New-York tribune. [volume] (New York [N.Y.]) 1866-1924, 1893-06-10
twenty 70 thirty persons at least. and inhlcted
malmngs and injuries upon fifty or sixty more.
TIE RUILpING KNOWN TO BE UNSAFE.

twenty TO thirty persons at least, and inflicted
maImngs and injuries upon fifty or sixty more.
THE BUILDING KNOWN TO BE UNSAFE.
The evidence as found In official records appears
conclusive that as long ago as 1889 tEis Duiulhg'
which the Government purchased after the assasSlha-
ton and used as an army museum, was oinciahs
proclaimed by Congress an unsafe deposi'ary ior
even the inanlmate skeletons, mummes and books
OF the army medical museum. for which SAFER
place OF storage was provided by Act OF Congress.
But Notwithstanding the fact that In tie pubic
press and In Congress Also continued attention was
called to the bullying walls OF the building ana It's
darkness and general unsuitabity and insecurity IT
continued TO be used for the daily employment Of
nearly 500 Government clerks of the pension record
division of the War Office.
With a refinement of discrimination, however, be-
tween what could be replaced and what could not
be so easily supplied while the clerks were trusted
in the unsafe building the original records were
retained in the substantial frcproof War Departme
Building So comforting official assurance Is given
that while thirty clerks may have been killed, the
pension records all saved and uninlured
The building collapsed in the midst OF an Ill
Judged effort to remedy Of its defects The
moral Of the disaster If there IS any, is emphasized
by the fact that there known to be at least two
great Government buildlngs-the Printing once ana
the winder Building annex OF the War Department
each containing many more employees than were
Gagged in the Fords Theatre deathtrap, which are
in an equally dangerous condition
THE VICTIMS HAD JUST GONE TO WORK
Tho hour Of the disaster was shortly after The
departments had settled down for the days WORK
The workmen whose operations under the building
were the immediate cause Of the catastrophe, had
been tnkering upon II for two hours or more Han
an hour earlier and few lives would have been lost
The building stood in feminist, northwest between
F. and F. sts and not far from Pennsylvaniaave
1t had been repaired, propped and renovated from
year TO year.
There were over 500 persons, mostly Government
clerks employed in the building but all OF these were
at work when the building fell. An excavation Tor
an electric light plant was being made In the cellar
of the structurc-a threcstory afair-and according
TO the best information obtanahe the workmen this
morning had dug beneath the foundation supports IN
the front Of the building. weakening them 10 such an
extent that the walls gave away before they could
he shored up This explanation Of the cause OF the
what strange in view Of the fact that the top floor
gave way first.
NO WARNING BEFORE THE CRASH.
Men who were In the building say that the crash
came without warning. Those on the top floor wers
suddenly precpitated TO the floor below, ard the
weight of falling timbers and furniture carried tho
second and first floors with It. Luckily only the
forward half OF the floors gave way. The outer
edges OF the floors and the part OF the structure
remained intact. The walls did not fall.
The news that the building had fallen spread with