Canonsburg Theater Tragedy Brings Gloom and Mourning to Citizens.
CAUSE AROUSES ANGER
Twenty-Six Deaths Attributed to Unwarranted Cry of "Fire".
By R.J. Farrell
(Special Telegram to The Dispatch)
Canonsburg, Pa., Aug 27 -- There is crepe on the homes of many doors in Canonsburg today. and for the most part it is white crepe, such as mourners hang out when he or she who has passed is a child. Children for the most part formed the victims of the Morgan opera House Horror last night, a horror unique among such tragedies in that there was no fire nor danger of fire, although the cry of someone criminally fearful sounded the alarm that sent hundreds of people rushing for the one exit of the theater, wityh the result that 26 were crushed to death and something like a score more or less seriously injured.
Canonsburg is a dead town. The people seem scarcely yet to have realized the extent of the tragedy which has appalled not only them, but their neighbors for many miles. They stand around in semi-silent groups gazing at the boarded up enterance of the theater where the lives were lost, here some of them saw their own rela
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of awe at the tragedy which has come upon the town in measure greater than anything it ever has experianced is the feeling of quiet, but noetheless terrible anger at the unknown individual who sounded the cry of "Fire" that was given such dread answer. For to no other cause than this is ascribed the 26 deaths that form the net result of the horror, the official list, arranged this evening after all the bodies had been accounted for and all the injured were known to be on the way to recovery, giving this as the number of dead. The seriously injured number only a few, but in many homes there are children suffering from many bruises, if not broken arms or limbs, and parents similarly injured or suffering from shock to such an extent that they had to take to their beds.
It was definitely ascertained today that there was no semblance of accident either to the moving picture machine or on the stage to warrent the alarm of fire. what really happened is that the film of the moving picture broke and the calcium, instaed of showing through a scene of the picture, shot a clear glare on the plain screen. it is a thing that happens daily in almost any nickelodeon,when a film has run off and a shot of light shines clear before another film is placed before the light.
Driven Back to Safety.
Many of those who were in the theater paid no attention to the light, but most of them heard the wild cry from the gallery and the rush for the door followed, to be halted in just a few moments when the stairway at the street entrance was jammed with dead and dying and injured and and those who were unhurt madly fighting for escape.
There were some few who remained cool and decided it best to keep their seats and these came out uninjured, but the great majority of the nearly 800 people in the playhouse joined the rush and those who were not caught in the fatal crush on the stairs were saved only through the efforts of the police and the firemen who drove them forcibly back into the auditorium.
there is no criticism of the conduct of the playhouse, for everyone agrees that no one is to blame for the panic but the people themselves. if there is any censure, it is heard regarding the building itself, which is an old one. the single entrance and exit was wholy ionadequate to accommodate the crowd even when there was not rush, such as the fear of last night caused and it is freely said that had there been sufficient exits or had the one exit been of proper sort, the tragedy would not have happened, or if it did happen, the consequences would have been far less. it is true that some sought the fire escape, but this refuge was thought of by a comparative few of the cooler ones among the audience. the general rush was for the exit which was to become a gate of death.
Victims Well Known
on all sides of the saddened town you can hear little but quiet expressions of sorrow and horror. The victims were known for the most part to everyone; there is not a section of the neighborhood but had a relative or friend among the dead or injured. here and there you will run across a mother who pulls her children close to her when she talks about the tragedy, for the youngsters were in the playhouse -- and she realizes that the babies of other mothers will never come home safely to them.
At another place a father will tell how he threw one of the children he took to the picture show with him over the heads of the mob out to where willing hands were willing to catch it, and then felt
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And you will hear stories scarce less poingiant told by strong men who were about to enterthe playhouse with their sons or daughters and were checked by the frantic rush and were forced to stand there on the street and see a sister and her baby go doen in that awful vortex with help so near, yet with a barrier impassible between, a barrier of bodies from which the life either had been crushed or soon to be.
Heroism Displayed.
There is another picture which serves somewhat to lighten the gloom of this, if, indee, there can be any lightening of such horror. it is a picture of heroism no less on the part of man than of woman or boy or girl, the heroism that tries to heplp others and, when that is impossible, nerves its possessor to die unflinchingly. That heroism was displayed in more than one instance while the tragedy was being enacted in that hour on the stairs of death.
It was not only the heroism of that men with strong bodies and good hearts may be expected to display when the inevitable hour has come, such heroism as causes men to go down with their ships or to lead their soldiers where the bullets are thickest; it was not solely even the that heroism that a mother can show when the child she has nurtured is face to face with death that only the mother's death may avert; it was the herosim of boys who, themselves safe, turned back into the death heap hoping to rescue some one, unknown to them, but demanding in their eyes the sacrifice because that some one was a woman or child; it was that heroism -- unique i this tragedy -- of a child who, seeing death before her, whispered a farewll to the sister from whom she had been tornand who was distant to her only an impassable foot or two, who sent by the sister another farewell to her father and mother, who murmerred then the prayers that mother and father had taught her, and then sank down beneath the cruel weight and closed her eyes to open them no more.
Comfort in Sorrow.
While both struggled bravely to keep back the tears, which would come becasue the tragedy was so near and the little bodies reminding them of it were just within the window, one father told me this about his son and and another about his daughter. the sobs of the members and of the sisters came to interrupt the recounting of the heart-breaking tales and it was not to be wondered at that the words came slowly and stopped altogether for a time when those sobs were heard. but if there can be comfort in such sorrow, if in a grief so terrible there can be aught of hope or cheer, the one father found in it that his son had died a hero and in the other that his daughter had passed away a saint.
In this Dies Irae of this historic old town there has been vopiced more than one humble, silent prayer of resignation, of almost thanksgiving, that perhaps the deaths were not all in vain, for they remeber it has been said that "greater love hath no man than this, that he lay down his life for his fellowman."
There will be inquiries of course, such as always follow any tragedy of unusual degree, but it is difficult to see wherein any investigation will accomplish anything aside from further condemnation of the building, and a possible prohibition for a time of any more entertainments in the Opera House until the matter of exits is remedied.
Coroner's Jury at Work.
Coroner James T. Heffran arrived in Canonsburg this morning from his home in Speers and at once impaneled a jury. The six men and the Coroner went to the Opera House, where they inspected the hallway and the interior of the playhouse, as well as the moving projector machine. J. C. Morgan, owner of the Opera House, and C. F. Furguson, manager, were also present. The proprietor made no statement, but the manager explained how the alarm of fire that led to the panic came about. The breaking of the film, with the result that the light shone clear on the screen, coupled with the slight puff of smoke when the operator opened the machine, caused the cry that had such fearful results.
After the inspection of the Opera House the jurymen went to the two morgues and viewed the bodies. for formal inquest will probably be held a week from Thursday, as the Coroner will be busy until then on criminal cases at the county seat. The Coroner said he will make a thorough investigation, particularly on the point of whether the State law regarding places of public amusement was carried out.
Acting under instruction of of State Factory Inspector J..C..Delaney of Harrisburg, Deputy Inspector James R. Patterson of Beaver Falls arrived here this evening. he has orders to make a thourough examination of the ill-fated Opera House and to make a report to the authorities at Harrisburg as soon as possible.
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