A. The wire hung from the center of the auditorium to the side of the stage, to where the fire, they say, started, on my right-hand side facing the audience. Q. Was that the side of the stage where the curtain was caught? A. I could not say. I have been trying to fix that in my mind. Q. You cannot say whether it was hung on the wire on the right or left hand side? A. No, sir. I should not think that it had anything to do with it. Q. Was that stationary? A. It hung from the front, and it was unhooked and put on the woman when she went out in the air. Q. Did any part of it go behind the curtain? A. Yes, it went behind the curtain, but that could not have possibly stopped it, because it would have broken it. I don't think the curtain was low enough down to touch it, because the girl is only a little girl, Miss Reed, and they had to hook it on her. Q. About how high up was the wire? A. Well, so that a man like the stage manager would take it off and the man that was assisting in this flying ballet would hook it on this little girl that flew out. Q. She was killed? A. She was killed. CHAPTER XVII. EFFECT OF THE FIRE NEAR AND FAR. Many of the members of the "Mr. Bluebeard, Jr.," company were arrested and retained as witnesses in the trial, on a charge of manslaughter, of Messrs. Davis and Powers, Building Commissioner Williams and the stage manager, electricians and carpenters especially concerned in the manipulation of the lights and curtains. On the Saturday night succeeding the fire Mayor Harrison closed all the theaters in the city, numbering thirty-seven, for a period of two weeks, or until a thorough investigation could be made as to whether they were complying with the city ordinances in every detail. People with seat checks were turned away from the doors of the theaters. Even the fireproof Auditorium was not permitted to remain open, and Theodore Thomas and his musicians returned to their homes without playing. Theatrical people in the dressing-rooms of the theaters took off their makeup and left. Ushers turned out the lights and the managers locked the doors. It was a condition without precedent in any large city of this or any other country--every public place of theatrical amusement closed by command, as the result of a great disaster. And not only did the terrible calamity close every theater in Chicago, but it sent the city authorities, fire inspectors, aldermen and all, scurrying through the city, examining the big department stores and their means of escape for their thousands of employees. The alarm and inspection also extended to the public schools of the city. Nor was the awful upheaval felt with startling force only at home, but like an earthquake its vibrations reached distant cities and countries. The monarchs of Europe, with the great public men of America, sent words of sympathy over the throbbing wires, those which came from Emperor William being: