Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1908-06-10

were ample and I let it go at that. be-
cause that was his part of the work
| When asked If he had ever had an &C.
c'dent. before. Mr. Reavis replied affirIna
lively and said an all-concrete building ir
Philadelphia had fallen for him because
one of the foremen knocked out all the
props. He was indicted In connection
with the foreman for involuntary man
! slaughter but the case when tried re-
suited in no decision because of disagree
ment of the jury.
Coroner Stops Search.
| Coroner hewitt was at the morgue when
he received a message yesterday that the
building at Goth and p streets had col
lapsed. He proceeded at once to the
structure. accompanying William Schon
| berger. superintendent of the mOrgue.
The body of Lemuel King had been TAX
en- from the debris. and the coroner had
| ii removed to the morgue without delay
he remaining on the scene. Recalling the
Louisiana avenue fire horror. DR.. hewitt
| took steps to prevent repetition. regis
| tering vigorous objection to sending meT
| in the building when the matter of saw
| ing life was not involved.
The coroner entered the building and d.
rected that the work Of digging for addi-
tiOnal bodies be stopped and the shaky
wall torn down.
Approaching Commissioner Mcfarland
MT. 11ck1OTO nOIeu an ODJectlOn 10 tue
cont emplated action of the authorities He
wanted to superintend the removal OF the
| wall himself. but Commissioner Macfar-
land promptly told him he could not do 1t.
I'VE believe that lives are in danger
with the weak wall standing" Commits
sioner Mcfarland said. land the work
of removing it will be in charge Of repre-
sentatives of the District government"
But" Mr.. Pickford said, you have not
the legal right to do So
Svnty al no 10 m
er told him.
Pull Down Shaky Wall.
Chief Belt and his assistants had at
tended to snoring the walls while the two
bodies were being removed. and when
the word was given to remove part OF
the wall nearest where the accident had
happened Chief Belt and Superintendent
of Machinery Robinson fastened a rope
about IT.
When the prelminares had been ar
ranged the crowd pressed forward. 1t re-
quire0 active work on the part of the po-
lice reserves to keep the curious ones out
of the way. Finally the firemen pulled
the rope and down fell a mass of bricks.
ton of the wall was then torn down. Traf-
fic on the street car line was resumed
shortly after the walls had been removed
Policemen were detailed about the build
ing all night to see that unauthorized
persons did not enter the structure. and
there was an extra detail there today
Workmen Give Impressions.
Waverly Lewis of Ala Sd street south
west. one of the men employed in the
building. said last evening that he was
on the far end of the fourth floor when
he accident occurred. He heard a noise
but when he turned those who had been
working where the break occurred were
out of sight.
II was so badly frightened" Lewis
added that l hardly knew what to do
managed to run downstairs. however
| reaching there in time to see George
Crayton emerging from the mass of ma
terlal. He looked as If he had been
pretty well done up. but was able to walk
thought he was almost dead"
Lewis declared that there had been a
bad scare at the building last Saturday
and said he was really afraid to return ia
work there this week. although he could
not AFFORD to give up his job.
You could hear the walls cracking
Saturday. he declared, land the work
men were ordered from the work. Monday
men were there to do some pointing up.
THE trouble" Lewis added. was that
1t was hurry-up job. 1t seemed like
the work had hardly commenced before
the walls were up to the fourth floor
Norwood Garner. colored. residing at
341 street southwest. told a story OF
the affair about the same as that OF
Lewis He was on the fourth floor and
was so badly frightened that he hardly
knew how he reached the ground.
What Mr.. PicEford Says.
Mr.. Pickford told a Star reporter to-
day that he did not know the exact
cause of the accident nor did he care to
enter into a discussion of the affair al
this time.
Il have experts at work making an in
vestigation." he stated. land until they
are ready to report l shall not know just
what caused the accident.
1T is true" he added. that representa-
tives OF the building Inspector have in
spected the building two or three times a
week since the work was begun. and al
no time have l been advised that any
of the laws or regulations were being
violated"
the alleged cracking of the walls Satur-
day. Mr.. Pickford said it was not true
that they had cracked. Something did
happen. he admitted. but he did not say
what it was. All he would say was that
he was there about an hour after it
happened and that there was no danger
so far as he knew or was advised. He
also denied that any of the carpenters
had become uneasy while working on the
building last week.
Mr.. Reavis Explains.
Mr. A. 9. Reavis subcontractor in
charge of the concrete work. was seen at
the mOrgue today by a Star reporter
and asked to give his version of the ac-
cident.
Il am not going to criticise the work on
the building, he stated. but will say
that the concrete work had nothing to do
with the accident. I have been in the
concrete business a number of years and
never have had any trouble about my
work"
He said he did the concrete work on the
Belgravia Hotel. Philadelphia. in 1902;
CObb's bakery. 10Th and Reed streets,
covering 10000 feet: the Veterans Home.
a5th and Vine streets: the Plymouth
apartment house. the Newberne. the IrO-
auUis and an addition to the Cumber-
land in this city.
II invented what is known as the cup
bar that is used in concrete work, and
sold it to the Trust Concrete Steel Com
pany of Detroit, Mich" MIR. Reavis add
ed. but in the work on the building
where the accident occurred I was using
another bar. 1t is the bar that is made
by the General Fireproofing Company of
Youngstown, Ohio, and it is an excellent
high carbon steel bar. 1t is known as
the twisted lug bar. The accident was
no fault of anything that I had anything
to do with. The snoring was on two by
twelve joiStS and the work was Away
inspected before the concrete was put In :
Mr.. Reavis said he had gone to addi-
tional expense to have inspections made
in advance and was careful to have the
foreman constantly consulted. Referring