The Sauk Centre herald. (Sauk Centre, Stearns County, Minn.) 1886-current, 1898-11-10
GREAT HAVOC
Small Army at Work at the Ma
Ganal Capital Clearing
Away Debris.
Damage Done to the Supreme
Court Room Itself Was Com
paratively Small.
Mutilation and Destruction of
Valuable Records the Chief
Source of Loss.
Explosion Believed to Have Been
Caused by a Defective Gas
Meter.

|
lowing the explosion and fire which
wrought such serious havoc Sunday
night. The engines and firemen have
gone, and in their place a small army of
workmen were carrying off the debris Of
brick and mortar, charred woodwork,
soaked and half burned official papers
and documents which had been heaped
in confusion in the basement and sub
basement, under the quarters occupied
by the United States supreme court. An
examination of the courtroom showed
that the damage was confined to discol-
ored walls and ceiling and soaked car
pets. No substantial damage had been
done. The beach occupied by the JUS
tees was unlnjured and even the briefs
and papers left by some Of the
| justices under paper weights re-
manned undisturbed. But while
the fire hid made no progress
here, smoke and water had left this
chamber, which has long been regarded
as model of classic beauty, in sorry
condition. The windows and sash of
the fine old colonial windows fanking
the bench IRE in ruins. The frescoed
ceiling, which recently had been done
over, are blurred and spotted, the car
pets and draperles are soaked, while
the whole chamber has the damped,
smoked aspect usually found after air.
The personal effects of the justice.
robes, etc., were found to be uninjuraG.
The main loss of the court was in the
marshals Office, and in the storage
hi oil
kept. The extent of this last loss is not
yet exactly determined, but the court
! officials expect to make a critical exam
ination during the day.
Sergeant-at-ArmsB Bright of the senate
was busy during the morning making
temporary provisions for the sessions of
the court. Senator McMillan's commit
tee room on the District of Columbia
was hastily prepared with bench and
seats for the justices, and a dozen rows
of seats for the attorneys andspectators
The quarters are rather cramped, how
ever, and the chief justices will have to
sit on one side of long oak table.
Architect Clark of the Capitol is ad-
vanced in age and very feeble, so that
the active work of investigating the
cause of the explosion and clearing away
the wreckage is in the hands of the as
sistant architect of the Capitol, Mr..
| Wood.
II have made preliminary examina-
! tion," Mr.. Wood said, land I am not
able to say what caused the the explo-
sion, though the main attention is being
given to the gas supply. I find that the
general damage sustained by the build
ing is not as serious as was at first
supposed. The heavy foundations
to the building do not appear to
be disturbed, and the walls blown
down are confined to the thin encircling
walls, built to encircle pipes, etc. None
of the heavy sustaining arches or pillars
have given way so far as l can find. I
will make a fuller examination with
better light later to make certain on
these points. For the present it does
not seem that rebuilding of any part
of the capitol will be necessary. The
work will be that of repairing and I
hope we can finish this by the time con-
gress comes. We have small balance
for this, but in any event the work will
be DONE
The lIeter Blown to Pieces.
An examination of the meter room,
where the gas supplied to the capitol is
measured, showed that the big meter
had been blown to pieces. This salts
fed most of the capitol officers that
gas explosion was responsible for the
damage, but they would not express this
view officially until an inquiry had been
made.
Several supreme court justices made
visit to the scene Of the catastrophe
during the forenoon. Chief Justice
Fuller and Justice Harlan walked
thorough the various apartments guided
by man with lantern. While they
looked at the scenes Of destruction with
manifest interest they made no re-
marks. They spent somewhat more
time in the courtroom than elsewhere.
There they found the upholstery and
the courts new 81 900 carpet greatly in
jured, but the two court clocks were
ticking away as regularly and as digni-
fiedly as ever. The busts of former
chief justices which line the walls of
the old chamber were also uninjured
and this appeared to be a source of much
qualification to the chief justice and his
companions.