The evening world. Newspaper, December 31, 1903, Page 2

D FILL THE M ‘TE WORLD: THURSDAY EVENING, DECEMBER 31, 1903. ORGUES, DYING THE HOSPITALS “Ged forbid that I ever again see such a heartrending sight. that met my eyes when, with the aid of a tiny lantern, I was finally able to penetrate the inky darkne There was a pile of twisted and bleeding bodies ten feet high, with blackened faces and remnants of charred clothing clinging to them. MORE GHASTLY THAN A BATTLEFIELD, SAYS BISHOP SAMUEL FALL I have been in wars and upon the bloody field of battle, but in all my experience I have never seen an ss of the balcony. Some were o them the best I could,—Samuel Fallows, Bishop of the OWS. ything half so gruesome as the sight alive and moaning in their agony. Others, and by Reformed Eprscopal Church. ‘|. far the greater number, were dead, I assisted in carrying many of the injured down and ministered t Rae = ara a = SS Sees eee (1) heen taken theré are 157 sufferers, Of these 50 will die; probably some| Py are now d¢ad. The missing numbers 314, but it is probable that many SCENES (}f HORROR | ofthese will eventually be accounted for. | }.— The death roll will number more than 600. Whole families have { beerfwified out. The calamity affects not alone Chicago, but the entire NOW IN THEATRE is middle*West, for in the Iroquois Theatre were scores of persons from] + other cities visiting friends or relatives here. I, = } ee The horror of the fire grows with every hour, Thousands clamor|Amid the Wreck of the Interior iP about the morgues, and every train from nearby points in Mlinoi ind) Lay Everywhere Scorched ‘i Indiana brings anxious relatives of persons who have been spending the | Bits of Clothing and Frag- holidays here and might have attended the performance yesterday. Continued sight of dead bodies lying huddled on the floors and tables of the various city morgues proved too much this afternoon for some o! the jurors impanelled by Coroner Traeger. Several of the members of th ments of the Charred Bodies. D 31.—By order of Co jury objected to being forced to view the bodies and one juror, Josey TING RU Bae Cee Cummings, practically collapsea at Rolston’s morgue, where the jur, 1 wit a written “was forced to step over the dead bodies in their tour of inspection. oe pales Dell "CURTAIN CAUSED TRAGEDY. { le for Keeping the theatre bull «Seb Employees of the Iroquois ‘Theatre place the terrible loss of lite to (RY). f 1° 08" bemeaaen ay men IE Had it worked properly they say At every pertorm- i patrolmen of péthe “jamming” of the asbestos curtain. ee the fire would huve been confined to the stage alone. * “anc: of the show the asbestos curtain has been raised and lowered, ‘m always run smoothly, according to the employees. It was so whple tnt ** that should one of the cables holding it break the curtain would des nd hy Sine Neil ounly oleae i oa ils own weight. The asbestos curtain was held by four steel cables. It detail of! polleemen ed building from were fears that neath ten feet of p.-slid up and down on and was guided by two others, one on each side. lg These four cables extended above the gridiron, the framework which sup- #2 ported the tackle by which the scenery is raised and lowered, to the side juga Nolan pi eaets wall, There they were attached to a large steel plate. oo viet! smoke and flaties. Big * With characteristic energy Chicago has taken told of the situation. | * that before had deluged *™'The city government has imed charge of the bodies of the dead and {* ie ae » to-day belng utilized "of the care of the injured. No question of exnense is considered. ok omIERY weiter team tnaeinaententG i Possibly nothing could better typify the depth of the sympathy jwitle w dozen firemen in hip-boots +? which is felt for (hose who suffered directly by the calamity than the jmide a tiorough search of the be =» action of the striking livery drivers. By a vote which was without a dis- | °"" aes lea, None, however, were ot senting voice it was decided to establish a truce of ten days. President) ))) yea Reyes Aired ee #y Albert Young, of the union, following the meeting, issued the following ‘ris p howavern permitted) Wor taltsl ering on either side of the street near | did) the on-lookers would