The Valley Virginian. [volume] (Staunton, Va.) 1865-1895, 1893-06-15
TWENTY-FIVE KILLED.!
Awful Disaster in the Old Ford
Theater in Washington.
THE FLOORS GAVE WAY.
Nearly Two Hundred Clerks Went
Down in the Wreck.

! WASHINGTON, June 9.-At O'Clock
this morning the five hundred clerks Of
the record and pension division of the
office of the surgeon general of the Unit
ed States Army, quartered in the old
Ford's Theater building, on Tenth street
went to work at their desks as usual,
while down the basement number of
workmen, engaged in making an exca-
walton for an electric light plant, were
undermining the foundation of the
structure. Suddenly and without mo-
ment's warning, just as the work of the
day was getting under Roadway in the
rooms above. one of the supports of the
strengthening columbians in the build
ing was disturbed just enough to weak
en- it SO as to let the enormous weight
OF iron girders and brick archaed floors
above it fall in mass to the cellar
In the pile of debris that filled all the
lower part of the building lay one-third
OF the men who had been at work at
their desks few moments before To
night twenty-five of them are dead and
my llC Oh Deus OI pain.
The walls of the building stood appar-
emily as firm as ever, but inside every
thing was a complete wreck. Great iron
girders were twisted and broken as
though they had been reeds, and over
all lay great heaps of brick and mortar
while here and there mangled, bleed
ing human form could be seen, covered
with dust, and in many cases with the
face so bruised and filled with the frag
ments of brick and mortar as to be al
most unrecognizable Here and there
over the ruins could be heard the groans
OF men who were lying in the agony of
death, imprisoned by the weights on top
of them.
There was no delay in the work OF
rescuing the wounded and recovering
the bodies of the dead. Willing hands
of volunteers did the first work, and
they We're soon supplemented by the
trained work of firemen, policemen and
soldiers Ambulances carrying the
wounded alternated with the wagons
of undertakes carrying the dead to the
morgue, while there was a constant pro
cession of carts carrying away the brick
and morter that were carried out of the
building.
The president was informed of the sad
event just as he reached the entrance to
the White House by one of the clerks,
and he at once interested himself inrelief
measures.
The news of the accident spread rap
idly to every part of the city, and such
scenes of excitement followed as we have
not been witnessed here since President
Garfield was shot down by Guiteau. The
scene of the accident was quickly sur
rounded by a crowd that pressed hard
upon the ropes stretched by the police to
keep the street clear.
Mingled with the curious spectators
were relatives and friends of the clerks
who had been employed in the building.
They were women frantic with grief, and
when body would be brought from the
building they would press forward in
tent on seeing whether they could rec
ogniZe the features of husband, broth
er or father. In many instances they |
were so overcome by the heat rendering
scenes about them that they were sent
home by the police in carriages that
were kept waiting to carry off the more
slightly wounded.
There were several joyous meetings I
on the sidewalk opposite the building, |
when wives who feared their husband /
were among the ruins found they had |
escaped safely or with only slight inju-
ries
The responsibility for the accident
will by difficult to place. 1t is primari
ly, of course, the fault of Congress that
suitable quarters are not provided for
government employees and that build
ings unsuitable for such uses and sus>
pected of being unsafe, like the building
which fell to-day the government print
ing offie and the Windsor Building, oc-
cupied by the second auditors office,
are kept in USE
The work in the basement of the
under the direction of any officer of
the government with knowledge
of architecture. Colonel Ainsworth,
chief of the records and pension
division, had the building under his
immediate control. He is one of the
most competent officials in the govern
ment service, and he has made the rec>
ord and pension division the model for
efficiency and excellent work among all
offices in Washington. He is not an ar
chitect, however, but surgeon in the
army, and, though he had the work
excavating under his personal supervise
ion, and visited it last night to see that
nothing had been done to weaken the
foundations of the building, he could
not be expected to have sufficient knowl-
edge of such matters to: enable him to
pass upon the question of whether the
work being done was of such character
as to make the building unsafe
Both the coroner an the War Depart
ment will investigate the accident in all
its details and if the responsibility for.
this loss of life is not fixed steps may
O nSt hn lob will N |