The Indianapolis journal. [volume] (Indianapolis [Ind.]) 1867-1904, 1893-06-10
Building Pronounced Unsafe Many Years Ago
--its Collapse Due to on Excavation That
Undermined the Old Foundations.
CALAMITY AT THE CAPITAL.

Hundreds of Men Carried Down by Falling
Floors IN q Rotten Government Building.
WASHINGTON, June 9.-Hundreds of men
carried down by the falling floors of q
building which was notoriously insecure;
human lives crushed out by tons OF brick
and iron and sent unheralded to the throne
of their Maker: men by the score manned
and disfgured for life; happy families
hurled into the depths of despair; women
calling for their husbands children calling
for their fathers; mothers calling for their
sons; not an answer to q cry. This is but .
shadow of the calamity that befell this
city this morning. Words cannot picture
the swfnlness of the accident. Its horrors
will never be fully told. It's suddenness
was almost the chief terror. In o
moment, in the twinkling of an eye. was o
change. and the men who came TO the scene
of daily toll this morning will never return
alive. Women who kissed their loved ones
thismorning as they separated Will have but
the cold. bruised faces to kiss tonight.
Othey cities have felt the visitations of
oalamities They have been swept by fire
end deluged by flood, and plaques have
tiOnal capital of the proudest nation Of the
earth. there has been o catastrophe un-
paralleled in the annals Of it's hlstory. and
in every mind there Is the horrible convic-
tion that its genesis is to be found In the
criminal negligence of government too
parsimoniOus TO provide for the safety of
its loyal servants BY protecting it's prop
ersy for their accommodation.
1t was between 9:30 and 10 o'clock this
morning that the floors of the old Ford
Theater building. onirenth street, occupied
by tho records aud pension division of the
Surgeon generals Office. fell in, az though
they had been the cards of q cardhouse.
On each floor there were scores of men at
work. Without warning they were carried
down. as by an awful cataract. The food
was made up of iron girders, hardly strong
enough to support the walls, but heavy
enough. heaven knows. to stamp ont human
lives, of bricks that were held together
by plaster long since dried out of wooden
beams that had been In place too long.
There was no escape from such flood
The government of a great nation could
not afford to provide safe building for its
faithful employees. but herded them to-
gether in q building whose unsound condi-
tion was notorious. Again and again have
the columns of the press been filled with
the story of the rotten walls. There is q
shame and remorse on the souls of some
men who were responsible for the state Of
things that confined men who were work
ing for their daily bread in q building that
everyone in the CITY of Washington knew
was unsafe.
Twenty-eighs years ago there was an
other tragedy within the walls of this
building. The news of it was flashed to
the four quarters of the earth and brought
CONSERVATION wherever it went. The man
who was killed was the President of the
United States. AS though the building had
borne a curse upon it from that time 1t
ended its career In fitting way. But how
much better il would have been if the gov
ernment would have moved the structure
years ago. Those in the multitude who
could think of something beside the
catastrophe alone. remarked upon the
strange coincidence that the building in
which John Wilkes Booth slew Abraham
Lincoln should fall and kill scores of people
on the very day that the body Of the assas-
sins brother was being laid to Its final rest.
There was no connection between the
events. but the superstitious shuddered
and the stroD G. minded commented.
The evidence. as found IN official records,
appears conclusive that as long ago As 1885
this building. which the government pur-
chased after the assassination and used as
an army museum. was officially prociai med
by Con gress as an unsafe depository for even
the lnsnImate skeletons, mummies and
bo oks of the army medical museum. for
which safer place of storage was provid-
ed by act of Congress. But notwithstand.
ing the fact that In the public press and
in Congress. also, continued attention was
called to the bulRing walls of the building, q,
Its darkness aud its general unsuitability
and unsafery. it continued To be used for
the daily employ ment of nearly five hun
dred government clerks of the pension
record division of the War Office.
The building collapsed In the midst OF
an ill-judged effort to remedy some of its
defects. The moral of the disaster Is en-
phasized by the fact that there are known
TO be ct least two great government build
ings-the Printing Office aud the Winder
building annex of the War Department
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