March 2, 1883. In Behalf of McGloin.
Counselor Howe, of New York, and Senator Grady will be heard by the Governor this afternoon in behalf of Michael E. McGloin, sentenced to be hanged in New York on Friday next. They have petitions, numerously signed, asking the Governor to commute McCloin's sentence to imprisonment for life. McGloin's father is also here to appeal for his son's life.
Arrested for Stealing Baggage. St. Albany, N. Y.
Henry Effner, a baggageman on the New York central road, and John F. Strain, were arrested her last night for stealing baggage from the company. Charles Durant, an accomplice in New York, has also been arrested. The trio have carried on their operations systematically since last September, and have worked by changing the checks on the baggage.
Twelve Indians Killed. El Paso, Tex.
Last Tuesday a party of ranchmen west of Chihuahua, Mexico, raided an Indian camp and killed twelve bucks and captured thirty squaws and papooses. The ranchmen then marched through the City of Chihuahua with the scalps of the Indians strung on long poles.
Shocking Accident. A Driver Thrown from His Wagon and Instantly Killed.
A shocking and fatal accident occurred at 8:30 this morning at the corner of Atlantic and Flatbush avenues, and was caused by the dangerous crossing at the point from the network of rails and switches. The victim was Henry Hess, aged 26 years, employed as driver for John Bauer, a builder at St. Marks and Rockaway avenues. When the unfortunate man was crossing from Flatbush avenue into Atlantic avenue one of the wheels caught in the switch and the wagon received such a severe jolt that he was thrown from his seat and falling on his head was instantly killed. It is supposed that his neck was broken. The Coroner gave permission to remove his body to Mr. Bauer's residence and arrangements were made for the inquest on Monday afternoon.
March 3, 1883. Three Sudden deaths.
The following sudden deaths were reported yesterday at the Coroner's office, New York;
Mrs. Rose Brady, 60 years old of No. 340 East Twelfth Street
Mrs. Herrman, 70 years old of No. 216 East Seventy-Second Street
Mrs. Catharine Fliebman, 80 years old, of No. 548 Fifth Street
March 6, 1883. Albany, N. Y. Fatal Accident
Eugene Caron, a carpenter employed at the new City Hall, was killed this morning by the fall off a platform from the fourth floor. He was hit on the head with a beam. Frank wood, a carpenter, had his ankles broken.
March 9, 1883. Suit for Divorce.
Charles Lange sued his wife, Louisa A. M. Lange, for absolute divorce. The parties are Norwegians and were married in the Norwegian Church, Monroe Street, New York. There is one child, 7 years old. the plaintiff left his wife on the 4th of January, and was recently before Justice Walsh on a charge of attempting suicide. The case was tried before Judge McCue yesterday. Defendant did not put in an appearance. Frederick Reichard and Mrs. Phebe Carpenter gave testimony to sustain the allegations of the complaint. The defendant was charged with improper intimacy with a man named Thomas Bow, Alias Travers. She resided until recently at 328 Hudson Av., and later at the corner of Broadway and Eldred St., E. D. Judgment for the plaintiff, McGuire & Kuhn for plaintiff.
Brooklyn Base Ball Association
The Brooklyn Base Ball Association have filed certificate of association in the county Clerk's office. The capital named is $20,000, and the directors; Feridnand A. Abell, Joseph J. Doyle, Charles H. Byrne, George D. Taylor and John M. Kelley. The grounds are between Fourth and Fifth Avenues, Third and Fourth Streets, with entrance on Fifth Avenue.
Sunday, March 11. 1883. Buried in German Ocean. London.
Names of the Emigrants who Went Down when the Steamer Navarre, Foundered.
The owners of the Navarre report that the following emigrants were on the steamer:
Carl Stark, Hans Lauritzen, Olag Aarison, Hedvig Aalten, Jonas Aalten, Magnus Joshansen, Carl Jonnson, Samuel Abrahamson, Anna Alin, Eina Alin, Carl Vard, Anders Lindahl, Peter Lindstrom, Peter Jonnson, Peter Johanson, Olaf Pettersen, , Edre Hagelborg, Augustinus Nilsson, Adolph Johassen, Olaf Nilsson, Peter Svenssen, Lugridstine Svenssen, Sonjohan Svenssen, Anna Svenssen, Lugrid Svenssen, John Pettersen, Jo Scharp, Carl Scharp, Anna Nyberg, Gustav Nyberg, Anders Nyberg, Betty Nyberg, Eva Svensaalter, Eva Aalten, Magnus Aalten, Lirisa Ahlgren, Johanna Nygren, Johan Nygren, Adolph Nygren, Tilda Svensson, Pehr Jonsson, Louis Svensson, Hans Andersen, Fred. Nygren, Ivenemil Hagelborg and Nicolai Emanuel. The last named is the passenger alluded to yesterday among the saved as Mannall.
March 13, 1883. The Wreck of the Cimbria. Berlin.
The salvage steamer has returned from the scene of the wreck of the steamer Cimbria. The divers report that a number of the bodies of the victims are jammed among the gear of a life boat on deck. The entrance to the cabins are closed by a compact mass of bodies. To save the cargo three decks would have to be removed by explosives, and the explosions would shatter the 400 corpses in the hold.
March 14, 1883. A Strange Spectacle.
Two Young Men Kissing Each other in Justice Walsh's Court.
Peter Sexton, of No. 25 Macomb St., and Nathan Woolridge, of Baltic St., between Fourth and Fifth avenues, were both before the bar in Justice Walsh's court this morning, the former as the complainant and the latter as defendant. The charge preferred against Woolridge was that of having threatened to Kill Sexton, and Sexton in his affidavit swore that he "believed Woolridge would carry his threat into execution."
Sexton is about 15 years of age, and Woolridge is perhaps a year and a half his senior. They had been chums but had had a disagreement and it was upon the occasion of their falling out that Woolridge threatened Sexton that he would have his life, and gently insinuated that he would put his heart on a plate. Both the young gentlemen were represented by counsel, and , as Judge Walsh remarked, the legal gentlemen were making the case of more importance than it really was. It was simply a boyish quarrel and interrupting the counsel, Justice Walsh said, "I think I can settle this matter myself."
So saying he beckoned to the two boys to step closer to the bar. "Now what do you two want to quarrel for?' he asked. Both looked sheepish and neither answered.
"Woolridge, do you intend to have the life blood of Sexton?'
"No,: said Woolridge.
"And will you shake hands with him?"
"yes," was his ready response.
"How about you, Sexton? Will you shake hands two?"
"Yes," said the boy smiling.
"Then do it," said his Honor, peremptorily. The pair advanced and shook each other's dexter palm vigorously.
"Now, said the Judge, with a humorous twinkle in his eyes, "kiss each other." And they did.
Such a novel sight and such a ludicrous ending to a serious charge had never been witnessed in the Police court before. The spectators tittered as the accuser and accused left the court in company, while the Judge remarked to the Eagle reporter, as he dismissed the complaint: "I wonder what the lawyers got out of that.!"
March 23, 1883. A Daring Deed.
Performed Nineteen Years Ago-Blowing up of the confederate Ironclad Albemarle-Honor to Whom Honor is Due-The successful Exploit of the late Commander Cushing and his Brave Comrades. Washington, March 23.
Daniel G. George, having publicly advertised himself as the man who exploded the torpedo which sank the rebel ram Albemarle, the Navy department at the request of Paymaster Francis H. Swan, gives to the Associated Press the official report of the late Commander Cushing of the destruction of the Albemarle, and an extract from sworn testimony of his given in Washington in 1873, nine years later.
Official Report of Lieutenant Cushing. Albemarle Sound, N. C., March 30, 1864.
Sir - I have the honor to report that the rebel ironclad Albemarle is at the bottom of the Roanoke River. On the night of the 27th, having prepared my steam launch, Interment at Greenwood. proceeded up toward Plymouth with thirteen officers and men, partly volunteers from the squadron.
The distance from the mouth of the river to the ram was about eight miles, the steam averaging to width some 200 yards, and lined with the enemy's pickets. A mile below the town was the wreck of the Southfield surrounded by some schooners, and it was understood that a gun was mounted there to command the bend. I therefore took one of the Shamrock's cutters in tow, with orders to cast off and board at the point if we were hailed. Our boat succeeded in passing the pickets and even the Southfield within twenty yards without discovery, and we were not hailed until by the lookouts on the ram. The cutter was then cast off and ordered below, while we made for our enemy under a full head of steam.
