockport, Ill.</td>
+    <td>&nbsp;</td>
+    <td align="right">1</td></tr>
+<tr><td>Logansport, Ind.</td>
+    <td>&nbsp;</td>
+    <td align="right">3</td></tr>
+<tr><td>Lowell, Ind.</td>
+    <td>&nbsp;</td>
+    <td align="right">2</td></tr>
+<tr><td>Madison, Wis.</td>
+    <td>&nbsp;</td>
+    <td align="right">1</td></tr>
+<tr><td>Madison, S. D.</td>
+    <td>&nbsp;</td>
+    <td align="right">1</td></tr>
+<tr><td>Martinsburg, O.</td>
+    <td>&nbsp;</td>
+    <td align="right">2</td></tr>
+<tr><td>Mattoon, Ill.</td>
+    <td>&nbsp;</td>
+    <td align="right">1</td></tr>
+<tr><td>Milwaukee, Wis.</td>
+    <td>&nbsp;</td>
+    <td align="right">3</td></tr>
+<tr><td>Minonk, Ill.</td>
+    <td>&nbsp;</td>
+    <td align="right">2</td></tr>
+<tr><td>New York City</td>
+    <td>&nbsp;</td>
+    <td align="right">2</td></tr>
+<tr><td>Norwood Park, Ill.</td>
+    <td>&nbsp;</td>
+    <td align="right">3</td></tr>
+<tr><td>Oak Park, Ill.</td>
+    <td>&nbsp;</td>
+    <td align="right">5</td></tr>
+<tr><td>Ontonagon, Mich.</td>
+    <td>&nbsp;</td>
+    <td align="right">2</td></tr>
+<tr><td>Ottawa, Ill.</td>
+    <td>&nbsp;</td>
+    <td align="right">3</td></tr>
+<tr><td>Palo Alto, Cal.</td>
+    <td>&nbsp;</td>
+    <td align="right">1</td></tr>
+<tr><td>Petersburg, Ind.</td>
+    <td>&nbsp;</td>
+    <td align="right">2</td></tr>
+<tr><td>Pittsburg, Pa.</td>
+    <td>&nbsp;</td>
+    <td align="right">1</td></tr>
+<tr><td>Plainwell, Mich.</td>
+    <td>&nbsp;</td>
+    <td align="right">2</td></tr>
+<tr><td>Quincy, Ill.</td>
+    <td>&nbsp;</td>
+    <td align="right">2</td></tr>
+<tr><td>Racine, Wis.</td>
+    <td>&nbsp;</td>
+    <td align="right">3</td></tr>
+<tr><td>Rensselaer, Ind.</td>
+    <td>&nbsp;</td>
+    <td align="right">1</td></tr>
+<tr><td>Rock Island, Ill.</td>
+    <td>&nbsp;</td>
+    <td align="right">1</td></tr>
+<tr><td>Savannah, Ill.</td>
+    <td>&nbsp;</td>
+    <td align="right">1</td></tr>
+<tr><td>St. Louis, Mo.</td>
+    <td>&nbsp;</td>
+    <td align="right">3</td></tr>
+<tr><td>St. Mary's, Ind.</td>
+    <td>&nbsp;</td>
+    <td align="right">1</td></tr>
+<tr><td>Thief River Falls, Minn.</td>
+    <td>&nbsp;</td>
+    <td align="right">1</td></tr>
+<tr><td>Tolono, Ill.</td>
+    <td>&nbsp;</td>
+    <td align="right">2</td></tr>
+<tr><td>Washington Heights, Ill.</td>
+    <td>&nbsp;</td>
+    <td align="right">3</td></tr>
+<tr><td>Watertown, Wis.</td>
+    <td>&nbsp;</td>
+    <td align="right">2</td></tr>
+<tr><td>Waukegan, Ill.</td>
+    <td>&nbsp;</td>
+    <td align="right">3</td></tr>
+<tr><td>West Grossdale, Ill.</td>
+    <td>&nbsp;</td>
+    <td align="right">4</td></tr>
+<tr><td>West Superior, Wis.</td>
+    <td>&nbsp;</td>
+    <td align="right">2</td></tr>
+<tr><td>Wheaton, Ill.</td>
+    <td>&nbsp;</td>
+    <td align="right">3</td></tr>
+<tr><td>Winnetka, Ill.</td>
+    <td>&nbsp;</td>
+    <td align="right">8</td></tr>
+<tr><td>Woodford, O.</td>
+    <td>&nbsp;</td>
+    <td align="right">1</td></tr>
+<tr><td>Woodstock, Ill.</td>
+    <td>&nbsp;</td>
+    <td align="right">2</td></tr>
+<tr><td>Zanesville, O.</td>
+    <td>&nbsp;</td>
+    <td class="botbor" align="right">3</td></tr>
+<tr><td><span style="margin-left: 2em;">Total</span></td>
+    <td>&nbsp;</td>
+    <td align="right">570</td></tr></table>
+
+<p>This remarkable table shows that victims of the fire were from thirteen
+states and eighty-six cities and towns.</p>
+
+
+
+<p>&nbsp;</p><p>&nbsp;</p>
+<hr style="width: 50%;" />
+<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_358" id="Page_358">[Pg 358]</a></span></p>
+<h2><a name="CHAPTER_XXVI" id="CHAPTER_XXVI"></a>CHAPTER XXVI.</h2>
+<p class="title">THE STORY OF THE BURNING OF BALTIMORE.</p>
+
+
+<p>All the world was startled on Sunday, February 7, 1904, just 39 days after
+the Iroquois theater horror, by another sickening visitation of the fire
+fiend. This time the devouring element fell upon the city of Baltimore and
+all but effaced it from the map. Millions upon millions in property were
+swept away, old established firms annihilated and miles of streets
+occupied by business houses laid waste. Fortunately this disaster was
+accompanied by no loss of life.</p>
+
+<p>Twenty-seven hours elapsed before the conflagration was checked. Fire
+fighters hurried to the scene from a number of near by cities and aided
+the local fire department in subduing the flames. Strangely enough it was
+a coal yard that broke the onward sweep of the sea of fire and enabled the
+firemen to bring the fire under control. Even then it burned for days,
+feeding on the debris and wreckage that marked its early progress. The
+greatest danger past troops and police relieved the firemen who sought
+rest exhausted and maddened by the terrible ordeal through which they had
+passed.</p>
+
+<p>History affords no parallel of the conditions in fire-swept Baltimore on
+the following Tuesday when its people awoke to the mighty task of
+reconstruction looming up before them. After having suffered a loss
+estimated at $125,000,000 a cry of rejoicing went up among them because of
+the absence of casualties. Not a life was lost in the avalanche of flame
+and only one person was seriously injured&mdash;Jacob Inglefritz, a volunteer
+fireman from York, Pa. While the hospitals were full to overflowing the
+injuries sustained were of a minor nature. A strange comparison with the
+<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_359" id="Page_359">[Pg 359]</a></span>Iroquois theater fire of a month before! In that instance 600 met death
+and a host were seriously injured in a fire of fifteen minutes' duration
+confined to one building that suffered insignificant damage. Here in a
+fire that swept for days over the business heart of a great city not a
+life was lost. Such is the strange operation of providence.</p>
+
+<p>Other conflagrations suffered by American cities have nothing in common
+with Baltimore experience. Fire destroyed 674 buildings in New York on
+Dec. 26, 1835, causing a property loss of $17,000,000 without causing loss
+of life. Thirty-six years later Chicago burned, wiping out 17,450
+buildings and 250 lives and entailing a loss estimated at $200,000,000.
+The following year, 1872, fire laid waste 65 acres of property in Boston,
+causing a property loss of $80,000,000 and killing fourteen persons. The
+partial destruction of Ottawa and Hull, Canada, April 26, 1900, inflicted
+a loss of $17,000,000 and brought death to seven. On June 30 of the same
+year the North German Lloyd dock fire in Hoboken, N. J., cost 150 lives
+and $7,000,000 in property. Jacksonville, Fla., lost $10,000,000 through a
+visitation of fire that swept through an area 13 blocks wide and two miles
+long. The last in the list was the Paterson, N. J., fire of Feb. 8, 1902,
+which destroyed 75 buildings valued at $18,000,000.</p>
+
+<p>As fire and water have ever been recognized as the most potent agencies of
+death and destruction it will readily appear that seared, scorched
+Baltimore was fortunate indeed in the absence of casualties. On the calm
+of a restful Sabbath, marred only by the presence of a high wind, the
+consuming storm broke upon the doomed city. To that wind and the presence
+of hundreds of old fashioned highly inflammable structures nestling among
+the sky scrapers may be attributed the indescribably rapid spread of the
+flames.</p>
+
+<p>The start of the fire was in the basement of Hurst &amp; Co.'s wholesale dry
+goods house. After burning for about ten minutes there was a loud report
+from the interior of the building as the gasoline tank used for the engine
+in the building<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_360" id="Page_360">[Pg 360]</a></span> exploded. Instantly the immense structure collapsed,
+sending destruction to adjacent buildings in all directions and causing
+the fire to be beyond control of the firemen.</p>
+
+<p>Spreading throughout the wholesale section, the fire burned out every
+wholesale house of note in the city, swept along through the Baltimore and
+Fayette street retail sections, destroyed all the prominent office
+buildings, leveled banks and brokerage offices, as well as the Chamber of
+Commerce and Stock Exchange, in the financial section, then sped on
+through the wholesale and export trade sections centering about Exchange
+place. It finally stopped at Jones falls, a creek that runs through
+Baltimore, but swept along the creek to the lumber district and the docks.</p>
+
+<p>As soon as the threatening character of the fire was realized appeals were
+sent broadcast for help and desperate measures were adopted to prevent the
+spread of the flames. To gain that end huge buildings were leveled through
+the agency of dynamite. Eleven fire engines and crews were hurried from
+New York by a fast special train and they joined in the battle early and
+fought like demons until exhausted. Philadelphia, Wilmington, Washington,
+Frederick, Md., Westminster, Md., and York, Pa., each sent brave
+contingents of men with an equipment of apparatus to reinforce the
+desperate firemen of Baltimore.</p>
+
+<p>The first attempt at dynamiting was in the large building of Armstrong,
+Cator &amp; Co., but it failed to collapse and attention was turned to the
+building at the southwest corner of Charles and German streets, where six
+charges of dynamite, each charge containing 100 pounds, were exploded. The
+tremendous force of the explosion tore out the massive granite columns
+that supported the building and left it with apparently almost no support,
+but the walls failed to collapse and stood until the flames had crossed
+Charles street and were eating into the block between Charles and Light
+streets.</p>
+
+<p>Meantime the fire had been communicated to the row of buildings on South
+Charles street, between German and Lombard streets, and all those places,
+occupied principally by<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_361" id="Page_361">[Pg 361]</a></span> wholesale produce and grain dealers, were in
+flames. Before midnight the Carrollton hotel was in flames and the fire
+was sweeping toward Calvert street with irresistible fury.</p>
+
+<p>It was a terrible Sunday afternoon and night! People forgot their usual
+devotions at church to pack their most valued possessions ready for
+flight. Men of wealth left their families and firesides to join in the
+work of suppressing the flames. Women prepared to flee with their
+valuables before the wave of fire they momentarily expected to roll down
+upon them. Wealth and employment were disappearing under the advance of
+the fiery element and gloom, fear and dark forebodings settled down upon
+the doomed municipality. But there was neither sleep nor rest for man,
+woman or child.</p>
+
+<p>Firemen working on the south side had succeeded in checking the flames at
+Lombard street and, as the wind was blowing from the northwest, there was
+no danger of it spreading farther in that direction. The western limit had
+also been reached at Howard street and the danger was confined to the east
+and north.</p>
+
+<p>The progress of the flames toward the north had in the meantime been so
+rapid as to be simply appalling. From structure to structure they flew,
+licking up the massive buildings as if they were composed of paper. In the
+block between German and Baltimore streets they flew along and almost
+before it could be realized the buildings along Baltimore street were
+blazing from roof to basement.</p>
+
+<p>For a time it was hoped the fire could be kept from crossing the north
+side of Baltimore street and the firemen made a desperate effort to
+prevent it. The effort was useless, however, and soon the tall, narrow
+building of Mullin's hotel began to dart out tongues of flame and the
+remainder of the buildings between Sharp and Liberty streets were ablaze
+and the fire was marching north. The flames flew rapidly from place to
+place and soon the entire south side of Fayette street was in their grasp.
+Down Fayette to Charles they swept and in a short space of time the
+building occupied by Putts &amp; Co. was doomed.</p>
+
+<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_362" id="Page_362">[Pg 362]</a></span>Seeing that nothing could save it, it was decided to destroy the building
+with dynamite in the hope of preventing the fire from crossing Charles
+street. The explosion was successful in accomplishing the object as the
+entire corner collapsed instantly. This had, apparently, no effect upon
+the progress of the fire, for almost before the sound of the falling walls
+had died away the building on the east side of Charles street began to
+blaze, and it was evident the block between Charles and St. Paul streets
+were doomed.</p>
+
+<p>In a desperate but futile effort to prevent the fire going further to the
+east building after building was dynamited in this block, but it was all
+of no avail and the fire swept steadily onward.</p>
+
+<p>The Daily Record building was soon in flames and not many minutes later
+the fire had leaped over St. Paul street and the lofty and massive Calvert
+building began to emit smoke and flame. The Equitable building, just over
+a narrow alley, quickly followed and these two immense buildings gave
+forth a glare that lighted the city for miles around.</p>
+
+<p>It was thought that the fire could be prevented from crossing to the north
+side of Fayette street and here again a desperate stand was made by the
+firemen. Again it was useless and soon the large building of Hall,
+Headlington &amp; Co., on the northwest corner of Charles and Fayette streets,
+was blazing brightly. With scarcely a pause the fire leaped across to the
+east side of Charles street and enveloped the handsome building of the
+Union Trust company, while at the same time the large buildings to the
+west of Hall, Headlington &amp; Co., occupied by Wise Bros. &amp; Oppenheim,
+Oberndorf &amp; Co., were aflame throughout.</p>
+
+<p>Down Fayette street to the east the flames swept, and soon the new
+courthouse was ablaze. The fire area then extended along Liberty street
+north to Fayette, east to Charles, north to Lexington, south on Charles to
+Baltimore street, east on Baltimore to Holliday and from there in spots to
+Center Market space.</p>
+
+<p>When it was seen the courthouse could not be saved the<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_363" id="Page_363">[Pg 363]</a></span> court records were
+all removed to the northern police station, two miles and half away. The
+Continental Trust building, a thirteen-story structure, caught at the
+tenth floor and was totally destroyed after burning like a great torch.
+The private bank of Alexander Brown, located at Baltimore and Calvert
+streets, in the very heart of the fire district, a one story stone
+structure, miraculously escaped annihilation, the surviving building out
+of a great spread of two square miles of costly structures that caught the
+early morning sun that fateful day. Sunrise that disclosed naught save
+ruin, chaos and confusion.</p>
+
+<p>Thus raged the warfare of man against a relentless hungry element for 27
+hours. It was 11:40 Sunday morning when the fire started. At 2:40 Monday
+afternoon the joyful news was spread that the allied fire departments had
+the flames within control. Hotels, banks, business houses, factories&mdash;in
+fact everything in the heart of the city was swept away. All the local
+newspapers save one were destroyed, the street car systems were without
+power to operate and the lighting facilities were sadly crippled. Towering
+ruins loomed up on every hand, swaying in the breeze and jeopardizing
+life. And still the countless fires in the burned district raged on,
+illuminating the heavens and clouding the atmosphere with dense smoke
+against which myriads of sparks twinkled like miniature stars.</p>
+
+<p>The last places to go before the fire started to burn itself out, were the
+icehouse and coal yard of the American Ice company. The coal yard, which
+spread out about 200 yards south of the icehouse, was the means of staying
+the march of the flames on the south and Jones falls on the east. The
+Norfolk wharf of the Baltimore steam-packet company, which was stocked
+with barrels of resin and other miscellaneous merchandise, was destroyed
+before the ice company's plant was reached.</p>
+
+<p>At 10 o'clock Monday the fire was reported under control, but a little
+later the flames were sweeping along the harbor and river men began taking
+their vessels rapidly out into the<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_364" id="Page_364">[Pg 364]</a></span> middle of the stream. There were about
+seventy-five of these vessels and they were hastily anchored down the bay.
+The buildings of the Standard Oil company and the Buckman Fruit company
+along the water front were soon in flames. This renewal of the energy of
+the fire continued until well along into the afternoon of the second day.</p>
+
+<p>Following is a partial list of the principal buildings destroyed in the
+baptism of fire or by dynamite in an effort to stay the flames:</p>
+
+<div class="blockquot"><p>The courthouse, loss, $4,000,000</p>
+
+<p>The postoffice, $1,000,000</p>
+
+<p>Equitable building, twelve stories, $1,135,000</p>
+
+<p>Union Trust Company building, 11 stories, $1,000,000</p>
+
+<p>Continental Trust building, 16 stories, $1,125,000</p>
+
+<p>Baltimore &amp; Ohio general offices, $1,125,000</p>
+
+<p>Calvert building, $1,125,000</p>
+
+<p>Hopkins bank.</p>
+
+<p>Holliday Street theater.</p>
+
+<p>Guardian Trust building.</p>
+
+<p>Chesapeake and Potomac Telephone company.</p>
+
+<p>Maryland Trust company.</p>
+
+<p>Alexander Brown Banking company.</p>
+
+<p>Bell Telephone building.</p>
+
+<p>Custom house.</p>
+
+<p>Western Union building.</p>
+
+<p>National Exchange bank.</p>
+
+<p>United States Express office.</p>
+
+<p>Mercantile Trust building.</p>
+
+<p>Baltimore American.</p>
+
+<p>Baltimore Herald.</p>
+
+<p>Baltimore Sun.</p>
+
+<p>Baltimore Evening News.</p>
+
+<p>Baltimore Record.</p>
+
+<p>John E. Hurst, dry goods, $1,500,000.</p>
+
+<p>William Koch Importing company, $150,000.</p>
+
+<p>Daniel Miller company, dry goods, $1,500,000.</p>
+
+<p>Dixon &amp; Bartlett company, shoes, $175,000.</p>
+
+<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_365" id="Page_365">[Pg 365]</a></span>Joyner, Wilse &amp; Co., hats and caps, $100,000.</p>
+
+<p>Spragins, Buck &amp; Co., shoes, $125,000.</p>
+
+<p>Cohen-Adler Shoe company, $125,000.</p>
+
+<p>L. S. Fitman, women's wrappers; Jacob R. Seligman, paper, and Nathan
+Rosen, women's cloaks, $100,000.</p>
+
+<p>Morton, Samuels &amp; Co., boots and shoes, and Strauss Bros., storage,
+$100,000.</p>
+
+<p>Bates Rubber company, $135,000.</p>
+
+<p>Guggenheimer, Wells &amp; Co., lithographers and printers, $125,000.</p>
+
+<p>M. Friedman &amp; Sons, clothing, and F. Schleunes, clothing, $150,000.</p>
+
+<p>Schwarzkopf Toy company, $100,000.</p>
+
+<p>National Exchange bank, building and contents, $125,000.</p>
+
+<p>S. Lowman &amp; Co., clothing, $125,000.</p>
+
+<p>John E. Hurst &amp; Co., storage, $150,000.</p>
+
+<p>Lawrence &amp; Gould Shoe company and Bates Hat company, $125,000.</p>
+
+<p>S. Ginsberg &amp; Co., clothing, $125,000.</p>
+
+<p>Winkelmann &amp; Brown Drug company, $125,000.</p>
+
+<p>R. M. Sutton &amp; Co., dry goods, $1,500,000.</p>
+
+<p>Chesapeake Shoe company, $100,000.</p>
+
+<p>S. F. &amp; A. F. Miller, clothing manufacturers, $150,000.</p>
+
+<p>S. Halle Sons, boots and shoes, $100,000.</p>
+
+<p>Strauss Bros., dry goods, $250,000.</p>
+
+<p>A. C. Meyer &amp; Co., patent medicines, $150,000.</p>
+
+<p>Strauss, Eiseman &amp; Co., shirt manufacturers, $150,000.</p>
+
+<p>North Bros. &amp; Strauss, $150,000.</p>
+
+<p>McDonald &amp; Fisher, wholesale paper, $100,000.</p>
+
+<p>Wiley, Bruster &amp; Co., dry goods, and F. W. &amp; E. Dammam, cloth,
+$125,000.</p>
+
+<p>Henry Oppenheimer &amp; Co., clothing, and Van Sant, Jacobs &amp; Co., shirts,
+$175,000.</p>
+
+<p>Lewis Lauer &amp; Co., shirts, $100,000.</p>
+
+<p>Champion Shoe Manufacturing company and Driggs, Currin &amp; Co., shoes,
+$100,000.</p>
+
+<p>Mendels Bros., women's wrappers, $125,000.</p>
+
+<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_366" id="Page_366">[Pg 366]</a></span>Blankenberg, Gehrmann &amp; Co., notions, $125,000.</p>
+
+<p>Leo Keene &amp; Co., women's cloaks, and Henry Pretzfelder &amp; Co., boots
+and shoes, $125,000.</p>
+
+<p>Peter Rohe &amp; Son, harness manufacturers, $125,000.</p>
+
+<p>James Roberts Manufacturing company, plumbers' supplies, $100,000.</p>
+
+<p>R. J. Anderf &amp; Co., boots and shoes, and James Robertson Manufacturing
+company, storage, $100,000.</p>
+
+<p>L. Grief &amp; Bros., clothing, $150,000.</p>
+
+<p>Maas &amp; Kemper, embroidery and laces, $125,000.</p></div>
+
+<p>Within 72 hours of the start of the fire the people of Baltimore were
+giving thought to reconstruction. After an investigation it was announced
+that the vaults of the Continental Trust company, which contained
+securities to the value of $200,000,000, were intact and that most of the
+great bank and safety deposit vaults escaped destruction. To relieve banks
+and citizens from the embarrassment of financial transactions the next ten
+days were declared legal holidays in the commonwealth of Maryland.</p>
+
+<p>Mayor McLane reflected local public sentiment when he sent out the
+following declaration to the world at large:</p>
+
+<p>"Baltimore will now enter undaunted into the task of resurrection. A
+greater and more beautiful city will rise from the ruins and we shall make
+of this calamity a future blessing. We are staggered by the terrible blow,
+but we are not discouraged, and every energy of the city as a municipality
+and its citizens as private individuals will be devoted to a
+rehabilitation that will not only prove the stuff we are made of but be a
+monument to the American spirit."</p>
+
+<p>With the exception of the Baltimore World all the local newspapers
+suffered the loss of their plants, moved their staffs to Washington and
+issued editions regularly from there devoted to Baltimore news. The World,
+published in the thick of the ruin and desolation, gave voice to its
+sentiment in the following editorial:</p>
+
+<p>"God be merciful unto those who suffered from the awful calamity that
+swept down on Baltimore.</p>
+
+<p><span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_367" id="Page_367">[Pg 367]</a></span>"Tongue fails; pen is inadequate and refuses to comprehend the extent of
+the disaster that has overtaken us. We have heard of awful calamities to
+others; in fancied security we have looked on in sympathy while others
+have suffered. Now the pain, the anxiety, the suffering is ours and we
+stand appalled, unable to realize the immensity of the terrible affair.</p>
+
+<p>"The World is the only newspaper office in the city that is standing. Once
+it was on fire and was saved only by the earnest, valiant and courageous
+work of the World employes and the goodness of God. To our suffering
+contemporaries we extend the greatest sympathy and to the hundreds of
+other sufferers also. For those thousands who are thrown out of work in
+the dead of winter, with sorrow and suffering staring them in the face,
+our heart throbs with a feeling that we cannot express. All we can say is,
+'God help them.'"</p>
+
+<p>Local and national military authorities took immediate charge of the
+situation to prevent looting and disorder, possible because of the vast
+sums of money in the various safes and vaults scattered about in the
+ruins. Recognition of the disaster came from the nation in another
+practical form. A bill was promptly and appropriately introduced in
+Washington by Representative Martin Emerich of Illinois reciting the
+destruction by fire in preamble and then continuing:</p>
+
+<div class="blockquot"><p>Whereas, The fire has so crippled the merchants and business interests
+in the City of Baltimore that they are unable adequately and properly
+to provide and care for the many who are rendered homeless and
+penniless by this calamity, and</p>
+
+<p>Whereas, The City of Baltimore and its people are probably unable in
+the face of the unlooked for catastrophe to provide proper means for
+effectually checking the fire and promptly to remove the embers and
+debris; and</p>
+
+<p>Whereas, The same, while remaining, are constantly a menace to the
+safety of many citizens, it is enacted that the Secretary of the
+Treasury be authorized and directed to pay upon the order of the City
+Council of Baltimore, certified by the Mayor of the city, to any
+designated authority of<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_368" id="Page_368">[Pg 368]</a></span> said city, any necessary sum of money not
+exceeding the sum of $1,000,000 out of any money in the treasury of
+the United States not otherwise appropriated, to be used for the
+purpose of providing shelter for those rendered homeless by the said
+fire, and also to be used for the purpose of clearing the streets and
+localities devastated by the fire and in order to render the city
+available for the use of residents and others as speedily as possible.</p></div>
+
+<p>The bill was referred to the committee on appropriations.</p>
+
+<p>Two days after the fire insurance men estimated the loss at $125,000,000
+and the insurance carried at $90,000,000.</p>
+
+<p>For the thousands of clerks and other employes whose positions are gone
+forever there seemed to be nothing before them but to move to other
+cities.</p>
+
+<p>In the work of rebuilding came employment for another army, but it offered
+no avenue of escape to those whose doom was sounded by the explosions of
+dynamite and the crash of falling walls. Few of the men were fitted for
+the heavy labor of the building trades.</p>
+
+<p>Baltimore's great wholesale houses and wharf district have been
+ruined&mdash;not irrevocably, but to such an extent that the fear grips the
+heart of every Baltimore business man that the city may be unable to
+recover from it for many years.</p>
+
+<p>Amid ruins still hot and smoking Baltimore began its resurrection and made
+known its determination to rise, Phoenix-like, through its own efforts, by
+politely, yet firmly declining proffers of help that poured in from all
+sides. The blow that befell Baltimore aroused an intense civic pride that
+found expression in an effort to work out its own salvation. In declining
+financial assistance Mayor McLane was actuated by the spirit shown by the
+Chamber of Commerce, Stock Exchange and practically every local commercial
+body, which came forward with offers of all the money needed by the city
+for immediate use. It was decided that should the Herculean task prove too
+great for the municipality there would still be ample time to seek outside
+assistance.</p>
+
+<p>While heavily armed soldiers marched about the blistering<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_369" id="Page_369">[Pg 369]</a></span> ruins with
+stately tread holding back those who only a few hours before had fought
+the police to save their valuables at the risk of their lives, the
+latter&mdash;energetic business men&mdash;were already preparing to re-open their
+establishments. Old buildings, long unused, private residences near the
+business section, in fact, every available structure to be secured
+blossomed forth within 24 hours with crudely lettered signs on board or
+cloth announcing that within was the temporary office of a firm. The names
+on some of these signs were those that rank high in the financial and
+commercial circles of the world, and in these temporary offices men who
+for years have known only mahogany desks worked on cheap tables and plain
+boards.</p>
+
+<p>One of the surprises of the fire was the discovery after the excitement
+was over that two financial concerns whose homes were directly in the path
+of the flames escaped practically unharmed. These were the Mercantile
+Trust company and Brown Brothers' Bank. The escape of these buildings was
+due to their lack of height. They do not exceed four stories, and as they
+were surrounded by lofty structures the flames swept over them.</p>
+
+<p>Unconcealed joy greeted the discovery and the information that millions
+upon millions in securities in various vaults escaped destruction, whereas
+all was at first believed to have been swept away. Practically all of the
+vaults and strong rooms and safes of the financial concerns whose
+buildings were destroyed were found unhurt. A tremendous loss in
+securities had been anticipated at first, and when vault after vault
+yielded up its treasures unharmed the joy of the guardians was boundless.</p>
+
+<p>From one trust company's safes alone papers to the amount of more than
+$200,000,000 were recovered. Merchants and their assistants, smoke soiled
+and begrimed and hollow-eyed from anxiety and loss of sleep, worked like
+laborers in the smoking ruins to uncover their safes, and in nearly every
+instance they were rewarded by intact contents.</p>
+
+
+<p>&nbsp;<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_370" id="Page_370">[Pg 370]</a></span></p>
+<div class="bbox" style="width: 291px; height: 400px;"><img src="images/img51.jpg" alt="" /></div>
+<p class="caption">MRS. L. H. MELMS,<br />117 GROSVENOR AVENUE, CHICAGO.</p>
+<table border="0" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="5" summary="table">
+<tr><td class="descrip">Mrs. Melms was before her marriage an Athens (O.) girl and was a great
+favorite there. For a number of years she conducted a millinery store in that place, her maiden name being Blanche Cornell.</td></tr></table>
+
+<p>&nbsp;</p>
+<div class="bbox" style="width: 292px; height: 400px;"><img src="images/img52.jpg" alt="" /></div>
+<p class="caption">MRS. CHARLES F. BOETTCHER,<br />4140 INDIANA AVENUE, CHICAGO.</p>
+<table border="0" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="5" summary="table">
+<tr><td class="descrip">Mrs. Boettcher was the wife of Charles F. Boettcher, a butcher on the
+south side. She was the only one of the family who perished in the fire.</td></tr></table>
+
+<p>&nbsp;<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_371" id="Page_371">[Pg 371]</a></span></p>
+<div class="bbox" style="width: 295px; height: 400px;"><img src="images/img53.jpg" alt="" /></div>
+<p class="caption">MISS MELISSA J. CROCKER,<br />3730 LAKE AVENUE, CHICAGO.</p>
+<table border="0" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="5" summary="table">
+<tr><td class="descrip">Miss Crocker was for seventeen years a teacher of the higher grades in the
+Oakland school, coming to Chicago from Princeton, Ill. She attended the
+theater with a friend, Mrs. L. H. Pierce, and little girl of Plainville, Mich. All were lost.</td></tr></table>
+
+<p>&nbsp;</p>
+<div class="bbox" style="width: 290px; height: 400px;"><img src="images/img54.jpg" alt="" /></div>
+<p class="caption">MRS. EMMA STEINMETZ,<br />2541 HALSTED STREET, CHICAGO.</p>
+<table border="0" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="5" summary="table">
+<tr><td class="descrip">Mrs. Steinmetz was fifty-one years of age and the wife of O. T. P.
+Steinmetz. She was born in Galena, Ill., her maiden name being Emma Garner.</td></tr></table>
+
+<p>&nbsp;<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_372" id="Page_372">[Pg 372]</a></span></p>
+<div class="bbox" style="width: 286px; height: 400px;"><img src="images/img55.jpg" alt="" /></div>
+<p class="caption">MRS. WM. C. LEVENSON,<br />268 OGDEN AVENUE, CHICAGO.</p>
+<table border="0" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="5" summary="table">
+<tr><td class="descrip">This victim of the Iroquois fire, 28 years of age, was a Russian by birth,
+and left a husband and two children. The latter were girls, four and two years of age, respectively.</td></tr></table>
+
+<p>&nbsp;</p>
+<div class="bbox" style="width: 296px; height: 400px;"><img src="images/img56.jpg" alt="" /></div>
+<p class="caption">MARY HERISH,<br />710 SO. HALSTED STREET, CHICAGO.</p>
+<table border="0" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="5" summary="table">
+<tr><td class="descrip">A Russian girl, only eighteen years of age. She was one of only three or
+four of that nationality to lose her life in the disaster.</td></tr></table>
+
+<p>&nbsp;<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_373" id="Page_373">[Pg 373]</a></span></p>
+<div class="bbox" style="width: 292px; height: 400px;"><img src="images/img57.jpg" alt="" /></div>
+<p class="caption">LUCILE BOND,<br />4123 INDIANA AVENUE, CHICAGO.</p>
+<table border="0" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="5" summary="table">
+<tr><td class="descrip">Daughter of Mr. and Mrs. George R. Bond, and granddaughter of Benjamin
+Moore, ten years of age. Her mother did not attend the matinee and her
+father was absent in Nome, Alaska, where he holds a government position.</td></tr></table>
+
+<p>&nbsp;</p>
+<div class="bbox" style="width: 292px; height: 400px;"><img src="images/img58.jpg" alt="" /></div>
+<p class="caption">SIBYL MOORE, HART, MICH.</p>
+<table border="0" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="5" summary="table">
+<tr><td class="descrip">Daughter of Mrs. Perry Moore, 13 years old, who also perished in the fire,
+and granddaughter of Benjamin Moore. At the time of the calamity her father was on his way home from Nome, Alaska.</td></tr></table>
+
+<p>&nbsp;<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_374" id="Page_374">[Pg 374]</a></span></p>
+<div class="bbox" style="width: 304px; height: 400px;"><img src="images/img59.jpg" alt="" /></div>
+<p class="caption">THE DEE CHILDREN,<br />3133 WABASH AVENUE, CHICAGO.</p>
+<table border="0" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="5" summary="table">
+<tr><td class="descrip">The three children of William Dee attended the matinee with their nurse.
+Louise was two years of age and the two boys, twins, Edward Mansfield and
+Samuel Allerton Dee, were seven years old. Eddie (the boy to the right of
+the group) and his baby sister were killed. Samuel escaped, but the nurse was found badly mangled, burned and unconscious.</td></tr></table>
+
+<p>&nbsp;</p>
+<div class="bbox" style="width: 286px; height: 400px;"><img src="images/img60.jpg" alt="" /></div>
+<p class="caption">LOUISE DEE, CHICAGO.</p>
+<table border="0" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="5" summary="table">
+<tr><td class="descrip">The child of William Dee, who was killed with her brother at the Iroquois
+fire. She was not burned, but is supposed to have been suffocated or died of shock and exposure.</td></tr></table>
+
+<p>&nbsp;<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_375" id="Page_375">[Pg 375]</a></span></p>
+<div class="bbox" style="width: 293px; height: 400px;"><img src="images/img61.jpg" alt="" /></div>
+<p class="caption">MRS. MARY W. HOLST,<br />2088 VAN BUREN STREET, CHICAGO.</p>
+<table border="0" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="5" summary="table">
+<tr><td class="descrip">Wife of Wm. H. Hoist, and daughter of ex-Chief of Police Badenoch, who,
+with her three children, Allan, Gertrude and Amy, perished in the fire.
+She was identified by her husband by means of her wedding ring and a diamond ring.</td></tr></table>
+
+<p>&nbsp;</p>
+<div class="bbox" style="width: 296px; height: 400px;"><img src="images/img62.jpg" alt="" /></div>
+<p class="caption">GERTRUDE HOLST,<br />2088 VAN BUREN STREET, CHICAGO.</p>
+<table border="0" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="5" summary="table">
+<tr><td class="descrip">Gertrude was ten years of age and with her younger sister, Amy, and her
+older brother, Allan, was a pupil of the Sumner school. All were burned in
+the fire. The picture was taken some time ago when she was a flower girl at a wedding.</td></tr></table>
+
+<p>&nbsp;<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_376" id="Page_376">[Pg 376]</a></span></p>
+<div class="bbox" style="width: 297px; height: 400px;"><img src="images/img63.jpg" alt="" /></div>
+<p class="caption">AMY HOLST,<br />2088 VAN BUREN STREET, CHICAGO.</p>
+<table border="0" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="5" summary="table">
+<tr><td class="descrip">The daughter of Mr. and Mrs. Wm. H. Holst. Amy was seven years of age and
+a pupil of the Sumner School. She, with her mother, brother and sister, was a victim of the fire.</td></tr></table>
+
+<p>&nbsp;</p>
+<div class="bbox" style="width: 285px; height: 400px;"><img src="images/img64.jpg" alt="" /></div>
+<p class="caption">MRS. CLARA RUHLMAN, CHICAGO.</p>
+<table border="0" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="5" summary="table">
+<tr><td class="descrip">The mother of Mrs. Sidonic (Herman) Fellman, who was burned in the fire
+with her son-in-law and his mother.</td></tr></table>
+
+<p>&nbsp;<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_377" id="Page_377">[Pg 377]</a></span></p>
+<div class="bbox" style="width: 287px; height: 400px;"><img src="images/img65.jpg" alt="" /></div>
+<p class="caption">HERMAN FELLMAN,<br />3113 VERNON AVENUE, CHICAGO.</p>
+<table border="0" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="5" summary="table">
+<tr><td class="descrip">Mr. and Mrs. Fellman attended the matinee with their little girl, twelve
+years of age, and their mothers. All except Mrs. Fellman and her daughter perished.</td></tr></table>
+
+<p>&nbsp;</p>
+<div class="bbox" style="width: 279px; height: 400px;"><img src="images/img66.jpg" alt="" /></div>
+<p class="caption">MRS. BERTHA FELLMAN, CHICAGO.</p>
+<table border="0" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="5" summary="table">
+<tr><td class="descrip">The mother of Mr. Herman Fellman, who, with her son and Mrs. Herman
+Fellman's mother, were victims of the fire.</td></tr></table>
+
+<p>&nbsp;<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_378" id="Page_378">[Pg 378]</a></span></p>
+<div class="bbox" style="width: 295px; height: 400px;"><img src="images/img67.jpg" alt="" /></div>
+<p class="caption">MYRON A. DECKER,<br />3237 GROVELAND AVENUE, CHICAGO.</p>
+<table border="0" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="5" summary="table">
+<tr><td class="descrip">Mr. Decker, who, with his wife and daughter, perished in the fire, was a
+prosperous real estate dealer, 65 years of age. He had a particular horror
+of fire and seldom attended a theater. Only one member of the family
+survives, a daughter and bride of a few months, Mrs. Blanche D. Kinsey,
+wife of Carl D. Kinsey, of the Chicago Beach Hotel.</td></tr></table>
+
+<p>&nbsp;</p>
+<div class="bbox" style="width: 297px; height: 400px;"><img src="images/img68.jpg" alt="" /></div>
+<p class="caption">MISS MAYME A. DECKER, CHICAGO.</p>
+<table border="0" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="5" summary="table">
+<tr><td class="descrip">Daughter of Mr. and Mrs. Myron A. Decker, who, with her parents, met her
+death in the fire. She was thirty-three years of age.</td></tr></table>
+
+<p>&nbsp;<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_379" id="Page_379">[Pg 379]</a></span></p>
+<div class="bbox" style="width: 293px; height: 400px;"><img src="images/img69.jpg" alt="" /></div>
+<p class="caption">MRS. MARIA E. BRENNAN,<br />608 FULTON STREET, CHICAGO.</p>
+<table border="0" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="5" summary="table">
+<tr><td class="descrip">Mrs. Brennan was the wife of P. G. Brennan, connected with the
+stereotyping department of the "Chicago American." Before marriage she was
+Miss Maria Hogan. Mrs. Brennan and her boy were lost.</td></tr></table>
+
+<p>&nbsp;</p>
+<div class="bbox" style="width: 292px; height: 400px;"><img src="images/img70.jpg" alt="" /></div>
+<p class="caption">JAMES PAUL BRENNAN, CHICAGO.</p>
+<table border="0" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="5" summary="table">
+<tr><td class="descrip">Jimmy Brennan, as he was generally known, was the son of Mr. and Mrs. P.
+G. Brennan, and, with his mother, was burned in the fire. He was eleven years of age, sturdy and bright.</td></tr></table>
+
+<p>&nbsp;<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_380" id="Page_380">[Pg 380]</a></span></p>
+<div class="bbox" style="width: 290px; height: 400px;"><img src="images/img71.jpg" alt="" /></div>
+<p class="caption">MRS. ETTIE EISENDRATH,<br />10 CRILLY COURT, CHICAGO.</p>
+<table border="0" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="5" summary="table">
+<tr><td class="descrip">Mrs. Eisendrath attended the matinee with her talented little daughter,
+Natalie. When identified they were found locked in each other's arms.</td></tr></table>
+
+<p>&nbsp;</p>
+<div class="bbox" style="width: 293px; height: 400px;"><img src="images/img72.jpg" alt="" /></div>
+<p class="caption">NATALIE EISENDRATH,<br />10 CRILLY COURT, CHICAGO.</p>
+<table border="0" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="5" summary="table">
+<tr><td class="descrip">Mrs. S. M. Eisendrath and her daughter, Natalie, ten years of age, were
+both lost in the fire. They were in the first balcony and were smothered
+and crushed. Natalie was a bright child and an especial favorite in church entertainments.</td></tr></table>
+
+<p>&nbsp;<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_381" id="Page_381">[Pg 381]</a></span></p>
+<div class="bbox" style="width: 296px; height: 400px;"><img src="images/img73.jpg" alt="" /></div>
+<p class="caption">MRS. BARBARA L. REYNOLDS,<br />1286 E. RAVENSWOOD PARK, CHICAGO.</p>
+<table border="0" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="5" summary="table">
+<tr><td class="descrip">Mrs. Reynolds, her daughter, sister and sister's two boys attended the
+theater together. When entering the auditorium she remarked: "What a
+death-trap!" Soon afterward she and her little daughter were burned. Her sister and boys escaped.</td></tr></table>
+
+<p>&nbsp;</p>
+<div class="bbox" style="width: 293px; height: 400px;"><img src="images/img74.jpg" alt="" /></div>
+<p class="caption">JOSEPHINE E. REYNOLDS,<br />E. RAVENSWOOD PARK, CHICAGO.</p>
+<table border="0" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="5" summary="table">
+<tr><td class="descrip">The daughter of Mrs. Reynolds who perished with her mother in the theater
+disaster was only seven years of age. Both were burned beyond recognition.</td></tr></table>
+
+<p>&nbsp;<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_382" id="Page_382">[Pg 382]</a></span></p>
+<div class="bbox" style="width: 291px; height: 400px;"><img src="images/img75.jpg" alt="" /></div>
+<p class="caption">MYRTLE SHABAD, 14 YEARS OLD.<br />4041 INDIANA AVENUE, CHICAGO.</p>
+<table border="0" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="5" summary="table">
+<tr><td class="descrip">Myrtle and her brother Theodore, attending the grammar grades, were at the
+matinee with a girl friend, Rose Elkan. They all met death in the fire.</td></tr></table>
+
+<p>&nbsp;</p>
+<div class="bbox" style="width: 293px; height: 400px;"><img src="images/img76.jpg" alt="" /></div>
+<p class="caption">THEODORE SHABAD, CHICAGO.</p>
+<table border="0" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="5" summary="table">
+<tr><td class="descrip">Theodore was a bright boy, eleven years of age, and, as stated, formed one
+of the merry party of three which met their fate on that terrible afternoon.</td></tr></table>
+
+<p>&nbsp;<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_383" id="Page_383">[Pg 383]</a></span></p>
+<div class="bbox" style="width: 291px; height: 400px;"><img src="images/img77.jpg" alt="" /></div>
+<p class="caption">MRS. ANNA H. DIXON,<br />100 FLOURNOY ST., CHICAGO.</p>
+<table border="0" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="5" summary="table">
+<tr><td class="descrip">Mrs. Dixon attended the matinee with her two daughters, 15 and 9 years of
+age respectively, all being lost in the fire. She was the wife of A. Z.
+Dixon, a well known West Side grocer.</td></tr></table>
+
+<p>&nbsp;</p>
+<div class="bbox" style="width: 197px; height: 400px;"><img src="images/img78.jpg" alt="" /></div>
+<p class="caption">DORA L. REYNOLDS,<br />421 E. 45TH ST., CHICAGO.</p>
+<table border="0" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="5" summary="table">
+<tr><td class="descrip">Dora attended the fateful matinee in company with her mother and her
+cousin, Ruth Stratman, of Dodgeville, Wis. Both the girls were burned to
+death. Mrs. Reynolds being the first to cross the plank to the university building.</td></tr></table>
+
+<p>&nbsp;<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_384" id="Page_384">[Pg 384]</a></span></p>
+<div class="bbox" style="width: 292px; height: 400px;"><img src="images/img79.jpg" alt="" /></div>
+<p class="caption">LEAH F. DIXON,<br />100 FLOURNOY ST., CHICAGO.</p>
+<table border="0" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="5" summary="table">
+<tr><td class="descrip">The daughter of Mr. and Mrs. A. Z. Dixon, fifteen years of age, who with
+her mother and younger sister, was burned to death in the Iroquois theater fire.</td></tr></table>
+
+<p>&nbsp;</p>
+<div class="bbox" style="width: 291px; height: 400px;"><img src="images/img80.jpg" alt="" /></div>
+<p class="caption">EDNA A. DIXON,<br />100 FLOURNOY ST., CHICAGO.</p>
+<table border="0" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="5" summary="table">
+<tr><td class="descrip">The younger daughter of Mr. and Mrs. A. Z. Dixon, 9 years old, who with
+her mother and sister, lost her life in the holocaust.</td></tr></table>
+
+<p>&nbsp;<span class="pagenum"><a name="Page_385" id="Page_385">[Pg 385]</a></span></p>
+<div class="bbox" style="width: 293px; height: 400px;"><img src="images/img81.jpg" alt="" /></div>
+<p class="caption">WALTER BISSINGER, 15 YEARS OLD, CHICAGO.</p>
+<table border="0" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="5" summary="table">
+<tr><td class="descrip">The son of Benjamin Bissinger, the real estate man. The boy had an unusual
+poetic gift. He attended the theater with his cousin and sister, Miss
+Tessie. The latter only was saved.</td></tr></table>
+
+<p>&nbsp;</p>
+<div class="bbox" style="width: 236px; height: 400px;"><img src="images/img82.jpg" alt="" /></div>
+<p class="caption">MISS TESSIE BISSINGER.</p>
+<table border="0" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="5" summary="table">
+<tr><td class="descrip">Who was in the gallery and made a heroic but unsuccessful attempt to save
+her brother, Walter Bissinger, the Boy Poet of Illinois, and her cousin, Jack Pottlitzer, of Lafayette, Ind.</td></tr></table>
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+<pre>
+
+
+
+
+
+End of Project Gutenberg's Chicago's Awful Theater Horror, by Various
+
+*** END OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK CHICAGO'S AWFUL THEATER HORROR ***
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+</body>
+</html>
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+The Project Gutenberg EBook of Chicago's Awful Theater Horror, by Various
+
+This eBook is for the use of anyone anywhere at no cost and with
+almost no restrictions whatsoever.  You may copy it, give it away or
+re-use it under the terms of the Project Gutenberg License included
+with this eBook or online at www.gutenberg.org
+
+
+Title: Chicago's Awful Theater Horror
+
+Author: Various
+
+Release Date: March 27, 2012 [EBook #39280]
+
+Language: English
+
+Character set encoding: ASCII
+
+*** START OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK CHICAGO'S AWFUL THEATER HORROR ***
+
+
+
+
+Produced by The Online Distributed Proofreading Team at
+http://www.pgdp.net (This file was produced from images
+generously made available by The Internet Archive/American
+Libraries.)
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+[Illustration: IN FRONT OF THE THEATER AT THE TIME OF THE FIRE, December
+30th, 1903, 4 P.M.]
+
+
+
+
+  "LEST WE FORGET"
+
+
+  Chicago's Awful Theater Horror
+
+
+  By THE SURVIVORS AND RESCUERS
+
+
+  WITH INTRODUCTION BY
+  BISHOP FALLOWS
+
+
+  Presenting a Vivid Picture, both by Pen and Camera,
+  of One of the Greatest Fire Horrors of Modern Times.
+
+
+  Embracing a Flash-Light Sketch of the Holocaust,
+  Detailed Narratives by Participants in the Horror,
+  Heroic Work of Rescuers, Reports of the Building
+  Experts as to the Responsibility for the Wholesale
+  Slaughter of Women and Children, Memorable Fires
+  of the Past, etc., etc.
+
+
+  PROFUSELY ILLUSTRATED WITH VIEWS OF THE SCENE OF
+  DEATH BEFORE, DURING AND AFTER THE FIRE
+
+
+  MEMORIAL PUBLISHING CO.
+
+
+
+
+  Copyright, 1904, by
+  D. B. McCURDY
+
+
+
+
+[Illustration: HON. CARTER H. HARRISON, Mayor of Chicago.]
+
+[Illustration: LEADING ACTRESS IN THE "BLUEBEARD, JR.," COMPANY. MISS
+BONNIE MAGINN.]
+
+[Illustration: DOOR TO THE FIRE ESCAPE THAT COULD NOT BE OPENED; MANY DIED
+HERE.]
+
+[Illustration: FRONT VIEW OF THE IROQUOIS THEATER.]
+
+[Illustration: MEASURING THE EXIT WHERE HUNDREDS WERE KILLED AND BURNED.]
+
+[Illustration: FIREMEN RESCUING THE LIVING.]
+
+[Illustration: JEWELRY AND CLOTHING OF THE VICTIMS OF THE FIRE.]
+
+[Illustration: IN FRONT OF THE THEATER; LAYING DEAD ON THE SIDEWALK.]
+
+[Illustration: FRONT ROWS OF SEATS AND FRONT OF STAGE.]
+
+[Illustration: RUINS ON THE STAGE.]
+
+[Illustration: SKYLIGHT ON ROOF OF THEATER, WHICH WAS NAILED DOWN DURING
+THE FIRE.]
+
+[Illustration: BACK PART OF THE THEATER WHILE THE FIRE RAGED.]
+
+
+
+
+INTRODUCTION.
+
+By the RT. REV. SAMUEL FALLOWS, D.D., LL.D.
+
+
+When Chicago was burning, a little girl in a christian home in a
+neighboring city stamped her foot indignantly on the floor and said: "Why
+doesn't God put out the fire?"
+
+The cry of many an agonized heart, beating in children of a larger growth,
+has been: "Why doesn't a God of wisdom and love prevent such an awful
+occurrence as the Iroquois fire?" "I have lost all faith in God," said a
+dear friend of mine, as its full meaning began to break upon him.
+
+When we were carrying out the dying and the dead from that horrible
+darkness and choking smoke to the outer air, those of us who were wont to
+pray could only say, "O God have mercy! O God have mercy!"
+
+But there must be no panic in our faculties. Reason must not desert her
+rightful throne. Blinded by tears, we must not in our consuming passion of
+resentment against the sickening catastrophe, attempt with our puny arms
+to strike against God. He did not cause the calamity. No responsibility
+for it can be rolled upon Him. God is law; and his laws had been palpably
+broken by human negligence and incompetency. God is love; and human greed
+and selfishness had violated every principle of love which "worketh no ill
+to his neighbor."
+
+God cannot coerce man, as one by sheer brute force can another. The savage
+father may break both the body and soul of his child. Not so God, those of
+his children. Man must render a voluntary obedience to the Divine command.
+By pains and crosses and sorrows and shame he may be led to that
+surrender. But he must say with a free, princely spirit at last, "I will
+to do thy will O God."
+
+It is the old problem of evil with which this terrible tragedy has brought
+us face to face. The generic evil, out of which all evils spring, every
+giant intellect of the ages has grappled with, and it has thrown them all.
+The question is not "Why should God permit this special evil to come to
+us, which has well nigh paralyzed our city and thrilled the civilized
+world both with horror and sympathy, but why did he create the world at
+all and put man upon it?" The finite cannot measure the Infinite.
+Imperfection belongs to the one; perfection to the other. Where there is
+imperfection there is always the possibility of evil.
+
+A reverent faith will bow before the mystery and yet master it with an
+undaunted courage. Evil must exist if the Universe is to be. The Universe
+is, and it is the best possible Universe God can create. If he could have
+given us a better one he would not be the God we revere.
+
+Evil is the vast, dark background against which He brings out the
+brightest pictures of beauty and life. From a "Paradise Lost" comes forth
+a "Paradise Regained" with its transcendent glory of progress, and
+allegiance to law and love.
+
+  "Calvary and Easter Day,
+    Earth's saddest day and gladdest day,
+    Were but one day apart."
+
+God did not forsake his son in that supreme hour of anguish upon the
+Cross, when he cried out "My God, My God, why hast thou forsaken me?" He
+has never forsaken his world, nor the sinning and suffering souls that are
+in it. "God in history," is faith's jubilant assertion. He is in its
+minutest incidents and in its mightiest events, "in the rocking of a
+baby's cradle and the shaking of a monarch's throne," in the fiery furnace
+of the Iroquois Theater and in the most joyous assembly of his adoring
+saints.
+
+God permitted this great evil in harmony with man's free will; he did not
+cause it. The evidence is overwhelming that human law, as well as divine
+law, had been consciously or unconsciously defied. Two thousand lives or
+more were brought together in a building professedly fire-proof, and
+warranted as the best, because the latest of its kind, in the city if not
+of the continent. It was not fire proof. The law forbade the crowding of
+aisles; they were filled from end to end, until almost every inch of
+standing room was taken up. The unusual number of exits was boasted of.
+Most of them were unseen or actually bolted and locked. The alleged fire
+proof curtain was a flimsy sham, and was resolved in almost a moment of
+time, into scattered fragments by the surging flames. The scenery was of
+the most combustible material, loaded down with paint and oil. Not a
+bucket of water was on the stage, and only one water stand-pipe without
+any hose. There never had been a fire apparatus of any kind in the balcony
+or the gallery. There was none in the auditorium except one small water
+stand pipe. There was not a fireman to answer the call for help. At no
+time had there been a fire drill by the employes of the theater. There
+were no notices posted to tell what to do in case of fire. There was no
+fire alarm box anywhere in the structure. Common prudence and common sense
+were completely set aside. Coroner Traeger in advance of the final finding
+of the jury, is reported to have said: "Sufficient proof has been already
+found to show that there was gross mismanagement and carelessness. There
+is no need of denial. Instead of being the safest theater in Chicago, the
+Iroquois was the unsafest."
+
+But He who "maketh the wrath of man to praise him," who is ever bringing
+good out of evil, will overrule and is already overruling this dire
+calamity for the well being of mankind.
+
+As I looked upon the charred and mangled and bruised bodies of tender
+women and little children and once strong men; as I listened to the moans
+of agony, and the cry of the living, tortured ones for help and for loved
+friends whom they had left behind or been separated from as the fiery
+blast swept them onward and outward, I said in my haste, "you all are
+'martyrs by the pang without the palm'." I do not say it now. Martyrs
+indeed they were, by the criminal neglect of recreant men. But the palm is
+theirs. They have saved others, themselves they could not save. Thousands,
+perhaps millions, will in the future be secure in their places of resort,
+because these went on that fateful day to their inevitable doom. Mayors,
+architects, fire-inspectors, managers, stage carpenters, electricians,
+ushers and chiefs of police in every city have had their duty burned into
+their inmost consciousness by this consuming fire.
+
+Human law, which has been so flagrantly set at naught, demands punishment.
+The public conscience will be outraged if the guilty parties do not meet
+stern, inexorable justice. It is not vengeance that is sought, for
+"Vengeance is mine, I will repay, saith the Lord."
+
+But those who are immediately responsible, have not been the only
+transgressors, although they must suffer for their own guilt, and also
+vicariously for the sins of omission by others. For we have all sinned and
+come short of our duty. A common blame rests upon the whole community.
+Many a minister has been preaching upon the fire, but has his own church,
+perhaps crowded to the door, been safe while his eager congregation has
+listened to his impassioned utterances? Suppose the unexpected had
+happened, and the cry of fire had been heard and bursting flames been
+seen, would his hearers have escaped unhurt? Not if the church doors swung
+inward instead of outward; not if the means of escape were not abundant;
+not if camp chairs blocked the passages to the street. Who then would have
+been responsible? The clergymen, the church officers, the janitor, with
+the municipal or legal authorities would have had to share the blame.
+
+Nearly two score of our city school teachers perished in the theater. How
+many school buildings are in such an imperfect condition today that
+thousands of young lives are in constant danger? Suppose again the
+unexpected should happen and tragedies be enacted which might even surpass
+the Iroquois disaster, would the Mayor, and his subordinates and the Board
+of Education and the teachers be held guiltless? Yet that fearful
+contingency might have taken place.
+
+It is a question seriously to be considered whether or not the great
+majority of the apartment buildings in Chicago have the doors of the main
+entrance swinging outwards. I have climbed to the fourth and fifth stories
+of some of these edifices in which there are dark, narrow stair cases, and
+all the doors swing inwards. There is not a single element of fire
+proofing in them. I have gone up, in open elevators, in manufactories and
+office buildings where scores and hundreds of persons are employed, and
+have never felt safe a moment while remaining in them. They are fire traps
+of the worst description.
+
+There are hotels whose very construction invites the devouring flames.
+There are stores crowded literally with thousands of persons on special
+occasions, where the consequences in case of fire would eclipse by far the
+Iroquois holocaust. No coaxing, or pleading, or grafting, or business
+considerations should stand in the way both of speedy condemnation and
+renovation in all these cases by our city officers.
+
+Man is greater than Mammon. The sanctity of human life must be held
+supreme. The body is more than raiment and the soul than the body. A new
+civic spirit must pervade the people as the saltness the sea. Duty must
+tower infinitely above self-indulgence. Law must take the place of luck.
+
+The plain lesson for our whole country and the world is to be alert to
+meet the dangers which may menace human life in the home, the workshop,
+the manufactory, the hotel, the theater, the church. Let ample means of
+exit be provided and always known to audiences. The tendency to a panic is
+always increased when people are apprehensive of danger and believe that
+they are hemmed in. Fear is contagious. A crowd feels and does not reason.
+Self-preservation, the first law of nature, asserts itself the more
+vehemently when the way of escape is uncertain. Panics may not always be
+prevented, but their dangers will be greatly diminished if every
+individual knows that he may with comparative leisure get out when he
+wishes so to do.
+
+In the theater let it be known that every modern contrivance has been
+employed to secure safety. Let the curtain be of steel and so arranged
+that it will have full play to work in its grooves. Let automatic
+sprinklers be provided. Let the firemen in costume be in plain sight. Let
+the policemen be in full evidence. Let the aisles always be clear. Let
+there be ample room between the seats, and let the seats be easily raised
+to afford rapid departure. Let the ushers be drilled like soldiers to keep
+their places and allay confusion. All these and other things of like
+character appeal forcibly to the reasoning powers and tend to give an
+audience self command.
+
+In many of our public schools the pupils are occasionally called from
+their rooms, during recitation hours, and promptly assembling are marched
+in an orderly way out of the building. This is an excellent plan.
+
+Two marked instances of superb self-control among children in the panic at
+the Iroquois theater have been brought to my notice. Two little daughters
+of a highly esteemed friend slid down the balusters from the upper balcony
+and reached the main floor unhurt. One of my Sunday School teachers met a
+young lad she knew, leading by the hand a girl younger than himself to her
+home. They were sitting together when the stampede took place. "Jump on my
+shoulders," said the boy. Then holding her fast by her feet, he said: "Now
+use your fists and fight for all you're worth." Bending his head he forced
+his way with his conquering heroine to life. Let every safeguard that
+human ingenuity can devise be furnished and yet there always remains the
+personal element to be taken into the account. Habitual practice of
+self-control in daily life will help give coolness and calmness in times
+of peril. Keeping one's head in the ordinary things prevents its losing
+when the extraordinary occurs.
+
+Samuel Fallows.
+
+
+
+
+TABLE OF CONTENTS
+
+
+                                                            Page
+
+  CHAPTER I.
+
+  THE STORY OF THE FIRE                                       33
+
+  WAVE OF FLAME GREETS AUDIENCE--FEW REALIZE APPALLING
+  RESULT--DROP WHERE THEY STAND--MANY HEROES ARE
+  DEVELOPED--DEAD PILED IN HEAPS--EXITS WERE CHOKED
+  WITH BODIES--SURVEY SCENE WITH HORROR--FIND BUSHELS
+  OF PURSES.
+
+
+  CHAPTER II.
+
+  FIRST AID TO THE INJURED AND CARE FOR THE DEAD              51
+
+  GREAT PILES OF CHARRED BODIES FOUND EVERYWHERE IN THE
+  THEATER--MOAN INSPIRES WORKERS IN MAD EFFORT TO
+  SAVE--NONE LEFT ALIVE IN GALLERY--DEAD AND DYING
+  CARRIED INTO NEARBY RESTAURANT BY SCORES--TERRIBLE
+  REALITY COMES TO AWESTRICKEN CROWD--ONE LIFE BROUGHT
+  BACK FROM DEATH--ONE HUNDRED FEET IN AIR, POLICE
+  CARRY INJURED ACROSS ALLEY--CROWDS OF ANXIOUS
+  FRIENDS--BALCONY AND GALLERY CLEARED--FINANCE
+  COMMITTEE OF CITY COUNCIL ACTS PROMPTLY.
+
+
+  CHAPTER III.
+
+  TAKING AWAY AND IDENTIFYING THE DEAD                        67
+
+  HEARTRENDING SCENES WITNESSED AT THE UNDERTAKING
+  ESTABLISHMENTS--FRIENDS AND RELATIVES EAGERLY SEARCH
+  FOR LOVED ONES MISSING AFTER THEATER HOLOCAUST.
+
+
+  CHAPTER IV.
+
+  SCENES OF HORROR AS VIEWED FROM THE STAGE                   77
+
+  STORY OF HOW A SMALL BLAZE TERMINATED IN TERRIBLE
+  LOSS--ORCHESTRA PLAYS IN FACE OF DEATH--CLOWN PROVES
+  A HERO--ALL HOPE LOST FOR GALLERY.
+
+
+  CHAPTER V.
+
+  EXCITING EXPERIENCES IN THE FIRE                            86
+
+  EXPERIENCE OF CHICAGO UNIVERSITY MEN--BISHOP BRAVES
+  DANGER IN HEROIC WORK OF RESCUE--WOMEN AND FOUR
+  CHILDREN SUFFER--LEARNS CHILDREN HAVE ESCAPED--FINDS
+  HIS DAUGHTER--MR. FIELD'S NARRATIVE--NARROW ESCAPES
+  OF YOUNG AND OLD--PULLS WOMEN FROM MASS ON FLOOR.
+
+
+  CHAPTER VI.
+
+  HEROES OF THE FIRE                                          94
+
+  PILES OF DEAD IN THE GALLERY--EDDIE FOY'S HEROISM--AN
+  ELEVATOR BOY HERO--TWO BALCONY HEROES--THE MUSICAL
+  DIRECTOR'S STORY--CHILD SAVES HIS BROTHER.
+
+
+  CHAPTER VII.
+
+  THE ORIGIN OF THE FIRE--THE ASBESTOS CURTAIN AND THE
+  LIGHTS                                                     105
+
+  ACCOUNT OF THE FIRE'S ORIGIN--WERE ELECTRIC LIGHTS
+  TURNED OUT?--STATEMENT OF MESSRS. DAVIS AND POWERS,
+  MANAGERS OF THE THEATER--FIRST RELIABLE STATEMENT AS
+  TO WHY THE CURTAIN DID NOT COME DOWN--ANOTHER STORY
+  AS TO WHY THE CURTAIN DID NOT LOWER--THE THEATER
+  FIREMAN'S NARRATIVE--THE STAGE CARPENTER--THE CHIEF
+  ELECTRICAL INSPECTOR'S TALE--ONE OF THE COMEDIANS
+  SPEAKS--ABOUT THE LIGHTS.
+
+
+  CHAPTER VIII.
+
+  SUGGESTIONS OF ARCHITECTS AND OTHER EXPERTS AS TO
+  AVOIDING LIKE CALAMITIES                                   116
+
+  ROBERT S. LINDSTROM'S SUGGESTIONS--THE ARCHITECT
+  SPEAKS--EXAMINATION BY ARCHITECTURAL EDITOR--PROPOSED
+  PRECAUTIONS FOR NEW YORK THEATERS.
+
+
+  CHAPTER IX.
+
+  THIRTY EXITS, YET HUNDREDS PERISH IN AWFUL BLAST           123
+
+  HORRIBLE SIGHT MET THE FIREMEN UPON ENTERING
+  AUDITORIUM--THE GALLERY HORROR--GIRL'S MIRACULOUS
+  ESCAPE--AN ACCOUNT FROM THE BOXES--INSPECTION AFTER
+  THE FIRE--A YOUNG HEROINE--A NARROW ESCAPE--FINDS
+  WIFE IN HOSPITAL--A MIRACULOUS AND UNCONSCIOUS
+  ESCAPE--LITTLE GIRL'S MARVELOUS ESCAPE--FOUR
+  GENERATIONS REPRESENTED--DAUGHTERS AND
+  GRANDDAUGHTERS GONE.
+
+
+  CHAPTER X.
+
+  HOW THE NEW YEAR WAS USHERED IN                            137
+
+  MOURNING IN EVERY STREET--NOISE SEEMS A SACRILEGE--
+  MAYOR ASKS FOR SILENCE--MERRIMENT IS SUBDUED--CITY
+  OF MOURNING--BUSINESS WORLD IN MOURNING.
+
+
+  CHAPTER XI.
+
+  A SABBATH OF WOE                                           143
+
+  SEVEN TURNER VICTIMS--SAD SCENES AT WOLFF HOME--
+  PATHETIC SCENE AT CHURCH--BURY CHILDREN AND
+  GRAND-CHILDREN--FIVE DEAD IN ONE HOUSE--ENTIRE FAMILY
+  IS BURIED--MRS. FOX AND THREE CHILDREN--MRS. ARTHUR
+  E. HULL AND CHILDREN--HERBERT AND AGNES LANGE--
+  SWEETHEARTS BURIED AT THE SAME TIME--FIVE BURIED IN
+  ONE GRAVE--BOYS AS PALLBEARERS--WINNETKA SADDENED--
+  MOTHER AND DAUGHTERS BURIED TOGETHER--HOLD TRIPLE
+  FUNERAL--WOMEN FAINT IN CHURCH--LIFE-LONG FRIENDS
+  MEET IN DEATH--EDWARD AND MARGARET DEE--MISS E. D.
+  MANN AND NIECE--ELLA AND EDITH FRECKELTON--MISS
+  FRANCES LEHMAN.
+
+
+  CHAPTER XII.
+
+  WHAT OF THE PLAYERS?                                       152
+
+  THE CHORUS GIRL--THE MUSICAL DIRECTOR--THE JOY OF
+  THE OPENING--SPENDTHRIFT HABITS--GAMBLING, PURE AND
+  SIMPLE--THE SHOW ON THE ROAD--THE ONE-NIGHT STAND--
+  THE "MR. BLUEBEARD" COMPANY.
+
+
+  CHAPTER XIII.
+
+  OTHER HOLOCAUSTS                                           181
+
+
+  CHAPTER XIV.
+
+  STORIES AND NARRATIVES OF THE HOLOCAUST                    193
+
+  MRS. SCHWEITZLER'S STORY OF THE BURNING OF THE
+  CURTAIN--ESCAPE OF MOTHER AND TWO SMALL CHILDREN--
+  EXPRESSION OF THE DEAD--ONLY SURVIVOR OF LARGE
+  THEATER PARTY--ALL HIS FAMILY GONE--A FAMILY PARTY
+  BURNED--CARRIES DAUGHTER'S BODY HOME IN HIS ARMS--SAD
+  ERROR IN IDENTIFICATION--THE HANGER OF THE ASBESTOS
+  CURTAIN--KEEPSAKES OF THE DEAD--THE SCENE AT
+  THOMPSON'S RESTAURANT--LIKE A FIELD OF BATTLE--WOMEN
+  EAGER TO HELP--STEADY STREAM OF BODIES--CLOTHING TORN
+  TO SHREDS--PRAYERS FOR THE DYING--CHILD SAVED FROM
+  DEATH BY BALLET GIRL--PRIEST GIVES ABSOLUTION TO
+  DYING FIRE VICTIMS--LITTLE BOY THANKS GOD FOR
+  CHANGING HIS LUCK--USE PLACER MINER METHODS--DAUGHTER
+  OF A. H. REVELL ESCAPES--PHILADELPHIA PARTNER IN
+  THEATER HORRIFIED--ALL KENOSHA IN MOURNING--FIVE OF
+  ONE FAMILY DEAD--COOPER BROTHERS DEEPLY MOURNED.
