St. Paul daily globe. [volume] (Saint Paul, Minn.) 1884-1896, 1893-06-10


men carried down by the FILLING walls
of building which was notoriously III |
secure Human lives crushed out by
tons of bricks and iron, and sent un-
heralded to the, throne of their Maker! !
Men by the score manned and disfigured
for life! Happy families hurled into
the depths OF despair; woman calling
for their husbands; children calling for
their fathers; mothers calling for their
sons; not an answer to their cry. This
is but a shadow of the awful calamity
that befelI this city this morning. Words
cannot picture the awfulnesS of the ac-
cident. The Imagination stands back
and fails to give any idea of the scene.
Its horrors will never be fully told.
Its suddenness was almost the chief
horror In moment, in the twinckling
OF an eye, there was a change, and men
who came to the scene of their 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 Wis
itation of awful calamities. They have
been swept by hre and deluged by flood,
and plaques have decimated their COM
munities. In the national capital of the
proudest nation of the earth there has
been
A Catastrophe Unparalleled
in the annals of its history, and in every
mind there is the horrible conviction
that it's genesis is to be found IN the
criminal negligence of government too
parsimonious to provide for the safety
of its loyal servants by erecting build
ings proper tor their accommodation.
1t was between $50 and 10 o'clock
this morning that the floors OF the old
Ford theater building on Tenth street,
occupied by the records and pension
division of the surgeon generals 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. The
floor was made up of iron girders 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 loug since dried
out: of wooden beams that had been in
place too long. There was no escape
from such flood.
The government Of great nation
could not afford to provide a safe build
ing for its faithful employees, but herded
them together in a building whose un-
sound condition was notorious. Again
and 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 we're
responsible for the state of thugs that
confined men who were working for
their daily bread in a building that
every one IN the city of Washington
knew was unsafe.
Twenty eight years ago there was
another 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 president 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
wears ago. Those i'll 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 PreSi-
dent Lincoln should fall and kill scores
OF people OH the very day that the body
of the assassin's brother was being laid
to its final rest There was no conncc-
tion between the events, but the super
stitious shuddered and the strong
minded commented.
The evidence as found in official rec
ords appears conclusive that as long ago
as 1885 this building, which the govern
ment purchased after the assassination
and used as an army museum. was Of
ficialy proclaimed by congress
An UnsaTc Depository
ior even the inanimate skeletons, mum
mics and books of the army medical
museum for which safer place Of stoT-
age was provided by act Of congress
But, Notwithstanding the fact that il
the public press and in congress also
continued attention was called to the
bulging walls of the building and it:
darkness and general unsuitaoility and
unsafety, it continued to be used tol
daily employment OF aeaEiy 500 govern