Men Worked Like Demons in Rescuing Victims From Scenes of Death.
FIRE ESCAPES SAVED MANY
Something like the horror of Saturday night is required to bring out the heroic in human nature. Within fifteen minutes after the panic had started at he opera house some of the men of Canonsburg ad entered upon what in all probability was the hardest work in their lives, and likewise their best work -- their efforts to save human life.
At the foot of the stairway, where there was a mass of crushed humanity, strong men set to their task and did almost superhuman work. That tangled, screaming mass of men and women and children was so wedged into the fatal hallway that although four of them would tug at a body they could scarcely move it, so tightly were the people, some of them dead or in a dying condition, wedged into that hole of death.
Men who took part in that work give great credit to the local firemen. They did nobly, and saved many lives. Besides the firemen there were others who did equally excellent work, among them Chief of Police Swan and the police force, as well as private citizens.
Near the foot of the stairway men worked wit herculean effort, among those being M. L. Taylor, William Larrison, Councilman A. Sheldon, E. G. Marshall, John Reese, G. M. Cook, H. B. Thompson, William Peters, and many others whose names could not be obtained.
Further up the stairway worked just as hard the firemen and others, including a number of the firemen. In the offices and the rooms on the second floor women did just as good work as the men. They worked over the wounded as they were carried into the office of the Philadelphia Gas company and the tailor shop of Charles Kurchner.
The fire escapes were instrumental in saving hundreds of lives. Manager Ferguson of the opera house and others assisted the women in getting out onto these life-saving devices, which proved veritable highways from death.