The River Falls times. [volume] (River Falls, Pierce County, Wis.) 1894-1933, 1898-11-08

Washington. Nov. 8. - An explosion
and fire al 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 eastern part of the great marble
pile from the main floor to the subter-
ranean basement. practically in
mass of ruins The force of the eX-
DloSion 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 it. Fire followed the explosion SO
quickly as to seem practically stimuli
taneous. The explosion shook the inn
mense structure to it's foundations and
was heard several squares from the
capitol. 1t occurred in a small room
tightly enclosed by heavy stone wallis
in the subterranean basement imme-
diately below the main entrance to the
old capitol building. In this room was
q 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 ele-
vator. 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 i'll the mar
shars office and some minor rooms III
the immediate vicinity The library of
the supreme court, located immediate
~ beneath the supreme court room,
was badly damaged by fire, smoke and
water. practically destroying the great
objection of law reference books. The
library contains about 10000 volumes
snd was used not only by the justices
Il the supreme court, but by members
i 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 III the
suh-basement These include all of the
records of the supreme court from
1892 to 1882. The room contains rec
ords of cases and opinions rendered By
the fathers of the judiciary. Tn
doubtedly the volumes in this base
ment are either totally destroyed by
fire or so damaged by water and fire
as to be utterly worthless. Justice
Harlan said that while the loss was
irreparable it was fortunate that the
later reports of the court, which were
kept in the office of the clerk, on the
main floor, were not injured. AS doe
uments for reference at this time JUS
tice Harlan thought they were Of more
value than the documents destroyed.
Fortunately the clerks office was not
the least damaged by fire aud the eX-
plOSion did no damage in it except to
blow out one window. James Nc
Kenna, clerk of the supreme court, ex-
pressed the hope that some, at least, of
the documents, priceless from the view
point of the historian, could be saved.
While many theories are offered as
to the cause of the explosion, it seems
beyond doubt to have been due to es-
Gaping gas.