Robert E. Murray, 676 Jackson boulevard, Chicago, engineer at the Iroquois theater:
"I was down stairs underneath the stage when I heard some confusion about 3:30 o'clock. I rushed upstairs onto the stage and the first person I saw was the house fireman. He had some kilfyre and was trying to sprinkle it on the fire. I saw the curtain down about ten feet from the stage and I tried to jump up and grab it to pull it down, but it was out of my reach. By that time there was fire coming down so I had to get away from there. I went to the elevator and saw that the boy was making trips and bringing people down as fast as he could. When I saw he was doing his duty I went downstairs and told my fireman to shut off steam in the house and pull the fires, so as to prevent the possibility of an explosion.
RUSH OF CHORUS GIRLS.
"Then some of the musicians and chorus girls came rushing through and they wanted to know which way out. There was a door in the smoking room in the basement and I opened it for them. Some went out that way. The smoke was so thick that some of them ran back. I took them to the coal hole and shoved them out of the coal hole. The smoke was getting so thick in there we could hardly stand it, so I told the fireman to take our clothes and go to the coal hole and get out. I stayed there and shut the steam off in the boilers, and was trying to get the fire out to save any boiler explosion if the fire should get too hot.
"After I thought everybody was out of there I made a trip around the dressing rooms in the basement and hallooed, 'Everybody out down here.' Then I met a girl by the name of Nellie Reed. She was up against the wall scratching it and screaming. I grabbed her and went out with her to the street. I went back to the boiler. My toolbox was there, and I grabbed the toolbox and jerked it back on the coal pile and then I crawled out of the coal hole myself into the fresh air."
A SCHOOL GIRL'S ACCOUNT.
Ruth Michel, school girl, 698 North Robey street, Chicago:
"I was sitting in the top balcony in the second row near the north or alley wall when the fire broke out. There were four in our party, all girls, and we reached our seats about five minutes before the performance began. The curtain went up for the second act and there was, I think, about twelve actresses on the stage. There was a green light thrown over the stage, to represent the moonlight, a greenish blue. I saw a man at the side of the stage making motions with his hands; I didn't know whether he was coming in at the wrong time or not, and then I saw a spark come from above the stage. Then a spark fell down, and one of the women in our party said, 'We will get out of here,' and a man rose and said he would knock our heads off if we got out, so we sat there. Then they tried to drop a curtain and it didn't come down very far.
"Then they dropped another curtain. It came down beyond the one that got stuck, came down all the way, I think. That one caught fire right away, even before it reached the stage. Then an awful draft came and it blew the flames right out over the audience. We got out of our seats, got out of an exit all right and went out on the fire escape. I got down two or three steps and we were driven back by the flames below us. The heat came up just like a furnace and I went up two or three steps and then I got under the railing and dropped to the alley. I lit on my toes and a man caught me at the same time, so I was not hurt. The distance was the same as from the fourth story window of the building across the alley. Men in the alley called to me not to jump, but I knew I had to jump or else burn up, because the flames were coming up so right behind me."