+
+
+  CHAPTER XV.
+
+  SOCIETY WOMEN AND GIRLS' CLUBS                             214
+
+  MISS CHARLOTTE PLAMONDON'S ACCOUNT OF THE FIRE--
+  SCREAMS OF TERROR HEARD--CHORUS GIRLS ESCAPE, PARTLY
+  CLAD--FOY TRIES TO PREVENT PANIC--ESCAPE OF ANOTHER
+  SOCIETY WOMAN--MINNEAPOLIS WOMAN'S STORY OF THE
+  FIRE--GIRLS' CLUBS SORELY STRICKEN.
+
+
+  CHAPTER XVI.                                               220
+
+  EDDIE FOY'S SWORN TESTIMONY--DESCRIBES STAGE
+  BOX--CURTAIN WOULD NOT COME DOWN--LIGHT NEAR THE
+  FIRE--SAW NO EXTINGUISHERS--TALKS OF APPARATUS--ONLY
+  ONE EXIT OPEN--WIRE ACROSS AUDITORIUM.
+
+
+  CHAPTER XVII.
+
+  EFFECT OF THE FIRE NEAR AND FAR                            230
+
+  NEW YORK THEATERS AND SCHOOLS--CRUSADE IN PITTSBURG--
+  WASHINGTON THEATER OWNERS ARRESTED--MASSACHUSETTS
+  THEATERS INVESTIGATED--ACTION IN MILWAUKEE--
+  PRECAUTIONS AT ST. LOUIS--ORDERS AFFECTING OMAHA
+  THEATERS--EFFECT ABROAD--HORROR FELT IN LONDON--
+  LONDON THEATER PRECAUTIONS--PRESENT RULES FOR LONDON
+  THEATERS--CURTAIN OFTEN TESTED--CLOSE WATCH FOR
+  FIRE--TREE TELLS OF RUSE--FORTUNE FOR SAFETY--W. C.
+  ZIMMERMAN ON EUROPEAN THEATERS--THE EFFECT ON GAY
+  PARIS--UPHEAVAL OF BERLIN THEATRICAL WORLD--MR.
+  SHAVER ON BERLIN THEATERS--VIENNA RECALLS A HORROR
+  OF ITS OWN--THE NETHERLANDS AND SCANDINAVIA.
+
+
+  CHAPTER XVIII.
+
+  SUGGESTIONS FOR SAFE THEATERS                              243
+
+  FRANCIS WILSON SAYS "NO STEPS"--STAIRCASES WITH
+  RAILINGS--PRECAUTIONS ENFORCED IN LONDON--WHAT THE
+  CHICAGO CITY ENGINEER SAYS--OPINION OF A FIREPROOF
+  EXPERT--ILLUMINATED EXIT SIGNS.
+
+
+  CHAPTER XIX.
+
+  THE SWORN TESTIMONY OF THE SURVIVORS                       251
+
+  THE FIRST WITNESS--MARLOWE'S EXPERIENCE--MUSICAL
+  DIRECTOR'S SWORN STATEMENT--MRS. PETRY'S ESCAPE--UP
+  AGAINST LOCKED DOORS--BLOWN INTO THE ALLEY--JUST OUT
+  IN TIME--SPORTING MEN TESTIFY--AN ELGIN PHYSICIAN'S
+  TALE--MR. MENHARD'S DIFFICULT EXIT--THE THEATER
+  ENGINEER--A SCHOOL GIRL'S ACCOUNT.
+
+
+  CHAPTER XX.
+
+  LACK OF FIRE SAFEGUARDS                                    271
+
+  A UNIVERSITY STUDENT'S STORY--A CLERGYMAN'S STORY--
+  THE FLY MAN'S STORY--SCHOOL TEACHER'S THRILLING
+  EXPERIENCE--GLEN VIEW MAN'S EXPERIENCE--THE LIGHT
+  OPERATOR--THE JAMMED THEATER--GAS EXPLOSION HOURS
+  BEFORE THE FIRE--PANIC AMONG THEATER EMPLOYEES--AN
+  EX-USHER'S WORDS.
+
+
+  CHAPTER XXI.
+
+  IRON GATES, DEATH'S ALLY                                   300
+
+  EVIDENCE OF GEORGE M. DUSENBERRY, SUPERINTENDENT OF
+  THE THEATER--PURPOSE OF THE TWO IRON GATES--NEVER
+  ANY FIRE DRILLS--GATES WERE BATTERED--DIDN'T BOTHER
+  ABOUT LOCKED DOORS.
+
+
+  CHAPTER XXII.
+
+  DANCED IN PRESENCE OF DEATH                                306
+
+
+  CHAPTER XXIII.
+
+  JOIN TO AVENGE SLAUGHTER OF INNOCENTS                      312
+
+  ATTORNEY T. D. KNIGHT SPEAKS--CORONER'S WORK
+  THROUGH--REMARKS BY ELIZABETH HALEY.
+
+
+  CHAPTER XXIV.
+
+  AWFUL PROPHECY FULFILLED                                   317
+
+  MOURNING AND INDIGNATION--NOTHING ELSE SO
+  HORRIBLE--UNFORTUNATE VICTIMS--FIRE! FIRE!--BEFORE
+  THE DISASTER--THE HOLOCAUST--THE STAMPEDE BEGINS--
+  ONE OF STUPENDOUS HORRORS--CURSED AND BLASPHEMED--
+  DEAD BODIES FOUND--SUDDENLY AND FOREVER PARTED--THE
+  FRENZY OF FRIENDS--TOO HORRIBLE TO DWELL UPON--HOW
+  THE THEATERS SHOULD BE BUILT.
+
+
+  CHAPTER XXV.
+
+  LIST OF THE DEAD                                           325
+
+
+  CHAPTER XXVI.
+
+  THE STORY OF THE BURNING OF BALTIMORE                      357
+
+
+
+
+MEMORIAL PRAYER.
+
+The Rt. Rev. Samuel Fallows wrote this prayer for Chicago on its appointed
+day of mourning. It is a prayer for all mourners of all creeds:
+
+    "O God, our Heavenly Father, we pray for an unshaken faith in Thy
+    goodness as our hearts are bowed in anguish before Thee.
+
+    Come with Thy touch of healing to those who are suffering fiery pain.
+
+    Open wide the gates of Paradise to the dying.
+
+    Comfort with the infinite riches of Thy grace the bereaved and
+    mourning ones.
+
+    Forgive and counteract all our sins of omission and commission.
+
+    All this we ask for Thy dear name and mercy's sake. Amen."
+
+
+
+
+MEMORIAL HYMN.
+
+Bishop Muldoon selected as the one familiar hymn most deeply expressive of
+the city's mourning, "Lead, Kindly Light," which he declared should be the
+united song of all Chicagoans on Memorial Day.
+
+  "Lead, kindly Light, amid th' encircling gloom,
+              Lead Thou me on;
+  The night is dark, and I am far from home,
+              Lead Thou me on.
+  Keep Thou my feet; I do not ask to see
+  The distant scene; one step enough for me.
+
+  I was not ever thus, nor prayed that Thou
+              Shouldst lead me on;
+  I loved to choose and see my path; but now
+              Lead Thou me on.
+  I loved the garish day, and, spite of fears,
+  Pride ruled my will: remember not past years.
+
+  So long Thy power hath blessed me, sure it still
+              Will lead me on
+  O'er moor and fen, o'er crag and torrent, till
+              The night is gone,
+  And with the morn those angel faces smile,
+  Which I have loved long since, and lost awhile."
+
+
+
+
+POEM BY A CHILD VICTIM.
+
+The following poem, written by Walter Bissinger, a boy victim of the
+Iroquois Theater fire, fifteen years old, was composed two years ago, in
+honor of the tenth anniversary of the youthful poet's uncle and aunt, Mr.
+and Mrs. Max Pottlitzer, of Lafayette, Ind., whose son Jack, aged ten,
+perished with his cousin in the terrible disaster:
+
+  HAVE A THOUGHT.
+
+  I.
+
+  Have a thought for the days that are long gone by
+      To the country of What-has-been,
+  And a thought for the ones that unseen lie
+          'Neath the mystic veil
+          Of the future pale,
+      As the years roll out and in.
+
+
+  II.
+
+  Have a thought for the host and hostess here,
+      Aunt Emily and Uncle Max,
+  And a thought for our friends to our hearts so dear
+          That around us tonight
+          In the joyous light
+      Of pleasure their souls relax
+
+
+  III.
+
+  Have a thought for the happy two tonight
+      Who have passed their tenth wedded year,
+  And the best of wishes, kind and bright,
+          Which we impart
+          With a loving heart
+      That is faithful and sincere.
+
+
+
+
+VERDICT OF CORONER'S JURY.
+
+From the testimony presented to us we, the jury, find the following were
+the causes of said fire:
+
+Grand drapery coming in contact with electric flood or arc light, situated
+on iron platform on the right hand of stage, facing the auditorium.
+
+City laws were not complied with relating to building ordinances
+regulating fire-alarm boxes, fire apparatus, damper or flues on and over
+the stage and fly galleries.
+
+We also find a distinct violation of ordinance governing fireproofing of
+scenery and all woodwork on or about the stage.
+
+Asbestos curtain totally destroyed; wholly inadequate, considering the
+highly inflammable nature of all stage fittings, and owing to the fact
+that the same was hung on wooden bottoms.
+
+Building ordinances violated inclosing aisles on each side of lower boxes
+and not having any fire apparatus, dampers or signs designating exits on
+balcony.
+
+
+LACK OF FIRE APPARATUS.
+
+Building ordinances violated regulating fire apparatus and signs
+designating exits on dress circle.
+
+Building ordinances violated regulating fire apparatus and signs
+designating exits on balcony.
+
+Generally the building is constructed of the best material and well
+planned, with the exception of the top balcony, which was built too steep
+and therefore difficult for people to get out of especially in case of an
+emergency.
+
+We also note a serious defect in the wide stairs in extreme top east
+entrance leading to ladies' lavatory and gallery promenade, same being
+misleading, as many people mistook this for a regular exit, and, going as
+far as they could, were confronted with a locked door which led to a
+private stairway preventing many from escape and causing the loss of
+fifty to sixty lives.
+
+
+HOLDING OF DAVIS AND HARRISON.
+
+We hold Will J. Davis, as president and general manager, principally
+responsible for the foregoing violations in the failure to see that the
+Iroquois theater was properly equipped as required by city ordinances, and
+that his employes were not sufficiently instructed and drilled for any and
+all emergencies; and we, the jury, recommend that the said Will J. Davis
+be held to the grand jury until discharged by due course of law.
+
+We hold Carter H. Harrison, mayor of the city of Chicago, responsible, as
+he has shown a lamentable lack of force in his efforts to shirk
+responsibility, evidenced by testimony of Building Commissioner George
+Williams and Fire Marshal William H. Musham as heads of departments under
+the said Carter H. Harrison; following this weak course has given Chicago
+inefficient service, which makes such calamities as the Iroquois theater
+horror a menace until the public service is purged of incompetents; and
+we, the jury, recommend that the said Carter H. Harrison be held to the
+grand jury until discharged by due course of law.
+
+
+RESPONSIBILITY OF WILLIAMS.
+
+We hold the said George Williams, as building commissioner, responsible
+for gross neglect of his duty in allowing the Iroquois Theater to open its
+doors to the public when the said theater was incomplete, and did not
+comply with the requirements of the building ordinances of the city of
+Chicago; and we, the jury, recommend that the said George Williams be held
+to the grand jury until discharged by due process of law.
+
+We hold Edward Loughlin, as building inspector, responsible for gross
+neglect of duty and glaring incompetency in reporting the Iroquois theater
+"O. K." on a most superficial inspection; and we, the jury, recommend
+that the said Edward Loughlin be held to the grand jury until discharged
+by due course of law.
+
+We hold William H. Musham, fire marshal, responsible for gross neglect of
+duty in not enforcing the city ordinances as they relate to his
+department, and failure to have his subordinate, William Sallers, fireman
+at the Iroquois Theater, report the lack of fire apparatus and appliances
+as required by law; and we, the jury, recommend that the said William H.
+Musham be held to the grand jury until discharged by due course of law.
+
+
+NEGLECT OF DUTY BY SALLERS.
+
+We hold the said William Sallers, as fireman of Iroquois Theater, for
+gross neglect of duty in not reporting the lack of proper fire apparatus
+and appliances; and we, the jury, recommend that the said William Sallers
+be held to the grand jury until discharged by due course of law.
+
+We hold William McMullen, electric-light operator, for gross neglect and
+carelessness in performance of duty; and we, the jury, recommend that the
+said William McMullen be held to the grand jury until discharged by due
+process of law.
+
+We hold James E. Cummings, as stage carpenter and general superintendent
+of stage, responsible for gross carelessness and neglect of duty in not
+equipping the stage with proper fire apparatus and appliances; and we, the
+jury, recommend that the said James E. Cummings be held to the grand jury
+until discharged by due course of law.
+
+From testimony presented to this jury, same shows a laxity and
+carelessness in city officials and their routine in transacting business,
+which calls for revision by the mayor and city council; and we, the jury
+demand immediate action on the following:
+
+
+BUILDING DEPARTMENT.
+
+Should have classified printed lists, to be filled out by an inspector,
+then signed by head of department, before any public building can secure
+amusement license, and record kept thereof in duplicate carbon book.
+
+All fire escapes should have separate passageways to the ground, without
+passing any openings in the walls.
+
+All scenery and paraphernalia of any kind kept on the stage should be
+absolutely fireproof.
+
+Asbestos curtains should be reinforced by steel curtains and held by steel
+cables.
+
+There should be two electric mains entering all places of amusement, one
+from the front, with switchboard in box office, controlling entire
+auditorium and exits, and one on stage, to be used for theatrical
+purposes.
+
+All city officials and employes should familiarize themselves with city
+ordinances as they relate to their respective departments, and pass a
+rigid and signed examination on same before they are given positions. This
+same rule should be made to apply to those holding office.
+
+
+FIRE DEPARTMENT.
+
+All theaters and public places should be supplied with at least two city
+firemen, who shall be under the direction of the fire department and paid
+by the proprietors of said places.
+
+We recommend that the office and detail work of the fire department, as
+imposed on the fire marshal, be made a separate and distinct work from
+fire fighting, as it is hardly to be expected of any fire marshal to give
+good and efficient service in both of these branches.
+
+Also a police officer in full uniform detailed in and about said place at
+each and every performance.
+
+In testimony wherof, the said coroner and jury of this inquest have
+hereunto set their hands the day and year aforesaid.
+
+  L. H. MEYER, Foreman,      PETER BYRNES,
+  J. A. CUMMINGS,            WALTER D. CLINGMAN,
+  JOHN E. FINN,              GEORGE W. ATKIN.
+        JOHN E. TRAEGER, Coroner.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER I.
+
+THE STORY OF THE FIRE.
+
+
+No disaster, by flood, volcano, wreck or convulsion of nature has in
+recent times aroused such horror as swept over the civilized world when on
+December 30, 1903, a death-dealing blast of flame hurtled through the
+packed auditorium of the Iroquois theater, Chicago, causing the loss of
+nearly 600 lives of men, women and children, and injuries to unknown
+scores.
+
+Strong words pale and appear meaningless when used in describing the full
+enormity of this disaster, which has no recent parallel save in the
+outbreaks of nature's irresistible forces. There have been greater losses
+of life by volcanoes, earthquakes and floods, but no fire horror of modern
+times has equaled this one, which in a brief half-hour turned a beautiful
+million-dollar theater into an oven piled high with corpses, some burned
+and mutilated and others almost unmarked in death.
+
+Coming, as it did, in the midst of a holiday season, when the second
+greatest city in the United States was reveling in the gaiety of Christmas
+week, this sudden transformation of a playhouse filled with a
+pleasure-seeking throng into an inferno filled with shrieking living and
+mutilated dead, came as a thunderbolt from a clear sky.
+
+It was a typical holiday matinee crowd, composed mostly of women and
+children, with here and there a few men. The production was the gorgeous
+scenic extravaganza "_Mr. Bluebeard_," with which the handsome new theater
+had been opened not a month before. "Don't fail to have the children see
+'_Mr. Bluebeard_,'" was the advertisement spread broadcast throughout the
+city, and the children were there in force when the scorching sheet of
+flame leaped from the stage into the balcony and gallery where a thousand
+were packed.
+
+The building had been heralded abroad as a "fireproof structure," with
+more than enough exits. Ushers and five men in city uniform were in the
+aisles. All was apparently safety, mirth and good cheer.
+
+Then came the transformation scene!
+
+The auditorium and the stage were darkened for the popular song "The Pale
+Moonlight." Eight dashing chorus girls and eight stalwart men in showy
+costume strolled through the measures of the piece, bathed in a flood of
+dazzling light. Up in the scenes a stage electrician was directing the
+"spot-light" which threw the pale moonlight effect on the stage.
+
+Suddenly there was a startled cry. Far overhead where the "spot" was
+shooting forth its brilliant ray of concentrated light a tiny serpentine
+tongue of flame crept over the inside of the proscenium drape. It was an
+insignificant thing, yet the horrible possibilities it entailed flashed
+over all in an instant. A spark from the light had communicated to the
+rough edge of the heavy cloth drape. Like a flash it stole across the
+proscenium and high up into the gridiron above.
+
+Accustomed as they were to insignificant fire scares and trying ordeals
+that are seldom the lot of those who lead a less strenuous life, the
+people of the stage hurried silently to the task of stamping out the
+blaze. In the orchestra pit it could readily be seen that something was
+radically wrong, but the trained musicians played on.
+
+Members of the octette cast their eyes above and saw the tiny tongue of
+flame growing into a whirling maelstrom of fire. But it was a sight they
+had seen before. Surely something would happen to extinguish it. America's
+newest and most modern fireproof playhouse was not going to disappear
+before an insignificant fire in the rigging loft. So they continued to
+sway in sinuous steps to the rhythm of the throbbing orchestra. Their
+presence stilled the nervousness of the vast audience, which knew that
+something was wrong, but had no means of realizing what that something
+was.
+
+So the gorgeously attired men and dashing, voluptuous young women danced
+on. The throng feasted its eyes on the moving scene of life and color,
+little knowing that for them it was the last dance--the dance of death!
+
+That dance was not the only one in progress. Far above the element of
+death danced from curtain to curtain. The fire fiend, red and glowing with
+exultation, snapping and crackling in anticipation of the feast before it,
+grew beyond all bounds. Glowing embers and blazing sparks--crumbs from its
+table--began to shower upon the merry dancers, and they fell back with
+blanched faces and trembling limbs. Eddie Foy rushed to the front of the
+stage to reassure the spectators, who now realized the peril at hand and
+rose in their seats struggling against the impulse to fly. Others joined
+the comedian in his plea for calmness.
+
+Suddenly their voices were drowned in a volley of sounds like the booming
+of great guns. The manila lines by which the carloads of scenery in the
+loft above was suspended gave way before the fire like so much paper and
+the great wooden batons fell like thunder bolts upon the now deserted
+stage.
+
+Still the audience stood, terror bound.
+
+"Lower the fire curtain!" came a hoarse cry.
+
+Something shot down over the proscenium, then stopped before the great
+opening was closed, leaving a yawning space of many feet beneath. With
+the dropping of the curtain a door in the rear had been opened by the
+performers, fleeing for their lives and battling to escape from the
+devouring element fast hemming them in on every side. The draft thus
+caused transformed the stage in one second from a dark, gloomy, smoke
+concealed scene of chaos into a seething volcano. With a great puff the
+mass of flame swept out over the auditorium, a withering blast of death.
+Before it the vast throng broke and fled.
+
+Doors, windows, hallways, fire escapes--all were jammed in a moment with
+struggling humanity, fighting for life. Some of the doors were jammed
+almost instantly so that no human power could make egress possible. Behind
+those in front pushed the frenzied mass of humanity, Chicago's elect, the
+wives and children of its most prosperous business men and the flower of
+local society, fighting like demons incarnate. Purses, wraps, costly furs
+were cast aside in that mad rush. Mothers were torn from their children,
+husbands from their wives. No hold, however strong, could last against
+that awful, indescribable crush. Strong men who sought to the last to
+sustain their feminine companions were swept away like straws, thrown to
+the floor and trampled into unconsciousness in the twinkling of an eye.
+Women to whom the safety of their children was more than their own lives
+had their little ones torn from them and buried under the mighty sweep of
+humanity, moving onward by intuition rather than through exercise of
+thought to the various exits. They in turn were swept on before their
+wails died on their lips--some to safety, others to an unspeakably
+horrible death.
+
+While some exits were jammed by fallen refugees so as to become useless,
+others refused to open. In the darkness that fell upon the doomed theater
+a struggle ensued such as was never pictured in the mind of Dante in his
+visions of Inferno. With prayers, curses and meaningless shrieks of terror
+all faced their fate like rats in a trap. The darkness was illumined by a
+fearful light that burst from the sea of flame pouring out from the
+proscenium, making Dore's representations of Inferno shrink into the
+commonplace. Like a horizontal volcano the furnace on the stage belched
+forth its blast of fire, smoke, gas and withering, blighting heat. Like a
+wave it rolled over every portion of the vast house, dancing.
+
+Dancing! Yes, the pillars of flame danced! To the multitude swept into
+eternity before the hurricane of flame and the few who were dragged out
+hideously disfigured and burned almost beyond all semblance of human
+beings it seemed indeed a dance of death.
+
+Withering, crushing, consuming all in its path, forced on as though by the
+power of some mighty blow pipe, impelled by the fearful drafts that
+directed the fiery furnace outward into the auditorium instead of upward
+into the great flues constructed to meet just such an emergency, the sea
+of fire burned itself out. There was little or nothing in the construction
+of the building itself for it to feed upon, and it fell back of its own
+weight to the stage, where it roared and raged like some angry demon.
+
+And those great flues that supposedly gave the palatial Iroquois increased
+safety! Barred and grated, battened down with heavy timbers they resisted
+the terrific force of the blast itself. There they remained intact the
+next day. Anxiety to throw open the palace of pleasure to the public
+before the builders had time to complete in detail their Herculean task
+had resulted in converting it into a veritable slaughter pen.
+
+"Mr. Bluebeard's" chamber of horrors, lightly depicted in satire to
+settings of gold and color, wit and music, had evolved within a few
+minutes into an actuality. Chamber of horrors indeed--grim, silent,
+smoldering and sending upon high the fearful odor of burning flesh.
+
+Policemen and firemen, hardened to terrible sights, crept into the
+smoldering sepulchre only to turn back sickened by the sight that met
+their eyes. Tears and groans fell from them and they were unnerved as they
+gazed upon the scene of carnage. Some gave way and were themselves the
+subjects of deep concern. It was a scene to wring tears from the very
+stones. No words can adequately describe it.
+
+Perhaps the best description of that quarter hour of carnage and the sense
+of horror when the seared, scorched sepulchre was entered for the removal
+of the dead and dying is found in the words of the veteran descriptive
+writer, Mr. Ben H. Atwell, who was present from the beginning to the end
+of the holocaust, and after visiting the deadly spot in the gray dawn of
+the following day wrote his impressions as follows:
+
+"Where at 3:15 yesterday beauty and fashion and the happy amusement seeker
+thronged the palatial playhouse to fall a few moments later before a
+deadly blast of smoke and flame sweeping over all with irresistible force,
+the dawn of the last day of the passing year found confusion, chaos and an
+all-pervading sense of the awful. It seemed to radiate the chilling,
+depressing volume from the streaked, grime-covered walls and the
+flame-licked ceilings overhead. Against this fearful background the few
+grim firemen or police, moving silently about the ruins, searching for
+overlooked dead or abandoned property, loomed up like fitful ghosts.
+
+
+WAVE OF FLAME GREETS AUDIENCE.
+
+"The progress of their noiseless and ghastly quest proved one circumstance
+survivors are too unsettled to realize. With the opening of the stage
+door to permit the escape of the members of the 'Mr. Bluebeard' company
+and the breaking of the skylight above the flue-like scene loft that tops
+the stage, the latter was converted into a furnace through which a
+tremendous draft poured like a blow pipe, driving billows of flame into
+the faces of the terrified audience. With exits above the parquet floor
+simply choked up with the crushed bodies of struggling victims, who made
+the first rush for safety, the packed hundreds in balcony and gallery
+faced fire that moved them up in waves.
+
+"With a swirl that sounded death, the thin bright sheet of fire rolled on
+from stage to rear wall. It fed on the rich box curtains, seized upon the
+sparse veneer of subdued red and green decorations spread upon wall,
+ceiling and balcony facings. It licked the fireproof materials below clean
+and rolled on with a roar. Over seat tops and plush rail cushions it sped.
+Then it snuffed out, having practically nothing to feed upon save the
+tangled mass of wood scene frames, batons and paint-soaked canvas on the
+stage.
+
+
+FEW REALIZED APPALLING RESULT.
+
+"There firemen were directing streams of water that poured over the
+premises in great cascades in volume, aggregating many tons. A few streams
+were directed about the body of the house, where vagrant tongues of flame
+still found material on which to feed. Silence reigned--the silence of
+death, but none realized the appalling story behind the awful calm.
+
+"The stampede that followed the first alarm, a struggle in which most
+contestants were women and children, fighting with the desperation of
+death, terminated with the sudden sweep of the sea of flames across the
+body of the house. The awful battle ended before the irresistible hand of
+death, which fell upon contestants and those behind alike. Somehow those
+on the main floor managed to force their way out. Above, where the
+presence of narrower exits, stairways that precipitated the masses of
+humanity upon each other and the natural air current for the billows of
+flame to follow, spelled death to the occupants of the two balconies, the
+wave of flame, smoke and gas smote the multitude.
+
+
+DROP WHERE THEY STAND.
+
+"Dropping where they stood, most of the victims were consumed beyond
+recognition. Some who were protected from contact with the flames by
+masses of humanity piled upon them escaped death and were dragged out
+later by rescuers, suffering all manner of injury. The majority, however,
+who beheld the indescribably terrifying spectacle of the wave of death
+moving upon them through the air died then and there without a moment for
+preparation. Few survived to tell the tale. The blood-curdling cry of
+mingled prayers and curses, of pleas for help and meaningless shrieks of
+despair died away before the roar of the fire and the silence fell that
+greeted the firemen upon their entry.
+
+"Survivors describe the situation as a parallel of the condition at
+Martinique when a wave of gas and fire rolled down the mountain side and
+destroyed everything in its path. Here, however, one circumstance was
+reversed, for the wave of death leaped from below and smote its victims,
+springing from the very air beneath them.
+
+
+MANY HEROES ARE DEVELOPED.
+
+"In a few minutes it was all over--all but the weeping. In those few
+minutes obscure people had evolved into heroes; staid business men drove
+out patrons to convert their stores into temporary hospitals and morgues;
+others converted their trucks and delivery wagons into improvised
+ambulances; stocks of drugs, oils and blankets were showered upon the
+police to aid in relief work and a corps of physicians and surgeons
+sufficient to the needs of an army had organized.
+
+"Rescues little short of miraculous were accomplished and life and limb
+were risked by public servants and citizens with no thought of personal
+consequences. Public sympathy was thoroughly aroused long before the
+extent of the horror was known and before the sickening report spread
+throughout the city that the greatest holocaust ever known in the history
+of theatricals had fallen upon Chicago.
+
+"While the streets began to crowd for blocks around with weeping and
+heartbroken persons in mortal terror because of knowledge that loved ones
+had attended the performance, patrol wagons, ambulances and open wagons
+hurried the injured to hospitals. Before long they were called upon to
+perform the more grewsome task of removing the dead. In wagon loads the
+latter were carted away. Undertaking establishments both north, south and
+west of the river threw open their doors.
+
+
+DEAD PILED IN HEAPS.
+
+"Piled in windows in the angle of the stairway where the second balcony
+refugees were brought face to face and in a death struggle with the
+occupants of the first balcony, the dead covered a space fifteen or twenty
+feet square and nearly seven feet in depth. All were absolutely safe from
+the fire itself when they met death, having emerged from the theater
+proper into the separate building containing the foyer. In this great
+court there was absolutely nothing to burn and the doors were only a few
+feet away. There the ghastly pile lay, a mute monument to the powers of
+terror. Above and about towered shimmering columns and facades in polished
+marble, whose cold and unharmed surfaces seemed to bespeak contempt for
+human folly. In that portion of the Iroquois structure the only physical
+evidences of damages were a few windows broken during the excitement.
+
+
+EXITS WERE CHOKED WITH BODIES.
+
+"To that pile of dead is attributed the great loss of life within. The
+bodies choked up the entrance, barring the egress of those behind. Neither
+age nor youth, sex, quality or condition were sacred in the awful battle
+in the doorway. The gray and aged, rich, poor, young and those obviously
+invalids in life lay in a tangled mass all on an awful footing of equality
+in silent annihilation.
+
+"Within and above equal terrors were encountered in what at first seemed
+countless victims. Lights, patience and hard work brought about some
+semblance of system and at last word was given that the last body had been
+removed from the charnel house. A large police detail surrounded the place
+all night and with the break of day search of the premises was renewed,
+none being admitted save by presentation of a written order from Chief of
+Police O'Neill. Fire engines pumped away removing the lake of water that
+flooded the basement to the depth of ten feet. As the flood was lowered it
+began to be apparent that the basement was free of dead.
+
+
+SURVEY SCENE WITH HORROR.
+
+"Searchers gazing down from the heights of the upper balcony surveyed the
+scene of death below with horror stamped upon their faces. Fire had left
+its terrifying blight in a colorless, garish monotony that suggests the
+burned-out crater of an extinct volcano. In the wreckage, the scattered
+garments and purses, fragments of charred bodies and other debris strewn
+within thousands of bits of brilliantly colored glass, lay as they fell
+shattered in the fight against the flames. A few skulls were seen.
+
+
+FIND BUSHELS OF PURSES.
+
+"Five bushel baskets were filled with women's purses gathered by the
+police. A huge pile of garments was removed to a near-by saloon, where an
+officer guards them pending removal to some more appropriate place. The
+shoes and overshoes picked up among the seats fill two barrels to
+overflowing.
+
+"The fire manifested itself in the flies above the stage during the second
+act. The double octette was singing 'In the Pale Moonlight' when the
+tragedy swept mirth and music aside, to give way to a more somber and
+frightful performance. Confusion on the stage, panic in the auditorium,
+phenomenal spread of the incipient blaze, failure of the asbestos fire
+curtain to fall in place when lowered followed in rapid progress, with the
+holocaust as the climax."
+
+But to return to the narrative of what happened immediately after the
+first alarm, as gathered by the collaborators of this work. There was a
+wild, futile dash--futile because few of the terrified participants
+succeeded in reaching the outer air. Persons in the rear of the theater
+building knew full well that a holocaust was in progress. There fire
+escapes and stage doors thronged with refugees, half clad and hysterical
+chorus girls flocking into the alley, and crackling flames leaping higher
+and higher from the flimsy stage and bursting from windows, told only too
+plainly what was in progress within. At the front, half a block distant,
+in Randolph street, ominous silence maintained. A mere handful of people
+burst out, those who had occupied rear seats and pushed by the ushers who
+sought to restrain them and quiet their fears. Loiterers about the ornate
+lobby scarcely sniffed a suggestion of impending disaster before the fire
+apparatus began to arrive with clanging bells.
+
+Those ushers who held back the straining, anxious spectators who sought
+escape at the first mild suggestion of danger--for what widespread woe are
+they responsible!
+
+Mere boys of tender years and meager experience, what knew they of the
+awful possibilities behind the spell of excitement upon the stage? Only
+two weeks before there had been an incipient blaze there that had been
+extinguished without the knowledge of the audience.
+
+Like all the rest of the world that now stands in shuddering wonderment,
+these boys scoffed at the thought of real danger in the massive pile of
+steel, stone and terra cotta, with its brave and shimmering veneer of
+glistening marble, stained glass of many hues, rich tapestries and
+drapings, and cold, aristocratic tints of red and old gold. And so with
+uplifted hands they turned back those whose sense of caution prompted them
+to leave at the outset. Surely disaster could not overtake the regal
+Iroquois in its first flush of pomp, pride and superiority. It was their
+sacred duty to see that no unseemly break marred the decorum established
+for the guidance of audiences at the Iroquois, and that duty was fully
+discharged.
+
+Thus it was that the wild hegira did not begin from the front until the
+arrival of the fire department. Then pandemonium itself broke loose. All
+restraining influences from the stage had ceased. At the appearance of the
+all-consuming wave of flame sweeping across the auditorium the boy ushers
+abandoned their posts and fled for their lives, leaving the packed
+audience to do the same unhampered.
+
+Unhampered--not quite! Darkness descending upon the scene, doors locked
+against the frightened multitude, fire escapes cut off by tongues of flame
+and exits and stairways choked with the bodies of those who died fighting
+to reach safety hampered many--at least the six hundred carried out later
+mangled and roasted, their features and limbs twisted and distorted until
+little semblance to humanity remained. After the first wild dash, in which
+a large portion of those on the main floor escaped, the blackness of night
+settled upon the long marble foyer leading from Randolph street to the
+auditorium. It settled in a cloud of black, fire laden smoke--death in
+nebulous forms defying fire fighter and rescuer alike to enter the great
+corridor. None entered, and, more pitiful still, none came forth.
+
+While this situation maintained in front a vastly different scene unfolded
+in the rear. The theater formed a great L, extending north from Randolph
+street to an alley and, in the rear, west to Dearborn street. This last
+projection, the toe of the L, was occupied by the stage, theoretically the
+finest in America, if not in the world. Thus the auditorium and stage
+occupied the extreme northern part of the structure, paralleling an alley
+extending on a line with Randolph street from State street to Dearborn
+street. This alley wall was pierced by many windows and emergency exits
+and was studded with fire escapes built in the form of iron galleries, and
+stairways hugging close to the wall leading to the alley.
+
+To these exits and the long, grim galleries of fire escapes the herded,
+fire-hunted audience surged. Those who reached doors that responded to
+their efforts found themselves pushed along the galleries by the
+resistless crush behind. As was the case in front, half way to safety
+another stream of humanity was encountered pouring out at right angles
+from another portion of the house. Coming together with the impact of
+opposing armies the two hosts of refugees gave unwilling and terrible
+answer to the time worn problem as to the outcome of an irresistible force
+encountering an immovable body. Both in front and rear great mounds of
+dead spelled annihilation as the answer. In front over 200 corpses piled
+in a twenty-foot angle of a stairway where two balcony exits merged told
+the terrible tale, and rendered both passages useless for egress, the dead
+being piled up in wall-like formation ten feet high.
+
+In the rear an alley strewn with mangled men, women and children writhing
+in agony on the icy pavement, or relieved of their sufferings by death,
+lent eloquent corroboration to the solution of the problem.
+
+It was in the rear that the true horror of the fire was most fully
+disclosed. There no towering mosaic studded walls or kindly mantle of
+smoke shut out the horrid sight. From its opening scene to its silent,
+ghastly denouement the successive details of this greatest of modern
+tragedies was forced upon the view to be stamped upon the memory of the
+unwilling beholder with an impressiveness that only death will blot out.
+
+After the first great impact had hurled the overflow of the fire-escape
+gallery into the alley yawning far below, the crush of humanity swept
+onward, downward to where safety beckoned. When the advance guard had all
+but reached the precious goal, with only a few feet of iron gallery and
+one more stairway to traverse, the crowning horror of the day unfolded
+itself. Right in the path of the advancing horde a steel window shutter
+flew back, impelled by the terrific energy of an immeasurable volume of
+pent up superheated air.
+
+The clang of the steel shutter swinging back on its hinges against the
+brick wall sounded the death knell of another host of victims, for in its
+wake came a huge tongue of lurid flame, leaping on high in the ecstasy of
+release from its stifling furnace. Fiercely in the faces of the refugees
+beat this agency of death. Before its withering blast the victims fell
+like prairie grass before an autumn blaze. Those further back waited for
+no more, but precipitated themselves headlong into the alley rather than
+face the fiery furnace that loomed up barring the way to hope.
+
+It would be well to draw the curtain upon this awful scene of suffering
+and death in the gloomy alley were it not for one circumstance that stands
+forth a glorious example of the heights that may be attained by the modest
+hero who moves about unsuspected in his daily life until calamity affords
+opportunity to show the stuff he is made of. High up in the building
+occupied by the law, dental and pharmacy schools of the Northwestern
+University, directly across the alley from the burning theater, a number
+of such men were at work. They were horny handed sons of toil--painters,
+paper hangers and cleaners repairing minor damage caused by an
+insignificant fire in the university building a few weeks before. One
+glance at the seething vortex of death below transformed them into heroes
+whose deeds would put many a man to shame whose memory is kept alive by
+stately column or flattering memorial tablet.
+
+Trailing heavy planks used by them in the erection of working scaffolds,
+they rushed to a window in the lecture room of the law school directly
+opposite the exit and fire escape platform leading from the topmost
+balcony of the theater. By almost superhuman effort and ingenuity they
+raised aloft the planks, scarce long enough to span the abyss, and dropped
+them. The prayers of thousands below and a multitude stifling in the
+aperture opposite were raised that the planks might fall true. All eyes
+followed their course as they poised in mid-air, then descended. Slow
+seemed their fall, a veritable period of torture, and awed silence reigned
+as they dropped.
+
+Then there arose a glad cry. With a crash the great planks landed true,
+the free ends squarely upon the edge of the platform of the useless fire
+escape, the others resting firmly upon the narrow window ledge where the
+painters stood defying flame, smoke and torrents of burning embers and
+blazing sparks hurled upon them as from the crater of a volcano.
+
+Death alley had been bridged! Across the narrow span came a volume of
+bedraggled humanity as though shot from a gun. A mad, screaming stream,
+pushed on by those behind, simply whirled across the frail support, direct
+from the very jaws of death, the blistering gates of hell.
+
+Only for a moment, a brief second it seemed, the wild procession moved.
+Yet in that limited period scores, perhaps hundreds, poured from the
+seething inferno--practically all that escaped from the lofty balcony that
+was a moment later transformed into the death chamber of helpless
+hundreds. Then the wave of flame, previously described, swept over the
+interior of the theater, greedily searching every nook and corner as
+though hungry for the last victim within reach.
+
+The last refugees to cross the narrow span, the dizzy line sharply drawn
+between life and death in its most terrifying aspect, staggered over with
+their clothing in flames, gasping, fainting with pain and terror. The
+workmen, students and policemen who had rushed to their assistance dashed
+across into the heat and smoke and dragged forth many more who had reached
+the platform only to fall before the deadly blast. Then the rescuers were
+beaten back and the fire fiend was left to claim its own.
+
+And claim them it did, searching them out with ruminating tongues of
+flame. Over every inch of paint and decoration, every tapestry, curtain
+and seat top it licked its way with insinuating eagerness. It pursued its
+victims beyond the confines of the theater walls, grasping in its deadly
+embrace those who lay across windows or prostrate on galleries and
+platforms. Thousands gazed on in helpless horror, watching the flames
+bestow a fatal caress upon many who had crept far, far from the blaze and
+almost into a zone of safety. With a gliding, caressing movement that made
+beholders' blood run cold it crept upon such victims, hovered a moment and
+glided on with sinuous motion and what approached a suggestion of
+intelligence in searching out those who fled before it. A shriek, a
+spasmodic movement and the victims lay still, their earthly troubles over
+forever.
+
+A few minutes later, possibly not more than half an hour after the
+discovery of the fire, when the firemen had beaten back the flames to the
+raging stage another procession moved across that same plank again. It
+moved in silence, for it was a procession of death. The great tragedy
+began and ended in fifteen minutes. Its echoes may roll down as many
+centuries, compelling the proper safeguarding of all places of amusement,
+in America at least. If so, the Iroquois victims did not give up their
+lives in vain.
+
+When the removal of the victims across the improvised bridge over death
+alley ended the tireless official in charge of that work, James Markham,
+secretary to Chief of Police O'Neill, had checked off 102 corpses. No
+attempt was made to keep count of the dead as they were removed from other
+portions of the theater and by other exits. The counting was done when the
+patrol wagons, ambulances, trucks and delivery wagons used in removing the
+dead deposited their ghastly loads at the morgues.
+
+The instance cited was not an isolated example of heroism, but rather
+merely a striking instance among scores. Police, firemen and citizens vied
+with each other in the work of humanity. Merchants drove out customers and
+threw open their business houses as temporary hospitals and morgues.
+Others donated great wagon loads of blankets and supplies of all kinds and
+the municipal government was embarrassed by the unsolicited relief funds
+that poured in. All manner of vehicles were given freely for the removal
+of dead and injured. So informal was the removal of the latter that many
+may have reached their homes unreported. For that reason a complete list
+of the injured may never be secured.
+
+An illustration of the possibilities in that direction is found in the
+case of one man who wrapped the dead body of his wife in his overcoat and
+carried it to Evanston, many miles away, where the circumstances became
+known days later when a burial permit was sought. Another is the case of
+an injured man who revived on a dead wagon en route to a morgue and was
+removed by friends.
+
+All these and other details are elaborated upon elsewhere, together with
+the touching story of the scores of young women employed in the
+production, "Mr. Bluebeard," who would have been stranded penniless in a
+strange city a thousand miles from home but for the prompt and noble
+relief afforded by Mrs. Ogden Armour.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER II.
+
+FIRST AID TO THE INJURED AND CARE FOR THE DEAD.
+
+
+On the heels of the firemen came the police, intent on the work of rescue.
+Chief O'Neill and Assistant Chief Schuettler ordered captains from a dozen
+stations to bring their men, and then they rushed to the theater and led
+the police up the stairs to the landing outside the east entrance to the
+first balcony.
+
+The firemen, rushing blindly up the stairs in the dense pall of smoke, had
+found their path suddenly blocked by a wall of dead eight or ten feet
+high. They discovered many persons alive and carried them to safety. Other
+firemen crawled over the mass of dead and dragged their hose into the
+theater to fight back the flames that seemed to be crawling nearer to turn
+the fatal landing into a funeral pyre.
+
+O'Neill and Schuettler immediately began carrying the dead from the
+balcony, while other policemen went to the gallery to begin the work
+there.
+
+In the great mass of dead at the entrance to the first balcony the bodies
+were so terribly interwoven that it was impossible at first to take any
+one out.
+
+"Look out for the living!" shouted the chief to his men. "Try to find
+those who are alive."
+
+From somewhere came a faint moaning cry.
+
+"Some one alive there, boys," came the cry. "Lively, now!"
+
+The firemen and police long struggled in vain to move the bodies.
+
+The raging tide of humanity pouring out of the east entrance of the
+balcony during the panic had met the fighting, struggling crowd coming
+down the stairs from the third balcony at right angles. The two streams
+formed a whirlpool which ceased its onward progress and remained there on
+the landing where people stamped each other under foot in that mad circle
+of death.
+
+In a short time the blockade in the fatal angle must have been complete.
+Then into this awful heap still plunged the contrary tides of humanity
+from each direction. Many tried to crawl over the top of the heap, but
+were drawn down to the grinding mill of death underneath. The smoke was
+heavy at the fatal angle, for the majority of those taken out at that
+point bore no marks of bruises.
+
+Many, and especially the children, were trampled to death, but others were
+held as in a vise until the smoke had choked the life from their bodies.
+
+It was toward this that the firemen directed O'Neill and Schuettler as
+they rushed into the theater. The smoke was still heavy and the great
+gilded marble foyer of the "handsomest theater in America" was somber and
+dark and still as a tomb, except for the whistling of the engines outside
+and now and then the shouting of the firemen. Water was dripping
+everywhere and stood inches deep on the floor and stairs.
+
+Two flickering lanterns shed the only light by which the policemen worked,
+and this very fact, perhaps, made their task more horrible and gruesome,
+if such a thing were possible.
+
+
+GREAT PILE OF CHARRED BODIES FOUND EVERYWHERE IN THEATER.
+
+All through the gallery the bodies were found. Some were those of persons
+who had decided to stay in their seats and not to join in the mad rush for
+the doors and run the risk of being trampled to death. Many of them no
+doubt had trusted to the cries, "There is no danger; keep your seats!"
+
+They had stuck to their seats until, choked by the heavy smoke, they had
+been unable to move.
+
+Some bodies were in a sitting position, while others had fallen forward,
+with the head resting on the seat in front, as though in prayer. Almost
+all were terribly burned.
+
+In the aisles lay women and children who had staid in their seats until
+they finally were convinced that the danger was real. Then they had
+attempted to get to the door.
+
+The smoke was so heavy the firemen worked with difficulty, but finally it
+cleared and workmen who were hastily sent by the Edison company equipped
+forty arc lights, which shone bravely through the smoke. With this help
+the firemen searched to better effect, and found bodies that in the
+blackness they had missed.
+
+"Give that girl to some one else and get back there," shouted Chief Musham
+to a fireman. The fireman never answered but kept on with his burden.
+
+"Hand that girl to some one else," shouted the battalion chief.
+
+The fireman looked up. Even in the flickering light of the lantern the
+chief carried one could see the tears coming from the red eyes and falling
+down the man's blackened cheeks.
+
+"Chief," said the fireman, "I've got a girl like this at home. I want to
+carry this one out."
+
+"Go ahead," said the chief. The little group working at the head of the
+stairs broke apart while the fireman, holding the body tightly, made his
+way slowly down the stairs.
+
+One by one the dead were taken from the pile in the angle. The majority of
+them were women. On some faces was an expression of terrible agony, but on
+others was a look of calmness and serenity, and firemen sometimes found it
+hard to believe they were dead. Three firemen carried the body of a young
+woman down the stairs in a rubber blanket. She appeared alive. Her hands
+were clasped and held flowers. Her eyes were closed and she seemed almost
+to smile. She looked as though she was asleep, but it was the sleep of
+death.
+
+In the dark and smoke, with the dripping water and the dead piled in heaps
+everywhere, the Iroquois theater had been turned into a tomb by the time
+the rescue parties had begun their work.
+
+
+MOAN INSPIRES WORKERS IN MAD EFFORT TO SAVE.
+
+The moan that the frantic workers heard as they struggled to untangle the
+mass of bodies gave the police hope that many in the heap might be alive.
+
+"We can't do it, chief," shouted one of the policemen. "We can't untangle
+them."
+
+"We must take these bodies out of the way to get down to those who are
+alive," replied the chief. "This man here is dead; lay hold, now, boys,
+and pull him out."
+
+Two big firemen caught the body by the shoulders and struggled and pulled
+until they had it free. Then another body was taken out, and then again
+the workers seemed unable to unloose the dead. Again came that terrible
+moan through the mass.
+
+"For God's sake, get down to that one who's alive," implored O'Neill,
+almost in despair.
+
+The policemen pulled off their heavy overcoats and worked frantically at
+the heap. Often a body could not be moved except when the firemen and
+police dragged with a "yo, heave," like sailors hauling on a rope. As fast
+as the bodies were freed one policeman, or sometimes two or three, would
+stagger down the stairs with their burdens.
+
+Over the heap of bodies crawled a fireman carrying something in his arms.
+
+"Out of the way, men, let me out! The kid's alive."
+
+The workers fell back and the fireman crawled over the heap and was helped
+out. He ran down the stairs three steps at a time to get the child to a
+place where help might be given before it was too late. Then other firemen
+from inside the theater passed out more bodies, which were handed from one
+policeman to another until some on the outside of the heap could take the
+dead and carry them downstairs.
+
+Suddenly a policeman pulling at the heap gave a shout.
+
+"I've got her, chief!" he said. "She's alive, all right!"
+
+"Easy there, men, easy," cried Schuettler; "but hurry and get that woman
+to a doctor!"
+
+A girl, apparently 18 years old, was moaning faintly. The policeman
+released her from the tangled heap, and a big fireman, lifting her
+tenderly in his arms, hurried with her to the outside of the building.
+
+"There must be more alive," said the chief. "Work hard, boys."
+
+There was hardly any need to ask the men to work harder, for they were
+pulling and hauling as though their own lives depended on their efforts.
+Everybody worked.
+
+The reporters, the only ones in the theater besides the police and
+firemen, laid aside their pencils and note books and struggled down the
+wet, slippery stairs, carrying the dead. Newspaper artists threw their
+sketch books on the floor to jump forward and pick up the feet or head of
+a body that a fireman or policeman found too heavy to carry alone.
+Constantly now a stream of workers was passing slowly down the stairs.
+Usually two men supported each body, but often some giant policeman or
+fireman strode along with a body swung over his shoulders. Coming down the
+stairs was a fireman with a girl of 16 clasped in his arms.
+
+"Isn't that girl alive?" asked the chief.
+
+"No," shouted two or three men, who had jumped to see. "She's dead, poor
+thing, rest her soul," said the fireman reverently, and then he picked his
+way down the stairs. Half-way down the marble steps two arms suddenly
+clasped the fireman's neck.
+
+He started so he missed his footing and would have fallen had not a
+policeman steadied him.
+
+"She's alive, she's alive!" shouted the fireman. "Git out of the way,
+there, out of the way, men," and he went dashing headlong out into the
+open air and through the crowd to a drug store.
+
+One child after another was taken from the heap and passed out to be
+carried downstairs. Some were little boys in new suits, sadly torn, and
+with their poor little faces wreathed in agony. On their foreheads was the
+seal of death.
+
+A big fireman came crawling from the heavy smoke of the inner balcony. He
+carried a girl of 10 years in his arms. Her long, flaxen hair half covered
+the pure white face.
+
+A gray haired man with a gash on his head apparently had fallen down the
+stairs. A woman's face bore the mark of a boot heel. A woman with a little
+boy clasped tight in her arms was wedged into a corner. Her clothes were
+almost torn from her, and her face was bruised. The child was unmarked, as
+she had thrown her own body over his to protect him.
+
+Out of the mass of bodies when the police began their work protruded one
+slender little white hand, clinching a pair of pearl opera glasses, which
+the little owner had tried to save, in spite of the fact that her own life
+was being crushed out of her. Watches, pocketbooks and chatelaine bags
+were scattered all through the pile. One man was detailed to make a bag
+out of a rubber coat and take care of the property that was handed to him.
+
+While the police were working so desperately at the fatal angle, another
+detail of police and firemen were working on the third floor. At the main
+entrance of the gallery lay another heap of bodies, and there was still
+another at the angle of the head of the stairs leading to the floor below.
+Here the sight was even worse than the terrible scene presented at the
+landing of the first balcony.
+
+The bodies on the landing were not burned. A jam had come there, and many
+had been stamped under foot and either killed outright or left to
+suffocate. Many of the bodies were almost stripped of clothing and bore
+the marks of remorseless heels.
+
+After these had been carried out, the firemen returned again and again
+from the pitchy blackness of the smoke-filled galleries, dragging bodies,
+burned sometimes beyond recognition.
+
+
+NONE LEFT ALIVE IN GALLERY.
+
+While now and then some one had been found alive in the other fatal angle,
+no one was rescued by searchers in the top gallery. The bodies had to be
+laid along the hall until the merchants in State street began sending
+over blankets. Men from the streets came rushing up the stairs, bending
+under the weight of the blankets they carried on their shoulders. Soon
+they went back to the street again, this time carrying their blankets
+weighed down with a charred body.
+
+
+DEAD AND DYING CARRIED INTO NEARBY RESTAURANT BY SCORES.
+
+The scenes in John R. Thompson's restaurant in Randolph street, adjoining
+the theater, were ghastly beyond words.
+
+Few half hours in battle bring more of horror than the half hour that
+turned the cafe into a charnel house, with its tumbled heaps of corpses,
+its shrieks of agony from the dying, and the confusion of doctors and
+nurses working madly over bodies all about as they strove to bring back
+the spark of life.
+
+Bodies were everywhere--piled along the walls, laid across tables, and
+flung down here and there--some charred beyond recognition, some only
+scorched, and others black from suffocation; some crushed in the rush of
+the panic, others but the poor, broken remains of those who leaped into
+death. And most of them--almost all of them--were the forms of women and
+children. It is estimated that more than 150 bodies were accounted for in
+Thompson's alone.
+
+The continuous tramp of the detachments of police bearing in more bodies,
+the efforts of the doctors to restore life, and the madness of those who
+surged in through the police lines to ransack piles of bodies for
+relatives and friends, made up a scene of pandemonium of which it is hard
+to form a conception. There was organization of the fifty physicians and
+nurses who fought back death in the dying; there was organization of the
+police and firemen; but still the restaurant was a chaos that left the
+head bewildered and the heart sick.
+
+The work was too much for even the big force of doctors that had flocked
+there to volunteer their services. Everybody in which there was the
+slightest semblance of life was given over to the physicians, who with
+oxygen tanks and resuscitative movements sought to revive the heart beats.
+As soon as death was certain the body was drawn from the table and laid
+beneath, to give place to another. But systematic as was this effort,
+heaps of bodies remained which the doctors had not touched.
+
+In a dozen instances, even when the end of the work was in sight, a hand
+or foot was seen to move in this or that heap. Instantly three or four
+doctors were bending over rolling away the dead bodies to drag forth one
+still warm with life. In a thrice the body was on a table and the oxygen
+turned on while the doctors worked with might and main to force
+respiration. Almost always it was in vain--life went out. Two or three
+were resuscitated, though it is uncertain with what chances of ultimate
+recovery. One of these was a Mrs. Harbaugh, who had been brought in for
+dead and her body tossed among the lifeless forms that ranged the walls.
+
+When the first rush of people from the theater gave notice of the fire to
+persons in the street there were less than a score of patrons in the
+restaurant. These rushed into the street, too, while a panic spread among
+the waitresses and kitchen force. By this time fire company 13 was on the
+ground in the alley side of the theater and the police were at the front
+attempting to lead the audience from its peril with some semblance of
+order. In another minute women and children with blistered faces were
+dashing screaming into the street, taking refuge in the first doorways at
+hand.
+
+Another minute, and every policeman knew in his heart the horror that was
+at hand. A patrolman dashed into Thompson's and ordered the tables
+cleared and arranged to care for the injured. Captain Gibbons dispatched
+another policeman to issue a general call for physicians and a detachment
+to take charge of the restaurant and the first aid to be administered
+there. Within five minutes the first of the injured were being laid on the
+marble topped dining tables where the police ambulance corps were getting
+at work.
+
+These steps scarcely had been taken when word came from the burning
+theater that the fire was under control, but that the loss of life would
+be appalling. Chief O'Neill hurried to the scene, sending back word as he
+ran that Secretary James Markham should summon doctors and ambulances from
+every place available. The west side district of the medical schools and
+hospitals was called upon to send all the volunteers possible, together
+with hospital equipment. One hundred students from Rush Medical College
+were soon on their way by street car and patrol wagon to the scene.
+
+
+TERRIBLE REALITY COMES TO AWESTRICKEN CROWD.
+
+It was only fifteen minutes after the first tongue of flame shot out from
+behind the scenes that a lull came in the awful drama of death within the
+theater. The firemen had quenched the fire and all the living had escaped.
+All that remained were dead. But now the scenes within the improvised
+hospital and morgue rose to the height of their horror.
+
+But for a narrow lane the length of the cafe the floor was covered with
+bodies or the tumbled bundles of clothing that told where a body was
+concealed. And over the scene of the dead rose the groans of the tortured
+beings who writhed upon the tables in the throes of their passing. And
+over the cries of the suffering rose the shouts of command of the Red
+Cross corps--now the directions of Dr. Lydston as to attempts at
+resuscitation, now the megaphone shouts of Senator Clark ordering the
+disposition of bodies and the organization of the constantly arriving
+volunteer nurses.
+
+In the narrow lane of the dead surged the policemen, bringing ever more
+and more forms to cord up beneath the tables. Then came the press of
+people, who, frantic with anxiety, had beaten back the police guard to
+look for loved ones in the charnel house. There was Louis Wolff, Jr.,
+searching for two nephews and his sister. There was Postmaster Coyne, who
+had hurried from a meeting of the crime committee to lend his aid. There
+were Aldermen Minwegen and Alderman Badenoch, and besides them scores of
+men and women anxiously looking and looking, and nerving themselves to
+fear the worst.
+
+"Have you found Miss Helen McCaughan?" shrieked a hysterical woman. "She's
+from the Yale apartments, and----"
+
+"I'm looking for a Miss Errett--she's a nurse," cried another.
+
+"My little boy--Charles Hennings--have you found him, doctor?" came from
+another.
+
+From every side came the heartrending appeals, while the din was so great
+that no single plaint rose above the volume of sounds. And all the time
+the doorway was a place of frightful sights.
+
+"O, please go back for my little girl," gasped a woman whose face and
+hands were a blister and whose clothing was burned to the skin. She
+staggered across the threshold and fell prone. Her last breath had gone
+out of her when two policemen snatched up the body and bore it to an
+operating table.
+
+"O, where's my Annie?" screamed another woman, horribly burned, whom two
+policemen supported between them into the restaurant. But at the word she
+collapsed, and, though three physicians worked over her for ten minutes,
+she never breathed again.
+
+
+ONE LIFE BROUGHT BACK FROM DEATH.
+
+Of a sudden Dr. E. E. Vaughan saw a finger move in a mass of the dead
+against the far wall of the restaurant.
+
+"Men, there's a live one in there," he cried, and, while others came
+running, the physician flung aside the bodies till he had uncovered a
+woman of middle age, terribly burned about the face, and with her outer
+garments a mass of charred shreds.
+
+In a second the woman was undergoing resuscitative treatment on a table,
+while the oxygen streamed into her lungs. Two doctors worked her arms like
+pumps, while a nurse manipulated the region of the heart. At length there
+was a flutter of a respiration, while a doctor bending over with his
+stethoscope announced a heart beat just perceptible. Another minute passed
+and the eyelids moved, while a groan escaped the lips.
+
+"She lives!" simply said Dr. Vaughan, as he ordered the oxygen tube
+removed and brandy forced between the lips. In five minutes the woman was
+saved from immediate death, at least, though suffering terribly from
+burns. She was just able to murmur that her name was Mrs. Harbaugh, but
+that was all that could be learned of her identity before she was taken
+away to a hospital.
+
+
+ONE HUNDRED FEET IN AIR, POLICE CARRY INJURED ACROSS ALLEY.
+
+Over a narrow, ice covered bridge made of scaffold planks, more than 100
+feet above the ground the police carried more than 100 bodies from the
+rear stage and balcony exits of the Iroquois theater to the Northwestern
+University building, formerly the Tremont house. The planks rested on the
+fire escape of the theater and on the ledge of a window in the Tremont
+building.
+
+Two men who first ventured on this dangerous passageway in their efforts
+to reach safety, blinded by the fire and smoke, lost their footing and
+fell to the alley below. They were dead when picked up.
+
+The bridge led directly into the dental school of the university, and at
+one time there were more than a score of charred bodies lying under
+blankets in the room. The dead were carried from the pile of bodies at the
+theater exits faster than the police could take them away in the
+ambulances and patrol wagons.
+
+As soon as the police began to take the injured into the university
+building the classrooms were drawn upon for physicians, and in a few
+minutes professors and dental students gathered in the offices and stores
+to lend their assistance. Wounds were dressed, and in cases of less
+serious injury the unfortunates were sent to their homes. In other cases
+they were sent to hospitals.
+
+When the smoke had cleared away the rescuers first realized the extent of
+the horror. From the bridge could be seen the rows of balcony and gallery
+seats, many occupied by a human form. Incited by the sight, the police
+redoubled their efforts, and heedless of the dangers of the narrow,
+slippery bridge, pressed close to each other as they worked.
+
+While a dozen policemen were removing the dead from the theater, twice as
+many were engaged in carrying them to the patrol wagons and ambulances at
+the doors of the university building. All the afternoon the elevators
+carried down police in twos and fours carrying their burdens of dead in
+blankets. So fast were they carried down that many of the patrol wagons
+held five and more bodies when they were driven away.
+
+
+CROWDS OF ANXIOUS FRIENDS.
+
+Behind the lines of police that guarded the passage of the dead, hundreds
+of anxious men and women crowded with eager questions. The rotunda of the
+building between 3 and 7 p. m. was thronged by those seeking knowledge of
+friend or relative who had been in the play. Some made their way to the
+third floor and looked hopelessly at the charred bodies lying there. In
+one corner lay the bodies of husband and wife, clasped in each other's
+arms. From under one sheltering blanket protruded the dainty high heeled
+shoes of some woman, and from the next blanket the rubber boots of a
+newsboy.
+
+A Roman Catholic priest made his way into the room. He was looking for a
+little girl, the daughter of a parishioner.
+
+"Have you the name of Lillian Doerr in your list?" he asked James Markham,
+Chief O'Neill's secretary, who was in charge of the police. Markham shook
+his head.
+
+"She and another little girl named Weiskopp were with three other girls,"
+continued the priest. "Three of the girls in the party have got home, but
+Lillian and the Weiskopp girl are missing. I suppose we must wait until
+all the bodies are identified before we can find her."
+
+The priest's mission and its futile results were duplicated scores of
+times by anxious inquirers.
+
+
+BALCONY AND GALLERY CLEARED.
+
+The rescue work went on until the balcony and gallery had been cleared of
+the dead, and then the police were called away. The exits were barred and
+the hotel building cleared of visitors. While the work of rescue was
+going on inside the building, the streets about the entrances were
+thronged with thousands of curious spectators. As soon as an ambulance
+backed up to the entrance the crowd pressed forward to get a view of the
+bundles placed in the wagon. Even after this work had ended the crowds
+remained in the cold and darkness.
+
+Many of the small shops and offices in the University building threw open
+their doors to the injured and those who had been separated from their
+friends. When those who had escaped by the alley exits reached Dearborn
+street they found the doors of the Hallwood Cash Register offices, 41
+Dearborn street, open to them. L. A. Weismann, Harry Snow, Harry Dewitt,
+and C. J. Burnett of the office force at once prepared to care for the
+injured. More than fifty persons were cared for.
+
+While these men were caring for strangers they themselves were haunted by
+the dread that Manager H. Ludwig of the company with his wife and two
+daughters were among the dead. The Ludwig family lives in Norwood Park,
+and the father had left the office with them early in the afternoon. At 6
+o'clock he had not returned for his overcoat.
+
+
+FINANCE COMMITTEE OF CITY COUNCIL ACTS PROMPTLY.
+
+"Spare no expense," was the order given by the finance committee of the
+council which was in session when the extent of the disaster became known
+at the city hall. First to grasp the import of the news was Ald. Raynier,
+whose wife and four children had left him at noon to attend the matinee.
+With a gasp he hurried from the room to go to the scene.
+
+"You are instructed," said Chairman Mavor to Acting Mayor McGann, "to
+direct the fire marshal, the chief of police, and the commissioner of
+public works to proceed in this emergency without any restrictions as to
+expense. Do everything needful, spend all the money needed, and look to
+the council for your warrant. We will be your authority."
+
+A telegram at once was sent to Mayor Harrison informing him of the fire
+and the executive returned from Oklahoma on the first train.
+
+Acting Commissioner of Public Works Brennan sent word to Chief O'Neill and
+Fire Marshal Musham that the public works department was at their service.
+
+"We want men and lanterns," Chief Musham answered.
+
+Supt. Solon was sent to a store near the theater with an order for as many
+lanterns as might be needed. Supt. Doherty assembled 150 men in Randolph
+street and seventy wagons employed on First ward streets. They were placed
+at the disposal of the two chiefs.
+
+Chief O'Neill was in the council chamber when the news arrived, hearing
+charges against a police officer. Lieut. Beaubien came from his office and
+whispered to him. The chief hurried to the fire. The trial board continued
+its work.
+
+On the ground floor of the city hall the fire trial board was in executive
+session trying six firemen on a charge of carrying tales to insurance men
+against the chief.
+
+At 3:33 o'clock the alarm rang. Chief, assistant chiefs, and accused
+firemen listened. Then the news of the magnitude of the fire reached
+headquarters. The board hurriedly adjourned and Chief Musham led accusers
+and accused to fight the fire.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER III.
+
+TAKING AWAY AND IDENTIFYING THE DEAD.
+
+
+In drays and delivery wagons they carried the dead away from the Iroquois
+theater ruins. The sidewalk in front of the playhouse and Thompson's
+restaurant was completely filled with dead bodies, when it was realized
+that the patrol wagons and ambulances could not remove the bodies.
+
+Then Chief O'Neill and Coroner Traeger sent out men to stop drays and
+press them into service. Transfer companies were called up on telephone
+and asked to send wagons. Retail stores in State street sent delivery
+wagons.
+
+Into these drays and wagons were piled the bodies. They lay outstretched
+on the sidewalk, covered with blankets. Much care in the handling was
+impossible. As soon as a space on the walk was made by the removal of a
+body two were brought down to fill it.
+
+One of the wagons of the Dixon Transfer Company was so heavily loaded with
+the dead that the two big horses drawing it were unable to start the
+truck. Policemen and spectators put their shoulders to the wheels.
+
+When the drays were filled and started there was a struggle to get them
+through the crowds, densely packed, even within the fire lines which the
+police had established across Randolph street at State and Dearborn
+streets.
+
+Policemen with clubs preceded many of the wagons. The crowds through
+which they forced their way were composed mostly of men who had sent wives
+and children to the theater and had reason to believe that one of the
+drays might carry members of their own families.
+
+Eight and ten wagons at a time, half of them trucks and delivery wagons,
+were backed up to the curb waiting for their loads of dead.
+
+Two policemen would seize a blanket at the corners and swing it, with its
+contents, up to two other men in the wagon. This would be continued until
+a wagonload of bodies had been handled. Then the police forced a way
+through the crowd and another wagon took the place.
+
+Occasionally a body would be identified, and then efforts were made to
+remove it direct to the residence. Coroner Traeger discovered the wife of
+Patrick P. O'Donnell, president of the O'Donnell & Duer Brewing Company.
+
+"Telephone to some undertaking establishment and have them take Mrs.
+O'Donnell's body home," he ordered one of his assistants. It was taken to
+the residence, at 4629 Woodlawn avenue.
+
+Friends of another woman who were positive they identified the body among
+the dead in Thompson's were allowed by the coroner to remove it to Ford's
+undertaking establishment, in Thirty-fifth street.
+
+
+HEARTRENDING SCENES WITNESSED AT THE UNDERTAKING ESTABLISHMENTS.
+
+The bodies of the fire victims were distributed among the undertaking
+rooms and morgues most convenient. By 8:30 o'clock 135 bodies lay on the
+floors in the establishment of C. H. Jordan, 14-16 East Madison street,
+and in the temporary annex across the alley. The first were brought in
+ambulances and in police patrol wagons. Later all sorts of conveyances
+were pressed into service, and during more than two hours there was a
+procession of two-horse trucks, delivery wagons, and cabs, all bringing
+dead. It soon became evident that the capacity of the place would be
+exhausted and the men, who sat drinking and talking at the tables in the
+big ante-room in a saloon across the alley were driven out, and this also
+was arranged for use as a temporary morgue.
+
+Two policemen were in charge of each load of the dead, and as soon as the
+first few bodies were received, they began searching for possible marks of
+identification. All jewelry and valuables, as well as letters, cards, and
+other papers were put in sealed envelopes, marked with a number
+corresponding with that on the tag attached to the body. When this work
+was completed all the envelopes were sent to police headquarters, and all
+inquirers after missing friends and relatives were referred to the city
+hall to inspect the envelopes.
+
+The scenes in the two long rooms of the morgue in the saloon annex across
+the alley were so overpowering that they appeared to lose their effect.
