Miss Anna Brand, another member of the octet, testified to the facts similar to those related by Miss Dupont and Miss Wynne, Miss Lawrence, Miss Beaute, Miss Richards and Miss Romaine, the remaining members testifying in a similar strain. None admitted knowing who opened the rear stage door leading to Dearborn street, the door through which came the cold blast that forced the fire into the auditorium.
"Jack" Strause, 31 West 11th street, New York:
"The octet had just made its entrance, walked four steps and danced eight, bringing the members to the center of the stage, when I discovered the fire overhead at the side of the proscenium arch. My partner in the scene, a young woman, cried out that she was fainting. She braced up, however, did a few more steps and collapsed. As I stooped to pick her up I saw the curtain fall possibly six or seven feet. From that time on I observed nothing more of the progress of the fire, being engrossed in an effort to carry out the unconscious young woman. Upon reaching the big scene door at the north of the stage, a strong blast of air blew us both into the alley. The rush of air was occasioned by the falling of a partition behind me, I think. I carried the girl into a neighboring restaurant, where she revived."
Samuel Bell (Beverly Mars):
"We saw the fire start about the time we made our entrance, but continued with our 'turn,' reaching the center of the stage. The fire was spreading and large sparks and fragments of burning material were falling, but we kept on until Miss Williams fainted. I saw the people in front commence to get excited and I put up my hands and told the people to keep as quiet and move out as easily as they could and not to get excited. I looked up again and I saw the drop curtain coming down. I should call it the asbestos curtain. It came down, as near as I could judge, about six or eight feet. Then I turned to look for my partner and she had gone. I looked on the stage to see her and I could not find her. She had gone off the stage. I merely went off the stage, out of the same side I had entered—I could not say exactly which entrance—and then out of the stage door, which was wide open."
Victor Lozard, 235 Bower street, Jersey City:
"I was coming out with the boys, eight of us, at the right side. We came up and met our partners and we got down as far front as the footlights, when Miss Williams fainted, which attracted my attention to some flames up at the first entrance on the right side. I then immediately turned around and helped pick Miss Williams up, and by that time my partner had left me, and I left the stage on the right side. I went up and was going to leave by the stage door, but people were going out there, and so I went over to the back drop, to the right of the stage, and there, about the middle of the stage, I was blown down or knocked down, I don't know what happened to me, and the next I knew of myself I was out in the alley. I don't know how I got there."
John J. Russell, Boston, Mass.:
"I had taken the first twelve steps of the dance when I first noticed the fire. It was in the first entrance, prompt side, about fifteen feet above the stage. The flame then was about five inches in length.
"I noticed that for about a second. I continued on with the rest of the business, and me and my partner, as I always had done in that number, went down to the footlights. When we got there we continued in the business for about three or four seconds after getting down. Then Miss Williams fainted. The flames were falling to the stage, large pieces of burning material, and seemed to create quite a little disturbance among the people in the audience. I spoke to a number and tried to quiet them.