The Fargo forum and daily republican. [volume], December 31, 1903, Image 1

About The Fargo forum and daily republican. [volume] (Fargo, N.D.) 1894-1957

Image provided by: State Historical Society of North Dakota

                
REPUBLICAN
Raccoon
Vyorth
ili
ZSMUX
LEFT
Buffala
FORMER PRICE
NOW*
217
Peaches, Pit,
Per cap...)...-v.
-Fcach'«ir c«pWfi«^ 4 Etm
{Banquet Bl#»d) 1 Hw
Peaches, California
SEPT.
ESTABLISHED
AAa
(Palm Braild)...»...«•• "V"
Apricots, California
(Palm Brand) .. •^SPl#
'1 Plums, California
(Reindeer Brand)
a
.... 19%*
Plums AA||
(Monarch Brandy
Peas, New York iAg|
Marrowfat *».,
Peas, Yerxk •r.'-K'\ 4 Olj%
Telephone »2ll
Fruit Jam, J. 4J|A
i-pound caA..*«^ .^i •.. JPlrl*
Corn, Standard, k
Per can
Tomatoes, Standard.
Per can
Wlien ordering, do not forget
our TIM Mi COrrttf. We have
the bett line in the city.
Y O U
DRB88BP POULTRY
I^pmaiiutrrlcedajralarHval
512 pttai mv*.W mm
rarm
WALL PAPER
A
mm
Wi
til
Dead
217
PHONE
To move these goods quick
we make the follo^wing lew
prices:
WL issin^
A#
.v, 564
.•••&%
«-v
Injured
Chicago, Dec. 31.—Today only
brought the legacy of yesterday's mon
umental calamity and the prediction
that the list of fatalities in the Iro
quois Theatrp fire will fun over 600
when information is complete. .The
latest stntctHei£ df the dead at'the var­
ious morgues is 564 and it is stated at
the various hospitals and hotels to
which 4he injured were removed that
of 157. injured, probably $nethgrd can
not live. y v
The missing today is estimated at
314 but it is expected imniy of these
will be accounted for.
It is no extravagance to say the city
is stunned by the awful calamity which
fell on those in the theatre during the
performance of Mr. .Blue Beard.
The theatre was newly completed at
a cost of $450,000 and was as near ab
solutely fire-proof as construction
could make it. Fire did only about
$20,000 damage to the interior finish­
ings and the loss of life is attributed to
the mad rush of panfc stricken people
who trampled weaker ones under foot
in the first and second balconies till the
dead were pijed ten feet deeg? Wock
ing some exits.
Horrible in the extreme was the mu­
tilation of bodies by the heels of those
who rushed over them.'
Faces were ground to pulp and bodies
stripped of clothing and then ground
to a bleeding mass.
The Are 4s supposed to have started
frono a calcium light wftich was too
Aev tjac «cenery and caught the cur
t*bt. Then the gas Uak exploded,
hk»Wqj( put the ^tylijp^it in the ropf
CJMNWS drait which prevented low
the a»besto» etirtain.
Fierce gusts of hot air, gas and flame
spread upward over the two upper bal
conies filled with women and children
and- sow* mes.
Some wrere i^H^d instantly by t^|e
U«t th» deaths WJ5|«
blithe name 0$
N.
!»-,
SSP^ftttl'''
:Sli?i
ft of the Most Terrible Theatre Fires in the History of the World
Occurred in Chicago Yesterday Afternoon*~1tte Known Dead
Are 564. the Missing Are 314 and the Injured Are 15?, One
third of Whom May Die—The Flames Game During the Second
Act of Mr. Bluebeard in the Magnificent New Iroquois Theatre
.../litany People Were Instantly Killed in Their Seats, but the
v: Greater Part Were Trampled to Death in Almost Inextricable
M&. \I
AND DAILY REPUBLICAN^
Masses in the Entrances, Where Bodies Were Piled Ten Feet
Deep—Many of the Unfortunates Were Horribly Mangled—Efforts
to Locate tht Blame for the Terrible Disaster—One of the Vic
tims Was Miss Peterson, a Fargo Teachtr/'
ance to flee to the wings With screams
of terror. The fire in itself up to this
time was not serious and possibly could
have been checked had not the asbestos
curtain failed to work. As soon as the
fire was discovered Eddie Foy, the
chief comedian of the company, shouted
to lower the curtain, and this was im
mediately done. It descended about half
way and stuck. The fire thus was given
practically a flue through which a
strong draft was setting, aided by the
doors which had been thrown open in the
front of the theatre. With a roar and
a bound, the flames shot through the
opening over the head of people on the
first floor and reaching clear up to the
first balcony, caught- them and Inirrtec!
