Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1905-06-14
Work Of the Wreckers.

can sculptors, will be permanently exhibit
ed in the art building.
Work Of the Wreckers
When the wreckers tear down one of the
big buildings they start at the topmost pin
nacle and then work gradually downward.
After they have removed all the towers and
ornaments and slid them to the ground in
chutes they uncover the ridge pole and
take off the roof. The same gang of men
have done this sort of work so long that
they do 1t very rapidly and with compare
tive ease AS fast an object reaches the
ground it is seized by other workmen and
carried to it's proper place. Very little is
waste All of the staff is carefully saved,
and 10000 tons of 1t have already been sold
to the Pittsburg Plate Glass Company at a
dollar a ton. 1t will be ground up and
worked over into plaster. Three million
pounds of copper wire, which originally
cost the exposition company 100000, has
also been sold. 1t is the most profitable
ITEM Every foot of 1t is carefully inspect
ed, it is reeled up on the original spools,
which were preserved, and the larger part
about a million electric bulbs which they
are disposing of in lots to dealers and con-
tractors IN that sort of supplies. There
were 10000 bulbs on the varied industries
building and nearly 100000 on the cleo
trical building, inside and out. About 900
carloads of sewer pipe have been taken UP
from the soil and it Is all being cleaned
and inspected, ready to be offered for sale;
1900 carloads of lumber have already been
shipped to various parts of the country,
and several hundred carloads of doors and
windows have been sold to contractors who
are building factories, warehouses and
other cheap structures. Forty-ive miles OF
railroad iron have been sold to suburban
trolley railroad company In Illinois for SIG
ton which cost s24; 100000 ties at 80 cents
each which cost so; 400 tons of spikes for
which cost 9 cents each.
and 5000 telegraph or trolley poles for 50,
which cost $12 each. The trestle work on
the ntramural road has also been disposed
of to the same suburban company.
The Greatest Item Of Salvage.
The horticultural, agricultural and the
forestry, fish and game buildings have all
been torn away, and nothing remains to
mark where they stood except enormous
piles of lumber. which is being carefully
sorted over and trimmed at sawmill
buzzing away at the very spot where the
big ears of corn were displayed. There
were 100000 feet of timber and lumber
in the agricultural building, of which about
so per cent was recovered in commercial
sizes The bigger the building the less
the lumber is cut. Three million feet of
lumber were saved from the horticultural
building, and Mr.. Harris, the manager for
the wrecking company, tells me that they
will save altogether about 100000 feet,
which will sell for eight dollars thousand
and upward. Lumber that has been badly
used and is full of nails is cut into short
lengths for fuel and other purposes. Lum-
Der Is the greatest item OF salvage, and
from that alone the wreckers expect TO
reimburse themselves for all they paid to
the exposition officials. They are shipping
about twenty-five carloads a day to Texas,
and hope to make contract with the Pan
anna Canal Commission. The fencing
around the grounds is about fifteen miles
long, and that, Of course, Is valuable 1or
similar purposes.
There is an enormous quantity of con-
struction iron in the buildings, but none
of 1t has thus far been sold The big
arches of the manufactures building at
Chicago were sold for a steamship pier in
New York, but were made worthless by
the fire and had to go to the scrap heap.
Out of the other buildings at Chicago,
however, came a big steel mill near Pitts
burg, the car shops at Harvey, near Chi
cago and several of the buildings in
Dowie's town of Zion, near Waukegan. The
biggest Catholic church In Milwaukee, be-
longing to a Polish congregation, In care
of Father KrutZa, was built from the
wreckage of the Chicago post office. The
Illinois Theater at Chicago is built of It,
also The buildings of the ship-building
plant at Fore River, Massachusetts. came
out of the Buffalo exposition, as did the
shops of the Lamb Wire and Fence Com
pany Of Adrian, Mich.
Expect Big Profits.
The wreckers paid $4,000 for the Chicago
buildings and lost money; they paid $4,000
for those at Buffalo and 100000 for the
Omaha buildings and made a large profit, |
and they expect to make big money here
Most of their business is done by CORE
spondence. People write to them for ev-
erything imaginable. Mr.. Harris got a
letter the other day from old lady out
west who asked him to send her souvenir |
Of the Notwithstanding she could keep
and hand down to her children. She said
that even a nail would be welcome.
There are four brothers in the company, |
sons of Moses Harris, one of the early set
tiers of Chicago, who lived In that city |
sixty years. until he died four years ago.
They, as he was, are natural Yankee |
traders and will buy anything on a specu-
lation that is offered them If they can get
it at their price.
At the close of the Chicago exposition
they bought the Ferris wheel for 5000,
although originally it cost several hun |
dred thousand. They spent $4,000 to take |
1t down and set 1t up again at st. Louis, |
and now they are negotiating with a syn
dicate that proposes to remove it to Coney
Island, New York.