The morning news. [volume] (Savannah, Ga.) 1887-1900, 1893-06-16
FALL OF FORD'S THEATER.
Testimony Makes 1t Look Bad for
the Contractor.

over the Ford's theater disaster begun
this morning. The proceedings were de-
void of a sensational character, the evil
dence being directed exclusively to ascer-
talnment of the cause of the buildings
collapse. Col. Ainsworth addressed
letter to Coroner Patterson to-day, COM
planning that the jury were preiudiced
against him by the testimony of dis
affected clerks and riotous proceedings of
the previous illegal inquiry, and urging
his right to be present by counsel and
cross-examine witnesses. Coroner Pat
terson refused the request. Expert testi-
mony as to the building was taken up to
the recess Mt l 30 o'clock.
Col. Ainsworth's attorney was in the
hall this morning a few minutes before
the inquest began, but he withdrew be-
fore Coroner Patterson raped the jury
to order, District Attorney Thomas sat
with the coroner, and a police lieutenant
was present with squad of police, but
there was no call for their services to-day
The same jury was summoned that took
part in the interrupted proceedings, and
they went to GlenwOOd cemetery and
viewed the body of Frederick p LOTUS,
one of the victims, which lies in the re-
cely1ng vault there.
A BUILDERS VIEWS.
One of the witnesses was James T..
Parsons, a building contractor. He had
examined the building with a view to
bidding on the contract. His bid was not
accepted. He had examined the building
as the work progressed, and since the
disaster and had considered the building
safe before the excavation. but he saw no
evidence of snoring up. His opinion was
that the work was unsafe without shor-
ing.
Building Inspector Entwisle testified
that he had examined the wreck and saw
no evidence of snoring. He was asked if
the work in progress at the building
when it collapsed could have been done
safely without snoring, and he replied
emphatically: "No, sir" His idea would
have been to shore up and take the
weight off of every column.
"Would you have undertaken the work
without shoring," asked the district at
torney, ...--.,.,....
"No, sir, and in my opinion, that was
the cause of the disaster Architect
Clark of the capitol gave his opinion that
the building was safe before the excavat-
ing began and he concurred with Messrs.
Parsons and Entwisle that the work
should not have been undertaken without
snoring. In reply to questions by Juror
Warner, Mr.. Entwisle said that United
States buildings in the District of Colum-
bia were exclusively under the control of
the United States government but it did
not appear to have any official to look
after them.
THE MAN WHO DREW TEE PLANS.
Francis Sasse, engineer of the old thea
ter building, said he made the specifica-
tions for the electric light plant. He was
a mechanical steam engineer. He had
built an archway and 7-room dwelling
but had had no other experience in build
ings No one had told him how to draw
the plans and specifications. He was not
an architect, but had graduated from a
archaeological school where architecture
was in the course of studies. The
theater building was not lighted
well, and it was decided by
Col, Ainsworth to put in an electric
plant So he drew up plans and specitica-
tions last fall and gave them to Col.
Ainsworth. Col Ainsworth did not
know he had drawn them until they were
submitted to him. He had drawn them
up in order to save time in explaining the
character of the work to the contractors
who might bid Some of the bids sub
mitted were as low as 5000, but after
careful inquiry it was decided that Mr..
Dant, who was awarded the contract,
was the lowest responsible bidder. His
bid was something more than 5000.
VISITED IT EVERY DAY.
Col. Aiusworth visited the building
nearly every day, sometimes in company
with Capt. Thorpe. So far as he knew
there was no superintendent of the work
The witness looked at the excavation
every day, but saw no signs of snoring.
The specifications seemed to
be all right. The contractors
evidently thought so and Col
Ainsworth was pleased Cross-examined
the witness said he considered himself
competent, as mechanical engineer, to
draw the plans, but did not consider him
self competent to say how the work
should be doue.
Juror Hanvey showed some impatience
with the witness at this point Mr. Han
vey is builder and contractor. 'Do you
mean to say" he asked "that you con-
sidered yourself competent to draw the
plans for the work when YOU did not
know how it should be donel"
Eyes" answered Mr.. Sasse
"You never knew how it was to be
done2"
would be in charge of the work would
know that"
'Did you ever see any underpinning?'
''Never."
''How did you know the work would be
safelp
'"The expert was to determine that"
THE WITNESS RATIFIED.
Pressed to tell the names of some of the
contractors who told him the work was
safe. the witness said he could not remem-
Der any one of them, because they had
seen the plans last fall at a time when he
saw so or 100 men a day. The witness
was pressed by Juror Hanvey to tell by
whom he was directed to show
the plans for the electric
lighting plant to the prospective
bidders, and finally lost his temper after
declaring that it was either by Col. Aims
worth, Capt Thorpe, chief of the contract
division of the war department, or Mr..
Covert, superintendent of the theater
building, his superior officers
When examined by Attorney Thomas,
MIR. Sasse said he did not consider him
self competent man to superintend the
work He relied on the competency of
Mr.. Dant the contractor. He felt no
danger He was in the excavation few
minutes before the floors fell
THE COPY OF TIE SPECIFICATIONS.
James H. Dony, compositor who set
the original text of the specifications for
the electric lighting plant, was called to
identify the handwriting in which the
specifications were written. He said he
thought half of them were type-written
and the rest in Col. Ainsworth's hand
writing This witness promised to in