+Many of the bodies last brought from the theater were sadly burned and
+disfigured and almost all of the faces were discolored and the clothing
+rumpled and wet.
+
+The condition of many of the bodies evidenced a vain battle for life.
+Almost all of them were women or children, and the majority had been well
+dressed. Among them were several old women. The men were few. In many
+cases the hands were torn, as if violent efforts had been made to wrench
+away some obstruction.
+
+As quickly as the work of searching the bodies was completed, the
+attendants stretched strips of muslin over the forms, partly hiding the
+pitiful horror of the sight.
+
+Persons were slow in coming to the undertakers in search of friends. Many
+had their first suspicion of the catastrophe when members of theater
+parties failed to return at the usual hour.
+
+Among the first to arrive at Jordan's were George E. McCaughan, attorney
+for the Chicago & Rock Island railroad, 6565 Yale avenue, who came in
+search of his daughter, Helen, who had attended a theater party with other
+young women. A friend had been in Dearborn street when the fire started
+and soon after had discovered in Thompson's restaurant the body of Miss
+McCaughan. He attached a card bearing her name to the body, and, leaving
+it in the custody of a physician, went to the telephone to notify the
+father. When he returned to the restaurant the body already had been
+removed and the friend and the father searched last night without finding
+it.
+
+As it grew later the crowd around the doors increased, but almost every
+one was turned away. It would have been impossible for persons to have
+passed through the long rooms for the purpose of inspecting the bodies,
+they were so close together. Women came weeping to the doors of the
+undertaking shop and beat upon the glass, only to be referred to the city
+hall or told "to come back in the morning."
+
+Later it was learned that physicians would be admitted for the purpose of
+inspecting and identifying the dead, and many persons came accompanied by
+their family doctors for that purpose. Two women, who pressed by the
+officer at the door, sank half fainting into chairs in the outer office.
+They were looking for Miss Hazel J. Brown, of 94 Thirty-first street, and
+Miss Eloise G. Swayze, of Fifty-sixth street and Normal avenue. A single
+glance at the long lines of bodies stretched on the floor was enough to
+satisfy them. They were told to return in the morning or to send their
+family physician to make the identification.
+
+"The poor girls had come from the convent to spend the holiday vacation,"
+sobbed one of the women.
+
+During the evening the telephone bell constantly was ringing, and persons
+whose relatives had failed to return on time were asked for information.
+
+"Have you found a small heart-shaped locket set with a blue stone?" would
+come a call over the wire, and the answer would be, "We can tell nothing
+about that until morning."
+
+At Rolston's undertaking rooms were 182 bodies, lying four rows deep in
+the rear of 18 Adams street and three rows deep in the rear of 22 Adams
+street.
+
+On the floors, tagged with the numerals of the coroner's scheme for
+identification, were bodies of men, women, and children awaiting
+identification. One was that of a little girl with yellow hair in a tangle
+of curls around her face. She appeared as if she slept. A silk dress of
+blue was spread over her and the sash of white ribbon scarcely was soiled.
+
+Over the long lines of the dead the police hovered in the search for
+identifying marks and for valuables. Most of the bodies were partly
+covered with blankets.
+
+Outside a big crowd surged and struggled with the police. Not till 10
+o'clock were the doors opened. Then Coroner Traeger arrived, and in groups
+of twelve or fifteen the crowd was permitted to pass through the doors.
+
+There was a pathetic scene at Rolston's morgue when the body of John Van
+Ingen, 18 years old, of Kenosha, Wis., was identified. Friends of the Van
+Ingen family had spent the entire evening searching at the request of Mr.
+and Mrs. Van Ingen, who were injured. At midnight four of the Van Ingen
+children, who were believed to have perished in the fire, had not been
+accounted for. They were: Grace, 2 years old; Dottie, 5 years old; Mary,
+13 years old; and Edward, 20 years old.
+
+In the undertaking rooms of J. C. Gavin, 226 North Clark street, and
+Carroll Bros., 203 Wells street, forty-five bodies swathed in blankets
+were awaiting identification at midnight. Of the fifty-four brought to
+these places only nine had been identified by the hundreds of relatives
+and friends who filed through the rooms, and in several cases the
+recognition was doubtful.
+
+An atmosphere of awe appeared to pervade the places, and no hysterical
+scenes followed the pointing out of the bodies. The morbid crowds usually
+attendant on a smaller calamity were absent, and few except those seeking
+missing relatives sought admission. Only one of the men, James D. Maloney,
+wept as he stood over the body of his dead wife.
+
+"I can't go any further," he said. "Her sister, Tennie Peterson, who lived
+in Fargo, N. D., was with her, and her body probably is there," motioning
+to the row of blanket-covered forms, "but I can't look. I must go back to
+the little ones at home, now motherless."
+
+In Inspector Campbell's office at the Chicago avenue station Sergeant Finn
+monotonously repeated the descriptions, as the scores of frantic seekers
+filled and refilled the little office. Several times he was interrupted by
+hysterical shrieks of women or the broken voices of men.
+
+"Read it again, please," would be the call, and, as the description again
+was read off, the number of the body was taken and the relatives hurried
+to the undertaking rooms. The bodies of Walter B. Zeisler, 12 years old,
+Lee Haviland and Walter A. Austrian were partly identified from the police
+descriptions.
+
+The list of hospital patients also was posted in the station and aided
+friends in the search for injured.
+
+Sheldon's undertaking rooms at 230 West Madison street were the scene of
+pathetic incidents. Forty-seven bodies, some of them with the clothing
+entirely burned away, and with few exceptions with features charred beyond
+recognition, had been taken there. Late in the night only four had been
+identified. The first body recognized was that of Mrs. Brindsley, of 909
+Jackson boulevard, who had attended the matinee with Miss Edna Torney,
+daughter of Mr. and Mrs. P. Torney, 1292 Adams street. Mr. Torney could
+find no trace of the young woman.
+
+Of the forty-seven bodies thirty-six were of matured women and five of
+men. There were bodies of six children, three boys and three girls.
+
+Dr. J. H. Bates, of 3256 South Park avenue, was searching for the bodies
+of Myrtle Shabad and Ruth Elken, numbered among the missing.
+
+There were similar scenes at all of the undertaking rooms to which bodies
+were taken.
+
+"When the fire broke out I was taking tickets at the door," said E.
+Lovett, one of the ushers. "The crowd began to move toward the exits on
+the ground floor, and I rushed to the big entrance doors and threw three
+of them open. From there I hurried to the cigar store and called up the
+police and fire departments.
+
+"When I returned I tried to get more of the doors open, but was shoved
+aside and told that I was crazy. The crowd acted in a most frenzied manner
+and no one could have held them in check. Conditions on the balconies must
+have been appalling. They were well filled, but the exits, had they been
+opened, would have proved ample for all."
+
+Michael Ohle, who was ushering on the first balcony, noticed the fire
+shortly after it started. He hurried to the entrances and cleared the way
+for the people to get out. Then, he says, he started downstairs to find
+out how serious the fire was. Before he could return the panic was on and
+he fled to the street for safety.
+
+"Mrs. Phillipson, Phillipson--is Mrs. Phillipson here?"
+
+That cry sounded in drug stores, cigar stores, and hotels until three
+little girls, Adeline, Frances, and Teresa, had found their mother, from
+whom they were separated in the panic. At last at the Continental hotel
+the call was weakly answered by a woman who lay upon a couch, more
+frightened than hurt. In another moment three little girls were sobbing in
+their mother's lap.
+
+
+FRIENDS AND RELATIVES EAGERLY SEARCH FOR LOVED ONES MISSING AFTER THEATER
+HOLOCAUST.
+
+Friends sought for information of friends; husbands asked for word of
+wives; fathers and mothers sought news of sons and daughters; men and
+women begged to be told if there was any knowledge of their sweethearts;
+parents asked for children; and children fearfully told the names of
+missing playmates.
+
+The early hours of the evening were marked by many sad scenes. Men would
+rush to the desk where the names of the missing were being compiled and
+asked if anything had been heard of some member of their families, then
+turn away and hurry out, barely waiting to be told that there would be no
+definite news until nearly midnight.
+
+"Just think!" said one gray headed man, leaning on the arm of a younger
+man who was leading him down the stairs, "I bought the matinee tickets
+for the children as a treat, and insisted that they take their little
+cousin with them."
+
+"Have you heard anything of my daughter?" asked a woman.
+
+"What was her name?"
+
+"Lily. She had seats in the first balcony with some girl friends. You
+would know her by her brown hair. She wore a white silk shirt waist and a
+diamond ring I gave her for Christmas. I went to the theater, but I
+couldn't get near it, and they said they were still carrying out bodies."
+
+"And her name? Who was she?"
+
+"She was my daughter--my only one!"
+
+The woman walked away, weeping, without giving the name, and the only
+response she would make to questions from those who followed her was:
+
+"My daughter!"
+
+Two men, with two little boys, came in. "Our wives," they said, "came to
+the matinee with some neighbors. They have not yet come home."
+
+Before they could give their names a third man ran up and cried:
+
+"I just got word the folks have been taken home in ambulances. They are
+alive."
+
+The men gave a shout and were gone in an instant.
+
+Men with children in their arms came to ask for others of the family who
+had become separated from them in the panic at the theater. Women, tears
+dampening their cheeks, hushed the chatter of their little ones while they
+gave the names of husbands and brothers, or told of other children who had
+been lost.
+
+One man yielded to his fears at the last minute and went away without
+asking for information or giving any name. He said:
+
+"I went to the theater with my wife. We have only been married a year.
+When the rush came I was torn away from her, and the last thing I remember
+is of hearing her call my name. Then I was lifted off my feet and can
+recall nothing more except that I found myself in the street. I have been
+to all the hospitals and morgues, and now I am going back to the theater
+again."
+
+So it went until the last dreaded news began coming in. Identifications
+were being made and hearts were being broken. After that time the
+inquiries were not for information; they were pleas to be told that a
+mistake had been made or that one was possible.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER IV.
+
+SCENE OF HORROR AS VIEWED FROM THE STAGE.
+
+
+All but one of the 348 members of the "Bluebeard" company escaped,
+although many had close calls for their lives. Some of the chorus girls
+displayed great coolness in the face of grave peril. Eddie Foy, who had a
+thrilling experience, said:
+
+"I was up in my dressing room preparing to come on for my turn in the
+middle of the second act when I heard an unusual commotion on the stage
+that I knew could not be caused by anything that was a part of the show. I
+hurried out of my dressing room, and as I looked I saw that the big drop
+curtain was on fire.
+
+"The fire had caught from the calcium and the paint and muslin on the drop
+caused the flames to travel with great rapidity Everything was excitement.
+Everybody was running from the stage. My 6 year old son, Bryan, stood in
+the first entrance to the stage and my first thought naturally was to get
+him out. They would not let me go out over the footlights, so I picked up
+the boy and gave him to a man and told him to rush the boy out into the
+alley.
+
+"I then rushed out to the footlights and called out to the audience, 'Keep
+very quiet. It is all right. Don't get excited and don't stampede. It is
+all right.'
+
+"I then shouted an order into the flies, 'Drop the curtain,' and called
+out to the leader of the orchestra to 'play an overture. Some of the
+musicians had left, but those that remained began to play. The leader sat
+there, white as a ghost, but beating his baton in the air.
+
+"As the music started I shouted out to the audience, 'Go out slowly. Leave
+the theater slowly.' The audience had not yet become panic stricken, and
+as I shouted to them they applauded me. The next minute the whole stage
+seemed to be afire, and what wood there was began to crackle with a sound
+like a series of explosions.
+
+"When I first came out to the footlights about 300 persons had left the
+theater or were leaving it. They were those who were nearest the door.
+Then the policemen came rushing in and tried to stem the tide towards the
+door.
+
+"All this happened in fifteen seconds. Up in the flies were the young
+women who compose the aerial ballet. They were up there waiting to do
+their turn, and as I stood at the front of the stage they came rushing
+out. I think they all got out safely.
+
+"The fire seemed to spread with a series of explosions. The paint on the
+curtains and scenery came in touch with the flames and in a second the
+scenery was sputtering and blazing up on all sides. The smoke was fearful
+and it was a case of run quickly or be smothered."
+
+Stage Director William Carleton, who was one of the last to leave the
+stage when the flames and smoke drove the members of the company out,
+said:
+
+"I was on the stage when the flames shot out from the switchboard on the
+left side. It seemed that some part of the scenery must have touched the
+sparks and set the fire. Soon the octette which was singing "In the Pale
+Moonlight," discovered the fire over their heads and in a few moments we
+had the curtain run down. It would not go down the full length, however,
+leaving an opening of about five feet from the floor. Then the crowd out
+in front began to stampede and the lights went out. Eddie Foy, who was in
+his dressing room, heard the commotion, and, rushing to the front of the
+stage, shouted to the spectators to be calm. The warning was useless and
+the panic was under way before any one realized what was going on.
+
+"Only sixteen members of the company were on the stage at the time. They
+remained until the flames were all about them and several had their hair
+singed and faces burned. Almost every one of these went out through the
+stage entrance on Dearborn street. In the meantime all of those who were
+in the dressing room had been warned and rushed out through the front
+entrance on Randolph street. There was no panic among the members of the
+company, every one seeming to know that care would result in the saving of
+life. Most of the members were preparing for the next number in their
+dressing rooms when the fire broke out, and they hurriedly secured what
+wraps they could and all dashed up to the stage, making their exit in
+safety.
+
+"The elevator which has been used for the members of the company, in going
+from the upper dressing rooms to the stage, was one of the first things to
+go wrong, and attempts to use it were futile.
+
+"It seems that the panic could not be averted, as the great crowd which
+filled the theater was unable to control itself. Two of the women
+fainted."
+
+"When the fire broke out," said Lou Shean, a member of the chorus, "I was
+in the dressing room underneath the stage. When I reached the top of the
+stairs the scenery nearby was all in flames and the heat was so fierce
+that I could not reach the stage door leading toward Dearborn street. I
+returned to the basement and ran down the long corridor leading toward
+the engine room, near which doors led to the smoking room and buffet. Both
+doors were locked. I began to break down the doors, assisted by other
+members of the company, while about seventy or eighty other members
+crowded against us. I succeeded in bursting open the door to the smoking
+room, when all made a wild rush. I was knocked down and trampled on and
+received painful bruises all over my body."
+
+"I was just straightening up things in our dressing room upstairs," said
+Harry Meehan, a member of the chorus, who also acted as dresser for Eddie
+Foy and Harry Gilfoil, "when the fire started. Both Mr. Foy and Mr.
+Gilfoil were on the stage at the time. I opened Mr. Foy's trunk and took
+out his watch and chain and rushed out, leaving my own clothes behind. I
+was so scantily dressed that I had to borrow clothes to get back to the
+hotel. Mr. Gilfoil saved nothing but his overcoat."
+
+Herbert Cawthorn, the Irish comedian who took the part of Pat Shaw in the
+play "Bluebeard," assisted many of the chorus girls from the stage exits
+in the panic.
+
+"While the stage fireman was working in an endeavor to use the chemicals
+the flames suddenly swooped down and out, Eddie Foy shouted something
+about the asbestos curtain and the fireman attempted to use it, and the
+stage hands ran to his assistance, but the curtain refused to work.
+
+"In my opinion the stage fireman might have averted the whole terrible
+affair if he had not become so excited. The chorus girls and everybody, to
+my mind, were less excited than he. There were at least 500 people behind
+the scenes when the fire started. I assisted many of the chorus girls from
+the theater."
+
+Said C. W. Northrop, who took the part of one of Bluebeard's old wives:
+"Many of us certainly had narrow escapes. Those who were in the dressing
+rooms underneath the stage at the time had more difficulty in getting out.
+I was in the dressing room under the stage when the fire broke out, and
+when I found that I could not reach the stage I tried to get out through
+the door connecting the extreme north end of the C shaped corridor with
+the smoking room. I joined other members of the company in their rush for
+safety, but when we reached the door we found it closed. Some of the
+members crawled out through a coal hole, while others broke down the
+locked door, through which the others made their way out."
+
+Lolla Quinlan, one of Bluebeard's eight dancers, saved the life of one of
+her companions, Violet Sidney, at the peril of her own. The two girls,
+with five others, were in a dressing room on the fifth floor when the
+alarm was raised. In their haste Miss Sidney caught her foot and sank to
+the floor with a cry of pain. She had sprained her ankle. The others, with
+the exception of Miss Quinlan, fled down the stairs.
+
+Grasping her companion around the waist Miss Quinlan dragged her down the
+stairs to the stage and crossed the boards during a rain of fiery brands.
+These two were the last to leave the stage. Miss Quinlan's right arm and
+hand were painfully burned and her face was scorched. Miss Sidney's face
+was slightly burned. Both were taken to the Continental hotel.
+
+Herbert Dillon, musical director, at the height of the panic broke through
+the stage door from the orchestra side, hastily cleared away obstructions
+with an ax, and assisted in the escape of about eighty chorus girls who
+occupied ten dressing rooms under the stage.
+
+"We were getting ready for the honey and fan scene," said Miss Nina Wood,
+"talking and laughing, and not thinking of danger. We were so far back of
+the orchestra that we did not hear sounds of the panic for several
+moments. Then the tramping of feet came to our ears. We made our way
+through the smoking room and one of the narrow exits of the theater."
+
+Miss Adele Rafter, a member of the company, was in her dressing room when
+the fire broke out.
+
+"I did not wait an instant," said Miss Rafter. "I caught up a muff and boa
+and rushed down the stairs in my stage costume and was the first of the
+company to get out the back entrance. Some man kindly loaned me his
+overcoat and I hurried to my apartments at the Sherman house. Several of
+the girls followed, and we had a good crying spell together."
+
+Miss Rafter's mother called at the hotel and spent the evening with her.
+Telegrams were sent to her father, who is rector of a church at Dunkirk,
+N. Y.
+
+Edwin H. Price, manager of the "Mr. Bluebeard" company, was not in the
+building when the fire started. He said:
+
+"I stepped out of the theater for a minute, and when I got back I saw the
+people rushing out and knew the stage was on fire. I helped some of the
+girls out of the rear entrance. With but one or two exceptions all left in
+stage costume.
+
+"One young woman in the chorus, Miss McDonald, displayed unusual coolness.
+She remained in her dressing room and donned her entire street costume,
+and also carried out as much of her stage clothing as she could carry."
+
+Quite a number of the chorus girls live in Chicago, and Mr. Price
+furnished cabs and sent them all to their homes.
+
+Through some mistake it was reported that Miss Anabel Whitford, the fairy
+queen of the company, was dying at one of the hospitals. She was not even
+injured, having safely made her way out through the stage door.
+
+Miss Nellie Reed, the principal of the flying ballet, which was in place
+for its appearance near the top part of the stage, was so badly burned by
+the flames before she was able to escape that she afterward died at the
+county hospital. The other members of the flying ballet were not injured.
+
+Robert Evans, one of the principals of the Bluebeard company, was in his
+dressing room on the fourth floor. He dived through a mass of flame and
+landed three stairways below. He helped a number of chorus girls to escape
+through the lower basement. His hands and face are burned severely. He
+lost all his wardrobe and personal effects.
+
+
+STORY OF HOW A SMALL BLAZE TERMINATED IN TERRIBLE LOSS.
+
+The fire started while the double octet was singing "In the Pale
+Moonlight." Eddie Foy, off the stage, was making up for his "elephant"
+specialty.
+
+On the audience's left--the stage right--a line of fire flashed straight
+up. It was followed by a noise as of an explosion. According to nearly all
+accounts, however, there was no real explosion, the sound being that of
+the fuse of the "spot" light, the light which is turned on a pivot to
+follow and illuminate the progress of the star across the stage.
+
+This light caused the fire. On this all reports of the stage folk agree.
+As to manner, accounts differ widely. R. M. Cummings, the boy in charge of
+the light, said that it was short circuited.
+
+Stage hands, as they fled from the scene, however, were heard to question
+one another, "Who kicked over the light?" The light belonged to the
+"Bluebeard" company.
+
+The beginning of the disaster was leisurely. The stage hands had been
+fighting the line of wavering flame along the muslin fly border for some
+seconds before the audience knew anything was the matter.
+
+The fly border, made of muslin and saturated with paint, was tinder to the
+flames.
+
+The stage hands grasped the long sticks used in their work. They forgot
+the hand grenades that are supposed to be on every stage.
+
+"Hit it with the sticks!" was the cry. "Beat it out!" "Beat it out!"
+
+The men struck savagely. A few yards of the border fell upon the stage and
+was stamped to charred fragments.
+
+That sight was the first warning the audience had. For a second there was
+a hush. The singers halted in their lines; the musicians ceased to play.
+
+Then a murmur of fear ran through the audience. There were cries from a
+few, followed by the breaking, rumbling sound of the first step toward the
+flight of panic.
+
+At that moment a strange, grotesque figure appeared upon the stage. It
+wore tights, a loose upper garment, and the face was one-half made up. The
+man was Eddie Foy, chief comedian of the company, the clown, but the only
+man who kept his head.
+
+Before he reached the center of the stage he had called out to a stage
+hand: "Take my boy, Bryan, there! Get him out! There by the stage way!"
+
+The stage hand grabbed the little chap. Foy saw him dart with him to
+safety as he turned his head.
+
+Freed of parental anxiety, he faced the audience.
+
+"Keep quiet!" he shouted. "Quiet."
+
+"Go out in order!" he shouted. "Don't get excited!"
+
+Between exclamations he bent over toward the orchestra leader.
+
+
+ORCHESTRA PLAYS IN FACE OF DEATH.
+
+"Start an overture!" he commanded. "Start anything. For God's sake play,
+play, play, and keep on playing."
+
+The brave words were as bravely answered. Gillea raised his wand, and the
+musicians began to play. Better than any one in the theater they knew
+their peril. They could look slantingly up and see that the 300 sets of
+the "Bluebeard" scenery all were ablaze. Their faces were white, their
+hands trembled, but they played, and played.
+
+Foy still stood there, alternately urging the frightened people to avoid a
+panic and spurring the orchestra on. One by one the musicians dropped
+fiddle, horn, and other instruments and stole away.
+
+
+"CLOWN" PROVES A HERO.
+
+Finally the leader and Foy were left alone. Foy gave one glance upward and
+saw the scenery all aflame. Dropping brands fell around him, and then he
+fled--just in time to save his own life. The "clown" had proved himself a
+hero.
+
+The curtain started to come down. It stopped, it swayed as from a heavy
+wind, and then it "buckled" near the center.
+
+
+ALL HOPE LOST FOR GALLERY.
+
+From that moment no power short of omnipotent could have saved the
+occupants of the upper gallery.
+
+The coolness of Foy, of the orchestra leader and of other players, who
+begged the audience to hold itself in check, however, probably saved many
+lives on the parquet floor. Tumultuous panic prevailed, but the maddest of
+it--save in the doomed gallery--was at the outskirts of the ground floor
+crowd.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER V.
+
+EXCITING EXPERIENCES IN THE FIRE.
+
+
+"If you ever saw a field of timothy grass blown flat by the wind and rain
+of a summer storm, that was the position of the dead at the exits of the
+second balcony," said Chief of Police O'Neill.
+
+"In the rush for the stairs they had jammed in the doorway and piled ten
+deep; lying almost like shingles. When we got up the stairs in the dark to
+the front rows of the victims, some of them were alive and struggling, but
+so pinned down by the great weight of the dead and dying piled upon them
+that three strong men could not pull the unfortunate ones free.
+
+"It was necessary first to take the dead from the top of the pile, then
+the rest of the bodies were lifted easily and regularly from their
+positions, save as their arms had intertwined and clutched.
+
+"Nothing in my experience has ever approached the awfulness of the
+situation and it may be said that from the point of physical exertion, the
+police department has never been taxed as it has been taxed tonight. Men
+have been worn out simply with the carrying out of dead bodies, to say
+nothing of the awfulness of their burdens."
+
+The strong hand of the chief was called into play when the dead had been
+removed and when the theater management appeared at the exit of the second
+balcony, seeking to pass the uniformed police who guarded the heaps of
+sealskins, purses, and tangled valuables behind them. A spokesman for the
+management, backed up by a negro special policeman of the house, stood
+before the half dozen city police on guard, asking to be admitted that
+these valuables might be removed to the checkrooms of the theater.
+
+"But these things are the property of the coroner," replied the chief,
+coming up behind the delegation.
+
+"But the theater management wishes to make sure of the safety of these
+valuables," insisted the spokesman.
+
+"The department of police is responsible," replied Chief O'Neill.
+
+
+EXPERIENCE OF CHICAGO UNIVERSITY MEN.
+
+Clyde A. Blair, captain of the University of Chicago track team, and
+Victor S. Rice, 615 Yale avenue, a member of the team, accompanied Miss
+Majorie Mason, 5733 Monroe avenue, and Miss Anne Hough, 361 East
+Fifty-eighth street, to the matinee. They were sitting in the middle of
+the seventh row from the rear of the first floor. When the first flames
+broke through from the stage Miss Mason became alarmed. Seizing the girl,
+and leaving his overcoat and hat, Blair dragged her through the crush
+toward the door, closely followed by Rice and Miss Hough.
+
+"The crush at the door," said Blair, "was terrific. Half of the double
+doors opening into the vestibule were fastened. People dashed against the
+glass, breaking it and forcing their way through. One woman fell down in
+the crowd directly in front of me. She looked up and said, 'For God's
+sake, don't trample on me.' I stepped around her, unable to help her up,
+and the crowd forced me past. I could not learn whether she was trampled
+over or not."
+
+
+BISHOP BRAVES DANGER IN HEROIC WORK OF RESCUE.
+
+"I was passing the theater when the panic began," said Bishop Samuel
+Fallows of the St. Paul's Reformed Episcopal church. "I heard the cry for
+volunteers and joined the men who went into the place to carry out the
+dead and injured. I had no idea of the extent of the disaster until I
+became actively engaged in the work.
+
+"The sight when I reached the balconies was pitiful beyond description. It
+grew in horror as I looked over the seats. The bodies were in piles. Women
+had their hands over their faces as if to shield off a blow. Children lay
+crushed beneath their parents, as if they had been hurled to the marble
+floors.
+
+"I saw the great battlefields of the civil war, but they were as nothing
+to this. When we began to take out the bodies we found that many of the
+audience had been unable to get even near the exits. Women were bent over
+the seats, their fingers clinched on the iron sides so strongly that they
+were torn and bleeding. Their faces and clothes were burned, and they must
+have suffered intensely.
+
+"I ministered to all I could and some of them seemed to welcome the
+presence of a clergyman as it were a gift from God. There appeared to be
+little system in the work of rescue, but that was due, I believe, to the
+intense excitement."
+
+
+WOMEN AND FOUR CHILDREN SUFFER.
+
+Mrs. Anna B. Milliken, who is staying at Thompson's hotel, had four
+children in her charge, Felix, Jessie, Tony, and Jennie Guerrier, of 135
+North Sangamon street, their ages ranging from 11 to 17 years. She and her
+charges were in the balcony, standing against the wall, when the fire
+started.
+
+"Something told me to be calm," said Mrs. Milliken. "I had passed through
+one dreadful experience in the Chicago fire, and, though there was a great
+deal of confusion, I kept the children together, telling them not to be
+frightened. Men and women hurried past me, shouting like wild beasts, and
+if I had joined them the children and I would have been trampled under
+foot. It was minutes before I could leave with the two younger children.
+The two elder are lost. What shall I tell their folks," and the poor woman
+began to weep. Her face, as she stood in the lobby of the Northwestern
+building, was blistered and swollen. The back of her dress was burned
+through.
+
+"What are the names of the missing children?" inquired a physician. "They
+are in here," and he led the distracted woman into one of the "first aid
+hospitals." There Mrs. Milliken saw her two charges so swathed in bandages
+that they could not be recognized.
+
+
+LEARNS CHILDREN HAVE ESCAPED.
+
+"I'm looking for two little girls--Berien is the name," shouted H. E.
+Osborne. "They live in Aurora."
+
+"They've been here," answered Mr. Weisman. "They are all right and have
+been sent to their home in Aurora."
+
+With a glad shout Osborne ran back to the office of the National Cash
+Register company, 50 State street, to inform Miss Mary Stevenson, whom the
+children had been visiting.
+
+The Berien children were among the first to reach the offices of the
+Hallwood company after the fire broke out. By some chance they had made
+their way out uninjured. The story of their plight touched a stranger, who
+took them to a railway station and bought them tickets to their home in
+Aurora. One was about 14 and the other about 9 years old.
+
+
+FINDS HIS DAUGHTER.
+
+One young woman, terrified but uninjured, had found her way to this office
+and was sitting in a frightened stupor, when an elderly man hurried in
+from the street.
+
+"Have you seen--" he started to ask, and then, catching sight of the
+forlorn little figure, he stopped. With a glad cry, father and daughter
+rushed into each other's arms, and the father bore his child away. Their
+names were not learned.
+
+James Sullivan of Woodstock was probably the last man who got out of the
+parquet uninjured. With him was George Field, also of Woodstock, and the
+two fought their way out together.
+
+
+MR. FIELD'S NARRATIVE.
+
+"We were seated in the twelfth row," said Mr. Field, "when we saw fire at
+the top of the proscenium arch. At the same time some sparks fell on the
+stage.
+
+"Eddie Foy came out and told the audience not to be afraid, to avoid a
+panic, and there would be no trouble. While he was speaking, however, a
+burning brand fell alongside of him, and then came what looked like a huge
+globe of fire. The moment it struck the stage fire spread everywhere.
+
+"The panic started at once and everybody rushed for the doors. Sullivan
+and I were in the rear of the fleeing mass and made our way out as best we
+could without getting mixed up in the panic. As long as the women and
+children were struggling through the straight aisles there was not so much
+trouble except that some of the fugitives fell to the floor and had to be
+helped on their feet again. At times the women and children would be
+lying four deep on the floor of the aisles, and in several instances we
+had to set them on their feet before we could go further. There was not
+much smoke and had the aisles been straight to the entrances every one
+could have got out practically unhurt.
+
+"But when it came to the turns where they focus into the lobby the poor
+women and children were piled up into indiscriminate heaps. The screams
+and cries they uttered were something terrible. It was an impossibility to
+allay the panic and the frightened people simply trampled on those in
+front of them.
+
+"Some of the people in the orchestra chairs immediately in front of the
+stage must have been burned by the fire. The fire darted directly among
+them and the chairs began burning at once. Those on this floor far enough
+in the rear to escape these flames would have been all right except for
+the crush of the panic.
+
+"Sullivan, who was with me, was the last man out of the orchestra chairs
+who was not injured. Whoever was behind us must have been suffocated or
+burned to death. How many there were I have no means of knowing."
+
+
+NARROW ESCAPES OF YOUNG AND OLD.
+
+One of the narrow escapes in the first rush for the open air was that of
+Winnie Gallagher, 11 years old, 4925 Michigan avenue. The child, who was
+with her mother in the third row, was left behind in the rush for safety.
+She climbed to the top of the seat and, stepping from one chair to
+another, finally reached the door. There she was nearly crushed in the
+crowd. At the Central police station the child was restored to her mother.
+
+Miss Lila Hazel Coulter, of 4760 Champlain avenue, was sitting with Mr.
+Kenneth Collins and Miss Helen Dickinson, 3637 Michigan avenue, in the
+eighth row in the parquet. She escaped in safety.
+
+"I was sitting in the fifth seat from the aisle," said Miss Coulter, "but
+the fire, which was bursting out from both sides of the stage, had such a
+fascination for me."
+
+D. W. Dimmick, of Apple River, Ill., an old man of 70, with a long, white
+beard, was standing in the upper gallery when the fire broke out.
+
+"I was with a party of four," said Mr. Dimmick. "I saw small pieces of
+what looked like burning paper dropping down from above at the left of the
+curtain. At the same time small puffs of smoke seemed to shoot out into
+the house. A boy in the gallery near me called 'fire,' but there were
+plenty of people to stop him.
+
+"'Keep quiet!' I told him. 'If you don't look out, you'll start a panic.'
+
+"Then all of a sudden the whole front of the stage seemed to burst out in
+one mass of flame. Then everybody seemed to get up and start to get out of
+the place at once. From all over the house came shrieks and cries of
+'fire,' I started at once, hugging the wall on the outside of the stairway
+as we went down.
+
+"When we got down to the platform where the first balcony opens it seemed
+to me that people were stacked up like cordwood. There were men, women,
+and children in the lot. At the same time there were some people whom I
+thought must be actors, who came running out from somewhere in the
+interior of the house, and whose wigs and clothes were on fire. We tried
+to beat out the flames as we went along. By crowding out to the wall we
+managed to squeeze past the mass of people who were writhing on the floor,
+and practically blocking the entrance so far as the people still in the
+gallery were concerned.
+
+
+PULLS WOMEN FROM MASS ON FLOOR.
+
+"As we got by the mass on the floor I turned and caught hold of the arms
+of a woman who was lying near the bottom pinned down by the weight resting
+on her feet. I managed to pull her out, and I think she got down in
+safety. One of the men with me also pulled out another woman from the
+heap. I tried to rescue a man who was also caught by the feet, but,
+although I braced myself against the stairs, I was unable to move him.
+
+"I came in from Apple River to see the sights in Chicago, and I have seen
+all I can stand."
+
+Six little girls from Evanston, in a party occupying seats in the parquet,
+escaped by the side entrance. In the crush they lost most of their
+clothing. Four of the children stayed together, the other two being for
+the time lost in the street. The four were Hannah Gregg, 12 years old,
+1038 Sheridan road; Florence and May Lang, 14 and 13 years old, Buena
+Park; Beatrice Moore, 12 years old, Buena Park.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER VI.
+
+HEROES OF THE FIRE.
+
+
+One of the heroes of the Iroquois theater fire was Peter Quinn, chief
+special agent of the Atchison, Topeka & Santa Fe railroad system, who
+assisted in saving the lives of 100 or more of the performers. But for the
+prompt service of Quinn and two citizens who assisted him it is believed
+that most of the performers would have met the fate of the victims in the
+theater proper.
+
+Mr. Quinn had attended a trial in the Criminal court and in the middle of
+the afternoon started for the downtown district, intending to proceed to
+his office. Reaching Randolph and Dearborn streets the railroad official
+had his attention attracted to a man who rushed from the theater
+bare-headed and without his coat. What followed Quinn describes as
+follows:
+
+"The actions of the man and the fact that he was without coat and hat
+attracted my attention and I watched him through curiosity. He ran so
+swiftly that he collided with several pedestrians, and I saw him rush
+toward a policeman on the street crossing. He said something to the
+policeman and then I saw the bluecoat rush excitedly away. My curiosity
+was then aroused to such an extent that I followed the young man who ran
+into the alley in the rear of the theater. He disappeared there and I was
+about to go on my way when my attention was attracted to the door leading
+upon the stage.
+
+"As I passed I heard a commotion and saw the door was slightly open, and,
+peeping into the opening, I asked what was the trouble. Then, for the
+first time, I learned that the theater was on fire. A number of strangers
+arrived at the door about the same time.
+
+"The players, men, women, and children, had rushed to this small trap-door
+for escape, got caught in a solid mass, and were so firmly wedged together
+that they could not move. They were banked solidly against the little
+door, and it could not be opened. Nearly all of the players were in their
+stage costumes.
+
+"The women screamed and begged us to rescue them, and the cries of the
+children could be heard above the hoarse shouts of the men. I did not
+realize it at that moment, but it develops that the players were in the
+same position as the unfortunates who met death in the front end of the
+house.
+
+"Had we been unable to get that trap-door open when we did every member of
+that struggling crowd of men, women and children, would have perished
+where they stood, too tightly wedged together to permit even a slight
+struggle against death.
+
+"Nobody at that time had the slightest idea of the serious state of
+affairs. We tried to force the door open, but the crowd was banked up too
+tightly against it. I shouted through the opening and commanded those in
+the rear to step back far enough to permit the door to be opened. It was
+like talking to empty space, however, and for a few moments we stood there
+helpless and without any means to assist those in distress.
+
+"Then came a volume of smoke, and far in the rear of the crowd we could
+see the illumination from the flames. I had a number of small tools in my
+pocket, and immediately proceeded to remove the metal attachments which
+held the door in place. This was accomplished with some difficulty, and
+then we managed to force the crowd back probably an inch, but that was
+sufficient. The door was then permitted to drop from its place, and one by
+one the imprisoned players were assisted into the alley.
+
+"They were then in scanty costumes, but were quickly assisted to places of
+shelter. Even when the last player and stage hand had reached the alley we
+could not realize the awfulness of what had happened. I walked in upon the
+stage and found it a seething furnace. The players had been rescued just
+in time. A minute later and the flames and smoke would have reached the
+imperiled ones, and they would have been suffocated or burned where they
+stood."
+
+
+THE PILES OF DEAD IN THE GALLERY.
+
+William ("Smiling") Corbett was one of the first to penetrate the smoke
+and reach the balcony and gallery of the theater where the most fearful
+loss of life occurred. Charley Dexter, the Boston National league player,
+and Frank Houseman, the old Chicago second baseman, went to his
+assistance.
+
+Corbett was stopped by a fear-frenzied little woman, who begged him to
+save her two children.
+
+"They're up in the gallery," she cried.
+
+Corbett made a dash for the balcony entrance on the right.
+
+"Don't go up there," admonished some of the firemen about; "you'll get
+hemmed in."
+
+Corbett groped his way onward and upward, stumbling over bodies lying
+prostrate on the staircase, and finally reached the gallery entrance.
+
+"There they were," said Corbett afterward. "Positively the most sickening
+spectacle I ever saw. They were piled up in bunches, in all manner of
+disarray. I grabbed for the topmost body, a girl about 6 years old.
+Catching her by the wrist I felt the flesh curl up under my grasp. I
+hurried down with the little one, then back again, each time with the body
+of a child.
+
+"I then realized that no good could come of any further effort. Everybody
+was stark dead. I turned away and fled. I never again want to go near the
+place."
+
+
+EDDIE FOY'S HEROISM.
+
+Eddie Foy, leading comedian in "Mr. Bluebeard," said:
+
+"I was in my dressing room, one tier up off the stage, when I smelled
+smoke. The 'Moonlight ballet' was on, and it was three minutes before the
+time for my entrance on the first scene of the second act.
+
+"I looked up and immediately over me, in the left first entrance, I saw
+sparks and a small cloud of smoke. The members of the company and of the
+chorus had already started off the stage. My eldest boy, Bryan, was
+standing under the light bridge in the first entrance, and, taking him by
+the hand, I turned him over to one of the stage hands with orders to get
+him out of the theater. In less time than it takes to tell it, the little
+wreath of smoke and the tiny sparks had grown in volume. The smoke and
+some of the sparks had already made their way into the main part of the
+house, curling down and around the lower edge of the proscenium arch.
+
+"I looked at the house through an opening, and that was enough. I tried to
+appear as calm as possible under the conditions, realizing what a stampede
+would mean. Just what I said I cannot for the life of me now recall. In
+effect, though, this is about it:
+
+"'Ladies and gentlemen, there is no danger. Don't get excited. Walk out
+calmly.'
+
+"Between each breath, and these were coming in short, sharp gasps, I kept
+yelling out from the corner of my lips: 'Lower that iron curtain; drop the
+fire curtain!'
+
+"The balcony and gallery were packed with women and children, and fully
+aware of what was in store for these hapless ones, my heart sank.
+
+"The cracking of the timbers above increased. The smoke was growing more
+dense. I knew the material aloft--flimsy, dry linens, parched canvas, and
+paint-coated tapestries and drops.
+
+"Without raising my voice to a pitch calculated to alarm, and yet
+unmistakably urgent in its appeal, I repeated: 'Get out--get out slowly.'
+
+"The northeast corner of the fly gallery was now a furnace. Just as I made
+the last appeal to the balcony and the gallery a fiercely blazing ember
+dropped at my feet. Another, a smaller one, was caught in the draft and
+forced out into the theater proper.
+
+"'Drop the fire curtain,' I shouted again, looking in vain for it to come
+down. I know that not a soul in the theater proper would be in danger if
+this was done. The switchboard was there--but no one to work it. I cried
+out for Carleton, our stage manager. He was gone. I called for 'Pete,' one
+of the electricians. He, too, was gone.
+
+"'Does any one know how this iron curtain is worked?' I yelled at the mob
+of fleeing stage hands, members of the company, property men, and
+musicians. Not an answer.
+
+"At the first sign of danger, after reaching the footlights, I said to
+Dillea, our orchestra leader:
+
+"'An overture, Herbert, an overture.'
+
+"Dillea--God bless him, his ranks already thinning out in the orchestra
+pit--struck up the 'Sleeping Beauty and the Beast' overture. Of the
+thirty odd musicians in the pit not over half a dozen remained to follow
+Dillea and his baton. But the little fellow, ashen pale, his eyes glued on
+the raging mass of flame above, never whimpered. He kept right on, and
+only left his post when the flames drove him away from his leader's stand.
+When Dillea disappeared down the opening in the orchestra pit half of the
+lower floor had been emptied. This I noticed only in an aside, for my eyes
+were fastened on the sea of agonized, distracted little ones in the
+balcony and gallery."
+
+
+AN ELEVATOR BOY HERO.
+
+The bottom of the elevator shaft in the doomed theater was a scene of
+pandemonium when the stage hands tried to get the girls out. Archie
+Barnard headed the chain gang and behind him were J. R. O'Mally, Arthur
+Hart and William Price. As soon as the women reached the floor they began
+to run wild, and had to be caught and tossed from one man to another. The
+women in the first tier of dressing rooms were the first down and they
+were helped out without much trouble.
+
+On his second trip up with the elevator young Robert Smith ascended into
+an atmosphere that was so thick with smoke that he could not see or
+breathe. He found one of the girls on the sixth floor and then took on
+another load from the fifth. By the time he had come down with these, the
+flames and smoke were threatening the men in the chain. The clothing of
+Barnard and William Price was on fire and their hair was burning.
+Nevertheless they threw the girls out and waited for the third load.
+
+This load came near not arriving. The smoke was so thick that Smith had to
+find the girls and drag them into the elevator and by the time he had
+done this he was almost overcome. The elevator was burning at the place
+where the controller was located, and Smith had to place his left hand in
+the flame to start the car. The hand was badly burned, but the car was
+started and came down in time for the girls to receive assistance from the
+men who were waiting. When the last girl was out the men left the
+building.
+
+Up in the gridiron, where the smoke was thickest, the four German boys who
+worked the aerial apparatus were caught, fully sixty feet from the stage
+floor, and no one had time to come to their assistance or to pay any
+attention to them, because there were too many other people to be saved.
+
+At first, they did not know what to do. As the smoke became thicker and
+the heat more intense they moved to get out. One of them, who was some
+distance from his companions, was caught in the flames of one of the
+burning pieces of draperies, and either because he lost his presence of
+mind or because he could not hold out any longer, he jumped. Some of the
+people on the stage floor heard him fall, but he did not move and no one
+could help him. He could not be found after the other people escaped from
+the stage. His three companions climbed over the gridiron scaffolding and
+made their way down the stairway to safety.
+
+"I heard the little fellow fall," said Arthur Hart, "and that is the last
+I knew of him. It was a long jump, and I presume that he was badly
+injured."
+
+"I stuck to the car until the ropes parted," said young Smith, the
+elevator boy, "and then I began to get faint. Someone reached in and
+pulled me out just in time to save my life. The larger part of the girls
+were in the dressing rooms when the fire broke out, and they all tried to
+get out at once. A great many tried to crowd into the elevator and it was
+hard work to keep it going. I made as many trips as I could."
+
+
+TWO BALCONY HEROES.
+
+A man who gave his name as Chester, with his wife and two daughters, was a
+hero who escaped without letting the police know who he was. This man was
+in the lower balcony of the theater and in the panic he succeeded in
+reaching the fire escape with his children and wife. After getting on the
+fire escape, the flames swept up and set the clothing of his wife and
+girls on fire. Burned himself, he fought the flame and then realizing that
+delay meant certain death he dropped the children to the ground, a
+distance of ten feet, and then dropped his wife. Then he leaped himself.
+
+W. G. Smith of the Chicago Teaming Company, 37 Dearborn street, saw them
+jumping and with some of his men he picked them up and carried them into
+his store. This was before the fire department arrived.
+
+When all had been taken in Smith rushed back into the alley to find the
+lower fire escape filled with screaming, struggling women. All were
+hatless and their faces were scorched by the intense heat. He shouted to
+them to wait a moment, as the firemen were coming, but one woman leaped as
+he spoke. She too was taken into Smith's store and all his patients were
+taken later to nearby hotels, where their injuries were attended to.
+
+After Smith left the alley Morris Eckstrom, assistant engineer, and M. J.
+Tierney, engineer of the university building, ran to the rescue of the
+women on the fire escape. The firemen had not yet arrived, and the screams
+of the women with the flames creeping upon them were frightful to hear.
+
+"Jump one by one," shouted Eckstrom, "and we'll catch you."
+
+Tierney grabbed a long blanket from the engine room, and the women,
+realizing it was their only chance, leaped into it. In some cases they
+were injured, but none was seriously hurt.
+
+"I know we caught twenty women that way, before the flames got so terrific
+that none of them could reach the fire escape," said Eckstrom. "I saw a
+dozen women and children and some men, through the open door to the fire
+escape, fall back into the flames."
+
+
+THE MUSICAL DIRECTOR'S STORY.
+
+Musical Director Herbert Dillea of the "Mr. Bluebeard" company, who was
+one of the first of the members of the orchestra to see the fire, had
+several narrow escapes from death while he endeavored to rescue four of
+the chorus girls who had fainted in the passageway which leads from the
+armor-room to the front smoking apartment.
+
+Dillea was nearly overcome by the thick smoke which filled the areaway,
+but, with the assistance of some of the stage employes, he succeeded in
+carrying the unconscious actresses to the street. The young women, upon
+reaching the fresh air, soon revived, and they were taken care of in
+stores until they got their street clothing.
+
+Dillea said that several other members of the orchestra vainly endeavored
+to persuade some of the audience who were occupying front seats to enter
+the passageway, but no attention was paid to them.
+
+In describing his experiences Dillea said:
+
+"It was during the second verse of the 'Pale Moonlight' song that I
+suddenly saw a red light to my left in the proscenium arch. The moment I
+saw the red glare I knew there was a fire, and in whispers I ordered the
+other members of the orchestra to play as fast as they could, as I thought
+the asbestos would be lowered. We had hardly begun to play when the
+asbestos started to come down, but right in the middle it stopped, and it
+remained so.
+
+"By this time the chorus girls were shrieking with terror, as the fire
+brands were falling among them on the stage. As soon as the audience saw
+the fire brands they began to arise, but Eddie Foy ran out and begged them
+to remain quiet, assuring them that there was no danger. The audience paid
+no attention to him and the panic followed. Then I thought it was time to
+make our escape, and I turned to the orchestra men and told them to follow
+me to the passageway. While I was running through the areaway I shouted to
+the actresses. They ran from their rooms, and four of them fainted. It was
+only with the greatest difficulty they were carried out."
+
+
+CHILD SAVES HIS BROTHER.
+
+Willie Dee, the 12-year-old son of Mr. and Mrs. W. E. Dee, who lost two
+children in the fire, by a presence of mind and bravery that would have
+been commendable in a person of mature years saved himself and a smaller
+brother not 7 years old.
+
+The four children of Mr. and Mrs. Dee attended the theater on the fatal
+afternoon in company with their nurse, Mrs. G. H. Errett. Besides Willie,
+the oldest of the children, there were two twin boys, Allerton and Edward,
+between 6 and 7 years of age, and the baby 2-1/2 years old. Willie was one
+of the first to notice the fire and called to the nurse to go out. The
+nurse did not grasp the situation, thinking the flames a part of the act,
+and hesitated. Noticing her hesitation, Willie seized the nearest one of
+the children, Allerton and pulled the smaller boy with him down the
+stairs from the first balcony in which the party was seated. The two boys
+were unable to move fast enough to keep ahead of the crowd, although they
+were the first ones out. They were overtaken and both of them shoved
+through the doors in front, where they became separated. Willie thought
+his little brother lost and went home without him. The smaller boy was
+later picked up and taken into Thompson's restaurant, from which place he
+was taken home, practically uninjured.
+
+The other twin, Edward, was killed where he sat. The nurse and baby
+succeeded in reaching the first landing, where they were trampled
+underfoot. A fireman took the baby from the nurse's arms and placed it in
+charge of Dr. Bridge. The doctor succeeded in resuscitating it and took it
+to his home at Forty-ninth street and Cottage Grove avenue, where it died
+early the following morning.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER VII.
+
+THE ORIGIN OF THE FIRE--THE ASBESTOS CURTAIN AND THE LIGHTS.
+
+
+The real story of the origin of the fire was told by William McMullen,
+assistant electrician. He said: "The spot light was completely
+extinguished at the time of the fire. I am positive of this, because I was
+working on it. Three feet above my head was the flood light. I noticed the
+curtain swaying directly above it and suddenly a spark shot up and it was
+ablaze in a second."
+
+McMullen called the attention of his assistant to the flame.
+
+"Put the fire out," he said.
+
+"All right," said the other man, reaching down, using his hands to put out
+the small flame.
+
+"Put it out! Put it out!" shouted McMullen.
+
+"I am! I am!" said the other, clapping the flimsy stuff between his hands.
+
+Some of the stage hands at this moment noticed the fire.
+
+"Look at that fire!" these called out. "Can't you see that you're on fire
+up there! Put it out!"
+
+"D---- it, I am trying to," said the man who was clapping away at the
+burning paint impregnated muslin.
+
+Then a flame a foot high shot up and caught the draperies above those on
+fire.
+
+"Look at that other one. It's on fire," some one on the stage yelled.
+
+"Put it out!" shouted another.
+
+"All right," said the man on the perch. But he did not clap hard enough
+or fast enough, and in ten seconds the flames were beyond his reach.
+
+It was after these hand clapping attempts to extinguish the fire had
+proved futile that McMullen shouted a call for the asbestos curtain to be
+put down.
+
+"I did not see the curtain move."
+
+
+ANOTHER ACCOUNT OF THE FIRE'S ORIGIN.
+
+W. H. Aldridge, who was employed to operate one of the so-called calcium
+lights, told how the fire started.
+
+"I was about twenty feet above the lights which were being used, having
+left my place to watch the performance," he said. "While I was looking
+down on the performers I noticed a flash of light where the electric wires
+connect with the calcium light. The flash seemed to be about six inches
+long. As I looked a curtain swayed against the flame. In a moment the
+loose edges of the canvas were in a blaze, which rapidly ran up the edge
+of the canvas and across its upper end.
+
+"A man named McNulty was in charge of the light. Whether he accidentally
+broke the wire and caused the flash I do not know. The light was about
+twenty feet from the floor. It consisted of a 'spot' light, used to follow
+the principal performer, and a 'flood' light, which was used to produce
+the moonlight effect."
+
+
+WERE ELECTRIC LIGHTS TURNED OUT?
+
+James B. Quinn, general manager of the Standard Meter company, who was
+present throughout the panic, said on this point: "Had the electrician who
+had charge of the switches for the foyer lights remained at his post long
+enough to have turned on the lights in the foyer there would not have been
+one-half the loss of life in the foyer and balcony stairs. When that
+awful darkness fell on the house the frenzied people did not know where to
+turn. They had not become fully acquainted with the turns because the
+theater was new. I was there and assisted in removing the dead and dying,
+and having been connected with lighting plants all my life I know what I
+am talking about. We did not have an electric light turned on for two
+hours after the fire. It was too late then. True, we had lanterns, but
+they were inadequate and would not have been needed had the electrician or
+his assistant done their duty. When the lights were turned on it was done
+by outside electricians."
+
+
+STATEMENT OF MESSRS. DAVIS AND POWERS, MANAGERS OF THE THEATER.
+
+When the fire broke out Manager Will J. Davis of the Iroquois was
+attending a funeral. A telephone message was quietly whispered to him and,
+after hesitating a moment, Davis unostentatiously slipped on his overcoat
+and left the place.
+
+Mr. Davis and Harry J. Powers later stated as follows:
+
+"So far as we have been able to ascertain the cause or causes of the most
+unfortunate accident of the fire in the Iroquois, it appears that one of
+the scenic draperies was noticed to have ignited from some cause. It was
+detected before it had reached an appreciable flame, and the city fireman
+who is detailed and constantly on duty when the theater is open noticed it
+simultaneously with the electrician.
+
+"The fireman, who was only a few feet away, immediately pulled a tube of
+kilfire, of which there were many hung about the stage, and threw the
+contents upon the blaze, which would have been more than enough, if the
+kilfire had been effective, to have extinguished the flame at once; but
+for some cause inherent in the tube of kilfire it had no effect. The
+fireman and electrician then ordered down the asbestos curtain, and the
+fireman threw the contents of another tube of kilfire upon the flame, with
+no better result.
+
+"The commotion thus caused excited the alarm of the audience, which
+immediately started for the exits, of which there are twenty-five of
+unusual width, all opening out, and ready to the hand of any one reaching
+them. The draft thus caused, it is believed, before the curtain could be
+entirely lowered, produced a bellying of the asbestos curtain, causing a
+pressure on the guides against the solid brick wall of the proscenium,
+thus stopping its descent.
+
+"Every effort was made by those on the stage to pull it down, but the
+draft was so great, it seems, that the pressure against the proscenium
+wall and the friction caused thereby was so strong that they could not be
+overcome. The audience became panic-stricken in their efforts to reach the
+exits and tripped and fell over each other and blocked the way.
+
+"The audience was promptly admonished and importuned by persons employed
+on the stage and in the auditorium to be calm and avoid any rush; that the
+exits and facilities for emptying the theater were ample to enable them
+all to get out without confusion.
+
+"No expense or precaution was omitted to make the theater as fireproof as
+it could be made, there being nothing combustible in the construction of
+the house except the trimmings and furnishings of the stage and
+auditorium. In the building of the theater we sacrificed more space to
+aisles and exits than any theater in America."
+
+
+FIRST RELIABLE STATEMENT AS TO WHY THE CURTAIN DID NOT COME DOWN.
+
+The man who gave the first reliable explanation of the failure of the
+"asbestos" curtain to operate properly was John C. Massoney, a carpenter,
+who was working as a scene shifter.
+
+"The reflector was constructed of galvanized iron or some similar
+material, with a concave surface covered with quicksilver about two feet
+in width," he said.
+
+"The reflector was twenty feet long and was set on end. The inner edge was
+attached to the stage side of the jamb of the proscenium walls with
+hinges. Along the inner edge, next the hinges, was a row of incandescent
+electric lamps.
+
+"When the reflector was not in use it was set back in a niche in the
+proscenium wall, and the curtain, when lowered, passed over it. When used
+it was swung around to the desired position, and projected from the wall.
+When the reflector was in use it prevented the curtain being lowered."
+
+"I have not ascertained whether the reflector was in use. The one on the
+south side of the stage was not, and from this I infer that the one on the
+north was not being used. If it was not in use, then somebody must have
+been careless."
+
+Massoney said he was on the south side of the stage when the fire started.
+
+"I did not see the fire start, but I saw it soon after it began," he said.
+"The fire was in the arch drapery curtain, which is the fourth curtain
+back of the 'asbestos' curtain. I saw the 'asbestos' curtain coming down
+soon after, but I noticed that the south end was very much lower than the
+north end. The south end was within four or five feet of the stage floor,
+while the north end was much higher.
+
+"I ran round to the north side and up the stairs to the north bridge. I
+found the north end of the curtain was resting on the reflector. I tried
+to reach the curtain to push it off the reflector, but could just touch
+it. I could not get hold of it. I am 5 feet 11 inches tall, and I can
+reach a foot above my head at least, so I figure that the north end of the
+curtain was nineteen or twenty feet from the floor.
+
+"When I first reached the bridge sparks were flying in one little place
+near me, but before I got down I saw a great sheet of circular flame going
+out under the curtain into the audience room. I stayed on the bridge as
+long as I could trying to move the curtain. I half fell down the stairs of
+the bridge and got out as fast as I could."
+
+"Why didn't you call some one to help you?"
+
+"There was no one on the bridge when I got there and no one on duty, that
+I could see, on the north side of the stage."
+
+"Was the reflector in use?"
+
+"I do not know."
+
+"Whose duty was it to look after the reflector?"
+
+"I do not know."
+
+"Did the curtain blow to pieces?"
+
+"It seemed all right. There was no hole in it that I saw."
+
+
+ANOTHER STORY AS TO WHY THE CURTAIN DID NOT LOWER.
+
+Joe Dougherty, the man who attempted to lower the asbestos curtain, says
+that the reason it stuck and would not come down was that it stuck on the
+arc spot light in the first entrance near the top of the proscenium arch.
+He was the last man to leave the fly loft and at the time he attempted to
+lower the asbestos curtain he was twenty feet or more above it, so that
+when it caught on the arc spot light he was unable to extricate it. The
+opening of the big double doors at the rear of the stage, he says, caused
+such a draft that the curtain could not be raised again to free it from
+the obstruction.
+
+Dougherty denies that the wire used by the flying ballet had anything to
+do with the obstruction of the curtain. The regular curtain was within a
+few inches of the asbestos sheet and had been operated a few minutes
+before the fire occurred. If one curtain worked the other would if the
+flying ballet rigging was not in the way.
+
+
+THE THEATER FIREMAN'S NARRATIVE.
+
+W. C. Saller was the fireman employed by the theater managers to look
+after fire protection. He was formerly connected with the city fire
+department.
+
+"I was on the floor of the stage about twenty feet from the light," he
+said. "The base of the light was on a bridge fifteen feet from the floor.
+The light was about five feet high and was within a foot and a half or two
+feet of the edge of the proscenium arch and close to the curtains. I saw
+the flame running up the edge of the curtain and ran to the bridge. I
+threw kilfire on the burning curtain but saw it did not stop the blaze and
+yelled to those below to lower the asbestos curtain. When the curtain was
+within fifteen feet of the stage floor the draft caused it to bulge out
+and stick fast. It was impossible to lower the curtain further, and after
+that nothing could be done to stop the fire.
+
+"In my opinion the draft was caused by the doors opening off the stage
+into the alley and Dearborn street. There were no explosions except the
+blowing out of fuses in the electric lighting system."
+
+Saller was severely burned about the hands and face.
+
+
+THE STAGE CARPENTER.
+
+Edward Cummings, stage carpenter, and his son, R. N. Cummings, his
+assistant, of 1116 California avenue, testified that the fire started in
+the curtains at the south end of the stage. Both asserted that the draft
+or suction caused the asbestos curtain to stick. They said the fire spread
+with remarkable rapidity among the curtains, which were about two feet
+apart, and when the asbestos curtain stopped they said that no human
+agency could have prevented the disaster that followed.
+
+
+THE CHIEF ELECTRICAL INSPECTOR'S TALE.
+
+Chief Electrical Inspector H. H. Hornsby of the city electrician's
+department declared the electric wires in the theater were in the best
+condition of any building in Chicago.
+
+"The wire leading to the calcium arc light might have been broken or
+detached," he said. "It requires no volts of electricity to operate one of
+those lights. The man operating the light may have got his legs or arms
+entangled in the wires and broken one of them at the point of connection
+or he may have pulled the light too far and broken or detached the wire.
+The arc created would have produced intense heat and readily ignited the
+inflammable curtain. If the light had not been set so close to the scenery
+the curtain could not have blown into the arc.
+
+"While the theater was being wired Inspector B. H. Tousley made
+twenty-five or thirty inspections. Though the ordinance requires only such
+wires as are concealed to be placed in iron conduits, in the Iroquois all
+wires were put in iron tubes. The switchboard was of marble, with the
+connecting wires behind it in iron conduits. The management seemed
+desirous of making the electric system the best possible and adopted every
+suggestion we offered to improve its safety. I am satisfied there was not
+a better job in Chicago. I do not believe it could have been made safer.
+
+"It is impossible to guard against a wire being broken. The wire leading
+from the switchboard could not be inclosed in an iron conduit. It had to
+be flexible to permit the light being moved around. The arc light was
+encased in a closed box to prevent sparks falling on the floor or being
+blown into the scenery. All the fusible plugs were in cartridges to
+prevent sparks from falling if the plugs burned out. Every precaution we
+could think of was taken to make the system absolutely safe."
+
+
+ONE OF THE COMEDIANS SPEAKS.
+
+Herbert Cawthorn, the Irish comedian, who took the part of Pat Shaw in
+"Mr. Bluebeard," assisted many of the chorus girls from the stage exits in
+the panic. After being driven from the building he made two attempts to
+enter his dressing room, but was driven back by the firemen, who feared
+lest he be overcome by the dense smoke.
+
+With several others of the leading actors in the play Mr. Cawthorn took
+refuge in a store on Dearborn street after the fire. He was still in his
+abbreviated stage costume and was suffering considerably from the cold.
+
+He gave a graphic description of the origin of the fire and of the panic
+among the stage hands and actors. He described the scene as follows:
+
+"I was in a position to see the origin of the fire plainly, and I feel
+positive that it was an electric calcium light that started the fire. The
+calcium lights were being used to illuminate the stage in the latter part
+of the second act, when the song, 'In the Pale Moonlight,' was being sung.
+
+"I was standing behind a wing on the lefthand side, which would be the
+righthand side to the audience, when my attention was attracted above by a
+peculiar sputtering of what seemed to me to be one of the calciums. It
+appears to me that one of the calciums had flared up and the sparks
+ignited the lint on the curtain. Instantly I turned my attention toward
+the stage and saw that many of the actors and actresses had not yet
+discovered the blaze.
+
+"Just then the fireman who is kept behind the scenes rushed up with some
+kind of a patent fire extinguisher. Instead of the stream from the
+apparatus striking the flames it went almost in the opposite direction.
+While the stage fireman was working the flames suddenly swooped down and
+out. Eddie Foy shouted something about the asbestos curtain, and the
+firemen attempted to use it and the stage hands ran to his assistance.
+
+"The asbestos curtain refused to work, and the stage hands and players
+began to hurry from the theater. There was at least 500 people behind the
+scenes when the fire started. I assisted many of the chorus girls to get
+out, and some of them were only partly attired. Two of the young women in
+particular were naked from their waists up. They had absolutely no time to
+even snatch a bit of clothing to throw over their shoulders."
+
+
+ABOUT THE LIGHTS.
+
+A dozen different stories from a dozen different people were told about
+the extinguishment of the electric lights. Assistant City Electrician
+Hyland, who was the acting head of the city's department during the
+absence of City Electrician Ellicott, stated:
+
+"The switchboard controlling the electric lighting apparatus is located
+under the place where the fire started at the left side of the stage. It
+was made of metal and marble and practically indestructible. The wires
+were led into the switchboard through iron tubes, and those tubes and
+wires are there yet. I visited the theater after the fire and turned on
+five sets of lights. Those five were in working order, but I think they
+controlled the lights into the foyer and halls. The lights in the theater
+were burned out. That I know, because when I paid my first visit to the
+switchboard I found the switch affecting the lights in the auditorium
+turned on. The terrific heat in the theater when the fire was sweeping
+across it must have burst the glass bulbs and may have melted the wires
+leading into the lights in the auditorium. How many minutes it took to
+explode these incandescent lights and melt the wires running to them
+depends entirely upon the length of time it took the theater to turn into
+a furnace.
+
+"I have been told that a moonlight scene was on the stage just before the
+fire broke out. In such a scene it would be customary to turn off most if
+not all of the lights in the auditorium, so as to darken the place where
+the audience was and concentrate upon the stage what little light was
+used. Yet, the way I found the switchboard, with the circuit leading to
+the auditorium turned on, the knob melted off and the condition of the
+board showing that it could not have been tampered with since the fire,
+convinces me that the lights must have been on when the fire broke out, or
+else they were turned on after the first flames were discovered. It is
+hard to discover the facts even from people who were in the theater at the
+time it was burned. Almost every one tells a different story."
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER VIII.
+
+SUGGESTIONS OF ARCHITECTS AND OTHER EXPERTS AS TO AVOIDING LIKE
+CALAMITIES.
+
+
+Robert S. Lindstrom, a well known Chicago architect, makes the following
+suggestions: "It is earnestly requested that the following suggestions be
+published for the benefit and warning of patrons of public places, also as
+an aid to city officials, architects and builders, as a possible means of
+averting another horror such as has been witnessed in the Iroquois theater
+fire.
+
+"Every theater in Chicago is virtually a death trap set for patrons even
+under ordinary conditions. Barring fires and panics, the playhouses are
+not amply provided with exits, and are unsafe on account of overcrowding.
+Thereby each person attending a performance in any of Chicago's theaters
+does so at a risk of his own life. This also applies to all halls that are
+hurriedly arranged for public meetings and especially during the election
+campaign work and convention gatherings.
+
+"A theater may be absolutely fire-proof, but when the seating capacity of
+the house has been overcrowded by reducing sizes of stairs, aisles and
+exits the building is really worse than a non-fire-proof building, for in
+the latter the smoke would have a chance to escape.
+
+"The following suggestions will partially avert such a horror as has been
+witnessed at the Iroquois, which was advertised as the safest fire-proof
+theater in Chicago:
+
+"All seats throughout the house should be placed far enough apart from
+back to back so that an open passageway running from aisle to aisle shall
+be large enough to allow a person to get out without disturbing all the
+people seated in the section. In the Iroquois the seats in the gallery are
+so closely spaced from back to back that one cannot sit in a comfortable
+position at any time. All seats should be made of iron framework, with
+seats fixed so that danger of catching clothing on upturned edges may be
+averted, which in the present theater seats causes very much delay in a
+rush. The upholstering should be done with asbestos wool and all covering
+done with asbestos fire-resisting cloth.
+
+"An aisle should be left between the orchestra and the front row of seats.
+Main aisles should be made so that they connect with the aisle in front,
+also the aisle in rear, without any obstructions, and an exit door placed
+at end of each aisle leading directly to the vestibule. The present system
+is one large door at the center so that people from the side aisles
+collide with those from the center aisles and no one can get out. It is
+also very important that the door opening, with doors open, is a trifle
+larger than the aisle; all seats that face on aisles to be plain to
+prevent clothing from catching on same.
+
+"Carpets should be prohibited in all halls and aisles and replaced by
+interlocking rubber tile or some similar covering to prevent slipping in a
+rush.
+
+"All steps should have safety treads, composed of steel and lead, in place
+of slate or marble, which becomes slippery and dangerous. Stairs to be
+straight without winds or turns and at every ten feet from the sidewalk
+there should be a landing twice as long as the width of the stairs and
+doors at the foot of the stairs should be a trifle larger than the stair
+opening.
+
+"All balconies and galleries above the first floor should have a metal
+hand rail back of each row of seats securely fastened to the floor
+construction.
+
+"Doors should swing out; in addition to door handle threshold to have an
+automatic opening device so as to throw doors open in case of fire or
+accident. Also at each fire exit there should be in view of the audience a
+box containing saw and tools and plainly marked for use in case of fire,
+providing locks on doors fail to work. In addition an attendant should be
+placed at each fire exit and remain there until the house is vacated
+during every performance.
+
+"Fire escapes should be made of regular stair pattern with treads eleven
+inches and rises seven inches, and treads provided with steel and lead
+composition covering and risers closed.
+
+"Instead of sloping the ceiling toward the stage it should be made level
+with a cone shape toward the center and there connect with a down draft
+ventilator and an emergency damper controlled by a three-way switch from
+stage, box office and each balcony, made large enough to form a smoke flue
+in case of fire. Wires controlling this ventilator should run in conduit
+fireproofed and in addition to switch an electric emergency switch
+weighted with a fused link to make a contact when link breaks. Same to
+apply to stage, halls and stairways, except that fireproof ducts will
+connect halls and stairs with outer air. In addition to the ventilator
+every part of the house should be equipped with a system of sprinklers
+operated automatically by a gravity system. A large glass chandelier such
+as used at the Iroquois should be prohibited.
