3-077-719 - The Print Collector/Heritage Images

Ruins of the Globe Theatre, Johannesburg, after the fire, 1890. '...the Globe Theatre [Johannesburg, South Africa,] was destroyed by fire one day in October last. Mr. Rex Russell, the popular actor, who was to have played Falstaff that evening for his own benefit, and who was, of course, one of the chief losers by this disaster, sends us a photograph, taken on the morning after the fire, just before the front wall of the building fell in. The fire broke out at half past seven in the evening, and when Mr. Russell entered he found the theatre full of smoke and the act-drop in flames. It was caused by the falling of a petroleum- lamp, which set fire to the wings. Little could be saved of the "properties" and the actors' dresses. The roof being made of galvanised iron, there were loud reports, like platoon firing, caused by the bursting of the bolts that joined the plates of the roof together. After the roof fell in, the fire gradually sank, and by midnight had quite burnt itself out. It was about ten o'clock when loud jeers and laughter announced the arrival of the fire-engine and brigade, "consisting of a garden syringe, a bucket of water, and a n*gger to work it." Fortunately, there was no wind, or the whole town would have been destroyed'. From "Illustrated London News", 1890.