hing out of the ordinary, | n of building was the ee which was distributed broadcast : “Owing to the great disaster to the public caused by the fire at the uols Theatre, I do hereby declare a truce iy the present strike of un _ Peder Sibu » ey Trog! 4©"dertakers’ and livery drivers for ten days, and do futher require that ¢ | {. man now on strike report at one to his respective place of employment ers i Serato (Lend do everything In his power to assist his employer in caring for the PE ty | . | &) wants of the public. Wages are-to have no consideration.” Hmbol of the eruclty of : In their turn the employers Issued a call to their striking employees to | {ii ielury, Sond forth from a front un c [Ss return to work, “Irrespective of any previous affiliations with any and all 4, organizations,” and promising to protect them in all contingencles which “ may ariee in the future. found right within | weve an AM night long the crowds came and went around the morgues Where Wir the mess and confusion of | the ‘igo the bodies of the victims of the disaster lay, ‘There were the hends OC Rina it oe © Families, brothers, sisters and men and women looking for those from out FOV aide cities who had been their guests, For hours they passed up and down | fy before tho long rows of the dead searching for the faces of thelr missing. Sorrow reigned in the residence of Dr, Frank W. Gunsaulus, the noted ‘ Aiwine, who lives at No. 2618 Prairie avenue, William McLaughlin, nine f veep years of age. a nephew of Mrs Gunsaulus, was one of those seve 7 burned, He wus taken to the Presbyterian Hospital, where the attending Yi, physicians entertained. no hope for hin recovery. He was to have witnessed si the marriage of Miss Martha Gunsaulus to Henry Hamilton Shueler, which wane the the theatre + pile in thet bushel baskets w §. gloves and ‘ 1)" was to have taken place at the Prairie avenue residence this evening, but 44" i} +) which has been postponed tie |, fWO TOTS WHO ARE SEARCHED FOR, |inormue: ii All night lou rch was kept up for Mary Dorothy Guarta, twelve {ude i years old. and ‘Barbara Gartz. four years old, who attended the th vot Lem their aunt, Mrs, Adelaide Hoptfeldt. To-day thelr bodies had not been | wares })Syfaund, and there seems to be no doudt that the children have perished sant junc i They are the daughters of A. F. Gartz, and the nieces of RT. Crane, the | the hn weephig. women ica millionaire manufact this Mrs. Hoptfeldt wes taken from the jehildren DRAWING FROM TE lieved to hove been caught In the crush coming down from the balcony are and to have been trampled to death on the staircase leading to the main | floor. Walter Zeisler, seventeen years old, son of Mr. and Mrs, Sigmund Ze!s- Jer, sy xmong the missing. He is nephew of Fanny Moomfleld Zeisler, the » famous planiste. ‘ | A porty consisting of Mrs. Lucy Garn, Ser two children, Frank, ten |» years old, and Willie, five years old; Harriet Wolfe, ten years old, daugh-| jf ter of Ludwick Wolfe, a nallionaire business man, and Miss Burke, | 4 dregamaker, is missing Me. Wolfes cotire mily seorehbe? all nigat “through the hospita and morgues, but falled to tind any trace of any | inember of the party. Graeme Stewart, Republican National Committeeman from Illinois and candidate for Mayor against Carter Harrison last election, spent the entire CHICAGO, Dee, night hunting for Mrs. F. Fox, of Winnetka, Il, and her three children, | jet 3 ‘The fire started during the middle of the second Mrs. Fox Is the daughter of W. M. Hoyt, who was President of the W. M.| pate nes ROTO Tes the ere RM BE ee ee Shen ele the P Hoyt Grocery Company, one of the wealthiest concerns of the kind in the nie etumea uso in this number are: pure white) and ©) West. Mrs. Fox was taken home, but none of her children was found, |t#® house fs usually darkened during the scene, He Mry Stewart said the handkerchief of Hoyt Fox, twelve years old, has been From both sldes of the stage soft blue lights were thrown on the girls +S: founa in the pocket of a suit upon the body of a boy at Rolston’s Morgue. in the song, the lights being projected from platforms erected about twel¥ P< There is no doubt that it is the boy, althorgsh the features cannot be iden: oy fifteen feet from the stage and