Idaho County free press. [volume] (Grangeville, Idaho Territory) 1886-current, 1893-06-16
SWEPT DOWN TO DEATH
An Inflated Building at Washington
CollapSes With Awful Results,
BURYIHG HUNDREDS In The RUINS
Four Hundred Government Clerks Go Down
With the Building, Many Of Whom
Are Taken Out Dead.

VhshlNSIoN, ~. W., Ouho ~ viz .
Opera House, on Tenth street, in which
President Lincoln vas assassinated. col
lapsed today. There were over four
hundred government clerks in the build
ing at the time. The floors Of the build
ing we're loaded With pension records Of
the war department. The clerks en-
ployed we're all men. The first floor
collapsed through weakness caused by
excavating q cellar, and in its fall carried
down three floors and with them hun
dreds OF clerks. The dead and wounded
are being taken out rapidly by fremen
and police. It is feared hundred peo-
pie have been killed.
The scenes accompanying the collapse
were terrible. Some juml ed from the
third floor and scarcely one escaped more
or less injury. Twenty-eight were taken
from the ruins up to 1918 a. m. The
Emergency hospital is crowded with
dead and injured. The injuries, from
the very nature Of the affair, are very
severe, many being Crushed and sus-
tanning broken limbs and internal in
juries.
Thousands surrounded the scepe and
the excitement has spread all over the
city.
Eight dead bodies have just been
taken out of the ruins unidentified.
At 10 80, a. m. it is feared there are
still eighty bodies in the ruins.
At 10 AS another man was taken cut
dead. Howard s. Miller, Of Ohio, clerk
in the bureau, and an unknown man
have Just been brought to the Emergency
Hospital dead.
HOO A. M--The remains OF young
man, not yet identified, has just been
placed in the morgue at the Emergency
Hospital This makes the number OF
known dead to the present time IL, and
there are believed +. be fully seventy
five still in the ruins.
The bodies OF H. s. Woods, and clerk
named Jarvis have been taken from
the ruins. There were AIS clerks in the
building.
1902. Mt will probably be two
or three hours before the mass Of debris
can all be cleared away and the exact
number OF those who went down in the
crash known. No doubt several bodies
are still in the ruins. When the crael
came there were supposed to be in tbt
building 1876 clerks, Is messengers, ant
20 laborers, 534 in all. Up to this hou
sixteen bodies have reached the morgue
The walls are still standing, but ever.
floor is down and every window blown
out. The building has been condemned
as unsafe for some time, but sentimen
kept it unchanged.
200 p. M.-The number of dead iron
all sources reported at this time is q
Four others are rpoerted dead, but til
bodies are not at the morgue or the hot
pitfalls. The names OF the 40 injured hav
been secured, but this is probably nc
nearly correct, AZ many were sent dire(
to their homes.
CAUSE OF THE DISASTER.
The cause of the. collapse is suppose
to have been due to digging under til
foundation, for the purpose of putting
an electric plant, but as near as can /
sscertained, the top floor gave way fir
carrying the others down with it. Fo
tunately the entire building did not co
, lapse, as in that case the loss of Ii
! would have been much greater. As
; WAS, only the front part went down, lea
ing more than half of the floor space il
tact. Because of this many lives we
saved. Some clerks sitting at their desl
, we're left sitting on the brink while desl
, at which they sat went down. The p
9 lice and soldiers who were ordered to Il
q scene by General Schofeld, kept Il
t crowds back so there WAS no inlerru
4 ton to the work of rescue. One of Il
: first victims found was George NJ. A
e mold (colored), clerk from West Vi
' ginia, who jumped from the third sto
It window and was dashed to death in Il
alley where Wilkes Booth has his hor
e tied on the night he assassinsted Ii
l. coin.
l. A COINCIDENCE.
q The building has been used numb
g of years ae a part of the Office of the ct
d veyor general. A strange coincidence
: that the building should collapse on Il
d day Edwin Booth, brother OF the NJ,
d who assassinated Lincoln, was buried