Chicago's Awful Theater Horror

civilized world when on December 30, 1903, a death-dealing blast of flame hurtled through the packed auditorium of the I

s irresistible forces. There have been greater losses of life by volcanoes, earthquakes and floods, but no fire horror of modern times has equaled this one, which

eling in the gaiety of Christmas week, this sudden transformation of a playhouse filled with a pleasure-seeking

eard," with which the handsome new theater had been opened not a month before. "Don't fail to have the children see 'Mr. Bluebeard,'" was the advertisement spread broadcast

with more than enough exits. Ushers and five men in city uniform w

he transfor

eight stalwart men in showy costume strolled through the measures of the piece, bathed in a flood of dazzling light.

crept over the inside of the proscenium drape. It was an insignificant thing, yet the horrible possibilities it entailed flashed over all in an instant. A spa

ad a less strenuous life, the people of the stage hurried silently to the task of stamping out the blaze. In th

to extinguish it. America's newest and most modern fireproof playhouse was not going to disappear before an insignificant fire in the rigging loft. So they continued to sway in sinuous steps t

d on. The throng feasted its eyes on the moving scene of life and color

t before it, grew beyond all bounds. Glowing embers and blazing sparks-crumbs from its table-began to shower upon the merry dancers, and they fell back with blanched faces and trembling limbs. Eddie Foy rush

a lines by which the carloads of scenery in the loft above was suspended gave way before the fire

ience stood,

e curtain!" ca

ned by the performers, fleeing for their lives and battling to escape from the devouring element fast hemming them in on every side. The draft thus caused transformed the stage in one second from a dar

like demons incarnate. Purses, wraps, costly furs were cast aside in that mad rush. Mothers were torn from their children, husbands from their wives. No hold, however strong, could last against that awful, indescribable crush. Strong men who sought to the last to sustain their feminine companions were swept away like straws, thrown to the floor and trampled into unconsciousness in the

o. With prayers, curses and meaningless shrieks of terror all faced their fate like rats in a trap. The darkness was illumined by a fearful light that burst from the sea of flame pouring out from the proscenium, making Dore's representat

re the hurricane of flame and the few who were dragged out hideously disfigured and

e outward into the auditorium instead of upward into the great flues constructed to meet just such an emergency, the sea of fire burned itself out. There was little or

resisted the terrific force of the blast itself. There they remained intact the next day. Anxiety to throw open the palace of pleasure to th

olor, wit and music, had evolved within a few minutes into an actuality. Chamber of horror

met their eyes. Tears and groans fell from them and they were unnerved as they gazed upon the scene of carnage. Some gave way and w

e removal of the dead and dying is found in the words of the veteran descriptive writer, Mr. Ben H. Atwell, who was present from the beginn

orce, the dawn of the last day of the passing year found confusion, chaos and an all-pervading sense of the awful. It seemed to radiate the chilling, depressing volume from the streaked, grime-covered walls and th

AME GREETS

aking of the skylight above the flue-like scene loft that tops the stage, the latter was converted into a furnace through which a tremendous draft poured like a blow pipe, driving billows of flame into the faces of the terrified

red and green decorations spread upon wall, ceiling and balcony facings. It licked the fireproof materials below clean and rolled on with a roar. Over seat tops and plush

ED APPALLI

many tons. A few streams were directed about the body of the house, where vagrant tongues of flame still found materia

The awful battle ended before the irresistible hand of death, which fell upon contestants and those behind alike. Somehow those on the main floor managed to force their way out. Above, where the presence of narrower exits, stairw

ERE THE

suffering all manner of injury. The majority, however, who beheld the indescribably terrifying spectacle of the wave of death moving upon them through the air died then and there without a moment for preparation. Few survived

olled down the mountain side and destroyed everything in its path. Here, however, one circumstance was rever

OES ARE

convert their stores into temporary hospitals and morgues; others converted their trucks and delivery wagons into improvised ambulances; stocks of drugs, oi

of personal consequences. Public sympathy was thoroughly aroused long before the extent of the horror was known and before the sicke

he performance, patrol wagons, ambulances and open wagons hurried the injured to hospitals. Before long they were called upon to perform the more grewsome ta

