Goldsboro weekly argus. [volume] (Goldsboro, N.C.) 1885-1909, 1893-06-15
A TERRIBLE DISASTER.
The Collapse of a Government Build
ing in Washington.
Hope, Arkansas.

WASHINGTON, D, c., June o.
Another tragedy, less national in
character but involving the loss OF
many more liyes and much more
human suffering, has stained the
walls of the old Ford's Theatre.
Washington, where Abraham
Lincoln was assassinated by j.
Wilkes Booth in April, 1865, and
the horrors of the scene were by
no means lessened by the knowl-
edge that a blunder-surely in
this case almost "worse than crime"
had caused the death of from
twenty to thirty persons at least,
and inflicted Injuries upon fifty or
sixty more.
Evidene as found in the official
records appear conclusive that as
long ago as 1885 this building.
which the Government purchased
after Lincoln's assassination, and
used as an army museum, was Of
ficially proclaimed by Congress an
unsafe depository for even inani.
mate skeletons, mumnies and
books of the Army Medical Mus
scum, for which a safer place OF
storage was provided by act of
Congress. But Notwithstanding the
fact that in the public press, and
in Congress also, continued atten-
ton was called to the bulging walls
of the building, and its darkness
and observation-disclosures andun-
safetiness, ii continued to be used
for the daily employment of five
hundred clerks of the Pension Res
cord division of the War Office.
With refinement of discrimin a.
ton, however, between what could
be replaced and what could not
be SO easily supplied, while the
clerks were trusted in the unsafe
building, the original records were
retained in the substantial, fire.
proof War Department building
proper. So the comforting official
assurance is given that while thirty
clerks may have been killed, the
pension records are all saved and
uninjured. The building collapsed
in the midst of an illjudged effort
to remedy some of its defects.
The moral of the disaster-if
there is any-is emphasized by the
fact that there are known to be at
least two great Government build
ings-the printing Office and the
Winder building annex of the War
Department-each containing many
more employees than were Gagged in
the Ford's theatre death trap, which
are in an equally dangerous COM
dition. The hour of the disaster
was very shortly after the departs
ments had settled down for the
days work. Workmen whose ops
erations under the building were
the immediate cause of the catass
trophe, had been tinkering upon it
for two hours or more; half an
hour earlier and few lives would
have teen lost.
There were Ats persons, mostly
Government clerks, employed in
the building, and nearly all of these
were at work when the building
fell. Excavation for an electric
light plant was being made in the
cellar of the structure-a threes
story affair-and, according to the
best information obtainable, the
workmen this morning had dag
beneath the foundation supports in
front of the building, weakening
them to such an extent that the
walls gave way before they could
be lacked.
There were many very narrow
/ escapes from death. A number of
clerks whose desks rested directly
upon the line where the floors
broke away saved themselves, while
the desks at which they eat were
| precipitated down the awful chasm,
Others who were walking across the
| room heard the ominous sound and
stopped just at the very threshold
of DEATH
When the crash came those who
survived heard mighty scream OF
anguish from their comrades as
they sank out of sight, and then
! cropping in darkness. they found
their way to safety, trembling in
every joint with the palor of death
in their faces. No women were EN-.
ployed in the building, but in a few