| Show HOLOCAUST PARALYZED THE TOWN AND THE PEOPLE GO ABOUT DAZED bodies were so badly burned that not half of the rhoades opera house victims will ever be identified railroad company sends two carloads Carf oads of carpenters and laborers to help recover the bodies boyertown Boyer town jan 14 when nightfall put a stop to the work of recovering the dead from the ruins of tho rhoades opera house where baat nights holocaust occurred the official roll of victims numbered whether any more bodies are burled beneath the ruins cannot be positively stated but it is the belief of those who had charge of the gruesome work that all of the dead have been re and that the total list of victims alu not not go over the ratio of women and girls to men and boys Is about nine to one work of will not ba begun until tomorrow as most of the bodies arc still lying in a confused state at the four improvised morgues the population of the place is about 0 and the disaster paralyzed the town and the people are going about dazed it is safe to say that everybody in the place cither lost one or more or was intimately acquainted quain ted with those alio died in the re in several cases whole families were wiped out it was almost daylight this morning before the flames were extinguished and rescuers were able to enter alie ruins to remove the dead the morning was bitter cold and by tho time the benumbed and exhausted firemen the task of disentangling the mass of burned beams and twisted iron the entire ruins were coated with ico and there waa danger of the walls falling coroner strasser of reading who reached the scone shortly after midnight last night had a detail of men ready to tag the bodies and keep a ot the description 0 every removed the bodies were so badly burned however that there was fo describe them by and not half of the victims will be ever aaen tince ano philadelphia and reading railroad company offered men to help and soon had two carloads of laborers and on the ground the work of recovering bodies then moved so rapidly that victims acro being taen the ruins at the rate 01 two every five minutes the rhoades opera house was lo 10 bated on the second floor of a three story brick building the arst floor was occupied by a national bank and several stores and tho third floor was used for lodge rooms the entertainment hall was a lage room about 50 feet wide and 76 feet long it had no gallery there wab a stairway at the front of the building and a narrow exit in the rear of the stage fire escapes were built on both sides and on the front 0 the building so far as can be learned there were about persons packed in the room most of whom were adults the number of children present was small there were about 05 persons all local talent on the stage who were giving a performance of the scottish reformation the entertainment waa nearly over the audience waiting for the curtain to go up on the last part when something went wrong with the calcium light apparatus that was perched on a small platform near the front entrance of the building and at iho back of the audience the light was in charge of H W alscher of carlyle and be frays a rubber tubing slipped from one of the tanks at any rate there was a loud hissing sound which caused many in the audience to turn their heads in curiosity to see what it was there was absolutely no panic up 10 this lime and nothing probably would hav happened it one or more of tho performers behind the curtain nad not been curious to learn what was causing the noise who he or they were probably will never be known hearing the hissing sound and the slight commotion in the audience one of the performers raised the curtain from the floor in front of the curtain and serving as footlights was a tin tank perhaps 8 feet long 3 inches wide and 3 inches high it contained coal oil and about ten lights in raising the curtain the performer accidentally turned this tank over and it fell to the floor within a fow inches of the persons in the front row rev adam A weber pastor of st johns lutheran church for the benefit of whose sunday school the entertainment was being given tried to pick up the tank with the assistance 01 others but before they could do so the oil flowed out and caught fire then came the inevitable cry of fire and what followed has been impossible to accurately tell eye witnesses say that the audience rose en masse and the one impulse was to reach the front door all attempted but few got out the seats in the center of the hall were of the usual folding variety while those along side of the hall were loose chairs in the scramble to get out many persons tell over the chabra and were never again ablo to regain their feet those who did reach the front entrance found it jammed one of the double doors had been bolted shut so as to better enable the ticket taker to take up tickets not more than two persons could pass this door at one time and after the first halt dozen got through the aar row passage it became clogged with the struggling mass of humanity men women boys girls and chairs were tangled up in a solid mass that no one from the outside was able to disentangle in the meantime some one discovered that there were fire escapes on each side of the building and dozens made their exits by those avenues of escape and gave the alarm the fire bell was rung and the whole town was aroused and went to the rescue all this time the flames from the oil tank wore creeping toward the terrified mass of people who frantically shrieking and fighting to get out the noise was dreadful and few heard the cries of those who found the fire escapes some of the bravest who had gained tho fire escapes pulled dozens from the struggling mass and directed them to thy sides of the building while the frenzied people were fighting to get down the front steps the calcium light tank exploded and fire was spread over the entire mass of people this added horror was more than the feeble rescuers could stand and in order to save their lives they were forced to flee down the fire escapes on the front steps outside the door men pulled frantically to open a way for the wedged ln people but not more alian a half dozen were rescued in this manner the explosion of tho calcium tank and the flames from tho front of the which had by this time reached tho struggling people made further roscco impossible the entire interior of the building wag ono seething furnace firemen throw a feeble stream of water into the burning building but it had no effect on tho flames fathers and brothers frenzied by the tl ought that loved ones were in tho fiery place compelled to retreat nothing could bo dono to got their people out and they were forced to stand by and watch the awful sacrifice of life after the flamos had entirely onvel aped the building and threatened the adjoining property tho fire department of pottstown Potts town nine miles distant was summoned tho firemon from pottstown Potts town found the situation very bad and went to work with a vim to stay the progress of the flames this was accomplished after tha building was entirely destroyed and several adjoining structures badly damaged while tho alamea were being checked somo of tho boyertown Boyer town firemen and others vho aho were assisting them made frequent trips to nearby sa loons with the result that toward morning como of the men became unruly jhc thc re were frequent fights among themselves and with the potts town firemen at one time it looked as though the entire two alre companies would become involved in a free fight and it was only the good work ot the state police who had been summoned from their barracks at reading to assist the town in its affliction that a more serious affray did not occur the condition became so barlous that burgess kohler at 5 in the morning issued an order to all saloon keepers within tho borough to close their places the order was promptly compiled with and the saloons will remain closed until further notice when the flamon were extinguished and the rescuers entered the building a horrible sight met their gaze bodies were plied in one solid mass ab feet high on the second floor so solidly were they wedged that pick axes and crowbars had to bo used gently to separate the victims As each victim was taken from the pile a number tag was attached and the body placed on boards alie body was then covered with a ault hundreds of which were furnished by stores and citizens and lowered to the street ly means 0 ladders they were placed in wagons and taken to the four morgues so rapidly were the bodies removed that wagons were not always on hand and the dead carried through the streets to the morgues dr J K evans burgess of malvern who supervised the removal of the bodies on behalf of the coroner said he did not believe that ten per cent of the victims would ever be identified in nearly overy case the upper portions of the bodies were burned away and in a great many instances the lower part of the bodies were not touched |