ILED I

m the fire itself when they met death, having emerged from the theater proper into the separate building containing the foyer. In this great court there was absolutely nothing to burn and the doors were only a few feet away. There the ghastly pile lay, a mute monument to the powers of t

CHOKED WI

behind. Neither age nor youth, sex, quality or condition were sacred in the awful battle in the doorway. The gray and aged, rich,

en removed from the charnel house. A large police detail surrounded the place all night and with the break of day search of the premises was renewed, none being admitted save by presentation of a written order from

CENE WIT

t in a colorless, garish monotony that suggests the burned-out crater of an extinct volcano. In the wreckage, the scattered garments and purses, fragments of charred b

SHELS O

nts was removed to a near-by saloon, where an officer guards them pending removal to some more ap

swept mirth and music aside, to give way to a more somber and frightful performance. Confusion on the stage, panic in the auditorium, phenomenal spread

progress. There fire escapes and stage doors thronged with refugees, half clad and hysterical chorus girls flocking into the alley, and crackling flames leaping higher and higher from the flimsy stage and bursting from windows, told only too plainly what was in progress within. At the front, half a block distant, in Randolph

tators who sought escape at the first mild suggestion

es behind the spell of excitement upon the stage? Only two weeks before there had been a

glass of many hues, rich tapestries and drapings, and cold, aristocratic tints of red and old gold. And so with uplifted hands they turned back those whose sense of caution prompted them to leave at the outset. Surely disaster could not overt

e loose. All restraining influences from the stage had ceased. At the appearance of the all-consuming wave of flame sweeping across

x hundred carried out later mangled and roasted, their features and limbs twisted and distorted until little semblance to humanity remained. After the first wild dash, in which a large portion of those on the main floor escaped, the blackness of night settled upon

e of the L, was occupied by the stage, theoretically the finest in America, if not in the world. Thus the auditorium and stage occupied the extreme northern part of the structure, paralleling an alley extending on a line with Randolph str

ty was encountered pouring out at right angles from another portion of the house. Coming together with the impact of opposing armies the two hosts of refugees gave unwilling and terrible answer to the time worn problem as to the outcome of an irresistible force encountering an immovable body. Both in

thing in agony on the icy pavement, or relieved of their sufferings

ke shut out the horrid sight. From its opening scene to its silent, ghastly denouement the successive details of this greatest of modern tra

beckoned. When the advance guard had all but reached the precious goal, with only a few feet of iron gallery and one more stairway to traverse, the crowning horror of the day

ng on high in the ecstasy of release from its stifling furnace. Fiercely in the faces of the refugees beat this agency of death. Before its withering blast the victims fell like prairie gras

tunity to show the stuff he is made of. High up in the building occupied by the law, dental and pharmacy schools of the Northwestern University, directly across the alley from the burning theater, a number of such men were at work. They were horny handed sons of toil-painters, paper hangers and clean

of the theater. By almost superhuman effort and ingenuity they raised aloft the planks, scarce long enough to span the abyss, and dropped them. The prayers of thousands below and a multitude stifling in the aperture oppo

latform of the useless fire escape, the others resting firmly upon the narrow window ledge where the painters stood d

s though shot from a gun. A mad, screaming stream, pushed on by those behind, simply whirle

o-practically all that escaped from the lofty balcony that was a moment later transformed into the death chamber of helpless hundreds. Then the wave of flam

flames, gasping, fainting with pain and terror. The workmen, students and policemen who had rushed to their assistance dashed across into the heat and smoke and drag

embrace those who lay across windows or prostrate on galleries and platforms. Thousands gazed on in helpless horror, watching the flames bestow a fatal caress upon many who had crept far, far from the blaze and almost into a zone of safety. With a gliding, caressing movement that made be

on moved across that same plank again. It moved in silence, for it was a procession of death. The great tragedy began and ended in fifteen minutes. Its echoes may roll do

of Police O'Neill, had checked off 102 corpses. No attempt was made to keep count of the dead as they were removed from other portions of the theater and by other

their business houses as temporary hospitals and morgues. Others donated great wagon loads of blankets and supplies of all kinds and the municipal government was embarrassed by the unsolicited relief funds that poured in. All man

his overcoat and carried it to Evanston, many miles away, where the circumstances became known days later when a burial permit

of young women employed in the production, "Mr. Bluebeard," who would have been stranded penniless in a