"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
Six little girls from Evanston, in a party occupying seats in the parquet,
escaped by the side entrance. In the crush they lost most of their
clothing. Four of the children stayed together, the other two being for
the time lost in the street. The four were Hannah Gregg, 12 years old,
1038 Sheridan road; Florence and May Lang, 14 and 13 years old, Buena
Park; Beatrice Moore, 12 years old, Buena Park.
CHAPTER VI.
HEROES OF THE FIRE.
One of the heroes of the Iroquois theater fire was Peter Quinn, chief
special agent of the Atchison, Topeka & Santa Fe railroad system, who
assisted in saving the lives of 100 or more of the performers. But for the
prompt service of Quinn and two citizens who assisted him it is believed
that most of the performers would have met the fate of the victims in the
theater proper.
Mr. Quinn had attended a trial in the Criminal court and in the middle of
the afternoon started for the downtown district, intending to proceed to
his office. Reaching Randolph and Dearborn streets the railroad official
had his attention attracted to a man who rushed from the theater
bare-headed and without his coat. What followed Quinn describes as
follows:
"The actions of the man and the fact that he was without coat and hat
attracted my attention and I watched him through curiosity. He ran so
swiftly that he collided with several pedestrians, and I saw him rush
toward a policeman on the street crossing. He said something to the
policeman and then I saw the bluecoat rush excitedly away. My curiosity
was then aroused to such an extent that I followed the young man who ran
into the alley in the rear of the theater. He disappeared there and I was
about to go on my way when my attention was attracted to the door leading
upon the stage.
"As I passed I heard a commotion and saw the door was slightly open, and,
peeping into the opening, I asked what was the trouble. Then, for the
first time, I learned that the theater was on fire. A number of strangers
arrived at the door about the same time.
"The players, men, women, and children, had rushed to this small trap-door
for escape, got caught in a solid mass, and were so firmly wedged together
that they could not move. They were banked solidly against the little
door, and it could not be opened. Nearly all of the players were in their
stage costumes.
"The women screamed and begged us to rescue them, and the cries of the
children could be heard above the hoarse shouts of the men. I did not
realize it at that moment, but it develops that the players were in the
same position as the unfortunates who met death in the front end of the
house.
"Had we been unable to get that trap-door open when we did every member of
that struggling crowd of men, women and children, would have perished
where they stood, too tightly wedged together to permit even a slight
struggle against death.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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