Rock Island daily Argus. (Rock Island, Ill.) 1886-1893, 1893-06-10
OVER ASCORE DEAD
Result Of the Frightful Disaster
at Washington.
FORD'S THEATRE FALLSTOPIECES
Four Hundred Clerks Caught in the
Collapse, wentyTwo Killed and
Forty-Five Wounded.

modelling of the Cellar the Cause of the
Catastrophe, Assisted by Somebody's
Blunder-Congress Charged with the
Primary ResponsibiIity-Iists of the
Killed and wounded-Scenes at the
Morgue-Relief Measures.
WASHINGTON, June 1O.-Another tragedy
less momentous in character but involving
the loss of many more lives and much more
human .sufferinG-has stained the walls of
the old Ford's theatre, Washington, where
Abraham Lincoln was assassinated by John
Wilkes Booth in April, 1866. 1t is a coin
cidence, also, which will go into history
that this second tragedy occurred on the
very day when the remains of the great
tragedian whose life was darkened by
his brothers crime that he never visited
Washington afterward were being laid to
rest in Mount Auburn cemetery, Massa-
chusetts, and also on the fateful Friday
The house in which Lincoln died on the
other side of the street from the theatre
where he was shot and which il still SEN
timentally kept intact rs il was that fatal
night, looked down upon a scene of agony,
excitement and grief which even the great
crime of 1865 could not parallel
4 Blunder Almost Worse Than Crime.
And the horrors of the scene were by no
means lessened by the knowledge that q
bunder, surely in this case almost worse
than a crime" had caused the death of
from twenty to thirty persons at the least,
and inflicted maininCs and injuries upon
fifty or sixty more. The evidence as fouDd
in official records appears conclusive that as
longiago as 1898 this building which the gov
ernment purchased after the assassination
and used as an army museum, was official
ly proclaimed by congress an unsafe de
pository for even the inanimate skeletons,
mummies and books of the army medical
museum, for which a safer place of storage
was provided by act of congress But not
withstanding the fact that in the public
press and in congress also continued atteD-
tion was called TO the bulging walls of the
building and its darkness and general un-
suitability and unsafety, it continued TO
be used for the daily employment Of nearly
so government clerks of the pension re
cord division of the war office.
Human Life Is Cheap, Anyhow.
With a refinement Of discrimination,
however, between what could be replaced
and what could not be so easily supplied,
while the clerks were trusted in the un-
safe building the original letters We're re-
tanned in the substantial t1re-proof war de
partnent building proper. So the com
forting official assurance is given that
while thirty clerks may have been killed
the pension records are all saved and I'M
injured The building collapsed in the
midst Of an ill-timed effort to remedy some
of its defects. The hour Of the disaster
was very shortly after the department had
settled down DO the days work The worn
men whose operations under the building
were the immediate cause Of the catastro
phe had been tinkering upon il for two
Haff an hxrl
few lives would have been lost
Th. Corpses Numbe- Twenty-fwo.
The last body has been recovered and the
list of dead numbers twenty-five. as fol
lows:
Unknown man, evidently a clerk: George
Allen. Pennsylvania George W. Arnold
Virginia; l. W. Boody, New York; Samuel
p Banes, Pennsylvania; John Bussius,
District of Columbia; Arthur l. Dietrich,
Kentucky; jeremiah Daley, Pennsylvania;
James r Pagan, Kansas: Joseph B. Gage,
Michigan; David c. Jordan, Missouri; NJ.
NJ Jarvis, Michigan; J. Boyd Jones Wis
consin; r. B. Lotus, New York; T. W.
NIaeder, -; b. +. Miller, New York;
Howard s Miller, Ohio;J IL McFall, Wis
consin; F. G. Shull, Kansas, William
Schreiver. Maryland; H. S Wood. --;
F. NJ. Williams, Wisconsin,; DR.. Mel
son, -.
Long Roll Of Wounded People.
The injured are: a. l. Anea. Iowa,
skull fractured, leg broken and injured in
ternally; F. p. Calvert, MAryland right leg
fractured; s. J. Dewes, New York; Louis
Dusapy -; George W. Davis, Missouri,
scalp wound; II. B. EsterlinG, Fort Scott,
Kan, seriously injured; Washington Fry,
-. head badly cut; W. 8. Gustin, Ohio,
left arm broken; DR.. James 81. Howard,
Maryland (colored), scalp cut, internal in
juries; c. F. Hathaway, Ohio; j. n. Ham
mer, Tennessee, injured in eye, George
Handy, - (colored}, slight cuts on head;
Thomas Hynes, Missouri, skull fractured;
J. G. Johns, =, leg badly cut; W. Kug-
ler New Jersey, scalp wound;
Clifton Lowe, Iowa, scalp wound; William
w Lecture, District Of Columbia: E. Leger,
Mississippi, head cut and injured inter
nally; Frank Metcalf, Massachusetts,, dis
location of hip; G. NJ. Mclaughlin, Ten
nessee; J. p Mccormack. Wisconsin. de-
pressed fracture of ribs; NJ. MoLachlan, beg
broken; r. NJ. Patrick. New York, cuts
about head and face; Police Officer Pody,
injured after accident; G. l. Pruitt, Texas,
scalp lacerated; p. K. Pennington, Ala
bama, skull fractured; Charles Robinson,
Colorado, slight injuries in head and back;
]. A Stewart, cut about head; F. Z. Sims,
-; c. ID. Shadbolt, Missouri (colored),
dangerously injured; r. B. Smith,
Tennessee; R. A. Smith, Connecticut,
compound fracture Of the skull; F.
F. Sans, Illinois, cut about the
head; william NJ Smith,-;P U. Sommers,
Ohio, ribs broken and head badlycut; John
II. Thomas, Sedalia, Mo, arm broken, T.
w. Test, Illinois, confusion Of scalp; C. R
Weller, scalp wound and confusion OF
back; N. T. Worley, Tennessee, back and
legs injured; James A White, Georgia,
cut on head and leg; A g. Yount, Penn
sylvania, head cut and injured internally;
n R1.oh Tp1{apa cheek hone