KinSource - Tale of the Week

KinSource

Minnesota Sad Tales

St. Paul Daily Globe, July 26, 1884, page 2

FATAL FALL.

Through a Skylight of the Capitol Fifty Feet to a Tiled Floor.

The Young Son of Louis E. White, the Victim of State Stinginess.

A frightful accident, involving instant death, occurred at the state capitol at twelve minutes to 2 o'clock yesterday afternoon, which sent a chill of horror through the veins of all within that structure and who were cognizant of the same.

It has been the custom of the janitor to allow grown up visitors, of which there are quite a number daily, the privilege of the key to the tower staircase, to obtain a view of the city therefrom. Such was the number of these on Thursday and Friday that it was impossible to attend to them individually, and the tower was left open for them to ascend and descend at will.

At about half past one yesterday a gentleman by the name of F. W. Greef, temporarily stopping at the Windsor hotel, on arriving at the first landing or story of the tower observed a fourteen-year old boy setting on the stool of one of the windows therein, and all though thinking it strange that the lad should be there alone passed on up, and to the summit. A short time afterwards a heavy crash of glass was heard in the building and Mr. Griswold of the state auditor's department while ascending to the second story of the building heard a sickening thud upon the tesselated pavement, and in a moment more picked up the dead body of this boy who had fallen fifty feet through the skylight leading from the center of the upper hall into the dome, crushing the upper part of his head into a shapeless mass, breaking in the ribs on one side of the body and fracturing his arm, while a terrible look of fear was set upon his lifeless face.

An examination showed that the poor lad had crawled under the insufficient single rail guarding these twenty or less large panes of common colored glass, hardly one-sixteenth of an inch in thickness, set in wooden frames of one and two panes each. That on these panes or squares writers of mature age had with their fingers or canes written in the dust accumulated thereon since the structure was built, their names and residence until there was hardly a space left thereon in the twenty feet which these frames occupied for another name to be inscribed. That the poor little fellow was stretching his body out over one of these panes on the north side to write his name when he slipped forward a little too far with the right foot which went crushing down through the little, insufficient dome cap, and with the weight of his whole body upon it in a bent position precipitated him headlong to instant death, as if he had been diving through it. This position, when he went through the single pane of glass, was shown from the fact that where he struck the tiled flooring beneath he was fully six feet south of the opening above.

The body was without breath or pulsation when Mr. Griswold reached it, and Geo. R. Morton, the capitol engineer, with others, removed it to one of the committee rooms off of Representatives hall, and dispatched Officer Schweizer for Coroner Quinn. On his arrival quite a number of the boys in the street were summoned in to see if they could recognize the deceased. One or two of them thought they had played ball with him but did not know his name. In one of his pockets was found the following receipt inside of which was a piece of newspaper containing a few fish hooks.

June 10, 1884.
Wm. Hagg: Bought of Gerner Bros., wood and coal dealers, 173 West Third and corner of Seventh and Exchange streets, slabs, $3.50.

Officer Schweizer was immediately dispatched to the wood and coal office for information and was directed to Wm. Hagg's residence on University avenue, near the street railway stables. He found the family but they knew nothing about the boy or how he came by the receipt, and their own and only boy, about five years of age, was at home.

Coroner Quinn then ordered the remains be conveyed to the undertaking rooms of N. Gross & Co., 154 West Third street, for identification and care, which was accordingly done, and up to six o'clock in the afternoon they had not been recognized.

The lad was from thirteen to fourteen years of age, to all appearances, quite fleshy for his age, with black hair and a full and fair face. He was dressed in a gray sailor jacket, black knee pants and had on no shoes or stockings while his feet did not seem to indicate that he was accustomed to go barefoot. He had on a black felt slouch hat and a pretty red and blue silk necktie.

This is the second person killed in the dome of the state house, the other being a workman named Davis, who fell through it to the basement when the edifice was being constructed.

There was much indignation expressed by the occupants of the state house that such a fearful death trap, so insufficiently guarded, should exist on the premises. They said that this dome glass should have been an inch thick at least and set solidly in frame with a latticed iron railing about it. This miserably thin and rotten window glass, and colored at that to further deceive as to its strength, was in keeping with other looseness exhibited in the plan and construction of the structure, and the name of the architect was not spared in this connection.

Coroner Quinn said he did not know whether to hold an inquest or not, as the cause of death was so evident, but certainly should not until every means had been taken to discover the lad's name and parentage.

The Body Recognized.

The identity of the boy was established at about 8:30 last evening by his father, Louis E. White, bookkeeper for the C. N. Nelson Lumber Co., with two ladies of the family calling at N. Gross & Co.'s undertaking rooms and recognizing him as his son, Harry White. At 9 o'clock Messrs. Quimby & Abbott, undetakers, corner of Third and Minnesota streets, presented an order from Mr. White to N. Gross & Co. for the body, and it was delivered to them and taken to the rooms of the former. Mr. White lives at 513 Wabashaw street in Dr. Boardman's house, directly opposite the capitol, and the mother of the lad is lying dangerously ill at the family residence. Dr. Quinn was notified of the identification of the body and its removal, but made no arrangements for an inquest as he stated in the afternoon that the cause and manner of the death was so palpably accidental as not to necessitate such. Mr. White is a brother-in-law of John B. Brisbin, Esq. It is understood the funeral will take place to-morrow forenoon.