"When I came out there the girls started to run forward, and I went in again, because I was in my shirt sleeves and I wanted to take my coat and save what goods I had. As soon as I entered the stage again I heard a lot of noise and crying and calling and I went forward to that point and succeeded in pulling some more of the young ladies out. Then when I got on the little bridge leading from the stage to Dearborn street, I noticed that the whole scenery was in a blaze, that it was falling down and I tried to get in again, but through the enormous heat, and I believe that the city fire people just had arrived there with the hose and pulled me back so I couldn't get in there any more. "I know there was an asbestos curtain in the theater and that it was used. During the time I have been connected with different theaters through the country I have always looked up to the curtains, and often put my hands on them. What was called by employees in the house the asbestos curtain, and also in several theaters in Chicago, has written on it, 'asbestos curtain.' When I entered this house on several occasions before the show I saw this particular curtain hanging there, a dirty white color, and on one or two occasions, in passing by, I pushed my hand against it and it felt to me exactly like other curtains hanging in Chicago, and on which 'asbestos' is written. One, for instance, in the Grand opera house, has written on it 'asbestos,' and is the same color in the back and has the same feeling when you put your hands on it as this one in the Iroquois theater. "It was that curtain Sallers, the house fireman, was shouting for when I heard him. The fireman said, 'Down with that curtain,' and the other voice, which I thought was Mr. Carleton's, the stage manager, said, 'For God's sake lower that curtain.' Several other voices hallooed out, 'What is the matter with the curtain? Down with the curtain.' But it didn't fall and the holocaust followed." THE JAMMED THEATER. The unlawful and deadly crowded condition of the theater at the time of the fire was emphasized by the testimony of Rupert D. Laughlin, 1505 Wrightwood avenue, who, although he reached the theater before the curtain went up, found the spaces behind the seats crowded and people sitting on the steps in the aisles. Laughlin and Miss Lucy Lucas, his niece, had seats in the second balcony, or gallery. "We went into the theater about ten minutes before the orchestra come out and had some difficulty in getting into our seats," he said, "on account of the people standing in the aisles and at the back. The people were sitting on the steps.