THE PILES OF DEAD IN THE GALLERY.
William ("Smiling") Corbett was one of the first to penetrate the smoke and reach the balcony and gallery of the theater where the most fearful loss of life occurred. Charley Dexter, the Boston National league player, and Frank Houseman, the old Chicago second baseman, went to his assistance.
Corbett was stopped by a fear-frenzied little woman, who begged him to save her two children.
"They're up in the gallery," she cried.
Corbett made a dash for the balcony entrance on the right.
"Don't go up there," admonished some of the firemen about; "you'll get hemmed in."
Corbett groped his way onward and upward, stumbling over bodies lying prostrate on the staircase, and finally reached the gallery entrance.
"There they were," said Corbett afterward. "Positively the most sickening spectacle I ever saw. They were piled up in bunches, in all manner of disarray. I grabbed for the topmost body, a girl about 6 years old. Catching her by the wrist I felt the flesh curl up under my grasp. I hurried down with the little one, then back again, each time with the body of a child.
"I then realized that no good could come of any further effort. Everybody was stark dead. I turned away and fled. I never again want to go near the place."
EDDIE FOY'S HEROISM.