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Show Destroyed By Tire. Paris, March 8. The Theatre Fran-caise, Fran-caise, the historical play house of Paris and the home of the world-famed Com-ediee Com-ediee Francaise. is tonight a mass of smoking ruins. Only the mere outside shell remains standing. The dome has J collapsed and the interior is an utter wreck. The magnificent ceiling, bearing bear-ing the allegorical painting by Maze-rolle, Maze-rolle, the ceiling painting by De Beuf, the younger; of "Truth Enlightening" the YVorld," which adorned the foyer, and a number of other tableaux and works of art. together with a portion of the invaluable library of manuscript, perished in the flames. Practically all the sculpture, however, how-ever, was saved, and removed to the ministry of finance, which faces the site of the theatre on the Rue de Rivoli. The priceless statute of Voltaire, by Houden, one of the chief beauties of the foyer, escaped by being enveloped 'in a pile of mattresses. The only victim of the fire, so far as is known, was Mile. Henriot, a beautiful beauti-ful young actress of 19, whose photograph photo-graph has been displayed in the shop windows along the boulevards as a type of beauty. She came of a theatrical family, and her mother has been filling an important role at the Theatre An-toine. An-toine. It was, however, only a matter of an hour that saved Paris a repetition of the Opera Comique catastrophe, as a crowd of women and children had already al-ready gathered at the doors, awaiting the opening for the matinee when the alarm was raised. Had the performance perform-ance begun few probably would have escaped, owing to the rapidity with which the flames spread, settling the fate of the building before the firemen could even get to work. The staff of the theatre and several actors and actresses had arrived and the scene shifters were busy preparing the stage for the matinee, when passers pass-ers by perceived smoke curling up from the windows near the room. An alarm was given and men rushed inside the building shouting fire. A general scramble scram-ble for the door ensued among the staff! and it was at first thought that all had escaped. But it was found out after wards that several persons in the upper stories, including Miles. Henriot and Dudlay had been forgotten. Meanwhile the fire brigade had been summoned, and but twenty minutes elapsed before the first detachment arrived, ar-rived, and then only hand pumps were brought. Finally steam pumps came, but then it was found that no water was to be had. It was 12:45 p. m., nearly near-ly three-quarters of an hour after the alarm was raised, before an adequate stream of water was poured into the burning building, which by that time was quite beyond help. The smoke which rose and formed a heavy pall over the theatre acted as a magnetf to the Parisians, who flocked to the scene in crowds. "Le Francaise is in flames!" spread from mouth to mouth until the news had reached every quarter, and nothing noth-ing else was discussed, as the home of the French classical drama has been as familiar to Frenchmen as is the cap-itol cap-itol at YVashington to Americans. An immense concourse soon assembled assem-bled at every point from which a view of the firs could be obtained. The police po-lice endeavored to clear spaces around the theatre for the firemen, but eventually event-ually th troops had to be summoned to keep the crowds back and to assist in the work of saving the sculpture, paintings, paint-ings, library and other treasures, which were being hastily lowered from the windows and heaped in the square or carried into the stores nearby. During the confusion thieves cut several sev-eral paintings out of the frames and got clear away. In one case the police actually assisted them, under the impression im-pression that the thieves were workmen work-men from the Comedte Francaise. Miles. Dudlay and Henroit were on the sixth floor, preparing for the matinee. mat-inee. Mile. Dudlay says: "I was nearly near-ly dressed when I smelled smoke, which entered under the door. I flung the door wide open and found utter darkness. The corridor was filled with smoke, which choked me. I rushed along the corridor and reached a window, win-dow, where I shouted for help. My cries were heard below and a fireman mounted a ladder, tied a rope around me and lowered me to the ground just in time, as I could feel I was about to faint." Mile. Dudlay was dressed in the costume cos-tume of the play, and great excitement prevailed in the throng below as she was gradually brought to the ground. Mile. Henriot's dresser relates that she left the dressing room with her mistress, but that the latter completely complete-ly lost her head, and instead of descending, de-scending, ran upstairs and sought refuge ref-uge in another room, where, ' presumably, presum-ably, she was asphyxiated. The firemen found Mile. Henriot lying ly-ing on the floor. Only her face had been burned. The body was carried out and placed in an ambulance car, a dozen of which were drawn up in front of the door. As her face was so much burned that she was unrecognizable, unrecogniz-able, the body was taken to the morgue, where it was identified by M. Coquelin and other members of the Comedy Francais by the clothing. Meanwhile the mother of Mile. Henriot Hen-riot had hurried to the scene bareheaded, bare-headed, and crying wildly for her daughter. The truth was concealed from her as long as possible, and when it was finally told to her she was distracted dis-tracted with grief. Mile. Henriot's dresser was badly burned, but not dangerously. A number num-ber of the firemen were slightly injured, in-jured, chiefly by the stifling fumes. In the chamber of deputies today, M. Deschanel. president of the house, announced an-nounced the destruction of the Theatre Francais by fire, and praised the efforts ef-forts of the firemen, who, he said, were working hard to save the art treasures'. It is now asserted that the fire was due to incendiaries. M. Girard, chief of the municipal laboratory, has made inquiry into the matter and is convinced con-vinced that the fire was due neither to gas nor electricity. |