The Big Stone Gap post. [volume] (Big Stone Gap, Wise County, Va.) 1892-1928, 1893-06-15
WHERE BOOTH KILLED LINCOLN
AN AWEUT. CALAMITY TAXES PLACE.
Ford's Old Thcater ColIapses-Ncarlyo 600
Government Employees Buried In the
Huins.-MOro than Twenty Dead
Bodies Taken Out-Scores Injured.

HuInR.-MO orc tBat twenty Dtdu
Bodies Taken Out-Scores Injured.
WAsHnGToS, ID. c., June AN
other tragedy less national in char
actcr, but involving the loss Of many
more lives and much more suffering,
has stained the walls ofthc old Ford s
Theatre in Washinton where Abra-
ham Lincoln was assassinatcd by j,
Wilkes Booth in April 1865. And
the horrors Of the scene were by no
means lesscned by the knowledge
that blundcr, surcl y in this case
more "worsc than a crime had
caused the death Of from twenty to
thirty rcrsons at thc least and inIlict-
ed nlaimings and injuries upon fifty
or sixty more. The evidence as
found in official records appears con-
elusive that as long ago as 1888 this
building which the government pur-
chased after Lincolns assassination
and used as an army museum, was
officially proclaimed by congress as
unsafe depository for even the mani
mate skeletons, mummies and books
OF the army medical museum for
which safer place of storage was
provided by act of congress. Bnt
notwithstanding the fact that in the
public press and i'll congress also con-
tnued attention was called to the
bullying walls of the building and its
darkness and general unsuitabiity
and unsalcty, it continued to be used
for the daily employment Of nearly
five hundred government clerks of the
pension record division Of the war
office
With a@rcGncmcnt of discrimina-
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
proper. SO the comforting official
assurance is given that while thirty
clerks mayhavc been killed, the pen
sion records are all saved and unin-
jurc,l. The building collapsed in the
midst Of an ll-jn,lged effort to RENE
dy some Of its pcfccts. The moral Of
the disaster. if there is any, is en-
phasized by the fact that there are
known to he at least two great gov
eminent buildings-tlle printing of
fee and the Winder building annex
Of the war department, each contain
ing many more employees than were
Gagged in Ford's Theatre death trap
which arc in an equal dangerous
condition.
The hour of the disaster was very
shortly after the department had set
tied down for tile days work. The
workmcn whose operations under the
building were the immediate cause of
the catastrophe had been tinkering
upon it for two hours or more. Hall
an hour earlier and few lives would
have been lost
:, FATAL EXCAvATloS.
There were 475 persons, mostly
yoverncmcnt clerks, en- plnycd in the
building nearly all of these were at
work when the building fell. The
excavation for an electric light plant
was being made in the cellar of the
structurc-a three story alialr-and
according to the best information OBJ
tainahlc. the workmcn this morning
had dug beneath the foundation snip
ports in front of the building, weak
eucd them to such an extent that the
walls gave way before they could be
lacked. This explanation OF the
cause for the accident is the only one
advanced. hut it seems somewhat
,trauoc in view of the fact that the
top floor gave way first. The men
who were in gthc building say that
the crash came without warning.
Those on the top floor were suddenly
prccipitate,l to the floor below and
the weight of the falling timbers and
furniture carried the first and second
floors with it. Fortunately only the
forward half of the floor gave way.
The outer edge of the floors and rear
part of the structure reWalncd IN
fart TLc walls did not fall