+
+"Emergency lights in case of fire and accidents during the performance to
+light up the house should be placed on ceiling of main auditorium,
+balconies, halls and stairs and built of fire-proof boxes with wired
+plate-glass face. These lights should be operated on a separate system and
+run in fireproof conduits, and controlled from the street front, also to
+have a fusible weighted switch on stage.
+
+"Fire doors should be constructed of steel with wired plate-glass panels
+so that fire can be prevented from outside sources, but if in case of
+accident the lock should fail to work from the inside, the glass panel can
+be broken with tools that should be placed in reach and plainly marked.
+
+"Calcium lights should be prohibited anywhere in the auditorium. The place
+is generally on the gallery. In the Iroquois the scenic lights were placed
+at the extreme top of the upper gallery, with a supporting framework that
+rested on the aisle floor and obstructed aisle to audience.
+
+"Counter-weights of curtain should be made in sections with fusible link
+connections so that in case of fire curtain will drop of its own weight.
+
+"Curtain should be constructed of steel framework and made rigid and run
+in steel guides of sufficient size to allow for expansion in case of fire.
+Stage floor should be four inches thick, solid, laid on concrete bed.
+
+"A special waiting room with a special exit, entrance to same to be from
+main foyer, should be used especially for patrons using carriages so as to
+prevent the present system of blocking exits and vestibule with people
+waiting for carriages and preventing exit of crowd.
+
+"On stage of every theater there should be a fire plug, also a hose long
+enough to reach any part of the house, to run on a reel.
+
+"A loss of life in a panic cannot be entirely prevented, but some of the
+above suggestions if carried out will, at least, prevent a wholesale loss
+of human life.
+
+"All theaters should be thoroughly investigated and where the slightest
+detail is found to conflict with the law and the safety of an audience
+the city officials should prevent the use of such house until it has been
+properly constructed."
+
+
+THE ARCHITECT SPEAKS.
+
+Benjamin H. Marshall, architect of the theater, received the news of the
+disaster in Pittsburg, Pa., and at once started for Chicago. He was
+stunned by the intelligence, and, speaking of it, said:
+
+"This seems to be a calamity that has no precedent, and I can not
+understand how so many people were caught in the balconies unless they
+were stunned by the shock of an explosion. There were ample fire exits and
+they were available. The house could have been emptied in less than five
+minutes if they were all utilized. The fact that so many people were
+caught in the balconies would prove that they were stunned and
+panic-stricken by the report rather than by the fear of a fire. It is
+difficult for me at this time to even guess as to the cause for the great
+loss of life.
+
+"I am completely upset by this disaster, more so because I have built many
+theaters and have studied every playhouse disaster in history to avoid
+errors."
+
+
+EXAMINATION BY ARCHITECTURAL EDITOR.
+
+Robert Craik McLean, editor of the _Inland Architect_, who spent some time
+investigating the claim that the theater was equipped with an asbestos
+fire curtain, said: "After a careful investigation, I am convinced that
+the theater was not equipped with a curtain such as is demanded by the
+city ordinances.
+
+"I visited the damaged theater, but there was no sign of an asbestos
+curtain. Fire will not destroy asbestos, and if there was a curtain there
+when the holocaust occurred it had been removed, and an investigation
+should be made to learn what became of it. If no curtain had been removed,
+as is claimed, I cannot understand how the claim can be set up that the
+theater had a fire curtain. No one denies that there was a curtain there,
+but had it been made of asbestos, as required by the ordinance, it would
+not have been destroyed by the draft of air, as is claimed by the
+management of the house. An asbestos curtain must have a foundation of
+wire or some other material, and had the Iroquois been equipped with such
+a drop the wire screen, at least, would be there to prove it."
+
+"Mr. Samuel Frankenstein of the Frankenstein Calcium Light company, made
+the statement to me that he had had a conversation with the stage manager
+of the Iroquois regarding the fire drop. Mr. Frankenstein said that the
+stage manager told him that the Iroquois stage was not equipped with a
+true fire curtain. According to Mr. Frankenstein, the stage manager went
+further than this, and declared that there were only three theaters in
+Chicago equipped with real asbestos drops."
+
+
+PROPOSED PRECAUTIONS FOR NEW YORK THEATERS.
+
+Charles H. Israels of the firm of Israels & Harder, architects of the new
+Hudson theater, and several of the large hotels, suggested a number of
+precautions which might be adopted in New York theaters. Among other
+things he advocated an ordinance requiring all the theater emergency exits
+to be used after each performance.
+
+"Nearly every modern theater in this city," Mr. Israels said, "is
+adequately provided with exits, with which the audience are not familiar,
+and which are used so seldom that the employes are unused to having the
+audience pass out through them. Besides the one exit ordinarily in use
+there are four emergency exits, and the law requires them to open either
+on a brick enclosed alley at the side of the theater or directly into the
+street.
+
+"The people in the gallery, who are in the place of the greatest danger,
+would undoubtedly become thoroughly accustomed to using these outside
+stairways.
+
+"The main advantage to be gained by this suggestion over all others is
+that it could be put into immediate operation without the spending of a
+single cent on the part of the owners of most of New York's playhouses.
+
+"In a few of the theaters it might be argued that the stairways at the
+emergency exits were not sufficiently inclosed to allow the crowds to pass
+down in safety. The law now requires the stairways to be covered at the
+top, and covering the outside rail with heavy wire mesh raised about two
+feet above its present level would prevent any one from falling over the
+side.
+
+"Fireproof scenery or scenery which will at least not flame, is a
+practical possibility now. The building code should compel the use of
+scenery on frames of light metal covered with canvas that has been
+saturated in a fireproof solution. Fireproof paint is compulsory on the
+woodwork behind the proscenium wall, but in painting scenery combustible
+paint may be used.
+
+"The law should be most strictly enforced as to the cleaning out of
+rubbish beneath the stage. In a number of the theaters of New York this is
+done only occasionally."
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER IX.
+
+THIRTY EXITS, YET HUNDREDS PERISH IN AWFUL BLAST.
+
+
+Those in greatest danger through proximity to the stage did not throw
+their weight against the mass ahead. Not many died on the first floor,
+proof of the contention that some restraint existed in this section of the
+audience.
+
+Women were trodden under foot near the rear; some were injured. The most
+at this point, however, were rescued by the determined rush of the
+policeman at the entrance and of the doorkeeper and his assistants.
+
+The theater had thirty exits. All were opened before the fire reached full
+headway, but some had to be forced opened. Only one door at the Randolph
+street entrance was open, the others being locked, according, it appears,
+to custom.
+
+From within and without these doors were shattered in the first two
+minutes after the fire broke out--by theater employes, according to one
+report, by the van of the fleeing multitude and the first of the rescuers
+from the street, according to another.
+
+The doors to the exits on the alley side, between Randolph and Lake
+streets, in one or more instances, are declared by those who escaped to
+have been either frozen or rusted. They opened to assaults, but priceless
+seconds were lost.
+
+Before this time Foy had run back across the stage and reached the alley.
+With him fled the members of the aerial ballet, the last of the performers
+to get out. The aerialists owed their lives to the boy in charge of the
+fly elevator. They were aloft, in readiness for their flight above the
+heads of the audience. The elevator boy ran his cage up even with the line
+of fire, took them in, and brought them safely down.
+
+As Foy and the group reached the outer doorway the stage loft collapsed
+and tons of fire poured over the stage.
+
+The lights went out in the theater with this destruction of the
+switchboard and all stage connections. One column of flame rose and
+swished along the ceiling of the theater. Then this awful illumination
+also was swallowed up. None may paint from personal understanding that
+which took place in that pit of flame lit darkness. None lives to tell it.
+
+To those still caught in the structure the light of life went out when the
+electric globes grew dark.
+
+In spite of the terrible form of their destruction, it came swiftly enough
+to shorten pain. This at least was true of those who died in the second
+balcony, striving to reach the alley exits abreast of them.
+
+Six and seven feet deep they were found, not packed in layers but jumbled
+and twisted in the struggle with one another.
+
+Opposite the westernmost exit of the balcony--on the alley--was a room in
+the Northwestern University building (the old Tremont house) where
+painters were working, wiping out the traces of another fire.
+
+They heard the sound of the detonation of the fuse; they heard the rush of
+feet toward the exit across the way. Out on the iron stairway came a man,
+pushed by a power behind, himself crazy with fear. He would have run down
+the iron fire escape, but flames burst out of the exit beneath and wrapped
+themselves around the iron ladder.
+
+
+HORRIBLE SIGHT MET THE FIREMEN UPON ENTERING AUDITORIUM.
+
+The postures in which death was met showed how the end had come to many.
+
+A husband and wife were locked so tightly in one another's arms that the
+bodies had to be taken out together. A woman had thrown her arms around a
+child in a vain effort to save her. Both were burned beyond recognition.
+
+The sight of the children's bodies broke down the composure of the most
+restrained of the rescuers. As little form after form was brought out the
+tears ran down the faces of policemen, firemen and bystanders. Small hands
+were clenched before childish faces--fruitless attempts at protection from
+the scorching blast.
+
+Most of the children could be recognized. Fate allowed that thin shadow of
+mercy. They fell beneath their taller companions. The flames reached them,
+but they were face downward, other forms were above them, and generally
+their features were spared.
+
+The persons crowded off the fire escape platform, and those who jumped
+voluntarily by their own death saved persons on the lower floor from
+injury. Scores jumped from the exits at the first balcony, the first to
+death and injury, the ones behind to comparative safety on the thick
+cushion of the bodies of those who preceded them and who fell from the
+balcony above. Other hundreds from the main floor jumped on to the same
+cushion--an easy distance of six feet--without any injury.
+
+When the firemen came they spread nets, but the nets were black, and in
+the gloom they could not be seen. They saved few lives--argument for the
+use of white nets hereafter.
+
+The chain of mishaps surrounding the catastrophe extended to the fire
+alarm. There was no fire alarm box in front of the theater, as at other
+theaters. A stage hand ran down the alley to South Water street and by
+word of mouth turned in a "still" alarm to No. 13. The box alarm did not
+follow for some precious minutes. At least four minutes were lost in this
+way.
+
+Of the 900 persons seated in the first and second balconies few if any
+escaped without serious injury.
+
+So fiercely the fire burned during the short time in which hundreds of
+lives were sacrificed that the velvet cushions of the balcony seats were
+burned bare.
+
+The crowds fought so in their efforts to escape that they tore away the
+iron railings of the balconies, leaping upon the people below.
+
+From 3 o'clock, when the alarm was sent in, to 7:30 o'clock, when the
+doors of the theater were closed, the charred, torn, and blistered bodies
+were carried from the building at the rate of four a minute. One hundred
+were taken out across the plank way.
+
+Many blankets filled with fragments of human bodies were taken from the
+building.
+
+Hundreds of bodies were taken from the building, their clothing gone,
+their faces charred beyond recognition. Under pretense of serving as
+rescuers ghouls gained entrance to the theater and robbed the dead and
+dying in the midst of the fire.
+
+Men fell on their knees and prayed. Men and women cursed. A rush was made
+for the Randolph street exits. In their fear the crowds forgot the many
+side exits, and rushed for the doors at which they had entered the
+theater. Little boys and girls were thrown to one side by their stronger
+companions.
+
+Ten baskets of money and jewelry thrown in this manner were picked up from
+the main floor when the fire was extinguished.
+
+Men and women tore their clothing from them. As the first rush was made
+for the foyer entrance to the balconies men, women and children were
+thrown bodily down the steps.
+
+A few score of those nearest the doorways escaped by falling or being
+thrown down the stairs of the main balcony entrances.
+
+Scores were wedged in the doorways, pinned by the force of those behind
+them. There in the narrow aisle at the balcony entrances they were
+suffocated and fell--tons of human weight.
+
+All succeeded in leaving their seats in the first balcony. Climbing over
+the seats and rushing up the slanting aisles to the level aisles above,
+they fought their way. Those at the bottom of the mass were burned but
+little. The top layer of bodies was burned till they never can be
+identified.
+
+Darkness shrouded the theater with its hundreds of dead when the fire was
+under control that the building could be entered. The firemen were forced
+to work in smoky darkness when they started carrying the bodies from the
+balconies.
+
+
+THE GALLERY HORROR.
+
+James M. Strong, a Chicago board of trade clerk, the sole survivor of all
+the occupants of the gallery who tried to escape through the locked door,
+smashed with his fist a glass transom and climbed through it. Three
+members of his family, who followed him down the passageway, shared the
+fate of others. Their bodies since have been discovered, burned almost
+beyond recognition.
+
+"If the door hadn't been locked hundreds of persons could have saved their
+lives," said Strong.
+
+The passageway, along which Strong and many now dead ran to supposed
+safety, led toward the front of the theater, past the top entrance to the
+gallery. Strong had been unable to secure seats and was standing in the
+rear of the gallery with his mother, Mrs. B. K. Strong, his wife, and his
+niece, Vera, 16 years old, of Americus, Ga. When the fire started all ran
+toward the nearest exit.
+
+"The exit was crowded," said Strong. "We ran on down a passage at the side
+of it, followed by many others. At the end, down a short flight of steps,
+was a door. It was locked. In desperation I threw myself against it. I
+couldn't budge it. Then, standing on the top step of the little stairway,
+I smashed the glass above with my fist and crawled through the transom.
+
+"When I fell on the outside I heard the screams on the other side, and,
+scrambling to my feet, I tried again to open the door, but couldn't. The
+key was not there. I ran down a stairway to the floor below, where I found
+a carpenter. I asked him to give me something to break down the door, and
+he got me a short board. I ran back with this and began pounding, but the
+door was too heavy to be broken.
+
+"I scarcely know what happened afterward. Smoke was pouring over the
+transom and I felt myself suffocating. Alone, or with the assistance of
+the carpenter, I at last found myself at the bottom of the stairway
+opening into the lobby of the theater. From there I pushed my way to the
+street. Until then I didn't know I was burned."
+
+
+GIRL'S MIRACULOUS ESCAPE.
+
+The most miraculous escape was that of Winnie Gallagher, an 11-year-old
+girl, who occupied a seat with her aunt almost directly under the stage.
+When the panic was started she jumped to her feet and after being thrown
+about and trampled upon and having her clothing torn from her she managed
+to climb over the seats and reach the street in safety. What few pieces of
+wearing apparel she had on at the time were in ribbons and a messenger
+boy, seeing her predicament, pulled off his overcoat and wrapped it around
+her. She went to the Central station, where she gave the police her name
+and asked that someone take her to her home, 4925 Michigan avenue.
+
+
+AN ACCOUNT FROM THE BOXES.
+
+The first two lower boxes on the left of the stage were occupied by a
+party of young women who were being entertained by Mrs. Rollin A. Keyes of
+Evanston, in honor of her young daughter, Miss Catherine Keyes, who was
+home from school in Washington for the holidays.
+
+"We arrived at the theater shortly after the first act," said Miss Emily
+Plamondon of Astoria, Ore., a member of the party, in describing the fire.
+"As far as I could see the house was filled with women and children, who
+occupied seats on the first floor and in the galleries. It was about a
+quarter to 3 when one of the young women in the party asked Mrs. Keyes if
+she did not smell something burning and an instant afterward a great cloud
+of smoke spread across the stage and into the body of the house.
+Immediately we realized the danger we were in, as did all around us.
+Instead of a rush to the doors, the audience gazed for a moment at the
+stage, and as a whole the people appeared very calm, under the
+circumstances, and as if contemplating how they would escape.
+
+"Again another cloud of smoke issued from the stage and several stage
+hands appeared, shouting at the top of their voices for the people to sit
+down. But it was only for an instant that they obeyed, for by that time
+the smoke had spread through the theater and men, women and children were
+gasping for breath. Then a mad rush was made for the doors and for the
+supposed exits, but in vain. Mrs. Pearson and Mrs. Keyes commanded us to
+keep together by all means and just as we were leaving the boxes the
+theater became darkened, which, I suppose, was caused by the burning out
+of the electric light, and thus made our escape the harder. We plodded
+through the aisles until we came within about ten feet of the main
+entrance without encountering any violence from the panic-stricken women
+and children who were fighting for their lives. Then the crush became
+terrible and the members of our party, Mrs. Rollin A. Keyes, Mrs. Pearson,
+Misses Charlotte Plamondon, Catherine Keyes, Elmore of Oregon, Amelia
+Ormsby, Grace Hills, Josephine Eddy and Miss Elizabeth Eddy realized that
+it would be impossible to get to the street through that door.
+
+"It was only a short time, however, when somebody knocked down two doors,
+which had been locked, and the majority of the people on the first floor
+escaped through them without serious injury. Miss Charlotte Plamondon, who
+was bruised about the face and hands, and I were the only ones in the
+party who escaped with our wraps. The others had their clothes torn almost
+from them, as they were hurrying from the burning theater.
+
+"Before we had left the boxes the fire had spread to the first row of
+seats and the stage hands were endeavoring to lower the asbestos curtain.
+When it was about half down it became caught and the attempt to drop it
+was abandoned. A great gush of fire then spread to the draperies over the
+boxes. The people were wonderfully calm, it seemed to me, for so crucial
+a moment and it was not until the smoke filled the house that they became
+frantic and screamed for help. We could hardly breathe and I believe had
+we been in the theater a few minutes longer we, too, would have been
+suffocated, as the heat and smoke were becoming unendurable. Had the exits
+been open and unlocked the loss of life would not have been nearly so
+great."
+
+"We were seated for half an hour before the fire broke out. Our attention
+was first attracted by a wreath of flame, which crept slowly along the red
+velvet curtain. We all noticed it. So did the audience and I could see
+little girls and boys in the orchestra chairs point upward at the slowly
+moving line of flame. As the fire spread the people in the balcony and on
+the first floor arose to their feet as if to rush out of the place. Then
+Eddie Foy hurried to the front of the stage and commanded the people to be
+quiet, saying that if they would remain seated the danger would be
+averted. All the people who were then on the stage maintained remarkable
+presence of mind and the chorus girls endeavored to divert the attention
+of their auditors off the fire by going on with their parts.
+
+"I looked over the faces of the audience and remarked how many children
+were present. I could see their faces filled with interest and their eyes
+wide open as they watched the burning curtain.
+
+"Then I looked behind me and realized the awful consequence should the
+people become alarmed. The doors, except for the one through which we
+entered the theater, were closed and apparently fastened. Up in the
+balcony I could see people crowding forward in order to obtain a better
+view. Again the audience arose as if to flee.
+
+"Eddie Foy again rushed on the stage and waved his arms in a gesture for
+the people to be seated. But just then the shrill cry of a woman caused
+the women and children to rise to their feet, filled with a sudden and
+uncontrollable terror.
+
+"'Fire!' I heard her exclaim, and in another instant the eyes of the
+audience were turned to the exits in the rear. The flames lighted up the
+stage as the light tinsel stuffs blazed up, and the scene changed from
+mimicry to tragedy. A confused, rumbling noise filled the theater from the
+pit to the dome. I knew it was the sound of a thousand people preparing to
+leave their seats and rush madly from the impending danger. The noise of
+their footsteps in the balcony was soon deadened by the cries for aid from
+those who were hemmed in by the struggling mass.
+
+"On the stage the chorus girls, who had exhibited rare presence of mind,
+turned to flee. Many were overcome before they could stir a step. They
+fell to the floor and I saw the men in the cast and the stage hands lift
+them to their feet and carry them to the rear of the stage. By this time
+the scenery was a mass of flames."
+
+
+INSPECTION AFTER THE FIRE.
+
+Deputy Building Commissioner Stanhope with three inspectors made a
+thorough examination of the theater building yesterday.
+
+"I first examined the building with respect to the safety of its walls and
+found them in perfect condition," said Mr. Stanhope. "They are not out of
+plumb an inch and are as good as they ever were. The steel structure is
+not injured except that portion which supported the stage. The heat has
+twisted some of the supports but they can be replaced at little cost.
+Except the backs of the seats and the floor of the stage the interior of
+the auditorium was not injured by the fire. The carpets in the gallery,
+where most of the people were killed, were not even scorched."
+
+
+A YOUNG HEROINE.
+
+Verma Goss is one of the young heroines of the fire. She attended the
+theater in a party composed of her mother, Mrs. Joseph Goss; her
+5-year-old sister, Helen; Mrs. Greenwald of 536 Byron street and her young
+son Leroy. In the rush for the door Miss Verma caught her young sister's
+hand and pulled her out of the crowd and carried the child to safety. She
+thought her mother was following, but she and her sister were the only
+ones of the party who escaped.
+
+
+A NARROW ESCAPE.
+
+Mrs. William Mueller, with her two children, Florence Marie, 5 years of
+age, and Barbara Belle, 7, occupied a seat in the parquet.
+
+"I was not in the theater auditorium," said Mrs. Mueller. "I was in one of
+the waiting rooms, but was on my way to our seats. As I entered the doors
+somebody yelled fire. I looked up and saw the curtain ablaze. Then came
+the stampede. I picked up my children and ran toward the door. I was
+caught in the jam and it seemed that I would fail to reach it. Some man
+saw my plight and jumped to my assistance. He picked up Florence and threw
+her over the heads of the rushing people. She fell upon the pavement, but
+was not badly injured."
+
+
+FINDS WIFE IN HOSPITAL.
+
+The first woman to be rescued over the temporary bridge between the
+theater and the Northwestern university building was Mrs. Mary Marzein of
+Elgin, Ill. She was severely burned and lost consciousness after her
+rescue. A score or more suffered death on every side as she crept over the
+ladder. They were thrown aside and knocked down, but she clung to the
+ladder and escaped. She was taken to the Michael Reese hospital and did
+not regain consciousness until the following day. Her husband, who is an
+employe of the Elgin Watch Company, searched all the morgues and was
+making a tour of the hospitals when he found his wife.
+
+When Mrs. Marzein recovered in the afternoon the first person she inquired
+for was her husband, who at that moment was being ushered into the room.
+Their eyes met as she was whispering his name to the nurse, and an
+affecting scene followed.
+
+
+A MIRACULOUS AND UNCONSCIOUS ESCAPE.
+
+One of the most miraculous escapes from the fire was that of Miss Winifred
+Cardona. She was one of a party of four and with her friends occupied
+seats in the seventh row of the parquet.
+
+"The first intimation I had of the danger was when I saw one of the chorus
+girls look upward and turn pale. My eyes immediately followed her glance
+and I saw the telltale sparks shooting about through the flies. The
+singing continued until the blaze broke out. Then Mr. Foy appeared and
+asked the audience to keep their seats, assuring them that the theater was
+thoroughly fireproof. We obeyed, but when we saw the seething mass behind
+struggling for the door we rushed from our seats. I became separated from
+the other girls and had not gone far before I stumbled over the prostrate
+body of a woman who was trampled almost beyond recognition. For an instant
+I thought it was all over. Then I felt someone lift me and I knew no more
+until I revived in the street. It was the most awful experience I have
+ever had and I consider my escape nothing short of miraculous."
+
+
+LITTLE GIRL'S MARVELOUS ESCAPE.
+
+"I'm the most grateful man in all Chicago," said J. R. Thompson, who owns
+the restaurant. "My sister was in the theater with my two children--John,
+aged 9, and Ruth, aged 7. Sister got almost to the door with both of them.
+Then Ruthie disappeared. She told me she knew the child must be safe, but
+I was like a maniac. It was an hour before we found her. How it happened I
+didn't know, but she ran back into the theater and out under the stage,
+out through the stage entrance."
+
+"Where is the little girl now?" I asked him.
+
+"I sent her home to her mother," he said.
+
+Only ten feet away lay the chestnut-haired girl who "was a great one to
+scamper."
+
+
+FOUR GENERATIONS REPRESENTED.
+
+Members of four generations of a family were turned into mourners, only
+one member remaining from a party of nine made up of Benjamin Moore and
+eight of his relatives, of whom only one, Mrs. W. S. Hanson, Hart, Mich.,
+escaped. Following are the names of the eight victims: Mrs. Joseph
+Bezenek, 41 years old, West Superior, Wis., daughter of Benjamin Moore;
+Benjamin Moore, 72 years old, Chicago; Roland Mackay, 6 years old,
+Chicago, grandson of Mrs. Joseph Bezenek and great grandson of Benjamin
+Moore; Mrs. Benjamin Moore, 47 years old, wife of Benjamin Moore; Joseph
+Bezenek, 38 years old, West Superior, Wis., husband of Mrs. Bezenek and
+son-in-law of Benjamin Moore; Mrs. Perry Moore, 33 years old, Hart,
+Mich., daughter-in-law of Benjamin Moore; Miss Sibyl Moore, Hart, Mich.,
+13 years old, daughter of Mrs. Perry Moore and granddaughter of Benjamin
+Moore; Miss Lucile Bond, 10 years old, daughter of George H. Bond and
+granddaughter of Benjamin Moore, Chicago.
+
+
+DAUGHTERS AND GRANDCHILDREN GONE.
+
+Three daughters and two grandchildren, constituting the entire family of
+Mr. and Mrs. Morris Eger, Chicago, perished in the fire. The daughters
+were Miss S. Eger, who was a teacher in the Mosely school; Mrs. Marion
+Rice, wife of A. Rice, and Mrs. Rose Bloom, wife of Max Bloom, and the
+children were: Erna, the 10-year-old daughter of Mrs. Rice, and her
+11-year-old brother, Ernest.
+
+After a long search among the many morgues of the city the bodies were all
+identified, two of them being found there.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER X.
+
+HOW THE NEW YEAR WAS USHERED IN.
+
+
+The New Year came to Chicago with muffled drums, two days after the
+calamity that threw the great metropolis into mourning.
+
+Scarcely a sound was heard as 1904 entered.
+
+Jan. 1--day of funerals--was received in silence. Streets were almost
+deserted, even downtown. Men hurried silently along the sidewalks. There
+were not half a dozen tin horns in the downtown district where ordinarily
+the blare of trumpets, screech of steam whistles, volleys of shots and the
+merriment of late wayfarers make the entrance of a new year a period of
+deafening pandemonium.
+
+Merrymakers were quiet when in the streets and subdued even in the
+restaurants. Noise, except in a few scattered districts, was unknown.
+
+It was a remarkable, spontaneous testimony to the prevalent spirit
+throughout the city. Mayor Harrison had asked, in an official
+proclamation, that there be no noise, but few of those who desisted from
+the usual practices of greeting the New Year knew that they had been
+requested to be silent.
+
+
+MOURNING IN EVERY STREET.
+
+There were mourning families in every neighborhood; crepe in every street;
+grief stricken relatives throughout the city; unidentified dead in the
+morgues, and sufferers in the hospital. The citizens did not need to be
+requested to be quiet.
+
+Jan. 1, 1904, meant the beginning of funerals and the burial of dead who
+were to have lived to take part in merrymaking.
+
+A year before in downtown Chicago the din was an ear-splitting racket of
+horns, whistles, yells, songs, and exploding cannon.
+
+A year before the downtown streets were filled with hundreds of laughing
+men and women, roystering parties filling the air with the uproar of tin
+horns and revolvers.
+
+
+NOISE SEEMS A SACRILEGE.
+
+That night there were a messenger boy in La Salle street blowing a tin
+horn and a man at Wabash avenue and Harrison street. The other pedestrians
+looked at them as if they considered the noise a sacrilege. It was with
+the same feeling that they heard the blowing of the factory whistles in
+the few cases where the engineers forgot.
+
+A year before the outlying districts were awakened by the firing of cannon
+and the shouts of people in noisy celebrations. That dread night there was
+nothing to keep residents awake except grief.
+
+
+MAYOR ASKS FOR SILENCE.
+
+To insure this condition, as the only fitting one, Mayor Harrison had
+issued a proclamation in which he said:
+
+"On each recurring New Year's eve annoyance has been caused the sick and
+infirm by the indulgence of thoughtless persons in noisy celebrations of
+the passage of the old year. The city authorities have at all times
+discouraged this practice, but now, when Chicago lies in the shadow of the
+greatest disaster in her history for a generation, noisemaking, whether by
+bells, whistles, cannon, horns or any other means, is particularly
+objectionable.
+
+"As mayor of Chicago I would, therefore, request all persons to refrain
+from this indulgence, and I would particularly ask all railway officials
+and all persons in control of factories, boats, and mills to direct their
+employes not to blow whistles between the hours of 12 and 1 o'clock
+tonight."
+
+Persons not reached by this proclamation had seen the lines waiting
+entrance at the morgues. The few peddlers who had tin horns for sale found
+no buyers. This market, which in other years has been a profitable one, on
+Dec. 31, 1903, was dead. The venders slunk up to the building walls and,
+even in trying to sell, made little noise with their wares.
+
+
+MERRIMENT IS SUBDUED.
+
+In such restaurants as the Auditorium Annex, the Wellington, and Rector's
+there were gay crowds, but the merriment was subdued. "No music" was the
+general rule throughout the city. At Rector's the management took down
+flowers which were to have decorated the restaurant and sent them to the
+hospitals where the injured theater victims were.
+
+At the Annex and the Wellington the lobbies had been filled with gayly
+decorated tables, and this space as well as the cafes was entirely
+occupied. Congress street was filled with carriages and cabs for the
+guests at the Annex.
+
+
+CITY OF MOURNING.
+
+Even these gatherings, which were the least affected by the gloom over the
+city, were ghastly as compared with those of former years. There were
+exceptions to the general rule, but even in the places which felt the
+effect the least there was abundant testimony to the fact that Chicago was
+a city of woe.
+
+The aspect of the downtown district was evidence that there was scarcely
+a neighborhood in the city which had not at least one sorrowing family.
+
+Not only was this indicated by the lack of noise on the noisiest night of
+the year but by the absence of lights. Many electric signs and
+illuminations which usually lighted up the streets had been closed, and
+gay, wicked, noisy Chicago was clothed with gloom such as it had never
+before known.
+
+Dark and solemn as was the opening day of the new year it was no
+circumstance compared with the day that followed. At the suggestion of the
+mayor Saturday, Jan. 2, was set apart to bury the dead. The proclamation
+issued in that connection follows:
+
+"Chicago, Dec. 31.--To the citizens of Chicago: Announcement is hereby
+made that the city hall will be closed on Saturday, Jan. 2, 1904, on
+account of the calamity occurring at the Iroquois theater. All business
+houses throughout the city are respectfully requested to shut down on that
+day.
+
+  "Respectfully,
+    "CARTER H. HARRISON, Mayor."
+
+The request was generally followed, and on that mournful day the interment
+of the victims of the holocaust began, filling the streets with
+processions moving to the grave. From daybreak until evening funeral
+corteges moved through the streets. Church bells at noon tolled a requiem.
+The machinery of business was hushed in the downtown district, and long
+lines of carriages, preceded by hearses or plain black wagons, followed
+the theater victims to the grave.
+
+In no public place, in no home was the grief of the bereft not felt. Many
+of the dead were taken directly from the undertaking rooms to the
+cemeteries and buried with simple ceremony. Before dark nearly 200 victims
+were borne to the grave. A score were taken to railroad stations, to be
+followed by the mourning back to their homes.
+
+
+BUSINESS WORLD IN MOURNING.
+
+The board of trade closed at 11 o'clock. The doors of the stock exchange
+were not opened. Few of the downtown mercantile houses and few of the
+offices were open after noon. There was little business.
+
+It was a day of mourning, and the army of the sorrowful that for days had
+searched for its dead performed the last rites. At noon bells in all the
+church towers were rung to the rhythm of "The Dead March in Saul." Those
+who heard the solemn dirge stood still for the space of five minutes with
+bared heads. The proclamation of the mayor generally was observed.
+Everywhere there was gloom and no one could escape from the pall that
+enshrouded Chicago.
+
+The demand for hearses was so great that the undertakers were compelled to
+make up schedules in which the different hours of the day were allotted to
+the grief-stricken.
+
+Flags were at half-mast, while white hearses bearing the bodies of
+children and black hearses with the bodies of others took their way to the
+various churches. In some blocks three and four hearses were standing, and
+at the churches one cortege would wait until another moved away.
+
+The pall seemed to pervade the air itself. Pedestrians halted on the
+sidewalk, and in the cold stood with bared heads while the funeral
+processions passed.
+
+Children saw their parents laid away; parents followed the coffins of
+their child. Students just reaching manhood or womanhood were laid at
+rest, while relatives and companions mourned. Kindly clergymen wept as
+they spoke words of comfort to those bereft of father, mother, brother,
+sister, or even of all.
+
+Two double funerals passed through the downtown districts just as the
+department stores were dismissing their thousands of employes. Sisters
+were being taken to their last resting place, and this cortege was
+followed by two white hearses containing the bodies of another brother and
+sister. Both funeral processions went to the same depot, and all four
+victims were buried in the same cemetery.
+
+The numerous funeral trains which left Chicago contained in nearly every
+instance more than one coffin. Hearse after hearse and carriage after
+carriage arrived in the blinding snow and stopped at the depots, opening
+an epoch of funerals that continued daily until the last victim was laid
+to rest.
+
+Thus opened the year 1904 in Chicago, the stricken and desolate.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XI.
+
+A SABBATH OF WOE.
+
+
+A majority of the victims of the fire were laid to rest, however, during
+the Sabbath succeeding the awful calamity. The main thoroughfares of the
+benumbed city leading north and west toward the resting places of the dead
+were crowded with funeral processions, sometimes four and five hearses
+together showing as white as the snow on the ground, bearing as they did
+the bodies of children.
+
+As one funeral procession after another passed through the streets the
+numbers of the sorrowing at the cemeteries increased. A few hundred feet
+from one freshly made grave there was another and a short distance away
+still another that told the mourners at one funeral that others were
+bereaved.
+
+The work of burying the dead began early in the morning and lasted until
+late in the evening. Sometimes the homes of several of the dead were
+grouped in a few blocks and in one instance a glance down a single street
+would reveal the thickly crowded carriages for half a dozen funerals that
+had thrown an entire neighborhood into mourning. Where hearses could not
+be furnished they were improvised from other kinds of vehicles and
+mourners who could not get cabs rode in carriages. As the night closed
+down on hundreds of mourning homes, in every cemetery in the city the
+speaking mounds of fresh earth told of the end of families broken and
+altogether destroyed.
+
+
+SEVEN TURNER VICTIMS.
+
+More than a thousand turners joined in the services for seven victims who
+were members of their societies. The Chicago Turnbezirk, the central body
+of the turners, had charge of the exercises. Representatives of the Aurora
+Turnverein, Schweitzer Turnverein, Forward Turnverein, Social Turnverein,
+and other turner organizations joined in the services.
+
+The exercises were held at the Social Turner hall, Belmont avenue and
+Paulina street. The coffins of the victims were placed in front of the
+stage at the end of the hall. After the services the coffins were taken by
+uniformed turners through the hall to black wagons and the march to
+Graceland cemetery began. Three drum corps, with muffled drums, beat a
+funeral march.
+
+Women turners, in their gymnasium suits, escorted the bodies of the women
+victims, and uniformed turners watched the coffins of the men.
+
+Short services were held at the cemetery.
+
+
+SAD SCENES AT WOLFF HOME.
+
+At the residence of Ludwig Wolff, 1329 Washington boulevard, the bodies of
+his daughter, Mrs. William M. Garn and her three children, Willie, 11,
+John, 7, and Harriet, 10 years old, lay. All day long until the time for
+the funeral services a stream of sympathizing friends poured in. A crowd
+of more than a thousand surrounded the house and the policemen stationed
+there were compelled to force a way for the caskets when they were borne
+to the hearses. The service was read by the Rev. William C. Dewitt of St.
+Andrew's church. Twelve boys acted as pallbearers for their former
+playfellows and followed the little white hearses to Graceland. The
+funeral was one of the largest ever seen on the west side of the city,
+more than one hundred carriages being in the funeral train.
+
+
+PATHETIC SCENE AT CHURCH.
+
+Far different in all except the grief was the funeral from the little
+frame church at Congress street and Forty-second avenue. Inside lay the
+bodies of Mrs. Mary W. Holst and her three children, Allan, 13, Gertrude,
+10, and Amy, 8 years. They were in the ill fated second balcony of the
+theater and met death trying to reach the fire escape. Of the family only
+the father and a 6 months old son survive. Mrs. Holst was the sister of
+former Chief of Police Badenoch. Interment was at Forest Home.
+
+The building was still gay with its Christmas decorations and a large
+motto, "Peace on earth, good will to men," which the Holst children had
+assisted in making.
+
+
+BURY CHILDREN AND GRANDCHILDREN.
+
+Another quadruple funeral was that of the daughters and the grandchildren
+of Jacob and Elizabeth Beder of 697 Ogden avenue. The two women, Mrs.
+Edyth Vallely, 835 Sawyer avenue, and Mrs. Amy Josephine McKenna of 758
+South Kedzie avenue, went to the theater accompanied by their two
+children, Bernice Vallely, aged 11, and Bernard McKenna, aged 3. The
+bodies were found after the fire by the husbands of the dead women at the
+morgues. The services were in charge of Rev. D. F. Fox of the California
+Avenue Congregational church. Interment was at Forest Home.
+
+
+FIVE DEAD IN ONE HOUSE.
+
+Memorial services were held in the afternoon for Mrs. Eva Pond, wife of
+Fred S. Pond, their children, Raymond, 14, Helen, 7, and Miss Grace
+Tuttle, sister of Mrs. Pond, at the family residence, 1272 Lyman avenue.
+The services were conducted by the Rev. Mr. Bowles of All Saints'
+Episcopal church.
+
+Miss Tuttle had been for eighteen years a teacher in the Chicago public
+schools. She attended the performance at the Iroquois with her sister and
+her sister's children, and none of them emerged alive. Mrs. Pond was the
+wife of Fred S. Pond, for thirty years cashier of the Deering Harvester
+Company, who is the only survivor of a once happy family circle. The four
+bodies were taken to Beloit, Wis., for burial.
+
+
+ENTIRE FAMILY IS BURIED.
+
+None but friends attended the Beyer funeral service during the afternoon
+at Sheldon's undertaking rooms, for the entire family, mother, father, and
+child, were numbered among the Iroquois dead. Otto H. Beyer, his wife
+Minnie, and their 4 year old daughter Grace, were the victims. The bodies
+were taken to Elkader, Iowa, for burial. This was perhaps the saddest of
+all the sad services conducted during the day, as no relatives were
+present to mourn the dead.
+
+
+MRS. FOX AND THREE CHILDREN.
+
+Mrs. Emilie Hoyt Fox, daughter of William M. Hoyt, the wholesale grocer;
+George Sidney Fox, her 15-year-old son; Hoyt Fox, 14 years old, and Emilie
+Fox, 9 years old, were all buried side by side in Graceland cemetery. The
+funeral services were held in Graceland chapel and were conducted by Rev.
+Henry G. Moore of Christ Episcopal church, Winnetka.
+
+
+MRS. A. E. HULL AND CHILDREN.
+
+Simple and short were the funeral services at Boydston's chapel,
+Forty-second place and Cottage Grove avenue, over the remains of four
+members of the Hull family. Mrs. Hull, the mother, was the wife of Arthur
+E. Hull, 244 Oakwood boulevard, and attended the theater with her little
+daughter, Helen, and two nephews, adopted sons, Donald and Dwight. The
+services were directed by Rev. J. H. McDonald of the Oakland Methodist
+Episcopal church and consisted simply of a prayer and the reading of a
+poem found in the desk of Mrs. Hull, and which had evidently been clipped
+from some newspaper. At the conclusion of the services the caskets were
+carried to the Thirty-ninth street station of the Michigan Central
+railroad, over which they were taken to Troy, N. Y., for burial.
+
+
+HERBERT AND AGNES LANGE.
+
+"We were four of the happiest mortals in all Chicago until that awful
+thing blasted our lives forever," sobbed Mrs. Louis Lange of 1632 Barry
+avenue at the close of the funeral of her only two children, Herbert
+Lange, 17 years old, and his sister Agnes, 14. The service was held at the
+Johannes Evangelical Lutheran church at Garfield avenue and Mohawk street.
+
+
+SWEETHEARTS BURIED AT THE SAME TIME.
+
+While the last rites were being held for Albert Alfson in Chicago, the
+body of his sweetheart, Miss Margaret Love, was being buried in the
+cemetery at Woodstock. Two hundred persons, 125 from Woodstock, attended
+Alfson's funeral at 24 Keith street.
+
+
+FIVE BURIED IN ONE GRAVE.
+
+The largest funeral at Oakwoods was that of Dr. M. B. Rimes, 6331
+Wentworth avenue, his wife and three children, Lloyd, Martin, and Maurice.
+The five from one family were buried together in one large grave.
+
+
+BOYS AS PALLBEARERS.
+
+At the home of Ludwig Wolff, 1329 Washington boulevard the body of his
+daughter, Mrs. William M. Garn, and her three children, Willie, John and
+Harriet, lay. All day long until the time for the funeral services, a
+stream of sympathizing friends poured in, bearing many floral tributes to
+the dead. The impressive service of the Episcopal church was read by the
+Rev. William C. Dewitt of St. Andrew's church, of which Mrs. Garn was a
+member. Twelve boys acted as pallbearers to their late playfellows, and
+followed the little white hearses to Graceland cemetery. The funeral was
+one of the largest ever seen on the West Side, more than one hundred
+carriages being in the train.
+
+
+WINNETKA SADDENED.
+
+A funeral was held which saddened the hearts of all Winnetka. The little
+north shore suburb lost eight of its residents in the fire, and the
+funeral of four of the Fox family was held yesterday. The services were
+conducted by the Rev. Henry G. Moore of Christ Episcopal church, Winnetka.
+
+
+MOTHER AND DAUGHTERS BURIED TOGETHER.
+
+Three hearses carried away the bodies of Mrs. Louise Ruby and her
+daughters, Mrs. Ida Weimers and Mrs. Mary Feiser. The services were held
+at the late home of Mrs. Ruby, 838 Wilson avenue. Father F. N. Perry of
+the Church of Our Lady of Lourdes celebrated mass for the two daughters,
+who were members of his parish. The Rev. John G. Kircher of Bethlehem
+Evangelical church read the service for the mother.
+
+
+HOLD TRIPLE FUNERAL.
+
+Triple funeral services were held at the residence of Henry M. Shabad,
+4041 Indiana avenue, for his two children, Myrtle, aged 14 years, and
+Theodore, aged 12 years, and little Rose Elkan, daughter of Mr. and Mrs.
+N. Elkan. The three children attended the matinee together and all were
+killed. Rabbi Jacobson of the Thirty-fifth street synagogue conducted the
+service and at the conclusion referred to the Iroquois fire as one of the
+"greatest calamities of the age." The interment took place at Waldheim.
+
+
+WOMEN FAINT IN CHURCH.
+
+Attended by many grief stricken schoolmates and friends, the funeral of
+Robert and Archie Hippach, sons of Louis A. and Ida S. Hippach, was held
+at the Church of the Atonement, Kenmore and Ardmore avenues. They lived at
+2928 Kenmore avenue. At the church several women fainted and had to be
+taken from the church.
+
+
+LIFE-LONG FRIENDS MEET IN DEATH.
+
+Miss Viola Delee of 7822 Union avenue, and Miss Florence Corrigan of 218
+Dearborn avenue, victims of the Iroquois theater fire, whose remains were
+buried, were life-long friends. They were schoolmates at St. Xavier's
+College, where both graduated two years ago. On the afternoon of the fire
+Miss Delee had arranged to meet her friend downtown and attend the
+matinee. It is thought they secured seats on the main floor about eight
+rows from the front. Their bodies were found lying some distance apart.
+
+The body of Miss Delee showed marks that must have caused her excruciating
+pain. Her face was badly burned and disfigured. Miss Corrigan was burned
+almost beyond recognition. She was not identified until after the identity
+of Viola's body had been established through a card which she carried in
+the pocket of her dress.
+
+The funerals of two friends who had perished together in the fire met in
+Forest Home cemetery when Mrs. Floy Irene Olson of 835 Walnut street and
+Bessie M. Stafford were buried in graves not thirty feet apart. The two
+women had been life-long friends and were co-workers in the Warren Avenue
+Congregational church. Rev. Frank G. Smith conducted the services over
+each of the bodies.
+
+
+EDWARD AND MARGARET DEE.
+
+Rev. Father Quinn of St. James' Roman Catholic church, conducted the
+obsequies for Edward Mansfield and Margaret Louise Dee, the children of
+William Dee, at the residence, 3133 Wabash avenue. The funeral procession
+was the largest ever seen on the south side for children, seventy-five
+carriages following the white hearse that bore the two white caskets.
+
+
+MISS E. D. MANN AND NIECE.
+
+Miss Emma D. Mann, supervisor of music in the Chicago public schools, and
+her niece, Olive Squires, 14 years old, were buried at Rosehill after
+impressive ceremonies at the Centenary Methodist Episcopal church. Miss
+Mann had been connected with the schools of the city for many years.
+
+
+ELLA AND EDYTH FRECKLETON.
+
+The funeral services over the remains of Ella and Edyth Freckleton,
+daughters of William J. Freckleton, 5632 Peoria street, were conducted by
+Rev. R. Keene Ryan at Boulevard hall, Fifty-fifth and Halsted streets.
+More than 2,000 persons were in the hall and 500 others stood in the
+street for hours waiting for the funeral cortege to pass on its way to
+Oakwoods, where interment was made.
+
+
+MISS FRANCES LEHMAN.
+
+Hundreds of pupils of the Nash school, Forty-ninth avenue and Ohio street,
+members of the Ridgeland fire department and a delegation of employes of
+the Cicero and Proviso Electric Street railway attended the funeral
+services over the remains of Miss Frances Lehman, at the residence of her
+parents, 525 North Austin avenue, in the morning. Rev. Clayton Youker,
+pastor of the Euclid Avenue Methodist Episcopal church, officiating. Many
+beautiful floral tributes were sent by the teachers and the pupils of the
+Nash school.
+
+And so during this Sabbath of woe, tragedies of life and death such as
+these, but far too numerous to be all recorded, were being enacted in all
+parts of the stricken city. Although nature had bestowed upon the
+countless mourners a day bright and clear, their spirits were dark with
+sorrow and for years to come their memories will revert to that time as
+the saddest of their lives; and those whose dear ones were not among the
+dead, if their natures were blessed with any sympathy whatever, were
+oppressed, as never before, with the heavy burden which others must bear.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XII.
+
+WHAT OF THE PLAYERS?
+
+
+Never before in the history of amusements has so excellent an opportunity
+been afforded to look behind the scenes of the mimic world and study the
+real life of the actor. To one and all, whether religionist unalterably
+opposed to the theater and all its ramifications, or the devotee finding
+life's chiefest pleasures contributed by musician and mummer, the stage
+looms up a mystic realm, affording more interest and comment than almost
+any other department of earthly effort.
+
+When Shakespeare wrote "See the players well bestowed" in his immortal
+masterpiece, "Hamlet," the term player meant something very different from
+what it does today. In this day and age it is not only the poetic,
+lofty-minded and learned tragedian who is rightfully accorded the title
+"actor," but through time-honored custom and common usage the specialty
+performer, slap-stick comedian and the interesting chorus girl are
+recognized as members of the "profession"; and be it noted, although a sad
+commentary on the stage, they far outnumber those of the old, legitimate
+school.
+
+So it is that in dealing with the player folk, to whom the terrifying
+Iroquois experience was but an incident in a long career of vicissitudes
+unknown to those who make up the great commercial, industrial and
+agricultural world, it is necessary to consider the sleek, well-groomed
+executive staff, the better-paid and more widely-known stellar lights of
+the "Mr. Bluebeard" company, the less distinguished principals, both men
+and women, the struggling chorus boy, the saucy, piquant and greatly
+envied chorus girl and a small army of unheard-of yet equally important
+stage mechanics.
+
+Upwards of 150 persons--a little world of their own--made up the company
+that found its merry-making tour brought to a sudden termination by a
+blast that came upon them like a visitation from the bottomless pit. What
+they endured, what conditions the fatal fire imposed upon them, will never
+be fully known or appreciated. Merry minstrels in name, but homeless,
+purposeless wanderers in fact, the dead sweep of the elements tore asunder
+their little universe and left them stranded and more purposeless still,
+practically penniless and among strangers, overburdened with their own
+woes.
+
+With such an organization as "Mr. Bluebeard" there are to be found two or
+three fortunate mortals, whose powers to amuse and whose popularity with
+the amusement-loving public place their salaries at a figure anywhere
+between $150 and $300 a week. In this particular company "Eddie Foy," in
+private life Edward Fitzgerald, stood out preeminently as such a player.
+Then came more than a score of principals whose salaries will range from
+$60 to $150 a week, depending entirely upon ability and the extent to
+which fortune has favored them in casting the various parts, as the
+characters are known. Next in order are the less important people, who
+play "bits" (very unimportant parts), and who act as understudies for the
+principals, ready to replace them in an emergency. They are largely
+graduates from the chorus or comparative novices in the profession. Their
+compensation may be from $30 to $50 a week, according to beauty, grace and
+general usefulness.
+
+All have their railroad fares paid and their baggage transported at the
+expense of the management. They are required to furnish their own
+wardrobe, however, in many instances an item of no small expense.
+
+
+THE CHORUS GIRL.
+
+And then--the chorus girl! No living creature excites such general
+curiosity, interest, and perhaps admiration and envy, as this footlight
+queen. She is popularly supposed to devote her time exclusively to
+delightful promenades with susceptible "Johnnies" in the millionaire
+class, automobile rides, after-the-show wine suppers and all manner and
+form of unconventional and soul-stirring diversions that for her more
+sedate and useful sister, the ordinary American girl, would mean to be
+ostracized socially. Hers is generally regarded as a voluptuous life of
+music, mirth and color, an endless, extravagant pursuit of pleasure.
+
+To the wide, wide world her triumphs and escapades are heralded by
+newspaper, press agent, and the callow youth of the land, who regard
+themselves as "real sports" and clamor for an opportunity to provide a
+supper for one of the chorus at the expense of going without cigarettes
+for the rest of the month.
+
+Whoever hears of the little, disorderly bunk of a room the chorus girl's
+salary provides her with at some cheap hotel; of her struggles for
+existence during the months she is out of employment almost every season;
+of the glass of beer and nibble of free lunch that is often her only meal
+during the long weeks of endless rehearsal that precede the opening of the
+show, when absolutely without income she lives on her scant savings, what
+she can borrow, and hope and anticipation of what is in store when the
+tour begins! For three or four weeks she rehearses morning and afternoon
+while the production is being put in shape. No salaries are paid during
+that period, and it is a particularly soft-hearted manager who allows the
+girl carfare. Most of the day there are marches, dances and evolutions to
+be gone through with maddening monotony. She must remain on her feet, for
+chairs are few about stages, and courtesy scant so far as chorus people
+are concerned.
+
+And at night, when she goes home worn with effort, there are songs to be
+learned, and then to be repeated over and over again in chorus the next
+day, to the accompaniment of a battered and expressionless piano shoved
+into the brightest spot on the gloomy half-dark stage, or, if there be no
+such thing, placed in the orchestra pit, where the musical director can
+enjoy the advantage of an electric light.
+
+
+THE MUSICAL DIRECTOR.
+
+The musical director! What an autocrat he is! His rules are arbitrary and
+irrevocable. His criticism stings and burns. He is tired, overworked and
+under the strain of responsibility for the successful development of the
+aggregation of young men and women who confront him, and who appear to him
+weighted down with all the stupidity naturally intended for distribution
+among a vastly larger number of individuals. He swears, raves, coaxes as
+his moods change. He weeds out one here and engages a new member there.
+And with every change the difficulties increase. The tunes that seem so
+inspiring when heard from the comfort of a parquet seat grow dreary to
+those who are living with them hourly during this period. The "catchy"
+songs become so much hateful drivel and maddening nonsense, when done over
+and over again to the inspiring declaration of the half-crazed director
+that "the whole bunch ought to go back to the farm, back to the dishpan."
+
+It is a tired, world-worn, weary creature that creeps away after such a
+rehearsal--a woman who would be hard to recognize as the sprightly,
+dashing blonde in blue tights, who tosses her head saucily in the third
+act and sets the hearts of the youth of the one-night-stands aflame a few
+weeks later.
+
+
+THE JOY OF THE OPENING.
+
+At last the chaos and confusion end, the great mass of detail is blended
+into a production and the stage manager begins his term of storming and
+fussing. The dress rehearsal is called, the shimmering silken costumes are
+donned and all hands are agreeably surprised to find that there really is
+a plot to the piece and some rhyme and reason behind the efforts of the
+few preceding weeks' labor. The opening is at hand.
+
+What joy it brings to all, both those of high and low degree. Brave
+costumes, light, color and a mellow orchestra, in place of the old tin-pan
+of a piano, work great changes in their spirits. And best of all--salaries
+begin. To the chorus girl it means from $18 to $25 a week, and if she be
+particularly clever perhaps a little more. That is hers, free from all
+charges for transportation, baggage delivery or the furnishing or
+maintenance of wardrobe. She must furnish her own "make-up" of paints,
+powder and cosmetics, to be sure, and of this she uses no small amount;
+but that is a minor expense.
+
+The opening over, the critics of the press either praise or flay the
+production--something that means much in determining what its future will
+be. For a few weeks, possibly a month or two, it remains the attraction at
+the theater where it had its birth. Conditions become pleasanter, yet a
+vast amount of rehearsing continues in order to bring about improvement
+or make changes in the personnel of the company. Every time a girl drops
+out, voluntarily or otherwise, her successor must be put through the ropes
+in order to be able to replace her. That means all those in the same
+scenes must go through the dreary details again. In fact, from the time
+such a show opens until it closes rehearsals never really cease, the
+causes necessitating them being almost without number.
+
+
+SPENDTHRIFT HABITS.
+
+During the "run" in the opening house the chorus girl has a chance to live
+at comparatively small expense. She may pay off her small debts, if she is
+troubled with a conscience. What is far more important, she can replenish
+her threadbare street wardrobe, for it is an unwritten managerial law that
+all stage people must dress well both on and off the stage. So when the
+"run" terminates and the road tour begins, nearly all the company are
+pretty short financially, although they may be even with the world if they
+are particularly fortunate. All actors are naturally "spenders." Their
+mode of life compels it. With few family ties, the majority without a
+home, their every expense is double that of the every-day sort of a man.
+Their meeting place and their lounging place, whether it be for business
+or social reasons, is necessarily the hotel or the bar. Under those
+conditions it would be difficult for the most conservative to cultivate
+frugality or economy. And actors have never been known to injure
+themselves in an effort to attain either unless under stress of temporary
+compulsion.
+
+
+GAMBLING, PURE AND SIMPLE.
+
+Perhaps the show has made a "hit." Perhaps not. One can never tell in
+advance, for it is gambling, pure and simple, so the oldest managers
+openly assert. If it proves a failure all the capital, labor and trouble
+has been thrown away like a flash in the pan. The actors arrive some night
+to find the house dark, the box-office receipts, scenery and properties
+seized on an attachment, and their salaries and prospects gone. What
+happens then with weeks, possibly months, of idleness ahead of them, can
+be better imagined than described. Somehow, the people struggle through
+and survive and bob up to face the same experience again. It is hard
+enough on the principals with good salaries and friends purchased through
+profligate expenditure of their money when all was sunshine and
+prosperity, but it is a worse blow to the chorus. Yet they pass through
+seemingly unscathed. They are used to it and know how.
+
+But this is a dreary side of the picture, and all productions are by no
+means doomed to flunk; those that do not go forth upon the road with a
+flourish of trumpets, the glitter and glamor of carloads of courts and
+palaces of canvas, tinsel and papier-mache and with everyone looking
+forward to the rapid acquirement of a fortune. Verily, your actor is a
+born optimist. Were it not for ambition, hope, egotism and inherent love
+of publicity, notoriety and admiration, where would the stage get its
+recruits?
+
+
+THE SHOW ON THE ROAD.
+
+After the production has taken to the road it may still prove a
+"frost"--the theatrical term for failure. Then it is the same grim story,
+with additional discouragements. There are cold, clammy hotelkeepers whose
+one anxiety is to see their bills paid, and commercially inclined
+railroads who will transport none, not even actors, without payment in
+something more tangible than promises. Then comes the benefit
+performance, the appeal to local lodges of orders the actors may be
+identified with and the mad scramble to induce the railroad to carry the
+people home "on their trunks." If they can get their baggage out of the
+hotels the performers usually find it possible to secure transportation by
+leaving their trunks with the railroads as a pawn to be released when they
+raise money enough to settle the bill. Surely a pleasant prospect--to go
+"home" penniless and without personal effects, clothing or even prospects.
+
+And all this time where is the manager? He may have fled in desperation
+with the few dollars that came into his hands the preceding night, or he
+may be shut up in his room worse off than his employes. It all depends
+upon circumstances.
+
+All shows do not meet disaster on the road, however. Yet there is always
+the distressing possibility to confront the actor. Many go on their glad,
+successful way, for a time, like "Mr. Bluebeard," piling up profits and
+bringing joy to the hearts of managers and owners and continued employment
+to the players. Yet even then all is not as roseate as might be thought
+from a casual glance taken from the front. There are epidemics, railroad
+accidents, hotel fires and all manner of emergencies to be considered, not
+to speak of the one-night stand.
+
+
+THE ONE-NIGHT STAND.
+
+Of all the terrors the actor faces the one-night stand is the worst. That
+is the technical name applied to the city or town where the company lights
+for a single performance as it flits across the continent. It is almost
+impossible to so route an attraction that its time will be placed
+exclusively in large cities, so they fall back on the one-night stand.
+Imagine the joy of leaving Chicago Sunday morning, playing at South
+Chicago Sunday afternoon and evening, taking a train after the performance
+and jogging into Michigan City, Ind., with the early dawn, catching a bit
+of sleep during the day, playing at night and skipping out for Logansport.
+With the same programme at Logansport, Fort Wayne, Richmond, and Lima,
+Mansfield or Dayton, Ohio, the company is within striking distance of
+Cleveland, Cincinnati, Louisville or Indianapolis, as its bookings may
+elect. And that is precisely what they all do. This is a sample week. It
+is not an uncommon thing for a big attraction to cover two or three weeks
+of unbroken one-night stands, and those going to and from the Pacific
+coast are often compelled to play four and five, without the friendly
+relief of an engagement covering a week.
+
+Truly life under these circumstances is a horror. Train-worn, broken in
+rest, with scarcely opportunity to unpack to change their linen, such
+weeks mean to the performer an existence not calculated to tempt recruits
+to the profession. To the principal, stopping at the best hotels and
+making use of sleeping cars whenever possible, it is wearing enough and a
+burden. To the chorus girl, it is a hideous nightmare. Out of her meager
+salary she must pay during such weeks from $1.25 to $1.75 a day for hotel
+accommodations that are far from tempting. She is driven to resort to
+sleepers through self-preservation at an average of $2 a night for long
+night trips, and her laundry and other incidental expenses mount up into
+startling figures. Her clothing is ruined by almost ceaseless crushing
+aboard trains, and unless she be thoroughly broken to such a life she is
+wrecked physically.
+
+
+[Illustration: AMBULANCE LOADED WITH FIRE VICTIMS.]
+
+[Illustration: ARCH AT TOP OF STAIRWAY PACKED WITH DEAD.]
+
+[Illustration: CARRYING OUT SOME DEAD, SOME STILL LIVING.]
+
+[Illustration: FIREMEN CARRYING OUT THE DEAD CHILDREN.]
+
+[Illustration: HEROIC RESCUE OF THE LIVING BY CHICAGO FIREMEN.]
+
+[Illustration: SCENE IN DEATH ALLEY--REAR OF THE THEATRE.]
+
+[Illustration: CARRYING OUT BODIES FROM SECOND BALCONY.]
+
+[Illustration: MISS NELLIE REED, Leader of the Flying Ballet, killed by
+the fire.]
+
+[Illustration: FIREMEN HELPING THE CHORUS GIRLS OUT OF THE THEATER.]
+
+[Illustration: PHOTOGRAPH OF THE STAGE OF THE THEATER IN RUINS.]
+
+[Illustration: FRONT OF THEATER, PILING DEAD IN THE STREET.]
+
+[Illustration: IN THE THEATER, DOORS LOCKED, PANIC, FIRE, AND DEATH.]
+
+[Illustration: INSIDE THE IROQUOIS THEATER WHILE THE FIRE RAGED.]
+
+[Illustration: LOOKING FOR HER CHILDREN AMONG THE DEAD.]
+
+[Illustration: A LINE OF VICTIMS OF THE FIRE AWAITING IDENTIFICATION.]
+
+[Illustration: DIAGRAM SHOWING HOW PEOPLE GOT OUT OF THE GALLERY.]
+
+
+When she reaches a big city again she can once more creep to bed after her
+work at midnight and find in unbroken hours of sleep balm for all she has
+passed through. She may secure a decent room at a second or third class
+European hotel for $6 a week and buy her meals where she chooses. If some
+callow youth buys them for her in consideration of the pleasure of basking
+in her smiles, she is that much ahead. She can live within her means in
+the city and save money--if she wants to. But she seldom does, and no one
+can blame her, for she feels that nothing save the pleasures secured by
+extravagance can compensate her for what she has lost--comfort, repose,
+dignity, social recognition, and, most of all, home.
+
+These same conditions are experienced to a varying degree by all players
+save those within the sacred circle drawn by the finger of phenomenal
+success. That small handful with private cars, lackies and all the
+comforts of a portable home, is so insignificant in number that it
+requires no consideration here.
+
+
+THE "MR. BLUEBEARD" COMPANY.
+
+In the best and most prosperous organizations, such as "Mr. Bluebeard"
+was, life is not all sunshine and roses. To be true, its members escaped
+the manifold terrors of playing in the barns to be found in many large
+one-night stands and dressing in their stalls, dignified by the term
+dressing-rooms. The women were not compelled to dress and undress behind
+inclosures made of flimsy scenery with a sheet thrown over for additional
+protection. Nor did they have to live in the barn-like hotels many such
+towns boast. But they had their own troubles, such as they were. The
+chorus girls did not escape having to be thrown into involuntary contact
+with all classes and conditions of mankind, nor did they avoid the sharp
+social distinction drawn by the principals in all organizations.
+
+Only a few weeks before the Iroquois horror they passed through a serious
+fire scare in the theater where they were playing in Cleveland, an
+experience that for the moment promised to rival the one that finally
+overtook them. Flames in the scenery endangered their lives, but the fire
+was extinguished. Therefore the incident "amounted to nothing" and little
+or nothing was heard about it.
+
+When the dread hour arrived at the Iroquois, the majority lost their all.
+It was not to be expected they would leave their jewelry and money about
+hotels of which they knew little. Quite naturally, they took both to their
+dressing-rooms. Many were on the stage when the cry of fire came, and were
+fortunate to escape with their lives, without thought of clothing, money
+or jewelry, all of which were swept away. With employment, valuables,
+everything gone save their hotel baggage, they were in a sorry plight,
+indeed. But with the optimism that only the actor knows they rejoiced in
+their escape from the fate that overtook little Nellie Reed and from the
+terrible scars and burns suffered by many of their number.
+
+A score of their number were under arrest, held as witnesses, men and
+women alike. The management came to their relief to the extent of
+furnishing bonds that secured their temporary release. Klaw and Erlanger
+also furnished transportation back to New York for such as were at liberty
+to go. Then another obstacle arose. Few had the means to settle their
+hotel bills, and the proprietors of the places would not release their
+baggage. At this juncture relief came from outside sources. Mrs. Ogden
+Armour provided for the chorus girls, contributing $500 to settle their
+bills. That night over a hundred of the players were headed back to the
+great metropolis they call home, to seek new engagements, and if
+unsuccessful, to do the best they could. And the majority started with
+certain failure staring them in the face.
+
+It was on Sunday, January 3, 1904, four days after the fire, that the
+members of the "Mr. Bluebeard" company turned their faces homeward, for to
+all players New York is "home." Just before the train started a plain
+white box was put on board the baggage car. It contained all that was
+mortal of Nellie Reed, the sprightly little girl who had delighted scores
+of thousands by her mid-air flights from the stage at each performance.
+
+It was her last railroad "jump." Poor little thing, still in her early
+teens, she closed her earthly career with the close of the show, and went
+back "home" with it! If the future has for her any further flights they
+will be of celestial character, and not through the agency of an invisible
+wire such as guided her above the heads of Iroquois theater audiences and
+which was at first thought to have interfered with the fall of the curtain
+and to have been directly responsible for the appalling holocaust.
+
+It was a sad departure. Nearly 150 persons comprised the "Mr. Bluebeard"
+party, and nearly as many more took the trip from "The Billionaire"
+company, also owned by the same management. Only a day or two before the
+fire that closed the "Bluebeard" show death had laid its hand heavily upon
+"The Billionaire," playing at the Illinois theater only a few blocks
+distant. "The Billionaire" himself died--big, rollicking Jerome Sykes, who
+made famous the part "Foxy Quiller" and the opera of that name and who a
+few years ago made such a hit as the fat boy in "An American Beauty" that
+he outshone Lillian Russell, its star. Sykes contracted a cold at a
+Christmas celebration for the members of the two companies and when he
+died the production died with him.
+
+So with the Iroquois catastrophe there were two big, obviously successful,
+companies wiped out of the theatrical world at one blow and without
+notice. The members of each had half a week's salary due; that was their
+all. It was promptly paid and with that and their tickets all set forth in
+the happy possession of their baggage, many through the charity of Mrs.
+Armour.
+
+All--not quite! There were two members of "The Billionaire" who did not
+make the last "jump," two who were in the audience at the Iroquois and
+perished in the maelstrom of flame and smoke. The curtain had been rung
+down for them forever. They, at least, would know no more of pitiful
+quests for engagements, of wearying rehearsal and momentary, superficial
+conquest. They had played their last stand.
+
+"This is the saddest day of my life," declared one of the chorus members
+in the presence of the writer. "Here I am, 1,000 miles from home, no
+prospects of another engagement this season, and only $5 in the world."
+
+"I have less than you," said a frail appearing girl, with tears in her
+eyes. "I lost my savings, $22, in the fire, and I have only $3 to go home
+with."
+
+"It is the life of the stage," said a matronly wardrobe woman. "The poor
+girls are penniless, and if the injured were left hind it would be as
+charity patients. The responsibility of the managers of the show ceases
+when the production is closed. I know many of these girls are without
+sufficient money to pay for a week's lodging, and it is a sad outlook for
+some of them this winter."
+
+And the wardrobe woman told the truth--it was merely a striking example, a
+pitiful vicissitude of "the life of the stage."
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XIII.
+
+OTHER HOLOCAUSTS.
+
+
+Since the time that civilized man first met with fellow man to enjoy the
+work of the primitive playwright, humanity has paid a toll of human life
+for its amusements. Oftener than history tells the tiny flicker of a
+tongue of flame has thrown a gay, laughing audience into a wild,
+struggling mob, and instead of the curtain which would have been rung down
+on the comedy on the stage, a pall of black smoke covered the struggles of
+the living and dying.
+
+Of all the theater disasters of history, none ever occurred in America
+equaling the loss of life in the Iroquois fire. Only two in the history of
+the civilized world surpass it. There have been fires accompanied by
+greater loss of life, but not among theater audiences.
+
+But the grand total of persons killed in theater holocausts is large and
+the saddest comment on this list is that most of the victims were from
+holiday audiences of women and children. Lehman's playhouse in St.
+Petersburg, Russia, was destroyed in Christmas week, 1836, and 700 persons
+lost their lives. The Ring theater, Vienna, Austria, was destroyed Dec. 8,
+1881, and 875 persons lost their lives. These are the only theater
+holocausts whose deadliness surpasses that of the Iroquois.
