Rensselaer Republican, Volume 25, Number 42, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 15 June 1893 — A FATEFUL STRUCTURE. [ARTICLE+ILLUSTRATION]

A FATEFUL STRUCTURE.

Collapse of the Ford Theater Building at Washington. Frightful Casualty In Which Government Clerks Lose Their lives. Ford’s old opera house at Washington -D. C., the building in which Abraham Lincoln was assassinated, and used by the Government for many yeart as part of the office of the surgeon-general of the army, collapsed, Friday morning, shortly after 3:30 o’clock, with a terrible result in loss of life and injury. The building had been condemned years ago, some claim as many as fifteen or twenty, and' had been repaired, propped up, and all renovated from year to year. There were 475 persons, mostly Government clerks, employed in the building, and nearly all of these were at work when the building fell. An excavation for an eleetrie light plant was being made in the cellar of the strueture-a three-story affair, and, according to the best information obtainable, the workmen had dug beneath the foundation supports in the front of the building, weakening them to such an extent that the walls gave way before - they could be “jacked.” This explanation of the cause of the accident Is Issie only one advanced, but It seemed somewhat strange, in view of the

fact that that the top floor gave way first. Those on the top floor were suddenly precipitated to the floor below by the weight of falling timber and furniture, which carried the second and first floors with it. Fortunately, only tho forward half of the floors gave way. • . Women appealed anxiously to every bystander for information about some particular person, while men came, with tears in their eyes, and imploringly besought the policemen to let them through the 'lines, that they might obtain some knowledge of their friends and relatives. A general fire alarm Was turned in a few minutes after the crash, and then all tho ambulances of the city were summoned. As quickly as possible the police and firemen formed a reserve brigade, and ready hands assisted them to take out the killed and wounded. In less than an hour about •twenty-five people had been taken out, and every few minutes thereafter some still form would be borne on a stretcher from the building. To the occupants there was but one crash heard, and instantly the whole building was filled with blinding ljmo dust. Running directly through ail of the floors and tho middle of the building, was a wall ten feet or more long and three feet wide. The fatal area was in front of this, leaving a space of six or seven feet in width undisturbed on either side. The floor at the back part of the building containing more than half of the floor's space, remained intact. There were! many very harrow escapes from death. A number of clerks whose desks rested directly upon the lino whero the floors broke away, saved themselves, while the desks at which they were, were precipitated down the awful chasm. Others, who were walking aeross the room, heard an ominous sound, and stopped just at the very threshold of death. When the crash came those who survived heard a Tfftghty scream of anguish from their comrades as they sank out of sight, and then groping in the darkness they found their way out safely, trembling in every joint, with the pallor of the dead in their faces. No women were employed in the building, but in a few minutes after the, crush came the wives, mothers and daughters of the victims began to arrive. Within a few moments a hundred or more men, stripped for hot work, jumped into the building and began throwing out the wreckage in front and under the floors which remained standing on tho rear. The building which was wrecked was tho Army Medical Museum. It was orig inally thoold Tenth-street Baptist church. Tt was a medium-sized structure, and was painted white. About forty years ago tho Ford brothers, of Baltimore, purchased tho property and transformed it into a theater. The interior was entirely removed, but the old walls were left standing. It was used as a play-house until several years later, when it was destroyed by fire. Tho Fords then built a spacious brick theater on tho site of the old building. It was in this thoatcr that President Lincoln was assassinated on tho Good Friday night of 1865 by John Wilkes Booth. After this event the Government jlosed the theater, and finally bought the property for about $150,000. Again tho Inferior of the structure was remodeled, and adapted to the use of the Surgeon-Gen-eral. The museum proper occupied tho Jirce floors of the building. While It was originally established for the purpose of Investigating the wounds and diseases Incidental to war. Its scope has broadened so rapidly that It lately included all interesting objects of medical and Surgical study. It was said to be the only gnusenm of its kind in the world. Labor and money had been expended on it to an Almost unlimited extent. There were no less than twenty-two thousand specimens arranged with great care and system within the walls of the museum. The second Zoor of the building contained tho medical library of the Government, a library which was said to contain more medical literature than the British Museum or the National Library of France. The entire building was usually filled with a foreo of clerks and officers examining, compiling the records pertaining to tho judicial and hospital department of the army. A strange coincidence is that the old theater was wrecked on the day of the funeral of Edwin Booth, brother of John Wilkes Booth. 'From all «ources the number of dead reported at 4 a. m., Saturday, is twenty-four, of which sixteen are at the morgue, four at the Emergency Hospital and eight not located. The only Indiana men known to have been Injured in the wreck are A. C. Black and F. N. Test.

FORD'S OPERA HOUSE BUILDING (FROM AN OLD PHOTOGRAPH.)