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Life, 1904-01-14 · page 12 of 20

Life — January 14, 1904 — page 12: what you’re looking at

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Life — January 14, 1904 — page 12: Life, 1904-01-14

What you’re looking at

This page satirizes American theatrical management and public apathy following a major theater disaster (likely the Iroquois Theatre fire in Chicago, which killed over 600 people). The cartoon depicts a skeleton conducting an orchestra labeled "box office," mocking how theater owners prioritize profits over safety. The accompanying poem ridiculing crowd behavior—"Shove 'em in, crowd 'em in"—criticizes both negligent managers and audiences who passively accept dangerous conditions. The prose essay argues that New York officials must enforce theater safety regulations against owners' resistance. It references specific theaters and officials' failure to prevent "menaces to human life," calling for government intervention to protect public welfare over commercial interests. The satire targets systemic corruption enabling preventable tragedies.

📄 Transcribed text from this page (OCR, searchable)

Machine-transcribed from the original scan — historical spelling and the odd misread are preserved.

OF crowd % SONG nin ce in the alates, Jam ‘em in the orchestra, Heap ‘em up in Pack ‘em in ihe gallerte: Crowd ‘em bigh and ton All must pay, and mone Ev'ry show a “+ Go." Nevers he ordinan We are up to tricks Commonly oMictals are Easy men to * fx. Fire?) Masbe, Let It come, We are well secured ; Eversthing Inside of the Tue Ram ‘ety tn, Jam tem tn makes tre's Insured “LIFE + TUl the seats are Let the rest room — All the house will hold Leave the exit doors Swinging them a! Just to see if they wil Wears the ht Suppose hand, Wires will all get hot; Ins! veh of them Costs an awful lot work, working lating Keep the crowd all streaming in, Chase ‘em in by guess, All must pay to $ what mi # Montague Evening Journal. daughters and others dear to us placed in daily peril. “Under the former administration theatees were constructed with little or no regard for the building laws made much narrower than the law dem nt buildi: prevents retorm in The provisions of the pre clause wh * In the interest of tho: UU not app! ‘The lines we have Ttal as many of the theatres on the Daly's, the Casin permitted nightly to en ‘The last-named theatr of the law, hat nger the lives « It is the daty of the memb ized show why it is ths wer East Side, the I Weber and Fields's sof th New York City to demand the immediate repeal ¢ aw we have emphasized. Bat the power of local of whether lature the Leg named shall be closed at once, they et aan Vif readily the indictment of every public will rest th disaster like that in Chicago. him, and ¢ possesses res| know that human 1 New Y men, even and itis for them to make their in acts or is held et ork, who love the it is me their in New Y fam felt Aisles have been nds that they shall be. of old playhouses : owning theatres, the provisions of this code y to Ueatres built precious to this action.’ such fire-traps 1 the thousands of people Land is open in direct defiance Legislature from that part of the nflicial who fails to use the power he sibility should New York experience It is time for them to act. matter whose interests are affected, whose pockets sutfer. quite ils to order that the theatres Every and District ors are opened Attorne heir owners and ma y Jerome can is final , the Man- Savoy are within we have On cers. no Weall rk, but there are s more than de gaiust th erial “pull which keeps our ofticials from p of the theatre-goers of this commu} TPHERE have been many » Chicago tragedy TE CricANs are Weare ma thusiastic. 1 hysterical people. ritied, or panicky to an extreme degree. We We hare not of gestions made as a result of the Among the best are that n every theatre should be lowered after The asbestos curtain Bat none of our emotions lasts long every ac are deeply moved, but quickly forget s Phat all drapery, and especially the heavy curtains used to shut k persistence be matters wi immediate concern. Our public otticials y do about as they please, except wh king for a at for our own sins of negligen we become hysterical and are | seapeg b. tthey know their business, They know that in case they are held to blame by an excited pul ail they have to do is to wait a few days for the excitement to blow Then the public will go back to its daily money+ etting er pleasure-chasing. When this writin like a forts Theatre in Chicago, with its needless sacrifice of over six hundred lives. ‘The indigi Kiaw and Erlanger and their associates in th the theatre, the public clamor for the punishment of some one reaches the eyes of Lirr’s readers something ght will have elapsed since the burning of the Iroquois ation against: Messrs ownership « and the wonderful ein the matter of safety in the theatres will doubt- Laway The night of the disaster Fire Commis- siouer Sturgis said that there were really no fireproof theatres in New York, that in their construction the buil openly defied, and that the regula when actu: incre official vigila less have pass ng laws had been ions of the Fire Department ly enforced had been met with a public disapproval, the contentions of the theatre managers being sustained in the He said : While we have in this ci - { proof theatres, I think there is none where such an awful accident { ; P, i might not occur. When the courts take the position, as was the Sear ec setrys case in a recent notable performance, and a thousand persons are { 1 allowed to stand and the butlding laws are openly violated, as was done during the former administration, so long are the lives of our “THe orn Girt. courts many so-called modern and fire- DRINA DE WOLFE IN comicbooks.com