NEWS BY THE MAIL.

Oamaru Mail, Volume I, Issue 53, 22 June 1876, Page 2

NEWS BY THE MAIL.

THE DESTRUCTION OF THE ROUI THEATRE. The Theatre of Arts in Rouen has just bt, destroyed by fire. The opera of " Hamlet was about to be played, and the actors b nearly all assembled, when at a quarter-pa seven the stage curtain caught fire from gas-jet behind it. The fire speedily extendi to all the frames and scenes, a thick smoi enveloping the entire stage. A train of g® powder next carried it to the rest of fi theatre. The actors, including a large n® her of soldiers and choristers, were dress in their respective rooms when the alarm * o-iven. The outlets were very insufficia and a terrible panic arose among the unif tunate people stifled by the smoke or st rounded by the flames. They rushed to t door, but the fire had penetrated undernea the staircase. The only means of esq therefore, if such it could be called, vasi jump out of windows at the height of a fomi or fifth storey. The people rapidly collet* outside perceived hands clinging to the Its of these windows, and mattresses were hasS sought and placed underneath, thus breaks the fall of those who jumped down. Alii one of the singers entrusted with the bo! were saved, their boxes being on the fc floor. Madame Preys, learning that k husband was on an upper storey, could not dissuaded from going to his help, and she I among the flames. M. Guillemot sav many of the female singers, and only sb ceeded in saving himself by climbing fm one of the windows. Chains of men m formed to the Seine, and a steam fire-engie was also set to work, the garrison and S civil population doing their utmost; bnt tl fire burnt on through the night, and it m not mastered till noon the next day. TJt theatre is totally burnt down, and tew houses surrounding it have been partially wholly destroyed. The number of victims not yet precisely known. Of the thirty-fi soldiers-belonging to the 74th Regiment yft were to figure on the scene, the body of a was found, and seven are injured, two_ them seriously, while the nyuster-roll slioi four others missing. Tjjae leader of t! chorus was suffocated by the smoke whi clinging to a window, and fell back into tl flames. Sixteen victims have been taken, the hospital, four of them expiring almost soon as they arrived. It is believed th twenty-five persons are either killed or i jured. The theatre was built in 1774, a has recently been purchased by the munio pality. ' The damage is estimated i 2,000,000 francs. Further particulars have come to hat from Rouen, concerning this serious eotifii gration, which appears to have been moi disastrous than was at first expect# The building is close to the Seine, ai at the outbreak of the fire the spe tators who had been waiting for adini sion soon formed a chain, under the diw tion of the police authorities, and pass* water to the bu.rniag buildings until the ft fire engines with which the town is supplit could be brought to bear. Every one 4 plores the absence of a fire escape. If oi could have been employed at the rear of tl building in assisting the unfortunate iuniat from their lofty dressing-rooms, there sees no reason why a single life should have w lost. . As it is, seven people aro known tot dead, and thirteen are lying at „thc Hot Dieu and elsewhere more or less dangerous! injured. Many are still missing. There a some singular escapes recorded. One soldia well-known as a gymnast, took a flying j®! head foremost, from the fourth-floor wiiidof and having managed to alight on his f<* with no bones broken, set to work at once J the pumps with a will. Against this escap one may set the fate of the leader of tu choir. The poor fellow struggled to s upper window, fell faint, tutu was burr alive in sight of the orowd below. Thrt figures stand out prominently from amoi the rest in the awful confusion within ai without the theatre. M. Guillemot was! have sustained the leading baritone choracf' of Hamlet, and to his dressing-room floes* many of his brother actor;-! a,nd aptrMH when the cry of f:re was raised. » if born to it, he took the command I finee, and guided them one by one throng fire and smoke to the stage-door, till f were hi safety, but one; this wp<s Preys, a lady who, sustaining a subordin* part herself, had husband engaged in so® minor capacity about the theatre, fused to leave it till she had foinid M* Despite all entreaties and commands, » ran through the burning corridors calW him by name, and persisted in mounting; the upper storeys in search of him, some force was used to prevent her. Atß? ivhen a responding voice answered hers she knew that her husband was in sfis? the knowledge came too late. She Sj* with a yielding floor into tlio midst w® flames, ar f d her body has not yet hew** covered. Madame Pallier, a poor dresS about the theatre, was jammed in the of a small window, and she was be helping her fellows out to the air encouraging them to drop. After ten of this, and when all at her window *® disposed of, she was observed to grow f 3l ® but she had strength to graspj&.rope to her from a iieighbouring^f4p<i°' o '» tying it round her waist., sue made'the The rope broke, she felt on the abutment a wall, and was taken up all but dead) is little likely to recover.

time hack a yontig man »w«rttw»i a i 'l'],,. or>«ration of extracting rt from was sneoe»»?»Uy |.«H-f<>rawd_ «n ' |. tv iu ~n»ing at the trospmeoi- the t; re res l>ieu. lino Ounmot, t'arn. ■ n tarrev. ami t>r». '.abl"", E■'"i. l< " r '''• and '>i* un'h/"took the delicate .■■itti"'.: iul <>(,»»■'i-•'>>s_ and lufcroi hieing LtrmiM'tiC to g'-ii-H'' thu tork - ' l ' ho lon a and labor ions one'. p'-mug " , r ,.|Km'\ l>ut after two hours, was J,, hshed. According to the latent • t,|„: voting mail was < l'»i n.u* welt. \ terrible l">oat accident oee.urrud wi Kaster MiKvilt ConFolens. in the Department of ' I'l'iiii'i'iiti'. A religious Fete was to take IC-sMa. a village situated on. the bank •iii'Viivrr Vu-nue : and as some rarwwred iih\vi:it to hj- exhibited a great number »>£ H „„s went on a pilgrimage there._ Among ',,rs sixteen were crossing the river m a e w lm*ii it struck on a rw-fc and cap'wed. .\ TO t,:r at th<- spot is very deep and rapid. I |i j.|,,, persons <>l l- lioa.nl. incut ding tri't'v tiia11, only one was saved. This was woman nF eighteen, wliwc open tunil lwo I fclii- skirts of her clothes kept Eier thu'.-mrhMH'. She wa* thus earned a disu w , i,i' a mil" and a* half down the river f>«- . tsji,. w;u rescued. , Wasliiuxl'.on telegram states that * i-enerat ii(j! up St. Louis. lias Keen sentenced to .1. years' imprisonment and a line of 111 link Mr. Avery has been sentenced twi> years' imprisonment and a tiue of ill) ilollai's.