"Lest We Forget": Chicago's Awful Theater HorrorEverett, Marshall
History
"Lest We Forget": Chicago's Awful Theater Horror
Everett, Marshall
Iroquois Theater, Chicago -- Fire, 1903; Theaters -- Fires and fire prevention
"I was on the stage when the fire broke out, having gone to the theater to
see Archie Bernard, the chief electrician. The statement has been made
that the lights were not thrown on in the auditorium after the fire was
discovered. Just before the fire broke out Bernard was stooping down
preparing to change the lights, and he had just said to me: 'I will show
you how I change my lights.'
"When the fire was discovered I saw him reach down to throw a switch.
Whether he threw the switch that lights the auditorium I do not know, but
I do know that the fire from the draperies fell all around the switchboard
and burned out the fuses. Consequently if the lights had been turned on
the fact that the fuses were burned out would cause them to go out.
"The first I knew of the fire was when I heard some one behind and above
me clapping his hands. I looked up and saw McMullen trying to put out the
blaze with his hands. If he could have reached far enough he would have
extinguished the fire. He did the best he could.
"I carried four women out of the theater and burned my hands. I stayed on
the stage as long as it was possible for me to do so."
KEEPSAKES OF THE DEAD.
Many Chicago people spent a part of the Sabbath following the fire in the
dingy little storeroom at 58 Dearborn street, where the effects and the
valuables of the Iroquois theater victims are kept.
The storeroom was crowded all day. The line formed at Randolph street and
pushed its way to the north. A mother stepped to one of the show cases.
She had lost a boy and she had come to find his effects. She was looking
through the glass when she called one of the policemen to her side.
"That's it. That's my little boy's," and she pointed at a prayer book.
The policeman took it from the case.
"Yes, that's it," she murmured.
From the street came the tolling of the half hour.
"Just a week ago he started for Sunday school with it. It was a Christmas
present and he took it to church for the first time."
A young man, well dressed and prosperous looking, came in and walked along
the wall, gazing at the dresses and the furs. Suddenly he seized a fur boa
and kissed it.
"It was her's," he cried. "May I take it with me?"
The officer told him to visit the coroner and get a certificate.
Two young men entered the place and began making flippant remarks. The
officers overheard their conversation and escorted them to the threshold
of the door. Two heavy boots assisted in making their exit into the street
a rapid one.
THE SCENE AT THOMPSON'S RESTAURANT.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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