Iowa State Press (Newspaper) - December 31, 1903, Iowa City, Iowa X DAILY IOWA VOL. IOWA DECEMBER 31, 1903. NO. 52 SIX HUNDRED LIVES ARE SACRIFICED AMERICA'S WORST THEATER HORROR OCCURS IN CHICAGO WEDNESDAY IN IOWA CITY FEELS HORROR IROQUOIS THEATER T ED INTO DANCI FIRE ON STAGE COMMUNICATES TO T HE AUDITORIUM AND HORROR OF ERN HISTORY FOLLOWS WITH APPALLING SUDDENNESS Theatre Supposed tote Absolutely Fireproof Proves Death Trap of Most Terrible of Eighteen Hundred Present and Over One-Third Perish in Ten Pew Are Nearly All Perish by location and Being Trampled to Death in a Panic Failure of Fire Curtain to Work and Fright of Employes of Horrible Calamity Dec. out in Theater on Randolph St. late this afternoon during a matinee A frightful panic It is reported from 10 to 15 of the company perished in the rear portion of the theater and that from five to ten women were tramped Curtain Would Not Accounts of the origin of the fire are conflicting them but the best reason given is that the electric wire near the lower part of a- piece cf drop scenery suddenly broke and was The fire spread idly toward the front of the causing members of the chorus then in performance to flee to who found numbers of people sitting in their their faces di toward the stage as if was still going I i was the opinion of the I people were suffocated at once by th flow cf gas which came i the asbestos j A Pile of the rear of balcony an doors to the front of She Two I of doorways aio at tha end of f the Th avi in to have chf spr tne left and attempt ed to make its way down the staircase into the Outside o the people burned and suffocated bj it was in these two doorways on the first and second balconies that the loss life the firemen entered the the re found stretched in a pile reaching fro head of the at least eight feet in the reai of the with screams of The to death in the j itself up to this time was not The fire started in the Possibly could have been premonition of danger was when cheeked had not the asbestos curtain j failed to As soon fire fell on the Eddie The audience composed largely dian of the shouted to lower and curtain and this was immediately with terror made a mad Many women fainted a flue 1 reaching the exit and were strong aided by which had thrown open in .At four o'clock twelve bodies had taken from the building and the Tried to Prevent firemen say a large number are still the theatrical company p. m. At this hour it is mated that there are at least fifty dead and probably hundred Firemen have just come out the building say corpses parents are lying everywhere .In the aisles and between Dead being to a nearby restaurant as rapidly as they can be out Doctors are being moned from all town offices to minister to the around the burning ter Elegantly e 4 women are rushing hither and thither frantically Shouting the names of missing friends and At p. m. Seventy bodies were in sight and some firemen sail the tal dead might two The dead are being taken out at every Large numbers of corpses were found in the galleries and balcony and even in the are horribly several being minue others are crashed almost beyond Many of 'the dead are Dec. five dred and fifty people were killed in ten minutes Wednesday at a in the Iroquois the est and and as far as power could make it the safest theater in The estimates of the dead and injured The police of the deal is 536. The estimate of the newspapers is 560. Besides this there are 53 people missing at midnight the majority of whom probably are the dead in the morgue and at the ious undertaking Eight dead have been positively and 92 others are known to The fire broke out daring the act of the matinee performance of Bine by the Klaw Er- laager Co. the first dramatic tion produced in the theater since Sis The which was very escaped to the street In nearly being com- to flee into the snowy streets with clothing but their stage cos A few members of the sustained minor injuries but were seriously being first floor had difficulty in the street Eddie the one of the last to having ed to assist the women members ot the company to He attributes extent the catastrophe to the of the fireproof curtain to work Because of he the flames obtained access to the main part of the theater and by this carrying with it gas as well as swept up to the balconies where the loss of life was Foy said an electric wire broke anJ grounded and from this flames ed in the rear of the stage spreading rapidly and attacking the When the fire started he stepped lo the footlights to prevent alarming tlie audience and said there was a slight blaze and it would be better for all to leave He then called for the asbestos curtain to be ami when it was half way down it to go The draft then swept the flames into the auditorium and he knew the theater was and then he assisted the women members of the company to The failure to drop he saved the lives of the although it caused such a horrible catastrophe in the A Rush of With a roar and a the flames shot through the opening over the heads of the people on the first floor and reaching clear up to those in iie first caught them and burned them to death where they sat this rush of flames came an explosion welch lifted the entire roof of the theater from the shattering the great skylight into As soon as 4he first appeared beyond the curtain man in the rear of the hall shouted and the entire audience rose as one person and made for It is believed the explosion was caused by the flames coming in contact the gas reservoirs of the causing them to burst Suffocated as They Sat. Will J. manager of the said after the that if the people had remained 3n their seats and hal not been excited by the cry of not a single life have been lost This con- by the statement of the Fearful Fight for This mass of bodies in the cen ter of the reached to within two feet of the top of the corpses at this