The daily morning journal and courier., 1898-11-07
EXPLOSION IN WASHINGTON
THE CENTER OF THE NATIONAL
 CAPITOL WRECKED.

Valuable Law Library Seriously Dam- aged and Many Records Destroyed- Flooring and Entrance of the Supreme Court Room Wrecked and Doors and
 Windows Blown Out in Many Places Coping Stones on Outer Walls Bulged
 to Its Foundations-The Explosion
 Probably Caused by Escaped Gas.
 Washington, Nov. 6-An explosion and fire at 5:13 o'clock this afternoon wrecked the supreme court room and the rooms immediately adjoining it on the main floor of the capitol. The dam age is enormous. The entire central eastern part of the great marble piling from the main floor to the sub base ment is 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 nearly a hundred feet away from the scene of 1t.
 Fire followed the explosion so quickly as to seem practically simultaneous with 1t. The explosion shook the inn mense structure to it's foundations and was heard several squares from the capitol. It occurred in a small room tightly enclosed by heavy stone walls in the subterrean basement immediate ly below the main entrance to the old capitol building. In this room was a five-hundred-light gas meter which was fed by a 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 explo- sion darted up the shaft of the elevator, which had been completely destroyed by the force of the explosion, and com- municated with the record room of the supreme court, the office of the marshal
  brary. Before the flames could be sub dued the priceless documents in the record room had been almost totally de- stroyed and serious damage had been done in the marshaPs room and some minor rooms in the immediate vicinity.
 The library of the supreme court. To- cated immediately beneath the supreme court room was badly damaged by fire, 1yx1 tor Tofa oti oa11 Tyr destroyed 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. Justce Harlan said tonight that the library was very valuable. Many of the works it contained would, he thought, be difficult to replace. Libra rian Clarke, after a cursory examina- tion necessarily made by the light of lanterns expressed the opinion that many of the books could be saved, all though they had been drenched by wa ter from the streams poured into the library for two hours or more after the explosion occurred.
 The most serious damage in the opin- ion of the justices is to the records stored in the sub basement. These in- clude all of the records of the supreme court from 1792 to 1882. The room con- tains records of cases and opinions ren- dered by the fathers of 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 Harlan said that while the loss of the records was irreparable it was fortu- nate that the late records of the court which were kept in the office of the clerk on the main floor were not in- X iured As documents for reference at this time and later Justice Harlan thought these were of far greater value than the records destroyed. Fortunate ly the clerks office was not in the least damaged by fire and the explosion did no damage in 1t except to blow out one window.
 James McKennick, clerk of the su- preme court, expressed the hope after making an examination of the old rec ord room that at least some of the documents could be saved. Tonight, however, owing to the inadequate light ing facilities in that portion of the building where the explsion and fire oc- cured it was impossible for him to make an intelligent or thorough inves- tieation of the damage. The supreme court room was damaged principally by water and smoke the fire not reaching that point. Adjoining the court room, however, both the marshaPs office and the senate barber shop furnished food for the flames
 While many theories are offered as to inc cause of the explosion it seems be- yond doubt to have been due to escap- ing gas At sever minutes after five Lieutenant Nelson of the capitol police detected an odor of gas in the corridors adjoining the supreme court room. Not heinz able to locate it, he proceeded to the statuary hall-the old hall of the house of representatives, thinking that tbe gas might be escaping from break in that vicinity. While he was en- deayoring to locate the escape the ex- nlosion occurred Only a few persons were in the building at the time, but several of them had narrow escapes. Before the fire department which re- snonded to an alarm sent in by police man three squares from the capitol had arrived C. P. Gliem, chief electrician