Chicago's Awful Theater Horror Part 1

Chicago's Awful Theater Horror.

by Various.

INTRODUCTION.

By the RT. REV. SAMUEL FALLOWS, D.D., LL.D.

When Chicago was burning, a little girl in a christian home in a neighboring city stamped her foot indignantly on the floor and said: "Why doesn't G.o.d put out the fire?"

The cry of many an agonized heart, beating in children of a larger growth, has been: "Why doesn't a G.o.d of wisdom and love prevent such an awful occurrence as the Iroquois fire?" "I have lost all faith in G.o.d," said a dear friend of mine, as its full meaning began to break upon him.

When we were carrying out the dying and the dead from that horrible darkness and choking smoke to the outer air, those of us who were wont to pray could only say, "O G.o.d have mercy! O G.o.d have mercy!"

But there must be no panic in our faculties. Reason must not desert her rightful throne. Blinded by tears, we must not in our consuming pa.s.sion of resentment against the sickening catastrophe, attempt with our puny arms to strike against G.o.d. He did not cause the calamity. No responsibility for it can be rolled upon Him. G.o.d is law; and his laws had been palpably broken by human negligence and incompetency. G.o.d is love; and human greed and selfishness had violated every principle of love which "worketh no ill to his neighbor."

G.o.d cannot coerce man, as one by sheer brute force can another. The savage father may break both the body and soul of his child. Not so G.o.d, those of his children. Man must render a voluntary obedience to the Divine command.

By pains and crosses and sorrows and shame he may be led to that surrender. But he must say with a free, princely spirit at last, "I will to do thy will O G.o.d."

It is the old problem of evil with which this terrible tragedy has brought us face to face. The generic evil, out of which all evils spring, every giant intellect of the ages has grappled with, and it has thrown them all.

The question is not "Why should G.o.d permit this special evil to come to us, which has well nigh paralyzed our city and thrilled the civilized world both with horror and sympathy, but why did he create the world at all and put man upon it?" The finite cannot measure the Infinite.

Imperfection belongs to the one; perfection to the other. Where there is imperfection there is always the possibility of evil.

A reverent faith will bow before the mystery and yet master it with an undaunted courage. Evil must exist if the Universe is to be. The Universe is, and it is the best possible Universe G.o.d can create. If he could have given us a better one he would not be the G.o.d we revere.

Evil is the vast, dark background against which He brings out the brightest pictures of beauty and life. From a "Paradise Lost" comes forth a "Paradise Regained" with its transcendent glory of progress, and allegiance to law and love.

"Calvary and Easter Day, Earth's saddest day and gladdest day, Were but one day apart."

G.o.d did not forsake his son in that supreme hour of anguish upon the Cross, when he cried out "My G.o.d, My G.o.d, why hast thou forsaken me?" He has never forsaken his world, nor the sinning and suffering souls that are in it. "G.o.d in history," is faith's jubilant a.s.sertion. He is in its minutest incidents and in its mightiest events, "in the rocking of a baby's cradle and the shaking of a monarch's throne," in the fiery furnace of the Iroquois Theater and in the most joyous a.s.sembly of his adoring saints.

G.o.d permitted this great evil in harmony with man's free will; he did not cause it. The evidence is overwhelming that human law, as well as divine law, had been consciously or unconsciously defied. Two thousand lives or more were brought together in a building professedly fire-proof, and warranted as the best, because the latest of its kind, in the city if not of the continent. It was not fire proof. The law forbade the crowding of aisles; they were filled from end to end, until almost every inch of standing room was taken up. The unusual number of exits was boasted of.

Most of them were unseen or actually bolted and locked. The alleged fire proof curtain was a flimsy sham, and was resolved in almost a moment of time, into scattered fragments by the surging flames. The scenery was of the most combustible material, loaded down with paint and oil. Not a bucket of water was on the stage, and only one water stand-pipe without any hose. There never had been a fire apparatus of any kind in the balcony or the gallery. There was none in the auditorium except one small water stand pipe. There was not a fireman to answer the call for help. At no time had there been a fire drill by the employes of the theater. There were no notices posted to tell what to do in case of fire. There was no fire alarm box anywhere in the structure. Common prudence and common sense were completely set aside. Coroner Traeger in advance of the final finding of the jury, is reported to have said: "Sufficient proof has been already found to show that there was gross mismanagement and carelessness. There is no need of denial. Instead of being the safest theater in Chicago, the Iroquois was the unsafest."

But He who "maketh the wrath of man to praise him," who is ever bringing good out of evil, will overrule and is already overruling this dire calamity for the well being of mankind.

As I looked upon the charred and mangled and bruised bodies of tender women and little children and once strong men; as I listened to the moans of agony, and the cry of the living, tortured ones for help and for loved friends whom they had left behind or been separated from as the fiery blast swept them onward and outward, I said in my haste, "you all are 'martyrs by the pang without the palm'." I do not say it now. Martyrs indeed they were, by the criminal neglect of recreant men. But the palm is theirs. They have saved others, themselves they could not save. Thousands, perhaps millions, will in the future be secure in their places of resort, because these went on that fateful day to their inevitable doom. Mayors, architects, fire-inspectors, managers, stage carpenters, electricians, ushers and chiefs of police in every city have had their duty burned into their inmost consciousness by this consuming fire.

Human law, which has been so flagrantly set at naught, demands punishment.

The public conscience will be outraged if the guilty parties do not meet stern, inexorable justice. It is not vengeance that is sought, for "Vengeance is mine, I will repay, saith the Lord."

But those who are immediately responsible, have not been the only transgressors, although they must suffer for their own guilt, and also vicariously for the sins of omission by others. For we have all sinned and come short of our duty. A common blame rests upon the whole community.