•hem to death where they sat. Immed
iately following this
/rush
V
I /.,,,'.
of flames
there came an explosion which lifted the
entire roof of the theatre from its walls,
shattering the great skylight into frag
ments. As soon as the flames first ap
peared beyond the curtain a man in
the rear of the hall shouted "fire, fire,"
and the entire audience rose as one per
son and made for the door. It is be
lieved that the explosion was' caused by
the flames coming in contact with the
gas reservoirs of the theatre, causing
them to burst. Will J. Davis, manager
of the theatre, said after the catastro
phe, that if the people had remained in
their seats and had not been excited byi
the cry of fire, not a single life would
have been lost. This is, however, con
tradicted by the statements of the firemen
who found numbers of people sitting in
•their seats, their faces directed toward?
the stage as if the performance was still'
going on.
It was the opinion of the firemen that
these people had been suffocated at oncc
by the flow of gas which came fro"1
behind the asbestos curtain.
As near as can be estimate^. at: the
present time, about 1,300 people "Wete" in
the theatre. Three hundred of these
were on the first floor, the balance being
in the two upper balconies, and in the
hallways back of them. The theatre is
modelled after the Opera Comique in
Paris and from the rear of each balcony
three doors leading out to passageways
toward the front of the theatre. Two
of these doorways are at the end of
the balcony and one being in the cen
ter. The audience in its rush for the
outer air seems to have, for the greater
part, chosen to flee to the left entrance
and to attempt to make ita. down
the eastern stairway lea$fttgway
the door
five |eet in
Jffar of
of .dead bpd£s in ti
way reaches
to
into the
lobby of the theatre. OntSide of ||ve
people burned and suffocated by gas, it
was in these two
and second balcony
loss of life occurn
men entered the bu|
found stretched in $.1
the
fead
ys on the firajt
the greatest
hen the fijfe
,, the dead were
reaching fr6m
at least ei
|o a point about
r. This m|$*:
of the dofrr
o feet of {he
of the st
feet from
w
top of the
at
Jiave
mqst
All of the
yjfrtf.
women au4
ife which mpt
|.at
too tar.
ii
-c .^r
V*y.il^SVN
•.:-i'.^/ *~HiW.i. ..•:•
hie to Tift them on^ om and carry
them out. The only possible thing to do
was to seize a limb or some other por
tion of the body and pull with main
strength. Men worked at the task with
tears streaming down their cheeks and
the sobs of the rescuers could be heard
even in the hall below where this aw
ful scene was being enacted. A num
ber of the men were compelled to aban
don their task and give it over to others
whose nerves had not as yet been shaken
by the awful experience. As one by one
the bodies were dragged out' of the
water-soaked, blackened mass of Corpses,
the spectacle became more and more
heart-rending. There were women whose
clothing was torn completely from their
bodies above the waist, whose bosoms
had been trampled into a pulp at\d whose
faces were marred beyond all power of
identification. Bodies lay in the first
and second balconies in great numbers.
In some places they were piled up in
the -aisles three and four deep, where
otie had fallen and others tripped over
the prostrate forms, and all had died
vhere they lay, evidently suffocated by
the gas. Others were bent over backs
of seats where they had been thrown by
the rush of people for the doors and
killed without hardly a chance to rise
from the seats. One man was found
with his back bent nearly double, his
spinal column having been fractured as
he was thrown backward. A woman
was found cut nearly in half by the
back of the seat, she having been forced
over it face downward.
In the aisles nearest to the d6ors the
scenes were harrowing in the extreme.
