Daily Texarkana Democrat., 1893-06-10
APPALLING DISASTER.
Collapse Of the Old Ford Theatre
Building at Washington.

creased until the result stands out to
appall the stoutest heart and make the
bravest spirit quail at the sight of its
threatening numbers and fearful ex-
tent. But the end is not yet, already
the wires are quivering with the news
of terrible disaster in the very heart
of the nations Capitol City, The old
Ford theatre building, a mammoth
structure, without a moments warn
ing, collapsed, falling with crash that
startled thousands of hearers, and
bearing down to death beneath the
crushing weight of its falling walls
more than a score of the hundreds of
its human occupants What pen
could depict the real horrors of this
most terrible catastrophe or follow to
its far reaching extent the flood of
misery which has thus been turned
iOobO w uiOWu IuC hOIIONluS uVdItS
of so many once happy families in its
cruel depths. The terrible details of
the disaster was first flashed abroad
from Washington at noon yesterday
and are given, in the main, as follows:
Other cities have felt the visitations
of awful calamities. They have been
swept by fire and deluged by flood
and plaques have decimated their
communities In the national capital
of the proudest nation of the earth
there has been a catastrophe unparal-
leled in the annals Of its history, and
in every mind there is a horrible con-
viction that its genesis is to be found
in the criminal negligence of a gov
ernment too parsimonious to provide
for safety of its loyal servants by pro-
tecting its property for their accom-
modatien.
1t was at 10 o'clock yesterday, Fri
day, morning that the floors Of the
cid Ford theatre building, on Tenth
street, occupied by the Records and
Pension division Of the Surgeon-Gen-
erals Office, fell in, as though they had
been the cards of card house. On
each floor there were scores of men at
work. Without warning they were
carried down, as by one awful cata-
ract.'
The floors rested upon iron girders,
hardly strong enough to support the
walls alone, but strong enough, as has
been terribly demonstrated, to crush
out the life from scores Of human
bodies.
Notwithstanding the fact that in
the public press and in Congress, also,
continued attention has been called to
the bulging walls of the building and
its darkness and general unsuitability
and unsafety, it continued to be used
for the daily employment of nearly
five hundred Government clerks of
the Pension Record Division OF the
War Office. The building collapsed
in the midst of an illjudged effort to
remedy some of its defects.
In this, as in almost every other dis
aster, there can be found a moral,
which in the present instance is en-
phasized by the fact that there are
known to be at least two great Gov
ernment buildings--the printing Office
and the Windsor building, annex Of
the War Department, each containing
many more employees than were Gagged
in Ford's Theatre building-in an
equally dangerous condition.
TO enter into fuller or more de-
tailed description of the awful affair
would place the article beyond the
limits Of our space. The scenes at the
ruins in Washington while the dead
and mangled bodies Of the victims
were being removed from the debris
defes description. Mothers, fathers,
sisters, brothers, sweethearts and
friends stood by the scene, each nerve
of their trembling, terror-stricken
bodies quivering with agony, and
their haggard faces turned toward
the spot from whence those MANNED
and lifeless bodies were each moment
appearing. The number of killed and
injured persons reaches seventy five,
in all. The following is list Of those
killed outright:
George Allen, Pennsylvania.
George w. Arnold, Virginia.
j. w. Boody, New York.
Samuel d. Aarnes, Pennsylvania.
John Bussius, District Of Columbia.
Arthur l.. DIETRICH, Kentucky.
Jeremiah Daley, Pennsylvania
James II. Pagan, Kansas.
Josiah b. Gage, Michigan.
David G. Jordan, Missouri
M. NJ. Jarvis, Michigan.
j. Boyd Jones, Wisconsin.
II. b. Lotus, New York.
+. w. Maeder.
4, N HE.tia. Nr.., Xn,l,