Semi=weekly graphic., 1898-11-09
s.g.aAsitsl&ss4 V MOST DAMAGE WAS FROM WATER.
The Library of the Supreme Court Room Suffered Most, as Valua-
 ble Books We're Lost.
THE EXPLOSION CAUSED
 BY ESCAPING GAS.
Tho Main Entrance Was Wrecked and Ponderous Flagstones Were Wrenched From Their
 Resting Places.

Resting Places.
 Washington, Nov. 8. The supreme court room and the rooms immediately adjoining it on the floor of the capitol building were wrecked by an explosion of gas and fire late Sunday afternoon. The damage is enormous. The entire central eastern part ol the great marble pile from the man floor to the subterra- mean basement practically is Q mass of ruins The. force of the explosion 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 building were blown out and locked doors were forced from their hinges quite I5O feet from the scene of it.
 Fire followed the explosion so quickly as to seem practically simultaneous with it. The explosion shook the big structure to it's foundation and was heard several squares from the capitol It occurred in a small room tightly en- closed by heavy stone walls in the sub- terranean basement immediately below the main entrance to the old capitol building. In this room was 500-hght gas meter which was fed by finch main. Very little gas is used in that part of the building, but at the time of explosion the gas had Hot been turned off at the meter The meter itself was wrecked and the gas pouring from the main, caught fire.
 The flames originating from the ex- plosion darted up the shaft of the eleyA- tor which had been completely destroyed by the force of the explosion and com municated with the record room of tho supreme court, the office of the marshal of the court and the supreme court Ii- brary Before the flames could be sub- dued the priceless documents in the record room had been almost totally de- destroyed and serious damage had been done in the marshal's office and some minor rooms in the immediate vi- cinity.
 While many theories are offered as to the cause of the explosion it seems be- yond doubt to have been due to escaping gas. Lieutenant Nelson of the capitol police detected an odor of gas in the cor ridore adjoining the supreme court room and while he was endeavoring to locate the escape of tho gas the explosion oc- cured. Only few officers of the capi- tol police were in the building at the time.
 Within a few minutes after the arriv- al of the fire department the flames were under control, although as precaution- ary measure streams were poured into the marshal's s office, the library and the subterranean basement for two hours.
 The fireman, however, had some diffi- culty in turning off the gas to stop flame which shot out of finch main.
 Throughout the lower central portion of the old capitol building doors, win dows and fittings in committee rooms and other apartments were badly dam aged Just north of the crypt an arch way almost over the meter room was completely blown out and great masses of masonry torn from the floor were hurled to the ceiling with such force as to burst the stone and plaster of the wall above. Ponderous fagstones were wrenched from their resting places, and throughout the corridors the frescoing on the ceilings and walls of the corri- dors were utterly ruined. No damage was done to the main foundations of the buildings, as those are of solid masonry deeply embedded and s5 feet thick.
 The library of the supreme court, To- cated immediately beneath the supreme court room was badly damaged by fire, smoke and water, the water practically destroying the great collection of law reference books and decisions rendered by the court. The library contains about 20, GOO volumes and was used not only by the justices of the supreme court, but by members of congress and lawyers practicing before the supreme court.