just inside the proscenium areh, The! + tere was a pathetle scene at Rolston’s Morgue when the body of John /#™ps used In throwing these Hghts are operated by electricity, and the Vv ri n Ingen. cighteeen years old, of Kenosha, Wis., was identified. Friends of blowing out of a fuse on one of them flashed a spark on to a bit of the « the Van Ingen family had spent many hours searching at the request of hanging at thé side. isp. Mr. and Mrs. Van Ingen, who were Injured. To-day our of ene Van Inger The house electrician, who was standing near the switchboard con- e children who are believed to have perished In the flre had not been ae | ooning the lights of the house, noticed the flame, The city flreman, who 1s counted for. They are: Grace, two years old; Dotty, five verre old; Mary,| | thirteen years old, and Edward, twenty years old detailed to the stage whenever the theatre is open, noticed it at the same a . Seana x x 5 moment, ‘The latter seized a fire tube and attempted to extinguish tho BENS COND Cc : ie SAD SHARCH, he Hames, but the contents of the tube proved ineffective. ne of the saddest of the many scenes enacted in Thompson's restaurant, The SOMOS CAnVARITE i reread ay: Beer ecrtey cnc tacny oy thelaead anid. Wounied Wete taken teen Th sry, composed of can and muslin, covered with paint, Vdlately after the fire, was the search by a party of priests and nuns, headed | PUrned with Ightning rapidity, and before either the Areman or the elec- by the Rev. J. L. Moltinger, of Ontonagon, Mich, for Edith Horton and or /triclan could extinguish the blaze or pull the border down it had burned “sisier, two young xirls, who, in company with one of the convent sisters, high out of their reach, and in almost a second the scenery was a mass of \ had attended the performance. ‘The body cf Edith Horton was found in the flames. restaurant, many of the nuns breaking down and weeping bitterly at the . TI Te . sight. The other Horton girl and the sister vho accompanied them wore ARTED RUSH FOR DOORS, Rabatound: | Phat portion of the audience seated on the opposite side of the house, at- . Houseman, the tracted by the commotion made by the fireman and electrician, noticed the a box. Both flames and started the wild rush for the doors. scenery technically known as a “border” wh w scenery soston Baseball Clih, and Fra n, with their families, occupied 3 Dexter, of the o second ba: old © claimed that but for the presence of mind of Eddte Moy the death roll a Be : 4 . would have been doubled The production was one of the most stupendous seenically in the coun- When the panic began and Houseman each made for anq MY: 4nd from the gridirof or rigging loft of the theatye hung a dense mass | manned a dvor, leading into the alley on the north side of the theatre, ‘The Of ropes and scenery, the latter highly inflammable canvas and muslin cov- | people in the balconies had y¥ commenced to jump to the ground ered with paint and olls floor when Houseman and Dexter foreod open their and they were compelled to lift away the maimed and the dead to permit of exits from the ground floor. Houseman, having escorted his party out and kept it from choking up by assisting people through. Winally fore away by the flames, Houseman got tito the alley just in time to hear the agonized voice of a woman from a Window tn an upper gallery shriekip “Catch mi As the woman sereamed she jumped and Houseman, eater ing her to the best of his ability broke her fall the ground and walked away uninjured. Ciinion-G. Meeker, a clerk in the Registry Division of the Post-Office, fy ing in the suburb of Irving Park, has probably lost in the fire his family, consisting of his wife, two daughters anil two sons A friend called Mr. Meeker up on the telephone at 4 o'clock in ti noon and asked him if any of his family ind gone to the the ered that so far as he knew none of them had left home ghed home, however, he found only his mother-in-law there are Mabel and the children?” he asked. | “They have gone to the Iroquois Theatre,” was the reply, ))“Ldropped right down on my knees,” said Mr. Meeker, I God might spare them.” Pho flames licked up this stuff so quickly that It almost seemed ike an | explosion intense, whe the bell in order The heat which arose