The Helena independent. [volume] (Helena, Mont.) 1875-1943, 1891-05-31
THE FLOORS WERE UNSAFE
Vice. President Morton Having Hard
Luck With His Big Shore
ham Hotel.
Unsubstantial Features Revealed
by an Examination of the
Building.
An Illustration of Reckless, but Selfish
Management In the Printing
N~urcau--TwO Books.
An IIlus

WARRINGTON, May 30.--Vice President Nor
ton IN having hard luck with his Shoreham
hotel, the floors of which were fortunately
discovered to be unsafe, by an accident,
before n more serious occurrence provoked
the indignation Of the public. The build
ing WAS erected by New York builders at
great cost, and with no restrictions, it 10
understood, to prevent tho production of
one of the most perfect buildings in this
city. But the builders seem to have put
the floor timbers in according to a system
of their own,r requiring a packing of ashes
and other refuse, mixed with cement, and
these timbers turn ont upon examination
to have been affected by n sort of dry rot
that renders every floor in the older part of
the Shoreham hotel absolutely unsafe to
occupants of the structure. 10:
e The inspector of buildings has made a re-
port Intended to reassure future patrons Of
the place that it will be safe to trust to its
security after certain repairs have been
completed. When the plan of repairs was
announced it included the replacing of the
floors of the stairway landings. An in
spection OF the interior, which has been
cleared OF occupants, shows that all of the
floorings have been found to be affected
very much, az were those of the landings of
the stairways, and timber after timber, put
in green and since dry-rotted, has been
taken out to be replaced by new ones. The
floor of the fine dining hall. 100 feet by 80
at least, in which the guests of the house
sat at meals all through the winter, has
been taken up n is being replaced; but,
strangely enough. timbers that are so soft
and ''punky'' as to be friable between the
fingers, are being left in place and made to
support the ceiling as they stand, suggest
ing a condition of danger ahead that may
prove to be very serious when the Did tim
bers have dry rotted a little more, under
the influence exerted by the patent filling
that seems to have Slapped the life out OF
the wood employed in the original construc-
ton. n
The timbers first used appear to be very
light for a building of such large size and
pretensions, and to a person unacquainted
with the resisting powers of timbers, they
look al if they were insufficient to carry the
burden imposed upon them. It is due to
the public That may be in danger from a
too tender treatment of this matter to de-
clare that tho work of repair on the Shore
ham should not 20 on in a way to permit
the possibility of q calamity in 1t as the re-
suit of neglect to supply floor supports
equal to any strain that the beams may be
subjected to-. In appearance the hotel
building ia admirable. The wonder ia that
it did not become the scene of a disaster
SURPRISING anything that has befallen ocou-
pants of Buddensiek houses in the city of
New York.
An illustration of the reckless and unwiss
method of printing public documents in
practice under the government came to no.
tice this week: A clergyman of New York
Marriage n Divorce" sent to the bureau
of labor for a copy of the report prepared
in 1889 by Mr.. Carroll D.. Wright. The
labor bureau reported that there was not a
copy of the work to be had in that bureau.
He also reported that there are on file
many applications from clergymen and
lawyers for the work, which Is the most
complete one on the subject that has ever
been prepared in the United States or in
any other country.
q resolution OF congress, and was sent to
the senate, that body adopted q resolution
for its publication, but it did not get
through the house of representatives.
The labor bureau printed a small
was soon exhausted. The work is one
that would scarcely be profitable for any
private firm to undertake to print and put
on the market, being much in the nature Of
census statistics, and it is one that the gov
eminent could much more properly pub
lish at the expense of the taxpayers thar
the elaborate volume on Diseases of the
Horse" which is now in competition with
the works of ~farriers that are published by
firm employing the most accomplished
veterinary surgeons of the country. The
reason for the preferment of the horse book
is plain. 1t is gorgeous in illustration, big,
useful to "a great many farmers who would
rather get such a book for nothing than pay
six to ten dollars for it, and for the man
who wants to get back to congress it is a
large and excellent thing to have on q
farmer' desk to remind the horny-handed
agriculturist of the obligation be is under
to the representative of his district.