+
+To all have been the same accompaniments of panic, futile struggle and
+suffocation. In the last century with the introduction of the modern style
+of playhouse, these fatal fires have increased. The annals of the stage
+are replete with dark pages that cause the tragedy of the mimic drama
+depicted behind the footlights to pale and shrivel into comparative
+nothingness.
+
+Perhaps it is a fatal legacy from the time when civilized society gathered
+in its marble coliseums and amphitheaters to witness the mortal combats of
+human soldiers or the death struggles of Christians waging a vain battle
+against famished wild beasts. Whatever it may be, death has always stalked
+as the dread companion of the god of the muse and drama.
+
+An English statistician published six years ago a list of fires at places
+of public entertainment in all countries in the preceding century. He
+showed that there had been 1,100 conflagrations, with 10,000 fatalities,
+and he apologized for the incompleteness of his figures. Another authority
+says that in the twelve years from 1876 to 1888 not less than 1,700 were
+killed in theater disasters in Brooklyn, Nice, Vienna, Paris, Exeter and
+Oporto, and that in every case nearly all the victims were dead within ten
+minutes from the time the smoke and flame from the stage reached the
+auditorium. As in the Iroquois fire, it was mainly in the balconies and
+galleries that death held its revels.
+
+Fire wrought havoc at Rome in the Amphitheater in the year 14 B. C., and
+the Circus Maximus was similarly destroyed three times in the first
+century of the Christian era. Three other theaters were razed by flames in
+the same period, and Pompeii's was burned again almost two centuries
+later, but the exact loss of life is not recorded in either instance. The
+Greek playhouses, built of stone in open spaces, were never endangered by
+fire.
+
+No theaters were built on the modern plan until in the sixteenth century
+in France, and not until the seventeenth did any catastrophe worthy of
+record occur. When Shakespeare lived plays were generally produced in
+temporary structures, sometimes merely raised platforms in open squares,
+and it was after his time that scenic effects began to be amplified and
+the use of illuminants increased. Thus it was that dangers, both to
+players and auditors, were vastly increased.
+
+In the Teatro Atarazanas, in Seville, Spain, many people were killed and
+injured at a fire in 1615. The first conflagration of this kind in England
+worth noting happened in 1672, when the Theater Royal, or Drury Lane,
+standing on the site of the playhouse in which "Mr. Bluebeard" was
+produced before it was brought to Chicago, was burned to the ground. Sixty
+other buildings were destroyed, but no loss of life is recorded.
+
+Two hundred and ten people lost their lives and the whole Castle of
+Amalienborg, in Copenhagen, was laid in ashes in 1689 from a rocket that
+ignited the scenery in the opera house. Eighteen persons perished at the
+theater in the Kaizersgracht, Amsterdam, in 1772, and six years later the
+Teatro Colisseo, at Saragossa, Spain, went up in flames and seventy-seven
+lives were lost. The governor of the province was among the victims.
+Twenty players were suffocated in the burning of the Palais Royal in Paris
+in 1781.
+
+In the nineteenth century there were twelve theater fires marked by great
+loss of life, and the first of these occurred in the United States. At
+Richmond, on the day after Christmas in 1811, a benefit performance of
+"Agnes and Raymond, or the Bleeding Nun," was being given, and the theater
+was filled with a wealthy and fashionable audience. The governor of
+Virginia, George W. Smith, ex-United States Senator Venable, and other
+prominent persons were in the audience and were numbered among the seventy
+victims. The last act was on when the careless hoisting of a stage
+chandelier with lighted candles set fire to the scenery. Most of those
+killed met death in the jam at the doors.
+
+The Lehman Theater and circus in St. Petersburg was the scene of a fire in
+1836, in which 800 people perished. A stage lamp hung high ignited the
+roof, a panic ensued, and there was such a mad rush that most of the
+people slew each other trying to get out. Those not trampled to death were
+incinerated by the fire that rapidly enveloped the temporary wooden
+building.
+
+A lighted lamp, upset in a wing, caused a stampede in the Royal Theater,
+Quebec, June 12, 1846, and 100 people were either burned or crushed into
+lifelessness. The exits were poor and the playhouse was built of
+combustible material. Less than a year later the Grand Ducal Theater at
+Carlsruhe, Baden, Germany, was destroyed by a fire, due to the careless
+lighting of the gas in the grand ducal box. Most of the 150 victims were
+suffocated. Between fifty and one hundred people met a fiery death in the
+Teatro degli Aquidotti at Leghorn, Italy, June 7, 1857. Fireworks were
+being used on the stage and a rocket set fire to the scenery.
+
+One of the most serious fires from the standpoint of loss of life was that
+in the Jesuit church of Santiago, South America, in 1863. Fire broke out
+in the building during service. A panic started and the efforts of the
+priests to calm the immense crowd and lead them quietly from the edifice
+were vain. The few doors became jammed with a struggling mass of men,
+women and children. The next day 2,000 bodies were taken from the church,
+most of them suffocated or trampled to death.
+
+The Brooklyn theater fire was long memorable in this country. Songs,
+funeral marches and poems without number were written commemorating the
+sad event. Vastly different from the Iroquois horror, most of the victims
+of the Brooklyn theater were burned beyond recognition. At Greenwood
+cemetery in Brooklyn there now stands a marble shaft to the unidentified
+victims of the holocaust.
+
+Kate Claxton was playing "The Two Orphans" at Conway's Theater in Brooklyn
+on the night of Dec. 5, 1876. In the last scene of the last act Miss
+Claxton, as Louise, the poor blind girl, had just lain down on her pallet
+of straw, when she saw above her in the flies a tiny flame. An actor of
+the name of Murdoch, on the stage with her, saw it about the same time,
+and was so excited that he began to stammer his lines. Miss Claxton tried
+to reassure him and partly succeeded.
+
+Then the audience realized that the theater was on fire, and a movement
+began. The star, with Mr. Murdoch and Mrs. Farren, joined hands, walked to
+the footlights and begged the audience to go out in an orderly manner.
+"You see, we are between you and the fire," said Miss Claxton. The people
+were proceeding quietly, when a man's voice shouted, "It is time to be out
+of this," and every one seemed seized with a frenzy. The main entrance
+doors opened inwardly, and there was such a jam that these could not be
+manipulated.
+
+The crowds from the galleries rushed down the stairways and fell or jumped
+headlong into the struggling mass below. Of the 1,000 people in the
+theater 297 perished. They were either burned, suffocated or trampled to
+death. The actor Murdoch was one of the victims.
+
+That same year, 1876, a panic resulted in the Chinese theater of San
+Francisco from a cry of fire. A lighted cigar which someone playfully
+dropped into a spectator's coat pocket caused a smell of burning wool. The
+audience became panic stricken and rushed madly for the exits. At the time
+there were about 900 Americans in the auditorium, and of this number
+one-quarter were seriously injured. The fire itself was of no consequence.
+
+The destruction of the Ring theater at Vienna, Dec. 8, 1881, remains the
+greatest horror of the kind in the history of civilization. It was
+preceded on March 23 of the same year, by the burning of the Municipal
+theater in Nice, Italy, caused by an explosion of gas, and in which
+between 150 and 200 people perished miserably, but the magnitude of the
+Vienna holocaust made the world forget Nice for the time. The feast of the
+Immaculate Conception was being celebrated by the Viennese, and
+Offenbach's "Les Contes d'Hoffman," an opera bouffe, was the play. The
+audience numbered 2,500.
+
+Fire was suddenly observed in the scenery, and a wild panic started. An
+iron curtain, designed for just such emergencies, was forgotten, and the
+flames, which might thus have been confined to the stage, spread furiously
+through the entire building. The scene was changed from light-hearted
+revelry, with gladsome music, to one of lurid horror.
+
+The exits from the galleries were long and tortuous and quickly became
+choked. As in the Iroquois theater fire, those who had occupied the
+gallery seats were the ones who lost their lives. But few escaped from the
+galleries. The great majority of the spectators were burned beyond
+recognition by their nearest relatives. One hundred and fifty were so
+charred that they were buried in a common grave, and the city's mourning
+was shared by all the world.
+
+The next fire of this nature to attract the world's attention and sympathy
+was the destruction of the Circus Ferroni at Berditscheff, Russian Poland.
+Four hundred and thirty people were killed and eighty mortally injured.
+Many children were crushed and suffocated in the jam, and horses and
+other trained animals perished by the score. This was on Jan. 13, 1883,
+and the origin of the conflagration was traced to a stableman who smoked a
+cigarette while lying in a heap of straw.
+
+
+TWO GREAT PARISIAN HORRORS.
+
+The burning of the Opera Comique in Paris, May 25, 1887, was a spectacular
+horror. Here again an iron curtain that would have protected the audience
+was not lowered. The first act of "Mignon" was on, when the scenery was
+observed to be ablaze. The upper galleries were transformed into infernos,
+in which men knocked other men and women down and trampled them in their
+eagerness to save themselves, while the flames reached out and enveloped
+them all.
+
+Many of the actors and actresses escaped only in their costumes, and some
+rushed nude into the streets. The scenes in the thoroughfares where men
+and women in tights and ball dresses and men in gorgeous theatrical robes
+mingled with the naked, and the dead and dying were strewn about, made a
+picture fantastically terrible. The official list of dead was
+seventy-five, but many others died from the fire's effects.
+
+The theater at Exeter, England, burned Sept. 5, 1887, was ignited from gas
+lights, and so much smoke filled the edifice in a short time that near 200
+were suffocated in their seats. They were found sitting there afterward,
+just as though they were still watching the play. This was the eleventh,
+and the Oporto fire the twelfth of the big conflagrations of the country.
+One hundred and seventy dead were taken from the ruins of the Portuguese
+playhouse after the flames which destroyed it on the evening of March 31,
+1888, had been subdued. Many sailors and marine soldiers in the galleries
+used knives to kill persons standing in their way, and scores of the
+victims were found with their throats cut.
+
+Ten years after the Opera Comique fire occurred the greatest of all
+Parisian horrors, the destruction by flames of the charity bazar, May 4,
+1897. Members of the nobility, and even royalty, were among the victims.
+All of fashionable Paris were under the roof of a temporary wooden edifice
+known to visitors to the exposition of 1889 as "Old Paris." The annual
+bazar in the interest of charity had always been one of the most imposing
+of the spring functions. The wealthy and distinguished, titled and modish
+were there in larger numbers than on any previous occasion.
+
+The fire broke out with a suddenness that so dazed everyone that the small
+chance of escape from the flimsy structure was made even less. Duchesses,
+marquises, countesses, baronesses and grand dames joined in the mad rush
+for the exits. The men present are said to have acted in a particularly
+cowardly manner, knocking down and trampling upon women and children. The
+death list of more than 100 included the Duchesses d'Alencon and De St.
+Didier, the Marquise de Maison, and three barons, three baronesses, one
+count, eleven countesses, one general, five sisters of charity and one
+mother superior. The Duchess d'Alencon was the favorite sister of the
+Empress of Austria and had been a fiance of the mad King Ludwig of
+Bavaria. The Duchess d'Uzes was badly burned. The shock of the news and
+the death of his niece, the Duchess d'Alencon, accounted for the death on
+May 7 of the Duc d'Aumale.
+
+The Gaiety Theater in Milwaukee on November 5, 1869, furnished more than
+thirty victims to the fire fiend, but only two of these were burned to
+death. The Central Theater in Philadelphia was destroyed April 28, 1892,
+and six persons perished. A panic occurred at the Front Street playhouse
+in Baltimore December 27, 1895, among an audience composed entirely of
+Polish Jews. There was no fire, but a woman who had seen a bright light on
+the stage thought there was, and her cries caused a stampede that resulted
+in twenty-four deaths.
+
+Statisticians show that theaters as a rule do not attain an old age, but
+that their average life in all countries is but twenty-two and
+three-fourths years. In the United States the average is but eleven to
+thirteen years, and here almost a third are destroyed before they have
+been built five years. More playhouses feed the flames just prior to and
+after than during performances, because of the added precautions of
+employes.
+
+Two deadly conflagrations occurred in New York in 1900. The first the
+Windsor hotel fire, which resulted in the death of 80 persons. Fire broke
+out in the old hotel on Fifth avenue about midnight. With lightning
+rapidity the flames shot up the light and air shafts, filling the rooms
+with smoke and making them as light as day. The guests suddenly aroused
+from sleep became panic stricken. The fire department was unable to throw
+up ladders and give aid as fast as frightened faces appeared at the
+windows. The result was that many jumped to death. They were picked up
+dead and dying in the streets. Others ran from their rooms into the
+fire-swept hallways and were burned to death.
+
+A short time later fire broke out one afternoon on the docks across the
+river from New York at Hoboken. The fire was on a pier piled high with
+combustible material. It burned like powder, spreading to the ocean liners
+tied to the pier and the efforts of the fire department were not effective
+in checking it. The cables which held the blazing vessels to the piers
+burned through and they drifted into the river, carrying fire and death
+among the shipping. Longshoremen unloading and loading the vessels jumped
+in panic into the river. Others found themselves cut off from both land
+and water by the flames on all sides and were burned like rats in a trap.
+It was estimated that 300 lives were lost. Many bodies were never
+recovered and others were found miles down the river.
+
+Property losses are seldom proportionate to the financial losses from
+fire. In the Iroquois theater fire the property loss was almost
+inconsequential, while at the burning of Moscow by the Russians, Sept. 4,
+1812, the property loss amounted to more than $150,000,000, while no lives
+were lost.
+
+Constantinople, with its squalid and crowded streets, has always been a
+fruitful spot for fires. They are of annual occurrence and as the Turkish
+fire department is a travesty, are usually of considerable magnitude. The
+great fire of that city was in 1729, when 12,000 houses were destroyed and
+7,000 persons burned to death. Aug. 12, 1782, a three days' fire started
+in which 10,000 houses, 50 corn mills and 100 mosques were burned and 100
+lives lost. In February of the same year, 600 houses were burned, and in
+June 7,000 more. Fires are the best safeguards for Constantinople's
+health.
+
+Great Britain has had comparatively few fires. In 1598 one at Tiverton
+destroyed 400 houses and 33 lives. In 1854 50 persons were killed at
+Gateshead. The great fire of London raged from Sept. 2 to 6, 1666. It
+began in a wooden building in Pudding Lane and consumed the buildings on
+436 acres, blotting out 400 streets, 13,200 houses, St. Paul's and 86
+other churches, 58 halls and all public buildings, three of the city gates
+and four stone bridges. The property loss was $53,652,500, while only six
+persons were killed.
+
+Nearly every large city of the United States has had its great fire. That
+of Boston was on Nov. 9 and 10, 1872. Fire started at Summer and Kingston
+streets and 65 acres were burned over. The property loss was about
+$75,000,000 and there was no loss of life.
+
+The great fire in New York began in Merchant street, Dec. 16, 1835. No
+lives were lost, but the property loss was $15,000,000 and 52 acres were
+devastated, 530 buildings being destroyed. Ten years later a much smaller
+fire in the same district caused the death of 35 persons.
+
+July 9, 1850, thirty lives were lost in Philadelphia, and February 8,
+1865, twenty persons were killed by another fire. Large fires in that city
+have almost invariably been accompanied by loss of life.
+
+As the result of a Fourth of July celebration in 1866, nearly half of
+Portland, Md., was swept away by fire. The property loss was $10,000,000,
+but there was no loss of life. In September and October of 1871 forest
+fires raged in Wisconsin and Michigan. An immense territory was swept over
+and more than 1,000 persons lost their lives.
+
+The greatest fire of modern times was the one which started in Chicago,
+October 8, 1871. A strip through the heart of the city, four miles long
+and a mile and a half wide, was burned over. The total loss was
+$196,000,000 and 250 persons lost their lives. By the fire 17,450
+buildings were destroyed and 98,860 persons were made homeless. Within
+four years the entire burned district had been rebuilt.
+
+Fires in Chicago attended with loss of life have been of increasing
+frequency in the past few years. Fire in the Henning & Speed building on
+Dearborn street, in 1900, caused four girls to lose their lives. Since it
+and before the Iroquois disaster have come: The St. Luke Sanitarium
+horror, 10 lives lost, 43 injured; the Doremus laundry explosion, 8 lives
+lost; the American Glucose Sugar refinery blaze, 8 killed; Northwestern
+railroad boiler explosion, 8 killed, Stock Yards boiler explosion, 18
+killed, and about a year ago the Lincoln hotel fire, 14 visiting stockmen
+suffocated.
+
+In view of this terrible array of suffering and death, it would seem that
+no precaution could be too great to avert future calamities. But although
+human life is beyond price, it is probable that the world at large will
+move on very much in the same old way--an arousing and an upheaval of
+public sentiment for a time after the burned and maimed have been laid
+away, and then a gradual return of carelessness. It would seem impossible,
+however, that the United States could forget for many generations the
+Iroquois disaster, and that it must result in a final reform of all
+arrangements looking to the safety of theater goers.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XIV.
+
+STORIES AND NARRATIVES OF THE HOLOCAUST.
+
+
+From two women who sat within a few feet of the stage when the fire broke
+out in the theater, and who remained calm enough to observe the actual
+beginning of the holocaust, there came one of the most thrilling and
+significant stories of that afternoon of panic.
+
+Mrs. Emma Schweitzler and Mrs. Eva Katherine Clapp Gibson, of Chicago,
+were the two women who told this story. They occupied seats in the fifth
+row of the orchestra circle. Mrs. Schweitzler was the last woman to walk
+out unassisted from the first floor. Mrs. Gibson was carried out badly
+burned.
+
+"The curtain that was run down," said Mrs. Schweitzler, "was the regular
+drop curtain painted with the 'autumn scene,' It was the same curtain that
+was lowered before the show started and the same one used during the
+interval following the first act. No other curtain was lowered.
+
+"As soon as the drop curtain came down it caught fire. A hole appeared at
+the left hand side. Then the blaze spread rapidly, and instantly a great
+blast of hot air came from the stage through the hole in the curtain and
+into the audience. Big pieces of the curtain were loosened by the terrific
+rush of air and were blown into the people's faces. Scores of women and
+children must have been burned to death by these fragments of burning
+grease and paint. I was in the theater until the curtain had entirely
+burned. It went up in the flames as if it had been paper, and did more
+damage than good."
+
+"So far as could be observed from the audience, the asbestos curtain was
+not lowered at all," said Mrs. Schweitzler. "I was particularly interested
+in that 'autumn-scene' curtain because I paint oil pictures myself.
+
+"Before the show started I sat for a long time examining the painting.
+From our seats in the fifth row we could see every detail. The 'autumn
+scene' was done in heavy red and in order to get some of the effects the
+artist had to use great daubs of paint, smearing it on pretty thick in
+some places. I am certain that the backing was common canvas and if this
+was so it must have been covered with wax before the paint was put on.
+This same curtain came down after the first act, so I had plenty of time
+to know it.
+
+"When the fire started my first feeling was that the stage people were
+acting recklessly. For several minutes the fire was no bigger than a
+handkerchief. A bucket of water would have saved the lives of every one.
+But there seemed to be no water on the stage.
+
+"One of the stage hands first took his hand and then used a piece of plank
+to smother the flames. It kept spreading. After Eddie Foy had made his
+speech the 'autumn scene' curtain came down. 'Pull down the curtain,' was
+all the cry I heard. They did not say 'Pull down the asbestos curtain,'
+nor was there any mention of any fireproof curtain. The 'autumn scene,'
+with its highly inflammable paint, came down, and it was like pouring fire
+into the people's faces. It was a great piece of bungling--far worse than
+if no curtain had been lowered at all.
+
+"It has been said that noise and panic-like screaming followed the burning
+of the curtain. This is absolutely not true. The whole place was almost
+gruesomely silent.
+
+"Mrs. Gibson and I were half way in from the aisle and had to wait for
+many to go out before we started. At the aisle some one stepped on Mrs.
+Gibson's dress and she fell to the floor. Men, women and children trampled
+over her, and having done all I could I started out. In the lobby I begged
+some men to return for Mrs. Gibson, but they said it was no use. The
+curtain by that time was burned up."
+
+Mrs. Gibson, wife of Dr. Charles B. Gibson, confirmed Mrs. Schweitzler's
+assertions that no asbestos curtain was visible from the audience. "From
+the place where I fell," said Mrs. Gibson, "I crawled on hands and knees
+to the entrance. When I got to the rear the curtain was all burned away."
+
+
+ESCAPE OF MOTHER AND TWO SMALL CHILDREN
+
+Mrs. William Mueller, Jr., 3330 Calumet avenue, who at the time was
+confined to her bed from injuries sustained by trying to get out of the
+Iroquois as the panic began and from bruises sustained by being trampled
+upon, tells the story that she with her two children, Florence, 5 years
+old, and Belle, 3 years old, occupied three seats in the second row from
+the back on the ground floor on the right side of the theater. The
+children became restless as the second act began and Mrs. Mueller took
+them to a retiring room.
+
+After the children had been in the retiring room for some minutes, they
+wanted to go back and see the performance. Mrs. Mueller started back into
+the lobby to go to her seats, when she saw, in a glass, the reflection of
+the flames. She hurried back into the retiring room and asked for the
+children's wraps, saying she thought something was wrong and did not want
+to stay in the theater any longer. The maid in the room asked her what was
+the matter and Mrs. Mueller told her.
+
+"Oh, that's all right. I won't give you the things now," the maid replied.
+"I'll go and see what is the matter."
+
+Mrs. Mueller demanded the children's wraps, but they were refused. Just
+then Mrs. Mueller thinks she must have heard the first cry of alarm and
+she ran to the front doors with the children. She tried one door and found
+it locked. Then she tried another, and that was locked. She pushed against
+it and then threw herself against it, trying to force it open. She does
+not remember seeing any employee near the outer door.
+
+Mrs. Mueller then heard people in the audience shrieking and then she
+fainted. It is thought that the oldest little girl, Florence, also
+fainted.
+
+As the people pushed out of the theater they trampled upon Mrs. Mueller
+and the child. Mrs. Mueller was horribly bruised and was either kicked in
+the eyes or else some one stepped on her face. It was at first feared she
+would lose her eyesight.
+
+The first person carried out when the rescue began was Mrs. Mueller; she
+was right in front of the doors. Near her was Florence. Just before the
+men entered, and after every one else seemed to be out, little Belle came
+walking out. A man ran to her, picked her up and took her to a barber
+shop, where she continued to cry for her mother. The little girl,
+Florence, was also carried out and was taken to the same barber shop,
+where the two children were later found by Mr. Mueller. Mrs. Mueller was
+taken to the Samaritan hospital, where she was found that night.
+
+
+EXPRESSION OF THE DEAD.
+
+John Maynard Harlan visited the morgue in search of the body of Mrs. F.
+Morton Fox and her three children, who were intimate friends of Mrs.
+Harlan. In speaking of his experience he said:
+
+"I was profoundly impressed by the expressions on the faces of many of the
+dead. Perhaps it was only a fancy, but it seemed to me that the faces of
+those having the higher order of intelligence showed less horror and more
+resignation. Some of these seemed to have passed away almost with a smile
+of faith, so serene were their countenances. But the faces of the less
+intelligent were uniformly struck with suffering to a terrible degree.
+
+"When I found Mrs. Fox's little boy the smile of courage on his face was
+one of the most noble sights that I ever saw. It seemed to me that I could
+see the brave little fellow trying to reassure his mother and facing death
+with a heroism not expected of his years."
+
+
+ONLY SURVIVOR OF LARGE THEATER PARTY.
+
+Mrs. W. F. Hanson, of Chicago, was the only member of a theater party of
+nine to escape. She wept as she talked of her companions and shuddered as
+she recalled the manner of their death.
+
+"I cannot tell how I got out of the theater," she said. "I remember
+starting for one of the aisles when the panic was at its height. I was
+separated from my friends. We had a row of seats in the second balcony.
+Suddenly someone seized me and I was tossed and dragged along the aisle
+and I lost consciousness. When I came to my senses I was in a store across
+the street. Every one of my companions perished. We composed a holiday
+theater party and we were all related by marriage."
+
+
+ALL HIS FAMILY GONE.
+
+Arthur E. Hull, of Chicago, who lost his entire family in the Iroquois
+fire, tells the following pathetic story:
+
+"It is too terrible to contemplate. I can never go to my home again. To
+look at the playthings left by the children just where they put them, to
+see how my dear dead wife arranged all the details of her home so
+carefully, the very walls ring with the names of my dear dead ones. I can
+never go there again.
+
+"Mrs. Hull had called the children from their play to go and see the show.
+They were laughing and shouting about the house in childish glee, when
+she, all radiant with smiles, came to tell them of the surprise she had
+planned for them.
+
+"They left their toys just where they were. She fixed the things about the
+house a bit, and then took them with her.
+
+"Mary, our maid, went with them. She, too, was joyous at the prospect, and
+a happier party never started anywhere. Everything was smiles and
+sunshine.
+
+"They had planned for a day of joy, and it turned out a day of sorrow.
+Sorrow more deep than can be fathomed by human mind. Sorrow so acute that
+it is indescribable."
+
+The party consisted of Mrs. Hull, her little daughter, Helen Muriel, her
+two adopted sons, Donald DeGraff and Dwight Moody, together with Mary
+Forbes.
+
+The two boys had been adopted by Mr. and Mrs. Hull but three weeks before,
+and had lately come from Topeka, Kan., where their father, Fred J. Hull,
+had died.
+
+The party was gotten up for them particularly, and it was the first and
+last time they were ever to witness a stage production. This was only one
+of a score of recorded cases where the unselfish desire to give pleasure
+to the young caused their death.
+
+
+A FAMILY PARTY BURNED.
+
+Dr. Charles S. Owen, a physician and one of the most prominent men in
+Wheaton, died at the Chicago homeopathic hospital from injuries sustained
+at the Iroquois fire. On Christmas day Dr. Owen held a family reunion, and
+eight relatives came from Ohio to spend the holiday week. Wednesday a
+theater party was arranged and twelve seats were secured at the Iroquois
+in the front row of the first balcony. Out of the entire party of twelve
+Dr. Owen was the only one to escape.
+
+
+CARRIES DAUGHTER'S BODY HOME IN HIS ARMS.
+
+It appears that Miss Blackburn had attended the matinee with her father,
+James Blackburn. They had seats in the first balcony. In the panic father
+and daughter became separated. The father escaped to the Randolph street
+lobby and then started back for his daughter. He found her body on the
+staircase horribly burned. Catching up the lifeless form and wrapping it
+in his overcoat, Mr. Blackburn rushed to the street and procured a cab, in
+which he was driven with his burden directly to the Northwestern station.
+He caught the first train for Glen View and had the body of his child at
+home in half an hour.
+
+
+SAD ERROR IN IDENTIFICATION.
+
+Mrs. Lulu Bennett, Chicago, whose daughter, Gertrude Eloise Swayze, 16
+years old, was a victim of the holocaust, thought she would avoid the
+gruesome task of making a tour of the morgues, so she asked a friend to
+search for her daughter's body. After visiting a number of morgues he
+finally found the body of a girl at Rolston's, in Adams street, which he
+identified as Miss Swayze. The body was conveyed to the mother's
+residence, but when she looked at the body she turned away with a moan
+and said: "That is not my Gertrude; take it away, take it away. There has
+been some terrible mistake made."
+
+Mrs. Bennett made a personal tour of the morgues afterward and found her
+daughter's body.
+
+
+THE HANGER OF THE ASBESTOS CURTAIN.
+
+The asbestos curtain at the Iroquois theater was not hung in a manner
+satisfactory to Lyman Savage, the stage carpenter who put it up, according
+to a statement he made to his son, C. B. Savage, head electrician at
+Power's theater, a short time before his death which occurred indirectly
+as a result of the fire.
+
+Mr. Savage, who lived at 1750 Wrightwood avenue and who was a stage
+carpenter in Chicago for twenty-five years, worked at the Iroquois theater
+until two weeks before the fire, when he was compelled to leave because of
+kidney trouble. His son ascribes his death to excitement over the Iroquois
+fire. That disaster was uppermost in his mind.
+
+Mr. Savage said: "I asked my father if he hung the asbestos curtain at the
+Iroquois theater and he said he did. I then asked him if he hung the
+curtain according to his own ideas, and he replied in substance: 'No, that
+curtain was not hung my way, but Cummings' (the stage carpenter's) way. If
+you want to see a curtain hung my way you should see the curtain in a
+theater I worked on in Michigan last fall.'
+
+"My father did not specify what point about the hanging of the curtain he
+did not approve, and I do not know what feature of the work he was not
+satisfied with.
+
+"I asked my father if the curtain was hung on Manila ropes, and he said
+that it was not, but that it was hung on wire cables. I know that to be a
+fact, for I saw the cables myself.
+
+"I do not desire to shield any negligent person, but Stage Carpenter
+Cummings was not responsible for the lowering of the curtain only in so
+far as he was responsible for having some one there to lower it.
+
+"I was on the stage when the fire broke out, having gone to the theater to
+see Archie Bernard, the chief electrician. The statement has been made
+that the lights were not thrown on in the auditorium after the fire was
+discovered. Just before the fire broke out Bernard was stooping down
+preparing to change the lights, and he had just said to me: 'I will show
+you how I change my lights.'
+
+"When the fire was discovered I saw him reach down to throw a switch.
+Whether he threw the switch that lights the auditorium I do not know, but
+I do know that the fire from the draperies fell all around the switchboard
+and burned out the fuses. Consequently if the lights had been turned on
+the fact that the fuses were burned out would cause them to go out.
+
+"The first I knew of the fire was when I heard some one behind and above
+me clapping his hands. I looked up and saw McMullen trying to put out the
+blaze with his hands. If he could have reached far enough he would have
+extinguished the fire. He did the best he could.
+
+"I carried four women out of the theater and burned my hands. I stayed on
+the stage as long as it was possible for me to do so."
+
+
+KEEPSAKES OF THE DEAD.
+
+Many Chicago people spent a part of the Sabbath following the fire in the
+dingy little storeroom at 58 Dearborn street, where the effects and the
+valuables of the Iroquois theater victims are kept.
+
+The storeroom was crowded all day. The line formed at Randolph street and
+pushed its way to the north. A mother stepped to one of the show cases.
+She had lost a boy and she had come to find his effects. She was looking
+through the glass when she called one of the policemen to her side.
+
+"That's it. That's my little boy's," and she pointed at a prayer book.
+
+The policeman took it from the case.
+
+"Yes, that's it," she murmured.
+
+From the street came the tolling of the half hour.
+
+"Just a week ago he started for Sunday school with it. It was a Christmas
+present and he took it to church for the first time."
+
+A young man, well dressed and prosperous looking, came in and walked along
+the wall, gazing at the dresses and the furs. Suddenly he seized a fur boa
+and kissed it.
+
+"It was her's," he cried. "May I take it with me?"
+
+The officer told him to visit the coroner and get a certificate.
+
+Two young men entered the place and began making flippant remarks. The
+officers overheard their conversation and escorted them to the threshold
+of the door. Two heavy boots assisted in making their exit into the street
+a rapid one.
+
+
+THE SCENE AT THOMPSON'S RESTAURANT.
+
+John R. Thompson's restaurant at 3 o'clock in the afternoon of the fatal
+day was an eating-house, decked here and there with late lunchers; at 3:20
+it was a hospital, with the dead and dying stretched on the marble eating
+tables; at 4 o'clock it was a morgue, heaped with the dead; at 7:30 it was
+again a restaurant, but with chairs turned on top of the tables that had
+been the slabs of death, with the aisles cleared of the human debris, and
+the scrub woman at work mopping out the relics of human flesh, charred
+and as dust, and sweeping in pans the pieces of skulls that had lain about
+the mosaic floors, yet damp with the flowing length of woman's hair.
+
+The terror, the horror, the tragedies, the martyrdom, the piercing screams
+of the dying, the agonized groans, the excitement of the surging mob, the
+hurrying back and forth of the police with their burdens of death and life
+that only lasted a moment, the pushing of physicians, the casting of dead
+about on the floors like cord wood, one on top of the other, to make room
+on the marble slabs of tables for the oncoming living, the cries of
+children, the sobbing of persons recognizing their loved one dead, or
+worse than dead--this unutterable horror can never be imagined, and was
+never known before in Chicago, not excepting the horrors of the great
+fire, or the martyrdom of war.
+
+
+LIKE A FIELD OF BATTLE.
+
+The scene presented was most horrible. It was like a battlefield where the
+dead are being brought to the church or the residence that has at a
+moment's notice been turned into a hospital. In they came, the dead and
+the injured, at first at the rate of one every three minutes; then faster,
+several at a time, until the restaurant was heaped with maimed bodies
+lying on the tables or the floor, with surgeons bending over them, and on
+the cashier's counter, with the girl there sobbing with her face hidden in
+her hands, afraid to look at the ghastly spectacle.
+
+There were scores of physicians, three to each table, and they worked with
+vigor and earnestness and skill, but with the tears coursing down the
+cheeks of many a one. At first the bodies were carried into Thompson's,
+then they went across the street; many of them were put in ambulances and
+taken to the emergency room for women in Marshall Field's store, and
+still many others of the injured--those yet able to walk--were half
+dragged, half carried to the offices of physicians in the Masonic temple.
+
+
+WOMEN EAGER TO HELP.
+
+Women fought and shoved and pushed their way through the crowd to get to
+the door of the improvised hospital, that became a morgue only too
+rapidly.
+
+"I am a nurse. Let me help," said some.
+
+"I am a mother. My boy may be dead inside. For God's sake, let me save a
+life," said another, a woman in middle age.
+
+Others came in from the crowds, neither mothers nor nurses, women with the
+spirit of heroism who longed to serve humanity when humanity was at so low
+an ebb.
+
+"She's dead," was more often than not the verdict after much work. "Next!"
+and the cold and stiffened form of the victim was dragged, head first,
+from the marble eating table, thrown quickly under the tables, and another
+form, perhaps that of a tiny child, took its place.
+
+
+STEADY STREAM OF BODIES.
+
+So fast came the bodies for a time that there was one steady stream of
+persons carried in--the still living--while without the morgue stood the
+ambulances waiting for their burdens. The sidewalk, muddy and crowded, was
+strewn with the dead, lying on blankets or else thrown down in the mud,
+waiting to be taken to the various morgues of the city.
+
+There was a figure of a man--a large man with broad shoulders and dressed
+in black--whose entire face was burned away, only the back of the head
+remaining to show he had ever had a head; yet below the shoulders he was
+untouched by the fire.
+
+There lay women with their arms gone, or their legs, while one had one
+side burned off, with only the cross shoulder-bone remaining. She had worn
+a pink silk waist and black skirt; the fragments of the garments still
+clung to her like a shroud that had lain in the grave.
+
+There was a little boy, with a shock of red-brown hair, whose tiny mouth
+was open in terror and whose baby hands were burned off so that his tiny
+wrists showed like red stumps.
+
+
+CLOTHING TORN TO SHREDS.
+
+There was one young girl, her garments so torn from her splendid figure
+that her arms and white bosom rose uncovered from the tattered and
+torn--not burned--shreds of her clothing, and the shreds of a
+turquoise-blue silk petticoat draped her limbs. She had died from
+suffocation--fought and struggled and died. On her finger sparkled a
+diamond ring, and about her slender throat was a string of pearl beads.
+
+There was another body of a girl that several persons said they knew, yet
+no one could speak her name. She was beautiful in her terrible death, with
+a wealth of blonde hair, and staring blue eyes. She was dressed in a
+blue-black velvet shirt waist, with gold buttons, a mixed white and tan
+and gray walking skirt, with a pink silk petticoat beneath. She had died
+of suffocation, and, as she lay on the marble table dead, a tiny blue
+chatelaine watch, ticking merrily the hour, was pinned upon her breast.
+
+The crowding, the howling, the screaming in Thompson's was so highly
+pitched, that no one could hear the orders of the physicians. Bedlam
+reigned--no order, no leader, everyone doing what he could to help. At
+length came the loud voice of a man, and those who could hear, stopped
+and listened, while those at the front of the restaurant said: "Some man
+has gone crazy with grief."
+
+It was State Senator Clark, who, seeing the need of an order, jumped to a
+table and gave one.
+
+"Everyone get out," he cried, "and make room for the doctors. Let there be
+three doctors to a table and one nurse while they last."
+
+Skillfully, cleverly, worked the looters of the dead. Rings were torn from
+stiffened fingers, watches, bracelets, chains, purses taken from bosoms,
+then out in the surging crowd of excited humanity went the thieves, lost
+to recognition by those who saw them loot in the terribleness of the
+scene.
+
+
+PRAYERS FOR THE DYING.
+
+Through the mangled mass of humanity moved a priest with a crucifix in his
+white hands--Father McCarthy of Holy Name Cathedral, saying the prayers
+for the dying--not for the dead, but to give the last words of a hope
+beyond. Many persons died with the words of Father McCarthy sounding like
+music in their ears.
+
+"I was with the Army of the Potomac during the Civil War," said Dr. H. L.
+Montgomery as he worked over the dying. "I rescued 150 people during the
+great Chicago fire. I have seen the wreckage of explosions. But I never
+saw anything so grimly horrible as this."
+
+"Will Davis is in the theater now and acting like crazy," interrupted the
+voice of a boy. "Can't no one speak to him?"
+
+And out dashed all the employes of the burning theater to find Mr. Davis
+as he paced the destroyed gallery floor and looked at the ruin below and
+at the dead as they were hauled out of the debris.
+
+Little Ruth Thompson, the seven-year-old daughter of John R. Thompson, was
+in the fire and almost to the front exit when the mob hurled her back. The
+tiny child fought and was yet forced back. She climbed onto the stage,
+burning as it was, and worked her way to the rear door and out into the
+alley, then through into the scene of death and pain in her father's
+restaurant.
+
+"Papa, I got out. Where's grandpa?" she cried.
+
+There was one old man, with white beard and hair, who wept over the body
+of his aged wife. He was Patrick P. O'Donnell of the firm of O'Donnell &
+Duer.
+
+Death, pain, tragedy--and at 7:30 o'clock the place was a restaurant
+again.
+
+
+CHILD SAVED FROM DEATH IN FIRE BY BALLET GIRL.
+
+Left under the burning stage during the mad rush by the members of the
+"Mr. Bluebeard" company at the Iroquois theater fire a four-year-old girl,
+who appeared in the performance as one of the Japanese children, was
+heroically rescued by Elois Lillian, one of the ballet girls, who was the
+last to escape from the theater.
+
+"I was the last to escape from under the stage," said Miss Lillian, "and
+as I rushed headlong through the smoke I saw the little girl screaming
+with fright and almost suffocated. The rest had escaped, leaving the child
+behind. I took the little one under my arm in a death-like grip and
+succeeded in getting into the aisle behind the boxes; and ran through the
+smoking-room and out the front door. I don't know how I managed to hold on
+to the struggling child, or how I came to get out the front way.
+
+"I was dressed in tights, and as soon as I reached the street ran into
+Thompson's, and there soon had her revived. The mother, frantic with
+grief, came in, and when she saw her daughter and heard my story she fell
+upon her knees, thanking me for saving her little girl's life."
+
+
+PRIEST GIVES ABSOLUTION TO DYING FIRE VICTIMS.
+
+When the Rev. F. O'Brien of the Holy Name Cathedral learned of the fire
+and heard that so many were dying he rushed into the Northwestern Medical
+University, into which many victims had been taken, to administer the last
+sacraments to members of the Catholic Church. Finding he was unable to
+attend the great number being brought in, he announced that he would give
+a general absolution to all the Catholics among the victims.
+
+The scene of that last absolution beggars description. During the brief
+moment the priest, with uplifted hands, besought God to pardon all the
+frailties of his dying servants, the poor, mangled men and women seemed to
+realize that they were face to face with the inevitable. Though crazed
+with pain, they ceased to moan, and fastened their fast-dimming eyes on
+the priest.
+
+When the absolution was given many of the victims, horribly burned, with
+the flesh of their head and face blackened, and in most cases so burned as
+to expose the bones, put out their hands imploringly toward the priest,
+for one handclasp, one word of sympathy before they passed away.
+
+Even the stalwart policemen were affected by the touching spectacle.
+Another priest of the Holy Ghost order arrived shortly after, and both
+clergymen administered absolution, remaining until the injured were
+removed to various hospitals and the dead to the morgues.
+
+
+LITTLE BOY THANKS GOD FOR CHANGING HIS LUCK.
+
+Warren is the ten-year-old son of former Governor Joseph K. Toole of
+Montana, prominent for years in national politics. In the last four months
+the boy has been the victim of three accidents, each of which bore serious
+consequences for the little fellow.
+
+Thursday night, when he knelt down at his bedside in the Auditorium hotel
+to say the evening prayer which his mother had taught him, he mumbled:
+
+"I thank you, God, that you did not let me go to the theater Wednesday
+afternoon. You see, if you had not delayed my mamma when she went down
+town shopping that day, my little brother and I would have been in the
+fire. I thank you, God, for changing my luck."
+
+Warren's mamma and papa heard the prayer. Before he had reached the "Amen"
+both had silently bowed their heads.
+
+"Yes, Warren, your luck has changed," said the former Governor, as he bent
+over his son to say "Good night."
+
+Less than four months ago Warren was playing with a gun. The firearm
+exploded and the boy was seriously injured. He had not fully recovered
+when he fell from the top of a cart and broke his arm. Then, a few weeks
+ago, a dog upon whom he lavished much of his youthful affection suddenly
+sprang at him and bit him between the eyes. He was badly scarred, but his
+parents were thankful that he did not lose his sight.
+
+On Wednesday he importuned his nurse to take him to see "Mr. Bluebeard,
+Jr." The nurse referred him to his father, and the latter told him that
+he and his brother could go if his mother returned from her shopping trip
+in time to take them. The holiday crowds detained Mrs. Toole until quite
+late in the afternoon. Now little Warren is convinced that good fortune
+has at last deigned to smile upon him.
+
+
+USE PLACER MINER METHODS.
+
+Methods of the California placer miner were used by the Chicago police in
+recovering the valuables lost in the mad rush for safety by the Iroquois
+theater fire victims. Big wagon loads of dirt and ashes taken from the
+theater floor were taken down under police guard to a basement at Lake
+street and Fifth avenue. There a placer mining outfit, including sieves
+and gold pans, had been erected and City Custodian Dewitt C. Cregier thus
+searched for valuables in the rubbish.
+
+
+DAUGHTER OF A. H. REVELL ESCAPES.
+
+Margaret Revell, daughter of Alexander H. Revell, with her friend,
+Elizabeth Harris, accompanied by a maidservant, sat in the parquet of the
+theater, fortunately next to the aisle. At the first alarm they were swept
+to the door by the crowd, and were among those who got out early, escaping
+with only minor bruises. Mr. Revell was among the early searchers on the
+scene, and remained giving assistance after learning of the safety of his
+daughter.
+
+
+PHILADELPHIA PARTNER IN THEATER HORRIFIED.
+
+The news of the terrible Chicago calamity was a severe blow to S. A. Nixon
+of Philadelphia, part owner of the Iroquois theater. When the news was
+confirmed he broke down and wept bitterly.
+
+Fred G. Nixon, son of Mr. Nixon, said: "We were at the dinner table
+Wednesday evening when the telephone bell rang and I answered. A newspaper
+man told me that the Iroquois theater in Chicago had been destroyed and
+many persons killed. I could not believe it and I asked: 'Are you sure it
+was the Iroquois?' 'Positive,' came the answer. My father had paid no
+attention to what I said, but the word 'Iroquois' attracted him, and as I
+returned to my seat he asked: 'What was that you said about the Iroquois?'
+'Oh, nothing,' I replied, trying to be calm.
+
+"But my face betrayed me. The news had paled me, and my father, suspecting
+something was wrong, insisted, and I told him. He refused to believe it
+and went to the telephone to satisfy himself. In five minutes he heard the
+worst. Then he collapsed and sobbed like a child. For eight hours we sat
+up waiting for full particulars, and at 3 o'clock Thursday morning, when
+father went to bed, he was almost a nervous wreck."
+
+
+ALL KENOSHA IN MOURNING.
+
+Next to Chicago the blow of death at the Iroquois fell heavier on Kenosha,
+Wis., than any of the other cities whose residents perished in the
+disaster. Two of the leading manufacturers of the city, Willis W. Cooper
+and Charles H. Cooper, and the children of Mr. and Mrs. S. H. Van Ingen
+were among the dead.
+
+Kenosha was in deep mourning. Trade was practically suspended and the
+people gathered on the streets in little groups discussing the one topic.
+Four bodies were brought to the city on the evening train, and a crowd of
+over a thousand people gathered at the railway station, and walked in
+silence through the streets behind the hearses. All the bodies were taken
+to the morgue, from which place they will be removed to the stricken
+homes.
+
+
+FIVE OF ONE FAMILY DEAD.
+
+The story of the wiping out of the children of H. S. Van Ingen, the former
+manager of the Pennsylvania Coal Company in Chicago, and a resident of
+Kenosha, is one of the saddest stories of the tragedy. Following the
+custom established years ago, Mr. and Mrs. Van Ingen and their five
+children, Grace, twenty-three years old; Jack, twenty; Edward L.,
+nineteen; Margaret, fourteen; and Elizabeth, nine, had all come to Chicago
+for a matinee party. Schuyler, another son, the sole survivor of the
+children, was to join the family for a dinner and family reunion at the
+Wellington hotel after the matinee. The seven persons were seated in the
+front row of the balcony when the panic ensued, and Mr. Van Ingen,
+marshaling his little force, started for the exit at the aisle, but the
+mighty crush of people separated the parents from the children, and Mr.
+Van Ingen, putting his arm around Mrs. Van Ingen, carried her one way,
+while the children were swept the other.
+
+The last Mr. Van Ingen saw of the children was when Jack, the oldest boy,
+took his little sister, Elizabeth, in his arms and shouted to his father:
+"You save mother and I'll look after the rest." In another moment the
+party, including the children, was trampled down.
+
+Mr. and Mrs. Van Ingen started to return to the theater for the children
+and both of them were fearfully burned in the attempt. The bodies of the
+two boys were located in the evening. Margaret and Elizabeth were found
+the next day. Grace, the oldest daughter, and one of the best known young
+women of Kenosha, was identified still later. Mr. and Mrs. Van Ingen, both
+terribly burned, were taken to the Illinois Hospital.
+
+
+COOPER BROTHERS DEEPLY MOURNED.
+
+Willis Cooper was one of the best known men in Kenosha. He was the
+secretary of the great Twentieth Century movement in the Methodist
+Episcopal Church which resulted in $20,000,000 being raised for missions.
+He was last year the prohibition candidate for governor of Wisconsin, and
+was recently elected head of the lay delegation of the Wisconsin churches
+at the general conference of the Methodist Church. Mr. Cooper was a
+millionaire, and his gifts to church charities often exceeded $10,000 a
+year. In Kenosha he was the general manager of the Chicago Kenosha Hosiery
+Works, the largest stocking making plant in the world.
+
+Charles F. Cooper, his brother, was the factory manager and general
+salesman of the company. He was the president of the Kenosha
+Manufacturers' Association, of the Kenosha Hospital Association, and the
+Masonic Temple Association. He was the founder of profit-sharing in the
+Kenosha plant, and under his direction it became known as the plant "where
+the life of the worker is flooded with sunshine." He was most popular with
+the working classes in Kenosha, and when his body was taken to the morgue
+hundreds of men and women stood with uncovered heads while it passed.
+
+There occurred between the acts at the Century theater, St. Louis, on New
+Year's night, an unusual incident, when C. H. Congdon, of Chicago, arose
+from his seat and related incidents of the Iroquois theater tragedy.
+
+He had proceeded only for a few minutes when some one in the audience
+began singing "Nearer, My God, to Thee," which was immediately taken up by
+the whole audience, the orchestra joining in with the accompaniment.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XV.
+
+SOCIETY WOMEN AND GIRLS' CLUBS.
+
+
+Miss Charlotte Plamondon, daughter of the vice-president of the Chicago
+board of education, who waited until the fire had caught in the curtains
+over the front box, in which she sat, before attempting to get out,
+related her experience at the Chicago Beach Hotel:
+
+"I can't tell you how I escaped the awful fate of others," she said. "I
+only know that when the flames began to crackle over my head and dart down
+from the curtains of our box I leaped over the railing of the box and fell
+in the arms of some man. I think he was connected with the theater, for he
+immediately set me down in a seat and told me to be quiet for a moment.
+
+
+SCREAMS OF TERROR HEARD.
+
+"Then I think I lost all reason. I have a vague recollection of having
+been pushed up along the side aisle that runs by the boxes. It was as
+quiet as death for a moment. The great audience rose like a single person,
+but no sound escaped it until those in front were wedged in the doorway.
+Then a scream of terror went up that I shall never forget. It rings in my
+ears now. Women screamed and children cried. Men were shouting and rushing
+for the entrance, leaping over the prostrate forms of children and women
+and carrying others down with them.
+
+"Back of me, I remember, there was a sheet of flame that seemed to be
+gathering volume and reaching out for us. Then I forgot again, and not
+until the crowd surged toward the wall and caught me between it and the
+marble pillar did I realize what the danger was. The pain revived me. I
+know I was almost crushed to death, but it didn't hurt. Nothing could
+hurt, with the screaming, the agonizing cries of the women and children
+ringing in your ears.
+
+
+CHORUS GIRLS ESCAPE PARTLY CLAD.
+
+"And then, somehow, I found myself out on the street and the dead and
+dying were around me. When I realized that I was out of the place and safe
+from the fire and crush, all my strength seemed to leave me. But the cold
+air braced me after a moment and I went around to the drug store, where
+the dead were being brought in and the poor actresses and chorus girls
+were coming in with scarcely anything on them.
+
+"I never felt as I did when it dawned upon us that the theater was on
+fire. It seemed like a dream at first. The border curtain right near our
+box blew back, and I think it hit a light or something, for when it fell
+back into place I saw it was on fire.
+
+"The chorus girls kept right on singing for a couple of minutes, it
+seemed. Then one of the stage men rushed out and shouted: 'Keep your
+seats.'
+
+"Oh, the stage men behaved like heroes! As I think of it now, they
+conducted themselves with rare courage. I saw a couple of the girls fall
+down, and I knew that they were overcome."
+
+
+FOY TRIES TO PREVENT PANIC.
+
+"Just then Eddie Foy ran out on the stage, partly made up, and cried:
+
+"'My God, people, keep your seats!'
+
+"When Foy said this I regained my senses, and when the asbestos curtain
+did not come down I felt that the situation was critical. The flames had
+taken hold of the front row of seats behind the orchestra and were
+creeping up the curtains over our box, when I jumped to my feet and leaped
+over the railing.
+
+"I saw the children lying in heaps under our feet. Their little lives were
+ended, and rough feet were bruising their flesh; and such innocent
+children! Men leaped over the rows of prostrate forms and fought like they
+were mad, trying to get out of the entrance."
+
+
+ESCAPE OF ANOTHER SOCIETY WOMAN.
+
+Mrs. A. Sorge, Jr., whose husband is a consulting engineer, with offices
+in the Monadnock Building, and who lives at the Chicago Beach Hotel,
+attended the theater in company with Dr. Jager, who is a guest of Mr. and
+Mrs. Sorge. They occupied a seat well down in the parquet.
+
+"When the fire started," said Mrs. Sorge, "persons on the stage told us to
+keep our seats. Dr. Jager also told me to sit still, and we did until the
+flames began to come near us. Then we clasped hands and started for the
+door.
+
+"I was not half so much afraid of the fire as I was of being crushed to
+death, and I tried in every way to keep out of the crush. Dr. Jager got
+separated from me by catching his foot in an upturned chair, but he soon
+found me. We later managed to get out on the street without suffering any
+injuries of a serious nature.
+
+"The saddest thing I saw inside the burning building was a little girl
+looking for her baby sister. The two had got separated in the rush for the
+entrance, and it is quite likely that both were killed in that crush, for
+it was something awful."
+
+
+MINNEAPOLIS WOMAN'S STORY OF THE FIRE.
+
+Mrs. Baldwin, wife of Dr. F. R. Baldwin of Minneapolis, immediately after
+her return from the scene of the awful Chicago catastrophe, through which
+she had passed, overwhelmed with the horror of the sights and sounds she
+had seen and heard, gave the following account:
+
+"It was too unutterably shocking for one to realize at the time. The
+horror of the thing has grown upon me ever since. It fills my mind and
+imagination, so I can hardly think of anything else. I cannot help feeling
+almost ashamed to be here, safe and unharmed, while whole families were
+burned and crushed to death in that awful place. I cannot say how glad I
+am to be home and see my babies safe, when so many mothers are crying
+aloud in Chicago for their children to come back to them.
+
+"At first nobody seemed to realize the awful danger. No water was used to
+put out the flames on the stage. It was only flimsy, gauzy scenery at
+first that was burning, and the people on the stage tried to tear it down
+and stamp it out as it fell. I heard no screams, and the people for many
+moments kept their seats. I did not hear the cry of 'fire.'
+
+"But all at once a great ball of fire or sheet of flame--I don't know how
+to express it--shot out and the whole theater above us seemed to be full
+of fire. Then there was a smothered sound as of a sighing by all in the
+theater.
+
+"By that time I began to realize that it was time to see what could be
+done about getting out. It so happened that I could not have chosen a
+better place from which to get out of the building. We were on the alley
+side, opposite the Randolph street side of the building, and only two
+seats from the wall.
+
+"I did not know that there was an entrance here, but all at once the doors
+seemed to be opened close to us. We had but to take two or three steps and
+then were thrown forward out of the doors by the crowd behind us. My
+mother, who was with me, was unhurt, and I had but a few bruises.
+
+"One of the first things I saw as I got up was a girl lying on one of the
+fire escape platforms with the flames shooting over her through the
+window. One man, who jumped from the platform, had not taken two steps
+before a woman who jumped a moment later from a height of about forty feet
+came right down upon him, killing him upon the spot.
+
+"The sights all about the city have been many times described, but nothing
+can picture those terrible scenes. In a flat just below my mother's five
+out of a family of six perished, leaving but one demented girl.
+
+"Of another family living near us, only the husband and father was left,
+his wife and four boys and his mother all having been killed in the fire.
+As I passed near the theater the next day I saw a man walking up and down
+in front of the building muttering to himself, and every now and then he
+would sit upon the curb and look up at the building, breaking out into
+peals of laughter. He had been through the fire."
+
+
+GIRLS' CLUBS SORELY STRICKEN.
+
+Mrs. Walter Raymer, wife of the alderman, attended the Iroquois in charge
+of the "F. P. C.," a club of young girls, of which her daughter was
+treasurer. Of the eight members only two escaped uninjured. Miss Mabel
+Hunter, the president, was killed; Miss Edna Hunter was taken to her
+residence, 85 Humboldt boulevard, severely injured; Miss Lillian Ackerman
+was borne to the Samaritan Hospital, burned about the head and body.
+
+Edna Hoveland was badly injured, and her little sister, who accompanied
+her, was burned to death. May Marks is dead. Viva Jackson, missing all
+Wednesday night, was found in the morning at an undertaker's rooms. The
+two who escaped injury were Miss Abigail Raymer, daughter of the alderman,
+and Miss Florence Nicholson.
+
+The eight girls, all between sixteen and eighteen years old, had organized
+their little club a few weeks ago for the purpose of literary study and
+recreation, and the theater party was arranged by Mrs. Raymer as a
+surprise for the members.
+
+The Theta Pi Zeta club of the junior class of the Englewood High School,
+with the exception of two members, was wiped out of existence. The club
+was composed of eight young women living in Englewood and Normal Park.
+Seven had purchased seats in the sixth row of the dress circle. What they
+encountered after the panic started no one knows, for of the seven only
+one, Miss Josephine Spencer, 7110 Princeton avenue, was saved and she was
+taken to the West Side Hospital terribly burned. The only member who
+entirely escaped was Miss Edith Mizen of 6917 Eggleston avenue, daughter
+of Mr. and Mrs. George K. Mizen. Her parents objected to her attending a
+theatrical performance.
+
+Those who perished are Helen Howard, 6565 Yale avenue; Helen McCaughan,
+6565 Yale avenue; Elvira Olson, 7010 Stewart avenue; Florence Oxnam, 435
+Englewood avenue; Lillie Power, 442 West Seventieth street; and Rosamond
+Schmidt, 335 West Sixty-first street.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XVI.
+
+EDDIE FOY'S SWORN TESTIMONY.
+
+
+Eddie Foy, whose real name is Edwin Fitzgerald, has faced many audiences
+under all conditions and circumstances during his stage career of a
+quarter of a century, during which he rose from a street urchin to the
+distinction of one of America's most entertaining and unctuous comedians.
+Never before had such interest centered in his appearance as when on
+Thursday afternoon, January 7, 1904, he took the witness stand to relate
+under oath what he knew concerning the calamity of the preceding week.
+
+The actor's face was a study. His deep-lined countenance, ordinarily
+irresistibly funny without effort on his part, took on a truly tragic
+aspect as he entered upon his story. His indescribable, husky voice that
+has made hundreds of thousands laugh with merriment, was broken; there was
+no suggestion of humor in it. Instead it was a wail from the tomb, the
+utterance of a man broken with the weight of the woe he had beheld in a
+few brief, fleeting moments.
+
+The questions were propounded by Coroner Traeger and Major Lawrence
+Buckley, his chief deputy, and were promptly and fully answered by the
+comedian.
+
+The full text, as secured through a stenographic report, follows:
+
+Q. Will you kindly tell us, Mr. Foy, or Fitzgerald, in your own way, what
+transpired?
+
+A. Well, I went to the matinee with my little boy, six years old, and I
+wanted to put him in the front of the theater to see the show. I sent him
+out before the first act by the stage manager, and he took him out and
+brought him back and said there were no seats. I sent him downstairs and
+put him in a little alcove that is next to the switchboard, underneath
+where they claim the fire started, and where I saw the fire first.
+
+Q. That is on what side of the stage?
+
+A. On my right facing the audience. On the south side of the stage. The
+second act was on. I was in my dressing-room tying my shoes, and I heard a
+noise, and I didn't pay much attention to it at first. I says to myself,
+"Are they fighting again down there"--there was a fight there about a week
+or two ago; and I says, "They are fighting again." I looked out of the
+door and heard the buzz getting stronger and stronger, with this
+excitement, and I thought of my boy and I ran down the steps. I was in the
+middle dressing-room on the side, and I ran down screaming "Bryan." I got
+him at the first entrance right in front of the switchboard, and looked up
+and saw a fireman there. I don't know what he was doing; he was trying to
+put the fire out. Then the two lower borders running up the side of this
+canvas were burning. I grabbed my boy and rushed to the back door, and
+there was a lot of people trying to get out.
+
+
+DESCRIBES STAGE BOX.
+
+Q. What door?
+
+A. The little stage door on Dearborn street.
+
+Q. How did you find that door--was it open?
+
+A. No. I knew where the door was.
+
+Q. Was the door open when you got there?
+
+A. Yes; they were breaking through it.
+
+Q. Who?
+
+A. All of our people.
+
+Q. Employees on the stage?
+
+A. Not many of them. It was crowded there, and I threw my boy to a man. I
+says: "Take this boy out," and ran out on the footlights to the audience.
+When I did they were in a sort of panic, as I thought, and what I said
+exactly I don't remember, but this was the substance--my idea was to get
+the curtain down and quietly stop the stampede. I yelled, "Drop the
+curtain and keep up your music." I didn't want a stampede, because it was
+the biggest audience I ever played to of women and children. I told them
+to be quiet and take it easy "Don't get excited"--and they started up on
+this second balcony on my left to run, and I says, "Sit down; it is all
+right; don't get excited." And they were going that way, and I said to the
+policeman, "Let them out quietly," and they moved then, and I says, "Let
+down the curtain," and I looked up and this curtain was burning--the
+fringe on the edge of it.
+
+
+WOULD NOT COME DOWN.
+
+Q. It was caught, was it?
+
+A. It did not come down.
+
+Q. How near to the bottom of the stage was it?
+
+A. Three feet above my head. I would have been outside if the curtain had
+come down.
+
+Q. It was lowered down after you hallooed?
+
+A. I hallooed for it to come down.
+
+Q. And it came down that far and then caught?
+
+A. I did not see it come down, but it was there when I looked up.
+
+Q. When you looked up it was caught, was it?
+
+A. Yes, sir, it must have been caught--it didn't come down. Then when I
+was hallooing, I kept hallooing for the curtain to come down--how many
+times I don't know--and talked to this man to let them out quietly, there
+was a sort of a cyclone; the thing was flying behind me; I felt it coming.
+
+Q. What do you mean by a cyclone--cyclone of what?
+
+A. It was a whirl of smoke when I looked around--the scenery had broken
+the slats it was nailed to; it came down behind me, and I didn't know
+whether to go in front or behind. The stage was covered with smoke, and it
+was a cold draft, and there was an explosion of some kind like you light a
+match and the box goes off. I didn't know whether to go front or not, so I
+thought of my boy--maybe the man did not take him out--so I rushed out the
+first thing and went back of the stage.
+
+Q. You went out yourself, then?
+
+A. Yes, sir, and I was looking for my boy all the way in. I wasn't sure he
+was out. I found him in the street.
+
+Q. Do you know what started the fire, Mr. Fitzgerald?
+
+A. No, sir.
+
+
+LIGHT NEAR THE FIRE.
+
+Q. Was there any light of any kind near where you first saw the fire?
+
+A. Yes, sir.
+
+Q. What kind of a light?
+
+A. A lens light--one that you throw spot light on people with.
+
+Q. How close was that to the drop that was on fire?
+
+A. That I could not tell--there were three or four drops on fire when I
+got there for the boy.
+
+Q. They were all close together?
+
+A. Yes.
+
+Q. Too high up for anybody to reach?
+
+A. Impossible.
+
+Q. Were there any other fires of any kind, fires or lights, near those
+drops or the fire, besides this drop light?
+
+A. That was the only one I saw.
+
+Q. Then there would not be anything else able to ignite those drops, only
+this light?
+
+A. I should think so, yes.
+
+Q. You are satisfied in your own mind that it was caused from that light.
+
+A. That it was caused from that light.
+
+Q. You have been playing there in the theater since "Mr. Bluebeard, Jr.,"
+started, or since the theater opened, haven't you?
+
+A. Yes, sir.
+
+Q. Do you know of any drill or any precautions that were taken by the
+management or parties in charge of the theater in emergency cases in the
+case of fire--that is, drilling or handling the employees as to what they
+should do in case of fire?
+
+A. No. I know I couldn't smoke in the theater; the policeman was around
+there all the time in the dressing-rooms.
+
+
+SAW NO EXTINGUISHERS.
+
+Q. Did you notice any fire extinguishers of any kind on the stage?
+
+A. No, sir, I did not.
+
+Q. Any appliances of any kind to be used in case of fire?
+
+A. No. I don't think I did; there might have been.
+
+Q. Did you notice any fire extinguishers in your dressing-room?
+
+A. No, sir.
+
+Q. Did you ever notice while in the theater whether there was any
+policeman or fireman stationed on the stage or around the stage?
+
+A. Yes, sir, there was a fireman there always on the stage.
+
+Q. Did you ever hear while in the theater of an asbestos curtain there?
+
+A. I cannot say that I did.
+
+Q. Did you ever hear of a fireproof curtain there?
+
+A. Yes, sir.
+
+Q. Did it take long for this curtain that you say was down and stuck to
+burn?
+
+A. I couldn't stay there long enough to see if it was burning--it was on
+fire.
+
+Q. You have had a good deal of experience in theaters?
+
+A. Thirty-five years.
+
+Q. Would you consider that there was as good a protection taken at the
+Iroquois theater as there was in the average theater throughout the
+country in cases of fire?
+
+A. You mean in the construction of the theater?
+
+Q. Not the construction, but I would say in the management, and in the
+furnishing of fire extinguishers and appliances to extinguish fires.
+
+A. Well, I never took notice of the fire extinguisher. If a man would look
+at that stage he would naturally think they couldn't possibly have a fire
+without everybody getting out in front of the theater.
+
+Q. I didn't ask you that. My question was, in your experience in traveling
+through the theaters in different cities, would you consider there was as
+good protection taken on the Iroquois stage to extinguish fire, as there
+was in the average theater throughout the country?
+
+A. Well, I couldn't say; I never took notice of what was on the stage to
+extinguish fires.
+
+Q. Did you at any other theater?
+
+A. Well, I have seen fire extinguishers around at times.
+
+
+TALKS OF APPARATUS.
+
+Q. In theaters where you have noticed these fire extinguishers, what part
+of the theater did you see them in?
+
+A. Well, they were fire extinguishers like a man would put on his back,
+with a strap to it.
+
+Q. Where were they?
+
+A. On the platform in the theater.
+
+Q. Did you notice anything of that kind at the Iroquois theater?
+
+A. No, sir, I did not; I cannot say that I did.
+
+Q. Now, if you did not see those appliances, you did not see them when you
+went in the stage entrance?
+
+A. No, sir.
+
+Q. You say you saw them in other stage entrances?
+
+A. Yes, sir.
+
+Q. You didn't see them at the Iroquois theater?
+
+A. No, sir, not any time I was there.
+
+Q. Did you see any hose of any kind that could be used in cases of fire?
+
+A. I don't know whether there was any; I didn't see any.
+
+Q. Did you know of any other fire that occurred in the theater previous to
+this one?
+
+A. No, sir.
+
+Q. You have been with the company for how long?
+
+A. I played right along with it in Wisconsin and New York last season, and
+opened in Pittsburg with it and have been with it ever since.
+
+Q. Did you play at Cleveland?
+
+A. Yes, sir.
+
+Q. What was the date of the fire in Cleveland?
+
+A. I don't know the date; there was a fire on the stage.
+
+Q. Was the cause the same as at this fire?
+
+A. No; the flies caught fire at this fire. This was on the stage. They
+could not get at this fire.
+
+Q. What caused it?
+
+A. That I don't know, sir.
+
+Q. Did you consider it a dangerous lot of scenery to travel with, lights
+and scenery combined?
+
+A. I don't know; I consider all scenery dangerous.
+
+Q. Did you consider this dangerous?
+
+A. No, sir.
+
+
+ONLY ONE EXIT OPEN.
+
+Q. Were both of the exits on the stage open?
+
+A. Only one door, a little door that we go through always was open when I
+went out.
+
+Question by Foreman Meyer of the Jury: Mr. Foy, when you came out to the
+footlights to try to quiet the people and you cried for the curtain to
+come down, did you see the curtain come down?
+
+A. I did not see the curtain come down. I screamed for the curtain to come
+down, and I told the orchestra to keep up the music, and then I addressed
+the audience, thinking I would get the curtain down. I would have been in
+front of the curtain if it came down.
+
+Q. You said at the same time you looked around?
+
+A. I looked around, yes, sir.
+
+Q. What was the color of the curtain as you looked at it?
+
+A. I couldn't tell the color. It was right over my head.
+
+Q. Could you tell from any observation at any time before that?
+
+A. No, sir.
+
+Question by Juror Cummings: When you counseled the audience to keep quiet
+were you working on the assumption that there was a fire brigade on the
+stage?
+
+A. Well, my idea was to get the curtain down and stop the panic. The
+audience was composed of women and children.
+
+Question by Deputy Buckley: From the time that you first heard the noise,
+when you were in the dressing-room until you got out, about what time
+elapsed?
+
+A. Well, I have been trying to figure that out in my own mind. I don't
+think it was ninety seconds.
+
+
+WIRE ACROSS AUDITORIUM.
+
+Q. Do you know, Mr. Foy, whether there was a wire extending from the stage
+across the auditorium to any of the balconies or any part of the theater
+or auditorium outside?