to the loft and roof of the and the skyHghts were broken stage was took a position at his dc 1 and electriclen had rushed for Ls fire the asbestos curtain, and! rdering it down was rung, It started, bul the breaking of the | an} the opening of the exits in the auditorium created such a that it bellied out when half way down and stuck. uds rushed to pull it down and climbed to the platforms on both They pulled and bung with the weight of their ides of the bodies on it, but the pressure caused by the draught was too great and they proscenium entire could not move it The awful heat and smoke that arose in clouds Jrove the fly-men down. The curtain was hopele: | In the mean time, the chorus girls and players who had been standing in the wings waiting for their entrance after the sextet had begun screaming and rushing for tir clothes. Some were in their dressing- “and prayed rooms up fi Wy five flights on the side of the stage. These heard the » He When he to the fly-gallories | their way toward the exits. {the audience, were upstairs, | FIREMEN RESCUING WOMEN FROM THE BURNING IROQUOIS THEATRE, IN CHICAGO, BY HARRY fLEGRAPHED DESCRIPTION DART. PRESIDENT ROOSEVELT’S MESSAGE OF SYMPATHY. CHICAGO, Dec. 31, — The following message was received this morning: WASHINGTON, Dec. 31. To Hon. Carter H. Harrison, Mayor, Chicago: In common with all our people throughout this land | extend to you, to the people of Chicago, my deepest sympathy in the terrible catastr: he which has befallen them. THEODORE ROOSEVELT. Then to Herbert Dillea, leader of the orchestra, he yelled, “Play! Play, Dil’ For God's sake, keep playing!” Dillea answered bravely, and with a word of command to his musi- cians raised his wand and started his men off in lively march. With pallid faces and trembling fingers, they answered, and stvung into a quick- step, It was a brave effort, but it seemed like the mockery of the damned. Out in the packed auditorium men and women, turned to beasts by the awful fear of death, were trampling each other, fighting and kicking Their screams and shrieks of fear and despair mingled with the rhythm of the march, and made an inferno of what had been a scene of peaceful enjoyment but a moment before. On the stage the chorus girls were hysterical with fear, and were fleeing to the street in the tights and filmsy garments they wore in the production. The men of the company were doing their best to help them out, and the stage hands were doing heroic work in helping, Guards took their stand at the foot of the stairs leading to the dressing-rooms, and would not allow any of the girls to go to them for their street clothing. There was no time, The members of the aerial ballet, already fastened to their wires in readiness for the scene in Which they were to swing up over the heads of They were unfastened by the men who operated the wires and fled to the street. Some of the girls who were in the uppermost dressing-rooms did not hear the s¢reams, and got their first warning from the smoke that poured in upon them like an avalanche, Foy and those who were helping him were the last to leave. Hardly had they dashed out of the stage door when the gridiron, with its tons of ropes and scenery, fell in a blazing mass to the stage. Out in the auditorium men, women and children were being crushed and trampled to death, ‘Their shrieks mingled with the roar of the flames, and all attempts to check their mad panic were useless, Dillea and his men in the orchestra had ceased playing when the grid- iron fell. They dashed under the stage and up the narrow stairway by the \stage entrance and made their escape, Some few persons in the front row of the orchestra followed them and made thelr way Into the alley, Before the gridiron and scenery fell the flames, creeping under the half-lowered asbestos curtain, had crept along the balcony, licking up with greedy haste the decorative front and spreading to the curtains and por- tieres, Smoke rolled out from the stage in volumes, carried by the draught created by the broken skylights in the roof of the stage and open exits, | ‘screams of their fellow players and came scrambling down the narrow stairs, _.