Phenix gazette. [volume] (Alexandria [D.C.]) 1825-1833, 1830-04-30

" IN tis poA
disaster, are taken from the Albany Daily Ad-
~vertiser. There is something in the heroic and
religious fortitude with which young Cassidy met
his fate, that, must claim the respect of every one
that reads Of it, and call for more than the com.
mon place expressions of concern at the effects
of so shocking an occurrence.
James Cassidy is the son of the widow Cassidy
of this city, and his body has been brought here.
He was about 16 years old. At the time of the
explosion, he was standing near the boiler. in
conversation with young man named Michigan,
a cousin of his, also a hand on board the boat
McQuigan rushed aft, assembled the stairs to the
ladies' cabin, and escaped unhurt. Another per-
son, Immediately behind him, fell at the foot of
the stairs, and the vapor overtaking him, he was
badly soalded. The unfortunate Cassidy leap
ed to a window, near the boiler, with the object
Of precipitatmg himself into the river, but the
scalding water arrested his course. He was most
shockingly burnt in the face as well as the body,
and there was no doubt that had he lived, he would
have been forever bind. He was taken ashore
at Newburgh, and ne asked that he might look at
himself in a glass. He exclaimed, "My God, IS
this James Cassidy? 1t is, and ne must now
prepare himself for dea,h." He requested that
u CleTgy Iudu Dll1nI Dt SCut IOis w P'av VIZ 'N's
and when it was proposed to him to take lauda-
mum to ease his pains, he refused, saying that he
feared it would Supply him, and he wished to re-
tain all his faculties to prepare himself for the
great and last change. He lived about five hours
during nearly all which time, he was engaged IN
prayer and religious conversation. His life had
been always irreproachable, and the manner of
his death showed his strong reliance on him whom
throughout his short life, he had always reverent-
ly worshipped, and whose precepts he had al
ways endeavOred to fulfil.
When Mr.. McQuigan returned below, he heard
the groans of a person near the boiler, and on
feeling for him in the dark, he found aman nearly
covered with water, and in the most appalling
distress. He, with the assistance of another,
lifted him into the cabin; but he was unable to
speak, having inhaled a great deal of the burning
vapor, and he died shortly after. He was an En-
glishman. and his name is supposed to be Roe.
Two Of the persons who were scalded, and who
were living on deck near the ladies' cabin, be-
sought the bystanders in the most moving terms,
to throw them overheard, that an end might be
put to their excruciating misery. They soon af-
ter died.
On Saturday Judge King passed sentence on
Jacob LentZ and William Clark, who were con-
victed at the recent Oyer and Terminer of MUIR
der in the second degree, the one on mis- wife, the
other on an acquaintance at a social party. The
Judge delivered very affecting and excellent
address to the cU!p1ts, and stated that their Of
fences we committed under circumstance of such
peculiar %atrocity, that the highest punishment
prescribed by the laws must be pronounced.-
They were accordingly sentenced each to twelve
years solitary confinement in the new peniten-
tiary. at labour. In his address the Judge allud-
ed to a circumstance which rendered the catas-
trophe peculiarly tragic. When the young man
was stabbed to the heart by LentZ, he bounded
with a shrek into the arms of his mother, and
there instantly expired-'the hearts blood of her
son stained her garments.'-PhA. Gaz.
-esoe4a~
At a late trial of Monroe Corey, for the MUIR
der of Hosea Hill, in Niagara county, New-York,
a lad was brought forward as a witness, the only
one of Importance for the prosecution, whose
gross ignorance caused the rejection of his testi-
mony. The Rochester Daily Advertiser says:
The lad was totally unacquainnted with the
nature of an oath-did not know his own age
had never been to school or ~meeting-never
heard about a God till brought into court, &c.
Judge Gardiner remarked that the boy was in
competent; that a conviction upon such testimo-
ny should not be risked; that any evidence he
might give. could not be considered as under the
responsibility ofan oath; that the precedent would
be a bad one, SC.
-se9e7es~
The grand jury of the circuit court for Pike
County, Alabama, at a late term, presented Ma
jor Philip Wager of the United States army.
for an alledged infraction of the rights of the CT
tlzens of Alabama, he having issued a proclama-
ton, by order of the Secretary of war. directing
all white persons not having permits, or Indian
wives,to leave the territory of the Greek Indians
within fifteen days. The grand jury pronounce
the Major and his men guilty of a violation of
the laws of Alabama, that state, at the last session
of the Legislature, having extended its jurisdic-
ton over the said territory.
~-sas0e7an-
Philadelphia, .April27.-The trials of the per-
sons concerned in the robberies of the Kimber-
ton and Reading mails last winter, were this NOR
ming commenced, in the Circuit Court of the u.
States, before Judges Baldwin and Hopkinson.
The first trial is that of George Wilson, who
is indicted for the attack on the Reading mail,