+
+A. Yes, sir.
+
+Q. Where was that wire located?
+
+A. The wire hung from the center of the auditorium to the side of the
+stage, to where the fire, they say, started, on my right-hand side facing
+the audience.
+
+Q. Was that the side of the stage where the curtain was caught?
+
+A. I could not say. I have been trying to fix that in my mind.
+
+Q. You cannot say whether it was hung on the wire on the right or left
+hand side?
+
+A. No, sir. I should not think that it had anything to do with it.
+
+Q. Was that stationary?
+
+A. It hung from the front, and it was unhooked and put on the woman when
+she went out in the air.
+
+Q. Did any part of it go behind the curtain?
+
+A. Yes, it went behind the curtain, but that could not have possibly
+stopped it, because it would have broken it. I don't think the curtain was
+low enough down to touch it, because the girl is only a little girl, Miss
+Reed, and they had to hook it on her.
+
+Q. About how high up was the wire?
+
+A. Well, so that a man like the stage manager would take it off and the
+man that was assisting in this flying ballet would hook it on this little
+girl that flew out.
+
+Q. She was killed?
+
+A. She was killed.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XVII.
+
+EFFECT OF THE FIRE NEAR AND FAR.
+
+
+Many of the members of the "Mr. Bluebeard, Jr.," company were arrested and
+retained as witnesses in the trial, on a charge of manslaughter, of
+Messrs. Davis and Powers, Building Commissioner Williams and the stage
+manager, electricians and carpenters especially concerned in the
+manipulation of the lights and curtains. On the Saturday night succeeding
+the fire Mayor Harrison closed all the theaters in the city, numbering
+thirty-seven, for a period of two weeks, or until a thorough investigation
+could be made as to whether they were complying with the city ordinances
+in every detail.
+
+People with seat checks were turned away from the doors of the theaters.
+Even the fireproof Auditorium was not permitted to remain open, and
+Theodore Thomas and his musicians returned to their homes without playing.
+
+Theatrical people in the dressing-rooms of the theaters took off their
+makeup and left. Ushers turned out the lights and the managers locked the
+doors. It was a condition without precedent in any large city of this or
+any other country--every public place of theatrical amusement closed by
+command, as the result of a great disaster.
+
+And not only did the terrible calamity close every theater in Chicago, but
+it sent the city authorities, fire inspectors, aldermen and all, scurrying
+through the city, examining the big department stores and their means of
+escape for their thousands of employees. The alarm and inspection also
+extended to the public schools of the city. Nor was the awful upheaval
+felt with startling force only at home, but like an earthquake its
+vibrations reached distant cities and countries. The monarchs of Europe,
+with the great public men of America, sent words of sympathy over the
+throbbing wires, those which came from Emperor William being:
+
+"NEUES PALAIS, Dec. 31.--To the President of the United States: Aghast at
+the terrible news of the catastrophe that has befallen the citizens of
+Chicago the empress and myself wish to convey to you how deeply we feel
+for the American people who have been so cruelly visited in this week of
+joy. Please convey expression of our sincerest sympathy to the city of
+Chicago. Many thanks for your kind letter. In coming years may Providence
+shield you and America from harm and such accidents.
+
+  "WILHELM I. R."
+
+Within a few days there was abundant evidence that profound sympathy had
+given place, in all the large cities of the world, to practical endeavors
+to avert like calamities.
+
+
+NEW YORK THEATERS AND SCHOOLS.
+
+As his first official act, Nicholas J. Hayes, who on New Year's became
+fire commissioner of New York, ordered an investigation of all the
+theaters of that city. He declared that he intended to ascertain whether
+the New York playhouses were so constructed and equipped as to safeguard
+human life in case of fire or panic.
+
+"The protection of human life is the first and most important duty of the
+fire commissioner," said Mr. Hayes. "In this work no one shall hinder me
+from doing my full duty."
+
+In each battalion district where a theater was located the new fire
+commissioner designated a competent assistant foreman as theater inspector
+and provided for weekly inspection of theaters. These inspectors were
+under the supervision of a general theater inspector. One of the tests at
+once applied by Commissioner Hayes was to have the inspector pour gasoline
+on the asbestos curtain and then apply fire. Several houses were at once
+closed, as the curtains failed to stand the test.
+
+City Superintendent of Schools Maxwell, of New York, also issued special
+fire instructions to the district superintendents and principals of
+schools, whom he directed to perfect fire drills and the rapid dismissal
+of school children under their care.
+
+
+CRUSADE IN PITTSBURG.
+
+The Pittsburg department of public safety immediately began a crusade
+against the violation of the ordinances regarding theater construction and
+equipment. Managers were compelled to arrange their fire escapes, curtains
+and apparatus so that everything worked with facility. At the Nixon
+theater, at the close of a performance, the people were rapidly dismissed
+after a fire alarm, and ushered out into the alley exits and down fire
+escapes in two and one-half minutes. Other theaters were put through
+similar drills.
+
+
+WASHINGTON THEATER OWNERS ARRESTED.
+
+Warrants were issued for the arrest of the proprietors of three of the
+seven Washington theaters. Failure to comply with building regulations in
+making improvements resulted in the withholding of the license of one
+theater. The two other proprietors were arrested for failure to provide
+proper exit lights, fire escapes and stage stairways.
+
+
+MASSACHUSETTS THEATERS INVESTIGATED.
+
+As a result of the fire Chief Rufus R. Wade, of the Massachusetts state
+police, at once issued orders for his inspectors to make immediate and
+thorough inspection of every theater in the commonwealth outside of
+Boston. The statutes give no jurisdiction over Boston, but his orders
+meant that more than 100 theaters under his supervision would receive
+immediate attention.
+
+The Chicago theater horror caused such a decreased attendance at Boston
+theaters as to mean comparatively empty houses for some time afterward.
+Huge areas of vacant seats were to be observed and the crowds at theater
+exits at 10:45 were prominent for their absence.
+
+
+ACTION IN MILWAUKEE.
+
+Spurred to action by the theater horror in Chicago, the city officials of
+Milwaukee, Wis., closed four theaters. The orders to darken the houses
+followed an investigation by the chief of the fire department. In the
+Academy and the Bijou, popular-priced houses, and in the two vaudeville
+houses, the Star and the Crystal, the chief found the "fire" curtains were
+made of thin canvas.
+
+
+PRECAUTIONS AT ST. LOUIS.
+
+In St. Louis the commissioner of public buildings and the chief of the
+fire department served notice on theater managers that the provisions of
+the city ordinances designed to prevent fire and panic must be rigidly
+carried out. A new ordinance revising the building laws was at once laid
+before the city council. One of its new features insists on a metal
+skylight or fire vent over the stage. This vent must be so constructed as
+to open instantly and automatically. Fire Chief Swingle sent notice to the
+managers that all aisles must be kept cleared.
+
+
+ORDERS AFFECTING OMAHA THEATERS.
+
+Building Inspector Withnell ordered several radical changes in theaters
+and large department stores as a result of the fire. All the theaters were
+required to increase their exit facilities, and one theater was ordered to
+put in additional aisles and remove 150 rear seats in the parquet circle
+and balconies, which would interfere with a free exit in case of panic.
+Asbestos curtains were ordered into use at all the theaters.
+
+
+EFFECT ABROAD.
+
+The news of the awful calamity shocked the great cities of Europe beyond
+expression, and its discussion excluded even such large agitating
+questions as the Eastern--possible war between Japan and Russia, which
+might involve the entire Old World. The so-called American colonies of
+London, Paris and Berlin were especially shocked, many members of whom
+sought for news of friends and relatives who might be among the list of
+dead or injured. As the complete list could not be cabled for several days
+thereafter their suspense was, in many cases, unbearable, and scores took
+the first steamers for America.
+
+
+HORROR FELT IN LONDON.
+
+Upon the receipt of the first news all local and foreign topics of
+interest were forgotten in London in the universal horror over the
+tragedy. The extra editions of the newspapers giving the latest details
+were eagerly bought up and newspaper placards bore in flaring type the
+announcement of further news from Chicago. The flags over the American
+steamship offices were half-masted.
+
+The accounts of the deadly panic were read by the English people with
+peculiar sympathy and horror, for the pantomime season was at its height
+and the London theaters were daily packed with women and children.
+
+Yet certainly the first night after the news was generally known, which
+was Thursday, no appreciable effect was felt on the attendance of most of
+the London theaters. The usual number were waiting in line at the Drury
+Lane box office early in the evening. The vaudeville had "house full"
+boards prominently displayed. Still another playhouse in the Strand showed
+only a slight falling off in attendance, but when the actual list of dead,
+injured and missing was received by cable and posted in the newspaper
+offices, hotels and other public places, there was a very marked decrease
+in the number of theater goers. Later still came the detailed information
+called for by the fire committee of the London county council, which
+indicated that the Chicago theater offered better chances of escape than a
+number of houses in the very heart of London. This was the first step
+toward a thorough overhauling of the theaters of the world's metropolis.
+
+
+LONDON THEATER PRECAUTIONS.
+
+With the story of the horror upon the pale lips of all, there was at the
+same time, in the minds of many of the theater goers of London, a feeling
+that the regulations of the lord chamberlain and the London county council
+reduced to a minimum the possibility of the occurrence of a similar
+tragedy in their midst. Nevertheless theatrical men of experience agree
+that, after all, the most elaborate precautions may be taken, and when the
+crucial moment arrives they may prove of not the slightest value.
+
+
+PRESENT RULES FOR LONDON THEATERS.
+
+On the programme of every theater in London is printed the following
+extract from rules made by the lord chamberlain:
+
+"The name of the actual responsible manager of the theater must be printed
+on every playbill. The public can leave the theater at the end of the
+performance by all exit entrance doors, which must open outward.
+
+"Where there is a fireproof screen to the proscenium opening it must be
+lowered at least once during every performance, to insure it being in
+proper working order.
+
+"All gangways, passages and staircases must be kept free from chairs or
+any other obstructions."
+
+To guard against the possibility of a person in a moment of fright jumping
+from a balcony, the London county council insists on a brass railing being
+fixed on the tier in front of the upper circle.
+
+
+CURTAIN OFTEN TESTED.
+
+His Majesty's Theater is one of the largest and best equipped theaters in
+London. The precautions taken there may be mentioned as representative of
+what many London theater managers do to protect their patrons. A big iron
+asbestos curtain is worked by a lever in the "prop" corner on the
+prompter's side. The curtain is lowered just after the audience has been
+seated, before the play begins, not only to test it, but to give the
+audience confidence. Thursday night following the Iroquois fire Beerbohm
+Tree, the proprietor, ordered the curtain to be lowered twice, the second
+time after the first act, and this will be done in the future.
+
+
+CLOSE WATCH FOR FIRE.
+
+Two firemen belonging to the fire department, but paid by the theater,
+come on duty at 7 o'clock. Every light or naked torch carried on the stage
+it is their duty to watch. It is the custom here, as at all theaters, to
+keep blankets dripping wet hanging at certain points all round the stage.
+Cutting-away apparatus and buckets are kept in the flies.
+
+"I have never heard of a great theater fire," said Mr. Dana, acting
+manager, "where trouble has been caused by flames in the front of the
+house. The exits in London theaters must be direct to the streets, not
+false exits, as I am afraid is too often the case in America.
+Nevertheless, when all is done, the fact remains that no one has ever
+invented a patent for stopping a panic."
+
+
+TREE TELLS OF RUSE.
+
+"It is certainly the most terrible tragedy I ever heard of," said Mr.
+Tree, the proprietor. "It is quite easy at times to prevent a panic from
+the stage by a little presence of mind. I was playing once in Belfast when
+suddenly behind a transparency I saw a reddish blaze and guessed it was a
+fire, but went quietly on until a convenient pause. Then I announced to
+the audience that something was out of order and the curtain would descend
+quietly and remain down a few minutes. I assured them there was absolutely
+no danger. The curtain descended amid applause, and while the band played
+the fire was quickly smothered. The curtain rose and the play went on
+without a soul leaving the house.
+
+"It is quite possible at such a time for a person to hypnotize an
+audience. In all cases of theater disasters it has been the panic, not the
+fire, that has caused the big loss of life.
+
+"It is probable if the audience had known where the exits were the
+Iroquois theater might have been cleared in two minutes. I think that
+every night uniformed attendants should be stationed in all theaters,
+whose duty it should be to call out 'This way out' when the audience is
+leaving. I am surprised there appeared to be no outside balconies with
+stairways, as is the case in most American theaters, which is an
+advantage which we have not got here."
+
+
+FORTUNE FOR SAFETY.
+
+Sidney Smith, business manager of the Drury Lane theater, where "Mr.
+Bluebeard, Jr.," was produced two years ago, said: "The kernel of the
+whole matter is that human beings will be human beings. There is no
+possible provision against a panic. Our theater is the only isolated one
+in London."
+
+
+W. C. ZIMMERMAN ON EUROPEAN THEATERS.
+
+W. Carbys Zimmerman, of Chicago, the well-known architect, sailed for
+America on the Saturday succeeding the fire, with his wife, in a state of
+intense anxiety as to whether his children had been caught in the Iroquois
+disaster.
+
+Mr. Zimmerman had just completed a tour of inspection of the theaters of
+Vienna, Paris and London. "My work in London," he said, "was interfered
+with by the appalling news from Chicago. I had seen only a few theaters
+here when I heard of the Iroquois fire. After that I had no heart to make
+further investigation. My observation leads me to think the Vienna
+theaters the safest in Europe. Many of them are quite detached from other
+buildings. They are splendidly furnished with exits and fire-fighting
+appliances. The theaters of Paris, except the best ones, are extremely
+dangerous.
+
+"From what I saw in London I judge that fire in many theaters would result
+in great loss of life. The passages are often so narrow that two people
+can scarcely pass. The managers naturally put a rosy face on the matter.
+They pretend that the Chicago fire has not reduced their bookings, but
+intelligent observers know better. Immense improvements are certain to be
+effected in London theaters in the immediate future.
+
+"Every theater should be isolated from other structures. It should have
+exits all round and these should be used regularly. There should be no
+emergency exits whatever. The fireproof curtain should be used constantly
+in place of the ordinary drop curtain. All passages should be straight and
+wide and all scenery noncombustible. Lastly, professional fire fighters
+should be properly posted throughout the performance. Europe recognizes
+that amateur firemen are useless in a crisis."
+
+
+THE EFFECT ON GAY PARIS.
+
+Thousands of Parisians, both French and Americans, including all those who
+had friends and relatives in Chicago, eagerly scanned the list of the dead
+and injured in the Iroquois disaster, as it was posted at the newspaper
+offices and distributed throughout the hotels and public places in the
+city. This step greatly relieved the anxiety of many of the American
+colony, while at the same time it confirmed the fears of those whose
+friends or acquaintances were caught in the fire.
+
+The theater managers complained at once that the Chicago catastrophe had a
+most damaging effect on receipts. All the popular matinees were
+comparatively deserted and the children's New Year pantomimes were
+complete failures. Cool heads pointed out that the Parisian theaters, as a
+rule, are better equipped against fire than those of Chicago, but without
+effect. The lesson of terror had seized the public.
+
+
+UPHEAVAL OF BERLIN THEATER WORLD.
+
+The Berlin evening papers of the fateful day expressed horror and sympathy
+over the Chicago catastrophe, comparing the details with those of the
+Vienna and Paris theater fires. The fire department of the city announced
+that it would immediately make a fresh study of the protective
+arrangements of the local theaters, so as to prevent, if possible, a
+disaster similar to the one at Chicago.
+
+Directors of all the Berlin theaters were promptly summoned to police
+headquarters and apprised of the kaiser's demand that fire protection be
+made more adequate. The directors of many houses came before their
+audiences and publicly stated their intention to install the new
+facilities ordered by the kaiser. These precautions included the lowering
+of the iron curtain five minutes before each performance and during the
+intermissions; an increase in the number of firemen on and off the stage,
+and illuminated exit signs, incapable of extinguishment by smoke or flame.
+Before each performance the firemen were also to make minute inspection of
+the building and furnish a formal report that all was right before the
+curtain was raised.
+
+The greatest bomb, however, cast into the theater world of Berlin was
+Emperor Wilhelm's order summarily closing the Royal Opera House until
+certain alterations, necessary for protection from fire and possible
+panic, were made. The kaiser's action attracted the attention of the whole
+community, which concluded that if the largest and best-equipped playhouse
+in Prussia was unsafe many minor establishments must be positively
+dangerous. Berlin, without doubt, contained a dozen music halls and other
+places of amusement where a fire panic would be deadly, and they followed
+the fate of the Royal Opera House and were closed until safeguards
+approved by the proper authorities were provided. In the future
+proprietors of Berlin theaters will also station special policemen in
+their houses for the sole purpose of controlling audiences in case of
+fire, or panic, or both. Thus did the Chicago tragedy profoundly affect
+one of the great theater centers of the world.
+
+
+MR. SHAVER ON BERLIN THEATERS.
+
+Cornelius H. Shaver, president of the Railroad News Company of Chicago,
+who was in Berlin at the time of the fire, said: "Many of the theaters in
+Germany strike me as firetraps. Several Berliners assure me that the
+ushers are the only ones sure of escaping with their lives from at least
+three of their best houses. The auditoriums in many German theaters are
+150 feet back from the street and to reach them one must journey through a
+labyrinth of courts, corridors and sudden turnings. In the interior the
+precautions against fire are excellent, including iron curtains, automatic
+sprinklers and squads of city firemen; but German theaters and hotels are
+lacking in so essential an equipment as outside fire escapes."
+
+
+VIENNA RECALLS A HORROR OF ITS OWN.
+
+The catastrophe at Chicago aroused the most painful interest and the
+utmost sympathy everywhere in Austria, the Viennese having a keen
+recollection of the disaster at the Ring theater in 1881, when 875 people
+lost their lives. Intense anxiety prevailed in the American colony, as
+many doctors and musical students who form the bulk of the colony come
+from the Middle West of the United States.
+
+Herr Lueger, the burgomaster of Vienna, sent a cable message to Mayor
+Harrison, expressing sympathy and deep condolence over the terrible
+catastrophe.
+
+
+THE NETHERLANDS AND SCANDINAVIA.
+
+Upon receipt of definite news of the Iroquois theater disaster the
+theaters and music halls in The Hague were overhauled by the authorities.
+Amsterdam and Rotterdam demanded strict enforcement of the regulations
+against fire and new legislation looking to that end was at once put in
+force.
+
+In Copenhagen, Stockholm and Christiania the Danish, Swedish and Norwegian
+licensing authorities for public amusements caused a rigid inspection to
+be made of all playhouses with a view to better safeguards against fire,
+and that inspection is still progressing and will doubtless bear good
+results as in other European centers.
+
+Enough has been said to indicate that virtually the entire hemisphere of
+the West has been stirred to practical action by the terrible calamity
+which this book records. It is not within the range of human possibility
+that theaters can be made absolutely perfect, any more than other human
+institutions, nor is it possible that the awful lesson furnished by the
+Iroquois theater disaster will have been forgotten before substantial
+improvements are made in the amusement houses of the world for the present
+and future protection of human life.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XVIII.
+
+SUGGESTIONS FOR SAFE THEATERS.
+
+
+Clarence J. Root, of Chicago, an assistant of Prof. Cox in the weather
+bureau, makes the following suggestions in connection with the
+safe-theater agitation:
+
+"Location--All theaters to be in buildings by themselves, like the
+Illinois and Iroquois. No stores or offices to be located in them.
+Buildings should be isolated, with wide private or public alleys or courts
+entirely around the rear and sides. A false wall could be built in front
+of the side courts where they project upon the street, thus helping the
+appearance of the block. These should, however, have wide arches through
+them.
+
+"Construction--All buildings to be absolutely fireproof. The buildings
+should be built of steel, fireproof tiling, steel lathing, etc. Scenery of
+asbestos or aluminum would be practicable. Aluminum is light and easily
+handled. The seats to be upholstered in leather. The floor to be
+constructed of metal, cement, mosaic or composition, with thin rubber
+matting over them, such as is used on sleeping-car steps. Ornamental iron
+work can be used on boxes, front of balconies, etc. Stair railings of
+brass or fancy copper. The fire curtain to be of steel and asbestos both.
+The heavy steel would prevent any bulging from a draft.
+
+"Exits--No steps or stairs should be used in the aisles or exits or
+anywhere in the theater. Easy inclines, similar to the ones in the new
+Pittsburg theater, should be used in the aisles, the inside entrances and
+exits, and the outside exits, all to be covered with rubber to prevent
+slipping. Two or three very wide exits ought to be provided on each side
+of the theater, and in addition, one (say twice as wide as the aisle) at
+the rear end of each aisle, the hallway leading from these rear exits, if
+not opening outdoors, to be wide enough to accommodate the entire number
+of exits. These rules should apply in the balconies, also. The outside
+fire-escapes to be long, easy inclines, with high sides, to prevent people
+from jumping. Each exit to have its own independent incline, so that the
+crowd from the first balcony cannot block those from the upper gallery, as
+in the Iroquois fire. All doors to swing outward and not to be locked
+during the performance. They should be inspected before each play and
+should be so connected, electrically, that every door in the house could
+be thrown open instantly, merely by the touching of a button, these
+buttons to be located on the stage and other places convenient to the
+ushers and employees. Theaters should not be built 'L' shape. That was one
+fault of the Iroquois. The crowd naturally followed the aisles to the back
+of the house and then, instead of finding themselves at the outdoor exits,
+as in most playhouses, they had to go clear to one side of the theater.
+This mixed them up with the crowds from the other aisles and concentrated
+too many people in one place.
+
+"Summary--A theater as described above could not burn, but a sprinkler
+system would do no harm. Heating and power plant in another building would
+prevent danger of an explosion. The aisles should be very wide and no
+standing room or portable chairs allowed. It may seem unnecessary in a
+fireproof theater to have such elaborate exits, but panics will occur from
+other causes than fires. A plan of the house should be printed on the
+cover of the program; this should plainly show the exits. A description
+of the fireproof qualities of the theater should also be printed. This
+will secure the confidence of the audience, and perhaps avert a panic. In
+a house built and equipped, strictly in accordance with the above ideas, a
+fire would be impossible and a serious panic unlikely."
+
+
+FRANCIS WILSON SAYS "NO STEPS."
+
+Francis Wilson, the well known actor, in speaking of the fire, said:
+
+"I suppose similar scenes always will follow a sudden rush in any building
+crowded with men and women, but I feel strongly that theater buildings
+could be improved so as to reduce the danger in a stampede to a minimum.
+It is my opinion that there should not be a single step in a theater. The
+descents should be gentle inclines. That this is possible is shown by the
+construction of a new theater in Pittsburg, where even the gallery is
+reached by inclines.
+
+"It is the thought of the many stairways that must be passed quickly, and
+possibly in darkness, that drives the occupants of the galleries to panic
+at any alarm. If they were sure of a clear pathway straight to the street
+half their fear would be allayed. In doing away with steps in the
+auditoriums of theaters the builders should not forget the actors."
+
+
+STAIRCASES WITH RAILINGS.
+
+Suggestion by W. B. Chamberlain, of London:
+
+"In nearly all fires in theaters loss of life seems to be at the head of
+stairs. This is natural, as persons who come first to the head of the
+stairs, hold back, being afraid to go down quickly lest they be pushed
+down by those behind them. People seem to think a broad staircase safer
+than a narrow one. I don't think this is the case, as in a narrow one you
+can put your hands on two sides, and go down with less fear of being
+thrown forward. All wide staircases should be provided with handrails, for
+if you have both hands on handrails you can run down quickly. If theaters
+were below ground you would in case of fire run up instead of down. They
+would be much safer for want of air to feed the flames."
+
+
+PRECAUTIONS ENFORCED IN LONDON.
+
+According to Sir Algernon West, of London, since 1858 not a single life
+has been lost in a properly licensed theater building in that city, except
+of a fireman, who perished in the performance of duty at the Alhambra in
+1882. During the few days following the Iroquois disaster, theater
+managers and the public praised the wisdom of the rules of the county
+council, whereas some of the former had been wont to find them rather
+irksome. In addition to the main rules about lowering the asbestos curtain
+once during the performance, doors opening outward, stairways and passages
+to be kept free, there are some other precautions which must be observed.
+All doors used for the purpose of exit must, if fastened during the time
+the public are in the building, be secured during such time only by
+automatic bolts only of a pattern and position approved by the council.
+The management must allow the public to leave by all exit doors. All gas
+burners within reach of the audience must be protected by glass or wire
+globes. All gas taps within reach of the public must be made secure.
+
+An additional means of lighting for use in the event of the principal
+system being extinguished must be provided in the auditorium, corridors,
+passages, exits and staircases. If oil or candle lamps are used for this
+purpose, they must be of a pattern approved by the council, and properly
+secured to a noninflammable base, out of reach of the public. Such lamps
+must be kept lighted during the whole time the public is in the premises.
+No mineral oil must be used in them. All hangings, curtains and draperies
+must be rendered noninflammable. Scenery is painted on canvas that has
+been first prepared with a solution recommended by the county council, to
+make it noninflammable. The paints used by the scenic artists contain no
+oils.
+
+
+WHAT THE CHICAGO CITY ENGINEER SAYS.
+
+John Ericson, the city engineer of Chicago, has this to offer:
+
+"A theater building should have an open space on all sides with exits and
+entrances leading directly out, and not, as now is mostly the case, be
+wedged in tight between other large buildings, with a number of exits all
+leading to one or two not too wide hallways which again, together with the
+stairways from the balconies and galleries, merge into one entrance. These
+halls and stairways are only too easily blocked by the frantic people in
+case of a panic. The aisles in most of our theaters are also too narrow
+and should be made considerably wider.
+
+"The excuse that space is too valuable for such extravagance cannot hold.
+If the return for the capital invested in such a case does not seem
+sufficiently large to the investor, then rather charge a little more for
+the entertainment or reduce the number of playhouses so as to insure full
+houses, but in the name of humanity construct those that are used in such
+a way that calamities such as have occurred will be an impossibility.
+
+"I am also of the opinion that perforated water pipes over the stage, into
+which water can be turned at a moment's notice so as to drench the whole
+stage if necessary, would add greatly to the safety of life and property.
+
+"An automatic sprinkler system would probably have been less effective in
+the case of the Iroquois fire, as great damage to life would have probably
+been done before such sprinklers would have been put into action."
+
+
+OPINION OF A FIREPROOF EXPERT.
+
+William Clendennin, editor of the _Fireproof Magazine_, condemned the
+Iroquois Theater building as long ago as last August. Here is his opinion,
+which he asserts is based on a personal investigation:
+
+"The Iroquois theater was a firetrap. The whole thing was a rush
+construction. It was beautiful but it was cheap. Everything but the
+structural members was of wood; the roller on the asbestos curtain, the
+pulleys, all of a cheap compromise.
+
+"I made an investigation of the theater last August and condemned it on
+four different points. My condemnation was published in the August number
+of the _Fireproof_. The points are:
+
+"1. The absence of an intake, or stage draft shaft.
+
+"2. The exposed re-enforcement of the concrete arch.
+
+"3. The presence of wood trim on everything.
+
+"4. The inadequate provision of exits.
+
+"A theater has two parts--the stage and the house or audience part. There
+should be a roll shutter between the two and the best sort of a curtain is
+a compromise. The poor stuff in the curtain at the Iroquois theater made
+it doubly a compromise; a great danger, a terrible trap.
+
+"The stage may be compared to a closet. When you open a closet door the
+draft is outward, not inward. So when the fire started on the stage the
+draft pulled it toward the audience. It was a quick flame puff.
+
+"The arch, or ceiling, was covered with a cheap concrete. The first puff
+of flame destroyed this. It crumbled away, exposing the twisted mass of
+steel re-enforcement and girders, and fell on the audience. This killed
+many. Looking from below, the bewildered, choking and maddened crowd
+thought it was the result of a panic above. They believed the galleries
+were falling and in the rush resulting many more were killed.
+
+"The Iroquois theater was the most-talked-of construction in the country
+at the time of its building. It was believed to be the expression of the
+most modern ideas in regard to theater building; to be about as near
+fireproof as one could be. My investigation satisfied me that it was one
+of the worst firetraps in the city. There was so much wood and so much
+plush and inflammable trimming about everything. The insufficient exits
+tell the rest of the story."
+
+
+ILLUMINATED EXIT SIGNS.
+
+On this point T. B. Badt, a consulting electrical engineer of Chicago,
+writes:
+
+"It has been stated that in the Iroquois no exit signs were over the
+doors, and it has been suggested that this was one of the causes of loss
+of life. The question arises, what would signs have been good for if the
+theater was thrown in darkness? The signs would not have been seen any
+more than the doors underneath the draperies. In order to avoid such
+trouble I should propose the following:
+
+"Have over each door a transparent sign made out of metal with glass
+crystal letters, and have same illuminated from the outside of the
+building wall by means of a lantern attached on the outside, and have this
+lantern supplied by a source of light independent of the theater lighting
+system, either electric or gas. The sign would be illuminated at all times
+during the performance; it would not be an objection during dark scenes,
+because there would be practically no light thrown through the glass
+letters to interfere with the darkness inside; at the same time the sign
+would stand there glaring the word 'exit,' no matter how dark the theater
+or how light the theater. The main point I am trying to raise is that any
+device which has to be operated in case of an emergency is liable to fail,
+but an illuminated sign that will be illuminated at all times will be
+there no matter what trouble may happen, because nobody can forget to
+light it during the excitement, as it is already lighted before the
+performance commences. This, in my opinion, is the keynote for all devices
+which are intended to prevent panics in theaters. An automatic device is
+dependent upon certain conditions, usually rise of temperature near the
+ceiling. A manually operated safety device depends upon the presence of
+mind and cool-headedness of a certain employee and in my opinion all these
+features should be eliminated. Everything should be ready for an emergency
+and not be dependent upon somebody or something to make it ready. All exit
+doors ought to be unlocked and swing open towards the outside, and this,
+in connection with the permanently illuminated sign above the door saying
+'exit,' in my opinion, would prevent any of the calamities heretofore
+experienced in theater disasters."
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XIX.
+
+THE SWORN TESTIMONY OF THE SURVIVORS.
+
+
+Scores and scores of witnesses assembled in the little committee rooms and
+antechambers of the council hall in the great Chicago administrative
+building, each with his story to add to the story of horror, when the
+inquest over the dead began on Thursday, January 7, 1904, one week and a
+day after the disaster.
+
+Some were muffled under great rolls of bandages that concealed frightful
+scars and burns. Others gave no outward indication of the season of terror
+they had passed and survived to tell the tale. Fashionable theater goers,
+actors, actresses and stage hands, chorus girls, belted policemen and grim
+firemen, all met on terms of temporary equality, forming a heterogeneous
+assemblage waiting the call to take the stand. One by one they were
+admitted to the vast council chamber where for days the inquisition
+continued.
+
+Vast throngs of curious besieged the place, clamoring for opportunity to
+view the proceedings. None, save the favored few citizens to whom tickets
+were issued, municipal, county and state officials and representatives of
+the press, enjoyed that opportunity. To them day after day a growing tale
+of suffering and death was unfolded such as has not fallen upon mortal
+ears for half a century. It was a harrowing recital that satiated and
+sickened the auditors and left them faint at each adjournment.
+
+For days preceding the opening session Coroner Traeger his deputies and
+the six jurors had been engaged in a canvass of hospitals, undertaking
+establishments and morgues, viewing the dead. Nor was that ghastly work
+over when they entered upon the semi-judicial task of taking testimony.
+Ever and anon they halted the inquiry to proceed to the bedside of some
+victim that had died after lingering suffering. This formality was
+necessary before burial permits could issue. Each succeeding call brought
+to the jurors a shudder. Theirs was a gruesome task for the public service
+and they felt its burden keenly.
+
+The trend of the statements taken were the same. Details formed the only
+variations. Some of the statements follow:
+
+
+THE FIRST WITNESS.
+
+John C. Galvin, 1677 West Monroe street, Chicago, the first witness heard,
+said:
+
+"On the day the fire occurred I stepped into the vestibule to buy tickets
+for the following evening. It must have been a little after half past
+three. As I stepped into the entrance I looked into the lobby and turned
+to the ticket office, and as I did so the center doors of the lobby foyer
+and the outside entrance doors were blown open as though by a gust of hot
+air. I looked into the foyer and I saw people running toward the entrance.
+I realized at once what the trouble was, and went to the lobby doors and
+tried to open the west door there, that being the nearest to me. It was
+locked on the inside and I couldn't do anything with it.
+
+"Then I tried to pacify the people from rushing or crowding, tried to save
+the panic, but it was no use. I would judge there were probably a dozen,
+not more than a dozen, cleared the door before the crush came. I recollect
+the first person to go down seemed to be a rather stout woman, who seemed
+to be free herself, somebody stepping on her skirt. She turned to gather
+up her skirts and she was borne down by the crowd, and then they piled on
+top of each other. I did what I could to release the jam, pulling the
+people from under the crowd and getting them out into the entrance, out
+into the street, but all the while the vestibule was filling up by those
+returning to help their friends, and people rushing into the street and
+helping to bring the crowd to. I tried to open the outside entrance door,
+the west door, which I found was bolted on the inside at that time. I
+tried to lift the bolt, but I couldn't do that.
+
+"Then I kicked out two of the panels. I kicked the glass out of the
+panels, and I then returned to the west vestibule door and I kicked out
+the panels of these two doors, that is, the west door, and tried to take
+some of the people out through the openings. After we got out of the
+doorway I walked back into the entrance gallery and walked around, and
+there was a dense smoke coming from the theater.
+
+"I was expecting a big crush in the vestibule, a much larger crush than I
+saw. I thought there would be a jam on that stair, but nobody came down
+the stairs to my recollection, not a soul. They never lived to reach it.
+All the time I was there I saw no one whose dress or demeanor would
+indicate they were policemen, firemen or attaches of the theater. I
+remained doing what I could to relieve the situation until driven out by
+the smoke. I then went across the street and watched the destruction of
+the theater."
+
+
+MARLOWE'S EXPERIENCE.
+
+James C. McGurn, 2 Rosemont street, Dorchester, Mass., known on the stage
+as James C. Marlowe:
+
+"I was in the Garrick theater, a block distant, to see the show. At the
+first alarm I hurried out and went down to the Iroquois theater entrance.
+I went inside and the firemen were in working at the time, getting lines
+of hose in there. Some of the firemen were already pouring streams through
+into the lobby. There was a tremendous draft there and the lobby was
+clear, but directly inside the door that had been opened there were dense
+volumes of smoke. The first thought that struck my mind, being conversant
+with theaters, was that there might be somebody in the house. Just then a
+man came in there, followed by another man, a citizen, and we were the
+only men in the lobby outside of the firemen. He asked for the gallery
+stairway and immediately after that I saw him going up the stairs to the
+right as you go in the lobby. He went up these stairs with his men and a
+fireman followed him.
+
+"I was watching the stairs, and they were up there thirty seconds, about,
+when the fireman came down with the first body, a little girl, about eight
+years old. He shouted out to the firemen for God's sake to get up there,
+and all the firemen I saw in the lobby dropped everything and went up, and
+they weren't up there but a few seconds before they came tumbling down
+with bodies, and after I had remained there about three minutes more I saw
+dozens of bodies brought down. One fireman slipped with the body of an old
+lady about the fourth step and fell down on the marble floor and I helped
+put her into the fireman's arms. The smoke was so dense I could not see
+much and as I could do nothing to help any one I hurried out of the
+foyer."
+
+
+MUSICAL DIRECTOR'S SWORN STATEMENT.
+
+Antonio Frosolono, 170 Seminary avenue, Chicago, musical director at the
+ill-fated theater:
+
+"I was in the Iroquois theater playing at that performance in the
+orchestra. I was not directing the performance, as the company has its own
+director. I was sitting sideways, facing the east door of the stage. The
+stage was to my left. I do not know how the fire started, only I heard a
+confusion.
+
+"The 'Pale Moonlight' scene was on and sixteen people, the double octette,
+occupied the stage. Some of them did not sing, and some of them went out
+of their places. Eddie Foy came out and announced that if everybody would
+keep quiet everything would be all right. Then, when I turned around, the
+stage fireman had kicked a piece of blazing curtain down in the orchestra.
+
+"Then the bassoon player made a terrible scramble to get out, and I think
+he succeeded in getting out. Then after that Mr. Dolere, the musical
+director for the company, went out like a shot out of a gun; he went over
+the stand and everything. He went under the stage. Then everybody else got
+out. I still sat there, because I did not see much danger to myself, as I
+thought, or anybody else. I saw the people when they went out, and I heard
+the cries, and that is what attracted my attention. I stayed there until
+everybody else had gone out of the orchestra. The time when I thought it
+was time to get out was when the bass fiddle and the 'cello got to
+burning.
+
+"All were excited on the stage. Some tried to put the fire out and others
+ran. Some one was trying to lower the curtain, but it would not come down
+all the way. Of a sudden it bulged out over my head like a balloon. Then
+the flames began to rush out from under the curtain. I saw the people
+rushing out, some jumping over, hallooing and screaming; then I turned
+around at that instant to my right and saw that the violin and 'cello and
+bass fiddle had caught on fire at one of the music stands, and then I went
+out."
+
+
+MRS. PETRY'S ESCAPE.
+
+Mrs. Josephine Petry, 6014 Morgan street:
+
+"On Wednesday afternoon at 2:15 I went to the Iroquois theater. It was
+late; the performance had begun. My ticket entitled me to what I thought
+was the balcony, but it was at the top of the house, and when I went up
+there the theater was dark and the people were standing four deep behind
+my seat.
+
+"It was the second act, the moonlight octette, if I am not mistaken, when
+I saw on the left hand side behind the proscenium arch a bright light. I
+kept my eyes on that, because to me it did not look right, and it got
+brighter all the time. Eddie Foy came right beside the proscenium arch,
+right where the fire was on the side, over him, and told the people they
+should keep their seats, there was no danger. Naturally a few got up, but
+they sat down again. Some people said: 'Keep your seats.' I got up and
+some one said beside me: 'Sit down, there is nothing the matter.' I sat
+down again, but the glare was getting much brighter and pieces of charred
+cloth were falling down, although the flames by then had not come forward.
+They were all behind, but you could see the light so brightly I picked up
+my wraps and went out.
+
+"I went out by the same way I entered. At the lower floor about a hundred
+people were trying to get out. The doors were locked. When I left the
+charred remnants of the scenery were falling down in large chunks onto the
+stage, and the lights were so bright that they scared me, and I got up,
+but the flames had not reached the stage yet when I left, but when I got
+down to the exit and I turned my head there was a mass of flames behind;
+it was all flames, and yet I did not hear a sound."
+
+
+UP AGAINST LOCKED DOORS.
+
+Ebson Ryburn, stock broker, 3449 Prairie avenue, Chicago:
+
+"I was at the box office with the intention of purchasing tickets for the
+night; I went to the box office about 3:30 p. m., and when I went in there
+were three or four others ahead of me. Suddenly I heard some commotion on
+the inside and several persons rushed out, and there must have been as
+many as five or six, I guess, got out, and then I heard a woman cry
+'Fire.' Up to that time I did not think it was anything serious. I thought
+probably it was a scare and I looked in through the door and I saw more
+coming--rushing--and I rushed over to hold the doors open, and did so for
+a length of time until quite a number got out, and I noticed several going
+to the door next to it; that is, the last door west; and then came over to
+this other door.
+
+"They tried to push it open. I left where I was and went to that door and
+tried to force it open and could not. I saw between the two doors a bolt
+or a bar, and there was quite a number coming out the other door then and
+I saw there was no chance to come out, and I tried to open the other door
+opposite that leading into the street, and that door was in the same
+condition, locked or bolted; it was fastened; I could not get out of that
+door and I could not get in the other. Then there were quite a number
+coming out, and I noticed several men, and by that time I could see smoke,
+a little haze of smoke, and every one coming out seemed to be frightened,
+crazy-like, and so I got out myself into the street. The fire department
+had not yet arrived."
+
+
+BLOWN INTO THE ALLEY.
+
+Mrs. James D. Pinedo, 478 North Hoyne avenue, Chicago:
+
+"I reached the theater to attend the fatal matinee late, about 2:25
+o'clock. The performance was in progress and we could not secure seats, so
+we got standing room tickets and entered. When I reached the extreme right
+of the theater the people were only standing one deep. There was a space
+there where I could see the stage, especially the left part of the stage
+where the sparks started, and the curtain had just rung up for the second
+act, a few minutes after the chorus was singing, when I saw a man using
+his hands trying to put out the sparks. When I saw those few sparks I
+quietly turned around to see if there was any fire escape or exit on that
+floor in case there should be a fire, and I didn't move because I was
+afraid of precipitating a panic. I simply turned my head and I saw what I
+supposed was an exit. I couldn't tell.
+
+"I saw drapery and naturally supposed, being a theater-goer, that it
+masked an exit. I turned back to the stage then, and in the meantime these
+sparks had changed into flames, and I put on my rubbers--I was very calm
+at the time--and I got ready to move out. Eddie Foy told us to be
+perfectly quiet and avoid a panic, and there were also some men and women
+in the back part of the audience who also told the people to sit down. I
+have never seen an audience who were saner than these women and children.
+They sat perfectly still I should say for at least two minutes, while
+those sparks changed into flames. They were perfectly calm. I think most
+of these women realized there were little children there. The audience was
+nearly packed full of children.
+
+"Then I saw the big ball of flame come out from the stage and fall in the
+auditorium of the theater on the heads of those in front, and I thought,
+'Now is the time to get out.' I walked quietly to what I thought was an
+exit, and there was a little man there before me, who had torn aside the
+drapery, and I saw an iron door or doors heavily bolted, and we couldn't
+get them open. It was bolted and I heard this man ask the usher to please
+unlock the door, and he refused. The usher was standing there and we were
+frantically, of course, trying to get the door open, but it would not
+open, and I judge we were standing at least two minutes, probably a minute
+and a half--time that seemed long enough in a case like that.
+
+"Finally the man induced this usher to try and open the door. At least
+they were trying to, the two of them, and I was right behind them--trying
+to open that door--when all of a sudden there was a rush of wind. I
+thought at the time it was an explosion, because I didn't know of any
+force powerful enough to open those iron doors, and those iron doors blew
+open, and blew us into the alley. Of course that is my last recollection.
+I was then safe."
+
+
+JUST OUT IN TIME.
+
+Ella M. Churcher, 850 Washington boulevard, Chicago:
+
+"I occupied the fourth row from the front in the top gallery, seats 42, 43
+and 44, with my mother and nephew. I was sitting in the middle. A shower
+of sparks was the first suggestion of fire. Then the curtain was lowered
+and Eddie Foy stepped out. I couldn't hear his words, but his motions were
+to sit down and keep our seats, and we did so until I saw the red curtain
+that went down after the first act give away in the upper left hand corner
+and pieces fell, making a large opening. It was on fire.
+
+"Then we got up and had to go about ten feet, that took us to the wall,
+and three steps to go up to the exit leading to the marble stairway. As we
+turned the last look I caught was a tongue of fire leaping to the gallery
+and a cloud of smoke with it, and we got the heat from it, scorching and
+blistering both of my ears and both my nostrils and scorching my hair and
+chiffon boa on my neck. At that instant we stepped out on the marble
+stairway, right out of it, and we got down stairs safely, and then we
+passed out to the street."
+
+
+SPORTING MEN TESTIFY.
+
+Frank Houseman, 293 Warren avenue, Chicago:
+
+"Dexter, the baseball player, and I dropped into the Iroquois that
+afternoon about 2:20 and found the house sold out with the exception of
+two boxes and standing room. We bought a couple of seats in an upper box
+and went in. The house was crowded and it was dark, for the performance
+was in progress. We found an usher and started up the stairway to the box.
+The stairway was pitch dark.
+
+"'This is a dark stairway; this is funny they don't have a light or
+something here,' I said to my friend. I stumbled a couple of times going
+up the stairway. Finally we got to where we were seated. Well, during the
+intermission between the first and second acts we had a good view of the
+audience, being up high, and I remarked to my friend that there were a
+great many women and children present in event of any trouble.
+
+"When the curtain rose for the second act, if I can remember, probably
+five or ten minutes after, I noticed a spark directly on the opposite side
+to the stage in behind. We were sitting up where we viewed the audience
+and it was very easy for us to distinguish the spark, and I saw a man--it
+looked as though he was on a pedestal of some kind; it must have been a
+bridge of some kind that he was standing on--working to put out the light,
+so I quietly said to my friend: 'Do you see those sparks over there?' He
+says: 'Yes; they will put that out all right.'
+
+"Well, I instantly thought about the stairway that I had to come up
+getting into this box, and somehow or other I could not get it out of my
+mind. I said: 'Well, now, I don't know; we better get down near the
+door--it looks pretty good--the outside.' So we finally started, and as we
+started out of the box I suggested that he tell the gentleman and lady
+that were in the box with us that they had better come on, which I
+understand he did. He came down the stairs.
+
+"It was a blast of flame or fire, a sort of ball or something that
+appeared to me like it was a lot of scenery that was burning down, scenery
+or flimsy work. It burnt a great deal on the order of paper. All I thought
+of was the opening of that door, because the people at that time were
+crowding close to me and screaming and hallooing, and I don't just
+remember just how I got that door open, but anyway it opened and carried
+the crowd out. I tried to do what I could around there for the people that
+were being trampled on, trying to pull them out from the middle of the
+alley and start them on their way if they were not too badly hurt, until
+they began jumping off the fire escapes above, and I noticed and looked up
+and saw that the people were not moving.
+
+"The flames by that time had come out of the top exits that were open, and
+the fire escape held all the people it could and the flames were
+surrounding them, and they were jumping, and those that were not pushed
+off jumped off. I was trying to get the people on the lower fire escape,
+which--I can guess at it--was probably ten or fifteen feet from the
+ground. We got a couple of them to jump down because it was but a little
+ways up; they began jumping right from overhead and of course I had to
+look out that no one fell on me, or would jump on me, and I could not do
+very much of anything, only to pull out the people being trampled upon,
+and pull them to one side, until one man jumped on, I think, three
+bodies, and started to get up and go away, and was just about in a rising
+position when there was a lady fell on him, and he didn't move after that.
+It became so dangerous then that I had to get away.
+
+"My intentions were to go around and out the same way I got in, or to get
+near the door, because I remarked to him when I got down stairs: 'We may
+have to help some of these little children here in case they don't put
+this out,' although I thought they would put it out. Well, there were
+three or four people standing along there, and when we reached the main
+floor just about that time the audience began to notice there was a fire.
+
+"Previous to this time they had not seen it and they began to mumble and
+some of them to rise, and Mr. Foy came out and tried to quiet them by
+stating that it was merely a little curtain fire; that they would put it
+out, and to be as quiet as possible. It seemed to relieve them. A great
+many of them returned to their seats. I thought I could hear Mr. Foy speak
+to some one back in the scenery as though he was waiting for the drop
+curtain.
+
+"Well, it began to look pretty bad about that time and I looked around and
+I saw the curtains, the first I had noticed of the exits there. I said to
+some one standing there, 'Where does this lead?' He says, 'Outside;' so I
+stayed there probably thirty seconds, when the bits of scenery and pieces
+of fire began to drop down all around the stage, and one or two of the
+girls that were on the stage at the time of the octette, fainted; well, I
+pushed this fellow aside, and for a moment--momentarily--looked at the
+lock, and it happened to be a lever that lifts up.
+
+"I am familiar with it, as I have one in my home, and I didn't have much
+trouble with it, but I was kind of disappointed when I opened it, because
+I thought it would lead outside--when I faced the iron doors. At that time
+there was a big blast came out from the stage."
+
+Charles Dexter, professional baseball player:
+
+"I met Mr. Houseman and he invited me to go to the theater with him, and
+we went together and we were a little bit late. We got seats in an upper
+box.
+
+"The house was quite dark when we went in, and we were ushered into the
+right hand box, that is, to the right of the stage; I guess that is the
+north box, and we got to see about the last part of the first act, and
+just about two minutes after we came in a lady and gentleman came in and
+we gave them our seats; they sat directly in front of us; I took the back
+seat, and just as the moonlight scene came on, the octette, Mr. Houseman
+turned to me and said: 'Do you see that little blaze?' And I told him I
+did.
+
+"He said: 'I think it is about time for us to get out of here.' I told him
+I thought everything would be all right; that he had better not start down
+stairs or say anything that would be liable to cause a panic, and he said
+he would go down quietly, and for me to tell the people ahead of me what
+to do. The stairway was so dark I tried to follow out.
+
+"I knew he had started down the steps, and I had to wait and light a match
+to tell where I was going down the steps, from the box down to the first
+floor. I lost Mr. Houseman then; I looked for him but could not find him,
+and I walked around and stood very near the first box. By that time the
+blaze had gone up.
+
+"Mr. Foy was on the stage telling the people to be quiet or pass out
+quietly. I couldn't tell exactly what he said, and I noticed the orchestra
+seemed inclined to leave, and I could hear him yelling to the leader to
+play, which he did.
+
+"They played for quite a little while; then the fire commenced dropping
+all around Mr. Foy, and I thought that I would get out, go out from the
+front door; I didn't know any other means of exit, and I started out that
+way. By that time the people had started out of their seats and I found
+that I could not get out that way very well. I thought that the best thing
+that I could do would be to come back and jump on the stage, hoping to get
+out the stage door. People were running around, and I didn't know what to
+do, and I ran into a crowd of little children.
+
+"The people were running over one another. I saw some draperies hanging
+and I opened them. I didn't know where I was going, and I found two doors
+of glass or wood. I didn't stop to examine them but I opened them. I found
+myself up against some iron doors. I didn't know how to work them. The
+only thing I could see was a cross-bar, and I started to shove that up,
+and I couldn't shove very well, and I started to beat at it. By that time
+the people were pushed up against me, and I didn't know whether I would be
+able to get it open or not. I had all the poor little kids around me, and
+I beat the thing until finally it went up, and as it did of course the
+people behind me--we went out into the alley.
+
+"I turned and looked back and saw a wave of fire sweeping over the whole
+inside of the theater."
+
+
+AN ELGIN PHYSICIAN'S TALE.
+
+"Dr. De Lester Sackett, Elgin, III.:
+
+"I attended the fateful matinee performance, accompanied by my wife, my
+sister-in-law and my little girl. We occupied seats in the third row of
+the first balcony at the extreme north end of the theater, next to the
+alley. At the time the fire broke out we were sitting where we could look
+right over to the extreme left of the stage, and what seemed to be a
+couple of limes, or an electric light; we could see sparks dropping from
+that sometimes. We could not see the light itself, but could see those
+sparks, evidently dropping from that kind of a light.
+
+"That was my first impression upon seeing it. And instantly there was more
+or less excitement, and the party who played the part of "Bluebeard" came
+to the extreme front of the stage at our extreme left and tried to allay
+the excitement by making motions with his hands, keeping the orchestra
+playing and the girls dancing, at the same time trying to get the audience
+to keep quiet. He said that there was danger from excitement, but not much
+danger from the fire.
+
+"There was much excitement in the immediate vicinity of my seats, with no
+gentlemen nearer than the three gentlemen sitting a little further to my
+right and back in the second section from us towards the rear were two
+young men; all others were women and children. There seemed to be perfect
+confusion and I rose to my feet and tried to quiet them, and counseled
+that they should not become excited; that there was more danger from a
+panic than there was from the fire. I never dreamed that the fire could
+reach us there, and we had to keep our positions in our seats, as I had
+counseled others to keep quiet, and it would not look very well for us to
+take the lead then and run, so we remained there until my wife said to me,
+'Every one has left their seats, and we must get out of here.'
+
+"I then turned and looked at the stage and saw how the fire had progressed
+and said to her: 'It is a race with death,' and I tried then to get my
+little girl, who was eleven years old, next to me. She was sitting next to
+the aisle. I reached beyond my wife and sister-in-law and I got my little
+girl and then I tried to crowd them into the aisle.
+
+"The pressure was so great I could not get them into the aisle. People
+crowded up the aisle so thick I could not get them in there, and I
+discovered the seats in our rear had been vacated. Everybody was getting
+to the aisle, and I told my wife our only show was over these seats, and I
+took my little girl and started and told them to follow me, which they
+did. At that time in the extreme left-hand corner back of us we could see
+light coming up--they had got an opening there in the rear of this
+balcony.
+
+"We couldn't see any opening, but we could see the light from the opening,
+and then we went over the seats. I didn't look back after I started. My
+wife and sister-in-law followed us, and we went over the seats and out of
+that rear exit back of the seats to the extreme north into the alley,
+where we found a fire escape.
+
+"The doors were open when we got there, but I cannot help but feel that if
+we had started sooner we would not have got to those doors. If we had
+waited longer we certainly would not have got through. My ears are still
+not healed from the burning they got. My nose was burned, and my
+sister-in-law's bandages have not been removed from her face yet, she was
+burned so bad, and it was all from hot air coming from that stage.
+
+"On the first landing from the exit we went out of, evidently two ladies
+had turned and were coming up the fire escape, instead of going the other
+way, they were so confused. I told them to turn and go down. They did not
+until I reached them and I took hold of one lady and turned her around and
+started her down and pushed the shutter back against the wall--I remember
+that very distinctly--and then we went on down and when I got to the foot
+of the escape I turned my child over to my wife and went back for my
+sister-in-law and crowded my way up between the people by keeping to the
+extreme outside railing, and got up probably to the first landing and
+found her coming down.
+
+"It is my impression that the curtain that was lowered was burned. I know
+that when the party playing the part of "Bluebeard" was out there he kept
+those girls dancing until one of them fainted, and they lifted her up, and
+I thought it was the most heroic thing I ever saw, those girls remaining
+there with the fire dropping all about them and still dancing in an effort
+to quiet the audience. The draft was something fearful. It carried the
+fire with it. The flames came clear out over the parquet, and so much so
+that after I started up those steps we didn't dare to look back."
+
+
+MR. MEMHARD'S DIFFICULT EXIT.
+
+Albert A. Memhard, 750 Greenleaf avenue, Rogers Park, Chicago:
+
+"I attended the matinee performance at the Iroquois, December 30, 1903. I
+was sitting in section A, the tenth seat in the first row in the first
+balcony or dress circle on the north side of the house, and on the right
+hand with reference to the stage. I was between two aisles just about the
+middle of the section. I was there before the orchestra started to play
+and saw the curtain go up before the first act and the same curtain come
+down and then be raised before the second act. I was in company with a
+theater party made up of Mr. Gurnsey, who is employed at the same store as
+myself, and our families. Soon after the second act started we saw, almost
+all of us at about the same time, sparks of fire coming from the left hand
+corner of the stage, perhaps eight feet from the top, but we sat still
+until it began to come out in flames, the flames dropping on the stage.
+Then we started out.
+
+"I could not open the first exit door I reached. I then went to the
+second exit and after some trouble I got it open by lifting up a brass
+lever. Then the inside doors opened, which were wood and glass. I had the
+iron doors to open next. I opened them by lifting a long bar. I went out
+on the fire escape with my friends, who were with me with the exception of
+my son, who had gone ahead, following the crowd. When I saw he was not
+with us I went back and ran almost to the top of the stairs. I brought him
+back. We went down the fire escape and out the alley to Dearborn street.
+
+"The fire exits were all covered by heavy draperies that might readily be
+mistaken for simple decorations and were not marked or labeled in any way.
+Neither was there any one on hand to direct the crowd how to get out. The
+only light was the illumination afforded by the fire."
+
+
+THE THEATER ENGINEER.
+
+Robert E. Murray, 676 Jackson boulevard, Chicago, engineer at the Iroquois
+theater:
+
+"I was down stairs underneath the stage when I heard some confusion about
+3:30 o'clock. I rushed upstairs onto the stage and the first person I saw
+was the house fireman. He had some kilfyre and was trying to sprinkle it
+on the fire. I saw the curtain down about ten feet from the stage and I
+tried to jump up and grab it to pull it down, but it was out of my reach.
+By that time there was fire coming down so I had to get away from there. I
+went to the elevator and saw that the boy was making trips and bringing
+people down as fast as he could. When I saw he was doing his duty I went
+downstairs and told my fireman to shut off steam in the house and pull the
+fires, so as to prevent the possibility of an explosion.
+
+
+RUSH OF CHORUS GIRLS.
+
+"Then some of the musicians and chorus girls came rushing through and they
+wanted to know which way out. There was a door in the smoking room in the
+basement and I opened it for them. Some went out that way. The smoke was
+so thick that some of them ran back. I took them to the coal hole and
+shoved them out of the coal hole. The smoke was getting so thick in there
+we could hardly stand it, so I told the fireman to take our clothes and go
+to the coal hole and get out. I stayed there and shut the steam off in the
+boilers, and was trying to get the fire out to save any boiler explosion
+if the fire should get too hot.
+
+"After I thought everybody was out of there I made a trip around the
+dressing rooms in the basement and hallooed, 'Everybody out down here.'
+Then I met a girl by the name of Nellie Reed. She was up against the wall
+scratching it and screaming. I grabbed her and went out with her to the
+street. I went back to the boiler. My toolbox was there, and I grabbed the
+toolbox and jerked it back on the coal pile and then I crawled out of the
+coal hole myself into the fresh air."
+
+
+A SCHOOL GIRL'S ACCOUNT.
+
+Ruth Michel, school girl, 698 North Robey street, Chicago:
+
+"I was sitting in the top balcony in the second row near the north or
+alley wall when the fire broke out. There were four in our party, all
+girls, and we reached our seats about five minutes before the performance
+began. The curtain went up for the second act and there was, I think,
+about twelve actresses on the stage. There was a green light thrown over
+the stage, to represent the moonlight, a greenish blue. I saw a man at the
+side of the stage making motions with his hands; I didn't know whether he
+was coming in at the wrong time or not, and then I saw a spark come from
+above the stage. Then a spark fell down, and one of the women in our party
+said, 'We will get out of here,' and a man rose and said he would knock
+our heads off if we got out, so we sat there. Then they tried to drop a
+curtain and it didn't come down very far.
+
+"Then they dropped another curtain. It came down beyond the one that got
+stuck, came down all the way, I think. That one caught fire right away,
+even before it reached the stage. Then an awful draft came and it blew the
+flames right out over the audience. We got out of our seats, got out of an
+exit all right and went out on the fire escape. I got down two or three
+steps and we were driven back by the flames below us. The heat came up
+just like a furnace and I went up two or three steps and then I got under
+the railing and dropped to the alley. I lit on my toes and a man caught me
+at the same time, so I was not hurt. The distance was the same as from the
+fourth story window of the building across the alley. Men in the alley
+called to me not to jump, but I knew I had to jump or else burn up,
+because the flames were coming up so right behind me."
+
+"I am only surprised that you escaped alive to tell of it," softly
+commented the coroner.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XX.
+
+LACK OF FIRE SAFEGUARDS.
+
+
+Examination of Robert E. Murray, engineer of the theater, and through that
+fact, the man in charge of its machinery and mechanical equipment,
+revealed in a startling way the absolute unpreparation for fire or
+emergency that characterized the palatial opera house. Coroner, jury and
+spectators alike were stirred by the confession of absolute disregard for
+life evinced by the management and the certainty that no thought had been
+given to the possibility of a fire.
+
+The entire fire equipment of the Iroquois as described by Murray consisted
+of two kilfyre tubes on the stage and one below the stage; a two inch
+stand pipe on the stage, two under the stage, and one near the coatroom in
+the front of the house. Only one of these, that in the front of the house,
+was equipped with hose. The kilfyre tubes were two inches in diameter and
+eighteen inches long. Incidentally Murray said that the ferrule along the
+bottom of the "asbestos" curtain was of wood, and not iron.
+
+Questions and answers touching on these conditions, as given under oath,
+follow:
+
+Q. Do you know whether the employees of the theater were at any time
+instructed by anybody to use these kilfyres or hose in case of fire?
+
+A. No, sir.
+
+Q. Was there anything on the reel of hose in the coatroom to indicate what
+it was there for?
+
+A. No, there was no sign on it.
+
+Q. Was there anything there to tell you or anybody else how to use the
+hose in case of fire?
+
+A. No, sir. The hose was on the reel and all you would have to do----
+
+Q. Never mind what you would have to do. Was there anything there for
+anybody to know what to do?
+
+A. No, sir.
+
+The witness testified that when he reached the stage after attending to
+his engines, the "asbestos" curtain was caught part way down.
+
+Q. No signs saying "Exits" or "This way out" or any-thing?
+
+A. No, sir.
+
+Q. Any fire alarm boxes that you know of in case of fire?
+
+A. No, sir.
+
+Q. No bells to ring in case of fire?
+
+A. No.
+
+Q. No appliance to call the fire department in case of fire?
+
+A. No, not that I know of.
+
+Q. What would you have to do in case of a fire, go out in the street for a
+fire alarm or fire box?
+
+A. If I could not put it out I would run to the box or to the telephone.
+
+Q. Do you know where the wires were that worked the ventilators, where
+they were located?
+
+A. On the north side of the stage, on the proscenium wall.
+
+Q. Who had charge of working them?
+
+A. The people on the stage.
+
+Q. What do you know about the skylights, how were they opened?
+
+A. I never noticed.
+
+
+[Illustration: HARRY J. POWERS, One of the Theater Managers Arrested for
+Manslaughter.]
+
+[Illustration: MONROE FULKERSON, Attorney for the Fire Department.]
+
+[Illustration: EDDIE FOY, Leading Actor, who told the audience to go out
+slowly.]
+
+[Illustration: SCENE ON THE STAGE WHEN THE FIRE STARTED. The star shows
+where the fire started.]
+
+[Illustration: PROMENADE IN FRONT PART OF IROQUOIS THEATER.]
+
+[Illustration: RELATIVES TRYING TO FIND THEIR DEAD.]
+
+[Illustration: WAITING THEIR TURN TO GET INTO THE MORGUE.]
+
+[Illustration: POLICE MAKING LIST OF UNIDENTIFIED BODIES.]
+
+[Illustration: CARTING AWAY THE DEAD.]
+
+[Illustration: MAIN EXIT FROM FIRST BALCONY, WHERE OCCURRED THE GREATEST
+LOSS OF LIFE.]
+
+[Illustration: MANAGERS DAVIS AND POWERS GIVING $10,000 BONDS AFTER THEIR
+ARREST.]
+
+[Illustration: MISS MINNIE H. SCHAFFNER, 578 45TH PLACE, CHICAGO.
+
+Miss Schaffner, 25 years of age, had been a teacher for a number of years,
+and at the time she met her death was connected with the Forrestville
+school. She attended the matinee with two friends, one of whom was among
+the victims.]
+
+[Illustration: JACK POTTLITZER, LAFAYETTE, IND.
+
+The ten-year-old boy who lost his life at the fire while in company with
+his cousins, Miss Tessie Bissinger and Walter Bissinger. Miss Bissinger
+only escaped. Jack's mother died six months before.]
+
+[Illustration: MRS ARTHUR BERGCH, 4926 CHAMPLAIN AVENUE. CHICAGO.
+
+Mrs. Bergch attended the theater with her son, who was also killed. She
+was terribly burned, the body being identified by her rings. She left a
+husband and a baby two years old.]
+
+[Illustration: ARTHUR J. BERGCH, 11 YEARS OLD. CHICAGO.
+
+The boy was burned beyond recognition, the body being identified by a
+favorite jackknife, which was found by the father in his trousers
+pocket.]
+
+[Illustration: ARTHUR E. HULL, 244 OAKWOOD BOULEVARD, CHICAGO.
+
+Mr. Hull lost his wife and three children in the fire, and took the first
+steps toward the arrest of the proprietors of the Iroquois Theater and the
+formation of the Iroquois Memorial Association.]
+
+[Illustration: THOMAS D. KNIGHT, CHICAGO.
+
+Mr. Knight is the legal representative of Arthur E. Hull in the affairs of
+the Iroquois Memorial Association, organized by Mr. Hull to safeguard the
+interests of the fire victims and to concentrate public opinion on the
+question of safe theaters.]
+
+[Illustration: DONALD D. AND DWIGHT M. HULL, 244 OAKWOOD BOULEVARD,
+CHICAGO.
+
+Two nephews and adopted children of Arthur E. Hull 8 and 6 years of age
+who with his daughter Helen and wife were burned to death. Mr. Hull headed
+the movement for safe theaters.]
+
+[Illustration: HELEN MURIEL HULL, 12 YEARS OLD CHICAGO
+
+The daughter of Arthur E. Hull made one of a little theater party
+organized by his wife for the amusement of the three children. All the
+party perished.]
+
+[Illustration: WILL J. DAVIS, One of the Theater Managers Arrested for
+Manslaughter.]
+
+
+A UNIVERSITY STUDENT'S STORY.
+
+Equally damaging testimony was given by Fred H. Rea, 3231 South Park
+avenue, a student at the Northwestern University Dental School. After
+telling of the scenes when "death alley" was bridged by planks and ladders
+thrust from the school windows he told of the death jam on the fire
+escapes.
+
+Rea's story was one of the most graphic told which narrated the horrors of
+Death's Alley, and the narrow escape of those who were fortunate enough to
+be rushed over the planks thrown to them from the University building. It
+was not only a story, but an additional evidence of the total lack of
+preparation for the meeting of just such an emergency.
+
+"At the time the fire broke out I was in the Northwestern University
+building on the third floor in the law school," he said. "I heard
+something that sounded like an explosion and all the students present
+immediately ran to the lecture room. There we met some painters who were
+repairing the ceiling in the corridor. They joined us, bringing with them
+three planks and ladders. These planks we placed from the back window of
+the lecture room across to the upper landing of the gallery. One ladder
+was placed across from the fire escape of the lecture room to the second
+landing. Across the ladder, I think, only one person came, as the flames
+from the exit were so hot that nobody could reach it.
+
+"Fourteen or fifteen persons came across the plank, and all but three or
+four were badly burned. I saw at least three persons try to pass down the
+fire escape from the top landing, but they were unable to do so, because
+at the second landing from the top the doors were not swung clear back
+against the wall. The doors were at right angles to the wall, and through
+the exit smoke was pouring and part of the time flames. Several people on
+the upper landing deliberately climbed over the railing and dropped to the
+alley below.
+
+"I saw one woman drop and strike a ladder which was placed to the fire
+escape and bound off into the alley. A man climbed out over and was
+clinging by his hands, when one of the firemen came up from below and held
+him until a ladder could be run up. A number of people who fell in the jam
+on the exit burned right there before our eyes. We could see their clothes
+on fire. That was on the landing of the fire escape, partly in and partly
+out of the exit."
+
+
+A CLERGYMAN'S STORY.
+
+The Rev. Albertus Perry, 5940 Princeton avenue, Chicago, was passing the
+theater when the panic started. He ran into the vestibule and thence into
+the foyer, where he saw men breaking open the doors. He remained but a
+short time, and left, overcome by the terrible sight.
+
+"The great marble hall was filled with madmen and hysterical women fleeing
+for life," he declared. "The doors, of which there appeared to be several
+sets, were locked against them with the exception of the center door of
+each set. Men were beating against the steel and glass barriers and women
+crowded with the desperation of death stamped upon their faces. Smoke was
+puffing out, filling the beautiful foyer and telling in awful eloquence of
+the triumph of death further in. I could do nothing to relieve the
+situation for there was nothing within the power of mortal man to do to
+stop the horror. So I left, overcome by the terrible sight that had met my
+eyes."
+
+
+THE FLY MAN'S STORY.
