A frightful catastrophe is reported from Chicago, the city of
catastrophes. A fire broke out on December 30th in a new theatre called the " Iroquois" while a matinee performance was going on, and spread almost instantly to the auditorium, especially, it would seem, assailing the balconies, whence but few were rescued. There was the usual wild rush for the doors, aggravated by the presence of an unusual proportion of women and children ; the exits were blocked, as they always are, by the rushing crowds ; women fainted in heaps ; escape, especially from the balconies and galleries, became im- possible ; some were burned, many more were asphyxiated ; and the most moderate computation puts the losses at over six hundred. Even that number may be increased when the hospital returns are received in full. The first suggestion of the accident is that architectural science cannot protect a theatre against fire, unless the building stands alone, and broad slopes of masonry are built up outside to every gallery. Even then the passages will be choked with fainting wotu-n, and the doorways blocked by the struggling multitude. It is drill for the audience that is required to make them really safe, and unhappily in panic they will not stay drilled.
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