St. Paul daily globe. [volume] (Saint Paul, Minn.) 1884-1896, 1893-06-27
Masses Of Falling Stone From
the Building the Fatal
Instrument.
Both the Bodies Mangled and
Crushed Into Masses
Of Pulp.
The Coroner Will Probably
Make a Searching Inves-
tigation.

Just as the evening papers were going
to press yesterday afternoon at O'Clock
and the crowds on the street were the
thickest, there was heard a warning cry,
followed Immediately by the sound of
falling masonry and the shriekS OF q
man in his death agony.
The crowd stopped. Across the street
from the journal and Tribune offices
cloud of dust and crumbled plaster filled
the air, and as the wind swept it away,
the forms of two men could be seen on,
the ground and under the broken masses
of stone. One of them could be seen
to move his limbs feebly, but the
other lay quietly. Over the brown stone
and pieces of cement and mortar were
spattered the ltfe-blood and brains of
the dead man, while the crimson fluid
from the wounds of the other ran in a
CHASTITY rivUlet TO join the little puddle
of blood which was forming in the open
doorway Of the new building OF the
Nicollet National bank.
Portions of the cornice in course of
construction, and which had almost
been completed. bad fallen from the
top of the building to the street and
struck the heads of two WOrkmen be-
low Robert Burns and Louis Johnson.
Johnson was instantly killed, but Burns
was still breathing when tender hands
picked him up and carried him to a
sheltered place, 10 wHere the patrol
wagon was soon dispatched.
The remains of JohnsJ were at'once
taken to COnnolly's morg.ic, and the
still living body of Burns was takeh'On
a run TO the city hospital. He died
shortly after reaching there.
Immediately after the accident
large crowd had congregated In the
street and on the sidewalk. Everyone
was making inquiries as to how the ac-
cident had occurred, and many express
Sions of anger as to the apparent neg
ligence which had led to The fatality
were heard.
The falling work was the first part OF
the underworld of the cOrnlce. This was
so far progressed that Oh Saturday the
first of it had been put in place, begin
ming with the underleaf. The front
consists of facing of the brown stone,
which is fiat dressed. The cornice is OF
the same, made up of a plain ashley
and square shaped corbells and other
trimmings, There had been flushed so
tar in the day, nearly one complete layer
of the cornice, or the underleaf of it,
and the corbells were set nearly across
the layer.
On the top of the wall doing this work
was j. K. Turner, a stonemason who
resides at No. IL Sixth street south, and
two bricklayers. The men Burns and
johnson were OH the ground directly
underneath the work which Turner and
hi icfa nfc nrIp w 'Ettr
ner who saw the work commence to fall
and who gave the useless warning cry.
Turner said of the calamity:
'Ai | know is that as / was putting
stone in is place, holding it down with
my foot. felt it give way, and saw all
of the rest of the cornlce courses going
down. Then / gave the cry tostand
from under. / have no idea how the
work could have fallen"
The stricken men were at the moment
engaged in moving one of the large
stones of the cornice, which are to form
its upper leaf or top. They had no
warming as the death-deallng mass must
have struck them as the sound of Tur-
ner's warning voice reached their ears.
No warning could have saved them.
The bloodmarked spots where they lay
were exactly in the line of the falling
masses.
The red sandstone work was being
done for the bank by Heber Cbalker.
whose office is at Laurel street and
Dupont avenue, where the stone was
dressed, but the setting OF it on the face
of the brckwork was under the con-
tract of James Clayton. Neither Of the
contractors were OH the ground at the
moment of the accident.
johnson, who died soon after the fatal
accident. and before the patrol wagon
arrived on the scene, was taken to Con-
nelly'S morgue. The unfortunate man
is about thirty years old aud is unmar-
ried. He lived in South Minneapolis,
and is said to have been hard-work-
ing and industrious man. johnson re-
ceived frightful injuries on his head.
The heavy stone crushed his head into
a jelly, and literally tore the scalp into
shreads. His body scarcely received
scratch. Upon Johnson's arm were
tattooed the initials up. l.. d. the sig
niticance of which no one seems to
know.
Burns. whose injuries were far more
extensive yet who survived for an hour,
was taken to the city hospital, where a
number of physicians attended him.
His injuries were shocking. his body
being crushed from head to foot. Both
legs were broken in three places; once
just below the thighs, one below the
kuees, and at the ankles. His arms
were also broken and his chest crushed
in. Upon his head were several ugly
wounds, and his skull was badly frac-
tured.
Burns was nearly sixty years Of age,
and was hard working man. He leaves
wife and family, WHO reside on
W ashington avenue north, near Twenty
fourth street.
Coroner Spring was on the spot within
ten minutes after the accident, and Sc
cured the names OF number Of wit
nesses. A searching inquest will be