San Antonio daily light. [volume] (San Antonio, Tex.) 1886-1907, 1893-06-09
PHIL
ANOTHER HORROR.
T HE OLD FORD'S THEATRE
BUILDING AT WASHINGTON
Tumbles In Upon 500 Clerks and
Many of Them Killed and
Wounded.

old opera house on Tenth street, in
which President Lincoln was as
sassinated, collapsed about ten
o'clock this morning. The building
pension department and war rec
is used at present for "RecOrds" of
Ords department, and over four
hundred clerks were in the build
ing when it fell. The news of the
disaster spread rapidly and
in a short time thousands of eX-
cited people surrounded the scene.
A few minutes after the accident
one of the workmen, cOlOred man,
who was employed in eXcavating
in the cellar, and who escaped with
only slight cuts, said, 81 told them
yesterday that the archway would
fall, for every time any one
walked over the. floor it would
bend. | was scared and got out,
just as quick as | could. There
were twenty men at work with me,
deed | don't know what become of
them. Every hospital in the city
has now been called into requisi-
ton to care for the wounded. AS
soon as possible the complete ros-
ter of clerks in the building will be
sent with names of dead and in
jured as far as ascertained. The
building was four stories in height;
lst floor collapsed carrying other
three with it, scenes more terrible,
some clerks jumped from Bird floor
clerks dashing themselves to death
on the tlag-stOnes below. The walls
are still standing, but every floor
is down, and every window blown
out. The building has been con-
demned as unsafe and unsuitable
for the purpose for which it was
occupied, for some time, but senti-
timent has kept it unchanged. The
floors were heavily loaded with
records of the pensions division OF
the war department. The clerks
employed there were all men. Soon
after the accident, Gen. SchOtield
ordered two troops of cavalry from
Fort Meyer, just across the river,
and two companies of infantry
from the arsenal to the scene of
disaster. The Secretary of the
Navy also ordered out all the naval
and medical officers stationed here
and also opened the naval hospital
to receive the injured, and the
commandment at the navy yard was
ordered to render all assistance in
his power. The strange COinci-
dence is that the old theatre is
wrecked on the day of the funeral
of Edwin Booth, the brother of
John Wilkes Booth. Up to lO:l5
o'clock 5S persons had been
taken out of the ruins. Every
hospital here is crowded with
dead and injured. Injuries from
the nature of the accident are o.
the severest character. Crushed
and broken limbs and internal in
juries, prevailing.
At $3.50, another dead body was
recovered, Howard S. Miller, of
Ohio, who was a clerk in the
Bureau, and an unknown man, hOr-
ribly mangled, have just been
brought to Emergency hospital,
dead. A partial list of the injured
at the Emergency Hospital is as
follows: Fred Calvert, c. Metcalf
S. ID. Dewy, WA. Lecluere, F. n.
Test, p. P. Kughler, Pennington
Ambsy, C. r. Miller, c. F. Hatha-
way, r. NJ. Patrick, j. A. Stewart,
f. F. Simms, Louis Dusapy, G. n.
Mclaughlin. 1t is feared there
are still eighty bodies under the
ruins.
At IL o'clock the remains OF a
young man not yet identified have
been placed in the morgue at the
Emergency hospital. This makes
the number ascertained to be dead
up to the present time eleven,
but every minutes delay in
removing those buried under the
ruins increases the probabilities OF
fatal results. There are believed
to be fully sixty clerks still in the
ruins. The most heroic efforts are
being made by the firemen and
police to reach them. The cavalry
have just gone to the scene to clear
the streets. Corrected accounts
as to the cause of the accident, are
now partially Obtainable. EXca-
yations which were the immediate
cause Of the collapse, were being
Of y