Many a minister has been preaching upon the fire, but has his own church, perhaps crowded to the door, been safe while his eager congregation has listened to his impa.s.sioned utterances? Suppose the unexpected had happened, and the cry of fire had been heard and bursting flames been seen, would his hearers have escaped unhurt? Not if the church doors swung inward instead of outward; not if the means of escape were not abundant; not if camp chairs blocked the pa.s.sages to the street. Who then would have been responsible? The clergymen, the church officers, the janitor, with the munic.i.p.al or legal authorities would have had to share the blame.

Nearly two score of our city school teachers perished in the theater. How many school buildings are in such an imperfect condition today that thousands of young lives are in constant danger? Suppose again the unexpected should happen and tragedies be enacted which might even surpa.s.s the Iroquois disaster, would the Mayor, and his subordinates and the Board of Education and the teachers be held guiltless? Yet that fearful contingency might have taken place.

It is a question seriously to be considered whether or not the great majority of the apartment buildings in Chicago have the doors of the main entrance swinging outwards. I have climbed to the fourth and fifth stories of some of these edifices in which there are dark, narrow stair cases, and all the doors swing inwards. There is not a single element of fire proofing in them. I have gone up, in open elevators, in manufactories and office buildings where scores and hundreds of persons are employed, and have never felt safe a moment while remaining in them. They are fire traps of the worst description.

There are hotels whose very construction invites the devouring flames.

There are stores crowded literally with thousands of persons on special occasions, where the consequences in case of fire would eclipse by far the Iroquois holocaust. No coaxing, or pleading, or grafting, or business considerations should stand in the way both of speedy condemnation and renovation in all these cases by our city officers.

Man is greater than Mammon. The sanct.i.ty of human life must be held supreme. The body is more than raiment and the soul than the body. A new civic spirit must pervade the people as the saltness the sea. Duty must tower infinitely above self-indulgence. Law must take the place of luck.

The plain lesson for our whole country and the world is to be alert to meet the dangers which may menace human life in the home, the workshop, the manufactory, the hotel, the theater, the church. Let ample means of exit be provided and always known to audiences. The tendency to a panic is always increased when people are apprehensive of danger and believe that they are hemmed in. Fear is contagious. A crowd feels and does not reason.

Self-preservation, the first law of nature, a.s.serts itself the more vehemently when the way of escape is uncertain. Panics may not always be prevented, but their dangers will be greatly diminished if every individual knows that he may with comparative leisure get out when he wishes so to do.

In the theater let it be known that every modern contrivance has been employed to secure safety. Let the curtain be of steel and so arranged that it will have full play to work in its grooves. Let automatic sprinklers be provided. Let the firemen in costume be in plain sight. Let the policemen be in full evidence. Let the aisles always be clear. Let there be ample room between the seats, and let the seats be easily raised to afford rapid departure. Let the ushers be drilled like soldiers to keep their places and allay confusion. All these and other things of like character appeal forcibly to the reasoning powers and tend to give an audience self command.

In many of our public schools the pupils are occasionally called from their rooms, during recitation hours, and promptly a.s.sembling are marched in an orderly way out of the building. This is an excellent plan.

Two marked instances of superb self-control among children in the panic at the Iroquois theater have been brought to my notice. Two little daughters of a highly esteemed friend slid down the bal.u.s.ters from the upper balcony and reached the main floor unhurt. One of my Sunday School teachers met a young lad she knew, leading by the hand a girl younger than himself to her home. They were sitting together when the stampede took place. "Jump on my shoulders," said the boy. Then holding her fast by her feet, he said: "Now use your fists and fight for all you're worth." Bending his head he forced his way with his conquering heroine to life. Let every safeguard that human ingenuity can devise be furnished and yet there always remains the personal element to be taken into the account. Habitual practice of self-control in daily life will help give coolness and calmness in times of peril. Keeping one's head in the ordinary things prevents its losing when the extraordinary occurs.

Samuel Fallows.

TABLE OF CONTENTS

Page

CHAPTER I.

THE STORY OF THE FIRE 33

WAVE OF FLAME GREETS AUDIENCE--FEW REALIZE APPALLING RESULT--DROP WHERE THEY STAND--MANY HEROES ARE DEVELOPED--DEAD PILED IN HEAPS--EXITS WERE CHOKED WITH BODIES--SURVEY SCENE WITH HORROR--FIND BUSHELS OF PURSES.

CHAPTER II.

FIRST AID TO THE INJURED AND CARE FOR THE DEAD 51

GREAT PILES OF CHARRED BODIES FOUND EVERYWHERE IN THE THEATER--MOAN INSPIRES WORKERS IN MAD EFFORT TO SAVE--NONE LEFT ALIVE IN GALLERY--DEAD AND DYING CARRIED INTO NEARBY RESTAURANT BY SCORES--TERRIBLE REALITY COMES TO AWESTRICKEN CROWD--ONE LIFE BROUGHT BACK FROM DEATH--ONE HUNDRED FEET IN AIR, POLICE CARRY INJURED ACROSS ALLEY--CROWDS OF ANXIOUS FRIENDS--BALCONY AND GALLERY CLEARED--FINANCE COMMITTEE OF CITY COUNCIL ACTS PROMPTLY.

CHAPTER III.

TAKING AWAY AND IDENTIFYING THE DEAD 67

HEARTRENDING SCENES WITNESSED AT THE UNDERTAKING ESTABLISHMENTS--FRIENDS AND RELATIVES EAGERLY SEARCH FOR LOVED ONES MISSING AFTER THEATER HOLOCAUST.

CHAPTER IV.

SCENES OF HORROR AS VIEWED FROM THE STAGE 77