_She Was Already Mad._
The nearly lifeless form of her husband was subsequently dragged from
beneath the feet of the throng and borne into the police station.
A fashionably-dressed lady, who occupied a seat near the stage, was so
completely overcome by terror that she sank to the floor, not in a
faint, but out of sheer fright. She was actually carried from the
place by her attendant.
_A Family Almost Blotted Out._
Samuel Solomon told the following sad story at the Morgue, the morning
after the fire: "Last night my father, Morris Solomon, my brother
Philip, his wife, Lena, and my two sisters, Mary and Deborah, went to
the Brooklyn Theatre, and occupied seats in the family circle. When
the fire broke out I came up here. The theatre was then in flames. I
could see nothing of my relatives. I have remained here all night,
with the exception of going home occasionally to see if they had
returned. My mother is almost crazy, and has searched our neighborhood
for them. Not the slightest trace of either of them has been found
since they entered the theatre. I am told the staircase gave way, and
I am afraid they have been crushed to death and then burned." The
young man was much overcome by the sudden catastrophe which had
befallen his family, and shed tears as he recited the story. The
missing members of the Solomon family are Morris Solomon, aged 47
years, a cigar dealer at Maiden lane, New York; Philip Solomon, a
musician, aged 24; Lena Solomon, his wife, aged 22; Mary Solomon, aged
23, and Deborah Solomon, aged 20 years.
_The Numbers in the Theatre._
We have obtained from the returns of the Treasurer what we believe to
be a correct list of all who were in the theatre on the night of the
fire as spectators, and have also procured a full list of the
employees.
In the dress circle 300
In the parquet 250
In the gallery 405
Actors and actresses 21
Supernumeraries 20
Scene shifters and the like 10
Orchestra 12
Dressers, ushers, check takers, etc., etc. 22
-----
In all about 1,040
Although it is generally presumed that places of amusement are more
apt to be crowded and more subject to fires than churches, history
shows that fires in churches have proved even more fatal to human life
than all the theatres that were ever burned.
On the 27th of May, 1875, a shocking catastrophe happened in the
French Catholic Church, at South Holyoke, Massachusetts, which in many
respects was much like that in Brooklyn. The vesper hymn was being
sung, when a candle at the altar set fire to the draperies surrounding
the image of the Virgin Mary. There were about seven hundred people
present, of whom those in the body of the church escaped without
difficulty. But the flames streamed upwards to the galleries and
spread along them, while the crowd on the staircase became a
densely-packed, panic-stricken mass. Many were killed or severely
wounded in the crush, besides those who were overtaken by the flames
and burned to death. The whole thing lasted but twenty minutes, and in
that time over seventy lives were lost.
One of the most terrible disasters of modern times, also strikingly
similar to this recent disaster, occurred in the Church of the
Jesuits, at Santiago, in Chili, on the 8th of December, 1863. It was
the last day of the celebration of the feast of the Immaculate
Conception, and the church had been elaborately decorated for the
performance of mass.
A gigantic image of the Virgin, in whose honor the celebration was
held, occupied a prominent position in the church, and all around
pasteboard devices and thickly intertwining draperies covered the
masonry of the church from floor to ceiling. Festoons led from pillar
to pillar, and from the roof and projecting arches hung twenty
thousand paraffine lamps. The women of Santiago, who on these
occasions go from church to church, had filled the Church of the
Jesuits. Three thousand persons, the greater number of whom were women
and children, were present in this most venerable of Santiago's
churches, and even on the steps outside women knelt in prayer to the
Virgin, whose altar they were unable to reach. In the midst of the
ceremony a paraffine lamp burst, and the flames at once caught the
draperies and festoons surrounding it. Then from arch to arch and
pillar to pillar the fire leaped, the lines that held the lamps aloft
being burned the burning paraffine was emptied on the women below;
and, while these twenty thousand vessels of flaming liquid were
deluging the unfortunate women, the decorations above carried the
flames to the roof, which burned and crackled like a tinder-box.
A rush was made for the great centre door, and in a few minutes it was
hopelessly blocked, while only a few knew of the small door beyond the
altar. As women endeavored to escape through the crowd, others who
were burning clutched their dresses and cried in piteous tones for
help, and clinging in their agony communicated the flame that was
consuming them to the persons whom they had seized. Some women in
their desperation divested themselves of their clothing, and a few
succeeded in effecting their escape, but only a few. Each moment
increased the crowd and intensified the block at the main door, and
while it became more and more difficult to escape, the flames were
spreading on the floor, flying from one prostrate body to another, and
destroying the panic-stricken creatures by scores and hundreds, while
the church resounded with piteous cries for help and still more
heartrending shrieks of agony; the vast roof now gave way, and came
down with its blazing beams and rafters, crushing and inundating the
seething mass of tortured individuals beneath it. When the fire had
burned itself out and workmen could get at the ruins, two thousand
corpses were carried out.
_Relief for the Destitute._
As soon as it was known that so many had perished in the flames, a
generous spirit of rivalry sprang up among the proprietors of places
of amusement all over the country, as to whom should contribute the
largest amount of money for the relief of the survivors and those
rendered destitute by the fire. Individual actors also subscribed
liberally, and a relief association was organized to receive and
disburse the money thus contributed. Memorial services were held in
New York and Brooklyn the Sunday after the fire, and prominent
clergymen all over the country selected the terrible catastrophe as a
theme for eloquent sermons.
Thrilling Account of the Daring Bravery and Wonderful Escape from a
Horrible Death of