Rensselaer Republican, Volume 17, Number 10, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 13 November 1884 — PANIC AT THE PLAY. [ARTICLE]

PANIC AT THE PLAY.

A Malicious Miscreant Causes a Frightful Panic in a Glasgow Theater. Sixteen Persons Killed Outright, and About Thirty Severely Wounded. [Cable dispatch from Glasgow, Scotland.] A serious panic occurred at the Star Theater, in Glasgow, caused by a cry of Are. The performance had proceeded without isterrnption until shortly after 9 o'clock, when some person shouted "Fire!" The whole audience instantly rose to their feet and made a rush to the several exits. '1 he great mass of people in “the pit" in rushing'therefrom met a crushing crowd pouring down from the gallery. The fearful and fatal block followed. The wild shrieks of agony and despairing cries for help could not then be answer d. The mass of panlc-striGken and struggling humanity were appealed to by the officers of the theater and the poßce to hold back, but the appeals were unheeded. The crazed crowd franticaUy pressed toward the outlets, trampUng down and over the weaker ones until the street was reached. When the theater was finally cleared sixteen corpses were found on the stairs leading from ,the gallery, and twelve persons were so badly injured that they only gave evidence that life was not extinct by their piteous moanings. Upon the first alarm being rung the whole fire brigade quickly went to the rescue, and with the police, did their utmost to allay the panic and rescue the dead and dying, but they were too late to be of much effective service. The police and citizens finally succeeded in forcing their way Into the building, anil then aided all they could to escape to the street, but the mass was so wedged that they were sadly interfered with in their humane labors. The city ambulance corps conveyed the victims, the wounded and the dead, to the infirmary. The wounded were so overcome that they were as helpless as the dead. The man whose cry of “Fire!" caused the Sanic has been arrested. He was drunk when e raised she false alarm. Persons in the theater at the time describe the scene on the staircase as terrible, the steps were strewn with ribbons, hats, sacks, and shawls. The. victims were first suffocated and then trampled upon. The panic lasted fifteen minutes. The scenes witnessed when relatives identified their dead were most affecting. Among the victims were eight women. In digging a holg to plant a St. John flagstaff in Indiana the ■workmen struck a spring of water. A hole was bored in the pole and it was transformed into a pump, where the faithful can slake their thirst and show their respect for the cause at the same time. Mb. James O’K f.i.ey, M. P. for Roscommon, will retire from Parliament at the end of the present session and come, to the United States to engage in journalistic pursuits. He was at one time connected with the New York Herald. Some of the teachers in the public schools at St. Johnsbury, Yt.„ have been notified by the School Committee that attendance at the skating rink will be considered equivalent to a resignation. . —■ An elephant herd, it is said, is always led by a female, never by a male.