[Illustration: SCENE IN DEATH ALLEY--REAR OF THE THEATRE.] [Illustration: CARRYING OUT BODIES FROM SECOND BALCONY.] [Illustration: MISS NELLIE REED, Leader of the Flying Ballet, killed by the fire.] [Illustration: FIREMEN HELPING THE CHORUS GIRLS OUT OF THE THEATER.] [Illustration: PHOTOGRAPH OF THE STAGE OF THE THEATER IN RUINS.] [Illustration: FRONT OF THEATER, PILING DEAD IN THE STREET.] [Illustration: IN THE THEATER, DOORS LOCKED, PANIC, FIRE, AND DEATH.] [Illustration: INSIDE THE IROQUOIS THEATER WHILE THE FIRE RAGED.] [Illustration: LOOKING FOR HER CHILDREN AMONG THE DEAD.] [Illustration: A LINE OF VICTIMS OF THE FIRE AWAITING IDENTIFICATION.] [Illustration: DIAGRAM SHOWING HOW PEOPLE GOT OUT OF THE GALLERY.] When she reaches a big city again she can once more creep to bed after her work at midnight and find in unbroken hours of sleep balm for all she has passed through. She may secure a decent room at a second or third class European hotel for $6 a week and buy her meals where she chooses. If some callow youth buys them for her in consideration of the pleasure of basking in her smiles, she is that much ahead. She can live within her means in the city and save money--if she wants to. But she seldom does, and no one can blame her, for she feels that nothing save the pleasures secured by extravagance can compensate her for what she has lost--comfort, repose, dignity, social recognition, and, most of all, home. These same conditions are experienced to a varying degree by all players save those within the sacred circle drawn by the finger of phenomenal success. That small handful with private cars, lackies and all the comforts of a portable home, is so insignificant in number that it requires no consideration here. THE "MR. BLUEBEARD" COMPANY. In the best and most prosperous organizations, such as "Mr. Bluebeard" was, life is not all sunshine and roses. To be true, its members escaped the manifold terrors of playing in the barns to be found in many large one-night stands and dressing in their stalls, dignified by the term dressing-rooms. The women were not compelled to dress and undress behind inclosures made of flimsy scenery with a sheet thrown over for additional protection. Nor did they have to live in the barn-like hotels many such towns boast. But they had their own troubles, such as they were. The chorus girls did not escape having to be thrown into involuntary contact with all classes and conditions of mankind, nor did they avoid the sharp social distinction drawn by the principals in all organizations. Only a few weeks before the Iroquois horror they passed through a serious fire scare in the theater where they were playing in Cleveland, an experience that for the moment promised to rival the one that finally overtook them. Flames in the scenery endangered their lives, but the fire was extinguished. Therefore the incident "amounted to nothing" and little or nothing was heard about it.