The morning call., 1893-06-10

there was a change, and men who came to
the Scene of their daily toll will never re-
tdrD alive. In the national capital of the
i oudest nation of the earth there has
been a catastrophe unparalleled in the an
nails of its history. and in every mind
there is a horrible conviction that its
genesis is to be found in the criminal
negligence of a government too parsimoni-
Gus 10 provide for the safety of its loyal
servants by erecting buildings proper for
their accommodation.
1t was between $50 and 10 o'clock this
morning that the floors of the old Ford's
Theater building, on Tenth street. occu-
pied by the records and pension division of
the surgeon-generaPs 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 an awful cataract, and
the flond was made up of iron girders,
hardly strong enough 10 support walls but
heavy enough to stamp out human lives,
of bricks 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 a safe building for
its faithful employees, but herded them to-
gether in a building whose unsound condi-
tion was notorious. Again and again have
the columns of the press been filled with
the story of those rotten walls.
Twenty-eight 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 it
brought CONSERVATION wherever it went.
The man who was killed was the Presi-
dent of the United States. AS though the
building had borne curse upon it from
that time, it ended its career in fitting
manner. But how much better it would
have been if the Government had removed
the structure years ago.
Those in the multitude who could think
of something besides the catastrophe alone
remarked upon the strange coincidence
that the building in which John Wilkes
Booth slew President Lincoln should fall
and kill scores of people on the very day
that the body of the assassin's brother was
being laid to its final rest
Evidence found in the official records
appears conclusive that as long ago al 1885
this building, which the Government pur-
chased after the assassination and used as
an army museum, was officially pro-
cIa'med by Congress an unsafe depository
LOT even inanimate skeletons and mummies
and the books of the Army Medical Mu-
scum, for which a safer place of stowage
was provided by an act of Congress.
But, Notwithstanding tine fact that in the
public press and in Congress also con-
tinued attention was called to the weak
walls Of the building and its darkness and
general unsuitability and rnsafety. it con-
tinued to be.used for the daily employment
of nearly 500 clerks.
There are other unsafe building in Wash.
ington, notably the Government printing
Office and the Winder building annex to
the War Department. each sheitering more
human beings than were employed in the
Ford Theater death trap.
While the work of rescue was going on.
men who had long been strangers 10 emo
tion wept like children and turned awav
their faces as the limp and lifeless bodies
OF those who had been crushed beneath
the ruins were brought forth to the sun
shine they would see no more upon this
earth for ever. Women were helped away
iD fainting condition, and in eyery heart
was sOrrow and in every eye stood the
moisture of grief.