The Vermont watchman. [volume] (Montpelier, Vt.) 1883-1911, 1893-06-14
TERRIBLE CALAMITY.

COLLAPSE of FOrd's Theater nj Washington
Occupied by Five Hundred Government
Clerks-Scores of Dead and Injured-EN-
cavations in the Cellar the Cause of the
Disaster.
THE old building known as Ford's The
alter, in Washington, collapsed last Friday
morning, causing great loss of life. 1t is
the building in which President Lincoln was
assassinated, and for several years has been
used as an annex to the pension office. Be-
tween four and five hundred men were
working in the building at the time of the
collapse. An excavation for an electric
light plant was being made in the cellar of
the structure, three-story affair, and, ac-
cording to the best information obtainabe
the workmen that morning had dug beneath
the foundation supports in the front of the
building, weakening them to such an eX-
tent that the walls gave away before they
could be shored up. The building was con-
demned three years ago as unsafe and has
been rendered tenantable only by patching
and makeshifts. Every hospital in the city
was utilized in caring for the injured, and
scores of physicians volunteered their ser
vices for this work. Webb, the Washing
ton correspondent of the Boston Journal
thus describes the scene: "The scene within
the wrecked structure was something that
has never been paraleled in the history of
all that is horrible. As soon as it was pos
sible for outside help to enter and commence
operations upon the mass of brick work and
plaster and fallen timbers and distorted
iron, the work of rescue was commenced.
Hundreds of willing hands tore away the
membranes that prevented living but
badly injured beings from helping them
selves, and eager sympathizers were care
less as to their own eXertiOnS or exposure to
danger, that the bodies which were covered
by the vast quantity of debris might be
brought out to where succor was possible
for those not fatally injured. How many
dead there are beneath the tons of fallen
material no one can even guess at this time,
but that many who but an hour or so before
were in the prime of health and strength
are crushed into shapelessness and lifeless-
ness is beyond question. Every moment
the throwing aside of wreckage exposes the
bloody and often mutiated form of some
one of the victims. Occasionally one of
them revives sufficiently to need but little
assistance to the outer air, but the majority
of them, dusty, bruised, with clothing torn
almost in tatters, are carried into the clear
atmosphere and through the sorrowing
crowd to the ambulances and patrol wagons
that are in waiting. At first the endeavors
to rescue were somewhat inefficient; but in
little while system prevailed, and the
work went ahead with the utmost rapidity
Weary rescuers gave place every few min
utes to fresh and willing successors, who
worked with terrific energy in their
endeavor to save some of the buried
ones" 1t is believed that fully one
hundred men were killed or fatally injured
and later reports may increase this mum
ber There is one consequence OF this calam
i,y which will be felt throughout the coun
! try. Many of the records of the old soldiers
will be lost, and the work will be thrown into
| inevitable confusion. This was the place
where, owing to the skill and system o
Colonel Ainsworth, it was possible to in
stantly trace a soldiers record Now it is
impossible to estimate how many of these
records can be saved from the mass o
debris in the cellar of the old Ford's The
alter. These files furnish not only the bash
upon which a pension must be based, bu
they constitute an essential part of thu
military history of the country. Scarcel.
one of the more than four hundred men il
the building escaped injury.