BURNING OF THE PARIS OPERA HOUSE.

Ashburton Guardian, Volume V, Issue 1622, 29 July 1887, Page 3

BURNING OF THE PARIS OPERA HOUSE.

INCIDENTS OP THE CATASTROPHE

The English papers contain full aid graphic accounts of the burning of tbo Paris Opera Coxique. Some of the incidents narrated are p?cu iarly pathetic and painful. Among the v.otimis aro M Langereau, of Touts, and his wife and daughter, wko had come up to attend a friend's wedding, and for tho daughter to buy articles fur her own approcohln* marriage. The bodies found on the staircase between the upper and lowor boxes show that death was due simply to soft' joatlon. There is no trace of tire en them. Somo of the women hnvo their gloves faateued, and evsn their bcmnHs are still tied under the cbin, though c !&• plaoed and crumbled. In one case, how*, ever, a woman's hair was diehevolhc. The women are mostly etout and elder Jj j having Buocumbed m the fight for epreuf and their faces are lacerated and bruised. The men, too, are mostly obese. Their oo*t tails have m many cases been ton off The watches found on the bodhs are all found to have stopped at a quartetpast nine or twenty minutes past nine. As the fire did not beak ont till aftrr nine, their unhappy owners mint h;ng been almost immediately suffocated <r trampled to death. Among the bodies found was that of a girl m the lower gallery, apparently English, for she wore a loDket inaorlbod " Mary." One p»Per m Paris sta'oi that two persons m a sitting posture on be Been m one of the boxes. Frorc the ledge of wbat was the upper gallery three bodies can be seen hanging head downwards, the victims having been jammed by the legs by eorae falling timber. Among the victims there are s*ld to be a email "Vienna banker, M Deesauer, and his young wife. The latter has recently won the fi<*Bt przi of 35 000 florins m, a lottery, aid m onoequoi 04 of this good luck, they troated thorosplves to a pleasure trip to France. Tht> unfortunate couple have left three young children behind them Sinoe tho rcnrning of the fira an old gentleman, looking very pale and aad, has been sitting on a frnginent of beam opposite tho entrance through which the dead bodies are brought to be put m coffins "and carried away. He went with his wife and daughter to see v Mignon " acted. He wa? separated from tnem on leaving the hall, but supposed they had gone out before him. They have not been seun since, but he h»B taken up his post on the log, where he ei*s with his eyes fixtd on the spot to whioh the dead bodies ur». brought to be borne out. Every time ■ new one comes he rises, looks at it, aha^ns his head, and returns to bis seat sobb ng, A young man of twenty five has been m like manner waiting for tho diioo7ery of the bodies of his father, mother, and sister.