Madison Whig advocate. [volume] (Canton, Miss.) 1839-1841, 1840-04-18

| A WIN SKETcH.--In letter from
/ Portland to the editor of the New York
| Signal, John Neal refers to the recent
| dreadful steamboat disaster:--
To-day we read of a steamboat blown
up-and fifty or hundred human be-
| ings scattered piece-meal over land and
sea; or men, women and children perish
ing by scores, in the whirlpool Of the
Mississippi To-norrow-as in the case
Of the Royal Tar-we read Of another
burt at sea, and almost within cables
length OF the land, at MONDAY, in a
pleasant season of the year, when earth,
sea and sky were undisturbed and beau
tilul when at the first cry of horror,
the passengers rushed upon deck only TO
hear the flames bursting over them, with
the noise and strength Of hurricane ;;
the lions and tigers raging and ramping
in their cages, the elephant trumpeting
through the smoke, and the horses plum
ging one after another into the still
smooth deep, followed by distracted wo-
men and children, with their clothes all
on fire. And, again, after another brief
interval, this frightful exhibition is re-
peated in another, and still more appai-
ing shape. At midnight IN the depth of
winter. within two miles of the peopled
shore, from one hundred TO one hundred
and fifty human beings 1--WE shall never
know how many and must guess at the
truth,) are heard waiIing upon the deep:
here mother clinging TO her babe, and
screaming for another to be cast upon
the waters, that all may perish together;
there man who had just been to gather
up all that remained of his dead brother
tor sepulture, plunging into the sea to
escape immediate suffocation; here moth |
ers driven away by the fire and smoke |
from their own children, and Husbands |
from their wives; there a little blindfol- |
ded sufferer ahoat with his mothers veil |
wrapped round his face; here a strug-
Cling multitude, slowly disappearing in
the foam andtumuIt of the vessels wake.
as the flames thunder athwart the sky |
and brighten their upturned faces. And I
then after the night has half worn away,
and a vessel heaves in sight, and there is
hope among the few wretched survivors
that their lives may at last be spared
them-they see her passing by on the
other side, and leave them to perish-I
OH if there be any thing that can add
10 the bitterness OF death-s9it is this. it
IS this.o And then, as day after day
passes by, and hope after hope goes out
IN the blackness of darkness, TO hear of
some one of the wretched survivors drift
ing ashore--at a great distance, more
lead than aiive--uHable to communicate
Ms name perhaps: a dead body here, and /
another dead body there; and to find the
lewspa pers fell of remarks offered bv !
he bereaved and broken hearted, and :
ales OF providential escape, that s.thrill {
he hearers blood,n and, last of all, to /
cad OF a boat being found at sea with {
hree dead men in it, sitting up and fro :
en- stiff and stark. Almighty God. I'll {
here be aughs under heaven calculated c
, awaken his peopls to their desperate /
ladness and foity, in 50 hazarding their n
YES. they have il therei And then !.
,at continually growing list of names; a
ls absolute certainty, that in almost all
irh cdses we shall never know-neverl
-never-the whole extent of the calam-
Y, so that some who are unaccountablyl
issing, may hereafter be reckoned a.