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Show BALL R01TRAGEDY THREE HUNDRED MERRY-MAKERS MEET DEATH WHEN DECORATIONS DECORA-TIONS CATCH FIRE. Door Had Been Nailed up to Prevent Admittance of Scores Anxious to Attend, and Dancers Were Caught in Veritable Fire Trap. Mate-Szalka, Hungary. The village of Oekoerito and the adjacent districts have been thrown into mourning by a terrible disaster at the former place Monday which resulted In he death of 290 persons and the serious injury of 100 others. A public ball was held in the coach house at the hotel. It. was -a great barn-like structure, decorated with tinder-dry June branches left from a previous entertainment, to which were added for the occasion other decorations decora-tions and Chinese lanterns. The festivity fes-tivity attracted pleasure-seekers from all the surrounding country and the building was so packed just before the ball commenced that the single door that afforded entrance and exit was nailed up to prevent the admittance admit-tance of scores who clamored outside. out-side. While the dancing was in full swing a pine branch caught fire and fell to the floor. It blazed furiously and almost instantly the dresses of several women burst into flames. The fire spread with astonishing rapidity. A dreadful panic ensued, the revellers revel-lers losing their heads completely. Many of them, with flames shooting out from their garments, rushed to- j ward the barred exit, where a surging mass were jammed together. Women and men fell and were trampled under un-der foot. Those in front vainly endeavored en-deavored to tear open the door, but were crushed helplessly by the pressure pres-sure of the crowd behind. Soon the roof crushed in, the blazing blaz-ing wreckage falling on the helpless victims, so that many of these who had hitherto escaped the flames were struck down by beams or buried under un-der debris. When the door was finally final-ly broken open some few persons escaped, es-caped, but most of these collapsed before be-fore they got far. Inside the building build-ing were heaps of charred corpses. |