"Before the show started I sat for a long time examining the painting. From our seats in the fifth row we could see every detail. The 'autumn scene' was done in heavy red and in order to get some of the effects the artist had to use great daubs of paint, smearing it on pretty thick in some places. I am certain that the backing was common canvas and if this was so it must have been covered with wax before the paint was put on. This same curtain came down after the first act, so I had plenty of time to know it. "When the fire started my first feeling was that the stage people were acting recklessly. For several minutes the fire was no bigger than a handkerchief. A bucket of water would have saved the lives of every one. But there seemed to be no water on the stage. "One of the stage hands first took his hand and then used a piece of plank to smother the flames. It kept spreading. After Eddie Foy had made his speech the 'autumn scene' curtain came down. 'Pull down the curtain,' was all the cry I heard. They did not say 'Pull down the asbestos curtain,' nor was there any mention of any fireproof curtain. The 'autumn scene,' with its highly inflammable paint, came down, and it was like pouring fire into the people's faces. It was a great piece of bungling--far worse than if no curtain had been lowered at all. "It has been said that noise and panic-like screaming followed the burning of the curtain. This is absolutely not true. The whole place was almost gruesomely silent. "Mrs. Gibson and I were half way in from the aisle and had to wait for many to go out before we started. At the aisle some one stepped on Mrs. Gibson's dress and she fell to the floor. Men, women and children trampled over her, and having done all I could I started out. In the lobby I begged some men to return for Mrs. Gibson, but they said it was no use. The curtain by that time was burned up." Mrs. Gibson, wife of Dr. Charles B. Gibson, confirmed Mrs. Schweitzler's assertions that no asbestos curtain was visible from the audience. "From the place where I fell," said Mrs. Gibson, "I crawled on hands and knees to the entrance. When I got to the rear the curtain was all burned away." ESCAPE OF MOTHER AND TWO SMALL CHILDREN Mrs. William Mueller, Jr., 3330 Calumet avenue, who at the time was confined to her bed from injuries sustained by trying to get out of the Iroquois as the panic began and from bruises sustained by being trampled upon, tells the story that she with her two children, Florence, 5 years old, and Belle, 3 years old, occupied three seats in the second row from the back on the ground floor on the right side of the theater. The children became restless as the second act began and Mrs. Mueller took them to a retiring room.