Knoxville weekly chronicle. [volume] (Knoxville, Tenn.) 1870-1875, 1870-05-11
The Richmond Disaster.

of the Richmond disaster, writes to the
Editor of the Lynchburg Republican the
following letter, which gives the most
vivid and interesting description of the
accident we have yet seen:
RICHMOND, VA, April 81.
The Conservative caucus had held a ses-
sion in the hall of the House of Delegates
| at 10 o'clock and had adjourned about II.
1t being generally known that at II o'clock
the Supreme Court would render its de-
cision in the Chahoon-E Ellison case, a large
concourse of citizens, members of the bar
and of the General Assembly, had filled
the court room and the gallery by liz. The
court room is just over the northeast wing
| of the hall of the House of Delegates, and
was occupied during tho Confederate days
by the Virginia Senate. / entered the
| chamber about the hour above mentioned,
! and took my seat with Messrs. McCaul,
Mahood, Hatcher and Greer of the House
of Delegates, Immediately in front of the
| elevated bench, where were the seats of
the Judges who were momentarily expect
ed, as all was in readiness for the anticipa-
| ted proceedings. On one side of the bar
sat Wells and Chandler; on the other Nee
son and Meredith, of counsel on either
side. Wise and Daniel had not yet entered,
and within and behind the bar were the
densely-packed crowd of lawyers and peo-
pie. all eagerly awaiting the event of the
long and hard judicial contest. The crash
| came like an earthquake. Of Il sudden
there was a cracking of timbers and the
gallery opposite the bench came plunging
and crushing into the middle of the room
upon the congregated mass, and instan-
taneously the floor itself quivered and
caved in, opening vast crater into which
! sank gallery, timbers and their massive
weight of human beings sitting near the
bench, with no possibility of escape. What
added to the horror and peril of the scene,
the great ceiling of the court room itself
joists, planks and plaster, came with
crash from above, wOunding or burying in
the ruins those who had not been caught
| under the gallery or the falling timbers of
the floor. Escape was not thought of by
| those far in the room. The walls shaking
! the floor sinking, the ceiling pouring
/ down, every avenue seemed cut off and ut
| ter annihilatian certain.
! But happily for number of us near the
! bench, q narrow margin of the room about
| the breadth of the bench ching to the wall
/ the bench itself being unOccupied and not
| so much strained, and throwing ourselves
| forward we grasped the ratings that guard
! it, and thus held on at the very brink of
the vortex. The ratings, too protected Il
good many from the timbers of the ceiling,
! by breaking the force of their fall. McCaul
was the first one of those clinging to the
ratings to extricate himselffrom the Debris
of the ceiling which covered us, and in thai
! spirit of gallant and unsetish courage
which makes hearts warm toward him, he
paused to help those who were less fortu-
nate, instead of making good his own cs-
cape The door of the conference room,
where the Judges were in consultation,
happily opens at that end of the hall, and
| soon those who were not pinned to the
floor climbed through the ruins, and
through it reached the uninjured portion
of the building and the open air. McCaul,
J Manhood and myself, with the exception of
slight bruises, were not hurt and Greer
and Hatcher were equally fortunate. On
| the outside there was CONSERVATION spread
as if by electricity. The fire-beils sounded
and in "A few minutes the hook and ladders
| of the Fire Brigade came into the square
AT IA double-quicl, all hands intent upon
! the rescue. ! was too much bruised and
| shocked to remain as "a spectator or to take
part in assisting the wounded; but the
| scene as il appeared at its happening was
the embodiment of horrific chaOs--a wreck
OF matter, a crush of human life, a night
| mare of wild, shattered ruin, with cloud
of dust arising from aud obscuring it like
| smoke from volcano.
The following little incident shows how
trifies sometimes avert great calamities:
On "Wednesday morning the date of the
calamity, Mr.. Lincoln, ex-mcmber of Con-
| grcss from New York, was in Richmond,
and about l0I o'clock in the morning call
! ed on one of the State Sepators of Virginia
in reference to bill before the Legisla-
ture. The Senator proposed that they
should go to the Capitol To hear the decision
in reference to the Mayoraity. As they
were starting to go, Mr.. Lincoln gave the
| Senator half dozen copies of Gen. Farms
worth's speeches on the Virginia question
in the House of Representatives. whereup-
on the Senator remarked: "Wait until |
address these to some of my friends" He
sat down at IA table for few minutes, and
they then proceeded to the Capitol and ar
| rived at the door of the room Just ~ the
floor fell. The short delay of addressing
! the speeches saved, in all probability, two
lives.
As pertinent TO the above, we take from
the New York Times the following:
| 1.-THE terrible catastrophe at Richmond
| last week recalls TO mind the burning of
the theater in that city on the evening of
| Dee. y, 1911. Out of AN audience of six
! hundred persons who were present, seven
| ty-three were burned, including the Gov
ernOr of the State, George w. smith, and
many of the most prominent citizens.
Many Others were seriously injured, but
| finally recovered. The whole State was
! thrown into mourning, and church was
built upon the site of the thcater, with a
monument In front bearing the names of
/ those who persisted. Nothing 10 be com