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:

Chevalier De Vaudry Mr. C. R. Thorne. Count de Linieres, Minister of Police Mr. H. F. Daly. Picard, Valet to the Chevalier Mr. Claude Burroughs. Jacques Frochard, an Outlaw Mr. J. B. Studley. Pierre Frochard, his Brother Mr. H. S. Murdoch. Marquis de Presles Mr. J. G. Peakes. Doctor of the Hospitals St. Louis and Salpetriere Mr. H. B. Phillips. La Fleur Mr. H. W. Montgomery. Officer of the Guard Mr. John Mathews. Martin Mr. L. Thompson. De Mailly Mr. J. Clements. D'Estres Mr. George Dalton. Footman Mr. E. Lamb. Antoine Mr. R. Struthers. Louise, { The } Miss Kate Claxton. Henriette, {Two Orphans.} Miss Maude Harrison. La Frochard Mrs. Farren. Countess de Linieres Miss Fanny Morant. Sister Genevieve Miss Ida Vernon. Marianna, an Outcast Miss Kate Girard. Julie Miss Ethel Allen. Cora Miss L. Cleves. Sister Therese Mrs. L. E. Seymour.