The Indiana State sentinel. [volume] (Indianapolis) 1868-1895, 1893-06-14

WASHINGTON, June 9.-Hundreds oil
men carried down by the falling walls OF
a building which was VIGOROUSLY inse-
cure. Human lives crushed out by tons
of brick and iron and sent unheralded 10
the throne of their Maker. Men by the
score manned aud disfgured for life
Happy families hurled into the depths Of
despair; women calling for their husbands;
children calling for their fathers; mothers
calling for their sons; not an answer to
crv. This is but a shadow OF the awful
calamity that beiell this citv this morning.
Words cannot picture the awfulness OF the
accident. The imagination stands back
and fails TO give any idea OF the scene.
Its horrors will never be fully told. It's
suddenness was almost the chief terror.
In a moment, in the twinkling of an eye,
was a change. and the men who came to
the scene of daily toll this morning will
never return alive. Women who kissed
their loved ones this morning as they
separated will have but the cold. bruised
faces to kiss tonight. 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 CAPT.
tai, of the proudest nation of the earth,
there has beena catastrophe unparalleled
in the annals of its history, and in every
mind there is the horrible conviction that
it's genesis is 10 be found in the criminal
negligence of government too psrsimon-
ious to provide for the safety of its loyal
servants by protecting its property for
their accom- odation.
Collapse Which Caused Death.
1t was between $50 and 10 o'clock this
morning, that the floors of the old Ford
theater building on feminist, occupied by
the records and pension division of the
surgeon-generaps office, fell in as though
they had been the cards of a card house.
On each floor there were scores OF men at
work. Without warning they were car
ried down as by an awful cataract. The
food was made up Of iron gTders hardly
strong enough to support the walls, but
heavy enough, heaven knows, TO stamp
out human lives OF bricks that were held
together by plaster long since, dried out
of wooden beams that had been in place
too long. There was no escape from
such food.
The government of a great nation could
not afford to provide safe building for
its faithful employees, but herded them to-
Rether in = building whose unsound con-
dition was notorious. Again and again
have the columns OF the press been filled
with the story OF tho rotten walls.
There Is shame and remorse on
the souls of some men who
were responsible for the state of
things that confined men who were
working for their daily bread in a build
ing that everyone in the city of Washing
ton knew was unsafe. Twenty-eight years
ago there was another tragedy within the
walls of this building The news OF il
vas flashed to the four quarters of the
earth and brought CONSERVATION wherever
1t went. The man who was killed was the
president of the United States. As though
the building had borne curse upon il
from that time il ended its career in a
fitting wey. But how much better IL would
have been II the government would have
moved the structure years ago.
strange Coincidence.
Those in the multitude who could think
OF something beside 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 essassln's brother
was being laid 10 it's final rest. There was
no connection between the events, but
the superstitiOus shuddered and the
strong minded commented.
The evidence as found in official records
appears conclusive that as long ago as 1855
this building which the government pur-
chased after the assassination and ueed az
an army museum, was officially proclaimed
by congress az en- unsafe depository for
even the inanimate skeletons, mummies
aud books Of the army medical museum,
for which safer place Of storage was pro-
vlded by tho act Of congress But not
withdrawing the fact that in the public
press and in congress also continued atten-
ton was called 20 the bullying walls of the
building and darkness and its general IN
suitability and unsaiety, il continued TO
be used for the daily employment OF
nearly five hundred government clerks OF
the pension record division of the war
Office.
a Moral To the Disaster.
The building collapsed in the midst oil
an ill-judged effort to remedy some Of its