The Wheeling daily register. [volume] (Wheeling, W. Va.) 1864-1878, 1870-04-30

he said, Il am dying. Tell my poor
wife how much ] loved her, and thought
of her in my last moments.
kilograms of sympathy and onerihS
aid for the afflicted are coming from all
parts of the country. \ citizen OF New
York has given authority to "a gentle
man here To draw on him for SlOOo.
An experienced architect who has
viewed the plan of the capitol building,
saws the girder which gave way was
COMPOSED of two pieces of wood bolted
together, making when combined an
area OF thirteen by twenty inches. 1t
was formerly supported by columns,
which were subsequently removed to
improve the appearance OF the Hall OF
Delegates In the centre of the glrder
was a mortice. which reduced the avail
able strength To nine and a half by
twenty inches. The fatal error was in
making interchanges without examin-
ing the girders with reference to their
capacity TO endure thenew strain placed
upon them.
RICHMOND, April rs, Evening.-There
have been about twenty-five additional
funerals this evening. Hearses could
not be obtained for all OF them, and
furniture wagons appropriately draPed
had to be used The funeral of John
NJ Turner, page III the House OF Del
egates, was attended by the General AS
sembly in body. The pages Of the
House acted as pail bearers, and the
scene was very affecting.
Major Calvert, late State Treasurer,
makes the following statement: ' was
in the clerks office under the gallery.
looking through window in the court
room. Standing bv my side were
Maury, Roberts and Baldwin. was
nearest the door leading ont. \ friend
started to come III. He remarked, i
will stay here, it's much safer outside
than inside. He went outside the
door. and had hardly disappeared when
the crash came tugged TO get near
the door, and had almost made my e.
cape, when | was borne down int" dark
ness below. | hardly remember any
thing but Il confused din OF voices ana
falling timbers. found myself entirely
covered. Nv left side seemed nearly
crushed but my right arm was free,
and with this removed the rubbish
from about my head. and wa- enabled
to breathe little. | WAS released in
about thrccquartcrs of an hour. Ny
lett leg wa. badly broken, and lett side
bruised
At a meeting tonight it was resolved
that the 18th of May be observed rs a
day of humiliation and prayer and re-
liginus services. The streets tonight
a,e as still as Sunday. Active meas
ures are on foot for the relief Of the
destitute families. The Dispatch, State
Journal and other newspaper offices are
hung in mourning The flags on the
Capitol, custom house and public build
ings and vessels in port are displayed at
half mast Railroad trains coming
into the city are covered with en-
blems Of mourning. At all funerals the
old organizations 10 which the deceasd
were attached turned out AT one of
them the State Grand Division Of Sons
of Temperance followed the corpse to
the cemetery Governor Walker re-
ceived a telegram announcing that the
Illinois Constitutional Convention had
adopted resolutions Of regret at the
calamity. a reply was sent, thanking
Illinois on behalf of Virginia. The
citizens of Fredericksburg closed busi-
ness. and the town bells were tOlled all
dav. The merchants are arranging TO
raise funds for the sufferers.
HORRIBLE DEATH
The most terrible feature about this
whole affair is the heart-rending manner
of death in the majority OF instances.
Many OF the dead, when brought out,
were found to be without serious bodily
injury. but had evidently died from
suffocation. The mere contemplation
Of such thing is sickening. Hard, in.
deed, was the fate of those who had
ESCAPED death from the falling timber
in the end to die from the untold agonles
of sufi0cation.
AN OLD RELIC.
Ii VIC NAV be pardoned for any con
sidcration of loss other than that of
human life, we will mention the smash
up of an old and much honored relic
of by-gone days, the Speaker chair OF
the House of Delegates, which was
formerly used in the House Of Eurges-
ses decosated with the royal arms Of
Great Britain. 1t was subsequently
moved here from williamsburg. and
has been used in the House of Dele
catos ever since. 1t was buried and
broken in the ruins ST yesterday.
HOW HUNDREDS ESCAPED.
Had the catastrophe occurred ten
minutes earlier possibly half the mem
beers of the House of Delegates would
have been killed by the falling OF the
mass upon them. for a caucus of the
great majority of the body had adj
iourned probably not ten minutes before
the occurrence: or had the hour for the
meeting of the court been II instead Of
IL clock, like destruction OF life
would have taken place, for the Legis-
!ature would then nave been III SESSION.
THE THEORY OF THE ACCIDENT.
From conversations with several
who were in the court room at the time
of the fall we learn the following a. the
true theory of the accident: The large
girdcr which was under the partition
between the clerks office aud the court
room snapped in twain and immediate
" afterwards the floor commenced to
cave. The support Of the crowded gal
lery having given away, the gallery
parted from the wall and fell over into
the centre of the court room, crushing
through the floor and precipitating the
mass of human beings and rubbish into
the hall below. We examined the
p 4 II =. 1 a