The rebels sprung their rattle, rang the bell and commenced firing, at the same time repeating their hail and seeming much confused. The light of a fire ashore showed me the ironclad made fast to the wharf, with a pen of logs around her about thirty feet from her side, Passing her closely we made a complete circle, so as the strike her fairly, and went into her bows on. By this time the enemy's fire was very severe, but a dose of canister at short range served to moderate their zeal and disturb their aim. Paymaster Swan, of the Otsego, was wounded near me, but how many more I know not. Three bullets struck my clothing and the air seemed full of them.
Exploding the Torpedo.
In a moment we had struck the logs just abreast of the quarterport, breasting them in front and our bows resting on them. The torpedo boom was then lowered, and by a vigorous pull I succeeded in driving the torpedo under the overhand and exploding it at the same time that Albemarle's gun was fired. A short seemed to go crashing through my boat and a dense mass of water rushed in from the torpedo, filling the launch and completely disabling her.
The enemy then continued his fire at fifteen feet range, and demanded our surrender, which I {twice} refused, ordering the men to save themselves, and removing my own coat and shoes. Springing into the river I swam with others into the middle of the stream, the rebels failing to hit us.
The most of our party were captured, some were drowned, and one escaped, beside myself, and he in another direction. Acting Master's Mate Woodman, of the Commodore Hull, I met in the water, half a mile below the town, and assisted him as best I could, but failed to get him ashore.
completely exhausted, I managed to reach the shore, but was too weak to crawl out of the water, until just at daylight when I managed to creep into the swamp, close to the fort. While hiding a few feet from the path, two of the Albemarle's officer passed and I judged from their conversation that the ship was destroyed.
some hours traveling in the swamp served to bring me out well below the town, when I sent a Negro to gain information, and found that the ram was truly sunk. Proceeding through another swamp I came to a creek and captured a skiff belonging to a picket of the enemy, and with this , by eleven o'clock the next night, had made my way out to the Valley City.
Acting Master's Mate William L. Howarth, of the Monticelo, showed, as usual, conspicuous bravery. He is the same officer who has been with me twice in Wilmington Harbor. I trust he may be promoted when exchanged, as well as Acting Third Assistant Engineer Statesbury, who being for the first time under fire handled his engine promptly and with coolness. All the officer and men behaved in the gallant manner. I will furnish their names to the department as soon as they can be procured.
The cutter of the Shamrock boarded the Southfield, but found no gun. Four prisoners were taken there. The ram is now completely submerged and the enemy have sunk three schooners, in the river to obstruct the passage of our ships.
I desire to call the attention of the Admiral and department to the spirit manifested by the sailors on the ships in these sounds. But few men wee wanted, but all hands were eager to go into the action, many offering their chosen shipmates a month's pay to resign in their favor.
I am, sir, very respectfully your obedient servant, W. B. Cussing, Lieutenant U. S. Navy.
Rear admiral D. D. Porter, commanding N. A. Squadron.
Nine years later.
Testimony of Commander Cushing given in Washington in 1873, in the prize proceedings in the case of the Albemarle, before the supreme court of the district of Columbia;
We approached her and saw by the glimmer of a large light beyond her outlines who she was. We found on close approach that she was surrounded by a pen of logs, boomed out by other logs from her side. she lay against the bank and had a semicircle of the logs around her. As I had slowed down I was not in a position to go into or over the logs without disabling my torpedo apparatus, so I ran close along side of this pen to offer a broadside and calculated that there was space enough inside these logs, if I could get over them, for my boat. Then I concluded I would have to go off in the river quite a distance under high speed, so that I would turn and get a forcible right angle blow at these logs; as the boat drew only two and a half feet we might slide over them. I ran pretty well across the river, probably three hundred and fifty yards wide there, under a heavy fire, directed entirely abeam the ship where we were. We turned, fired twelve pound canister when we were about fifty years from them.
A minute after we struck the booms, went over them, and were within the pen. We had stopped the engine as we went over, and the speed by hitting the logs had come down to a very slow rate. We went slowly up under their sides, lowered the boom on which the torpedo was placed, let the boat go ahead until the torpedo was well under the Albemarle's bottom, and I took a good pull on the heel jigger, and thus detached the torpedo from the boom. When the torpedo, through the influence of an air chamber, rose and touched her bottom, I pulled on the exploding line that drew out a pin and permitted a grape shot to fall the length of the torpedo onto a nipple and cap, and an explosion took place instantly ten feet from the bow of our boat. That's the torpedo-and simultaneously the enemy fired with a heavy rifled gun about the same range. The boat was immediately filled with water thrown out by the action of the torpedo, and thus disabled. The enemy was meantime lowering boats from the shore , and, our boat being disabled, I refused their order to surrender and ordered the men to save themselves. I sprang into the water, several accompanying me, swam to the booms and over them, and then to the other side of the river.
Paymaster Swan endorsed the above documents as containing a correct and admirable account of the destruction of the Albemarle, as does also Charles L. Steever, the surviving engineer of the Picket Launch.
Sunday, March 25, 1883. {from the Baltimore Sun.}
A Monster Whale Churns the Chesapeake.
A large sperm whale is ashore on smith's point, south side the entrance into the Potomac River. The captain and crew of the schooner William H. Knight, which arrived yesterday from San Domingo, report seeing the whale on Friday, at 3 P. M. He was about a mile inside the buoy in shallow water, and was using his huge tail with vigor, slapping the water with a crack like the report of a cannon. His efforts to get into deep water were terrific. first the head would rise out of the water, spouting and foaming. Then the tail would rise and fall, churning the water. The whale had evidently been driven in from the sea by the storm and easterly winds, an din making for deep water again had grounded on Smith's Point. A number of oyster pungies were sailing in close quarter to the whale, but kept out of harms' way, as a blow from the tail would have smashed things.
Death of Alexander Moore. Newburgh N. Y., March 24.
Alexander Moore, a prominent resident of Wahsingtonville, died today, aged 75 years. During the Rebellion he was appointed by Governor Morgan a member of the committee to organize the One Hundred and Twenty-Fourth Regiment. President Grant appointed him Post master of Washingtonville, which position he held for seven years.
March 29, 1883. Madrid.
A Coming Royal Marriage.
The date of the marriage of Prince Louis Ferdinand of Bavaria to the Infanta Maria Della Paz has been officially announced in the Cortes. The marriage will take place on April 2.
Death of General Bulfod. Chicago, Ill.
General N. B. Buford died here last night. He was born in Kentucky in 1807 and graduated at West Point in 1827. He held the rank of Brigadier General of Volunteers during the war of the Rebellion.
The Indians in Arizona. Lordsburg, N. M.
Colonel Noyes and two companies of the Fourth cavalry from Fort Graig arrived here yesterday, en route to the Gila Valley. The latest intelligence from Clifton, Arizona , is that the Indians are concentrated in force in the hills around that place, and an attack upon the town may be expected at any moment.
May 4, 1883. Engagement
Mr. Gustave Nathan, of this city and Miss Fannie Oppenheim, of Hamburg Germany
Mr. Max Oppenheim, of Los Lunas, New Mexico, and Miss Adelaide Nathan, of this city.
May 5, 1883. Rondout, N. Y.
Two Children Burned to Death.
A fire this morning destroyed five dwellings, two barns and some sheds. Two children of M. Cohn, David aged 4 and Rosa, aged 12, were consumed in the flames. The bodies wee found by the coroner, and an inquest will be held.
May 7, 1883. Wilcox, A. T.
A Fight at Lagashie--News from General Crook's Command.
Telegrams received yesterday state that two days ago the Mexican troops had a fight with Indians at Laghashie, about 150 miles south of where General Crook now is, and near the Apache stronghold. Three Mexicans and thirteen Indians were killed and several wounded. The Body of Indians with which the fight was had is so large as to indicate a much greater body of hostiles than either General Crook or the Mexican Generals have supposed. Word from General Crook's command, now operating in Mexico, indicates that he will reach Dejanos to-day
May 8, 1883. Cincinnati, Ohio
Heavy Failure in the Clothing Trade.
The assignees of Newburgh, Frenkel & Co., clothing dealers have filed an inventory showing the total appraised value of the assets to be $275,500, and the total liabilities $382,000, only $55,000 of which is for merchandise, the remainder being notes. The assignees have been ordered to sell the stock.
Found Dead in the Street. Philadelphia, May 8.
A man supposed to be Patrick Henderson, from New York was found dead from hemorrhage at an early hour this morning on the sidewalk at Twentieth and Market Streets. He had upon him a soldier's discharge paper, a discharge from the hospital at Ward's Island, New York, and a through ticket from New York to Washington.
May 13, 1883. Body Snatching at Lansingburg, N. Y.
The Old Lansingburgh Cemetery, from which a body was stolen two days ago, is said to be over-crowded. In many instances three bodies have been buried in one grave. To make room it is stated that the bones have been exhumed and hid from sight in the bushes until after the funeral, when they have been thrown back with the dirt and gravel. It is believed that resurrectionists have been working in the cemetery extensively.
May 30, 1883. Agonizing. Details of the Disaster on the Bridge. The Sad News In The City.
The extra Eagle of last night was the first paper to announce the facts of the terrible disaster which occurred upon the bridge-- a calamity that has darkened many homes and which thrilled the entire community with a deep sense of horror. Following the Eagle's lead, other journals in New York City issued extra's, and the avidity with which the copies were bought showed the deep anxiety upon the part of the residents of both cities to learn the full truth. Decoration day being observed to a very great extent as a holiday, there were thousands of people who were out visiting the cemeteries or enjoying themselves. The greater portion of the people who were crossing the bridge from Brooklyn to New York were residents of the latter city and vicinity, most of whom had been to the various cemeteries and who had taken advantage of the day to cross the structure. About half past 4, the throng which was on its way to New York was the thickest, and this crowd became hindered at different points along the span by people who loitered to watch the river and the boats. Half a dozen persons stopping in this manner would very perceptibly stop the travel, but the press behind them was so great that they were compelled to move on. Still there would be breaks in the line of passengers, so that while there would be dense crowds together, there would be places where there were spaces of from fifty to hundred feet, caused, as has been said, by those who desired to loiter. The fatal jam was just on the other side of the New York tower. It was formed between the tower and the two flights of steps which lead from the planked footway to the asphalt pavement upon the top of the anchorage masonry.
Coming from New York the first flight of steps is sixteen feet wide. There are seven steps with a rise of six inches each. Then when the top of these is gained there is a platform which is the same width as the steps, sixteen feet and eight feet wide. Then follows another flights of steps, also seven in number, just the same width and height as the lower flight; in fact, the platform dividing them is simply as a break between the fourteen steps to make the walking up the ascent easier. It was upon this platform where the first life was lost and where the tragedy commenced. The crowd going toward New York had rounded the central column of the tower, and had become jammed in the narrower pathway leading to the steps. Right at these steps where the locomotion was gradually slower, the two crowds met, but the number coming from New York was not nearly so great as that which was going from Brooklyn. The difference is described by an eye witness as being one hundred to one. The efforts of the people to pass each other upon the steps hindered the speed of pedestrians both ways, but it resulted in forming such a jam on the roadway between the New York tower and the steps, that the crowd in the rear, not knowing the cause, became impatient and pushed ahead those who were in front. In addition to this,
A Gang Of New York Roughs
who shouted out that they were members of an organization banded together by placing their arms across each others shoulders, and in this way forming a solid line, they charged upon the rear of the dense mass, hooting like many demons, and saying that "They would go through" and would soon pass the crowd. The result was that people upon the steps were being hustled so that they were in danger of falling and they cried out in terror. Those directly behind them who were aware of the difficulty in passing the steps, tried vainly to hold those back who were pressing from behind, and at last when one unfortunate woman and child in her arms fainted, with the heat and exertion she had been making fell down unconscious upon the lower step there was a shout of horror broke out from a hundred throats. A second later and Mr. Frederick E. Dale, who lives at 79 Henry St., in this city, fell over her, and in less time than it takes to write it there was a mixed up heap of men, women, and children piled up upon the steps. The shouts, groans, imprecations and agonized cries which filled the air, instead of appealing to the mercy and better judgment of the crowding throng, served only to incite it to a frenzy of fear. The thousand behind the steps--that is, between the steps and the bridge, who couldn't see what had happened, became panic stricken with the idea that the bridge had broken, and their first effort was to gain the solid walk upon the masonry, which was but a short distance ahead. Consequently, they rushed forward with the that single object in view, hurling down upon the prostrate bodies those in front, and adding to the awful horror of the scene. Officer Frederick Richards was the only one of the bridge policemen who was at that point at the time, and he had several times previous to the accident started the crowed moving. When the late jam occurred he was absolutely powerless. He, however, jumped upon the ironwork which protects that car track and quickly summoned a force of men. Word passed out to the police upon the New York approach that there was a trouble on the bridge, and a few seconds later, men who blanched faces, and women almost dead with fright and with torn clothing, emerged form the throng and started for the New York exit. Then it was known that lives had been lost and a force of about thirty policemen, under command of two sergeants from the twenty-sixth, Precinct, in the New York City Hall, rushed upon the approach. There was no time to spare and no mild measures could be used. The clubs flew around incessantly and the crowd was at last got under control. Planks were placed over the ironwork above the tracks so as to facilitate people in making their escape from the jam. In this way the thong upon the walk was thinned. The police held firm possession of the space round the steps where the tragedy had occurred and which were covered with helpless, groaning, bloodstained mass. Standing in position upon the iron work and upon every raised place the New York police were enabled to see how to manage the crowd. which had now become somewhat cooler in its manner, through of course greatly excited by the fact that lives had been lost. Those who wanted to come over to Brooklyn were ordered to take one side of the passage way in line, and those going to New York the other. As both crowds were passing the scene of the occurrence, the dead were laid in a row, their faces covered with their hats or some article of apparel, while the ambulances had come thundering along from New York, and were already taking away the wounded. The sight was one that has never been equaled for horror. The writhing, struggling mass of those on the fatal steps formed a picture that made the strongest hearted turn pale. Men and women, with their limbs contorted and their faces purpling in agonized efforts to breathe, were held as in a vise, by the struggling mass on top of them.
The bridge officers, New York Police and citizens who were close upon the steps, went to work with a will to help the wounded as soon as the pressing of the throng had ceased. Men and women were pulled out of the struggling mass with as much dispatch as possible. Such as were able to take care of themselves were placed sitting or standing near the railing and so that they could get air. Several gentlemen assisted the ambulance surgeons in making their examinations of the injured and in helping them to place them in the ambulances. A company of the Twelfth New York Regiment, which was on the bridge, did excellent work in helping to drag out the wounded, and when at last the dead, dying and injured had been taken away, and the bridge was clear by reason of the stoppage of travel at either end , the scene at the steps was even then sickening. All around the fatal spot was stained with blood. Hats crushed and battered, articles of jewelry trodden into a shapeless mass, trifles of woman's wear, umbrellas and canes broken to pieces gave indications of the terrible struggle which had occurred. One stout Irish woman, who seemed to have an intuitive perception some minutes before the fatal rush that lives would be sacrificed held up a small child she had in her arms, shouting wildly for someone to save it. She had braced herself up against the railing, and she threw the most despairing glances all around to try and save her child. She was jostled with the throng, however, and at last was buried in the general crush. Those who were in the front ranks, with the effort at self preservation instinctively upon them locked arms and formed a barrier three and four deep at the edge of the steps. Then they tried to press the crowd back and the effort was futile. Then in the wild confusion which reigned could be seen men and women divesting themselves of every article they had, which hindered them from using their hands in a struggle for safety. Baskets, umbrellas, canes, flowers, shawls and coats where being thrown about everywhere and only added to the general terror. The people who did the damage were those who were not in the slightest degree in any danger, for they were the people who composed the rear end of the surging crowd going to New York. If they had kept quiet all would have been well, but when the first shrieks of agony rent the air they seemed to be imbued with a fear that the danger was behind and not in front, hence they pressed ahead with desperate eagerness to get off the bridge proper and gain the roadway upon the anchorage. This forced the people down the steps, until both flights were covered with a bruised, bleeding and dying mass. The gates on the Brooklyn and New York ends were closed as quickly as possible, and no one was allowed to enter at either end until the police had cleared away all vestiges of the occurrence and the iron railing which had been crushed out of position had been temporarily replaced.
Bridge Policeman Richards stated that he was just above the stairs on the side of the promenade as the crowds were passing in either direction. He was trying to keep them moving, but every now and then a crowd would collect and cause a jam. A woman stumbled at the head of the lower stairway and fell, another woman who saw her screamed. 'I am satisfied,' said Richards, 'That that woman who creamed did more to create the trouble than anything else. As soon as I saw the woman fall I rushed forward to help her, but as soon as the cream left that woman's lips the rush came, and I was knocked down with the rest. I don't know how I escaped, but as I was falling I saw that the only way in which I was to save myself was to gain my feet, and this I did at once. I then got up the woman who had fallen, but in doing so one of my hands was stepped on and my head was kicked. I tried to keep back the crowd, but it was no use. They came on like so many frightened cattle, and the heaps of people injured kept increasing. There were a number of workmen upon the supports of the bridge painting, and they hurried down and took out section of the iron railing and thus relieved the crowd somewhat. then planking was put over the ironwork which shuts off the railroad tracks, and in this way a great many got out. The dead and wounded also were removed to ambulances this way.'
All the injured were taken to the Chambers street hospital. The Chief of the Second Battalion of the New York Fire Department drove in the with his wagon and took quite a number of the wounded to the hospital.
The Killed
The following persons were killed:
Mrs. Jerusha Bazarian, a Turkish woman, aged 35, wife of Zachariah Bazarian, of No. 302 Plymouth Street, Brooklyn, trampled to death in the jam. Her husband an Armenian, became half crazed on recognizing her among the dead in the Chambers street Hospital, New York, was seized by a police officer and sent home in a hack. Her son, aged 17, was separated from her in the crowd and went home expecting to find her there.
Edward Colburn, aged 13, of No. 187 South Eighth Street, E. D., was taken out of the jam crushed to death and carried to the same hospital, where the body was recognized by his grief stricken father.
William H. Crafts, aged 60, a clerk in the employ of Ridley & Son, started to visit relatives here, and was suffocated to death in the middle of the crowd. He leaves a widow and four adult children.
Maud Crawford, aged 33, wife of Charles Crawford, of thirty-seventh Street, near Broadway, New York, was crossing alone, and was crushed against the railing, then thrown and stamped upon.
Sarah Hennessy, married only seven weeks ago to John Hennessey, a wire weaver, who is employed at Union avenue and Ainslie street, Brooklyn, and lives at No. 190 Union Street. Her maiden name was Fips, and she was 22 years old. The husband and wife were together when the panic occurred. An accident had occurred to the husband a week ago, which had injured his left hand. He was holding it up and showing it to his wife when the first disturbance began. They had just reached the steps at the New York anchorage and were coming toward New York. He seized his wife's arm with his uninjured hand to protect her. Just at that moment he received a blow to the side of his face the felled him to the floor and he went rolling to the bottom of the stairs. He was able to extricate himself from the crowd without being crushed. The blow upon his face separated him from his wife. When he had escaped after his fall he could not find her, and learned nothing more of her until he found her dead body at the hospital.
Eliza Kasten, aged 60, residence No. 185 Griffith street Jersey City heights, was accompanied by her husband but being an old and feeble woman became frightened when the first confusion arose. The couple were looking at the boats on the river at the time. when the crowd pressed upon them the husband tried to protect his wife, but she was thrown down and trampled upon, while he was powerless to help her. She was carried out in a fretfully mangled condition. The husband followed her to the hospital but she was dead before her body was removed from the ambulance.
Ah Ling, aged 54, a Chinaman, who came to New York from the West Indies about ten years ago. His home was in Baxter street, and his occupation was peddling tobacco and snuff from house to house in small quantities. He was trampled upon on the bridge and his face was horribly disfigured. He had no relatives in this country but he was identified by ex-Deputy Sheriff Tom Lee.
James O'Brien, aged 45, a delivery clerk at Pier No. 39, Pennsylvania Railroad, lived at No. 88 Laight street, New York. He was in company with his daughter Elizabeth, who is among the injured, his daughter Mary, and Matthew Welch, who also was accompanied by his daughter, when the disaster occurred. He took the dead man's wife and mother to the hospital. His face was bruised and clothes torn.
Ellen Riordan, aged 45, married, lived at No. 36 Montgomery street, New York. She was in company with a women friend and one of her sons on the bridge. They were separated, and the son did not find his mother until he recognized her mangled remains at the hospital.
Margaret Sullivan, aged 15, residence No. 137 Monroe Street, New York, was identified by her father James Sullivan, last evening. He is a laborer. He was with Margaret and Kate, a younger daughter, upon the bridge. In the panic he found that he could not save both of them unaided. He passed Kate over to the care of another man. The latter, however, had another woman to aid and he put Kate into the hands of still a third man and thus she was taken out alive, although badly bruised. the father meanwhile was striving to prevent Margaret form being crushed. he failed. She fell under the feet of the struggling throng and was taken out dead. Her father first found her body at the hospital.
Emma C. Sherwood, wife of Captain Sherwood, of Bridgeport, Conn., was visiting in New York. Her host whose name could not be learned, with his little boy, was accompanying her across the bridge when the crowd began to press upon them. The man saved his boy, but Mrs. Sherwood was torn away from him. Her dead body was carried to the Chambers street Hospital, where it was afterward identified.
George Smith, aged thirty-five truck driver, who worked for Baker & Clarke, grocers, No. 235 Greenwich Street, and lived at No. 41 Watts street, New York. Accompanied by his wife he had just reached the top of the steps at the New York anchorage when the panic occurred. He was thrown down the steps and was crushed by the people falling upon him. Although alive when picked up he died soon after reaching the Chambers street Hospital. His wife although overcome with grief, had escaped almost uninjured form the disaster.
Edward A. Colborn, aged 13 years, of No. 187 South Eighth Street. He will be buried in Cypress Hills Cemetery, next Saturday. {taken from next day's edition of paper}
The Injured
The following person were more or less seriously injured:
Barbara Attinger, aged 18, of 443 Sixth Street, N.Y., slightly injured about the head, but went home unaided. Francis Barrett, aged 9, of 19 Mott Street, N. Y.; his left arm and leg, broken. Otto Bischoff, of 7 Manhasset Place, Brooklyn, slightly hurt, but went home unassisted. Albertine Bohnet, of 139 Division Street, N. Y., was internally injured and taken to the hospital. Mrs. Margaret Bayley, aged 34, of No. 15 Willett Street, N. Y., She was in company with Margaret Gallagher, who was injured. She received injuries on her head and left arm and was taken home. Mrs. David Chambers was injured internally and was suffering from hemorrhage. Miss Chambers aged 19 had a fracture of the lower limbs. they were in company with Mr. Chambers, who immediately after the accident conveyed them in a carriage to their home, No. 116 King Street. F. E. Dale, of No. 79 Henry Street, received slight scalp bruises . He was able to go home. Samuel Dalton, aged 33, of No. 33o West Twenty-ninth Street, escaped with a slight contusion of the back, and was taken home in a carriage. David Delmonte, aged 35, of No. 108 Avenue B, fell at the foot of the steps and received a slight contusion of the side. Mary Distler, aged 18, of One Hundred and Third Street and Second Avenue, New York, suffered concussion of the brain and was taken raving to St. Vincent's Hospital, where she was kept under the influence of opiates all night. Edward Douherty, aged 5 years, of No. 152 Ferry St., Newark, N. J., was taken to St. Vincent's hospital, where he was found by his mother at 8 P. M. His injuries are not considered fatal, but his spine is hurt. Charles Ebberwain, age 11, of No. 334 East 54th St., New York, had his right leg fractured near the ankle and received a contusion of the scalp. Louis Evrak, of No. 7 Manhassest Place, Brooklyn, slightly injured; went home with assistance. Margaret Gallagher, a widow, aged 32 years of Madison Street, near Scammel , New York, was conveyed to Chambers street Hospital, and subsequently moved to the New York Hospital. She has remained unconscious since receiving her injuries. James Green, of No. 60 Cherry Street, New York, unconscious through prostration. Cared for at the Chambers street hospital. Elizabeth Hannon, a young woman living at No. 39 Chrystie Street , New York, was with her mother, aged 60 years, on the bridge. Both were slightly injured. Edward Herr, aged 26 years, of No. 518 West 93rd Street, New York, a silk ribbon weaver, was bruised and strained about the legs and right elbow. Wilhelmina Loewe, aged 60, of No. 190 Monroe Street, New York, was injured internally, and subsequently removed to New York Hospital. Elizabeth O'Brien, aged 8, was with her father on the bridge when he was killed, and received several bruises and scratches. She was sent to her home, at No. 88 Laight Street, N. Y. Mary O'Donovan, of No. 232 Cherry Street, New York, was injured internally; was taken to Chambers street Hospital. Ellen Requa, of No. 62 Horatio Street, N. Y., was slightly injured; suffered from asphyxia; went home unassisted. Thomas Roodan, of No. 36 Montgomery Street, N. Y. Injured internally; was removed to the New York Hospital. Margaret Ryan, aged 30, of No. 230 Cherry Street, New York, was removed to the Chambers street Hospital, suffering from convulsions and asphyxia. Minnie Smith, lives at No. 258 Houston Street, New York, was injured internally. Margaret Smith, aged 25, was on the bridge with her husband and was thrown down the steps. She was rescued with difficulty and is supposed to have received some slight internal injury. Mattie O. Styles, of No. 257 Grove St., Jersey City. Injured internally, and was cared for at the Chambers street Hospital. Mary Thompson, aged 8 years, of No. 113 Monroe St., New York, had her skull fractured and minor contusions about the head. she was lying at St. Vincent's Hospital in an unconscious condition last evening, and is thought will die. Elizabeth Tierney, a young girl who lives on St. Marks Place, went home without assistance. Mrs. Charles Vogeley, of No. 32 West 26th St., New York, internally injured. conveyed to Chambers street Hospital.
The Missing
Those reported last night as missing are as follows:
Henry Barwick, 17 year of age, of 76th St., and 1st Av., New York. His father is sexton of the Methodist church in Sixty-third Street. He left home early in the morning , not saying where he was going. John Carroll, aged 14; lives in east Twelfth St., New York. David Cole, aged 15 years. Lives at No. 33 Eighth St., Jersey City. Richard Englehardt, aged 15 years. Lives at No. 24 High Street, Brooklyn. John Golden, of No. 546 Canal street, New York. George Hashagen, 15 years. Lives at 157 Bleecker St., New York. George N. Marks. He was married and has a family. His home is at Fourth and Thirteenth Streets. Ida Minley, aged 19, living in Eighty-sixth street, New York, a sister of Mrs. George Smith whose husband was killed; left her home in company with her sister Effie for the purpose of walking across the bridge. She had not returned up to a late hour last night. Effie Minley, aged 25 a sister of Ada Minley, was in company with her and is also missing. Ambrose O'Neil. Lives at No. 271 West Eleventh street, New York. Francis O'Neil. Lives at No. 271 West Eleventh Street, New York. Smiles Smith, of Forty-First St., near Second avenue, New York, 14 years old. William S. Strong, 14 years of age, employed at R. H. Macy's store, at sixth avenue, and Fourteenth Street, N. Y., left home with the intention of going to Rockaway with a friend. Edward Tammany, aged 14 of Morrisania. He left home at 7:45 A. M. to walk over the bridge. He had not returned by 10 P.M. Samuel Tobinski, eight years of age, of No. 43 Eldridge Street, N.Y., left his home at an early hour and had not returned at 10 P. M. Michael Vetter, aged 30 years. Lives at No. 43 Oliver St., New York.
Tuesday, June 5, 1883. Death of an aged Negress. Trenton, N. J.,
Mrs. Eliza Crusen, a Negroes, aged 103 years, died here today. Deceased was born a slave on the farm of Charles Welling near Pennington, this county. She said she had many times seen George Washington.
Fatal Gymnastic Act. Indianapolis, Ind.
While Mon. La Xaire, the trapeze performer, was doing his "Walking ceiling act" at Park Theater last night, one of the straps broke, letting him fall to the stage, a distance of 22 feet. His injuries are thought to be fatal. He is French Canadian, whose home is at Toronto.
June 14. St. Paul, Minn.
Suicide of a Clergyman.
Rev. E. W. Chase committed suicide yesterday by hanging himself at Richfield, near Minneapolis. Mr. Chase came to St. Paul sixteen years ago. He was then secretary of the Young Men's Christian Association, and afterward became president of the societies of the Relief of the Poor and for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals. Insanity was the cause of the suicide.
July 2, 1883. Auburn N. Y. A Fatal Shooting Affray.
Abram Coppenholl, a farmer of the Town of Victory, was shot three times with a large navy revolver yesterday by Lew French, a young farm laborer. Suspected intimacy with Coppernoll's wife was the cause of the trouble. The wife was present at the shooting and ordered French to fire. Both French and Mrs. Coppernoll are under arrest. The victim will die, all three shots taking effect in his body.
Drowned at Patchogue.
Henry W. Young, who was connected with Richards & Co., at No. 200 Broadway, New York City, was found dead in the lake in view of his house here this morning. How he was drowned is not yet known. An inquest will be held.
A Tragedy at Throgg's Neck
The residents of the pretty Village of Throng's Neck, in Westchester County, on Long Island Sound, have been startled by the enacting in their midst of a terrible domestic tragedy, resulting in the death of a brother and sister, Fanny and William H. Seaman. Miss Seaman was shot by her brother yesterday afternoon, who afterward committed suicide. He is supposed to have been insane.
July 3, 1883. The Fourth of July.
It has come to pass that in may quarters there is a disposition to jeer at the old Fourth of July spirit, and to dismiss the exuberant patriotism which used to characterize the celebrations of this anniversary as essentially provincial. The growth of the country, the operation of time and the introduction of new topics of interest have all tended to belittle in the eyes of the thoughtless the enormous importance of the struggle which secured to the American Colonies their independence. The Civil War in particular may be said to have supplanted the earlier with a later patriotism. It was hardly to be expected that while the States were engaged in the struggle to sever or hold together the Union, the memories they had in common would hold the first place in their affections. Nor, indeed, after that struggle ended was it in the course of things that the older emotions would reassert themselves so long as there were hot and bitter political disputes produced by the Civil War remaining to be settled. Happily, the times have changed. We have less and less of the mere bitterness generated by the Civil War. It is now pretty clear from one end of the country to the other that the extinction of slavery and the perpetuity of the Union were of incalculable advantage to every person born under the Stars and Stripes. The Rebellion is no longer a matter of feeling. It is purely an affair of history. It cannot be traded upon in politics and it is ridiculous when thrust into the affairs of civil life.
From one end of the country to the other there is good will and American patriotism turns once more to the era in which the American spirit was born for the chief subject of its oratory and the chief source of it inspiration. What we have now to look to, insofar as the proper celebration of the Fourth of July is concerned, is that the mere largeness of the country shall not operate to belittle in our eyes the sacrifices and heroism and manly spirit which secured for the colonies the independence which we enjoy and which has been of incalculable benefit to poor men the world over. It is no less unseemly to talk slightingly of the Revolutionary heroes than it would be while sitting under the spreading branches of a splendid oak to sneer at the planter who put the acorn in the ground and guarded the young tree against its enemies. In the main, what the Republic is today is due to the efforts of the men who begot it. Its growth has been along the lines laid down by them. We have the established Union which Hamilton, under all his aristocratic flourishes, had at heart, and we have, despite some abuses, despite an over centralization, still have State liberties and the individual freedom for which Thomas Jefferson so splendidly strove in the Cabinet, in the field of diplomacy and in the common arena where the humblest if his fellow citizens could sit as judge.
It is an excellent thing to turn at least once a year from the ordinary business of life to refresh our minds with memories of the men who made the Republic and think of what they intended it to be. By this means we are protected to no little extent against any inroads of the aristocratic spirit against the dispositions to relapse in the presence of great wealth into a worship of mere material things, as well against that somewhat shoddy spirit which would make the Republic in the days of its maturity a mere imitation and echo of institutions on the other side of the Atlantic.
We can look forward now to a time not remote when our states and Territories will contain a population of over one hundred millions, when our trade with the nations of the world shall be second to that of no empire ever known to history, and when the wealth of our people shall make little even the opulence of the British Empire. But there is nothing in these respects to anticipate which will in the slightest degree compensate those who are to come after us, if the hearty love of liberty which distinguished the thirteen little colonies does not survive to animate the innumerable millions who are in years to come to live in the land we occupy.
What constitutes a State?
Not high raised battlement or labored mound;
Thick walled or mooted gate;
Not cities proud, with spires and turrets crowned;
Not bays and broad armed ports,
Where, laughing at the storm, rich navies ride;
Not starred and spangle courts
Where low browed baseness wafts perfume to pride,
No:- Men - High minded men-
With powers as far above dull brutes endued
In forest, brake or den,
As beasts excel cold rocks and brambles rue;
Men who their duties know
But know their rights, and knowing, dare maintain,
Prevent the long aimed blow
And crush the tyrant while they rend the chain.
These constitute a State.
And sovereign law, that State's collected will
O'er thrones and globes elate,
Sits empress, crowning good, repressing ill.
Smit by her sacred frown,
the fiend dissension, like a vapor sinks;
And e'en the all dazzling crown
Hides his faint rays and at her bidding shrinks.
July 13, 1883. Death of an Aged Indian Chief. Troy, N. Y.
Louis Walso, an Indian chief, died at lake George this morning in his 109th year. He was in receipt of a pension from the Dominion Government.
July 20, 1883. Skeletons in the Eastern District.
The First Methodist Church Built in Williamsburgh.
It has happened from time to time in the Eastern District that in making excavations for foundations, gas connections and other purposes, the spade has turned up human remains. Only on one occasion is it remembered that such bones were unmistakably aboriginal - a complete skeleton in a sitting posture with the face to the east. It was found about twelve years ago, in the middle of Broadway, near Second Street, seven or eight feet below the surface. These discovered human bones generally indicate the sites of obliterated and forgotten graveyards, but not always. An ancient church almost always implies a churchyard, and when a skeleton is found where there is no tradition of a church ever having stood, it is more probable that the site indicated is that a farm or orchard than that of a burial ground; it having been customary with the old Dutch settlers to be buried on their farms. The dead of most of Williamsburgh's old graveyards have been removed to the various cemeteries. among the latest to be dispossessed were the dead people of the old churchyard of Cannon Street Baptist Church, New York. This burial ground was situated on Smith Street, now Humboldt, near Withers. it is now built up. The old Hebrew burial ground on South Third Street, between tenth and Eleventh Streets, has also been vacated, but is still a wilderness of weeds. In removing bodies it would appear occasionally that one or two would be overlooked and remain undiscovered until years after the churchyard had become forgotten. A few years ago a resident of Powers Street, above Union Avenue, in having an excavation made in front of his door, was made aware, for the first time by coming upon a skeleton, that his house stood on an ancient graveyard. No one visiting the populous and lively neighborhood of Fifth and North Second St., to day would imagine that it ever contained a graveyard. But the southwest corner of Fifth and North Second Streets, now occupied as a coalyard, was the site of the First Methodist Church ever built in the Village of Williamsburg, the event dating more than half a century ago, and its churchyard occupied a considerable area between North First and North Second Streets. The whole face of the locality has been changed. The hill some twenty feet above the level of the old Jamaica Plank Road, by which name North Second Street, then the great thoroughfare of Williamsburg, was known, has been all cut away, and not a vestige of church or churchyard is visible there now. The old frame building is still in existence, doing a service as an unpretentious dwelling house, directly opposite the Catholic Church of St. Vincent de Paul, on North Sixth Street, whither it has been removed. An old resident identified it a few days ago by the symbol of a half moon which, as a church, it bore over the entrance and still retains.
As far back as 1835 dissentions arose in the old church, and a number of members, under the lead of William Ellis and George Mainwaring, both still living, severed their connection and formed a new organization, calling themselves Methodist Protestants. Having raised the necessary funds, they built a plain brick edifice on Grand Street, near Fifth, in which they still worship, leasing the upper part to the city for the use of the Fifth Judicial District Court.
September 17, 1883. Roger Williams, The Founder of the State of Rhode Island.
A Monument to be Erected to his Memory in the Welsh Burial Ground Adjoining Greenwood Cemetery. The Munificence of a Wealthy Brooklynite. An Interesting Sketch of the Proposed Tribute in Stone.
Nearly every one of the original States of the American Union has a sort of romantic beginning to its history, something by tradition or otherwise, which serves to from a link more or less strong to the older civilization existing in the Old World, and the little State of Rhode Island is not without her hero. Strict and Puritanical as were the first settlers of Massachusetts Bay and their immediate descendants, it only required the occasion to show that their rule of faith was such as to fall far short of the requirements of a truly catholic religious life. laws were enacted and enforced by the best minds of the colony which for intolerance, bigotry and uncharitableness by far exceeded anything that the settlers had fled from, and it is hardly to much to say that if the people of Leyden, in Holland, who sheltered and protected the grandsires of the Massachusetts Puritans of two generation after the arrival of the Mayflower had presented themselves at the good City of Boston, they would have been confronted with excommunication, ostracism and exile.
The story of Roger Williams is one of peculiar interest to the student of our history. Born within the church as then reformed, the son of a Welsh patriot preacher, fully inbred with the new Notions of civil and religious liberty so prevalent in the Seventeenth Century, it was to be expected that he would be welcomed by the people who had compelled to leave their native land in order that they might worship God according to the dictates of their own consciences. But the event proved otherwise. He had been taught and had increased his knowledge by intuition that according to the new philosophy there was something beyond freedom of action and political independence. He had learned that there was such a thing as freedom of the soul, and to his mind no place presented itself better suited for the full development of this new freedom than the New World. The result proved how fallacious were his dreams. He came, he saw and was driven forth from the presence of the elect of Massachusetts.
History deals with him after a fashion. He arrived in his canoe at the shores of Rhode Island and there planted his colony, absolutely the first on the American Continent that guaranteed to all a full freedom to worship in the manner the worshiper saw fit, or, if he saw fit, not to worship at all. Descended, as it is claimed he was, from the same source that the great Oliver Cromwell drew his blood, the same spirit that enabled that wonderful man to accomplish what he did, but in a different form sustained Roger Williams in his determination to perform the task he had set before him, and the result is seen in the history of this country. In the year 1683, just 200 years ago, he died, and was buried near the scene of his life's labor.
For more than a century there have been made from time to time spasmodic efforts to effect something in the way of erecting a fitting memorial to the founder of their State by the citizens of Rhode Island. The last initiated in April or May, 1860, and an association was formed, to whom a charter was granted by the Legislature of that State. Such names as Stephen Randall, Francis Wayland, William Sprague, Seth Padelford and William Gammelle figure in the list of incorportators, many of whom claimed to be lineally descended from Roger Williams. The object of the association was the erection of a suitable monument to the memory and honor of the State's founder. There was, however, little done except to organize, and on behalf of the citizens of Rhode Island it is charitably alleged that the tremendous civil strife the country so soon after entered upon placed it out of the question to proceed with any great diligence. There was a beautiful lithographed prospectus issued, a photograph of proposed handsome monument, to be one hundred and seventy feet in heighth, was circulated, and on the reverse of the card was printed among other things the fact that the munificent sum of one thousand dollars had been deposited in the names of three college presidents for the purpose of erecting the monument, and the rather sanguine calculation was announced that at the expiration of seventy-five years that sum would amount at compound interest to $100,000. Notwithstanding this cheering prospect, a sum was raised in the subsequent year amounting in the aggregate to a little more than 5, 000, and that much was deposited in various trust companies for the purpose of erecting the proposed monument.
ROGER WIILLIAMS PARK.
Some time afterward a lady, a descendant of Roger Williams, donated a handsome piece of ground on condition that it should forever be called Roger Williams Park and that a monument should be placed within it and other improvements made.
The Park is there, the other improvements have been made, but the monument one hundred and seventy feet in height has dwindled to a simple bust, something after the manner of the hideous affairs to be met with in our Metropolitan parks.
At the meetings held in Providence in the spring of 1860, Mr. Daniel Lloyd Jones, of this city, was present, and in the name and on behalf of the Cambrian National Standing Committee, presented the sum of one hundred dollars toward the corner stone of the proposed monument.
Meanwhile, there was accomplished one thing that was deserving of great praise: The grave of the founder of the colony had never been located in modern times. Where his bones rested was entirely unknown. No record remained, no simple memorial, no stone to mark the spot were the last rites had been performed was to be found; all material remains were gone of the man who had given them all that liberty and freedom which the people of Rhode Island claimed to enjoy to the exclusion of all the rest of their sister colonies. During the year 1860, then, such inquiries were made, old chronicles consulted and traditionally evidence adduced as to the finally locate the grave of Roger Williams. The grave was found but nothing whatever remained that could be identified. Not a bone was left, although quite nearby were discovered whole skeletons of Indians buried there perhaps ages before. Nothing, in fact was discovered but a few old nails of a pattern used in the time of Roger Williams death. A singular discovery was made on further examination. This was no less than the work of the root of an ancient apple tree. This root extended into the grave located as that of the patriot preacher. Where the skull might have been it curved as if following the contour of that portion, then it grew down along what should have been the spine in a trunk, then it branched as if following the lines of the lower limbs and where the bones of the feet turned up it also turned up, and thus having fed itself on the bone of the dead, it ceased to grow when that source of nourishment gave out. It is averred that this root when discovered, shoed the almost perfect outline of a human skeleton. In this way the fact is accounted for that not even the usual lime dust was to be found in the grave of Roger Williams. At another meeting of the promoters of the Providence monument, Mr. Jones was presented with a portions of the nails found in the grave, also a portion of the dust remains there, and a part of the wonderful root of the ancient apple tree.
There is a peculiar trait in the human character that is not too often found, that is a love of nationality, at least it is not too often found in the doing of unselfish works. Mr. Jones is an ardent lover of the country which gave him birth, and he loses none of his patriotism as an adopted citizen by his jealousy of anything that affects the honor of his native land. He as waited a long time for the citizens of Rhode Island to do proper offices to the memory of the great founder of their State, and he would willingly and munificently have contributed personally to the cost of the monument as originally designed. In the absence of further effort on the part of the people of Rhode Island to perpetuate the historic acts of Roger Williams by the erection of some suitable monument, he has taken upon himself the work of honoring the renowned colonist and his memory as a Welshman. Thus it comes to pass that it is left for our beautiful city and our famous Greenwood to be the locality of a monument worthy of the illustrious preacher and patriot.
A Monument To Be Erected In Greenwood.
One of the many entrances to Greenwood Cemetery, though by no means the handsomest is situated at Eighth avenue and Twentieth street. In a corner to the right as it is approached and abutting on Seventh avenue, there is a piece of land only about two acres in extent, and although it is surrounded on all sides by land of the cemetery company and can only be reached by way of a continuation of Seventh avenue, it is not a part of the famous City of the Dead.
For nearly half a century the plot has been property of Mr. Jones. It is protected from intrusion by a stout wooden fence and a gate that is nearly always locked. Locally it is known as the Welsh Burial Ground. Within there are numerous graves arranged seeming without any very great regard for method or design. The names upon the headstones are those very common among people of Cambrian origin, and but few of the inscriptions fall to record the fact that the deceased was born in Wales. Mr. Jones has held it all these ears as a place sacred to any of his nationality or their kindred who desired sepulture in the Welsh burial ground, and for graves or interments no charge has ever been made. Beside the many simple headstones scattered about there are quite a number of more pretentious monuments. The lad has never been disturbed by the landscape engineer, but remains in its general outline as it was a hundred years ago. Notwithstanding, a simple fence divides the plot from the artistic and ornately kept grounds of Greenwood Cemetery, this piece is a wild as the far off country. Situated on an eminence in the enclosure, Mr. Jones is erecting the memorial or monument to his famous countryman. The monument, when completed, will be unique in many respects.
Upon a solid base of concrete and broken stone is built a foundation seven feet deep and seven feet square. In or near the center of this foundation there is a pocket of large dimensions. Here Mr. Jones has deposited in a sealed earthenware vase a portion of the dust from Roger Williams's grave, and also from that of his wife, a few of the nails, a piece of the ancient apple tree's root and various other relics of great interest. The whole is sealed with a piece of the original stone upon which Roger Williams first set his foot on landing on Rhode Island. Upon this foundation stands the solid base of granite, 5x5 feet, then the die, 4.6x4.6, rests on the base, and in the cavity on the tip of the die have been deposited a variety of current coins. This was accomplished on the afternoon of the 13th inst. by Greenwood Lodge, F. and A. M. amid interesting ceremonies. A large number of brethren was present, headed by M. W. G. M. of the State. the contents of the cavity in the die having been duly sealed and certified the cap, 5x5.4x5.5.4, has been placed upon the whole, and the monument yesterday received the immense shaft of solid granite, nineteen feet in height and weighing fifteen tons. It is said that on its completion the monument will be surmounted by a tasteful urn, but as yet the design has not been determined on. No tools have been used upon the work except such as are absolutely necessary to erect it. The base, die, cap and shaft are all in nearly the same condition as when they left the quarry. In this feature the monument will present a striking contrast with the many handsomely tooled stones on the other side of the fence. The inscription on the stones will be simple, but what the words are to be is as yet unknown and will remain so until the day arrives for its unveiling. This will take place on some day this month or in early October.
The whole height of the monument will be about thirty-feet above the ground, but situated as it is on an elevated site, it will command attention for a great distance.
November 28, 1883. Thanksgiving.
Festivals are the humane expression of particular contentment and satisfaction, just as Fasts are of the opposite state of feeling and circumstances. They are as old as the everlasting hills and are not the offspring of any one religion. The pagans were more addicted to Thanksgiving festivals than Christians are and both pagans and Christians have often kept high festival over events which were not very creditable to them. Victory in unjust wars and the principle that "might makes right" have given occasion to many thanksgivings. There are "spots in the feasts of charity" among Christians, as St. Paul tells them, as well as in the orgies of the pagan and the savage over the slaughter of unequal foes.
But the true psalm of life and pæan of nature is a thanksgiving of peace. It is the spontaneous voice of man's rejoicing at the results of his own industry and his gratitude that the kindly fruits of the earth have responded to the labor of his hands, the forethought of his intelligence and the desire of his heart. Hence thanksgiving festivals are agricultural, not ecclesiastical in their origin. The theology of thanksgiving is the theology of action. Indeed, theology itself is the child of Tellus. David, and Addison after David, and many other poets beside David and Addison, of many other religions besides the Hebrew and the Christian, have read theology in the sun and stars. But the genesis of religion was terrestrial. The fruits and flowers, the fields white unto the heavest and the wilderness blossoming as the rose were the primer of man's theological leaning. And when he found that without the aid of those celestial bodies and those mysterious elements over which he had no control his labor and foresight were in vain, he advanced in his studies and saw God in the heavens as well as in the earth beneath. But he is still a child, and the more childlike in spirit the more really wise. His thanksgiving is to "the Eternal, not himself," that helps him, and his first thanksgiving feast was a "harvest home."
It may seem impeachment for any but the President of a nation, the Governor of a State or the Mayor of a city to venture upon an ex cathedra theological exposition on the recurrence of our annual Thanksgiving day. It is the one occasion when these civil and military pontiffs drop into piety. But although the Saul of Massachusetts or New York is "among the prophets" on this occasion only, truth is as true when spoken by secular lips and municipal mouthpieces as when preached by a doctor of divinity. Hence, we deem these foolish who refuse to be thankful because reminded of that duty by the secular powers, and still more foolish those who object to Thanksgiving day as a relic if not a sanction of the defunct union of Church and State. We may accept old customs and usages with other and broader interpetations of them than those of their founders. The Puritan fast has become the Thanksgiving festival, and it is as a festival and a holiday that Americans keep it up.
It is an excellent day for travel, especially in such glorius weather as this, the consequence, no doubt, of the recent evacuation of the British. Thanksgiving day is to many families the only opportunity for a family reunion in the year. Christmas brings with it too great of a rush of business for visits to the country of the entertainment of country cousins by city folk. New Year's day is devoted to one immediate neighboorhood. The Fourth of July is given up to local demonstrations. But Thanksgiving Day is the great family holiday, when every one reconnoiters the genealogical tree and visits his or her relations. If the town mouse does not spend the day with the country mouse, it is only because the country mouse has come to town.
These family reunions are brooks of pleasant reminiscence in the desert of our modern agoistic life. They keep alive the social law of Christianity and of all true religion, the law of loving kindness. There is no word in the English dictionary that is so full of meaning as that old Saxon word, kindness. Thanksgiving Day is a gregarious holiday, the kindly festival of kindred.
But as the question "Who is my neighbor?" is asked in the parable, so the question "Who are our kindred?" is proper to Thanksgiving Day. Some Christians talk much about their kindred in heaten and savage lands, and contribute their odd pennies toward providing them with doctrinal tracts which they cannot read and moral pockethandkerchiefs which they will not use. Surely, we have kindred nearer home that need food and clothing and a taste now and then of happiness and enjoyment of life which are of the essence of humane and, therefore, of divine religion. Thanksgiving day is a splendid epportunity for the diffusion of the kindly principle. Here at our own door step are naked to be clothed and hungry to be fed. Let all have share in the Thanksgiving feast. They need it most who have least to be thankful for, whose book of life is full of sharp adversity with few parentheses of joy. If there were no other raison d'etre for this annual day of Thanksgiving, the mistery around us would supply it. And the most sociable and Christian observance of it is to feed the hungry and brighten the sunshine for those who are less forunate than ourselves. So long as selfishness and cynicism dominate the world we have need of a Thanksgiving Day as the protest of human kindness against them.
December 24, 1883. Christmas Day.
The difficulty of saying anything new about Christmas day reminds us of the story told of Leonardo Da Vinci, who, having exhausted his creative faculty upon the faces of the Apostles, left Christ's picture unfinished, finding himself unable to conceive a countenance that should express worthily the benign aspect of the Saviour. It is true, perhaps, of Christian churches and individuals not less than of the great artist, that their Christ is still unfinished and that the ideals they form of Him in their hearts can find no adequate realization. The sense of imperfection which characterizes the lines even of the best of Christians illustrates this, and still more does the history of Christian civilization. The question which Christ asked of one of the disciples: "Have I been so long with you and yet hast thou not known Me?" might well be asked of all the churches, creeds, laws, institutions and charities that have been based upon His name. We have but to look at the sin and misery, the cruelty and injustice, the ignorance and prejudice, the selfishness and want that about in every Christian land to feel that the world's picture of Christ has never been finished, that Christ is yet to be, and has need to be born again every Christmas day.
In saying this we are very far from denying the meliorative influences of Christianity upon the past and the present. Even Gibbon admits that hospitals owe their inception to Christianity; and there were no doubt many forms of vice and cruelty which abounded in heathendom and which Christianity overcame if it did not wholly extinguish. This limitation is necessary, because the cruelties practiced even in Christian nations in the past excite horror in the present, just as those still existing will excite abhorrence in the future, if the mind of Christ makes progress in the world. We see a good omen that it will do so in the fact that forms and dogmas are not deemed the essential elements of the Christian religion as they used to be, and that the churches themselves are awakening to the truth that Christianity is a theology of action, of social virtue and the spirit of humanity and kindness.
This spirit is alive and active in the civilization of to-day. It pervades much of our literature and the face of the Son of Man is seen faintly through the breaking clouds. But the great centers, the cities, like London, Paris, and New York, still bear terrible witness that Christ's picture remains unfinished. The Church is, no doubt, conscious of this and is working hard with its brain and with its brush. But one of the greatest Christian priests of the present century, the late Dr. Pusey, used always to speak of London to his friend, Dr. Liddon, as "that vast heathen city in which you are a canon." The statistics of church attendance are not the criterion we must go by. The physical and social condition of the poor is the test of what Christianity is doing. A government may uphold the religion of Christ by its laws, may endow a particular form of it and seat its chief priests in the national Senate, but that does not Christianize the masses. Churches may be built in every street, but if within a stone's throw of each and in the very heart of a metropolis, human beings are huddled together in a condition of famine, impurity and degradation which would be impossible upon savages, a State Church is but a name and national Christianity a fiction. In our own country, whose Constitution, as George Washington avowed, is not based upon the Christian religion but upon the rights of man, more has been done by the voluntary principle of Christian philanthropy than a State Church could have done for us. New York, bad as it is, compares favorably with London. Yet the fashionable churches which pay salaries of $20,000 a year to their ministers are very far from realizing the ideal of Christian churches. The Face is still wanting in their picture of Him who "went about doing good," who was a physician to the sick as well as a teacher to the ignorant and who would to-day be ill at ease in many of His Fifth Avenue temples. Most Christians believe in culture, in comfort for themselves and in external decency and dress, but when the Creed is said and Doxology sung their gospel ends.
Perhaps a Christian nation, city or community on a large scale is a Utopia that can exist only in the imagination. It may be as impracticable as Christ's counsels of perfection in the Sermon on the Mount are in the daily lives of individuals. But though the highest mark cannot be reached, there are relative approaches to it which can be aimed at and are not impossible of attainment to combined as well as to individual effort. As the individual can cease to do evil and learn to do well, so the community can cast out many social evils and do much to cleanse and purify its lower strats. Diseases which cannot wholly be cured may yet be alleviated.
When this is done in earnest by united effort Christianity, like its Founder, will "grow in wisdom and stature and in favor with God and man." It was an Infant's form lying in a manger which we commemorate on Christmas day. It is the perfect form of the Son of Man glorified through suffering which the Christian civilization of the future may yet be present. Society, like St. Paul, has long borne about in its body the dying of Christ; let the life also of Christ be made manifest in its body. The ideal of a Christian Commonwealth is yet to be realized. The Puritans had an idea of it, but they knew not what spirit Christianity is of. An eloquent living prelate has said that if Christians were only of one mind and one faith for a single hour they could transform the world. But putting aside unanimity in dogma let us imagine the whole Christian society rising up, as one man, on some Christmas morning, with the firm resolution of cleaning out the Augean stable of Christian pauperism and its attendant wretchedness and vice. They would revolutionize the world. The heathen would be converted at the spectacle. The most utilitarian States and legislatures would be aroused to the claims of debased and suffering humanity. Instead of voting millions for useless and inglorious foreign wards, at the call of an ecumenical Christian morality, even the most venal politicians would join in the crusade against the sins of great cities and let light and air, food and warmth into the crowded tenements of misery.
This is what individual Christian socialists are trying to do, but they are comparatively powerless against the festering mass of corruption which Christian civilization ignores and tolerates. Here and there the lifeboat picks up one and another from the sinking ship, but tens of thousands perish. A vast majority of Christians perform what they consider their religious duties by deputy; they find a substitute in the war with evil. The city missionary and district visitor are the substitutes, and when a small subscription is paid for their services the Christian soul takes its ease, eats, drinks and is merry. City missions are the confession and apology of society for its own indifference to the cause of Christ and humanity. The missionary sees a little of what the easy going church member will not look at. We pay him to cover up a horror which would shock our refinement, as we pay an undertaker to remove a corpse. Yet the return of Christmas brings with it the hope that at last Christianity will complete the picture of Christ. When that Face is seen in its beauty and obscuring mists that hide it are swept aside, a Christian republic will be possible, and the tears of sorrow and stains of sin will be wiped away. The Christian Church will then fulfill her mission to the poor and shine forth as Zion, the City of God. The hungry who will be fed tomorrow, the naked who will be clothed, the despondent who will be cheered by human sympathy in the name of Christ are but as drops in the great sea of want and misery. But the little that is done is an earnest of wider, deeper, more extended effort while philanthropy shall be universal and the mind of Christ be diffused for the healing of nations as well as individuals. Then the "merry Christmas" will be shared by all, and the music of the churches will be telephoned throughout the world and every child of labor and conflict on life's battle field will sing the angels' song of "peace on earth; good will to men of good will."