The Rockford Horror

Already the suspension of public judgment is asked by the architect and oontractor of the Itqckford Gourt House, which feil into a heap of miserable rubbish yosterdiiy and buried a dozen innocent victims, who were thus suddenly ushered into eternity. The brief paragraph in the Post of yesterday told the public of the foarful disaster, and to-day the full particulars of the calamity are presented to our readers. The ohief point in favor of the builder is that he risked his own life by standing upon the trap which was so soon to destroy the lives of thA unsuspocung workmen. .üd that he only escaped by instant fiight. The architect was prudently at Geneva Lake. It will be urged at once that there was no inientional wrong on the part o: the architect or builder. Of course neither of them intended to destroy the lives of their fellow men, but they have destroyed them neverlheless. They die not deliberately put up a dome thal they expected would fall, but they diii shrink the foundation and enlargo the superstructuro until the miserable contrivance feil literally of its own weight and eleven lives had to be instantly sacrificad to demónstrate that the architect was a fooi or the builder a knave or both. The public have become surfeited with horrors of this kind, and will soon reach a point where such iucompetency will, if practically tested as at llockford, become as criminal as though the taking of life was delibérate. If the present architect Mr. Gay, planned a structure thal placed such enormous weight upon a lot of brick columns that they cruinbled beneath it, then his very incompetence amounts to a crime. What righi has he to set up in business when he is Hable to sacrifico human beings by the wholesale to his architectur&l experiments. He must make tho matter very plain before he will be acquittert at the bar of publio opinión. On tho other hand, if the plans were all right and the desigu safe, then the people will greatly rpgret that the builder who violated them did not go down with his victims One or the other of these two men is guilty of homicide. The incompetence of one, or the criminal parsiinony of the other, sent tho poor viotims to their untimely graves. If the architect is rerponsible, the law should be amended to reach bis case ; if the builder was to blame it only needs a strong prosecution to punish him for his crime. The inquest shonld be thorough and tLe blame put where it belongs.- Chicago Post. _ The Howell Eepublican does not give its hearty support to tho " Southern policy " principie. It says : " We have so little faith in mush and milk as a steady article of diet that we prefer waiting for furthor dpvelopmenta ere we endorse or reject. We feel assured that the President is doing what he believes to be for the best, and we sincerely hope for his sake, and that of the country, it uiay so prove. Novertholess it is in soiiu! sort an experiment.