The Snowfall That Nearly Wiped Out Spokane Falls

During the past month, at least two public buildings in the Territory were crushed under the weight of snow upon their roofs, and both under circumstances that must have given great shocks to the communities in which they were located. One building was the Small Opera House in Walla Walla, a brick building recently constructed at an expense of about $40,000. It was a large house, and probably a cheap one. The Methodists were about to hold a Christmas festival within it. Their tree was up and all the presents were on and under it. In the hour between the completion of the preparations and the assembly of the parents, children and friends, and while the great room was deserted by all but a single individual, the roof fell in, the sides squashed in, and the entire upper part of the building was in a second in ruins. Had the fall occurred only an hour or two later, hundreds of persons would have lost their lives or been permanently maimed and crippled. Spokane Falls was mercifully spared a like calamity about the same time. Within twenty minutes after the vacation of the Casino skating rink by between forty and fifty young people, the walls gave way under the accumulating weight of snow, and the roof came down with a dull crash, making an utter wreck of the building, which covered a lot 50x100 feet. It had been put up in haste just before winter set in, and with improper attention to its ability to sustain a weight of snow. Investigation followed in both cases, but with what result is not yet reported. There was undoubtedly gross carelessness on the part of some one in each of these two cases. It should be a suggestion in a city like Seattle of the necessity for a building board, without whose consent no building should be erected within the limits, and whose duty it should be to see that no house was put up which did not conform to prescribed regulations.