The catastrophe at Chicago aroused the most painful interest and the utmost sympathy everywhere in Austria, the Viennese having a keen recollection of the disaster at the Ring theater in 1881, when 875 people lost their lives. Intense anxiety prevailed in the American colony, as many doctors and musical students who form the bulk of the colony come from the Middle West of the United States. Herr Lueger, the burgomaster of Vienna, sent a cable message to Mayor Harrison, expressing sympathy and deep condolence over the terrible catastrophe. THE NETHERLANDS AND SCANDINAVIA. Upon receipt of definite news of the Iroquois theater disaster the theaters and music halls in The Hague were overhauled by the authorities. Amsterdam and Rotterdam demanded strict enforcement of the regulations against fire and new legislation looking to that end was at once put in force. In Copenhagen, Stockholm and Christiania the Danish, Swedish and Norwegian licensing authorities for public amusements caused a rigid inspection to be made of all playhouses with a view to better safeguards against fire, and that inspection is still progressing and will doubtless bear good results as in other European centers. Enough has been said to indicate that virtually the entire hemisphere of the West has been stirred to practical action by the terrible calamity which this book records. It is not within the range of human possibility that theaters can be made absolutely perfect, any more than other human institutions, nor is it possible that the awful lesson furnished by the Iroquois theater disaster will have been forgotten before substantial improvements are made in the amusement houses of the world for the present and future protection of human life. CHAPTER XVIII. SUGGESTIONS FOR SAFE THEATERS. Clarence J. Root, of Chicago, an assistant of Prof. Cox in the weather bureau, makes the following suggestions in connection with the safe-theater agitation: "Location--All theaters to be in buildings by themselves, like the Illinois and Iroquois. No stores or offices to be located in them. Buildings should be isolated, with wide private or public alleys or courts entirely around the rear and sides. A false wall could be built in front of the side courts where they project upon the street, thus helping the appearance of the block. These should, however, have wide arches through them.