Chicago's Awful Theater Horror Part 23

CHAPTER XIV.

STORIES AND NARRATIVES OF THE HOLOCAUST.

From two women who sat within a few feet of the stage when the fire broke out in the theater, and who remained calm enough to observe the actual beginning of the holocaust, there came one of the most thrilling and significant stories of that afternoon of panic.

Mrs. Emma Schweitzler and Mrs. Eva Katherine Clapp Gibson, of Chicago, were the two women who told this story. They occupied seats in the fifth row of the orchestra circle. Mrs. Schweitzler was the last woman to walk out una.s.sisted from the first floor. Mrs. Gibson was carried out badly burned.

"The curtain that was run down," said Mrs. Schweitzler, "was the regular drop curtain painted with the 'autumn scene,' It was the same curtain that was lowered before the show started and the same one used during the interval following the first act. No other curtain was lowered.

"As soon as the drop curtain came down it caught fire. A hole appeared at the left hand side. Then the blaze spread rapidly, and instantly a great blast of hot air came from the stage through the hole in the curtain and into the audience. Big pieces of the curtain were loosened by the terrific rush of air and were blown into the people's faces. Scores of women and children must have been burned to death by these fragments of burning grease and paint. I was in the theater until the curtain had entirely burned. It went up in the flames as if it had been paper, and did more damage than good."

"So far as could be observed from the audience, the asbestos curtain was not lowered at all," said Mrs. Schweitzler. "I was particularly interested in that 'autumn-scene' curtain because I paint oil pictures myself.

"Before the show started I sat for a long time examining the painting.

From our seats in the fifth row we could see every detail. The 'autumn scene' was done in heavy red and in order to get some of the effects the artist had to use great daubs of paint, smearing it on pretty thick in some places. I am certain that the backing was common canvas and if this was so it must have been covered with wax before the paint was put on.

This same curtain came down after the first act, so I had plenty of time to know it.

"When the fire started my first feeling was that the stage people were acting recklessly. For several minutes the fire was no bigger than a handkerchief. A bucket of water would have saved the lives of every one.

But there seemed to be no water on the stage.

"One of the stage hands first took his hand and then used a piece of plank to smother the flames. It kept spreading. After Eddie Foy had made his speech the 'autumn scene' curtain came down. 'Pull down the curtain,' was all the cry I heard. They did not say 'Pull down the asbestos curtain,'

nor was there any mention of any fireproof curtain. The 'autumn scene,'

with its highly inflammable paint, came down, and it was like pouring fire into the people's faces. It was a great piece of bungling--far worse than if no curtain had been lowered at all.

"It has been said that noise and panic-like screaming followed the burning of the curtain. This is absolutely not true. The whole place was almost gruesomely silent.

"Mrs. Gibson and I were half way in from the aisle and had to wait for many to go out before we started. At the aisle some one stepped on Mrs.

Gibson's dress and she fell to the floor. Men, women and children trampled over her, and having done all I could I started out. In the lobby I begged some men to return for Mrs. Gibson, but they said it was no use. The curtain by that time was burned up."

Mrs. Gibson, wife of Dr. Charles B. Gibson, confirmed Mrs. Schweitzler's a.s.sertions that no asbestos curtain was visible from the audience. "From the place where I fell," said Mrs. Gibson, "I crawled on hands and knees to the entrance. When I got to the rear the curtain was all burned away."

ESCAPE OF MOTHER AND TWO SMALL CHILDREN

Mrs. William Mueller, Jr., 3330 Calumet avenue, who at the time was confined to her bed from injuries sustained by trying to get out of the Iroquois as the panic began and from bruises sustained by being trampled upon, tells the story that she with her two children, Florence, 5 years old, and Belle, 3 years old, occupied three seats in the second row from the back on the ground floor on the right side of the theater. The children became restless as the second act began and Mrs. Mueller took them to a retiring room.

After the children had been in the retiring room for some minutes, they wanted to go back and see the performance. Mrs. Mueller started back into the lobby to go to her seats, when she saw, in a gla.s.s, the reflection of the flames. She hurried back into the retiring room and asked for the children's wraps, saying she thought something was wrong and did not want to stay in the theater any longer. The maid in the room asked her what was the matter and Mrs. Mueller told her.

"Oh, that's all right. I won't give you the things now," the maid replied.

"I'll go and see what is the matter."

Mrs. Mueller demanded the children's wraps, but they were refused. Just then Mrs. Mueller thinks she must have heard the first cry of alarm and she ran to the front doors with the children. She tried one door and found it locked. Then she tried another, and that was locked. She pushed against it and then threw herself against it, trying to force it open. She does not remember seeing any employee near the outer door.

Mrs. Mueller then heard people in the audience shrieking and then she fainted. It is thought that the oldest little girl, Florence, also fainted.

As the people pushed out of the theater they trampled upon Mrs. Mueller and the child. Mrs. Mueller was horribly bruised and was either kicked in the eyes or else some one stepped on her face. It was at first feared she would lose her eyesight.

The first person carried out when the rescue began was Mrs. Mueller; she was right in front of the doors. Near her was Florence. Just before the men entered, and after every one else seemed to be out, little Belle came walking out. A man ran to her, picked her up and took her to a barber shop, where she continued to cry for her mother. The little girl, Florence, was also carried out and was taken to the same barber shop, where the two children were later found by Mr. Mueller. Mrs. Mueller was taken to the Samaritan hospital, where she was found that night.

EXPRESSION OF THE DEAD.

John Maynard Harlan visited the morgue in search of the body of Mrs. F.

Morton Fox and her three children, who were intimate friends of Mrs.

Harlan. In speaking of his experience he said:

"I was profoundly impressed by the expressions on the faces of many of the dead. Perhaps it was only a fancy, but it seemed to me that the faces of those having the higher order of intelligence showed less horror and more resignation. Some of these seemed to have pa.s.sed away almost with a smile of faith, so serene were their countenances. But the faces of the less intelligent were uniformly struck with suffering to a terrible degree.

"When I found Mrs. Fox's little boy the smile of courage on his face was one of the most n.o.ble sights that I ever saw. It seemed to me that I could see the brave little fellow trying to rea.s.sure his mother and facing death with a heroism not expected of his years."

ONLY SURVIVOR OF LARGE THEATER PARTY.

Mrs. W. F. Hanson, of Chicago, was the only member of a theater party of nine to escape. She wept as she talked of her companions and shuddered as she recalled the manner of their death.

"I cannot tell how I got out of the theater," she said. "I remember starting for one of the aisles when the panic was at its height. I was separated from my friends. We had a row of seats in the second balcony.

Suddenly someone seized me and I was tossed and dragged along the aisle and I lost consciousness. When I came to my senses I was in a store across the street. Every one of my companions perished. We composed a holiday theater party and we were all related by marriage."

ALL HIS FAMILY GONE.

Arthur E. Hull, of Chicago, who lost his entire family in the Iroquois fire, tells the following pathetic story:

"It is too terrible to contemplate. I can never go to my home again. To look at the playthings left by the children just where they put them, to see how my dear dead wife arranged all the details of her home so carefully, the very walls ring with the names of my dear dead ones. I can never go there again.

"Mrs. Hull had called the children from their play to go and see the show.

They were laughing and shouting about the house in childish glee, when she, all radiant with smiles, came to tell them of the surprise she had planned for them.

"They left their toys just where they were. She fixed the things about the house a bit, and then took them with her.

"Mary, our maid, went with them. She, too, was joyous at the prospect, and a happier party never started anywhere. Everything was smiles and suns.h.i.+ne.

"They had planned for a day of joy, and it turned out a day of sorrow.

Sorrow more deep than can be fathomed by human mind. Sorrow so acute that it is indescribable."

The party consisted of Mrs. Hull, her little daughter, Helen Muriel, her two adopted sons, Donald DeGraff and Dwight Moody, together with Mary Forbes.

The two boys had been adopted by Mr. and Mrs. Hull but three weeks before, and had lately come from Topeka, Kan., where their father, Fred J. Hull, had died.

The party was gotten up for them particularly, and it was the first and last time they were ever to witness a stage production. This was only one of a score of recorded cases where the unselfish desire to give pleasure to the young caused their death.

A FAMILY PARTY BURNED.

Dr. Charles S. Owen, a physician and one of the most prominent men in Wheaton, died at the Chicago homeopathic hospital from injuries sustained at the Iroquois fire. On Christmas day Dr. Owen held a family reunion, and eight relatives came from Ohio to spend the holiday week. Wednesday a theater party was arranged and twelve seats were secured at the Iroquois in the front row of the first balcony. Out of the entire party of twelve Dr. Owen was the only one to escape.

CARRIES DAUGHTER'S BODY HOME IN HIS ARMS.