Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1893-06-21


sHocK-GETTING THE RECORDS INTO SHAPE.
The clerks in the record and pension division
of the surgeon generals office have been in pos
session of their new quarters in the city post
Office building since last Friday; that is to say.
as many Of them escaped with life and limb
from the downfall of their old Office in the Ford's
Theater building. They are already beginning
to feel quite at home in their new rooms and
are getting down to work again in a most satis-
factory manner.
There are still eighty-two of the clerks who
are absent from their desks as q result of the
injuries they sustained in the catastrophe. Not
all Of these. of course arc seriously injured.
Many Of them received only scratches and q
general shake up, but their nerves were all un-
strung by what they saw and experienced, and
in many cases Chief Clerk Brown has directed
them to stay away until they shall have fully
recovered from the effects of the shock. A
plumber Of the clerks who are able to be about
have reported for duty, but have not bean put
to work yet.
THE NEW QUARTERS.
The rooms occupied now by this bureau are
on the fifth and sixth floors Of the post Office
building, on street between 9Th and 7th
streets The entire floors have been taken for
the purpose and are admirably suited to the
needs Of the Office. There is an immense
amount of floor space in the building as these
two top floors have not been cut up into rooms.
They are we'll lighted and the many big win
dows give sweep Of air across the
floors that make them almost cool
even at this time and temperature. The
clerks are all immensely pleased with their
new quarters, which are a great Improvement
over anything they have ever had before in
this Office. The ventilation is excellent. there
| it is not necessary for many Of them to work
by gaslight, as was the case in the
old building. There has been no lease or
rental made of these quarters, for there
is no appropriation available for this pur
pose. The owners OF the building offered the
| two floors to the record and pension division
until some permanent provision is made for its
| accommodation, with the expectation that
when Congress meets again it will look upon
TIE case rs one Of emergency and necessity
and will make suitable appropriation for
their remuneration. The building is so well
located and adapted to the requirements Of the
Office that it is more than probable that an ef-
fort will be made to have 1t permanently
located there.
GETTING THE RECORDS INTO SHAPE.
The scene presented at the office these days
is a busy one indeed. On the fifth floor about
$50 clerks have been put to work sorting and
getting in order the records and papers that
were saved from the ruins of the old building.
Many of these were in first-rate condition, while
others will have TO be copied over again. Mr..
o. e. Brown, the chief clerk of the office. told
STAR reporter this morning that the final loss
in the way of records would be very small in
deed The work just now is one of getting order
out OF an immense amount of chaos. The
papers are all dumped on tables and as many
lav art oil NJ. ua md fha fahl
are at work arranging and sorting. The REQ
ords are sorted first by regiments and then by
companies. In this way it is possible to zee
just what Is missing, for the clerks COM
pare them to see if they have the rolls
from which the cards were made In case
| they cannot find these muster rolls they send
to the second auditors office. where dupli-
Gates were kept. The indexes of the
office were all saved, and these show Just what
papers were in the possession of the Office at
the time of the fall. This morning the dupli-
cate muster rolls were sent for from the main
Office of the division in the War, State and Navy
building to further facilitate the work. Every
possible paper, no matter how torn and dirty
was saved from the ruins and have all been
! carefully preserved. In course OF time they
will all be gone over. for there is no telling but
that some little soied scrap may be almost the
| only record of soldiers service during the
war.
ABOUT 200 CLERKS AT WORK.
| About 200 clerks are at work today on the
sixth floor, although accommodations are there
for 2S5. Many of these were busy at their desks
today. Many others were reading the papers
and taking their ease, an unusual sight
| in this division. The reason for this
state of things was tina. there was not
enough work for them all to do. This will
not last long, however. As fast as the
work being done on the floor below is COM
| p!eted it is sent upstairs for issue. and this
morning about fifty clerks were put to the reg
ular work of copying. This number will be in
creased from day to day until the muster rolls
have all been put in shape again. This, Mr..
Brown thinks, will all be done in the course of
a fortnigh: or three weeks
| The clerks have by no means got over the
scare they had on that fatal Friday. Many of
| them. Elen who were never known to worry be-
FORE have expressed some little apprehension
at going to work 80 high up in the air. They
would prefer to be little nearer to the ground.
AT any sudden noise they jump and start as
though they didn't know what was going to
happen next. 1t will be a long time before
they got thoroughly over their nervousness
They never will forget what they went through
that day.
|