Show j T PASON L 0 SE I 1 H I 1 J A R V E S IN BURNING OF 1 EArmER FOH F fare E STARTS ON STAGE AND BURNS FROM PIT TO DOME with a whirlwind of flame enveloping floor and galleries holiday crowd of pleasure seekers fight way to exits awful scenes of horror as scores leap to street or fall from escapes exits closed and doomed victims penned in blazing prison we must go back tf in he convulsions ot of nature for a more dreadful story of 0 swift death than occurred at the iro quals theater at chicago in the mat inee hour of dec SO 30 the statistics show humans dead and scores in aured there have lime been greater hor bors by flood by volcanoes olea roes by the up rising of natures forces but it if there was ever a more appalling chapter traced to man mans s hand band history fails to tell it save in the records of battle alone of fire horrors as they are commonly known certainly nothing like it ever occurred in this country or any other there an ornate million dollar thea ter assured of course as thoroughly fireproof within were 2 women and cn ildren nd a few men a cal merry holiday matinee audience one thousand were in the galleries there were many entrances offering the usual number of exits all of course sufficient to depopulate the building in case of fire we have all seen that often enough on the pro grams there were five men in uni forms in the aisles provided by the city government it was a pretty hap py scene there was a darkened stage there were a dozen singing maidens and a popular comedian sing ing a popular air entitled in the pale moonlight now what happened 7 A fuse or two blew from the calcium light that made the pale moon the spark struck the ginger bread scenery the scenery blazed to the sta stage stae e an urn of fire in five minutes and then well then in five min utes this costly playhouse became a red urn of fire and a great heart breaking cry such a cry as splits the stone of a caesar caesars a heart arose in that building it was the cry of the man or woman clinging to a stor storm swept raft who sees the others go down before him the scene was something that no human pen can tell A circle of flame swept from the stage around the bal cony and galleries driven into a whirl wind by six great automatic acors and the open doors it moved faster than the calcium cal of the pale moonlight and as fierce fleme as a blazing meteor there was a wild mad raging trampling rush for life it is not easy to fancy what one would do in such a scene but all seemingly acted together men and women fought like unleashed hounds for the first exit little children were crushed in the arms of their mothers clothes and jewels were torn from the owners lorgnettes and purses were tossed on the floors battle for life in balcon es this was the first scene on the main floor the panic was quite as fierce as elsewhere but escape was easier it was in the balconies that the battle for life was hardest and there indeed was scarcely a chance for escape the galleries were within no time at all heaped with a helpless struggling insane mass of people As the flaming circle crept higler and choking the with mack black masses of smoke many were literally too paralyzed for movement so that at the end and after it was all over there was the strange grew some picture of a score or more dead lean ing silently over the rails as if still glancing glan chig at the play but down at the doorway it was a wave backward of human beings fight ing for the blessing bles bing of life what heroism was shown of man for worn wom an or of woman for children will never be known for the tragedy was but of minutes there was the sweep the crush the weak falling and the strong mounting the inevitable desperate des instinct which ac companie the grim law of self preservation then the horror of flam ing death behind and crushing death before then the still outreaching flames and finally a mass of piled up humanity a few of the living above and the dead tar far below the details of the awful happenings inside have never been exceeded in the awfulness of sudden death in agony in all the history of modern times from the balcony and galleries where there was no more safety from the flame heat ascending than on the floor below people hurled themselves downward in their terror all or near ly all of those in the rear met a fear ful death firemen the fire practical ly extinguished found they were but pouring water on beans of human beings LIST OF THE DEAD A adanick mrs john austrian wal ter berd D B barker miss ethel Barn helsel charles H bartlett mrs C D bart dart lett III beuttel william C beyers loth helen dissinger walter B airs mrs H G bodice N W brewster miss julia brinckley mrs emma Du buehmann ehmann margaret bick dick ford C M boise beane buschwah louise beyers butler mrs rosa butler dutler rose Bym furth ruth C cahn miss lucy clark E D 1 clayton vinton cohn mrs jacob corcoran cooper C L con tell thomas cooper helen coults R H curran may crook E S caldwell A R D dawson mrs diffendorf leanders Le andors lincoln III delee miss N dodd mrs J F of delaware 0 donald son H donaldson miss A delee miss viola dyrenfurth ruth ayren furth helen dawson grace E eberstein frank B Els enstead herman eldridge mort espen emil espen miss rosa elkann rose F fitzgibbons anna fitzgibbons john J fox george sydney flan nagan thomas J frady leon faike falke miss ada foley II I 11 I foltz helen wolkenstein Folk enstein miss gertrude R foltz miss alice foltz mrs C 0 fox hoyt fox mrs emile itye winnetka foltz helen frack elborn miss edith Frack elborn ella frady mrs E C G gartz mary dorothea gartz bar bara bars gerow mabel alabel geary miss pauline gerry miss wilma gould mrs B E bohan J Guder haugh sophie H hall emperly harbrough garbrough Har brough mary E haviland Hav lland miss lee haviland lee harbaugh mrs hickman mrs charles holland john howard mrs mary E hart E D henning henry mrs G A higginson miss jeanette holmes mrs higgin son roger hoist holst alien allen hoist ger trude hooper W W kenosha wis howard mibs helen holland leigh horton edith ontonagon Onto mich howard ray E hudson harry hehn helin otto J jones ethel johnson J C K kaufman alice kelly otto kle ley harvey kennedy agnes win netka kennedy frances winnetka kochens J A koll roll charles H kis ner louis and wife ketchem mrs kranz mrs sarah racine wis lit I 1 L lahe lake mrs lena lake mrs at A lang irene lang hortense lange miss agnes linden ellen beatin fred W M maloney mrs james D martin harold martin J martin W ma loney alice ottawa III martin rob ert mccaughan helen mcclellan joseph mcclelland james mcclurg roy mckenna bernard dernard mckenna bernard muir annie peoria III mcmillan mabel meade lillian merriel mrs merrien mildred mo ses emple muir F A morehouse H P moore H P mendel mrs A M middleton catherine mckee morion morton edmund W N newby norton edith nor ton edward W cuir 0 I 1 0 donnell mrs patrick P olinger mrs bessie olson mrs oscar owen william murray oxman miss flor ence P page harold page charles T pat ton lillian peterson fornetta boults R H chacker walter pott feise fei SC I 1 4 13 if death trap at main balcony exit litzer jack lafayette ind R rattey william rattey J reiter mrs G regensberg hazel berg miss helen remington thomas ross ellan robertson min nie reed W M richardson rev 11 II L roberts theodore rogers rose ross K rathey william robinson min alln nie ross 16 years old daugh ter of dr ross S saville warren E sa ore carrie J spring mrs W A St stingier Ingler mrs 3 H sayre miss carrie e A string mrs winthrop spin dier burdette studley rev george H sutton harry D saw yer warner 12 years old kankakee III barry wilma smith mrs des pes plaines III smith miss murine des plaines III 1 sheppard lola 12 years old scott burr Shab bard myrtle Shab bard lulu sprang W N tern mrs sutton harry P squier olive sav lie ile arthur spring win schmidt rosa T ruth torney edna turner mrs susan C W thatcher W V bernice mrs J T Van edward T valley miss bernice van ingen john vien her man W wells donald wolf mrs leo ham mond ind S otto williams H winslow C A three river falls minn wells don aid windes paul wolff harriet Wels kopf emma Z walter B ed dead are am maly in addition to the there are seventy bodies booles at tue the various morgues awaiting ea L |