|“PLAY, FOR GOD'S SAKE!" SHOUTED FOY. K Hidie F who was in his dressing-room changing his costume, heard the commotion and rushed to the stage. MONDAY MORNING WONDERS “Keep cool! Keope cool!” be shouted. Go out quietly and don’t crush,” \ rday Mr. Meeker hud partially identified the bodies of his wife and shtera, He failed to find any trace of his two sons. Cure » Cold in One pay rh SUNDAY WORLD WANTS worR ESE TU PETE OD ITED Seo. This smoke filled the auditorium, and women and children sank chok- {ng and gasping, only to be trampled to death by those behind them who were fighting their way to the exits. It was in the balcony and gallery that death reaped its greatest har- vest, $ 4 At the first alarm those nearest the stairways dashed out and so te y if i ak CORONER SAYS BLAME WILL BE PUT WHERE IT BELONGS “If Any Person Is Responsible for This Fire,” He Adds, ‘“‘He Will Be Pros- ecuted to the Fullest Extent of the Law—The Investigation Will Be Thorough.” | | | tay { | | ' CHICAGO, 31.—With nouncement that one jury of representa- the an-| will be-prosecuted to the fullest extent! | of the law. “The investigation of the fire. will be thorough, We will leave no stone un- turned in our efforts to fix the respon- sibility.” The Coroner's jury is as follows: L. H. Meyer, Secretary of the Ken-/ nedy Furniture Company. ) Dr. Peter Byrnes, salesman for-Lgon\ & Healy. Walter Clingman, salesman for the Tobey Furniture Company. Joseph A. Cummings, Browning, King & Co. George W. Atkins, credit man for Mar- shall Field & Co. John W. Fine, salesman for A, B Revell & Co. oe, their lives, So quickly did the whole thing occur, however, that ere a min- jute had passed there was a mass of men, women and children packed around these stairways so tightly that it was almost impossible for any to move, Those who Jumped were jumped on by others, and the passage be- came blocked by masses of bodies, Some were killed instantly. Others lay in the midst of the mass, their lives being slowly crushed out by the feet |of those who came after them, FIRE-ESCAPE DOORS USELESS. As those nearest the stairways massed about them others rushed to the | flre-escapes. The doors Were closed—some rusted and others frozen tight. The men in front threw themselveg at them, but without avail, Like ma- niacs they beat upon them with their Bare fists, and those behind kept crowding until it seemed as it the sheer weight of humanity would force the doors open. The shrieks’ and wails of despair that went up when the crowds real- ized they had been trapped could be heard beyond the thick walls, and gave [those in the streets below a faint idea of the suffering those inside were enduring. As the doomed men, women and children crowded against the walls the flames crept nearer and nearer, licking up the cushions and seats as they advanced and sending clouds of smoke into the faces of.those who watched with staring eyes the approach of death. Suddenly one of the great doors gaye Way and a narrow plank was placed from the third story windows of the Northwestern Law and Dental School by three workmen who were employed in the school, Over this narrow, uncertala bridge more than two hundred women and children crept to safety. With awful death staring them in the faco the men in the burning building gave place to the women and children and fought back those who opposed them, ‘\ small boy started to cross the chasm only to lose his balance and go plunging down to the alley, three stories below. His mangled body was afterward recov- lored, but was unidentified. DRIVEN FROM DOOR BY FLAMES. ‘The flames finally reached the doorway, driving the doomed wretches back: {nto the living hell, their agonixed screams ringing out as the flames reached them, m the windows of the school building one could look down into the theatre, which by this time was one great well of flame. Down in that flery abyss men, women and children could be seen rushing about lke mad, flames barring every exit. Now and then a form would be seen to sink and the flames spring up over it as the clothing caught fire, hen the flames reached the gallery the men who had been instrumental In saving so many could do no more. The smoke and flames belched from the win- now and then as the smoke cleared for an instant a white, agonized face would appear, only to tall back again to