St. Paul daily globe. [volume] (Saint Paul, Minn.) 1884-1896, 1884-07-26
ST. Paul, NEWS.
FATAL FALL.
Through a Skylight of the Capitol
Fifty Feet to Tiled
Floor.
The Young Son of Louis E. White, the Vic
tim of State Stinginess.

A frightful accident, involving instant
death, occurred at the state capitol at twelve
minutes to 2 O'Clock yesterday afternoon,
which sent chill of horror through the veins
of all within that structure and who were
cognizant of the same.
It has been the custom of the janitor to al
low grown up visitors, of which there are
quite a number daily, the privilege of the key
to the tower staircase, to obtain view of the
city therefrom. Such was the number of
these on Thursday and Friday that it was i'm
possible to attend to them individually, and
the tower was left open for them to ascend
and descend at will.
At about half past one yesterday gentle
man by the name of F. W. Greet. temporarily
stopping at the Windsor hotel, on arriving
at the first landing or story of the tower OBJ
served fourteen-year old boy setting on the
stool of one of the windows therein, and all
though thinking it strange that the lad should
be there alone passed on up, and to the sum-
nit. A short time afterwards " heavy crash
of glass was heard in the building and Mr..
Griswold of the state auditors departm ent
while ascending to the second story of the
building heard sickening thud upon the
Eesselated pavement, and in moment more
picked up the dead body of this boy who had
fallen fifty feet through the skylight leading
from the center of the upper hall into the
dome, crushing the upper part Of his head
into a shapeless mass, breaking in the ribs
on one side of his body and fracturing his
arm, while terrible look of fear was set
upon his lifeless face
An examination showed that the poor lad
had crawled under the insufficient single
rail guarding these twenty or less large panes
of common colored glass, hardly one-six-
teeDth of an inch in thickness, set in wooden
frames of one and two panes each. That on
these panes or squares writers of mature age
had with their fingers or canes written in the
dust accumulated thereon since the structure
was built, their names and residence unit
there was hardly a space left thereon in the
twenty feet which these frames occupied for
another name to be inscribed. That the
poor little fellow was stretching his body out
over one Of these panes on the north
side to write his name when he
slipped forward a little too far with the right
little, insufficient dome cap and with the
weight Of his whole body upon it in a bent
position precipitated him headlong to in
slant death, as if he had been diving
through it, This position, when he went
through the single pane of glass, was shown
from the fact that where he struck the tiled
flooring beneath he was fully six feet south
of the opening above.
The body was without breath or pulsation
when Mr.. Grswold reached it, and Geo. R.
Morton, the capitol engineer, with others,
removed it to one of the committee rooms
off of Representatives hall, and dispatched
Officer Schwezer for Coroner Quinn. On
his arrival quite number of the boys in the
street were summoned in to see if they
could recognize the deceased. One or two
of them thought they had played ball with
him but did not know his name. In one of
his pockets was found the following receipt
inside of which was a piece of newspaper
containing a few fish hooks.
June 10, 1884.
VIM. Hagg: Bought of Corner Bros, wood
and coal dealers, 173 West Third and corner
Of Seventh and Exchange streets, slabs,
$3.50.
Officer Schweizer was Immediately dis
patched to the wood and coal Office for infor-
nation and was directed to VIM Hagg's
residence on University avenue, near the
street railway stables. He found the family
but they knew nothing about the boy or how
he came by the receipt and their own and
only boy, about five years of age, was at
home.
Coroner Quinn then ordered the remains
be conveyed to the undertaking rooms Of n.
& IN
LITIGATION and care, which was accordingly
done, and up to six O'Clock in the afternoon
they had not been recognized.
The lad was from thirteen to fourteen years
of age, to all appearances, quite fleshy for his
age, with black hair and full and fair face.
He was dressed in gray sailor jacket black
knee pants and had on no shoes or stockings
while his feet did not seem to indicate that
he was accustomed to 90 barefoot. He had
on black felt SLOUGH hat and a pretty red
and blue silk necktie
This is the second person killed in the
dome of the state house, the other being a
workman named Davis, who fell through it
to the basement when the edifce was being
constructed.
There was much indignation expressed by
the occupants of the state house that such a
fearful death trap so insufficently guarded.
should exist on the premises. They said
that this dome glass should have been an
inch thick at least and set solidly in frame
with latticed iron railing about it. This
miserably thin and rotten window glass,
and colored at that to further
deceive as to its strength,
vas in keeping with other looseness exhib-
tied in the plan and construction of the
structure, and the name of the architect was
not shared in this connection
Coroner Quinn said he did not know
whether to hold an inquest or not, as the
cause of the death was so evident, but GER
tainly should not until every means had
been taken to discover the lads name and
parentage.
THE BODY RECOGNIZED.
The identity of the boy was established at
about 80 last evening by his father, Louis
E. White, bookkeeper for the C. N. Nelson
Lumber Co., with two ladies of the family
calling at N. Gross s. Co.'S undertaking
rooms and recognizing him as his son. Harry
White. AT 9 O'Clock Messrs. Quimby s. Alb
bott, undertakers, corner of Third and Min
Aesota streets, presented an order from Mr..
White to N. Gross & Co. for the body, and
1t was delivered to them and
taken to the rooms of the former.
Mr.. White lives at 513 Wabashaw
street In DR.. Boardman's house, directly op-
posite the capitol, and the mother of the lad
is lying dangerously i'll at the family resi-
dence. DR.. Quinn was notified of the iden-
tiication of the body and its removal, but
made no arrangements for an inquest as he
stated in the afternoon that the cause and
manner of the death was so palpably acct
dental as not to neeessitate such. Mr.
White is brother-in-law of John B. Brisbin,
Esq. 1t is understood the funeral viii take
place tomorrow forenoon.