+
+Charles Sweeney, 186 North Morgan street, Chicago, "fly man" on first
+flying gallery, nearest point where the fire started:
+
+"In the second act, in the 'Pale Moonlight' scene, I was sitting on a
+bench, and there were two or three more of the boys. About ten feet from
+the front of the fly gallery I saw a bright light. The other boys saw it,
+I guess, at the same time and we ran over there. I saw a small blaze on
+one of the borders. I don't know exactly which one. I hallooed across the
+stage to Joe Dougherty. He was the man taking Seymour's place. Seymour was
+sick. I said, 'Down with the asbestos curtain.' Smithey and I got
+tarpaulins and we slapped the flame with them. We did the best we could
+and then it got out of our reach. It went right along the border toward
+the center. Then it burned and one end of it fell down, bent like. Then it
+blazed all over and I saw there was no possibility of doing anything. I
+ran upstairs to the sixth floor and hallooed to the girls. I led them down
+in front of me, and I kept telling them to be careful and not to have a
+stampede or anything of that kind, and then I came down and went outside
+the building."
+
+
+SCHOOL TEACHER'S THRILLING EXPERIENCE.
+
+Alice Kilroy, 67 Oregon avenue, Chicago, a Chicago school teacher:
+
+"During the performance I stood in the upper balcony, right near the
+alley; a few feet from the top exit south, about the third or fourth seat
+from the end. I stood right back of that. When the fire first began we
+thought it was part of the performance and my sister said to me, very
+calmly, 'Even if there is no fire, let us go out in the exit.' We knew
+this was an exit because we had seen it opened. An usher had been out and
+we stepped out there.
+
+"As soon as we stepped out the heat was intense and we saw we could not go
+down the steps, so we stood there on the platform of the fire escape. I
+tried to get in the theater again, but the people were rushing out and I
+could not go against the mob. I saw that the mob was trying to get out of
+the exit, and so I had to stand right where I was. We stood there it
+seemed to me, about six minutes, and we knew we were burning, and there
+wasn't anything to do but to stay there. We couldn't go any other place.
+After a few minutes some water fell on us. I did not see very much because
+I held a collarette up to my face to protect it from the hot air, which
+was unutterably awful. When the water came that kind of refreshed us and
+dampened the fire so we could stand up for a few minutes longer, and then
+a plank was put from the opposite building and we went over the plank and
+escaped to the Northwestern University building. The crowd behind us that
+had been fighting and pushing so hard seemed to die away and collapse all
+in an instant. The scrambling and pushing ceased. This crowd was at the
+entrance to the door. Something happened to them and they did not have any
+life, because they did not push when I turned back. When I first started
+to go in--when I turned back--there was lots of life, then I turned and
+faced them, the mob going out, because it was so hot out there I thought I
+could go back in the theater. Part of them fell on the floor and part
+outside on the fire escape platform. I think I was the last to escape
+alive over the planks across the alley. I was terribly burned; you can see
+by the bandages that I don't dare to take off yet."
+
+
+GLEN VIEW MAN'S EXPERIENCE.
+
+Walter Flentye, Glen View:
+
+"I occupied seat 7 in section R, handy to the entrance. I think it was
+about half-past 3, while that octet was singing there in the pale
+moonlight, that I just noticed a kind of a hesitation on the part of the
+octet, and pretty soon I saw a few sparks begin to come down about the
+size of those from a roman candle. They were coming down from the upper
+left hand corner of the stage, and pretty soon the fire began to grow more
+and more, and I should say that pieces of burning rags dropped down of
+different sizes. About that time Eddie Foy came out and tried to calm the
+audience. I don't just exactly remember what he said, and I kept my seat.
+I had no idea that there was to be anything of that kind; that the fire
+was to be as large as it was, and the audience down below were going out.
+I had a friend beside me that left. I don't remember just what I said to
+him. He said he was going and he went out and a little later I got up,
+and, without any trouble, went through the door, and I went immediately to
+the check room. I had checked a valise and umbrella, and at that time I
+had no idea of any such a fire as that. So I thought I had plenty of time
+and I took my valise and umbrella and set them on a settee to the left of
+the foyer and put on my overcoat and hat.
+
+"When I first came out I noticed that there were a lot of women that were
+almost frenzied by the excitement and they were around toward the
+entrance, and I noticed one man carrying a woman. That was while I was
+going to the checkroom, and after I had put on my coat I looked and there
+were two women and a man that went to the door to look in, and I kind of
+thought the woman might rush in, so I said, 'Don't go back, it is too late
+now.' And they all turned around and I looked once more and by that time
+it looked as though there was a mass of fire belched out, and I remember
+seeing it catch the front seats, and after I went out and walked across
+the street and I talked to a policeman who stood in front of Vaughn's
+store and by that time about eight or ten policemen came along from down
+Randolph street, and shortly after the firemen came. Then for the first
+time I realized what a terrible thing I had escaped and the true horror
+of the situation unfolded itself."
+
+
+THE LIGHT OPERATOR.
+
+William Wertz, 12024 Union avenue, West Pullman, Ill.:
+
+"I was operating a light on the rear part of the stage on the afternoon of
+the fire. I noticed that the actors, eight boys, were looking up toward
+the right hand of their places, and as soon as they did that I stepped
+back one or two feet, still holding my lamp in sight so as to attend to it
+should it go down. I looked toward the place that the people had gazed and
+I noticed a small blaze there upon a little platform used for throwing a
+light on the front of the stage. As I looked there I saw the fireman of
+the house, who was back on the stage, running forward hallooing, 'Lower
+down the curtain!' and climb up to the little platform. He had either
+taken a tube of kilfyre in his hand or there was one up there, as I very
+distinctly saw him sprinkle it on the fire. Then the man took his hands
+and tried to tear down the blazing pieces of scenery.
+
+"Then I saw one drop after another go into the flame. I saw a lot of
+people running up to that point of the fire, others from the balcony
+dressing rooms come running down, and on the side of me, or close to the
+door were several girls becoming hysterical, excited. That was at the
+stage door opening onto a little bridge-like platform leading to Dearborn
+street. I went up to the girls and said, 'Come on, girls, get out of here
+as soon as possible.' I took one by the arm and put her out.
+
+"When I came out there the girls started to run forward, and I went in
+again, because I was in my shirt sleeves and I wanted to take my coat and
+save what goods I had. As soon as I entered the stage again I heard a lot
+of noise and crying and calling and I went forward to that point and
+succeeded in pulling some more of the young ladies out. Then when I got
+on the little bridge leading from the stage to Dearborn street, I noticed
+that the whole scenery was in a blaze, that it was falling down and I
+tried to get in again, but through the enormous heat, and I believe that
+the city fire people just had arrived there with the hose and pulled me
+back so I couldn't get in there any more.
+
+"I know there was an asbestos curtain in the theater and that it was used.
+During the time I have been connected with different theaters through the
+country I have always looked up to the curtains, and often put my hands on
+them. What was called by employees in the house the asbestos curtain, and
+also in several theaters in Chicago, has written on it, 'asbestos
+curtain.' When I entered this house on several occasions before the show I
+saw this particular curtain hanging there, a dirty white color, and on one
+or two occasions, in passing by, I pushed my hand against it and it felt
+to me exactly like other curtains hanging in Chicago, and on which
+'asbestos' is written. One, for instance, in the Grand opera house, has
+written on it 'asbestos,' and is the same color in the back and has the
+same feeling when you put your hands on it as this one in the Iroquois
+theater.
+
+"It was that curtain Sallers, the house fireman, was shouting for when I
+heard him. The fireman said, 'Down with that curtain,' and the other
+voice, which I thought was Mr. Carleton's, the stage manager, said, 'For
+God's sake lower that curtain.' Several other voices hallooed out, 'What
+is the matter with the curtain? Down with the curtain.' But it didn't fall
+and the holocaust followed."
+
+
+THE JAMMED THEATER.
+
+The unlawful and deadly crowded condition of the theater at the time of
+the fire was emphasized by the testimony of Rupert D. Laughlin, 1505
+Wrightwood avenue, who, although he reached the theater before the curtain
+went up, found the spaces behind the seats crowded and people sitting on
+the steps in the aisles. Laughlin and Miss Lucy Lucas, his niece, had
+seats in the second balcony, or gallery.
+
+"We went into the theater about ten minutes before the orchestra come out
+and had some difficulty in getting into our seats," he said, "on account
+of the people standing in the aisles and at the back. The people were
+sitting on the steps.
+
+"The steps were very steep and people occupied them quite a way down. They
+had to rise and stand aside to let us make our way to our seats. There was
+a man and a woman sitting on the step right beside our seats. At the end
+of the first act I went out to the foyer. I had considerable difficulty
+getting out. There was a great deal larger crowd in the aisles and sitting
+on the steps than there was when we came down first. They were strung
+along the aisle and there were a great many women on the steps. I went out
+and walked around for a while and then came back and took my seat. I had
+to make the women get up as I was coming down the aisle again.
+
+"When the fire started I went right to the first exit and out on the fire
+escape platform. When I got to the door there were flames and a great deal
+of smoke coming out from a window that was near there, and we couldn't go
+out at that time, so we waited for a few seconds, and the fire died down.
+Then we went down the fire escape to the alley.
+
+"Many other people escaped by the same means before us--at least I should
+judge there was, because we saw a number of hats and furs and things of
+that sort on the steps. There wasn't anybody coming down in back or in
+front of us while we were going down."
+
+
+GAS EXPLOSION HOURS BEFORE THE FIRE.
+
+That the explosion of a gas tank came near destroying the Iroquois theater
+a few hours previous to the performance on the opening night, about a
+month before, was testified to by John Bickles, 6711 Rhodes avenue.
+According to Bickles, a gas tank under the stage exploded with such force
+that flames shot over an eight-foot partition. It was only after a hard
+fight on the part of employes of the theater and the fact that there was
+little inflammable material near the fire that the flames were subdued.
+Bickles stated that he did not know what sort of a gas tank exploded, as
+he did not inquire of the other employees. At the time he was standing in
+a room opposite the one in which the gas tank exploded.
+
+"The flames leaped over an eight-foot partition, but did not burn me,"
+said Bickles. "I went on to the stage soon after the explosion and the
+next day was discharged by the George A. Fuller company, builders of the
+theater, by whom I was employed as a carpenter. There was no work was the
+reason. There were a number of actresses and sewing women in the theater
+at the time of the explosion. The first performance was to be given that
+evening and everybody was making ready. I was the person who fixed the
+wall plates for the skylights, but I never saw them after they were
+finished."
+
+From Bickles' testimony it seemed the George A. Fuller company had kept a
+number of its men in the theater after it was occupied by the Iroquois
+Theater company. They were completing unfinished details. The fact of the
+fire, he said, was hushed up.
+
+
+PANIC AMONG THEATER EMPLOYEES.
+
+Gilbert McLean, a scene shifter, at work on the stage when the fire
+started, told of the failure of the fire extinguisher to put out the
+blaze, and declared that the failure of the fire curtain to drop was due
+to a misunderstanding among the men in the flies who were supposed to
+operate it. Then men appeared not to know what was wanted and lost
+priceless time hesitating. McLean's story would indicate that the stage
+employees ran away long before the audience knew that there was danger.
+Speaking of the efforts of the stage fireman to put out the blaze soon
+after it started in the grand drapery, McLean said:
+
+"If the extinguisher had been effective he could not have reached the fire
+at that time, though the part he did reach did not seem to be affected at
+all. Then there was a commotion, everybody was running back and forth, and
+I yelled as loud as I could to send the curtain. I saw the men did not
+understand the signal; they were signaling from the first entrance then by
+a bell. I could hear the bell ringing and I could see the fly men, as they
+called them, and saw they didn't understand. I yelled as loud as I could
+and they did not seem to understand me or to know why the curtain should
+be sent at that time, as it was not the regular time for the curtain.
+
+"Well, the fire kept making headway towards the back of the stage. It
+spread rapidly right straight back. There seemed to have been a draft from
+the front of the theater. The show people started to go out fast, coming
+from the basement and from the stage and leaving the stage by the regular
+stage entrance. Somebody hallooed, 'She is gone. Everybody run for your
+lives.' I went towards the rear door then and made my way out as best I
+could.
+
+"There had never been any fire drill on the stage so far as I know and I
+never heard any fire instructions. Many were out before I left and I
+guess all the stage people got out some way or another. It was every man
+for himself then."
+
+
+AN EX-USHER'S WORDS.
+
+Willard Sayles, 382 North avenue, Chicago: "I was formerly an usher at the
+Iroquois theater. During my period of employment the fire escape exits at
+the alley side of the house were always kept locked. There was one
+exception. The opening night Mr. Dusenberry, the head usher, had me open
+the inner set, the wooden doors that concealed the big outside iron ones.
+The people on the aisle were complaining that it was too warm. He gave
+orders to the director and myself to open the wooden inner doors to the
+auditorium. Later on Mr. Davis came up and told me to close them and not
+to open them unless I got instructions from him. That was the only time I
+got instructions from either one of them. We had not got instructions as
+to what doors we were to attend to in case of fire. The only time we got
+instructions was the Sunday before the house opened; Mr. Dusenberry called
+us all down there and told us to get familiar with the house. There was no
+fire drill or anything of that kind."
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XXI.
+
+IRON GATES, DEATH'S ALLY.
+
+
+That two iron gates, securely padlocked, across stairways in the Randolph
+street entrance, held scores of women and children as prisoners of death
+at the Iroquois theater fire horror, was the startling evidence secured on
+Saturday, Jan. 9, ten days after the holocaust by Fire Department Attorney
+Monroe Fulkerson.
+
+In a statement under oath George M. Dusenberry, superintendent of the
+auditorium of the playhouse, admitted that these gates had remained locked
+against the frantic crowds through all the terrible rush to escape.
+Against these, bodies were piled high in death of those who might have
+gained the open air had they not been penned in by the immovable bars.
+
+Not until the sworn statement had been secured from Dusenberry were the
+investigators brought to a full realization of the horrors of the
+imprisoned victims.
+
+These deadly iron gates, four to five feet high, according to Dusenberry's
+testimony, were quietly removed after the fire. One of the gates was at
+the landing of the dress circle. The other was on the stairway which led
+from the dress circle entrance to the landing above. At the Randolph
+street entrance were two grand staircases. Passage down one of these
+staircases was shut off completely by the iron gates.
+
+According to Dusenberry, the gates were locked with a padlock, requiring a
+key to open them. It was the custom to open these gates after the
+intermission at the close of the second act, so as to give the people an
+unobstructed passageway for leaving the house at the close of the play.
+
+The exact condition made by the locked gates and the extent to which they
+contributed to the immense loss of life may be realized by Dusenberry's
+sworn testimony in detail on this point.
+
+
+DUSENBERRY'S TESTIMONY.
+
+It was as follows:
+
+Q. Do you recall an inspection which I made of the stairway of the second
+floor of that theater the next day after the fire? A. Yes, sir.
+
+Q. And showed you two iron gates that folded up like an accordion? A. Yes,
+sir.
+
+Q. Please state whether or not these two gates were locked at the time of
+the fire. A. Yes, sir.
+
+Q. State where the lower one was located. A. At the landing of the dress
+circle.
+
+Q. And do I understand that one side of it was solidly hinged with an iron
+rod and that the other side of the gate was fastened by a chain locked by
+a padlock? A. A small lock.
+
+Q. The lock required a key to open it? A. Yes, sir; a small key.
+
+Q. How high was this gate? A. I should think four or five feet.
+
+Q. And was I correct in saying it folded up like an accordion when not in
+use? A. Yes, sir.
+
+Q. Where was the other one located? A. On the stairway which led from the
+dress circle entrance up to the landing above.
+
+Q. And was it secured and locked in the same manner as the other gate? A.
+Yes, sir.
+
+
+PURPOSE OF THE TWO GATES.
+
+Q. Consider the first one; what was its function? A. In order that we
+could have system in handling the house.
+
+Q. Yes; but what was it used for? A. When people were going upstairs that
+gate simply turned them for the balcony stairway.
+
+Q. You are talking about the lower gate? A. Yes, sir.
+
+Q. So, by reason of this gate, when the people started out they could have
+only one direction in which to leave, instead of two, as would be the case
+if no gate were there? A. Yes, sir.
+
+Q. Let us consider the other gate; what was it for? A. To keep the people
+from going down into the dress circle, and to keep them on the regular
+stairway for the balcony.
+
+Q. I believe you told me that you locked these gates yourself just before
+this matinee began? A. Yes, sir.
+
+Q. That is correct, is it? A. Yes, sir.
+
+Q. Did you ever say anything to Mr. Noonan or Mr. Powers or Mr. Davis as
+to the importance of having men stationed there, instead of a gate, so
+that in case of fire this would not be an obstruction? A. No, sir; they
+were always unlocked after the second intermission.
+
+Q. In what act was that? A. At the close of the second act they would be
+always unlocked. They were exits.
+
+Q. At the time this fire began and people started out, were they still
+locked or unlocked? A. They were locked.
+
+
+NEVER ANY FIRE DRILLS.
+
+Dusenberry admitted that at the time of the fire's outbreak he was
+descending from the top balcony after having made an inspection of the
+entire house. This was his custom, to see that the ushers were in their
+places. He said that 100 persons were standing in the passageway back of
+the last row of seats on the first floor and about twenty-five persons
+occupied standing room in the rear of the first balcony, and seventy-five
+in the rear of the top balcony.
+
+He admitted that he had never received any instructions from any of the
+owners or managers of the theater as to what to do in case of fire. He
+said that he had been told in a general way by Will J. Davis that he was
+to instruct the boys in their duties as ushers and make them familiar with
+the house.
+
+There had never been any fire drills, he said. He did not know, he said,
+from what point or in what manner the large cylindrical ventilator over
+the auditorium was worked. It was because this ventilator was open and
+those above the stage closed that the fire was drawn into the front of the
+house. He said the nine exits on the north side, three of which were on
+each floor, were all bolted at the time of the fire; also that the nine
+pairs of iron shutters outside the inner doors were bolted at the time,
+and that he had never received orders from any one to have these unbolted
+while the audience was in the house.
+
+
+GATES WERE BATTERED.
+
+"I found these gates in a battered condition by personal inspection, the
+next morning after the fire," Fire Department Attorney Fulkerson added. "I
+hunted up Mr. Dusenberry and took him to the place and examined him on the
+spot as to each minute detail. The examination was with reference to their
+being locked, and as to why a man had not been stationed there, in place
+of a gate, to direct the people.
+
+"I called two policemen as witnesses. The reason I have kept this matter
+secret until now was the fact that this is the first day I have had an
+opportunity of examining Mr. Dusenberry under oath and taking his
+statements in shorthand to be used in any proceeding that may follow.
+
+"The importance of his testimony is that he is the man the theater
+management had put in direct control of the audience and auditorium, and
+the facts which he has testified to speak for themselves. Let the public
+draw its own conclusions.
+
+"I wish to say, however, with reference to those iron gates that they are
+no part of the building or the stairway as turned over by the builders and
+were not a part of the plans of the same, but a feature installed by the
+management after the stairways were finished and accepted, and no permit
+was obtained from the city building department to place the gates there.
+They proved to be the gates of death. Until this time they have been
+overlooked in the general investigation and silence has been maintained by
+the fire department for the purpose of clinching the evidence concerning
+them. This was rendered necessary through the fact that those best
+qualified to tell of their danger gave up their lives in acquiring that
+knowledge. They were gathered from behind the deadly barriers and now lie
+in eternal silence beyond the reach of all earthly summonses and the
+jurisdiction of our tribunals."
+
+Ernest Stern, 3423 South Park avenue, Chicago:
+
+"There was nothing left in the playhouse but standing room when my sister
+and I arrived, so we bought tickets according that privilege and took up a
+position in the middle of the first balcony. We were standing there when
+we saw the first evidence of fire and at once ran out. We owe our lives to
+that fact.
+
+"It was about the middle of the second act when I noticed the blaze on the
+upper left-hand corner of the stage. Those on the stage seemed to be in
+semi-panic. The people didn't know what to do. Then there seemed to be
+somebody giving directions for them to put down the curtains after a
+burning piece of scenery or something fell on the stage. A man came out
+and gave instructions for them to pull down the curtain and after that we
+went out the door, downstairs and came to a door on the left hand side in
+the foyer, facing the street, and in the inner vestibule. There was a man
+there. He was not in uniform. He was trying to open the door, which was
+locked. There was a pair--two doors--and one of them was open and a great
+crowd was going out. This man was trying to unlock the other door and he
+could not do it. I broke the glass, and that wouldn't do either, so I
+kicked the whole door out and we escaped."
+
+
+DIDN'T BOTHER ABOUT LOCKED DOORS.
+
+That the foyer doors, which the van of the fleeing audience found closed,
+were locked during the performance was the statement of Harry Weisselbach
+of Chicago. He was at the ticket office in the outer vestibule off
+Randolph street, some time before the fire and saw two men in an argument
+regarding the doors. They were coming out of the theater.
+
+"That's a mean trick, to lock the doors so people can't get out," said one
+of the men. "They have locked the doors again," he continued, looking back
+at the door man. "I wonder if there is a policeman around here."
+
+The man's companion replied that he wasn't going to bother about the
+matter and the two left the theater. Weisselbach went around to the
+Northwestern University school and was there only a short time when the
+fire in the theater started. His story of the fire from that viewpoint was
+similar to that told by Witness Fred H. Rea.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XXII.
+
+DANCED IN PRESENCE OF DEATH.
+
+
+Heroes and heroines--every one of them--the members of the octette told
+the coroner how they sang and danced to reassure the vast audience of
+women and children while death lowered overhead and swept through the
+scene loft, a chariot of flame. Modestly they revealed the part they
+played in the catastrophe while billows of flame, death's red banners,
+menaced their lives.
+
+Madeline Dupont, 145 Franklin avenue, New York:
+
+"I first saw just a little bit of flame, which was on the right hand side
+of the first entrance on the west, the first drop of the curtain. It was
+just above the lamp that was reflecting on the moonlight girls. It was a
+calcium light. I went back and got in my place with the pale moonlight
+girls and the boys came out and sang their lines. Then we eight girls went
+on the stage--as we always did--went down to the front of the stage--and
+going down stage I saw the flame getting larger. Mr. Plunkett, the
+assistant stage manager, was in the entrance, ringing for the asbestos
+curtain to come down. He rang the bell until we reached the front of the
+stage, where we went on singing. We sang one verse of 'The Pale Moonlight'
+song, and then Mr. Foy came out and spoke to the audience. What he said I
+don't know, and then Miss Williams fainted. She was one of the 'pale
+moonlight' girls, and stood alongside of me. She was taken out, and then
+Miss Lawrence and myself were the last girls to leave the stage. I went
+downstairs to notify the girls down in the basement in the dressing
+rooms. I called to them that there was a fire, and advised them to run for
+their lives. Nobody was coming up then. Then I went out of the regular
+stage door entrance."
+
+Ethel Wynne, New York City:
+
+"When I was about to make my exit I noticed a very small flame to the
+right of the stage at the first entrance. It was really above the short
+fellow--a little gentleman, rather--who stands on the bridge. This flame
+was above his head. When he noticed it he put both hands up to get the
+burning material--just grabbed up to get the material that was burning.
+But the flame was away beyond his reach.
+
+"The calcium light is below that, and it appeared to me as though it was
+the side of the curtain where the curtains are drawn up, or something. The
+flames spread very rapidly. I remember seeing Mr. Plunkett very plainly in
+the first entrance and hearing bells ringing for the curtain to fall. I
+said to Miss Dupont and Miss Williams, 'The curtain will fall in the
+meantime, the bells have rung.' We went to the back to make our entrance
+and the bell still continued to ring. I remember very plainly that I heard
+some one yell, 'Drop the curtain.'
+
+"I noticed clearly that the curtain was caught, and it must have been on
+our left. It came down on the right hand side. The flames were going up
+very rapidly. I very foolishly lost my reason and walked back to the back
+steps, where I had made my entrance. From there I unfortunately had to
+watch the awful sights that we know of. I don't know to this hour how I
+got out of the burning theater."
+
+Gertrude Lawrence, 5 West 125th street, New York:
+
+"I was the leader of the octet, and I was on the platform going to meet my
+partner when I first saw the flame. I went on working as usual, down to
+the front, and paid no more attention to it because I thought it would
+soon be out. It was on the right hand side of the stage, above the stage.
+I noticed there was quite an excitement on the other side, but I went on
+working. I thought if there was an awful fire there would be a panic, and
+I thought by working I would quiet the people. Then I turned and saw the
+flames and went up the steps, there looking back and seeing the audience
+in the awful panic. Then I went out the usual stage door."
+
+Daisy Beaute, 178 West 94th street, New York:
+
+"I was standing in the third wing ready to go on, and I saw a flame on the
+left hand side, facing the audience, from the draperies above the first
+entrance on my right hand side. It was in the draperies clear at the top
+of the arch in the stage opening. We kept on dancing, but Miss Williams
+fainted. I ran for my life without waiting to see anything more."
+
+Miss Edith Williams, the member of the octet who fainted on the stage,
+swooned again soon after she took the witness stand. Deputy Coroner
+Buckley had just administered the oath and asked the young woman to be
+seated, when she fell backwards. The fall was broken by a stenographer,
+and the woman saved from serious injury. She was assisted to the witness
+room and revived. Another witness was called.
+
+Miss Anna Brand, another member of the octet, testified to the facts
+similar to those related by Miss Dupont and Miss Wynne, Miss Lawrence,
+Miss Beaute, Miss Richards and Miss Romaine, the remaining members
+testifying in a similar strain. None admitted knowing who opened the rear
+stage door leading to Dearborn street, the door through which came the
+cold blast that forced the fire into the auditorium.
+
+"Jack" Strause, 31 West 11th street, New York:
+
+"The octet had just made its entrance, walked four steps and danced eight,
+bringing the members to the center of the stage, when I discovered the
+fire overhead at the side of the proscenium arch. My partner in the scene,
+a young woman, cried out that she was fainting. She braced up, however,
+did a few more steps and collapsed. As I stooped to pick her up I saw the
+curtain fall possibly six or seven feet. From that time on I observed
+nothing more of the progress of the fire, being engrossed in an effort to
+carry out the unconscious young woman. Upon reaching the big scene door at
+the north of the stage, a strong blast of air blew us both into the alley.
+The rush of air was occasioned by the falling of a partition behind me, I
+think. I carried the girl into a neighboring restaurant, where she
+revived."
+
+Samuel Bell (Beverly Mars):
+
+"We saw the fire start about the time we made our entrance, but continued
+with our 'turn,' reaching the center of the stage. The fire was spreading
+and large sparks and fragments of burning material were falling, but we
+kept on until Miss Williams fainted. I saw the people in front commence to
+get excited and I put up my hands and told the people to keep as quiet and
+move out as easily as they could and not to get excited. I looked up again
+and I saw the drop curtain coming down. I should call it the asbestos
+curtain. It came down, as near as I could judge, about six or eight feet.
+Then I turned to look for my partner and she had gone. I looked on the
+stage to see her and I could not find her. She had gone off the stage. I
+merely went off the stage, out of the same side I had entered--I could not
+say exactly which entrance--and then out of the stage door, which was wide
+open."
+
+Victor Lozard, 235 Bower street, Jersey City:
+
+"I was coming out with the boys, eight of us, at the right side. We came
+up and met our partners and we got down as far front as the footlights,
+when Miss Williams fainted, which attracted my attention to some flames
+up at the first entrance on the right side. I then immediately turned
+around and helped pick Miss Williams up, and by that time my partner had
+left me, and I left the stage on the right side. I went up and was going
+to leave by the stage door, but people were going out there, and so I went
+over to the back drop, to the right of the stage, and there, about the
+middle of the stage, I was blown down or knocked down, I don't know what
+happened to me, and the next I knew of myself I was out in the alley. I
+don't know how I got there."
+
+John J. Russell, Boston, Mass.:
+
+"I had taken the first twelve steps of the dance when I first noticed the
+fire. It was in the first entrance, prompt side, about fifteen feet above
+the stage. The flame then was about five inches in length.
+
+"I noticed that for about a second. I continued on with the rest of the
+business, and me and my partner, as I always had done in that number, went
+down to the footlights. When we got there we continued in the business for
+about three or four seconds after getting down. Then Miss Williams
+fainted. The flames were falling to the stage, large pieces of burning
+material, and seemed to create quite a little disturbance among the people
+in the audience. I spoke to a number and tried to quiet them.
+
+"I told them to be seated, that everything would be all right, and to
+quiet down, and quite a number did. After Miss Williams fainted it
+attracted my attention, of course, to what was going on on the stage. I
+saw one of the moonlight boys pick Miss Williams up in his arms and go
+toward the stage entrance, other members of the octet following, except
+myself. I staid until they were out of sight. I left the stage by the
+second entrance on the prompt side. I went down stairs by the stairway
+beside the stage elevator.
+
+"I came back on the stage again, made one more trip down stairs, and then
+I came to the stage once more. I went partly up stage, toward the stage
+entrance, that was all in flames. I looked to the other side of the stage
+and that was all in flames. I went down to the footlights, crossing again
+across the stage, and jumped over the footlights into the auditorium and
+made my way out to the first exit on my left, looking into the auditorium
+from the stage, into the alley. The panic was on at that time and it was a
+dreadful sight."
+
+The statements of the remaining members were almost identical with those
+quoted.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XXIII.
+
+JOIN TO AVENGE SLAUGHTER OF INNOCENTS.
+
+
+Ten days after the fire horror, while blood curdling disclosures were
+coming to light revealing the fate of the penned-in fire victims in a new
+and more ghastly aspect, and while school officials and pupils gathered to
+express grief for the 39 teachers and 102 pupils who were gathered in the
+grim harvest, an inspired movement sprang from the aftermath of woe. It
+was a cry for justice.
+
+In an upper chamber in a towering sky-scraper in the heart of teeming,
+bustling Chicago, scores of sad visaged men and women assembled to lay
+aside their burden of woe and enter upon the prosecution of those whose
+avarice, neglect or incompetency had snuffed out all happiness and
+sunshine from their lives. A preliminary organization of relatives of
+victims of the Iroquois theater fire was effected in consequence on
+Saturday, January 9, for that purpose, at a meeting held in the offices of
+the Western Society of Engineers, in the Monadnock building.
+
+The meeting was held in response to a call sent out by Arthur E. Hull,
+asking that concerted action be taken by the relatives and survivors to
+cause the speedy prosecution and punishment of any who were criminally
+responsible for the disaster and to learn those financially liable for
+claims. Mr. Hull lost his wife and three children in the catastrophe.
+
+Long before 3 o'clock, the time set for the meeting, many fathers,
+mothers, brothers, sisters and near relatives of victims began to gather.
+Nearly every seat was taken when the meeting was called to order. There
+were perhaps 125 people present, among whom over a hundred lost near and
+dear relatives in the fire.
+
+Attorney W. J. Lacey announced the object of the gathering by reading the
+call and suggested the formation of a temporary organization. Mr. Hull was
+elected chairman and Edward T. Noble secretary.
+
+
+MR. HULL'S STATEMENT.
+
+Mr. Hull spoke briefly of his reason for calling the meeting.
+
+"The last time I saw my wife and little ones," he said, "was on the
+morning of the fire. I did not know until late in the evening that they
+had perished in the flames. There are many others who have suffered as
+deeply as I have, on account of this horror. There are some families,
+perhaps, whose means of support have been wrested from them. There is
+suffering and sorrow throughout this great city. It is my desire that we
+work together in the effort to find out who the men are that are
+criminally and financially responsible for our terrible loss and bring
+them before the bar of justice.
+
+"It was the duty of the contractors who built the Iroquois theater to see
+that the building was complete in every detail before turning it over to
+the management. This, in my opinion, establishes their responsibility. The
+architect may also be held responsible.
+
+"As to the building inspector, I think he should be prosecuted to the
+fullest extent of the law. It was his failure to hold the management to a
+strict adherence to the law that brought about the destruction of nearly
+600 precious lives. We have recourse to the courts of justice. Let us
+stand together and see that punishment is meted out to the guilty."
+
+
+ATTORNEY T. D. KNIGHT SPEAKS.
+
+Chairman Hull then called for an expression from his attorney, Thomas D.
+Knight, who spoke as follows:
+
+"Mr. Hull's object in calling this meeting is to place the responsibility
+where it belongs, not upon the scene shifter and the stage hand, but upon
+men high in authority--the management and owners of the theater. They are
+the men he regards as financially and criminally liable for the disaster
+that destroyed his family and families of many of those present here
+today. It was Mr. Hull who caused the arrest of Mr. Davis and Mr. Powers
+of the theater management, and Building Commissioner Williams. As Mr. Hull
+is so deeply affected by his loss he has requested me to state that it is
+his desire that a permanent organization be effected.
+
+"I believe an executive committee should be appointed to ascertain just
+what is best to be done and do it. I would suggest also the appointment of
+subcommittees on civil authority, permanent organization and finance. This
+last committee would be an important adjunct of this organization. It
+should be the aim of the finance committee to learn how many families are
+destitute as a result of the loss of their means of support in the fire
+and see that they are provided for. There are plenty of men of wealth in
+the city today who would gladly contribute to such a worthy cause.
+
+
+CORONER'S WORK THOROUGH.
+
+"As to the question of who are financially responsible the coroner's
+investigation has been thorough, careful and fair. The coroner's
+questioning has been competent and complete in every respect. It is
+probable that he will be able to determine just which men are to blame.
+Enough has been developed already to prove that there was gross and
+culpable negligence on the part of the proprietors of that theater.
+
+"As far as Klaw & Erlanger are concerned we have evidence connecting them
+already. The blaze that ignited the draperies and scenery was proved to
+have come from the 'spot' light, which was operated by an employee of the
+'Mr. Bluebeard' company, which is owned by these men, who control the
+theatrical trust. If it can be shown that Mayor Harrison and other city
+officials by their negligence contributed to the loss, then they can also
+be held responsible. There is no doubt but that those who are liable can
+be attacked in the civil courts."
+
+
+REMARKS BY ELIZABETH HALEY.
+
+A general discussion followed, during which Miss Elizabeth Haley, residing
+at 419 Sixtieth place, arose and made some revelations in regard to the
+lack of fire protection in various public schools. She said:
+
+"I presume the gentleman who has just spoken is an attorney and I would
+like to ask him if the men who allowed such criminal conditions to
+exist--the mayor, aldermen and city trustees--if they could not be held
+liable, both civilly and criminally? I am a school teacher, and I would
+like to know if men who time after time have completely ignored reports
+about the absolute absence of fire protection in school buildings are not
+liable?
+
+"To my personal knowledge reports have been made month after month to
+them, and nothing was ever heard of them. I know of schools where there is
+no fire hose, no fire extinguishers, no fire apparatus of any kind, no
+fire alarms, no telephones, no fire escapes--not a thing that would enable
+the hundreds of children to save their lives in the event of a fire. And
+these buildings are locked at 9 o'clock, with only one exit left open. Are
+not the mayor, the aldermen, and the trustees directly responsible for
+this state of things, and are they not the men who should be prosecuted
+along with the proprietors of that theater?
+
+"On November 2 last, the newspapers reported that a complaint had been
+made before the city council that the theaters were violating the laws.
+That report went to a subcommittee and has never been heard of since; and
+a day or two later Mayor Harrison came out with a statement in which he
+defied criticism and declared that there was no truth in the complaints.
+The whole thing strikes me as a splendid lesson in civics--that we cannot
+shirk our duty, even as high officials."
+
+The following committee, the majority residents of Chicago, was named to
+act, pending further action: J. L. McKenna, 758 South Kedzie avenue; Henry
+M. Shabad, 4041 Indiana avenue; J. J. Reynolds, 421 East Forty-fifth
+street; E. S. Frazier, Aurora, Ill.; Morris Schaffner, 578 East
+Forty-fifth street.
+
+All of these men lost members of their families in the fire, Mr. McKenna
+losing his whole family.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XXIV.
+
+AWFUL PROPHECY FULFILLED.
+
+
+More than a quarter of a century ago the prophecy was made by the _Chicago
+Times_ that a terrible calamity was in store for the public on account of
+the lax provision made for escape from burning theaters. The prophecy was
+put forth in the guise of a pretended report of such a horror in the issue
+of that publication for February 13, 1875, and was as follows:
+
+"Scores of houses are saddened this beautiful winter morning by the fate
+which overtook so many unsuspecting people in Chicago last night. The
+hearts of thousands will be stirred to their depths with sympathy for the
+unfortunates. It was a catastrophe awful in its results, yet grand in its
+horror. Nothing has equaled it for years; it is to be hoped that its
+counterpart will never be known.
+
+"There are smoking ruins down in the heart of the city--ruins of one of
+the finest theaters in Chicago, which fell a prey to the devouring element
+last night. There are mourning households and rows of dead bodies at the
+morgue. There will be anxious inquiries on the lips of many persons with
+whom one will meet manifesting an eagerness to know whether friends were
+swallowed up in the flames or made good their escape.
+
+"While it cannot be said that the catastrophe was entirely unexpected, yet
+it came so suddenly and so little had been done to obviate it, that its
+results are fearful to contemplate. For months the frequenters of the
+various places of amusement in Chicago had often questioned themselves
+whether there would not come the day when in some of these buildings
+grisly death would stalk forth, like a thief in the night, and lay his
+cold hands upon the unsuspecting throng; at last the terrible moment and
+the horrible reality dawned.
+
+"With all her experience in conflagrations and attendant horrors, Chicago
+has nothing to compare with this catastrophe. Even the fire of 1871, which
+swept over a vast extent of country and reduced proud and formidable
+looking buildings and scattered their strength to the winds, lacked the
+comparative loss of life which this one disaster has entailed. Property
+may be dissipated, but it can be recovered once more.
+
+"Death robs us forever of our dear ones, and leaves a void which time can
+never fully fill.
+
+
+MOURNING AND INDIGNATION.
+
+"As we tread today upon the very heels of this latest sad event and take a
+comprehensive view of its details and results, no one, not even though he
+have no personal interest in the loss entailed, can help joining in the
+expression of mourning which will go up, and at the same time give vent to
+the already too long-suppressed feelings of indignation, which have from
+time to time arisen when thinking of the flimsy manner in which theaters
+are built, their lack of protection against fire and the inadequate means
+afforded inmates to escape therefrom in the event of an undue excitement
+that should spread a panic, ere the breaking out of a fire.
+
+"The sympathy for the dead will be equally balanced by vigorous
+denunciation of the criminality of everybody who, in an official or
+proprietary capacity, is interested therein.
+
+
+NOTHING ELSE SO HORRIBLE.
+
+"In the history of the country there are few events that can match this
+one. The burning of the Richmond theater, the falling of the Pemberton
+mill, the burning of the cotton mill at Fall River, the breaking loose of
+the Haydenville mill pond, with now and then of late years the engulfing
+of some steamer on inland lakes or the ocean, have for the time cast a
+great pall of mourning over the land, but they only stand in the same
+category with this last disaster, and can hardly rival it in swiftness of
+culmination or suddenness of origin.
+
+"For the time being this will furnish the chief topic for conversation,
+and if the _Times_ mistakes not, it will as well arouse the public to a
+complete realization of the unsafeness of theaters in general, and have
+the beneficial effect even in its tragic nature of moving the people to
+insist upon the adoption of a certain amount of safeguards against a like
+event in the future. The time to move in this matter is at this critical
+juncture, even while the charred remains of the
+
+UNFORTUNATE VICTIMS
+
+are lying stark upon their biers and friends are stabbed with the grief of
+the untimely taking off of their friends.
+
+"In the excitement of this hour it is no time to deal in sentimental
+reflections. The scenes of the past night are too fresh to warrant lengthy
+dwelling upon the morale of the occurrence. It is sufficient that it is
+distinctly understood that the catastrophe was more the result of
+insufficient means of egress from the theater than was the primary cause
+of the development of the fire, although the latter, aided by the first
+and helped on by the panic stricken people, who from the outset
+appreciated the terrible position in which they were placed, augmented to
+a large degree the number of deaths.
+
+"Chicago theaters as a general thing are tinder boxes into which humanity
+are packed by avaricious managers without any regard to their safety or
+thought of the imminent risk which is nightly impending. Evidently their
+only desire is to fill the house, gather in as much money as possible,
+while they take no heed to the dangers which surround their patrons on
+every hand.
+
+"The lesson had to be taught some time, it was inevitable; it had to be
+located at some one of the places of amusement, although all of them
+were--and those remaining are still--liable to share the same fate at any
+moment. If the experience of one should teach the others a little wisdom,
+the existing evil may perhaps be remedied, although it shall have been at
+the sacrifice of human life.
+
+
+FIRE! FIRE!
+
+"The gallery was overflowing and the gate that opened to the stairway
+which led to the floor below, as usual, was locked, so that those who
+bought cheap tickets could not make their way to higher-priced sections on
+the lower floor. In the uppermost gallery--where the 'gods' are supposed
+to assemble, and from which comes much of the inspiration which upholds
+the ambitious actor and transports the ranting comedian and raging
+tragedian to the seventh heaven of bliss--in this gallery there was a
+motley crowd.
+
+"They were there in large numbers, because the play had something that
+savored of blood; there was a broadsword combat and a murder scene. For
+reasons the very antitheses of these were the people downstairs drawn
+thither--there were love scenes and heart-burnings and statuesque posings,
+and artistic excellencies of varied kinds. It was a play that touched the
+feelings of humanity, the vulgar as well as the refined.
+
+
+BEFORE THE DISASTER.
+
+"The auditorium was ablaze with light, the audience were lit up with
+gaiety. Handsome women, richly clad, ogled one another and cast
+coquettish glances at dashing gentlemen. Fond mothers, chaperoning
+blooming daughters, chatted pleasantly, while indulgent fathers, although
+seeking relief from the cares of the day in the charming play, found
+neighbors near at hand with whom to discuss sordid business or perplexing
+politics.
+
+
+THE HOLOCAUST.
+
+"As has been stated, the house was filled with spectators. When the
+premonition of the impending disaster had been given out, and after the
+first great thrill of horror had, for the instant, frozen the blood of
+every spectator and caused an involuntary check to every heart, there came
+quickly the manifestation of a determination to 'do or die,' to escape
+from the angry flames if possible. And with this determination came the
+positive assurance of the growing calamity, through the person of one of
+the actors, who but a short time previous had been playing the buffoon,
+setting staid people agape with amusement and turning dull care into
+festivity. Hastily drawing the foot of the curtain back from the
+proscenium pillars, he thrust his blanched countenance into view and
+screamed with terrified voice:
+
+"'Hurry to the door for your lives; the stage is afire!'
+
+
+THE STAMPEDE BEGINS.
+
+"It hardly needed these words of warning to perfect the demoralization
+which had seized upon the terrified crowd. The stampede had already
+commenced; the work of death had been inaugurated.
+
+"Those who escaped, and with whom the _Times_ reporter had the good
+fortune to talk, on last evening, say that the detail of the horrors of
+that scene would defy description. One or two of these informants were so
+far down in the dress circle that they saw the whole of the catastrophe
+and measured its horrible magnitude as best they could under the
+excitement that prevailed. How they escaped is more than they could tell,
+but they found themselves borne along, lifted and pushed forward till the
+door was reached, and the outside and safety gained. They describe the
+scene inside the theater as
+
+ONE OF STUPENDOUS HORRORS.
+
+"The affrighted audience, rising from their seats, began simultaneously to
+attempt to reach the means of egress. Timid females raised their hands to
+heaven, shrieked wild, despairing cries and fell to be trampled into
+eternity by the heels of the wild rushing throng. Mothers pleaded
+piteously in the tumult and the roar that their darling daughters might be
+spared, while they themselves were resigned to the fate which was
+inevitable. Stout men with muscles of iron and cheeks blanched with terror
+clasped wives and sweethearts to their breasts and
+
+CURSED AND BLASPHEMED,
+
+and piteously prayed--the one that their progress was impeded, the other
+to those who, like them, prayed for a safe deliverance, but who were
+unable to afford the slightest assistance.
+
+"Meanwhile the flames had eaten their way to the front, and with one fell
+swoop licked up the combustible drop curtain, spread themselves across the
+proscenium and were working up towards the ceiling. Reaching this point
+the destroying element seemed to pause a moment as though pitying the
+position of the puny individuals who were fleeing its approach, and then
+remorselessly swept down in forked fury and pierced venom. The
+terror-stricken crowd felt the hot breath of the monster and surged and
+swayed and tried to escape its fury.
+
+
+DEAD BODIES FOUND.
+
+"The corpses recovered were, as has been before stated, taken to the
+street, removed two blocks away from the scene of the disaster, and, for
+the time being, laid out upon the pavement, awaiting the recognition of
+friends. Fathers and mothers, who in the tumult of the stampede had become
+separated from children; husbands who, despite their efforts, had felt
+themselves torn away from wives; friends who had been
+
+SUDDENLY AND FOREVER PARTED
+
+from friends; young men, who, while they had no friends to lose in the
+building, yet felt themselves bereft by reason of the common sympathy of
+the human heart; all these had, during the time preceding the recovery of
+the bodies, filled the streets and poured out their inconsolable grief in
+loudest tones. The _Times_ reporter to whose lot fell the recording of the
+scenes depicted under this head hopes that it may never again be his to
+witness a repetition of the scene. The anguish, the frenzy, the loud
+wailings, the heart-broken demonstrations were, indeed, overpowering and
+calculated to make an impression upon even the most stony heart that will
+last as long as reason holds its sway.
+
+
+THE FRENZY OF FRIENDS.
+
+"The silent bearers of these bodies, as they came and went, could not but
+be moved to tears at the reception which their burdens met. Here a
+charming girl, cut off in the flower of her youth and at the height of her
+pleasure; there a promising lad, full of hope but an hour before. Again,
+the silvered head of a loved mother, and soon the sturdy frame of one who
+had passed the heydey of youth and was beginning to enjoy the fruits of
+his youthful labors. There were people well known, whose sudden taking
+away will shock many a friend this morning; and there were others, too,
+male and female, who, lacking friends in life, found no mourners save the
+full heart of a sympathetic public to regret their departure.
+
+
+TOO HORRIBLE TO DWELL UPON.
+
+"But these scenes are too painful to be dwelt upon. One by one the dead
+were removed, some to near hotels, to await the coming dawn, when they
+might be taken to their late homes, and others being sent to the morgue by
+the police. At 2 o'clock officers were still searching, and the populace
+who had been drawn together by the awful catastrophe had dispersed in the
+main, although a few still lingered about the ruins, anxious to offer
+assistance where it might most be needed, while two streams of water
+continued to be poured into the building that every spark might be
+extinguished.
+
+
+HOW THEATERS SHOULD BE BUILT.
+
+"Granting that the conflagration detailed never happened, it is something
+liable to occur at any time in this city. Newspaper accounts more
+sensational in headlines and more shocking in narrative are to be expected
+almost any morning. The above is but a suggestion of what may at any time
+become a reality. Theaters are so built and so crammed with inflammable
+materials that a fire once started in them would in an incredibly short
+period gain such headway that nothing under heaven could check its mad and
+devouring career. Furthermore, the means of exit and all other avenues of
+escape are so limited that a panic once inaugurated in a crowded house
+would bring destruction upon the heads of a large proportion of the
+audience. Have theater-goers in Chicago ever thought of this, as, crowded
+into a seat, with means of hasty exit cut off, they have sat and looked
+around them upon the hundreds of others similarly situated?
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XXV.
+
+LIST OF THE DEAD.
+
+
+A.
+
+ADAMEK, JOHN, MRS., 40 years old, Bartlett, Ill.
+
+ALEXANDER, LULU B., 36 years old, 3473 Washington boulevard; identified by
+husband, W. G. Alexander.
+
+ALLEN, MRS. MARY S., 27 years old, 5546 Drexel boulevard.
+
+ANDERSON, RAGNE, 39 years old, scrubwoman, Iroquois; 229 Grand avenue.
+
+ANDREWS, HARRIET, 20 years old, West Superior, Wis.
+
+ALEXANDER, BOYER, 8 years old, 475 Washington boulevard; body identified
+by his father, Dr. W. A. Alexander.
+
+ADAMS, MRS. JOHN, Iola, Ill., identified by R. H. Ostrander.
+
+ALDRIDGE, LUELLA M'DONALD, 792 West Monroe street.
+
+ALFSON, ALFRED, 24 Keith street; identified by father.
+
+ANDERSON, ANNIE, 29 years old, 2141 Jackson boulevard.
+
+ANNEN, MARGARET, 299 Webster avenue; identified by Charles Annen.
+
+
+B.
+
+BARRY, WILMA, 17 years old, 4330 Greenwood avenue, stepdaughter of E. P.
+Berry, the insurance man, was with Mrs. Barry, who escaped.
+
+BARRY, MISS MAGGIE, 26 years old, 236 Lincoln avenue.
+
+BARNHEISEL, CHARLES H., 3622 Michigan avenue; unknown to family that he
+had attended theater, and published list of dead containing name conveyed
+the first information to family; body identified by relatives.
+
+BISSINGER, WALTER, 15 years old, 4934 Forrestville avenue, son of Benjamin
+Bissinger, real estate man; attended Howe Military academy at Lima, Ind.;
+was with sister, Tessie, 20 years, and cousin, Jack Pottlitzer, of
+Lafayette, Ind., who was killed; the sister escaped.
+
+BURNSIDE, MRS. ESTHER, 437 West Sixty-fourth street; body identified by
+her son, C. W. Burnside, and the family physician, Dr. Schultz.
+
+BYRNE, CONSILA, 16 years old, 616 West Fifteenth street; Identified by
+sister.
+
+BICKFORD, GLENN, 16 years old, son of C. M. Bickford, 947 Farwell avenue,
+Rogers Park.
+
+BICKFORD, HELEN, 14 years old, daughter of C. M. Bickford.
+
+BREWSTER, MARY JULIA, 116 Thirty-first street, daughter of Mr. and Mrs. L.
+H. Brewster.
+
+BRENNAN, PAUL, 608 West Fulton street; identified at Rolston's.
+
+BAGLEY, MISS HELEN DEWEY, 18 years, 24 Madison Park; identified by J. J.
+Mahoney.
+
+BARKER, ETHEL M., 27 years old, 1925 Washington boulevard; identified by
+father.
+
+BATTENFIELD, MRS. D. W., 43 years old; Delaware, O.
+
+BATTENFIELD, JOHN, 23 years old; Delaware, O.
+
+BATTENFIELD, ROBERT, 15 years old; Delaware, O.
+
+BATTENFIELD, RUTH, 21 years old; Delaware, O.
+
+BESMICK, JOSEPH, West Superior, Wis.
+
+BEYER, infant.
+
+BIRD, MISS MARION, Iola, Ill.; identified by cousin.
+
+BLOOM, MRS. ROSE, 3760 Indiana avenue, 30 years old.
+
+BOEAM, PAUL, 608 West Fulton street.
+
+BOETCHER, MRS. CHARLES, 4140 Indiana avenue.
+
+BOICE, W. H., 5721 Rosalie court.
+
+BOICE, Mrs. W. H., 5721 Rosalie court.
+
+BOICE, MISS BESSIE, 15 years old, 5721 Rosalie court.
+
+BOLTIE, HELEN, Winnetka, aged 14.
+
+BOND, LUCILE, Hart, Mich.; identified by an aunt.
+
+BOWMAN, MRS. JOSEPHINE, 20 Chalmers place; identified by B. F. Jenkins, a
+neighbor.
+
+BOWMAN, BEATRICE M., 33 years old, 20 Chalmers place, daughter of Mrs.
+Josephine Bowman.
+
+BOWMAN, LUCIEN, 14 years old, 20 Chalmers place.
+
+BRADWELL, MISS MYRA, Windsor hotel.
+
+BRADY, LEON, 4356 Forrestville avenue.
+
+BROWN, HAROLD, 16 years old, 94 Thirty-first street, identified by Ella
+Huggins.
+
+BUEHRMANN, MARGARET, 13 years, 46 East Fifty-third street.
+
+BUTLER, MRS. F. S., 649 Michigan street, Evanston; suffocated by smoke in
+first balcony; body identified by sister.
+
+BOTSFORD, MABEL A., 21 years old, Racine, Wis.
+
+BARTLETT, MRS. WILLIAM, Grossdale, Ill.
+
+BERGH ARTHUR, 4926 Champlain avenue.
+
+BOGGS, MRS. M., 6933 Princeton avenue.
+
+BRENNAN, MARGARET, 40 years, 608 West Fulton street.
+
+BAKER, MISS ADELAIDE, 17 years old, 4410 Ellis avenue.
+
+BANSHEP, GEORGE, 28 years old, engineer, 4847 Forrestville avenue.
+
+BARTESCH, WILLIAM C., 24 years old, 464 Racine avenue.
+
+BARTLETT, ARTHUR, 6 years old, West Grossdale, Ill.
+
+BECKER, MASON A., 3237 Groveland avenue.
+
+BELL, MISS PET, 60 years old, 3000 Michigan avenue.
+
+BERG, OLGA, 11 years old, 408 West One Hundred and Eleventh street;
+identified by father.
+
+BERG, FRANK.
+
+BERG, MRS. HELEN, 408 West One Hundred and Eleventh street.
+
+BERG, VICTOR, 11 years old, 408 West One Hundred and Eleventh street;
+identified by Frank Berg, father.
+
+BERGCH, Mrs. Annie, 30 years old, 4926 Champlain avenue.
+
+BERRY, MISS EMMA, 19 years old, 236 Lincoln avenue.
+
+BERRY, MRS. C. C., 56 years old, 236 Racine avenue.
+
+BERRY, OTTO, Battle Creek, Mich., visiting at 236 Lincoln avenue.
+
+BEUTEL, WILLIAM, 33 years old, Englewood avenue, near Halsted street.
+
+BEYER, OTTO, 38 years old, Diversey boulevard.
+
+BEZENACK, MRS. NELLIE, 40 years old.
+
+BIEGLER, MISS SUSAN MARSHALL, 27 years old, 6518 Minerva avenue.
+
+BLISS, HAROLD F., 23 years old, Racine, Wis.
+
+BLUM, MRS. ROSE, 30 years old, 5248 Prairie avenue.
+
+BOLTE, LINDA W., 14 years old, Lakeside, Ill.; identified by uncle, John
+H. Willard, 2942 Indiana avenue.
+
+BRINSLEY, EMMA L., 29 years old, 909 Jackson boulevard.
+
+BROWNE, HAZEL GRACE, 14 years old, South Bend, Ind.
+
+BURKE, BERTHA, 41 years old, 511 West Monroe street; taken to Reedsville,
+Wis.
+
+BUSCHWAH, LOUISE ALICE, 12 years old, 1810 Wellington avenue.
+
+BUTLER, BENNETT, 13 years old, 649 Michigan street, Evanston.
+
+
+C.
+
+CALDWELL, ROBERT PORTER, 15 years old, St. Louis grain dealer.
+
+CALVEN, MRS. HENRIETTA, Knox, Ind.
+
+CAVILLE, ARTHUR, 24 years old, 54 Twenty-sixth street.
+
+CHAPMAN, MISS NINA, 23 years old, Cedar Rapids, Ia.
+
+CHRISTOPHERSON, MRS. MINNIE, 35 years old, 231 N. Harvey avenue.
+
+CLAY, MISS SUSIE, 36 years old, 6409 Monroe avenue.
+
+CLAYTON, JOHN V., 13 years old, 534 Morse avenue.
+
+COGANS, MRS. MARGARETHA, 26 years old, 5904 Normal avenue.
+
+CUMINGS, IRENE, 18 years, 5135 Madison avenue. Was with Miss Baker, 4410
+Ellis avenue, who was injured. They were in the third row of the balcony.
+
+CROCKER, MRS. LILLIE J., 3730 Lake avenue, teacher at Oakland school. She
+went to the theater with Mrs. Pierce and daughter, of Plainville, Mich.
+
+CANTWELL, MRS. THOMAS, 733 West Adams street, mother of Attorney Robert E.
+Cantwell; identified by James Roche, a cousin.
+
+COHN, MRS. JACOB, 222 Ogden avenue.
+
+COPLER, LOLA, 18 years old, address not known.
+
+CHAPMAN, BESSIE, 19 years old, Cedar Rapids, Ia., 211 Lincoln avenue;
+identified by her uncle, C. W. Pierson, with whom she was visiting. Was at
+theater with her sister Nina.
+
+CHAPMAN, NINA, 23 years old, 211 Lincoln avenue; identified by her uncle,
+C. W. Pierson, Cedar Rapids, Ia.
+
+COULTTS, R. H., 1616 Wabash avenue. Body identified by granddaughter.
+
+CASPER, CHARLES E., Kenosha, Wis.; body identified by G. H. Curtis of
+Kenosha.
+
+CURBIN, VERNON W., 10 years, 6938 Wentworth avenue. Identified by uncle,
+Carlos B. Hinckley.
+
+CALDWELL, ROY A. G., supposed; identified by cards in clothing.
+
+CLARK, E. D., 30 years old, 5432 Lexington avenue.
+
+CHRISTIANSON, HENRIETTA, 18 years old, 445 West Sixty-fifth street;
+identified by W. A. Douglas.
+
+CHRISTOPHER, MISS BELL, Decorah, Ia.
+
+COOPER, MRS. HELEN S., 27 years old, Lena, Ill.
+
+COOPER, WILLIS W., Kenosha, Wis., son of Charles F. Cooper, Kenosha.
+
+COOPER, CHARLES F., Kenosha, Wis.
+
+CORBIN, LOUISA, 37 years old, 6938 Wentworth avenue.
+
+CORCORAN, MISS FLORENCE, 218 Dearborn avenue; identified by brother.
+
+CHAPIN, AGNES, 4458 Berkeley avenue.
+
+CORBIN, NORMAN, 9 years, Peoria, Ill.; identified by Victor B. Corbin.
+
+
+D.
+
+DEVINE, CLARA, 29 years, 259 La Salle avenue; identified by M. Reece.
+
+DYRENFORTH, HELEN, 8 years old, daughter of Harold Dyrenforth, 832 Judson
+avenue, Evanston; body identified by father.
+
+DYRENFORTH, RUTH, daughter of Harold Dyrenforth, Evanston; body identified
+and taken away by relatives.
+
+DRYDEN, TAYLOR, 12 years old, 5803 Washington avenue; body identified by
+father.
+
+DRYDEN, MRS. JOHN, 5803 Washington avenue, mother of Taylor; body
+identified by husband.
+
+DAWSON, MRS. WILLIAM, Barrington, Ill.
+
+DECKER, MYRON, 3237 Groveland avenue.
+
+DELEE, VIOLA, 22 years old, daughter of the late Lieut. W. J. Delee, of
+Central police detail, 7822 Union avenue; body identified by M. J. Delee,
+her uncle.
+
+DIFFENDORF, MRS., 45 years old, Lincoln, Ill.
+
+DIXON, LEAH, 100 Flournoy street.
+
+DUNLAVEY, J., 6050 Wabash avenue.
+
+DIXON, EDNA, 9 years old, 100 Flournoy street.
+
+DODD, MRS. J. F., 45 years old, Delaware, O.
+
+DODD, MISS RUTH, 12 years old, Delaware, O.; identified by Dr. E. S. Coe.
+
+DOLAN, MARGARET.
+
+DONALDSON, CLARA E.
+
+DORR, LILLIAN, 16 years old, 4924 Champlain avenue.
+
+DOWST, MRS. CHARLES, 927 Hinman avenue, Evanston; body identified by
+husband.
+
+DRYCHAU, MRS. JOHN, of St. Louis.
+
+DU VALL, MRS. ELIZABETH, 498 Fullerton avenue, 40 years old.
+
+DU VALL, SARAH, 10 years old. South Zanesville, O.; identified by aunt.
+
+DECKHUT, MAE, Quincy, Ill.; body identified.
+
+DAWSON, GRACE, 5 years old, 334 Harding street; identified by her father.
+
+DANNER, J. M., 55 years old, Burlington, Ia.; identified by his
+son-in-law, Harry Wunderlich, Wilson avenue and Clark street.
+
+DAVY, MRS. ELIZABETH, 53 years old, 34 Roslyn place.
+
+DAVY, MISS HELEN, 15 years old, 35 Roslyn place.
+
+DAWSON, THERESA, 25 years, 10 Market avenue, Pullman; identified by
+husband.
+
+DAY, MRS. SARAH, 50 years old, colored.
+
+DECKER, KATE K., 58 years old, 3228 Groveland avenue.
+
+DECKER, MAMIE, 33 years old, 3237 Groveland avenue.
+
+DEE, EDDIE, 7 years old, 3133 Wabash avenue.
+
+DEE, LOUISE, 2 years, 3133 Wabash avenue.
+
+DEVINE, MARGARET, 22 years old, 95 Kendall street.
+
+DICKIE, EDITH, 25 years old, school teacher, 619 Sixty-fifth place.
+
+DIFFENDORFER, LEANDER, 16 years old, Lincoln, Ill.
+
+DINGFELDER, WINIFRED E., 18 years old, Jonesville, Mich.
+
+DONAHUE, MARY E., 18 years old, 1040 West Taylor street.
+
+DOOLEY, MRS., Claremont avenue, near Ohio street.
+
+DOTTS, MARGARET S., 32 years old, 188 North Elizabeth street; identified
+by husband.
+
+DOW, FLORENCE, 17 years old, 642 West Sixtieth street.
+
+DRAY, VICTORIA, 22 years old, Indiana avenue.
+
+DREISEL, CLARA, 30 years old, North Robey street and Potomac avenue.
+
+
+E.
+
+EDWARDS, MARGERY, 14 years old, Clinton, Ia., identified by father,
+William Edwards; father and daughter were guests at 700 Fullerton avenue.
+
+EBERSTEIN, FRANK B., 20 years old, 84 Twenty-sixth street, identified by
+his father.
+
+EISENDRATH, MRS. S. M., 10 Crilly court.
+
+EISENDRATH, NATALIE, 10 years old, 10 Crilly court.
+
+EBERSTEIN, MRS. J. A., 84 Twenty-sixth street, identified by husband and
+sister.
+
+ENGEL, MAURICE, 73 Dawson avenue, identified by name on charm.
+
+ELAND, ALMA, nurse, with two children of Harold Dyrenforth, 832 Judson
+avenue, Evanston.
+
+ESPER, EMIL, 31 years, 190 Osgood street.
+
+ERNST, ROSENE, 202 Twenty-fourth place. Identified by mother.
+
+ESTEN, ROSA, 23 years, 305 Halsted street; identified by M. Eighberg.
+
+EBBERT, MRS. J. H., 48 years old, 5516 Marshfield avenue.
+
+EDDUZE, HARRY, 16 years old, Mattoon.
+
+EDWARDS, MRS. M. L., Clinton, Ia.
+
+EGER, MRS. GUS, 3760 Indiana avenue.
+
+EISENSTAEDT, HERBERT S., 16 years old, 4549 Forrestville avenue.
+
+ELDRIDGE, HARRY, 17 years old, Mattoon.
+
+ELDRIDGE, MONTEK, 18 years old, 6063 Jefferson avenue.
+
+ELKAU, ROSE, 14 years old, 3434 South Park avenue.
+
+ELLIS, MRS. ANNIE, 40 years old, 207 East Sixty-second street.
+
+ENGELS, MINNIE, 36 years old, 73 Dawson avenue.
+
+ERSIG, TYRONE, 17 years old, 239 West Sixty-sixth street.
+
+EVANS, MATTIE, Burlington, Ia.
+
+
+F.
+
+FAIR, MISS ELLEN, 45 years old, 7564 Bond avenue.
+
+FALK, GERTRUDE, 20 years old, 3839 Elmwood place.
+
+FITZGIBBON, ANNA G., 17 years old, 2954 Michigan avenue.
+
+FLANNAGAN, THOMAS J., 24 years old, employed at Iroquois.
+
+FOLICE, NELLIE, 22 years old, 301 Claremont avenue.
+
+FOWLER, ELVA, 17 years, 3450 West Sixty-third place.
+
+FRAZER, MRS. EDWARD S., Aurora, Ill.
+
+FRIEDRICH, MRS. HELEN, 35 years old, 341 Center street.
+
+FREER, JENNIE E. CHRISTY, 53 years old, Galesburg, Ill.
+
+FRICKELTON, EDITH, 23 years old, 632 Peoria street.
+
+FRICKELTON, GEORGE E., 17 years old, 5632 Peoria street.
+
+FROST, P. O.
+
+FOX, MRS. EVELYN, Winnetka, daughter of W. M. Hoyt; was accompanied by
+three children, all of whom are dead; body of mother found by Graeme
+Stewart.
+
+FOX, GEORGE SYDNEY, 15 years old, son of Mrs. Fox.
+
+FOX, EMILY, 9 years old, daughter of Mrs. Fox.
+
+FOX, HOYT, 12 years old, son of Mrs. Fox.
+
+FRADY, MRS. E. C., 4356 Forrestville avenue.
+
+FRADY, LEON, 4356 Forrestville avenue.
+
+FOLTZ, MRS. C. O., 1886 Diversey boulevard.
+
+FOLEY, H.
+
+FALKENSTEIN, GERTRUDE, identified by card in clothing.
+
+FITZGIBBONS, JOHN J., 18 years old, 2954 Michigan avenue.
+
+FEISER, MARY, 793 North Springfield avenue, wife of a Larrabee street
+patrolman.
+
+FAHEY, MARY, 25 years old, 4860 Kimbark avenue; identified by T. H. Fahey.
+
+FOLKE, ADA, 23 years old, Berwyn.
+
+FORBUSCH, MRS. C. W., 35 years old, 927 Hinman avenue, Evanston;
+identified by W. P. Marsh.
+
+FOLTZ, ALICE, 1886 Diversey boulevard.
+
+FORT, PHOEBE IRENE, principal of Myra Bradwell school, 146 Thirty-sixth
+street.
+
+FRACK, ODESSA, Ottawa, Ill.
+
+FRANTZEN, LINDA, Winnetka.
+
+
+G.
+
+GARN, MRS. FRANK WARREN, 831 West Monroe street, daughter of L. Wolff,
+1319 Washington boulevard, attended the theater with her sons, Frank, 10
+years old, and Willie, 9 years old. All perished. Mrs. Garn was identified
+by her husband.
+
+GARN, FRANK L., 10 years old, 831 West Monroe street.
+
+GARN, WILLIE, 9 years old, 831 West Monroe street.
+
+GUSTAFSON, MISS ALMA, 10003 Avenue N, teacher in the John L. Marsh school
+at South Chicago. She attended the theater with Miss Carrie Sayre and a
+party of school teachers from South Chicago.
+
+GOULD, MRS. B. E., identified by friends through jewelry.
+
+GOULD, B. E., Elgin, Ill., clerk of the Circuit court of Kane county. Mr.
+Gould was accompanied to the play by his wife, who also perished.
+
+GARTZ, HARRY, 4860 Kimbark avenue.
+
+GARTZ, MARY DORETHEA, 4860 Kimbark avenue, 12 years old, daughter of A. F.
+Gartz, treasurer of the Crane company; attended theater with sister,
+Barbara, maid and nurse; all perished.
+
+GARTZ, BARBARA, 4 years, 4863 Kimbark avenue; identified by Maud Purcell.
+
+GERON, MRS. MABLE, Winnetka; body identified by her brother.
+
+GAHAN, JOSEPHINE, 129 Twenty-fifth place.
+
+GASS, MRS. JOSEPH, 243 Grace street.
+
+GEARY, PAULINE, 21 years old, 4627 Indiana avenue.
+
+GEIK, MRS. EMILE, died at St. Luke's hospital.
+
+GESTREN, ALMA.
+
+GRAFF, MRS. REINHOLD, Bloomington, Ill.
+
+GRAVES, MRS. CLARA, wife of W. C. Graves, 723 East Chicago avenue;
+identified by sister-in-law, Lucetta Graves.
