The Seattle post-intelligencer. [volume] (Seattle, Wash. Terr. [Wash.]) 1888-1914, 1893-06-10
HUNDREDS BURIED IN THE RUINS.
Twenty Men Killed and Forty Injured
By Falling Brick and Beams,
There Were Five Hundred Govern~e>s
xmployes In the Death rrap when
1es Rossea Fousdations Gave Wsy-
AiSacsious xscapes and Awful
sceaes-Aasy Dead Battered Beyond
1eeegnitien.

WASHINGTON CIrY. June a-Hundreds
OF men we're carried down hv the falling
walls Of building today which was noto-
riously insecure. Human lives were
crushed out by tons Of brick and iron and
sent unheralded to the throne of their
Maker. Men by the score we're manned
ana dishgared for life. Happy families
were hurried into the depths Of despair.
Women are calling for their husbands,
entdren are calling for their fathers and
mothers are calling for their sons, and not
an answer comes to their cries. This 10
but the shadow Of the calamity that beieli
TINS city this morning. Words cannot
picture the awfulness Of the accident. Tho
imagination stands back and fails to give
any idea Of the scene. Its horrors will
never be fully told. Its suddennesss was
almost the chief horror. In . moment. in
the twinkiing Of an eye, there was a
change, and men who came 10 the scene of
their daily toll will never return alive. In
the capital of the prondest nation on earth
there has been catastrophe UNPARALLELED
In the annals Of its history, and i'm every
mind there - . horrible conviction that
ats genesis is to be found in the criminal
negligence Of government too parsimo-
NOUS to provide for the safety OF its loyal
servants BY erecting buildings proper for
their accommodation.
1t was between $50 and 10 O'Clock this
morning that the floors of old Ford's thea
ter building on Tenth street, occupied by
the records and pension division of the
surgeon generals Office, fell in ~ though
they had been parts Of card house. On
each floor were scores Of men a, work.
without warning they were carried down
as by IN awful cataract. The floor WAS
made up Of iron girdcrs. hardly strong
enough to support the walls, but
heavy enough to stamp out human
lives. The walls of bricks were
held together by plaster that had long
since dried out and Of wooden beams that
had been In place too long. There was no
escape from such food. The government
OF great nation could not afford to pro-
vide safe building for Its faithful en-
pioyes, but herded them together In a
building where the unsound condition was
notorious. Again and again have the
columns OF the press been filled with the
story vi the rotten wallis. There il shams
and remorse on the souls of some men
who were responsible for the state Of
things that tcon6ned man workinR for their
daily bread in building that every one In
the city OF Washington knew was unsafe.
Twenty-eight years ago there was an
other tragedy within the walls of this
building. The news Of IL was flashed to
the four quarters Of the earth, and it
wrought CONSERVATION wherever it went,
The man who was killed there was pres.
ident OF tho United States. As though
the building had borne q curse upon il
from that time, II ended its career in q
fitting manner. But how much better IL
would have been II the government had
removed the structure years ago. Those
in the multitude who could think of
something beside the catastrophe re-
marked upon the strange coincidence that
the building In which John Wilkes Booth
slew President Lincoln should fall and kill
scores Of people on the day that the body
Of the assassin's brother was being laid to
its final rest. From evidence found in the
official records it appears conclusive that
as long ago as 1855 this building, which
the government purchased after the assas-
s'nation and used a. an army museum.
was officially proclaimed an unsafe de.
pository for even inanimate skeletons.
mummies and books Of the army medical
museum. for which . safe place Of stor-
age was provided by an act of congress.
But notwithstanding the fact that in the
public press and in congress also. con-
tinued attention was called TO the bulging
walls Of the building. its darkness and
general unsuitability and unsafcty IL con.
tinued to be used for the daily employ ment
of nearly 500 government employees. The
printing Office building and the Winder
building. an annex of the war department.,
each containing many more employees
than were Gagged in Ford's theater DEATH
trap, are in an equally dangerous condi-
ton. While the work Of rescue was going
on men who had been strangers 10 emo
ton wept like children and turned away
their faces ay the limp and lifeiess bodies
of those who had been crushed beneath
the ruins were brought forth TO the sun
shine they could see no more upon this
earth forever. Women were helped away
in . fa.nting condition and in every heart
was sorrow and in every eye stood moist
ure.
President Cleveland was informed Of the
sad event just NJ he reached the entrance
TO the White House. by one Of the clerks,
and at once interested himself in relief
measures, learning with satisfaction what
had been done by Assistant Secretary Of
War Grant.