"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
"The sights all about the city have been many times described, but nothing
can picture those terrible scenes. In a flat just below my mother's five
out of a family of six perished, leaving but one demented girl.
"Of another family living near us, only the husband and father was left,
his wife and four boys and his mother all having been killed in the fire.
As I passed near the theater the next day I saw a man walking up and down
in front of the building muttering to himself, and every now and then he
would sit upon the curb and look up at the building, breaking out into
peals of laughter. He had been through the fire."
GIRLS' CLUBS SORELY STRICKEN.
Mrs. Walter Raymer, wife of the alderman, attended the Iroquois in charge
of the "F. P. C.," a club of young girls, of which her daughter was
treasurer. Of the eight members only two escaped uninjured. Miss Mabel
Hunter, the president, was killed; Miss Edna Hunter was taken to her
residence, 85 Humboldt boulevard, severely injured; Miss Lillian Ackerman
was borne to the Samaritan Hospital, burned about the head and body.
Edna Hoveland was badly injured, and her little sister, who accompanied
her, was burned to death. May Marks is dead. Viva Jackson, missing all
Wednesday night, was found in the morning at an undertaker's rooms. The
two who escaped injury were Miss Abigail Raymer, daughter of the alderman,
and Miss Florence Nicholson.
The eight girls, all between sixteen and eighteen years old, had organized
their little club a few weeks ago for the purpose of literary study and
recreation, and the theater party was arranged by Mrs. Raymer as a
surprise for the members.
The Theta Pi Zeta club of the junior class of the Englewood High School,
with the exception of two members, was wiped out of existence. The club
was composed of eight young women living in Englewood and Normal Park.
Seven had purchased seats in the sixth row of the dress circle. What they
encountered after the panic started no one knows, for of the seven only
one, Miss Josephine Spencer, 7110 Princeton avenue, was saved and she was
taken to the West Side Hospital terribly burned. The only member who
entirely escaped was Miss Edith Mizen of 6917 Eggleston avenue, daughter
of Mr. and Mrs. George K. Mizen. Her parents objected to her attending a
theatrical performance.
Those who perished are Helen Howard, 6565 Yale avenue; Helen McCaughan,
6565 Yale avenue; Elvira Olson, 7010 Stewart avenue; Florence Oxnam, 435
Englewood avenue; Lillie Power, 442 West Seventieth street; and Rosamond
Schmidt, 335 West Sixty-first street.
CHAPTER XVI.
EDDIE FOY'S SWORN TESTIMONY.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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