Rensselaer Republican, Volume 15, Number 43, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 5 July 1883 — A FIRE HORROR. [ARTICLE]

A FIRE HORROR.

Dreadful Holocaust at a Town on the Shores of Lake Como. Forty-Seven Ont of an Audience of bat Ninety Burned to Death in a Halt [Cable Dispatch from London]. Forty-seven persons were burned to death, and about forty seriously scalded or otherwise injured, while witnessing a puppet show in Dervio, a village on the shore of Lake Coma The performance was given in a small hall over a tavern. Ninety men, women and children composed the audience A Bengal light was used to represent fire. Sparks from thi« ignited a quantity of straw and firewood in the adjacent room. On perceiving the flames the showman shouted “fire,” out the spectators thought the cry was merely a realistic detail of the show, and remained seated. *. Ciies of tire' were soon raised outside the hall The audience thinking an affray, had arisen in the street, baned the door leading from the hall They did not discover their mistake until the flames burst into the room. After the fire had been extinguished, fortyseven charred corpses were found near the table, includlngthe bodies of the showman and his wife. The greater number of the remains are those of women and children. The wounded were hurt by leaping through windows. A child was flung out of a window by its mother, and fell upon a pile of straw. This is the only one present m the hall not hurt Dervio is a charming little village on the borders of Lake Come, very sequestered and picturesque It is about six m les north of Bellagio, a charming seaside resort much frequented by English and American tourists, and about thirty miles north of Como. Most of its inhabitants are simple country peasants, fishermen and' wood-chop-pers. The population is about l,(X*t The puppet theater was a low stone building, containing but one room about 20 feet wide and 35 feet long, and could hold about 2co persona There was no gallery, and the performances given there were generally marionette exhibitions, which appeared to please the country folk more than would the playing of a tragedy or the music of an opera. The companies that are iff the habit or exhibiting these marionettes consist generally of four or five people who impersonate by means of little wooden figures the cuaraoters of Arlecchino, Pantalone, Brighetta, Miss Colombina and Dr. Balanzona While the puppets are being worked bv means of little strings, the actors behind them speak in the different Italian dialects Such a little town as Dervio is visited by the strolling players about three times a year, especially in the summer months, and their stay is generally from four days to a week. The exhibitions are generally given in little rooms adjoining summer gardens and beer saloons.