The Laurens advertiser. (Laurens, S.C.) 1885-1973, 1893-06-13
A CRASH OF DEATH.
AWFUL COLLAPSE OF A CROWDED
GOVERNMENT BUILDING.

Fearful lTragedy--Lincoln Was Murdered
There and Men Fell Through to Death
Xesterday-Five Hundred Clerks at Work
When tho Floors Went Down-Excite-
ment I'm the City-Prompt Work of Nes-
cue-Agonizing Scenes While the Killed
and Injured Were Being Removed-.Par-
tial List OF tho Casualties.
BY Telegraph to The Daily News
WAsuINeToN, ID. O., June S.-Ford's
old theatre building in which Abraham
Lincoln was assassinated and which
has been used by the government for
many years as part of the Office of the
surgeon general of the army, col
lapsed this morning at $50 o'clock
with terrible results in loss of life and
injury.
The building stood on Tenth street
northwest between L. and F. streets
and not far from Pennsylvania avenue.
1t had been condemned years ago, some
claim as many as fifteen or twenty, and
had been repaired, propped up and rem
ovatcd from year to year. There were
475 persons, mostly government clerks,
employed in the building.
Nearly all of these men were at work
when the building fell. An excava-
tion for an electric light plant was be-
ing made in the cellar of the structure
Ga five story affair." and according to
the best information obtainable the
workmen this morning had dug be-
meath the foundation supports in front
of tho building weakening them to
such an extent that the walls gave
away before they could DC lacked.
This explanation of the cause of the
accident is the only one advanced, but
it seems somewhat strange in view of
the fact that the top floor gave way
first. Men who were in the building
say the crash came without warming.
Those on tho top floor were suddenly
precipitated to the floor below and
the weight of the falling timbers and
furniture carried the second and first
floors with it.
Fortunately only the forward half of
the floor gave way. The outer edge of
the floor and the rear part of the struc-
ture remained intact. The walls did
not fall.
AS long ago as 1885 this building,
whicn tie government purchased after
Lincoln's assassination and used as
an army museum, was officially pro-
claimed by congress an unsafe deposi
tory for even inanimate skeletons,
mummies and books of the army medi-
cal museum for which safer place
of congress but, notwithstanding
the fact that in the public press
and in congress, also, continued
attention was called to the
walls of the building and it's darkness
and general unsuitability and unsafety,
it continued to be used for the daily
employment of nearly five hundred
clerks of the pension record division
Of the war office. With a refinement
of discrimination, however, between
what could be replaced and what could
not be so easily supplied, while the
clerks were trusted in the unsafe build
ing the original records were retained
in the substantial fire proof war
department building proper. So the
comforting official assurance is given
that while thirty clerks may have been
killed, the pension records are all
saved and uninjured. The building
collapsed in the midst of an alleged
effort to remedy some of It's defects.
The moral of the disaster, if there is
any, is emphasized by the fact that
there are known to be at least two
great government buildings, the print
ing office and the Wilder building
annex of the war department, each
containing many more employees than
were Gagged in the Ford's theater death
trap, which are in an equally danger
GUS condition.
The hour of disaster was very short
ly after the departments had settled
down for the days work. The work
men whose operations under the build
ing was the immediate cause of the
catastrophe had been tinkering upon
it for two hours or more. Half an
hour earlier and few lives would have
been lost.
The news that the building had
fallen spread with lightning like rapi-
dity and soon Tenth street and
the adjacent thoroughfares were
crowded with people. Within an
hour the news was known all
over Washington and hundreds of anx-
ious relatives and friends swarmed to
the vicinity of the old theatre. Wo-
men appealed anxiously to every by
stander for information about some
particular person, while men came
with tears in their eyes and imploring-
ly besought the policemen to let them
through the police lines that they
might obtain some knowledge of their
friends and relatives.
A general fire alarm was turned in q
few minutes after the crash and then
oil the ambulances in the city were
summoned as quickly as possible.
The police and firemen formed a
rescue brigade and ready hands as
sisted them to take out the killed and
wounded. In less than an hour
about twenty-five people had been
taken out and every few minutes there
after some still form would be borne
on stretcher from the building
Police and army ambulances, cabs
carriages and vehicles of every de,
scription were pressed into service fol