, 1870-05-02
WASHlN e10M.
The Great Accident at Richmond.
Scenes and "Reminiscences.
A Talk with a Spcctu1or.
{ FnoA oUR OWN coanEsPospEsr.1

Of ViTginia, Was made vivid to me to-day by
friend who left the city yesterday evening, an
Witnessed the bringing out OF the dead an
i mangled. As it is probable that THE Tn1pus
was not represented there, otherwise than b
tho general news agent, I may be able to sur
| ply some Impressions and circumstances Of th
unexpected casualty.
| THE AccDEET-
Ely informant had been present in the cour,
room few moments before the accident, an
WAS converting with two gentlemen under
shade tree near the Capitol, when suddenly
hollow crash, like short thunder clap, cam
from the Capitol. and Immediately cloud o
dust poured from the open windows. Befor
he could suggest a cause, or do more thai
sta1t, mingled scream md yell fell upon tn
| air; raised again and again, and finally resolv
ing into a confused, intermittent and yariet
series Of noises Of pain, much Of which, say,
| my informant, resembled the noise o.
negro worship in tho feryent climaxet
OF prayer. In few minutes people
raisod tho windows of the upper story,
and cried for help, while others came out o1
portions of the building not included in the
disaster, and the deep window Lodges wero seen
crowded With nervous people, who had oppor-
timely 1eaped into them when The gallery gayo
the f1st symptcms OF giving way. These wero
left high and dry, without means of getting up
and down, and they were nearly stidod with
dust and pa1alszed or frantic with fca1. In IN
incooceivab1e space Of time the loiteress, boys
and negroes OF the place rushcd into the large
monument, and tho trees; nud the
people outside. mary OF whom had
relatives, children, and friends with
in, mado rs much meaning, hal1ooing and
impotent appealing as the sufferers. The
fro alarm WIS sounded, and the euginea, some
of which have houses on the Capitol Squire,
were soon Oh the ground, many of the dremen
eupposing temporarily that the bnilding was
On fire. Tho police, also, who hare bean so
long sqrsbblng NTH each other, and on SC
count Of wno-e rival masters this pressure and
calamity had CONC, fastened to the sccue and
restored ce.tain amount Of order. Some
people appeared on the roof Of the Capitol,
where the Confederate national flag
had been hoistcd every morning for
three ye,rs, and the steps, secesses,
and climbing projections Of the old rec
tangu1ar edifice we're covered with hpu,ane,
inquisit1ye, o. escaping people, many Of the
latter class getting ont from The crush, and
having bloody, bl1iscd, or blaekened faces,
torn garments, and limp limbs Such OF these
as could tell anything were eagerly surrounded
and intetrogated as to the scene and person-
alities within, and most Of them described The
place from which they hadescapeda as slaugh-
ter pen-black and white, young and helpless,
slipping, bleeding, fighting together for air
1ias 4;v@n y, ~; IA
a circle round the Capitol, and the hook and
l.lder companies planted their ladders against
the upper and lower tier Of windows, and Pre-
pared to descend On the other eide. While
these intense scenes we're being enacted
against the profile and surface OF The Capitol,
nearly the whole population Of Richmond WAS
pouring into the gates, filing the squire, and
climbing On the nelghboring housetops and
churches. The old war-battered town, 30 fs-
miliar with soldiers executions, With hospital
ssenes, and proxiuAte bloody battles, was now
as much interested and excited a. il this were
the first spectacle Of human misery ever Wit
messed there. The joy OF all waa that there
we're no women in the courtroom, nor in the
delegatea' chamber below, for tho business
above stairB h1d been Of dry partisan nature,
- struggle between two gangs Of small
oficc-hunters; and below stairs the
Walker party had met IN Caucus to review the
recent fusion Of all the Republican elements.