Bodies lay in every conceivable attitude
half naked, the look on their faces re
vealing some portion of the agony which
must have preceded their death. There
were scores and scores of people whose
entire faces had been trampled completely
off by the heels of those who rushed
over them and in one aisle the body of
a man was found with not a vestigatc
of clothing, flesh or bone remaining
above his waist line. The entire upper
portion of his body had been cut into
mince mpat and carried away by the feet
of those who trampled him a search
was carefully made with a hope of find
ing his head, it had not been discovered
and ail that will ever tell his friends who
lie was is the color and., appearance of
jthe clothing on the lower limbs and this
if in such a condition as to be hardly
recognizable.
The theatre has been constructed but
a- short time aqd all it« equipment was
giot yet iu plgce. This was unfortunately
£le case n^h a fire escape in the rear
||if the buUjdipg. The small iron hatan
MBB fcp whiffc the iron ladder was to be
.igcr#.^ hut the ladder had not
hfipi flfrnflfifTrtrd
the panic was at its height a
plumber of women ran for thope
only to find as they emerged
rway upon the little iron
it they were thirty to fifty
sMi# '•*•. V« *s-
J.
1878. FARGO, NORTH DAKOTA, THURSDAY EVENING, DECEMBER 31, 1903. FORUM ESTABLISHED NOV. 17, 1801*
-'•*»-. K
"-.y
1
V? •'•"•V':'^ Si'*'•" /•••^'r- JfcV" WA'S.'^ v
V- 1
:4
Special
Sale!
.'t1
TiV
W hehind and
& frqnt, Those
tewat
a
and
i u
r^""
SPECIAL
$20.00 Suit#
at ..
One-
1 1 u
•?&'. Jiftt-.., ...- »I aK. A ..« •&..:- '"V «r.i, o. •, .-'. i?^s\
,"
in our Cloak Department
ies' Tailored Suits,
made of Zibeline, Vene
tian, Broadcloth, etc.
10.00
$15.00 Suits
at ..
v
13.33
20.00
CloaKs
Ladies' and Children's
Cloaks, all styles, loose
and tight fitting.
0.07
$10.00 Coalt v?
at ..1,..
$15.00 Coat*
at fi....',,,
$18.00 SulfeSl|S
at.,.:
10.00
^12.00
nnn on
f"v\7«\/Vr
4,
I
1,11
l.' .. .' k ~j! I
f-N j'Aif ?-i »:V1
WEATHER—Probably fair tomorrow colder.
Our Twenty-fourtH
ANNUAL LINEN SALE
WILL COMMENCE
Saturday, January 2, 1904
As people are' generally tired out and busy after the holidays,
we decided not to have our great Annual Linen Sale known all
over the state until one week after.
sa|e wj11
E.P. Sundberg & Co.
f/9
City's
Offers special inducements as to-i
$0
|), 11 I I »H .1 )i m'
price in every department of the store untilh
Jaa.
before starting to take inventory.
»Ma1f^i9a4, thfe
'"Tw—-w^.,
C5**%&
I
V
One-Fourth Off
•M
••v
v
*1
K Y
JA„1 •,&
4
U
ft 5
Special
Sale!
•if* -V^:,
Ladies' Fur Coats, Pur
Sets such as Boas, Muffs,
Children's Sets, etc.
$30.00 Ladies'As
trachan Coats, at..
$45.00 Ladies' As*
trachan Coats, at..
$37.50 Ladies'
Krimmer Cpats, at..
75c Children's Fur
Sets
22.60
33.76
f8-18
MM**
600
One-Half Off
Dressing Sacqucs
a i e s E i e o w n
Dressing Sacques and
Kimonas, nicely trimmed
with ribbon and applique.
100 different styles.
$1.00 Dressing Sacques
6O0
7
$1.50 Dressing Sacques
worth of Linens espefcially marked for this
60
1.00
$2.00 Dressing Sacques
1.60
$3.00 Dressing Sfcques
placed on our center tables. No
commodity is more injudiciously dealt in than linen. Our aim
15, as everybody knows, to give you the best money can buy.
That our Annual Linen Sale is known, is shown by a $350.00
order received today to be shipped immediately,
Hotels, Restaurants and Every Housekeeper
are invited to look over cftir Linen Stock and be convinced as
to price and quality.
*1*4