A. Not many of them. It was crowded there, and I threw my boy to a man. I says: "Take this boy out," and ran out on the footlights to the audience. When I did they were in a sort of panic, as I thought, and what I said exactly I don't remember, but this was the substance--my idea was to get the curtain down and quietly stop the stampede. I yelled, "Drop the curtain and keep up your music." I didn't want a stampede, because it was the biggest audience I ever played to of women and children. I told them to be quiet and take it easy "Don't get excited"--and they started up on this second balcony on my left to run, and I says, "Sit down; it is all right; don't get excited." And they were going that way, and I said to the policeman, "Let them out quietly," and they moved then, and I says, "Let down the curtain," and I looked up and this curtain was burning--the fringe on the edge of it. WOULD NOT COME DOWN. Q. It was caught, was it? A. It did not come down. Q. How near to the bottom of the stage was it? A. Three feet above my head. I would have been outside if the curtain had come down. Q. It was lowered down after you hallooed? A. I hallooed for it to come down. Q. And it came down that far and then caught? A. I did not see it come down, but it was there when I looked up. Q. When you looked up it was caught, was it? A. Yes, sir, it must have been caught--it didn't come down. Then when I was hallooing, I kept hallooing for the curtain to come down--how many times I don't know--and talked to this man to let them out quietly, there was a sort of a cyclone; the thing was flying behind me; I felt it coming. Q. What do you mean by a cyclone--cyclone of what? A. It was a whirl of smoke when I looked around--the scenery had broken the slats it was nailed to; it came down behind me, and I didn't know whether to go in front or behind. The stage was covered with smoke, and it was a cold draft, and there was an explosion of some kind like you light a match and the box goes off. I didn't know whether to go front or not, so I thought of my boy--maybe the man did not take him out--so I rushed out the first thing and went back of the stage. Q. You went out yourself, then? A. Yes, sir, and I was looking for my boy all the way in. I wasn't sure he was out. I found him in the street. Q. Do you know what started the fire, Mr. Fitzgerald? A. No, sir. LIGHT NEAR THE FIRE. Q. Was there any light of any kind near where you first saw the fire? A. Yes, sir. Q. What kind of a light? A. A lens light--one that you throw spot light on people with. Q. How close was that to the drop that was on fire? A. That I could not tell--there were three or four drops on fire when I got there for the boy. Q. They were all close together? A. Yes. Q. Too high up for anybody to reach? A. Impossible. Q. Were there any other fires of any kind, fires or lights, near those drops or the fire, besides this drop light? A. That was the only one I saw.