+
+GUDELMANS, SOFIA, 327 North Ashland avenue.
+
+GOOLSBY, MISS VERA, of Americus, Ga.; attending college in Chicago.
+
+GERHART, BERRY, 25 years old.
+
+GOERK, DORA, 1030 Bryan avenue, 10 years old.
+
+GUERNI, JENNIE, 135 North Sangamon street.
+
+GUTHARDT, MISS LIBBY, 16 years old, 159 One Hundred and Thirteenth street.
+
+
+H.
+
+HAINSLEY, FRANCES, 5 years, Logansport, Ind.; identified by father.
+
+HARBAUGH, MARY E., 30 years old, 6653 Harvard avenue.
+
+HOFFEIN, MISS ADELINE J. C., 24 years old, 292 Haddon avenue.
+
+HARTMAN, JOHN, 5705 South Halsted street.
+
+HENNING, CHARLES, 6 years old, 5743 Prairie avenue.
+
+HENNING, WILLIAM, 14 years old.
+
+HENNESSY, WILLIAM, 14 years old, 4411 Calumet avenue.
+
+HICKMAN, MRS. CHARLES, 24 years old, 4743 Calumet avenue.
+
+HIGGINSON, JANITHE B., 2 years old, Winnetka, Ill.; identified by P. D.
+Sexton, 418 East Huron street.
+
+HIPPACH, ROBERT A., 14 years old, 2928 Kenmore avenue.
+
+HIVE, ENA M., 15 years old, 613 West Sixty-first place.
+
+HOLLAND, JOHN H., 60 years old, 6429 Evans avenue.
+
+HOLST, MRS. MARY W., 36 years old, 2088 Van Buren street.
+
+HOLST, AMY, 7 years old, 2088 Van Buren street.
+
+HOWARD, MRS. MARY E., 54 years old, Jonesville, Mich.; identified by son,
+Frank Howard, 3812 Prairie avenue.
+
+HOLM, HULDA, 176 North Western avenue.
+
+HULL, MARIANNE K., 32 years old, 244 Oakwood boulevard.
+
+HULL, HELEN, 12 years old, 244 Oakwood boulevard.
+
+HULL, DWIGHT, 6 years old, 244 Oakwood boulevard.
+
+HULL, DONALD, 8 years old, 244 Oakwood boulevard.
+
+HAYES, FRANK, 22 years old, son of Police Sergeant Dennis Hayes, Larrabee
+street station; identified by younger brother.
+
+HAVELAND, LEIGH, daughter of J. P. Haveland, 31 Humboldt boulevard; body
+identified by father. Later father found the body of Clyde O. Thompson,
+Wisconsin university student, who was guest at Haveland home and had
+accompanied the daughter to the theater.
+
+HUDHART, ADELAIDE, 41 years old, 159 One Hundred and Thirteenth street;
+identified by her husband, James Hudhart.
+
+HIPPACH, JOHN, 8 years old, son of senior member of firm of Tyler &
+Hippach.
+
+HART, MRS. NELLIE E., Atkinson, Ill.; identified by father, John English.
+
+HUTCHINS, MISS JEANETTE, 22 years old, teacher at Winnetka; identified by
+brother.
+
+HOWARD, HELEN, 16 years old, 6565 Yale avenue; was a student at Englewood
+High School.
+
+HICKMAN, CHARLES, 4743 Calumet avenue; identified by Dr. H. H. Steele.
+
+HALL, EMERY M., husband of E. Grace Hall, the Vermont, 571 East
+Fifty-first street.
+
+HOLST, GERTRUDE, 12 years old, 2088 Van Buren street; identified by her
+father.
+
+HRODY, MRS. ANNA, 35 years old, 1353 South Fortieth avenue.
+
+HEWINS, DR. EMERY, Petersburg, Ind.; body identified by daughter.
+
+HELMS, OTTO H., 77 Maple street.
+
+HENNING, EDDIE, 14 years old, 4753 Prairie avenue.
+
+HENSLEY, MRS. GUY, Logansport, Ind.
+
+HENSLEY, GENEVIEVE, 8 years old, Logansport, Ind.
+
+HEWINS, MRS. L., 20 years old, Petersburg, Ind.; identified by friends.
+
+HENRY, MRS. G. A., 1198 Wilton avenue.
+
+HERRON, BESSIE L., 133 Conduit street, Hammond, Ind.
+
+HIGGINS, ROGER G., 9 years old, 419 East Huron street.
+
+HIGGINSON, MISS JEANETTE, Winnetka; body identified by her brother.
+
+HENNESSY, WILLIAM, 4411 Calumet avenue.
+
+HOLMES, MRS.
+
+HUTCHINS, MISS FLORENCE, Waukegan.
+
+HART, MISS ELIZABETH, Sherman avenue and Dempster street, Evanston.
+
+HERGER, BERTHA, Hammond, Ind.; identified by Thomas Weisman.
+
+HIRSCH, MARY, 19 years old, 617 Halsted street.
+
+HOLBERTON, E. R.
+
+HOLST, ALLAN B., 12 years old, 2088 Van Buren street; son of William M.
+Holst; identified by father.
+
+HENSLEY, MARIAN, 5 years old, Logansport, daughter of G. Hensley.
+
+
+I.
+
+IRLE, MRS. ANDREW, 32 years old, 1240 Lawrence avenue, wife of Andrew
+Irle, assistant superintendent of the Pinkerton National Detective Agency;
+body identified by name in wedding ring.
+
+
+J.
+
+JAMES, C. D., 40 years old, Davenport, Ia.
+
+JAMES, C. O.; identified by card in clothing.
+
+JONES, MRS. ANNA, 46 East Fifty-third street.
+
+JACKSON, VERA R., 19 years old, 216 Humboldt boulevard.
+
+JONES, MRS. WARNER E., 38 years old, Tuscola, Ill.; visiting at 46 East
+Fifty-third street.
+
+
+K.
+
+KOCHEMS, JACOB A., 17 years, 262 Warren avenue; identified by father.
+
+KENNEDY, AGNES, 6528 Ross avenue, former teacher at Hendricks and Melville
+W. Fuller schools.
+
+KENNEDY, FRANCES, Winnetka.
+
+KELL, MRS. CHARLES.
+
+KAUFFMAN, ALICE, 5 years old, Hammond, Ind.
+
+KOCHEMS, MRS. FRANK, 262 Warren avenue; identified by husband.
+
+KRANZ, MRS. SARAH, Racine, Wis.; died at Samaritan hospital.
+
+KUEBLER, LOLA, 16 years old, 344 Fiftieth street.
+
+KULAS, MRS. GEORGIANA, 349 Chestnut street; identified by Mrs. C. J.
+Benshaw.
+
+KURLEY, MINNIE, 5 years old, Logansport, Ind.
+
+KEKMAN, FRAMELLES, 525 Austin avenue.
+
+KOUTHES, MRS. E. K., Montreal.
+
+KWASUIEWSKI, JOHN, 25 years old, 122 Cleaver street.
+
+
+L.
+
+LAKE, MRS. ALFRED, 60 years old, 278 Belden avenue.
+
+LANGE, HERBERT, 16 years old, 1632 Barry avenue.
+
+LANGE, AGNES, 14 years old, 1632 Barry avenue; body identified by her
+father.
+
+LA ROSE, LAURA, 12 years, 833 N. Clark street.
+
+LA ROSE, JOSEPHINE, 8 years old, 833 N. Clark street.
+
+LA ROSE, MATILDA, 10 years old, 833 N. Clark street.
+
+LEATON, FRED W., 24 years old, University of Chicago.
+
+LEAVENWORTH, MRS. CARRIE, 45 years old, Decatur.
+
+LEFMAN, MRS. SUSIE, 38 years old, Laporte, Ind.
+
+LEHMAN, MISS FRANCES M., 525 North Austin avenue, Oak Park, a teacher in
+the H. H. Nash school.
+
+LEMENAGER, MRS. JESSIE, 38 years old, 53 Waveland Park.
+
+LEVENSON, ROSE, 28 years old, 268 Ogden avenue.
+
+LONG, RYAN, 12 years old, Geneva, Ill.
+
+LONG, HELEN, 14 years old, Geneva, Ill.
+
+LONG, KATHERINE, 9 years old, Geneva, Ill.
+
+LUDWIG, MISS EUGENIE, 18 years old, Norwood Park.
+
+LASSMANN, MRS. SUSIE, Laporte, Ind.; identified by Frederick M. Burdick, a
+friend.
+
+LIVINGSTON, MRS. DAISY, 271 Oakwood boulevard; body identified by her
+brother, T. B. Livingston.
+
+LOWITZ, MRS. NATHAN, 274 Sheffield avenue; identified by means of ring,
+"Nat to Minnie."
+
+LOWITZ, MRS. N. S., Keokuk, Ia.
+
+LEATON, FRED W., aged 25 years, 537 East Fifty-fifth street; medical
+student at the University of Chicago; home at Terry, S. D.
+
+LINDEN, ELLA, 21 years old, 4625 Lake avenue; identified by her brother,
+Frank Linden.
+
+LOVE, MARGARET, Fulton street.
+
+
+M.
+
+MAHLER, EDITH L., 8 years old, 2141 Jackson Boulevard.
+
+MANN, MISS EMMA D., teacher of music in public schools; 1388 Washington
+boulevard; identified by Louis Mann, her brother.
+
+MACKAY, ROLAND S., 6 years old, 5029 Indiana avenue.
+
+MARTIN, HAROLD C., 14 years old, 11 Market circle.
+
+MARTIN, ROBERT B., 12 years old, Pullman, Ill.
+
+M'CHRISTIE, MISS ANNA, 27 years old, 6315 Lexington avenue.
+
+M'GUNIGLE, MISS MAYME, 30 years old, New York; visiting Miss Reidy, 614
+South Sawyer avenue.
+
+MEAGLER, MISS MARIA, 656 Orchard street, a school teacher.
+
+MEYER, ELSA, H., 10 years old, lived at Grossdale, Ill.
+
+MILLER, HELEN, 23 years old, 369 West Huron street.
+
+MILLS, CHARLES V., 623 Sedgwick street.
+
+MILLS, MRS. W. A., 623 Sedgwick street.
+
+MILLS, ISABELLA, 21 years old, 6263 Jefferson street.
+
+MOORE, MRS. MATTIE, 33 years old, Hart, Mich.; staying with sister-in-law,
+Mrs. Bond, at 4123 Indiana avenue; identified by Herman Mathias, 107
+Madison street.
+
+MOSSLER, PEARLINE, 13 years old, Rensselaer, Ind.
+
+MUIR, S. A., 35 years old, 301 Winthrop avenue; connected with the Chase
+Furniture Company, 1411 Michigan avenue; identified by George B. Chase,
+vice-president of the company.
+
+M'CLURG, ROY, 14 years old, 5803 Superior street, Austin.
+
+M'MILLEN, MABEL, 20 years old, 2824 North Hermitage avenue.
+
+M'KENNA, BERNARD, 2 years old, 758 Kedzie avenue; body identified by the
+father.
+
+MOLONEY, ALICE, daughter of former Attorney General Moloney, Ottawa, Ill.;
+body identified by her father and brother.
+
+MARTIN, EARL, 7 years old, son of Z. E. Martin, Oak Park; body identified
+by father.
+
+MUIR, MAMIE, Peoria, Ill.; identified by name on clothing.
+
+MURRAY, CHARLES; identified by letters found in clothing.
+
+MARKS, MISS MAY, 19 years old, 69 North Humboldt boulevard.
+
+McCAUGHAN, HELEN, 16 years old, 6565 Yale avenue.
+
+MEAD, MRS., 278 Belden avenue; identified from clothing.
+
+MERRIAM, MRS. H. H., 489 Fullerton avenue; body identified by Dr.
+Hequenbourg.
+
+MERRIMAN, MILDRED, daughter of W. A. Merriman, manager of George A.
+Fuller's.
+
+MITCHELL, MISS DORA, 20 years old, Laporte, Ind.; identified by friends.
+
+MYERS, ELSIE, 8 years, Grossdale, Ill.
+
+McKEE, J. W., 64 years old; identified by Lola Lee.
+
+MOAK, ANNA, 278 Belden avenue.
+
+MANN, MISS EMMA D., 18 years old, 1388 Washington boulevard; identified by
+Louis Mann, her brother.
+
+MATCHETTE, EMILY, 21 years old, 636 Sixtieth street.
+
+MOOHAN, H. B., 30 years old.
+
+MOORE, MRS. KITTIE, 45 years old, 119 West Fifty-ninth street.
+
+MUIR, MRS. EUGENIA, 301 Winthrop avenue.
+
+MILLER, WILLARD, 9 years old, 4919 Vincennes avenue.
+
+McCLELLAND, JOSEPH, Harvard, Ill.; identified by uncle.
+
+McCLURE, LAWRENCE, 230 East Superior street; identified by George, his
+brother.
+
+McGILL, ELIZABETH, 12 years old, Pittsburg, Pa., guest at residence of
+Charles Koll, 496 Ashland avenue; identified by her mother.
+
+McKENNA, MRS. JOHN L., 758 Kedzie avenue.
+
+MEAD, LUCILLE, 11 years old, Berwyn.
+
+McLAUGHLIN, WILLIAM L., nephew of Mrs. Frank W. Gunsaulus, died at 9:30 p.
+m., at Presbyterian hospital.
+
+MENDEL, MRS. HERMAN, 53 years, 5555 Washington avenue; the body was
+shipped to Neola, Ia., for burial on Sunday; Mr. Mendel is a retired
+banker.
+
+MENGER, MISS ANNIE, 222 Twenty-fourth place; identified by Elta Menzeh.
+
+MILLS, PEARL M., 5613 Kimbark avenue; identified by Ward Mills.
+
+MOAK, LENA, 19 years old, Watertown, Wis.; guest at 278 Belden avenue.
+
+MOORE, BENJAMIN, 119 West Fifty-ninth street; identified by grandson.
+
+MOORE, MISS SYBIL, Hart, Mich.; identified by letter.
+
+MURPHY, DEWITT J., 1340 Sheffield avenue; identified by father.
+
+MURRAY, CHARLES, 36 years old, Martinsburg, O.; identified by J. H. Dodd.
+
+MUELLER, MRS. EMELIA, 60 years, Milwaukee; identified by daughter, Mrs.
+Herman Groth.
+
+MORRIS, MABEL A., 17 years old, 5124 Dearborn street.
+
+MULHOLLAND, JOSEPHINE, 33 years, 4409 Wabash avenue; identified by Clarke
+Griffith.
+
+
+N.
+
+NEWMAN, MRS. MARY, 32 years old, housekeeper for the Rev. Father J. C.
+Ocenasek, pastor of Our Lady of Lourdes church.
+
+NEWBY, MRS. LUTHER G., Drexel hotel; identified by her father.
+
+NEWMAN, MRS. ANNA, West Grossdale; identified by her rings.
+
+NORTON, MATTIE, Ontonagon, Mich., attending school at Academy of the
+Visitation, Ridge avenue and Emerson street, Evanston.
+
+NORTON, EDITH N., Ontonagon, Mich., attending school at Academy of the
+Visitation, Evanston.
+
+NEWMAN, ARTHUR, 10 years, West Grossdale.
+
+NORRIS, MRS. LIBBIE A., 30 years old, 5124 Dearborn street.
+
+NORRIS, MABEL, 20 years old, 5124 Dearborn street.
+
+
+O.
+
+ORLE, MABEL M., 1240 Lawrence avenue.
+
+OWEN, DR., Wheaton, Ill., died at the Homeopathic Hospital.
+
+OWEN, MRS. MARY, 44 years, Wheaton.
+
+OAKLEY, DR. ALBERT J., 40 years old, Sixty-fifth and Stewart avenue;
+identified by Dr. L. Phillips.
+
+OXNAM, FLORENCE, 16 years old, 435 Englewood avenue.
+
+OAKEY, LUCILE, 13 years old, daughter of A. J. Oakey, Sixty-fifth street
+and Stewart avenue.
+
+OAKEY, MARIAN, 11 years old, Sixty-fifth street and Stewart avenue;
+identified by F. R. Bradford.
+
+OLSEN, MRS. O. M., 833 Walnut street; identified by husband.
+
+OLSON, MISS AUGUSTA, 27 years old, 218 Seventy-ninth place; identified by
+brother-in-law.
+
+OWEN, WILLIAM MURRAY, 12 years old; body identified by father.
+
+OWENS, AMY, daughter of Mrs. Owens, 6241 Kimbark avenue.
+
+OWENS, MRS. FRANCES O., 6241 Kimbark avenue.
+
+OLSON, ELVIRA, 18 years old, daughter of William H. Olson, 7010 Stewart
+avenue.
+
+
+P.
+
+PERSINGER, HEWITT, 10 years old, 50 Florence avenue, identified by J. W.
+Harrison, a cousin.
+
+PASSE, ELIZABETH, 6 years old, 552 East Forty-ninth street; identified by
+her father.
+
+PAGE, CHARLES T., 6562 Stewart avenue; body identified.
+
+PAGE, HARROLD, 6562 Stewart avenue, 12 years old.
+
+PAULMAN, WILLIAM, 22 years old, 3738 State street.
+
+PAYSON, RUTH, 14 years old, 1 Elizabeth street, Oak Park.
+
+PECK, WILLIS W., 2644 North Hermitage avenue.
+
+PIERCE, MRS. L. H., 32 years old, Plainwell, Mich.; guest at home of her
+brother, R. B. Carter, 3821 Lake avenue, who identified body.
+
+POWER, MISS LILLY, 442 West Seventieth street, 21 years old.
+
+POLZIN, HENRIETTA, Knox, Ind.
+
+PAGE, BERTHA, 45 years old, 6562 Stewart avenue identified by a brother.
+
+PEASE, MRS. GRACE, wife of P. S. Pease, 6140 Ingleside avenue; body
+identified.
+
+PEASE, ELIZABETH, 7 years old, daughter of P. S. Pease.
+
+PECK, ETHEL M., 16 years old, 2042 Hermitage avenue; identified by Dr.
+Steele.
+
+PELTON, MISS LILLIAN, 30 years old, Des Moines; identified by W. F. Wilson
+of Des Moines.
+
+PERSINGER, MRS. FRANK, 50 Florence avenue; identified from clothing.
+
+PINNEY, MRS. BELLE, 353 South Leavitt street.
+
+PALMER, MRS. KATIE, 33 years old, 1141 Judson avenue, Evanston.
+
+PALMER, RICHARD G., 14 years old, 1141 Judson avenue, Evanston.
+
+PALMER, WILLIAM, 42 years old; salesman; 1141 Judson avenue, Evanston.
+
+PALMER, HOWARD, 10 years old, 1141 Judson avenue, Evanston.
+
+POLTE, LINDEN W., 14 years old, Lakeside, Ill.; body identified by John W.
+Willard, uncle.
+
+PATTERSON, CRAWFORD JULIAN, 12 years old, 4467 Oakenwald avenue.
+
+PATTERSON, WILLIAM ADDISON, 10 years old, 4467 Oakenwald avenue.
+
+PAYNE, MRS. JAMES, 357 Garfield boulevard, 35 years.
+
+PEASE, MRS. AUGUSTA, 55 years, 552 East Forty-ninth street.
+
+PILAT, JOSEPHINE, 13 years old, 34 Humboldt boulevard.
+
+POND, MRS. EVA, 1272 Lyman avenue.
+
+POND, RAYMOND, 14 years old, 1272 Lyman avenue, Ravenswood.
+
+POND, HELEN, 7 years old, 1272 Lyman avenue, Ravenswood.
+
+POTTLITZER, JACK, 11 years old, Lafayette, Ind.
+
+PRIDEMORE, EDITH S., 32 years old, Fifty-eighth and Kimbark avenue.
+
+
+Q.
+
+QUITCH, MRS. W. J., 249 North Ashland avenue.
+
+
+R.
+
+RATTEY, WILLIAM A., 917 North Artesian avenue, died at the county hospital
+from burns and internal injuries; identified by Charles J. Rattey, 980
+Talman avenue, his brother.
+
+REED, NELLIE, 66 Rush street, leader of the flying ballet in the "Mr.
+Bluebeard" company, died at the county hospital from burns on the body;
+she was identified by Hermann Schultz of New York, a member of the
+company.
+
+REGENSBURG, HELEN, daughter of Samuel H. Regensburg, Vendome hotel,
+Sixty-second street and Monroe avenue.
+
+REGENSBURG, HAZEL, daughter of Samuel H. Regensburg, Vendome hotel.
+
+REIDY, ANNA, 614 South Sawyer avenue, daughter of Policeman John Reidy.
+
+REISS, ERNEST, 11 years old, 4244 Vincennes avenue; identified by uncle.
+
+REIDY, MARY, 614 Sawyer avenue, sister of Anna.
+
+REIDY, NELLIE, 614 Sawyer avenue, and sister of other two women,
+identified by Catherine Campbell, 623 South Sawyer avenue.
+
+REISS, ERNA, 3760 Indiana avenue.
+
+REITER, MISS REINA, 55 years old, 3000 Michigan avenue; with Miss Reiter
+at the play was her sister, Miss Pet Bell, Potomac apartments.
+
+REITER, MRS. M. S., 3000 Michigan avenue; identified by C. F. Cooper.
+
+ROBERTSON, MINNIE, 15 years old, Park Ridge; body identified by brother.
+
+RANKIN, MRS. MARTHA, 498 Fullerton avenue.
+
+RANKIN, LOUISE, South Zanesville, O.
+
+REID, COL. W. M., Waukegan, aged 70 years, formerly assessor; identified
+by papers in his pocket, by R. G. Lyon.
+
+REID, MRS. W. M., Waukegan.
+
+RICHARDSON, THE REV. H. L., 44 years old, 5737 Drexel avenue, pastor of
+Congregational Church in Whiting, Ind.; also student in the divinity
+school of the University of Chicago; was pastor of a Congregational Church
+in Ripon, Wis., for twelve years.
+
+RIFE, MRS. WILLIAM, 516 East Forty-sixth street.
+
+RIMES, DR. M. B., 6331 Wentworth avenue; attended theater with wife and
+three sons.
+
+RIMES, MRS. M. B., wife of Dr. Rimes.
+
+RIMES, MYRON, 10 years old, son of Dr. Rimes.
+
+RIMES, THOMAS M., 7 years old, son of Dr. Rimes.
+
+RIMES, LLOYD B., 5 years old, son of Dr. Rimes.
+
+ROGERS, ROSE, 32 years, 1342 North Sangamon street; identified by husband.
+
+ROBERTS, THEODORE.
+
+RUBLY, MRS. LOUISE, 60 years old, 838 Wilson avenue; identified by her
+son, G. H. Rubly.
+
+RADCLIFFE, ANNA, 6404 Calumet avenue.
+
+RAYNOLDS, DORA, 18 years old, 4216 Forty-fifth street.
+
+REIDY, ELENORA, 20 years old, 614 South Sawyer avenue.
+
+REIDY, JOHN J., 614 South Sawyer avenue.
+
+REISS, ERNEST, 11 years old, 4244 Vincennes avenue.
+
+REYNOLDS, MARIE, 30 years, Sunnyside park.
+
+ROBBINS, RUTH W., Madison, Wis.
+
+ROETCHE, LILLIAN, 20 years old.
+
+ROTTIE, LILLIAN, 10 years old, 7218 Lafayette avenue.
+
+RUHLEMAN, CLARA, 63 years old, Detroit.
+
+RUTIGAR, MRS. ELEANOR, 55 years old, 750 South Trumbull avenue.
+
+
+S.
+
+SANDS, MRS. H. F., 40 years old, Tolona, Ill.
+
+SANDS, KITTIE, Tolona, Ill., 15 years old, visiting Miss L. Barnett and
+Miss J. Dawson, 1006 West Fifty-fourth street.
+
+SCHNEIDER, GEORGE GRINER, 20 years old, 437 Belden avenue.
+
+SCHNEIDER, JAMES, 157 Roscoe boulevard.
+
+SCHNEIDER, MRS. JAMES, 22 years old, 157 Roscoe boulevard.
+
+SCHREINER, MRS. MAMIE L., 30 years old, 2183 West Monroe street.
+
+SCHREINER, IRMA MAY, 5 years old, 2183 West Monroe street.
+
+SECHRIST, MISS HATTIE, 2928 North Paulina street.
+
+SECHRIST, JUNE, 8 years old, 2928 North Paulina street.
+
+SCHAFFNER, MISS MINNIE, 25 years old, 578 Forty-fifth place; teacher in
+Forrestville school.
+
+SHINNERS, MRS. ALICE, 24 years old, 4344 Oakenwald avenue.
+
+SIMPSON, ADA, 40 years old, visiting at 537 West Sixty-fifth street,
+Denver.
+
+SMITH, MISS BONNIE, 15 years old, 2177 Washington boulevard.
+
+SMITH, RUTH M., 15 years old, 2177 Washington boulevard.
+
+STAFFORD, BESSIE M., 1253 Wilcox avenue.
+
+STRATMAN, RUTH, 18 years old, 421 East Forty-fifth street.
+
+STERN, MARTIN, 1385 Congress street.
+
+SAYRE, MISS CARRIE, of 7646 Bond avenue, school teacher in Myra Bradwell
+school, Windsor Park; identified by friends; she was in the party of
+school teachers with Miss Alma Gustafson.
+
+SWARTZ, MISS MARJORIE, student at Washington college, Washington, D. C.,
+20 years old, daughter of Dr. Thomas Benton Swartz, 146 Thirty-sixth
+street; died at St. Luke's hospital.
+
+SAVILLE, WARREN E., 19 years old, 46 East Fifty-third street; formerly
+lived at Kankakee, Ill.
+
+SEYMORE, A. L., 758 West Lake street.
+
+SMITH, MRS., Desplaines, Ill.
+
+STAFFORD, MISS ROSIE, 18 years old, address not known.
+
+STILLMAN, MISS CARRIE, daughter of Prof. Stillman of Leland Stafford
+university, California; was in seat in first row of first balcony.
+
+SHERIDAN, ANDREW, 35 years old, 4155 Wentworth avenue; identified as
+engineer of Wabash railroad company, by F. J. Herlihy.
+
+STODDARD, DONALD, 11 years old, Lanark, Ill.; body identified by the
+father, B. M. Stoddard.
+
+SYLVESTER, ELECTRA, 30 years old, Plainview, Mo., visiting Mrs. Andrew
+Irle, 1240 Lawrence avenue; body identified by name on handkerchief.
+
+SUTTEN, HARRY P., 17 years old, 1595 West Adams street.
+
+SEGRINT, MRS. A. N., 40 years old, Paulina street and Lawrence avenue,
+Irving Park; identified by husband.
+
+STEINMETZ, MRS. O. T. P., 2541 Halsted street.
+
+STRONG, E. K., 10 Oakland Crescent.
+
+SAWYER, MRS. J., 102 Cleaver street.
+
+SCHMIDT, ROSAMOND, 18 years old, daughter of H. G. Schmidt, 335 West
+Sixty-first street.
+
+SCHOENBECK, ANNA, 408 East Division street; identified by mother.
+
+SCHOENBECK, ELVINA, 408 East Division street.
+
+SCHREINER, ARLENE, 6 years old, 2183 West Monroe street; identified by
+relatives.
+
+SILL, LUCILE, 7604 Union avenue, 25 years old; identified by E. S. Hall.
+
+SMITH, MARINE, Desplaines, daughter of Mrs. Smith.
+
+SHABAD, MYRTLE, 14 years old, 3041 Indiana avenue.
+
+SPECHT, MRS. B., 6542 Stewart avenue.
+
+SPECHT, MISS EVA, 6542 Stewart avenue.
+
+SPINDLER, MRS. J. H., Lowe, Ind.; visiting sister, Mrs. E. C. Frady, 4356
+Forrestville avenue.
+
+SPINDLER, BURDETTE, Lowe, Ind., son of Mrs. J. H. Spindler.
+
+SQUIRE, MISS OLIVE E., 914 Cuyler avenue; identified by her father.
+
+SQUIRE, OSCAR, 7 years old, 942 Cuyler avenue; identified by father.
+
+STARK, MRS. N. M., Des Moines, Ia.
+
+STODDARD, ZABELLA, 27 years old, daughter of D. M. Stoddard of Minonk,
+Ill.; was accompanied by young brother.
+
+STRONG, MRS. JAMES N., 23 years old, 10 Oakland Crescent.
+
+STUDLEY, THE REV. G. H., 3139 Parnell avenue, pastor of the Asbury
+Methodist Episcopal church, at Thirty-first street and Parnell avenue.
+
+SUETSCH, W. J., 33 years old, 2496 North Ashland avenue.
+
+SUTTLER, MRS. L. J., Des Moines, Ia.
+
+SWARTZ, IRENE, 12 years old, 143 Thirty-fifth street.
+
+SULLIVAN, ELLA, Knoxville, Ia., body identified by L. C. Flurnit.
+
+
+T.
+
+TAYLOR, MRS. J. M., 31 years old, 1222 Morse avenue, Rogers Park;
+identified by daughter-in-law, Mrs. A. Taylor, 1028 Farwell avenue, Rogers
+Park.
+
+THOMPSON, CLYDE, O., Madison, Wis.; student at University of Wisconsin;
+Thompson had taken his fiancee, Miss Leigh Haveland, to the theater; both
+perished.
+
+TAYLOR, JAMES M., 60 years, 1222 Morse avenue, Rogers Park; identified by
+Albert A. Taylor.
+
+TAYLOR, REAM, 1204 Morris avenue.
+
+TORNEY, MRS. EDNA, 28 years old; lived at Francisco avenue and Adams
+street.
+
+TRASK, MRS. E. W., Ottawa, Ill.
+
+TAYLOR, MISS FLORA, 22 years old, at St. Luke's Hospital.
+
+TEASTER, F. W.
+
+THOMAS, REMINGTON HEWITT, 18 years old, 62 Woodland Park, son of Frank H.
+Thomas.
+
+THONI, CLARA, 4644 Evans avenue; identified by Maud Partell.
+
+TRASK, MRS. R. H., Ottawa, Ill.; identified at Carroll's.
+
+TURNEY, MRS. SUSIE, 40 years old, 534 East Fiftieth street; identified by
+her son.
+
+TARNEY, CARRIE, 534 East Fiftieth street.
+
+TAYLOR, RENE MARY, 12 years, 1222 Morse avenue.
+
+THATCHER, WALTER, 38 years old, 341 West Sixtieth place.
+
+THOMPSON, C. J. (supposed); name on collar.
+
+TOBIAS, FLORENCE, 1182 Flournoy street.
+
+
+V.
+
+VALLELY, MRS. J. T., 858 Sawyer avenue.
+
+VALLELY, BERNICE, daughter of Mrs. Vallely.
+
+VAN INGEN, ELIZABETH,. 9 years old, Kenosha, Wis.
+
+VAN INGEN, JOHN, Kenosha, Wis., 20 years old, famed golf player, son of H.
+F. Van Ingen; was at the theater with parents, three sisters, and two
+brothers; died at Sherman house, where he and his parents were taken.
+
+VAN INGEN, GRACE, Kenosha, 23 years old, daughter of H. F. Van Ingen.
+
+VAN INGEN, NED, 18 years old, son of H. F. Van Ingen, Kenosha.
+
+VAN INGEN, MARGARET, 16 years old, daughter of H. F. Van Ingen, Kenosha.
+
+
+W.
+
+WOLFF, HARRIET, daughter of L. Wolff, president of L. Wolff Manufacturing
+Company, 1319 Washington boulevard.
+
+WACHS, MRS. ELLA, of Laporte, Ind.; body identified by her brother, F. C.
+Flentye.
+
+WASHINGTON, MISS FREDA, 22 years old, 1897 Melrose street.
+
+WEINDER, PAUL, 17 years old, 201 South Harvey avenue, Oak Park; identified
+by father.
+
+WELLS, DONALD, 12 years old, 1228 Diversey boulevard.
+
+WALDMAN, SAM, 20 years, 608 Milwaukee avenue.
+
+WALMAN, SIMON, Austin. Identified by Edward Williams.
+
+WASHINGTON, JOHN, 22 years old, 1847 Melrose street.
+
+WILCOX, MRS. EVA M., 45 years old, 109 South Leavitt street.
+
+WHITE, MRS. W. K., Washington Heights. Identified by Secretary White of
+the finance committee, city hall.
+
+WHITE, MISS FLORENCE O., 22 years old, 437 West Thirty-eighth street.
+Identified by F. J. Shaw.
+
+WHITE, MRS. HIRAM, and child, Logansport, Ind.
+
+WIEMER, MRS. THOMAS, 30 years old, 838 Wilson avenue. Identified by
+husband.
+
+WILLIAMS, HOWARD, 18 years old, Cornell student.
+
+WENTON, MISS ALICE, 6241 Kimbark avenue.
+
+WAGNER, MARY ANNA, 629 Sedgwick street.
+
+WECK, ERICK, Milwaukee; guest of Joseph Schneider, Chicago.
+
+WIRE, EVA, 15 years old, 613 West Sixty-first place. Identified by her
+uncle, E. A. Mayo.
+
+WOOD, MRS. J., 545 West Sixty-fifth street.
+
+WULSON, HOWARD J., 213 Halsted street Identified by E. J. Blair.
+
+WEBBER, JOSEPH, Janesville, Wis.
+
+WEBER, MRS. CARRIE, aged 49 years, wife of John J. Weber, 402 Garfield
+avenue.
+
+WUNDERLICH, MRS. HARRY, 34 years old. Identified by her husband.
+
+WESKOPS, IRMA, aged 15 years, 4939 Champlain avenue. Identified by
+brother.
+
+WEIHERS, IDA, 1970 Kimball avenue.
+
+WEINFELD, HANNAH, 20 years old, 3745 Wabash avenue.
+
+WERNISH, MRS. MARY, 341 Center street.
+
+WERSKOWSKY, MRS., 125 Sangamon street.
+
+WINDER, BARRY, 12 years old, 201 South Harvey avenue, Oak Park.
+
+WOLF, SADIE, 26 years old, Hammond, Ind.
+
+WOODS, MRS. J. L., 49 years old, 437 Sixty-fifth street.
+
+
+Z.
+
+ZEISLER, WALTER B., aged 17 years, University of Chicago student, son of
+Dr. Joseph Zeisler, 3256 Lake Park avenue. Identified by name on watch
+charm.
+
+ZIMMERMAN, MISS BESSIE, 954 St. Louis avenue, teacher in public schools,
+died at St. Luke's hospital.
+
+ZIMMERMAN, MARY E., 20 years old, 841 South Turner avenue.
+
+
+RESIDENCE OF VICTIMS.
+
+  Aurora, Ill.                1
+  Barrington, Ill.            2
+  Bartlett, Ill.              2
+  Battle Creek, Mich.         2
+  Berwyn, Ill.                2
+  Binghamton, N. Y.           1
+  Bloomington, Ill.           1
+  Brush, Colo.                1
+  Burlington, Iowa            1
+  Cedar Rapids, Iowa          3
+  Chicago, Ill.             300
+  Clinton, Iowa               2
+  Custer Park, Ill.           1
+  Davenport, Iowa             1
+  Decatur, Ill.               1
+  Decorah, Iowa               1
+  Delaware, O.                8
+  Des Moines, Iowa            5
+  Des Plaines, Ill.           2
+  Detroit, Mich.              2
+  Dodgeville, Ind.            1
+  Elgin, Ill.                 2
+  Eola, Ill.                  2
+  Evanston. Ill.             12
+  Fargo, Minn.                1
+  Freeport, Ill.              1
+  Galesburg, Ill.             1
+  Geneva, Ill.                3
+  Gibson City, Ill.           1
+  Glen View, Ill.             1
+  Granville, Mich.            2
+  Grossdale, Ill.             1
+  Hammond, Ind.               4
+  Hart, Mich.                 3
+  Harvard, Ill.               2
+  Janesville, Wis.            1
+  Jonesville, Mich.           1
+  Kansas City, Mo.            1
+  Kenosha, Wis.               7
+  Keokuk, Iowa                1
+  Kirkville, Mo.              1
+  Knox, Ind.                  1
+  Knoxville, Iowa             1
+  Lafayette, Ind.             1
+  Lake Geneva, Ill.           1
+  Lakeside, Ill.              1
+  Laporte, Ind.               2
+  Lena, Ill.                  1
+  Lincoln, Ill.               1
+  Lockport, Ill.              1
+  Logansport, Ind.            3
+  Lowell, Ind.                2
+  Madison, Wis.               1
+  Madison, S. D.              1
+  Martinsburg, O.             2
+  Mattoon, Ill.               1
+  Milwaukee, Wis.             3
+  Minonk, Ill.                2
+  New York City               2
+  Norwood Park, Ill.          3
+  Oak Park, Ill.              5
+  Ontonagon, Mich.            2
+  Ottawa, Ill.                3
+  Palo Alto, Cal.             1
+  Petersburg, Ind.            2
+  Pittsburg, Pa.              1
+  Plainwell, Mich.            2
+  Quincy, Ill.                2
+  Racine, Wis.                3
+  Rensselaer, Ind.            1
+  Rock Island, Ill.           1
+  Savannah, Ill.              1
+  St. Louis, Mo.              3
+  St. Mary's, Ind.            1
+  Thief River Falls, Minn.    1
+  Tolono, Ill.                2
+  Washington Heights, Ill.    3
+  Watertown, Wis.             2
+  Waukegan, Ill.              3
+  West Grossdale, Ill.        4
+  West Superior, Wis.         2
+  Wheaton, Ill.               3
+  Winnetka, Ill.              8
+  Woodford, O.                1
+  Woodstock, Ill.             2
+  Zanesville, O.              3
+                           ----
+      Total                 570
+
+This remarkable table shows that victims of the fire were from thirteen
+states and eighty-six cities and towns.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XXVI.
+
+THE STORY OF THE BURNING OF BALTIMORE.
+
+
+All the world was startled on Sunday, February 7, 1904, just 39 days after
+the Iroquois theater horror, by another sickening visitation of the fire
+fiend. This time the devouring element fell upon the city of Baltimore and
+all but effaced it from the map. Millions upon millions in property were
+swept away, old established firms annihilated and miles of streets
+occupied by business houses laid waste. Fortunately this disaster was
+accompanied by no loss of life.
+
+Twenty-seven hours elapsed before the conflagration was checked. Fire
+fighters hurried to the scene from a number of near by cities and aided
+the local fire department in subduing the flames. Strangely enough it was
+a coal yard that broke the onward sweep of the sea of fire and enabled the
+firemen to bring the fire under control. Even then it burned for days,
+feeding on the debris and wreckage that marked its early progress. The
+greatest danger past troops and police relieved the firemen who sought
+rest exhausted and maddened by the terrible ordeal through which they had
+passed.
+
+History affords no parallel of the conditions in fire-swept Baltimore on
+the following Tuesday when its people awoke to the mighty task of
+reconstruction looming up before them. After having suffered a loss
+estimated at $125,000,000 a cry of rejoicing went up among them because of
+the absence of casualties. Not a life was lost in the avalanche of flame
+and only one person was seriously injured--Jacob Inglefritz, a volunteer
+fireman from York, Pa. While the hospitals were full to overflowing the
+injuries sustained were of a minor nature. A strange comparison with the
+Iroquois theater fire of a month before! In that instance 600 met death
+and a host were seriously injured in a fire of fifteen minutes' duration
+confined to one building that suffered insignificant damage. Here in a
+fire that swept for days over the business heart of a great city not a
+life was lost. Such is the strange operation of providence.
+
+Other conflagrations suffered by American cities have nothing in common
+with Baltimore experience. Fire destroyed 674 buildings in New York on
+Dec. 26, 1835, causing a property loss of $17,000,000 without causing loss
+of life. Thirty-six years later Chicago burned, wiping out 17,450
+buildings and 250 lives and entailing a loss estimated at $200,000,000.
+The following year, 1872, fire laid waste 65 acres of property in Boston,
+causing a property loss of $80,000,000 and killing fourteen persons. The
+partial destruction of Ottawa and Hull, Canada, April 26, 1900, inflicted
+a loss of $17,000,000 and brought death to seven. On June 30 of the same
+year the North German Lloyd dock fire in Hoboken, N. J., cost 150 lives
+and $7,000,000 in property. Jacksonville, Fla., lost $10,000,000 through a
+visitation of fire that swept through an area 13 blocks wide and two miles
+long. The last in the list was the Paterson, N. J., fire of Feb. 8, 1902,
+which destroyed 75 buildings valued at $18,000,000.
+
+As fire and water have ever been recognized as the most potent agencies of
+death and destruction it will readily appear that seared, scorched
+Baltimore was fortunate indeed in the absence of casualties. On the calm
+of a restful Sabbath, marred only by the presence of a high wind, the
+consuming storm broke upon the doomed city. To that wind and the presence
+of hundreds of old fashioned highly inflammable structures nestling among
+the sky scrapers may be attributed the indescribably rapid spread of the
+flames.
+
+The start of the fire was in the basement of Hurst & Co.'s wholesale dry
+goods house. After burning for about ten minutes there was a loud report
+from the interior of the building as the gasoline tank used for the engine
+in the building exploded. Instantly the immense structure collapsed,
+sending destruction to adjacent buildings in all directions and causing
+the fire to be beyond control of the firemen.
+
+Spreading throughout the wholesale section, the fire burned out every
+wholesale house of note in the city, swept along through the Baltimore and
+Fayette street retail sections, destroyed all the prominent office
+buildings, leveled banks and brokerage offices, as well as the Chamber of
+Commerce and Stock Exchange, in the financial section, then sped on
+through the wholesale and export trade sections centering about Exchange
+place. It finally stopped at Jones falls, a creek that runs through
+Baltimore, but swept along the creek to the lumber district and the docks.
+
+As soon as the threatening character of the fire was realized appeals were
+sent broadcast for help and desperate measures were adopted to prevent the
+spread of the flames. To gain that end huge buildings were leveled through
+the agency of dynamite. Eleven fire engines and crews were hurried from
+New York by a fast special train and they joined in the battle early and
+fought like demons until exhausted. Philadelphia, Wilmington, Washington,
+Frederick, Md., Westminster, Md., and York, Pa., each sent brave
+contingents of men with an equipment of apparatus to reinforce the
+desperate firemen of Baltimore.
+
+The first attempt at dynamiting was in the large building of Armstrong,
+Cator & Co., but it failed to collapse and attention was turned to the
+building at the southwest corner of Charles and German streets, where six
+charges of dynamite, each charge containing 100 pounds, were exploded. The
+tremendous force of the explosion tore out the massive granite columns
+that supported the building and left it with apparently almost no support,
+but the walls failed to collapse and stood until the flames had crossed
+Charles street and were eating into the block between Charles and Light
+streets.
+
+Meantime the fire had been communicated to the row of buildings on South
+Charles street, between German and Lombard streets, and all those places,
+occupied principally by wholesale produce and grain dealers, were in
+flames. Before midnight the Carrollton hotel was in flames and the fire
+was sweeping toward Calvert street with irresistible fury.
+
+It was a terrible Sunday afternoon and night! People forgot their usual
+devotions at church to pack their most valued possessions ready for
+flight. Men of wealth left their families and firesides to join in the
+work of suppressing the flames. Women prepared to flee with their
+valuables before the wave of fire they momentarily expected to roll down
+upon them. Wealth and employment were disappearing under the advance of
+the fiery element and gloom, fear and dark forebodings settled down upon
+the doomed municipality. But there was neither sleep nor rest for man,
+woman or child.
+
+Firemen working on the south side had succeeded in checking the flames at
+Lombard street and, as the wind was blowing from the northwest, there was
+no danger of it spreading farther in that direction. The western limit had
+also been reached at Howard street and the danger was confined to the east
+and north.
+
+The progress of the flames toward the north had in the meantime been so
+rapid as to be simply appalling. From structure to structure they flew,
+licking up the massive buildings as if they were composed of paper. In the
+block between German and Baltimore streets they flew along and almost
+before it could be realized the buildings along Baltimore street were
+blazing from roof to basement.
+
+For a time it was hoped the fire could be kept from crossing the north
+side of Baltimore street and the firemen made a desperate effort to
+prevent it. The effort was useless, however, and soon the tall, narrow
+building of Mullin's hotel began to dart out tongues of flame and the
+remainder of the buildings between Sharp and Liberty streets were ablaze
+and the fire was marching north. The flames flew rapidly from place to
+place and soon the entire south side of Fayette street was in their grasp.
+Down Fayette to Charles they swept and in a short space of time the
+building occupied by Putts & Co. was doomed.
+
+Seeing that nothing could save it, it was decided to destroy the building
+with dynamite in the hope of preventing the fire from crossing Charles
+street. The explosion was successful in accomplishing the object as the
+entire corner collapsed instantly. This had, apparently, no effect upon
+the progress of the fire, for almost before the sound of the falling walls
+had died away the building on the east side of Charles street began to
+blaze, and it was evident the block between Charles and St. Paul streets
+were doomed.
+
+In a desperate but futile effort to prevent the fire going further to the
+east building after building was dynamited in this block, but it was all
+of no avail and the fire swept steadily onward.
+
+The Daily Record building was soon in flames and not many minutes later
+the fire had leaped over St. Paul street and the lofty and massive Calvert
+building began to emit smoke and flame. The Equitable building, just over
+a narrow alley, quickly followed and these two immense buildings gave
+forth a glare that lighted the city for miles around.
+
+It was thought that the fire could be prevented from crossing to the north
+side of Fayette street and here again a desperate stand was made by the
+firemen. Again it was useless and soon the large building of Hall,
+Headlington & Co., on the northwest corner of Charles and Fayette streets,
+was blazing brightly. With scarcely a pause the fire leaped across to the
+east side of Charles street and enveloped the handsome building of the
+Union Trust company, while at the same time the large buildings to the
+west of Hall, Headlington & Co., occupied by Wise Bros. & Oppenheim,
+Oberndorf & Co., were aflame throughout.
+
+Down Fayette street to the east the flames swept, and soon the new
+courthouse was ablaze. The fire area then extended along Liberty street
+north to Fayette, east to Charles, north to Lexington, south on Charles to
+Baltimore street, east on Baltimore to Holliday and from there in spots to
+Center Market space.
+
+When it was seen the courthouse could not be saved the court records were
+all removed to the northern police station, two miles and half away. The
+Continental Trust building, a thirteen-story structure, caught at the
+tenth floor and was totally destroyed after burning like a great torch.
+The private bank of Alexander Brown, located at Baltimore and Calvert
+streets, in the very heart of the fire district, a one story stone
+structure, miraculously escaped annihilation, the surviving building out
+of a great spread of two square miles of costly structures that caught the
+early morning sun that fateful day. Sunrise that disclosed naught save
+ruin, chaos and confusion.
+
+Thus raged the warfare of man against a relentless hungry element for 27
+hours. It was 11:40 Sunday morning when the fire started. At 2:40 Monday
+afternoon the joyful news was spread that the allied fire departments had
+the flames within control. Hotels, banks, business houses, factories--in
+fact everything in the heart of the city was swept away. All the local
+newspapers save one were destroyed, the street car systems were without
+power to operate and the lighting facilities were sadly crippled. Towering
+ruins loomed up on every hand, swaying in the breeze and jeopardizing
+life. And still the countless fires in the burned district raged on,
+illuminating the heavens and clouding the atmosphere with dense smoke
+against which myriads of sparks twinkled like miniature stars.
+
+The last places to go before the fire started to burn itself out, were the
+icehouse and coal yard of the American Ice company. The coal yard, which
+spread out about 200 yards south of the icehouse, was the means of staying
+the march of the flames on the south and Jones falls on the east. The
+Norfolk wharf of the Baltimore steam-packet company, which was stocked
+with barrels of resin and other miscellaneous merchandise, was destroyed
+before the ice company's plant was reached.
+
+At 10 o'clock Monday the fire was reported under control, but a little
+later the flames were sweeping along the harbor and river men began taking
+their vessels rapidly out into the middle of the stream. There were about
+seventy-five of these vessels and they were hastily anchored down the bay.
+The buildings of the Standard Oil company and the Buckman Fruit company
+along the water front were soon in flames. This renewal of the energy of
+the fire continued until well along into the afternoon of the second day.
+
+Following is a partial list of the principal buildings destroyed in the
+baptism of fire or by dynamite in an effort to stay the flames:
+
+    The courthouse, loss, $4,000,000
+
+    The postoffice, $1,000,000
+
+    Equitable building, twelve stories, $1,135,000
+
+    Union Trust Company building, 11 stories, $1,000,000
+
+    Continental Trust building, 16 stories, $1,125,000
+
+    Baltimore & Ohio general offices, $1,125,000
+
+    Calvert building, $1,125,000
+
+    Hopkins bank.
+
+    Holliday Street theater.
+
+    Guardian Trust building.
+
+    Chesapeake and Potomac Telephone company.
+
+    Maryland Trust company.
+
+    Alexander Brown Banking company.
+
+    Bell Telephone building.
+
+    Custom house.
+
+    Western Union building.
+
+    National Exchange bank.
+
+    United States Express office.
+
+    Mercantile Trust building.
+
+    Baltimore American.
+
+    Baltimore Herald.
+
+    Baltimore Sun.
+
+    Baltimore Evening News.
+
+    Baltimore Record.
+
+    John E. Hurst, dry goods, $1,500,000.
+
+    William Koch Importing company, $150,000.
+
+    Daniel Miller company, dry goods, $1,500,000.
+
+    Dixon & Bartlett company, shoes, $175,000.
+
+    Joyner, Wilse & Co., hats and caps, $100,000.
+
+    Spragins, Buck & Co., shoes, $125,000.
+
+    Cohen-Adler Shoe company, $125,000.
+
+    L. S. Fitman, women's wrappers; Jacob R. Seligman, paper, and Nathan
+    Rosen, women's cloaks, $100,000.
+
+    Morton, Samuels & Co., boots and shoes, and Strauss Bros., storage,
+    $100,000.
+
+    Bates Rubber company, $135,000.
+
+    Guggenheimer, Wells & Co., lithographers and printers, $125,000.
+
+    M. Friedman & Sons, clothing, and F. Schleunes, clothing, $150,000.
+
+    Schwarzkopf Toy company, $100,000.
+
+    National Exchange bank, building and contents, $125,000.
+
+    S. Lowman & Co., clothing, $125,000.
+
+    John E. Hurst & Co., storage, $150,000.
+
+    Lawrence & Gould Shoe company and Bates Hat company, $125,000.
+
+    S. Ginsberg & Co., clothing, $125,000.
+
+    Winkelmann & Brown Drug company, $125,000.
+
+    R. M. Sutton & Co., dry goods, $1,500,000.
+
+    Chesapeake Shoe company, $100,000.
+
+    S. F. & A. F. Miller, clothing manufacturers, $150,000.
+
+    S. Halle Sons, boots and shoes, $100,000.
+
+    Strauss Bros., dry goods, $250,000.
+
+    A. C. Meyer & Co., patent medicines, $150,000.
+
+    Strauss, Eiseman & Co., shirt manufacturers, $150,000.
+
+    North Bros. & Strauss, $150,000.
+
+    McDonald & Fisher, wholesale paper, $100,000.
+
+    Wiley, Bruster & Co., dry goods, and F. W. & E. Dammam, cloth,
+    $125,000.
+
+    Henry Oppenheimer & Co., clothing, and Van Sant, Jacobs & Co., shirts,
+    $175,000.
+
+    Lewis Lauer & Co., shirts, $100,000.
+
+    Champion Shoe Manufacturing company and Driggs, Currin & Co., shoes,
+    $100,000.
+
+    Mendels Bros., women's wrappers, $125,000.
+
+    Blankenberg, Gehrmann & Co., notions, $125,000.
+
+    Leo Keene & Co., women's cloaks, and Henry Pretzfelder & Co., boots
+    and shoes, $125,000.
+
+    Peter Rohe & Son, harness manufacturers, $125,000.
+
+    James Roberts Manufacturing company, plumbers' supplies, $100,000.
+
+    R. J. Anderf & Co., boots and shoes, and James Robertson Manufacturing
+    company, storage, $100,000.
+
+    L. Grief & Bros., clothing, $150,000.
+
+    Maas & Kemper, embroidery and laces, $125,000.
+
+Within 72 hours of the start of the fire the people of Baltimore were
+giving thought to reconstruction. After an investigation it was announced
+that the vaults of the Continental Trust company, which contained
+securities to the value of $200,000,000, were intact and that most of the
+great bank and safety deposit vaults escaped destruction. To relieve banks
+and citizens from the embarrassment of financial transactions the next ten
+days were declared legal holidays in the commonwealth of Maryland.
+
+Mayor McLane reflected local public sentiment when he sent out the
+following declaration to the world at large:
+
+"Baltimore will now enter undaunted into the task of resurrection. A
+greater and more beautiful city will rise from the ruins and we shall make
+of this calamity a future blessing. We are staggered by the terrible blow,
+but we are not discouraged, and every energy of the city as a municipality
+and its citizens as private individuals will be devoted to a
+rehabilitation that will not only prove the stuff we are made of but be a
+monument to the American spirit."
+
+With the exception of the Baltimore World all the local newspapers
+suffered the loss of their plants, moved their staffs to Washington and
+issued editions regularly from there devoted to Baltimore news. The World,
+published in the thick of the ruin and desolation, gave voice to its
+sentiment in the following editorial:
+
+"God be merciful unto those who suffered from the awful calamity that
+swept down on Baltimore.
+
+"Tongue fails; pen is inadequate and refuses to comprehend the extent of
+the disaster that has overtaken us. We have heard of awful calamities to
+others; in fancied security we have looked on in sympathy while others
+have suffered. Now the pain, the anxiety, the suffering is ours and we
+stand appalled, unable to realize the immensity of the terrible affair.
+
+"The World is the only newspaper office in the city that is standing. Once
+it was on fire and was saved only by the earnest, valiant and courageous
+work of the World employes and the goodness of God. To our suffering
+contemporaries we extend the greatest sympathy and to the hundreds of
+other sufferers also. For those thousands who are thrown out of work in
+the dead of winter, with sorrow and suffering staring them in the face,
+our heart throbs with a feeling that we cannot express. All we can say is,
+'God help them.'"
+
+Local and national military authorities took immediate charge of the
+situation to prevent looting and disorder, possible because of the vast
+sums of money in the various safes and vaults scattered about in the
+ruins. Recognition of the disaster came from the nation in another
+practical form. A bill was promptly and appropriately introduced in
+Washington by Representative Martin Emerich of Illinois reciting the
+destruction by fire in preamble and then continuing:
+
+    Whereas, The fire has so crippled the merchants and business interests
+    in the City of Baltimore that they are unable adequately and properly
+    to provide and care for the many who are rendered homeless and
+    penniless by this calamity, and
+
+    Whereas, The City of Baltimore and its people are probably unable in
+    the face of the unlooked for catastrophe to provide proper means for
+    effectually checking the fire and promptly to remove the embers and
+    debris; and
+
+    Whereas, The same, while remaining, are constantly a menace to the
+    safety of many citizens, it is enacted that the Secretary of the
+    Treasury be authorized and directed to pay upon the order of the City
+    Council of Baltimore, certified by the Mayor of the city, to any
+    designated authority of said city, any necessary sum of money not
+    exceeding the sum of $1,000,000 out of any money in the treasury of
+    the United States not otherwise appropriated, to be used for the
+    purpose of providing shelter for those rendered homeless by the said
+    fire, and also to be used for the purpose of clearing the streets and
+    localities devastated by the fire and in order to render the city
+    available for the use of residents and others as speedily as possible.
+
+The bill was referred to the committee on appropriations.
+
+Two days after the fire insurance men estimated the loss at $125,000,000
+and the insurance carried at $90,000,000.
+
+For the thousands of clerks and other employes whose positions are gone
+forever there seemed to be nothing before them but to move to other
+cities.
+
+In the work of rebuilding came employment for another army, but it offered
+no avenue of escape to those whose doom was sounded by the explosions of
+dynamite and the crash of falling walls. Few of the men were fitted for
+the heavy labor of the building trades.
+
+Baltimore's great wholesale houses and wharf district have been
+ruined--not irrevocably, but to such an extent that the fear grips the
+heart of every Baltimore business man that the city may be unable to
+recover from it for many years.
+
+Amid ruins still hot and smoking Baltimore began its resurrection and made
+known its determination to rise, Phoenix-like, through its own efforts, by
+politely, yet firmly declining proffers of help that poured in from all
+sides. The blow that befell Baltimore aroused an intense civic pride that
+found expression in an effort to work out its own salvation. In declining
+financial assistance Mayor McLane was actuated by the spirit shown by the
+Chamber of Commerce, Stock Exchange and practically every local commercial
+body, which came forward with offers of all the money needed by the city
+for immediate use. It was decided that should the Herculean task prove too
+great for the municipality there would still be ample time to seek outside
+assistance.
+
+While heavily armed soldiers marched about the blistering ruins with
+stately tread holding back those who only a few hours before had fought
+the police to save their valuables at the risk of their lives, the
+latter--energetic business men--were already preparing to re-open their
+establishments. Old buildings, long unused, private residences near the
+business section, in fact, every available structure to be secured
+blossomed forth within 24 hours with crudely lettered signs on board or
+cloth announcing that within was the temporary office of a firm. The names
+on some of these signs were those that rank high in the financial and
+commercial circles of the world, and in these temporary offices men who
+for years have known only mahogany desks worked on cheap tables and plain
+boards.
+
+One of the surprises of the fire was the discovery after the excitement
+was over that two financial concerns whose homes were directly in the path
+of the flames escaped practically unharmed. These were the Mercantile
+Trust company and Brown Brothers' Bank. The escape of these buildings was
+due to their lack of height. They do not exceed four stories, and as they
+were surrounded by lofty structures the flames swept over them.
+
+Unconcealed joy greeted the discovery and the information that millions
+upon millions in securities in various vaults escaped destruction, whereas
+all was at first believed to have been swept away. Practically all of the
+vaults and strong rooms and safes of the financial concerns whose
+buildings were destroyed were found unhurt. A tremendous loss in
+securities had been anticipated at first, and when vault after vault
+yielded up its treasures unharmed the joy of the guardians was boundless.
+
+From one trust company's safes alone papers to the amount of more than
+$200,000,000 were recovered. Merchants and their assistants, smoke soiled
+and begrimed and hollow-eyed from anxiety and loss of sleep, worked like
+laborers in the smoking ruins to uncover their safes, and in nearly every
+instance they were rewarded by intact contents.
+
+
+[Illustration: MRS. L. H. MELMS, 117 GROSVENOR AVENUE, CHICAGO.
+
+Mrs. Melms was before her marriage an Athens (O.) girl and was a great
+favorite there. For a number of years she conducted a millinery store in
+that place, her maiden name being Blanche Cornell.]
+
+[Illustration: MRS. CHARLES F. BOETTCHER, 4140 INDIANA AVENUE, CHICAGO.
+
+Mrs. Boettcher was the wife of Charles F. Boettcher, a butcher on the
+south side. She was the only one of the family who perished in the fire.]
+
+[Illustration: MISS MELISSA J. CROCKER, 3730 LAKE AVENUE, CHICAGO.
+
+Miss Crocker was for seventeen years a teacher of the higher grades in the
+Oakland school, coming to Chicago from Princeton, Ill. She attended the
+theater with a friend, Mrs. L. H. Pierce, and little girl of Plainville,
+Mich. All were lost.]
+
+[Illustration: MRS. EMMA STEINMETZ, 2541 HALSTED STREET, CHICAGO.
+
+Mrs. Steinmetz was fifty-one years of age and the wife of O. T. P.
+Steinmetz. She was born in Galena, Ill., her maiden name being Emma
+Garner.]
+
+[Illustration: MRS. WM. C. LEVENSON, 268 OGDEN AVENUE, CHICAGO.
+
+This victim of the Iroquois fire, 28 years of age, was a Russian by birth,
+and left a husband and two children. The latter were girls, four and two
+years of age, respectively.]
+
+[Illustration: MARY HERISH, 710 SO. HALSTED STREET, CHICAGO.
+
+A Russian girl, only eighteen years of age. She was one of only three or
+four of that nationality to lose her life in the disaster.]
+
+[Illustration: LUCILE BOND, 4123 INDIANA AVENUE, CHICAGO.
+
+Daughter of Mr. and Mrs. George R. Bond, and granddaughter of Benjamin
+Moore, ten years of age. Her mother did not attend the matinee and her
+father was absent in Nome, Alaska, where he holds a government position.]
+
+[Illustration: SIBYL MOORE, HART, MICH.
+
+Daughter of Mrs. Perry Moore, 13 years old, who also perished in the fire,
+and granddaughter of Benjamin Moore. At the time of the calamity her
+father was on his way home from Nome, Alaska.]
+
+[Illustration: THE DEE CHILDREN, 3133 WABASH AVENUE, CHICAGO.
+
+The three children of William Dee attended the matinee with their nurse.
+Louise was two years of age and the two boys, twins, Edward Mansfield and
+Samuel Allerton Dee, were seven years old. Eddie (the boy to the right of
+the group) and his baby sister were killed. Samuel escaped, but the nurse
+was found badly mangled, burned and unconscious.]
+
+[Illustration: LOUISE DEE, CHICAGO.
+
+The child of William Dee, who was killed with her brother at the Iroquois
+fire. She was not burned, but is supposed to have been suffocated or died
+of shock and exposure.]
+
+[Illustration: MRS. MARY W. HOLST, 2088 VAN BUREN STREET, CHICAGO.
+
+Wife of Wm. H. Hoist, and daughter of ex-Chief of Police Badenoch, who,
+with her three children, Allan, Gertrude and Amy, perished in the fire.
+She was identified by her husband by means of her wedding ring and a
+diamond ring.]
+
+[Illustration: GERTRUDE HOLST, 2088 VAN BUREN STREET, CHICAGO.
+
+Gertrude was ten years of age and with her younger sister, Amy, and her
+older brother, Allan, was a pupil of the Sumner school. All were burned in
+the fire. The picture was taken some time ago when she was a flower girl
+at a wedding.]
+
+[Illustration: AMY HOLST, 2088 VAN BUREN STREET, CHICAGO.
+
+The daughter of Mr. and Mrs. Wm. H. Holst. Amy was seven years of age and
+a pupil of the Sumner School. She, with her mother, brother and sister,
+was a victim of the fire.]
+
+[Illustration: MRS. CLARA RUHLMAN, CHICAGO.
+
+The mother of Mrs. Sidonic (Herman) Fellman, who was burned in the fire
+with her son-in-law and his mother.]
+
+[Illustration: HERMAN FELLMAN, 3113 VERNON AVENUE, CHICAGO.
+
+Mr. and Mrs. Fellman attended the matinee with their little girl, twelve
+years of age, and their mothers. All except Mrs. Fellman and her daughter
+perished.]
+
+[Illustration: MRS. BERTHA FELLMAN, CHICAGO.
+
+The mother of Mr. Herman Fellman, who, with her son and Mrs. Herman
+Fellman's mother, were victims of the fire.]
+
+[Illustration: MYRON A. DECKER, 3237 GROVELAND AVENUE, CHICAGO.
+
+Mr. Decker, who, with his wife and daughter, perished in the fire, was a
+prosperous real estate dealer, 65 years of age. He had a particular horror
+of fire and seldom attended a theater. Only one member of the family
+survives, a daughter and bride of a few months, Mrs. Blanche D. Kinsey,
+wife of Carl D. Kinsey, of the Chicago Beach Hotel.]
+
+[Illustration: MISS MAYME A. DECKER, CHICAGO.
+
+Daughter of Mr. and Mrs. Myron A. Decker, who, with her parents, met her
+death in the fire. She was thirty-three years of age.]
+
+[Illustration: MRS. MARIA E. BRENNAN, 608 FULTON STREET, CHICAGO.
+
+Mrs. Brennan was the wife of P. G. Brennan, connected with the
+stereotyping department of the "Chicago American." Before marriage she was
+Miss Maria Hogan. Mrs. Brennan and her boy were lost.]
+
+[Illustration: JAMES PAUL BRENNAN, CHICAGO.
+
+Jimmy Brennan, as he was generally known, was the son of Mr. and Mrs. P.
+G. Brennan, and, with his mother, was burned in the fire. He was eleven
+years of age, sturdy and bright.]
+
+[Illustration: MRS. ETTIE EISENDRATH, 10 CRILLY COURT, CHICAGO.
+
+Mrs. Eisendrath attended the matinee with her talented little daughter,
+Natalie. When identified they were found locked in each other's arms.]
+
+[Illustration: NATALIE EISENDRATH, 10 CRILLY COURT, CHICAGO.
+
+Mrs. S. M. Eisendrath and her daughter, Natalie, ten years of age, were
+both lost in the fire. They were in the first balcony and were smothered
+and crushed. Natalie was a bright child and an especial favorite in church
+entertainments.]
+
+[Illustration: MRS. BARBARA L. REYNOLDS, 1286 E. RAVENSWOOD PARK, CHICAGO.
+
+Mrs. Reynolds, her daughter, sister and sister's two boys attended the
+theater together. When entering the auditorium she remarked: "What a
+death-trap!" Soon afterward she and her little daughter were burned. Her
+sister and boys escaped.]
+
+[Illustration: JOSEPHINE E. REYNOLDS, E. RAVENSWOOD PARK, CHICAGO.
+
+The daughter of Mrs. Reynolds who perished with her mother in the theater
+disaster was only seven years of age. Both were burned beyond
+recognition.]
+
+[Illustration: MYRTLE SHABAD, 14 YEARS OLD. 4041 INDIANA AVENUE, CHICAGO.
+
+Myrtle and her brother Theodore, attending the grammar grades, were at the
+matinee with a girl friend, Rose Elkan. They all met death in the fire.]
+
+[Illustration: THEODORE SHABAD, CHICAGO.
+
+Theodore was a bright boy, eleven years of age, and, as stated, formed one
+of the merry party of three which met their fate on that terrible
+afternoon.]
+
+[Illustration: MRS. ANNA H. DIXON, 100 FLOURNOY ST., CHICAGO.
+
+Mrs. Dixon attended the matinee with her two daughters, 15 and 9 years of
+age respectively, all being lost in the fire. She was the wife of A. Z.
+Dixon, a well known West Side grocer.]
+
+[Illustration: DORA L. REYNOLDS, 421 E. 45TH ST., CHICAGO.
+
+Dora attended the fateful matinee in company with her mother and her
+cousin, Ruth Stratman, of Dodgeville, Wis. Both the girls were burned to
+death. Mrs. Reynolds being the first to cross the plank to the university
+building.]
+
+[Illustration: LEAH F. DIXON, 100 FLOURNOY ST., CHICAGO.
+
+The daughter of Mr. and Mrs. A. Z. Dixon, fifteen years of age, who with
+her mother and younger sister, was burned to death in the Iroquois theater
+fire.]
+
+[Illustration: EDNA A. DIXON, 100 FLOURNOY ST., CHICAGO.
+
+The younger daughter of Mr. and Mrs. A. Z. Dixon, 9 years old, who with
+her mother and sister, lost her life in the holocaust.]
+
+[Illustration: WALTER BISSINGER, 15 YEARS OLD, CHICAGO.
+
+The son of Benjamin Bissinger, the real estate man. The boy had an unusual
+poetic gift. He attended the theater with his cousin and sister, Miss
+Tessie. The latter only was saved.]
+
+[Illustration: MISS TESSIE BISSINGER.
+
+Who was in the gallery and made a heroic but unsuccessful attempt to save
+her brother, Walter Bissinger, the Boy Poet of Illinois, and her cousin,
+Jack Pottlitzer, of Lafayette, Ind.]
+
+
+
+
+
+
+End of Project Gutenberg's Chicago's Awful Theater Horror, by Various
+
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