Twenty-six persons were trampled to death in Canonsburg, Penn., and many others so badly crushed and maimed that they either cannot live or will be crippled for life, because the electric fuse of a moving-picture machine blew out, and frightened a few who communicated their fright to others. There was no real cause for alarm, there was no fire, only a panic. These people were killed and injured, killed and injured each other, in fact, because they were panic-stricken. Panic is likely to occur anywhere when people are crowded together.
Yet this panic would not have resulted so seriously if the picture show had not been exhibited on the second floor of a building, with a crooked hallway, an ill-lighted stairway and insufficient exits. It seems inexcusable for such an ill-equipped and unsafe theatre to exist even in a small Pennsylvania town. But there are moving-picture shows innumerable in this city in small halls ill-adapted to this purpose, and without sufficient exits. A great loss of life might occur in one of them any time the panic spirit possessed the crowd. Panic develops quickly, without warning. The Canonsburg hall was always prepared for a great slaughter. The scenery was set for tragedy. Undoubtedly there will now be a general investigation of the halls in which moving pictures are exhibited. Some good may result.