Rock Island daily Argus. (Rock Island, Ill.) 1886-1893, 1892-04-28
SOME MORE HAVOC.
Kansas Zephyr Loose on the
Fair Site.
LIBERAL ARTS BUILDING WRECKED


High Blown Down, and Three Men
Cost Perhaps $4,000 to Repair-The
Wind Frolics Around the Thirty-Acre
Floor of the Building and Leaves a
Pile of Bricks.
CHICAGO, April 2s.-During gale that
swept through jackson park yesterday
afternoon sections of the south and west
walls of the manufactures and liberal arts
building of the Worlds fair were wrecked.
This is the biggest building on the
grounds. One tornado followed another.
About 1:30 p. m. the first one hit the big
building at the southeast corner, and tore
out 100 feet of the latticed wood work
that serves as wall Three men were
injured in the wreck. They were: Charles
Sundow, spinal injuries, will recover; A.
johnson, both ankles sprained; w. B.
johnson, flesh wound in the leg.
Work of the First BIask.
While the men were at work on the
building they heard loud crash, and
looking toward the south end of the
building they saw the walls totter
and tumble in on the floor. The wind was
Between the southeast corner of the build
ing and the center pavilion about 800 feet
of the wall was up to the height of sixty
feet. The tornado cut out 100 feet of this
wall and hurled the timbers in tangled
mass upon the floor. Here was where the
men were hurt. Contractor Agnew order
ed his men to brace the weaker section
of the building, but before the order could
ha ,aI hn yo1a
through the park,
Crash Went the Wall
1t seemed to describe circle across the
thirty-ac floor and strike the extreme
northwest corner of the building. One Of
the heavy wall piers at the very corner of
the building snapped. 1t plunged toward
the center of the wall, and as it fell with
roar carried down the next pier south of
1t. The whole wall crumb ed, falling
down by piers and trusses like so many
blocks in row. In an instant the entire
section, 700 feet long and 66 feet high, was
piled in wreck ON the floor.
Estimates of the Damages.
The two sections of the building that
were wrecked were about 800 feet long
and sixty feet high. This included the
outer walls, the inside gallery piers and
the galleries themselves. The estimates
of the extent of the damage vary widely
Contractor Agnew would put no figure on
the loss himself. One of his subordinates
said the damage would be $4,000. An
other put the figures at $1,000 General
Superintendent Dion Geraldine, who is in
charge of operations at jackson park for
the Exposition company, says that s., 600
or y, 500 will repair the damage.
Description of thu Building.
The manufactures building faces along
the lake for LOO feet Its width is near
800 feet. At either corner is tower taller
by thirty or forty feet than the sixty-six-
foot cornice line Half way down the long
east and west sides are other towers taller
than those at the corners. There
are two principal sections of the
interior of the building. The
grand central court, arched over by the
great dome that is to be, is 361 feet wide
and 1,400 feet long, is the greater of
these two sections. The other is at the
outer rim of the floor. This rim is $50 odd
feet wide. Over it will be the roof of a
minor arch. The building, when COM
pleted, will be the largest structure ever
used for exposition purposes.
Could Not Have Been Averted.
Mr.. Geraldine said that the accident was
one that could not have been avertel by
any precaution the contractor might have
taken. 1.-THE building was simply ex-
posed in its weakest condition to a greater
strain than it will probably he called upon
to bear any time after it is finished"