point were men and The fight for life which must have taken place points is simply beyond human power adequately to Only a faint idea of its horror could be rived from of the bodies as they Women on the top tile masses 6f had been overtaken by as they were crawling hands and knees over the bodies of those who had died Others lay with arms stretched out in the direction toward which lay life and holding in their hands ments of garments not their They were evidently torn from the clothing of others whom they had endeavored down and trample under foot as they fought for their own Sickening As the police removed layer after layer of the dead in these the sight became too much even for the and hardened as thy are to to The bodies were in such an inextricable and so tightly jammed between the sides cf the door and walls that it wa to lift them one by one and carry The only sible thing to do was to seize a limb or some other portion a body and pull with main Men worked at the task with tears down their checks and the sobs of the cuers could be heard even in the hall below where this awful scene was be- ing A number of men were compelled to abandon the task and give it over to others whose nerves had not as yet been shaken liy the As one by one the bodies were dragged out of the water of i ibe spectacle became and more heart Naked and Mangled There women whose was lorn completely from bodies above the whose bosoms been inlo pulp and faces were marred beyond all power of Inside the theater there was no such number of In any one spot hut She lay jn and second balconies in great In some places they were up in the and four Where one had nad tripped ovor the prostrate and aH had died where they denty suffocated by Cut in Two by a Others were bent over the backs of seats where they had been thrown by rash for the doors and killed hardly a chance to rise from One was with his back bent nearly spinal column having been as be was thrown A woman was found cnt in half by the back of a she having been forced over face Faces Trampled In the aisles nearest the the scenes were harrowing Bodies lay iu every conceivable tude half the on faces revealing some the agony which must have preceded their There were scores of people whose entire faces completely off by of those who over in one aisle the body a man was found with not a vestige of flesh or bone remaining above his waist The entire upper portion of his body had cut and ried away by who trampled Search was carefully made with the hope ot finding his heau but at a late hour tonight not discovered and all that will ever tell his who he was is the and appearance of the clothing on his er limbs and this is in such a con- dition as to be hardly No Fife Escape The theater so recently con- that the fire ladders were not yet in though the conies to which they be atr were When the panic was at its height great numbers of en ran for the fire escapes in the alley only to find themselves on a small iron platform 30 to 50 feet from the ground with the fire behind them no escape in The crowd upon those who reached the soon the iron ledges were jammed with women who fought and tore at eac hother like This lasted but a brief and the rush from the interior lent many were and to the granite Others leaped from the turing legs and and two were picked up at this point with fractured having been killed Bridge Across Men occupying opposite en- to secure a ladder to rescue those oh the platform but not finding caught up some planks at hand and constructed a bridge across the Before this was completed loss of time women being pushed every into the alley and by the time the bridge was constructed but few remained to take advantage of it. about two dozen it is this narrow A Mass of Crisp About 100 bodies have been taken from the theater and laid in in Randolph Most of the occupants of the first gallery were caught in a When the fire burst out with one eous run they made for the In the aisles they fought tooth and toe nail and when firemen reached the balcony they found the bodies wedged betwee n chairs like so many some were burned to a others suffocated and some in a frenzy vere thrown over the balcony rail into he auditorium and When he excitement was at its height two explosions of gas hurling the through the It was hen that the flames broke out at the and through the It is estimated people were in the only about three hundred were on the first The others jeing in the balconies and hallways back of The First to See the The building was so full of smoke when the firemen first arrived that the ulJ extent cf the catastrophe was not grasped until a fireman and a newspaper man crawled up to the holding handkerchiefs their months to avoid they reached the the men whose vision was better trained n such emergencies sized his com- by the arm don't walk on their Haul Corpses Like Cord They tried vainly to get through tho oor which was jammed with dead paled higher than either oT The two immediately in the floor below and d Fire Chief that the dead were piled high in the balcony nd prompt assistance must be d if any were to be The work f the fire was abandoned the firemen went at once to the rescue The place was in entire but soon 200 lanterns were carried into the building and the work of rescue com- For over an hour two streams j of men passed in and one carrying i the other returning to get Although all the patrol wagons and i every ambulance owned by the city i was pressed into they were inadequate to fairy away the Corpses were piled in a line fifty feet long and and three high on the and scores were placed in a neighboring restaurant Tt found necessary to use tracks to con- TCT the bodies to the morgues and the dead were hauled away practically like so much The big stores sent loads of rolls of en and packages of cotton to bind up the cf the injured and cover the Drug stores furnished