Rensselaer Republican, Volume 20, Number 1, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 8 September 1887 — KILLED IN THE CRASH. [ARTICLE]

KILLED IN THE CRASH.

■ Scores of Persons Are Held Immovable and Roasted to Death. Panl c in nn English Theater—The Weak ” Are" Beaten, Crunhed and Trainpltd— One Hundred and Thirty Bodie* Removed from the Ruins—Terrible Scene*. During the performance of “The Romany Rye” in the theater at Exeter, England, Monday evening, the building was discovered to be on fire. The audiepce became panic-stricken, and made a rush for the exits in spite of the heroic efforts of the attaches to reassure them and induce them to go out quietly. The opcupants of the pit engaged in an awful struggle for egress in the narrow aisles. Men and women were deliberately knocked down and trampled upon by those behind them, and hundreds of persons were almost entirely denuded in the terrible fight for life. The pit was finally cleared, but a large number of the occupants of that portion of the house were seriously injured, and presented a horrible spqc'aclc as theyreaeh ed tiie street. .

The occupants of the gallery did not fare so well. Theje was only one very narrow exit from the upper tier, involving the descent of a rather long flight of stairs, and here an almost indescribable scene of terror and slaughter ensued. The rush for the stairs was terrific, and in a monent the entire passage was blocked, those persons who kept their feet being supported by v solid mass of prostrate humanity. The shrieks, groans and curses of the imprisoned and the trampled, the wounded and the dying, were heartrending, but there was no relief, and in a moment scores of men and women were either suffocated or killed by being trodden upon. A fire escape- was at last brought to one of the gallery windows, and through this medium the pressure was relieved and a great many persons"were lowered to the street. As soon as the house had been cleared of the living the work of removing the dead was begun, and sixty bodies were taken out by means Of the fire escape. The wounded survivors were conveyed to the hospitals. The fire started in the flies, during the Tour th-act of the play. When the flames were discovered a drop scene was lowered to prevent the current of air from increasing the blaze. After this was done the actors and stage hands threw open a door to make their escape, when the draught caused the flames to burst through the drop scene and ignite the wood work of the gallery. The flames overtook the hindmost of the unfortunatepeople who were’wedged in the corridor and stairway, and literally roasted them alive, _ There

was no escape for them, the fire being at their backs, and a com pact, immovable mass of human beings in front. The firemen reached the upper windows and took out all the people they co uld find, but most of them were dead, and many others died soon after they were taken out. The surgeons in the hospitals revived a few persons who were thought to be dead from suffocation. Some of the dead were suffocated and not at all mutilated or burned. The occupants of the dress-circle escaped uninjured, the injured and dead being confined to the pit and upper circles. The building was destroyed. One hundred and thirty bodies have peen taken out of the theatre. Of these, one hundred were men and boys, and thirty women. A score or more of the injured were taken to the hospital and a large number were taken to their homes.

There is mourning in hundreds house at Exeter. Groups stands at •every corner ■ talking with' subdued voices. Many tales of wonderful escapes and frightful agony are narrated by eye witnesses. One man tells how he fought his way through the panicstriken mass of humanity, and climbed over it out into the air. All the time a woman was hanging on his back with her arms around his neck,almost strangling him. When he reached the light he discovered that the woman was his wife, whom he had left behind as dead. The man was frantic with joy. In an angle of the passage from the gallery the struggle to escape Was so furious that men and women fought and trampled each other down. The pressure of the mass in motion was so great that limbs were actually torn from the bodies of persons struggling to escape, but wedged in or weighted down immovably by the crush in that awful corner. t The victims were mostly working people. As soon as the flames were extinguished, a large force of men began searching for bodies. The stairway Idrding to the gallery was literally packed with bodies, while at the head of the stairs there were scores of others piled one on top of another.' The unfortunate victims had rushed to the door when the alarm was given, but found the stair way blocked and all means of escape cut off. In a short time the flames had reached them and they suffered a horrible death. There were pitifnlsceneßin the vicinity of the burned theater in the morning tims awaited the recoveries of the bodies. In many cases fathers and mothers both perished, and numerous children are thus left without means of supnort

7 . M.n v I'l" I --r • J .-.J H'l-IW everal of the bodies were burned so that only a small cinder remained. A man named Davis was in the gallery with his wife and child. At the outbreak of the fire he took his child in his arms and dragged his wife toward the exit, where he fell, suffocated by smoke and heat. He was found with his child beneath him, his wife lying by his side—all dead.