The Globe-republican., 1898-11-10
SUPREME COURT WRECKED,
Disastrous Fire in the National
Capitol Building. !.
CAUSED BY GAS EXPLOSION.
Valuable Records and Priceless Works
Of Art Dcstroyed-A Leaky Pipe and
. Tiny Flame Caused an Explosion
Which Shook tho Capitol


Tiny Flame Caused an Explosion
Which Shook tho Capitol
WARRINGTON, Nov. An explosion
and fire at 5:13 Sunday afternoon
wrecked the supreme courtroom and
the rooms Immediately adjoining it on
the main floor of the capitol. The
damage is enormous. The entire CEN
trail eastern part of the great marble
pile, from the main floor to the subter-
ranean basement, practically is mass
of ruins. The force of the explosion
was SO great that 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 $50 feet
from the scene of it.
Fire followed the explosion SO quick
ly as to seem practically simultaneous
with it. The explosion shook the inn
v1ense structure to its foundations and
was heard several squares from the
capitol. It occurred in small room
tightly inclosed by heavy stone walls
in the subterranean basement immedi-
ately below the main entrance to the
old capitol building. In this room was
a 5O0-light gas meter, which was fed
by 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 at the meter.
The meter itself was wrecked and the
gas pouring from the main caught
fire. The flames originating from the
explosion darted up the shaft of the
elevator, which had been completely
destroyed by the force of the explo-
sion, and communicated with the re-
cord 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 serious
damage had been done in the marshal's
Office and some minor rooms in the i'm
mediate vicinity.
The library of the supreme court,
located Immediately beneath the SUI
preme court room, was badly damaged
by fire, smoke and water-practically
destroying the great collection of law
reference books The library contains
about 20, 600 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 that
the library was very valuable. Many
of the works it contained would, he
thought, be difficult to replace.
Librarian Clarke, after a cursory ex-
animation, necessarily made by the
light of lanterns, expressed the opin-
ion 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 occurred.
The most serious damage, in the
opinion of the justices of the supreme
court, is to the records stored in the
sub basement. These included all the
records of the supreme court from
1892 to 1882. The room contains the
records of cases and opinions rendered
by the fathers of the judiciary of the
government. Apparently the docu-
ments in this room are either totally
destroyed or SO badly damaged by fire
and water as to be useless. Justice
L. of
records was irreparable, it was fortu-
nate the later records OF the court,
which are kept in the Office of the
clerk on the main floor, were not in
jured. As documents for reference at
this time and later Justice Harlan
thought these were of far. greater
value than the records destroyed.
Fortunately the clerks Office was not
in the least damaged by fire and the
explosion did no damage in it except
to blow in one window.
No intelligent estimate of the money
loss by the explosion and fire can be
made. In the opinion of capitol Of
ficials and mechanics the loss will
reach probably $500, 900 to the build
ing. The loss ON the library and rec
ords, as stated above, can scarcely be
estimated in dollars and cents. A
million dollars could not replace them
because of many of them no duplicates
are in existence.
Arrangements were completed by Lii
brarian Clarke, of the supreme court,
and Colonel Richard Bright, sergeant
alarms of the senate, by which the
slttings of the supreme court will not
be interrupted. The court will con-
vene in the room Of the senate COM
mittee on the District of Columbia, one
of the most spacious rooms in the cap
itol. How long the sessions of the
court will be held there will be deter
mined by the justices themselves.