The Anaconda standard. [volume] (Anaconda, Mont.) 1889-1970, 1893-06-10
SACRIFICED
Parsimony Costs a Score
of Lives.
The FLOORS GIVE WAY
Fofd's Thtatef Becomes tbs Grave Of
Many Clerks.
WAS KNOWN TO BE UNSAFE
Considered an Insecure Repository
OF Records. II Was the Scene Of
the Labor OF 500 Govern
ment Employees.
WAS KNOWN TO BE UNSAFE

WASHINGTON, Juno s.-Hundreds Q. Of
men were carried down by the falling
walls OF a building which was notoriously
insecure. Human lives were crushed out
by tons Of brick and iron and sent un-
heraldctl to the throne Of their Maker.
Men by the score were maimed and dis
figured for life. Happy families were
hurled into the depths Of despair, women
calling for their husbands, children call.
ing for their fathers, mothers calling for
their sons and not an answer to their
cries. This Is but shadow of tho awful
calamity that befei this city this morning.
Words cannot picture tho awfulncss of
the accident. Imagination stands back
and fails TO give any idea of the scene. Its
horrors will never bc fully told. Its sud.
denness was almost the chief horror. In
moment. in tho twinkling Of an eye, was
the change and men who came to tho
sceno of their daily toll will never return
alive. In the national capital of tho
proudest nation on earth, therc has been
a catastrophe unparalleled in tho annals
of its history, and in every mind there Is
the horrible conviction that its genesis 10
to be found in the criminal negligence of
a government too parsimonious to pro.
vide for the safety of its loyal servants by
erecting buildings proper for their accom-
mediation.
1t was between 9:3O 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 generals Office, fell in as
though they had been parts of . card
house. On each floor were scores of men
at work. Without warning they were car.
ried down as BY an awful cataract. The
floors were made up Of iron girders,
hardly strong enough to support tho walls,
but heavy enough to stamp out human
lives. Tho walls Of bricks were held to-
Gether by plaster, long since dried out,
and of wooden beams that had been In
place too long. There was no escape
from such food.
The government of great nation could
not afford to provide safe building for
its faithful employees, but herded them to-
gether in buildings whose unsound coudi-
tion was notorious. Again aud again have
the columns Of the press been filed with
the story of the rotten walls. There Is
shame and remorse on the souls of some
men who were responsible for the state Of
things that confined men working for
their daily bread In building that every
one in the city of Washington knew was
unsafe.
Twenty-eight years ago there was an
other tragedy within tho walls of this
building. The news Of It was flashed to
the four quarters of the earth, and Il
wrought CONSERVATION wherever il went.
| The man who was killed was the presi-
dent of the United States. As though the
building had borne curse upon Il from
that time, il ended its career in q fitting
manner. But how much botter Il would
have been IL tho government had re-
moved the structure years ago Those in
the multitude who could think of some.
thing beside catastrophe, remarked upon
tho strange coincidence that the building
in which John Wilkes Booth slew Prcsi
don't Lincoln should fall and kill scores
of people on the very day that tho body oi
the assassin's brother was being laid to
its final rest.
Evidence found in tho official records
appears conclusive that as long ago al
1885 this building, which the govern
ment purchased after the assassinatio ior
and used as an army museum, wal
officially proclaimed by congress an un
safe depository for even the inanimats
skeletons, mummiss and books of ths
army medical museum, for which safeI
place of storage was provided by congress
But notwithstanding the fact that In th,
public press and In congress also. contin
ued attention was called to the buleing o.
the walls of the building. its darkness ant
general unsuitabili,y and unsafety. it con
tinued to be used for the daily employ
mcnt of nearly 500 government employees
The buildings OF the printing Office ans
the Winder building annex Of tho war de
partment, each containing many NOR
employees than were Gagged In ford's thea
ter death trap, are in an equally danger
Gus condition.
While the work of rescue was going on
men who had been strangers to emotion
wept like children and turned away thei
faces as the limp and lifeless bodies O
those who had been crushed beneath tn
ruins were brought forth TO the sunshin
they could SEQ no more upon this cart
forever. Women were helped away in
faintinc condition, and in every heart wa
sorrow and in every eye stood tho mois'
uro Of grief.
CAUSE or TEE ACCIDENT.
Tho cause Of the collapse was suppose