be seen no more. It has bee said of the catastrophe that if the people had remained in their seats and had not been excited by the cry of fire not a single life would have been lost, ‘This, however, is contradicted by the statements of the firemen, who founa numbers of persons sitting in their seats, thelr faces directed toward the stage, as if the performance was stil going on, It was the opinion of the firemen that these people had bsen suffocated at once by the flow of gas which came from behind the asbestos curtain MOST OF AUDIENCE.IN BALCONIES. as can be estimated at the present time about 1,80) people were in the eneatre. Threo hundred of these were on the first floor, the balance being in the wo upper niles and In the haliways back of them, ‘The theatre 1s modelled after the Opera Comique in Paris, and from the rear of cach baleony there are three doors leading out to passageways toward the front of the theatre, ‘Two of these doorways are at the end of the balcony, | one being in the centre, The audience in Its rush for the outer alr seems to have. for the greater part, chosen to flee to the left entrance and to have attempted ta! make its way down the eastern stairway leading into the lobby of the theatre. Oucalde of the people burned and sudtceated by gas, it was in these two doorways on the first and second balconies that tho greatest loss of life occurred. When the dremen entered the bullding the dead were found stretched in a pile reaching fvom the head of the stairway at least elght feet from the door back to a point about five feet In the rear of the door, ‘This mass of dead bodies in the centre of the doorway reached to within two feet of the top of the pas- aROWAY. sR. af the corpses at this point were women and children. ‘The fight for life which must have taken place at these two points 1s some- thing that {s simply beyond human power adequately to describe. Only a faint jdea of its horror could be derived from the aspect of the bodies as they lay, Women on top of these masses of dead had been overtaken by death as they were crawling on their hands and knees over the bodies of those who had died before, | ‘As the police removed layer after Inyer of dead in these doorways the sight became too much even for police and firemen, hardened as they are to such scenes, to endure, ‘The bodies were in such an inextricable mass and so tightly were they jammed between the sides of the door and the walls that is was im- possible to Hft them ono by one and carry them out. ‘The only possible thing to da was to selze a limb or some other portion of the body and pull with main strength, "As one by one the bodies were dragged out of the water-soaked blackened |mass of corpses the spectacle became more and more heartrending, There were women whose clothing was torn completely from their bodtes above the waist, who had been trampled beyond all power of {dentification. Bodies lay in the first and second balconies in great numbers, ee GIRL’S MARVELLOUS DIED. ESCAPE FROM DEATH jnexnoups.—on_Tuestay, Deo. 9, 1908, THOMAS REYNOLDS. Funeral from his late West 27th st., on Friday. Jan. 1, 2 P, M. Interment. Calvery Dee. | tive citizens would listen to all the evi- dence regarding the fire and return a single verdict for all the victims, Coro- | ner Traeger to-day promptly impanelled jury, National . Republican Com- | mitteeman Graeme Stewart, member of |the firm of William M. Hoyt & Co., wholesale grocers, was told by the coro- ner that the death of Mr, Hoyt's daugh- |ter, Mra. F, Morton Fox, and her three |echildren, would be taken as a basis for the investigation, | “If any persons are responsible for jthis fire,” said Coroner Traeger, “they a manager of dows; As nei CHICAGO,. Dec, 31.—Foremost among the remarkable escapes was that of Winnie Gallagher, twelve years old. ‘Tae girl occupled a seat in the third row from the front on the main floor and that sho was able to make her way through tho struggling mass of steonger and older persons Js considered remark- able by the police. Unassisted the di escaped, Laundry Wants—Female. THONBR Tyiretsc farally oper: meaty 'Y | SUNDAY WORLD WANTS WORK THons an the street her alot MONDAY MORNING WONDERE. Into shreds. , j s . ‘ AW i ¢ 2AV wt AU Tab Sie Al . ee