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Burning of the Brooklyn Theatre A thrilling personal experience! Brooklyn's horror. Wholesale holocaust at the Brooklyn, New York, Theatre, on the night of December 5th, 1876
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Publisher: Archive ClassicsReleased: ISBN: Format: book
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Burning of the Brooklyn Theatre A thrilling personal experience! Brooklyn's horror. Wholesale holocaust at the Brooklyn, New York, Theatre, on the night of December 5th, 1876
BURNING OF THE
Brooklyn Theatre.
A
Thrilling Personal Experience!
————————
Brooklyn’s Horror.
WHOLESALE HOLOCAUST AT THE BROOKLYN,
NEW YORK, THEATRE,
ON THE
NIGHT OF DECEMBER 5TH, 1876.
————
Three Hundred Men, Women and Children
BURIED IN THE BLAZING RUINS!
——————
ORIGIN, PROGRESS AND DEVASTATION
OF THE FIRE.
——————
The Tragedy in the Galleries—A Wedge of Death—Into a Pit of Fire—Harrowing
Scenes and Incidents—Affecting and Exciting Stories of
Survivors—Two Actors among the Victims—The Ghastly
Array of the Disfigured Dead—Heartrending Scenes
in Identifying the Remains—Complete List of
the Victims—Burial of the Dead.
PHILADELPHIA:
BARCLAY & CO., PUBLISHERS,
No. 21 NORTH SEVENTH STREET.
Entered according to Act of Congress, in the year 1876, by
BARCLAY & CO.,
In the Office of the Librarian of Congress, at Washington, D. C.
BURNING OF THE BROOKLYN
THEATRE.
THE destruction of the Brooklyn Theatre, on the night of Tuesday, December the 5th, was the most terrible calamity of its kind that has occurred in this country. What was first deemed to be an ordinary fire, naturally involving serious financial loss to the owners, the lessees and the actors, was really a catastrophe of the most heartrending character, causing, as it did, the loss of upwards of three hundred lives. No theatre fire on this continent had so much horror lent to it. Even the most stony-hearted were touched by the awfulness of this great calamity.
Three hundred human beings of both sexes and of all ages were thrust into eternity through an agonizing and painful death. They were thus doomed at a moment of pleasure and mental excitement over the mimic troubles of the dramatic personages in a play possessing features that touched the hearts of those who followed the scenes on the stage. At a moment when every eye was fixed on the painted scene, and every ear strained on the utterances of the several characters, the dreadful cry of Fire!
was raised, and, in a few moments after, the entire building was filled with flame and smoke, and hundreds of men, women and children were suffocated and burned to death, and their charred and disfigured remains buried beneath the ruins.
Such is the simple and terse record of this most dreadful occurrence, and these few sentences afford such outline and visible form to the picture that it scarcely needs the shocking details that necessarily follow to give it color and ghastliness. That so much horror should attend the burning of a theatre sent a thrill of pain through every heart in the land. The full scope of the calamity and the dreadful scenes attending it are depicted in the accounts that follow.
No more awful moment can be imagined than that when the fire was discovered. The full moon of the fatal evening had tempted upwards of twelve hundred people from their homes, and lighted them to the brilliant entrance of the theatre. The famous play of the Two Orphans,
with an excellent cast, mainly from the Union Square Theatre, of New York city, was the attraction, and had renewed its fascinations over a public long since familiar with its story. The audience was characteristically a Brooklyn gathering. Many well-known citizens were there: among them the family of Mr. William C. Kingsley, the Hon. Henry C. Murphy, Edgar Cullen and ladies, E. B. Dickinson and ladies, and Henry Beam. The following was the distribution of characters in the play, and, with the exception of Miss Morant, Miss Vernon and one or two of the minor characters, all the members were in the theatre at the outbreak of the fire:
The play had proceeded to the last scene of the last act. The curtain had just been rung up, revealing a scene of exciting and pathetic interest to the audience. It was the interior of the hovel boat-house on the Seine. The blind Louise (Miss Claxton) lay on a bed of straw; Mme. Frochard (Mrs. Farren) was scraping a carrot; the cripple was at his wheel, and Jacques was about to emphasize his brutality with a threat. As was natural from her reclining position, which enabled her to see the flies, the first flame caught the eye of Miss Claxton. Mr. Murdoch (Pierre) was delivering his speech when the two heard a whisper of Fire
from behind the scenes, and, looking up, saw flames issuing from the flies. Mr. Murdoch stopped, but Miss Claxton whispered to him, Go on, they will put it out, there will be a panic—go on,
and he resumed. So far the audience had not noticed anything out of the way, and the two played the scene through, Mrs. Farren (Frochard) entering meanwhile. The carpenters were all the while trying to stop the progress of the flames, unnoticed by the house, and Miss Claxton delivered her little speech to Jacques: I forbid you to touch me,
which was greeted with applause. Meanwhile the audience had begun to suspect something, and with Miss Claxton’s words, I will beg no more,
the actors were forced to move from fear of falling timber, and the audience rose to their feet. Mrs. Farren and Mr. Murdoch stepped to the footlights and waved to the people to resume their seats, while Mr. Studley and Miss Claxton went forward to do likewise. Mr. Studley shouted: Ladies and gentlemen, there will be no more of the play, of course; you can all go out if you will only keep quiet.
Miss Claxton, at the other end of the stage, begged the people to keep cool, adding: "We are between you and
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