The Springfield herald., 1898-11-11
CAPITOL DAMAGED.
AN EXPLOSION ATwAsHINoroN
burning Gas In the basement Plays Havoc
with supreme Court Rooms and In
jures tho Building Seriously.

Washington, ID. c., Nov. Gan ex-
plosion and fire at J:13 this afternoon
wrecked the Supreme Court room and
the rooms Immediately adjoining 1t on
the main floor of the capitol. The dam
age Is enormous.
The entire central eastern portion of
the great marble pile from the main
floor to the subtcrranean basement
practically is n mass of ruins. The
force of the explosion was so heavy
that the Gaping stones on the outer
walls, just east of the point where the
explosion occurred, were buiged out
nearly two inches; windows In that
part of the building We're blown out,
and locked doors. $50 feet away, Were
forced from their hinges. The fire fol
lowed the explosion so quickly as to
seem practically simultaneous with 1t.
The explosion shook the immense
structure to Its foundations and was
heard several squares from the capitol.
It occurred in II small room tightly i'll
| closed by stone walls in the subterran-
can basement, Immediately below the
main entrance to the old capitol build
| ing.
In this room WIS a 500-light gas
meter, which was fed by II four-inch
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 off mt the meter. The meter
itself was wrecked and the gas pour
! ing from the main caught fire.
The flames originating from the eS-
plosion dartcd up the shaft of the elc-
vator, which had been completely
destroyed 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 subducd
the priceless documents in the record
room had been almost totally destroyed
and serious damage had been done in
the marshal's office and some minor
rooms in the immediate vicinity.
The library of the Supreme Court, To-
Gated Immediately beneath the Su-
prcme Court room, was badly damaged
by fire. smoke and 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 before the Supreme Court
Mr.. Justice Harlan said tonight that
|
| Many of the works it contained would
he thought, be difficult TO replace.
Librarian Clarke, after n cursory eX
animation necessarily made by the
light of lanterns. expressed the opinion
that many of the books could be saved
although they had been drenched by
water from the streams poured into
the library for two hours or more after
the explosion.
| Justice Harlan said that while the
loss of the records was irreparablc, 1t
| was fortunate that the later records of
the clerk on the main floor, We're not
injured.
As documents for reference at this
time and later. Justice Harlan thought
| these We're of far greater value than
the records destroyed. Fortunately the
clerks office WAS not in the least dam
aged by fire and the explosion did no
damage in 1t except to blow out one
window.
James McKenncy, clerk of the Su-
preme Court, expressed the hope after
making an examination of the old
room that some mt least of the docu-
ments, priceless from the point of view
of the historian, could he saved.
The capitol building has been dam
uStu VI btl'l' bN my
but it is believed that to-night's fire
| will prove to be the most disastrous i'll
the history of the building. On two
occasions prior to this, fires have been
started by explosions of gas. Seven
teen years ago n large amount of dam
age was done TO the same part of the
building by nm explosion of this kind.
| and in 1876 there was an explosion of
| gas that killed two men and came near
| killing another.
No intelligent estimate of the money
loss by the explosion and fire yet can
be made. In the opinion of capitol off
cials and mechanics who examined the
structure tonight the loss will reach
| 100000 to the building. The loss on
| the library and records can scarcely be
estimated in dollars and cents. One
million dollars could not replace them,
because of many of them no duplicates
| are in existence.