The Sauk Centre herald. (Sauk Centre, Stearns County, Minn.) 1886-current, 1897-02-04
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A LEANING TOWER.
Syracuse Rejoices In One That Is Causing
Fierce Strife.

Syracuse Rejoices In One That Is Causing
Fierce Strife.
The leaning tower of Pisa has pro-
fotype in America. 1t is more than 200
feet high and at the base is two-thirds
that number of feet in circumference.
At present it is 13 inches out of plumb
and during heavy storm sways back
and forth like willow wand, says a
correspondent of the Philadelphia
Times.
This remarkable structure is built on
the grounds of f. G. Stearns & Co. ac-
cording to system invented by Sanford
e. Loring, an architect of Syracuse,
where the tower is located By his sys-
tenn heavy timbers are braced oontinu-
Dusly and connected by iron shoulder
plates, which take the place of the skel-
eton steel construction. The brick on
the outside is merely a veneer and not
supporting wall in any sense of the
term. The tower is unprotected and has
to take the force of every gale that
blows.
1t is just now the cause of fierce
strife in Syracuse because the people de-
clare that it is an imminent source of
danger and liable to fall at any mo-
ment. Architect Loring, however, says
that if it was Is feet out of plumb, in
stead of IS inches, it would still be as
safe as a church and that people might
walk about, under and around it all day
and be in no more danger than in the
Mammoth cave. The Syracuse common
council AYERS that the tower is a public
menace, and the architect in reply holds
that it is perfectly intact and safe and
that it will stand any strain likely to
come in the future
The Stearna tower has only become of
the leaning, variety at a comparatively
recent date. The circumstance that
brought it into prominence in this role
was a hurricane, or, as some call 1T,
tornado In any event, it was a tremen-
dous wind, the fiercest and the fastest
which even the oldest inhabitant of
Syracuse ever heard of. The wind came
from the southeast, striking the tower
upon the faces. In its velocity immense
trees were torn up by the roots, the
roofs of great buildings were twisted off
and torn away as if they had been of
half inch plank. Buildings in their en-.
tirety were lifted up and smashed into
kindling wood, but though the big
tower swayed from side to side as if un-
Outstanding that it was made to bend
and not break it did not fall.
On the top of this tall tower is a wa
kop toni nd ic foy fo;, OF ho
time of the storm its normal contents
10000 gallons of water. When the
storm was over and the sunlight shone
again, hardly a gallon of water had
been lost from the tank so far as ap-
pearances indicated. The tower, how
ever, showed the effect of the terrific
blow. Before the storm happened the
structure had been as straight as Brit
ish grenadier, but now it was found t
had been twisted upon it's axis and bent
over SO that il leaned in as great a de-
gree as the famous tower of Pisa.
There are one or two breaches in the
walls, and some of the window sashes
are in woefully dilapidated condition,
but otherwise it seems to be in very
good shape indeed. The space between
the third and fourth stories and the
sixth and seventh seems to have suffered
from the storm the most severely. The
sole fact that saved the tower from DEM
clifton was the popularity of the
structure, which is curiously arranged
iron work. The brick wall that seems
to form the structure is, as stated, sim
ply veneer, and the holes that the storm
rent through it indicate forcibly what
would have been the fate of the struc-
ture had the brick entered into its COM
position more largely. As it is, it is the
strangest specimen of what clever arcbj-
tectural work will stand, and before
the common council and the Stearns
people are through with the war it is
making it all promises to become one of
those legal fights that will go down into
history as events in which every one is
interested.