Reporter and farmer. [volume] (Webster, Day County, Dakota [S.D.]) 188?-1946, 1898-11-10
be Very Heavy

Washington, Nov. 81 An explosion
and fire at 5:15 o'clock last evening
wrecked the supreme court room and
the rooms immediately adjoining it on
the main floor Of the capitol. The
damage is enormous. The entire cen
trail easte rn part of the great marble
pile from the main floor To the subter-
ranean basement, practically in u
mass Of ruins. The force of the eX-
plosion was so heavy that the coping
stones on the outer walls, just east of
the point where the explosion occurred
were bulged out nearly two inches;
windows in all that part of the build
ing were blown out and locked doors
were forced from their hinges quite
a hundred and fifty feet from the scene
Of 1t. Fire followed the explosion so
quickly as to seem practically stimuli
taneous. The explosion shook the i'm
mems structure 20 its foundations and
was heard several squares from the
capitol. 1t occurred in q small room
tightly enclosed by heavy stone walls
In the subterranean basement imme-
diately below the main entrance to the
old capitol building. In this room was
a gas meter which is fed from the gas
main. Very little gas is used in that
part of the building, but at the
Time OF the Explosion
the gas had not been turned on at the
/ meter. The meter itself was wrecked.
The flames resulting from the ex-
plosion darted up the shaft Of the eie-
yator, which had been completely de-
stroyed by the force Of the explosion,
and communicated with the record
room of the supreme court, the office
of the marshal of the court and the
! supreme court library. Before the
flames could be subdued the priceless
documents in the record room had
been almost totally destroyed and seri-
GUS damage had been done in the mar
shars office and some minor rooms IN
the immediate vicinity. The library or
the supreme court, located immediate
" beneath the supreme court room,
was badly damaged by fire, smoke ana
water, practically destroying the great
collection of law reference books. the
library contains about 10000 volumes
| and was used not only by the justices
| Of the supreme court, but by members
! of congress and lawyers practicing be-
fore the supreme court. Justice Har-
Ian said last night that the library
was very valuable. Many OF the
works it contained would, he thought,
be
Difficult To Replace.
The most serious damage. in the
opinion OF the justices of the supreme
court. is to the records stored In the
endorsement. These include all or the
records Of the supreme court from
1902 to 1892. The room contains rec
ords of cases and opinions rendered by
the fathers of the judiciary. Un-
dorbtedly the volumes In this base
ment are either totally destroyed by
fire or so damaged by water and fire
as 70 be utterly worthless. Justice
| Harlan said that while the loss was
irreparable, it was fortunate that the
later reports of the court, which were
kent in the office of the clerk, on the
main floor, were not injured. AS doe
nments for reference at this time JUS
tjce Harlan thought they were or more
value than the documents destroyed.
Fortunately the clerks office was NOT
the least damaged by fire and the ex-
plosion did no damage in 1t except TO
blow out one window. James Nc
Kenna. clerk of the supreme court, ex-
messed the hope that some, at least. or
the documents, priceless from the view
point Of the historian. could De saved.
While many theories are offered as
70 the cause of the explosion, 1T seems
beyond doubt to have been due to es-
Gaping gas.