Weekly national intelligencer., 1851-01-25
NATIONAL INTELLIGENCER.
NEW BOOKS, SOCIETY, AND THE FINE ARTS
IN NEW YORK.
NKw YoaK, JASUAnr %. ls5l

The recent disaster in this city, the falling of a
of half erected houses in Twenty-first street,
on Wednesday last, crushing under their ruins a
number OF the workmen engaged on their topmost
walls has created great sensation here, especially
as the evidence brought out at the coroners inquest
now proceeding, brings to light many facts, show
ing great disregard of life and safety on the part
of those entrusted with building arrangements and
contracts. Il is only at the expense of such an ac-
cdent this, with its fatal and shocking conse-
quences, that community such as ours is capable
of being instructed into practical caution and wis
dom. Heretofore, it would seem, it has been the
business Of nobody to see that the thousands Of
houses daily going up in the city as fast bricks
can be laid and plank fitted, are under proper su-
peryision, or constructed with strength and skill
enough TO prevent them from being dangerous to
the public while building, or unsafe TO dwell in
when finished. Here was apparently a splendid
range of buildings, in one of the finest streets and
neighborhoods of the city, advancing rapidly to-
wards completion, with their side walls already
above the third story; the high winds which pre-
vailed during December did not shake them too
rudelv, nor was any public suggestion any where
made that they or any other houses were lightly
built or improperly constructed. All on a sudden,
in the middle of bright day, just after the work.
men have come back from their dinners, and Just
after they have distributed themselves along the
highest part of the brick work, gentleman on the
north side of Twenty-frst street, looking carelessly
out of his front paror window sees these high walls
totter, vibrate, sway with quick uncertain notion
and then fall inward all together with mighty crash
and whirlwind of dust In minute every thing
is quiet again three or four men are perceived
standing on the payemens in an insane bewilder-
ment of surprise; they jumped, by some timely in
snct directed, from lower parts of the building and
escaped unhurt; but the others, their companions
in hard labor and daily TOLL are buried beneath that
confused avalanche of bricks and beams. hard
fate-hard for the sufferers to be cut off thus sud-
denly and while in the discharge of their honest
duty, and how hard for the survivors whom they
leave plunged into paupersm, with all its positive
miseries and peradventure vices. People who can
indulge in luxurious grief, and after burying their
dead in family vaults and under marble monuments,
go home to their couches and curtains and suits
of mourning, with leisure for tears and sadness,
cannot understand, sincere mourners though they
may be- the extent of the bereavement which death
brings to the poor, when it suddenly cuts off the only
stay and dependence of family. and throws them
into absolute utter destution. This is the class of
paupers produced by such casualties as this in
Twenty-frst street, and by epdemics, and occa-
sionaly by the ordinary course of disease and
death, calling for the greatest sympathy and the
promptest relief, because the least responsible for
their own msfortunes.
But this is DEPRESSION; the buildings were no
sooner down than up sprang multitude of people
who had /" told you so;" who had surmised and
suspected all along that such catastrophe would
ensue, and were not in the least surprised at it:
who had quit working the walls and gone home
pruden,y enough it turned out his wife and family
telling them that he thought venturesome stay another
who had discovered that the used the walls was
NJ hoya l,to
qualities and if put frosty weather would be pretty sure
hold the bricks together another who broke one of
the beams laid for the flooring by simply walking it, so
and slim it and many others who had noticed
time before the day of the accident that the walls
of line and were saggng in several directions. More
than this appears by the testimony, vague susp-
con that every thing right had got the of the
capitalists interested in the property, and they had the
very day of the accident required certificate from the archi
the in which the houses had been erected
and their then condition; and still further it that
only minute before the fatal crash of the workmen had
been for tmbes to prop the unstable walls 81 did
give any warning to the top" said he, in his test
mony, "because thought could prop the wall in time to
save it before got back the wall had fallen !"
This shows Of things make people trembe for
their safety in walking through the in the neghbor
hood Of houses, in ventnng hire and live in them
1t depends upon variety Of contingencies whether five
story house will have the goodness stand quietly till all
four walls up, and lend another support or
whether they will tumbling down with hdeous ruin and
combustion dire If your dishonest, and for the
saving of shngs in sand mixes his mortar with loam
50 that the bricks instead Of sticking each other as they
are supposed do in high WALL lie loosely aud without ad-
hesion your carpenter instead of cutting his oists and
beams of proper and safe thickness and proportion and lay
ing them proper and safe intervals specuates upon you by
dishonesty diminishing and curtaing and saving-why your
nanso which is represent perhaps eight perhaps en per-
haps twelve thousand dollars cash. may either be heap of
ruins before is half done, or If finished without any such
catastrophe in the space oftweve months will present spec
tsce Of cracked walls and sunken floors for which nobody can
account or could before this accident opened their
eyes to the modern science of house building.
The truth is that explanation be found in the sys-
TEN prevailing in New York at present with regard to
this kind Few persons desiring houses build them
themselves under their supervision Spectators and
schemng builders anxious at for business and profit
combine together and purchase number of lots for the pur
pose Of erecting houses The builder gets the title to the
land and mortgages Wall capitalist for sum
large enough the Of the houses be erected the
mortgage money be advanced proportion the buildings
progress much when the walls high much more
when the roof on, and forth, until the houses are COM
pleted In the time the specuaor finds purchasers for
the houses at profit and they sold for enough pay off
the mortgage to the capitalist and give handsome bonus to
both specuato and builder. But whose interest has it been
all this while he houso