Morning journal and courier., 1893-06-10
NEWS BY TELEGRAPH. From All Quarters MARY LIVES WE'RE LOST. The Floors in ford's Old Theater Cave In.
 SCENES OF HORROR 1T THE MORGUE. Many Corpses MangIed Be- r yond Recognition. CONFLICTING TESTIMONY GIVEN. Features of the Trial of
 Lizzie Borden,
CONFLICTING TESTIMONY GIVEN.
UNDER FALLING WALLS.

UNDER FALLING WALLS.
 The old Ford,s Theater i'm v ashing
 ton Collapsed-Used for Govern
 meut Purposes-Hundreds of Clerks , in the Duilding-More Than a Scor.
 of Bodtes Have Been Recovered
 Many of Them Being Badly Mangl. ed-Mifitary and Police Work al . Rescuing Those Imprisoned in tho DebrIs-scenes of Horror at the
 Morgue-Bodies Laid fin a Row
 With Tags Upon Them.
 WASHINGTON, June 9.-Ford's old thea
 ter. the building in which Abraham Lincoln
 was aesassinated by John Wilkes Booth or April IA, 1865 and used by the government for many years as part of the office of ths surgeon general of the army, collapsed thii morning shortly after 9:3O o'clock with s terrible result in lose of life and injury At about the same hour the funeral of Edwin Booth, Johns brother, took place in New York. The building stood on Tenth street northwest, between and E streets, and not far from Pennsylvania avenue. It had been condemned years ago. Some claim ,as many ss fifteen or twenty, and had been repaired, propped up and renovated from year to year.
 There were 475 persons. mostly govern ment clerks employed in the building, and nearly all of these were at work when the building fell An excavation for an cleo tric light plant was being made in the cellar of the structure, three story affair, l and according to the best information ob- tainabls the workmen this morning had dug beneath the foundation supports in the front of the brildipg, weakening them to such an extent that the walls gave away before they could be jacked. This ex- | plsnstion of the cause of the accident is the only one advanced, but it seems some whst strange in view of the fact that tue | top floor gave way first.
 Men who were in the building gay the crash came without warning. Those on the top floor were suddenly precipitated to the floor below by the weight of falling ! timbers and furniture carried the second and first floors with 1t. Fortunately only the forward half of the floors gave way. The outer ends of the hoors and the rear part Of the structures remained intact The walls did not fall. The news that the building had fallen spread with light ning-like rapidity and coon Tenth etreet
 
 with people. Within an hour the news was known all over Washington and hun dreds of anxious relatives and friends swarmed to the vicinity of the old theater. A general fire alarm was turned in few minutes after the crash and then all the ambulsncss in the city were summoned. As quickly as possible the police and fire men formed @ reserve brigade and ready hands assisted 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 thereafter some still form would be borne on e stretcher from the building. Police and army smbu- lances, cabs. carriages and vehicles of every description were pressed into ger. vice for carrying away the dead and in- jured. All the hospitals in the city were utilized in caring for the injured and scores of physicians volunteered their ser vices for this work. The commissioners of the District of Columbia, took posses sion of the building and vicinity in person and helped direct the police and the res- cuers.
 Owing to excellent police regulations the rescuers were not hindered in their work | by the anxious crowds, and 1t was not long before the debris had been cleared away to such an extent that the work of rescue could be carried on without hindrsnce Both the military ard naval authorities took prompt action.
 General Schofield ordered two troops of cavalry from Fort Meyer, just across the | river, and two companies of infantry from the arsenal to the scene of the disaster. The secretary of the navy ordered out l all the naval medical officers stationed here l and also opened the naval hospital to re- csive the injured. The commsndant of the navy yard was ordered to render all as- sistancs in his power.
 Every hospital in the city was called into requisition, and ambulances, car riages and other vehicles, filled with the wounded. were quickly traversing the city in every direction.
 None of those who escaped injury could tell which of the floors first gave way. By the occupants of each floor there was but one crash heard, and instantly the whole building was filled with binding lime dust. Running dire ectly through all the floors and in the middle of the building was light we'll, ten feet or more long. The fatal area was in front of this, leaving a space of six or seven feet in width un- disturbed on either side. The entire back part of the building, containing more than half of the floor space, remained intact.
 There were many very narrow escapes from death. A number of clerks whose desks rested directly upon the line where the floors broke away saved themselves, while the desks at which they sat were pre- cipitated down the awful chssm. Others who were walking across the room heard an ominous sound and stopped just at the very. threshold of death.
 When the crash came those who surviv- ed heard @ mighty scream of anguish from
 their comrades as they sank out of sight,
 and then groping in the darkness they
 found their way to safety, trembling in }evsry joint, with the pallor of the dead in |, their faces No women were employed in the building, but in few minutes after
 the crash came the wives, mothers and daughters of the victims began to arrive.
 Most of those first taken out of the ruins
 were carried to the Emergency hospital.
 About 10:30 o'clock the dead and in. iufed began to arrive faster than the corpt
 Of surgeons could attend to their injuries
 Carried in on stretchers they were put 1T 1 the most convenient places. Load aftel load of the wounded, blind from the deb
 ris and with limbs broken and maimed
 were placed at the door. As quickly a the surgeons, who were shortly reinforced
 by the graduates of the city, could do SO they examined and dressed the wounds
 and the unfortunates were then sent u]
 stairs to more comfortable quarters. 2 It was with great difficulty that tn
 policemen could keep the relatives of tn
 injured out of the building, while outsid
 their sgonizing cries could be distinctl
 heard by the wounded men who lay help
 less. Priests and ministers were soon o
 the spot, and being at once admitted, re n paired to the cots of the injured, wher n they administered spiritual consolation
 Three men reached the hospital in dyin C condition, SO badly injured that they wer , taken from the dressing room and sent ' the morRue where they shortly expired. [ The first two were horribly mutilated
 but the last one did not bear an apparer
 trace of even an abrasion.
 P At.the other hospitals and in the dru a stores adjacent to the accident simils
 scenes were being enacted.
 l. In the mean time the work of rescu s was going brsvely on at the ruins. Abor '' 11:30 o'clock company of the Fourt 5, United States artillery from the Washin, if ton barracks arrived on the scene of u '' accident, and the men were distribute e about the ruined structure to guard again
 interference with the workmen. Shortl afterward cavalry from Fort Meyer, Va k reached the spot and assisted the oth E, regulars in maintaining order. The ma V duty of the soldiers. was to guard the R SC beliion Records stored in the buiIdin
 Clerks who escaped were pressed into ser
 ice, and went willingly to work removil
 bundles of valuable documents.
 Every few minutes during the first ty
 hours after the accident, dead and woun
 cd men were taken out of the debris.