"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
"The first intimation I had of the danger was when I saw one of the chorus
girls look upward and turn pale. My eyes immediately followed her glance
and I saw the telltale sparks shooting about through the flies. The
singing continued until the blaze broke out. Then Mr. Foy appeared and
asked the audience to keep their seats, assuring them that the theater was
thoroughly fireproof. We obeyed, but when we saw the seething mass behind
struggling for the door we rushed from our seats. I became separated from
the other girls and had not gone far before I stumbled over the prostrate
body of a woman who was trampled almost beyond recognition. For an instant
I thought it was all over. Then I felt someone lift me and I knew no more
until I revived in the street. It was the most awful experience I have
ever had and I consider my escape nothing short of miraculous."
LITTLE GIRL'S MARVELOUS ESCAPE.
"I'm the most grateful man in all Chicago," said J. R. Thompson, who owns
the restaurant. "My sister was in the theater with my two children--John,
aged 9, and Ruth, aged 7. Sister got almost to the door with both of them.
Then Ruthie disappeared. She told me she knew the child must be safe, but
I was like a maniac. It was an hour before we found her. How it happened I
didn't know, but she ran back into the theater and out under the stage,
out through the stage entrance."
"Where is the little girl now?" I asked him.
"I sent her home to her mother," he said.
Only ten feet away lay the chestnut-haired girl who "was a great one to
scamper."
FOUR GENERATIONS REPRESENTED.
Members of four generations of a family were turned into mourners, only
one member remaining from a party of nine made up of Benjamin Moore and
eight of his relatives, of whom only one, Mrs. W. S. Hanson, Hart, Mich.,
escaped. Following are the names of the eight victims: Mrs. Joseph
Bezenek, 41 years old, West Superior, Wis., daughter of Benjamin Moore;
Benjamin Moore, 72 years old, Chicago; Roland Mackay, 6 years old,
Chicago, grandson of Mrs. Joseph Bezenek and great grandson of Benjamin
Moore; Mrs. Benjamin Moore, 47 years old, wife of Benjamin Moore; Joseph
Bezenek, 38 years old, West Superior, Wis., husband of Mrs. Bezenek and
son-in-law of Benjamin Moore; Mrs. Perry Moore, 33 years old, Hart,
Mich., daughter-in-law of Benjamin Moore; Miss Sibyl Moore, Hart, Mich.,
13 years old, daughter of Mrs. Perry Moore and granddaughter of Benjamin
Moore; Miss Lucile Bond, 10 years old, daughter of George H. Bond and
granddaughter of Benjamin Moore, Chicago.
DAUGHTERS AND GRANDCHILDREN GONE.
Three daughters and two grandchildren, constituting the entire family of
Mr. and Mrs. Morris Eger, Chicago, perished in the fire. The daughters
were Miss S. Eger, who was a teacher in the Mosely school; Mrs. Marion
Rice, wife of A. Rice, and Mrs. Rose Bloom, wife of Max Bloom, and the
children were: Erna, the 10-year-old daughter of Mrs. Rice, and her
11-year-old brother, Ernest.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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