their stock to any one asking for it in the name of the and scores of doctors and trained nurses were the ground giving Iowa City while not directly inter- ested in the fearful holocaust in the Iroquois theater so far as losing any of her people in the terrible disaster is still feels thi horror almost as. personal contac with The terrifying glare of the Easy to Take Easy to Operato Because purely HORRORS AFTER THE FIRE i he Terrible Weight of the Calamity Grows as Search is Prosecuted Dec. With daylight the search of the ruins of the Iroquois Theatre was About the morgues crowds of ing waited all traveling from The ers are still the day looking for friends and According to the latest list compiled by the there are five hundred and ninety-one they fear ther search wil send the list beyond six Many of the injured cannot A number of the dead never bo Workers in the ruins today found evidence that the doors could be Wie ence out of Tn fire engines are pumping out the basement of the When it arid the flies over stage can be edjt is expected that more bodies will be At every stop the searchers find monds and other jewelry and furs of the richest Thousands ot dollars worth of furs and jewels are being hauled away to police The rear and side walls of the ing are in danger of flames that scorched with the breath death seems reflected A telegram was received by Byrot Stillwell this from Mrs. A W. Whitcomb here by many friends as Annie an- nouncing the death of her John Holland and Lillian Holland in the Mr. Holland was a ing business man of Des and he and his daughters had scores of friends Mr. Stillwell had just received a letter of commiseration from Mrs. expressing row because his mothers sudden when the messenger boy brought the sadly coincidental sage from George Butz and Ed Kinney of din township were among the horrified spectators who watched the enactment of the Mr. Bute declares the scene was the awful and rending It fairly turned him faint to behold the dead and dying people borne from the burning Mr. Kinney also describes the horror stricken John W. formerly of Iowa now of was in the when the fire broke He rescued a little who in imminent danger of being trampled to and he C. A. Carpenter of Columbus Junction both escaped unhurt from the fiery hell in which the j threatened to engulf Dr. L. W. Litlig breathed a word of thanksgiving yesterday JURY 31. The coroner im- Dec. panelled a jury this morning and con- ducted it to the numerous morgues to view the bodies in conformity with As blanket was lifted and the dead features revealed the grewsome sight moved the jury Several almost fainted two bad to be excused and others chosen take their A thorough investigation of every circumstance connected with the fire will be At noon the police estimate that the number of known dead will be cut down to 551. Other mates run from 5G4 to 570. The missing are placed 200. Many are probably among the unidentified The number of injured is placed at 300, and of these probably 100 are fatally Sympathy From the Mayor Harrison has received the lowing telegram from common with all our people throughout the I extend to the people of through my deepest sympathy in the terrible which has befallen The board of trade has adjourned out of respect for the Iowa People Among the Dec. In the long list of known dead and the missing who arc undoubtedly among the nearly the names are those of Chicago in the of missing are In- cluded the following names Bessie 23 Mi s Xira 10 Cedar Mrs. John Des M. DCS Mrs. O. DCS never an the history of the continent has so muth expressed in so a The death march from to wth its owing affects even the who moved to make the walking Between rows of silent forms sizing 5nto the faces of those can By Jie end of today the Coroner believes half of the ran Police Make no Very few had been made up 2 o'clock the of many injured is reported It was suggested 1o the chief of j those who might j responsible for ihe should be but he declined to do so. Baying the intent of tlic law was y see that dd not leave the The arc still thronged people looking for the lost The great majority of the are young tha announcement of fire found him of instead civ in lhe Ho had to take Master Lawrence his son and Harold his wife's brother to iho Trn day and would have been m the theatre at the very time the fire fiend reigned but for a the time but been in Augustana hospital early to the and efforts to hurry start to he was unexpectedly detained there so long that he was compelled to disappoint his eager and out the to the being full when he was to What would have happened a grewsome imagination can J. L. of Wortham having just driven from his cago was a of the He said I stood up in my looked over the heads of the thousands of that packed the street L saw the police carrying out the dead and seemingly patrol delivery sort of- were called and then the The scene was one of able will remain with me while life i It is Iowa City will be more painfully affected was at first A telegram among the missing sle and Nina Chapman Dr. F. P. lily these thaf ng the daughters of Friends Will Galloway of Iowa ity are also much Sam a high school oday received a letter dated in which Will ant ng to the Blue matinee his The young name does not ear in the list of but there c much fear felt here until some definite news is from him or bis M. H. Cochran spent ta but before the foil of the Iroquois fire were Miss Vera Johnson is visiting In Lone GREAT o 0 0 0 o 0 0 0 CLEARING Of Odds and Ends and Children's I O 0 o o o o o o o o o After Holiday business in ihe history of the store we find a great many small lots of ODDS AND ENDS which must be Prices have been regardless of cost or former selling can make a small amount of money reach a long way by attending o 8 o g Don't Fail to Attend This Great Odds and Ends 0 0 o 0 0 0 0 0 0 EAGLE Washington