But amongst the people in both chambers
were many known to all: Docock, Governor
Walker, Chandler, the United States District
when JEFF. D-vis Mas released;
Ne"s. ex-governor; both contesting Mayors,
a rebel Gere era! or Two, and the politicians and
lawyers OF both sides. F;2a1ly, thoas who
could take advantage OF 1alders, hooks, ropes,
planks. and helping lands we're eeen escaping
by Tie windows and doors, and those who
could not move we're ho.sted out BY an inn
proyised block and tickle. dropped from tho
ceiling of the wrecked cou1S 1oom. This por-
ton OF the scene paESook Of the hot.or Of the
gal,ows and tho ave together: As many OF the
crushed aud 1;-aber bodies were put on the
backs Of fremen and c-i. led down the lAdde1s
in the full a;sht OF t':e appalled, multitude
Then. over every separate victim the screams
and exclamatiors Of f1ienda followed, with the
wild, irrational crowd surgiug up at a turn to
see it's portion Of the ho,4iblc- It Was long
after noon before the lsst Of the bloody work
was finished, and then the few spectators priv
legged to peep into the wrecked chambers saw
square llbbish hole, full Of plaster, spIin-
tered p1anks and posts, desks, benches, books,
Elaes, gas fixtures, pieces of garments, shoes,
lhtu. beams aud din. One end Of the intel1or
OF the Cspitol editice hid been gutted out ss
If br an explosion. Large pieces Of ceiling and
laih had been shaken ffom above BY con-
cussion. The ma=ks and some joists Of the
foor, which had fallen under tho weight and
relociir of the falling gallery, were defined
against the side walls, but the greater eoHow
had now departed to the private homes, hoteis,
and police stations, where they had borne the
dead. Tho 1e3t was revealed in fast-hying
doctors gigs and eaddle-horses, in the groups
at corners aud around the hotels and news
paper offices, and in the locked gates Of the
green aquare on Shockoe Hill, where the bare,
d,ney, st2rieg Capitol edince stood deserted.
With people peering through the gates, Guard-
ed by policemen
The calamity was Of such Wholesale proper
tons and such indisc.1minate injnEy,-spaIing
neither Rebel no- Radical, that, beyond
general expression o. disgust at local politics,
nobody Was brut21 enough to rejoice over any
partisan enemys affection On tAe CONTRARY,
the bar-rooms, stores, and factories stopped
work without consultation, and, when my in
fo1mant left the city, the same evening, he
says that every face looked hopeless aod
gloomy as the jews in Jerusalem
OF cAIAM1T1Es In RICHMOND
The present accident, in the number and
character Of victims, recalls to mind another
terrible catastrophe, which took plaeo within
few yards Of the State Capitol All
OF your readers who went to Sunday
School twenty-five years aso remember the
warning tracts directed against theatre-going,
ut tho head Of which was tho pint Of burn
ing theatre. This referred to the complete
destruction OF the Richmond play y-houHe in the
wear 1911, and it was remarked on Wednesday,
aftcr the State House floors fell in, that many
people crowded the steps Of the Memorial OF
Moaument Chp.ch, which is built upon tho
site of the fire, to see the buried and dead
pcopIo come from the Capitol. Another tract
against going into politics is imperatively de-
mandcd.
At the burning Of the theatre. Geo. II.
Smith, Governor, perished; also A. B.
veuable, the solitary Bank President Of
the place, ard about sixty others. Probably
no sccopds1, city in America has had two
snch Similarly wholesale and unantiapated ao-
cidcnts.
from the battle of Bull Run, in the latter
part of July, 1eG1 when Richmond was for the
first time termed into rocking hospital, uat1
the present accident, there has been one long
succession OF horrors enacted in its stroeta-
Every successive campaign filed tho place with
misery. Speeches. rebels, dying on the
st1etchera aud carts that fetchcd them home,
prisons full Of the agony Of delay and starva-
ton, the file OF soldiers aiming at some de-
serter seated on his coffin, or the gibbet and its
gaming patrons, the thunder Of great guns in
II - ,.,1,.~},a 4ha rn1Ti1r fra tar;no M