The weekly tribune. [volume] (Great Falls, Mont.) 1891-1894, 1893-06-16
AWFUL ACCIDENT.
FOrd's Theatre Building at Washing
ton Falls in With Frightful
Results.
The Full Extent of the Catastrophe i.
Not Yet KnOwn-Many Killed
and Injured.

mousse on lentn street In winch PreSl
s dent Lincoln was a~ssassinated has faller
in and about 400 government clerks WERE
n in the building at the time. Hundreds
of the men were carried down by the
Il falling walls of the building, which was
. VIGOROUSLY insecure. Human lives wert
crushed out by the tons of bricks and
iron and hurled to the throne of theil
Maker. Men by the score are manned
and distigured for life. Happy families
are thrown into the depths of despair.
: Women calling for their husbands, chill
5 dren calling for their fathers, mothers
) calling for their SOUS and no answer to
their cries. This Is but the shadow OF
the awful calamity that befell this city
/, this morning. Words cannot picture
the awfulness of the accident. Imagin-
alton stands back and fails to give any
idea of the scene. Its horrors will never
be fully told. Its sudlenness was al.
most its chief horror. In a moment. in
a twinkling of an eye was the change.
and men who came to the scene of their
daily toll will never return alive. In
the national capital of the proudest ni-
ton Of the earth there has been a cata.-
trophe unparalleled in the annals of its
history and in every mind there is hor-
ror at the conviction that its genesis is
to be found IN the criminal negligence
of a government too p%arsiminous to pro.
vide for the safety of its loyal servants
by erecting buildings proper for their
accommodation.
Vt was between 9:3O and 10 o'clock
this morning that the floors of the old
Ford theatre building on Tenth street.
occupied by the records and pension di-
vision of the surgeOn-general office, fell
IN as though they had been parts of "A
card house. On each tloor were scores
of men at work. Without warning they
were carried down as by al awful catar-
act. Inc floor WAS made up of iron
girders hardly strong enough TO support
the walls. but heavy enough to stamp
out human lives. Walls of bricks, held
together by plaster, long since dried out
and of wooden beams that had been in
place too long.
Twenty-eighi years ago there was an
other tragedy within the walls of this
building, News of 1t was flashed to the
four quarters of the earth and it wrought
CONSERVATION wherever it went. The
ma who was killed was the president
of the United States, and as though the
building had borne a curse from that
time 1T ended its career in a fitting man
ner. 1t was in this building that John
Wilkes Booth slew PRECEDENT Lincoln.
The evidence found in the official record
appears conclusive that as long ago as
1889 this building, which the govern
ment purchased after the assassination
and used as an army museum, was off
cially proclaimed unsafe.
While the work of rescue was gong
on. men who had been strangers to
emotion, wept like children and turned
away their faces as the limp and ~lifeless
bodies of those who had been crushed
beneath the ruins we're brought forth
to the sunshine. Women were helped
away in IA f%aintIng condition and IN
every heart was sorrow and in every eye
stood the moisture of grief.
Mr.. S. Dana Lincoln, who occupied a
room in the Atlantic building, facing the
rear of the theatre building, gives this
account of the scene: lie was sitting at
his desk at the time of the giving away
OF the floors of the building. He heard
a noise as though of the rumbling of
bricks in the alley. He looked out of
his office window and saw clouds of dust
arising to the top of the building. I'm
medlately at every wIndaw dozens of
heads protruded wildly calling for as
sistance. 1t seemed 10 or ID minutes
before the hremen appeared with lad
ders which we're Immediately run up to
the windows. In reality the time was
only a few moments. The iircmen
rescued all those who did not escape by
jumping from the windows. The last
taken out Of the building alive was
Capt. Dowd of Indiana. lie was found
near the southwest corner of the build
ing covered to a depth of two or three
feet with brick and mortar. He laid
there for three hours. but a falling beam
had lodged near him in such a manner
as to break the fall of brick and timbers.
and when lifted up he raised his hand,
showing he was conscious. When he
was lifted into the Garfield hospital am !
bulance the crowd saw he was alive and
cheered him again and again.
Ambulances were kept busy carrying
away the dead and injured. The faces
OF many of the victims were covered
with pieces of cloth, old coats, newspa.
pers or whatever else could be had.
'oomc Vi tHe ndnGleu bodies were car
ried ont with their faces exposed to the !
gaze OF the great throngs surrounding ,
the building. In many cases all sem !
blance to humanity was gone. 1t seemed !
as enough the helpers we're carrying out {
mere bags of matter smeared ali over !
with blood. The hospitals were soon .
Drug stores were turn. !
into temporary hospitals and =;
people in the n~eighborhood of !
the accident opened their doors !
gladly and the dead and wounded we're /,
hurried in. When the accident was over !
before the rescuers could get inside
to their relief there were injured men
who were caring for their worse injured {
brothers. There were men who did not
for the street to save their own {
lives regardless of the fact that more !
walls might fall and bury them. They ]
'taid to succor the men who did not get |
away by themselves, and ore man whose ]
arm was crushed used the other arm to |
irag a man from the place OF death. Y
Every moment there was exposed a mutt |
ated form. Some revived sufficiently TO \
leed but little assistance TO reach, the 7