Bloomington herald. [volume] (Bloomington, I. T. [Iowa]) 1840-1849, 1843-10-06
Dreadful E11ol0sjOss.
Louisiana Chronicle Extra.


Louisiana Chronicle Extra.
Wednesday morning, Sept. goth, 1913.
DesrRUcTIoN OF The STEAMER CLIPPER
M. I-GRrAr Loss OF L1rE.-It has become
onr mournful duty to record one of the most
terrible catastrophes which has ever happened
lon the Mississippi. Yesterday, at about
/ III No, 1. was backing out from her moorings
a our landing, she blew up, with an explosion
| that shook earth, air and heaven. as though
the walls of the world were tumbling to pieces
about our ears. All the boilers bursting 81
mul.aneousy, machinery. vast fragments OF
| the boilers, huge beams of timber, furnl ure
and human Aeings in every direction, were a.
| like shot up perpendicularly many hundred
fa,homs in tie air. On reaching the great
height, the various bodies diverged like jets
of a fountain in all Notwithstanding to the
earth and upon roofs Of houses, in some instan-
ces, as much as two hundred and fifty yards
| from the scene ofdestruction.
| The hapless victims were scalded, crushed,
form, mangled aid scattered in every direction
-many into tie river, some in the streets,
some on the oher side of the Bayou, nearly
| 800 yards; some torn asunder by coming In
contact with picke.s and post, and others shot
| like caynon-balls through the solid walls OF
houses at great distance from the boat. All
| in front of the wheel house appears as though
swept by whirlwind. But anything like an
adequate description of the scene Of the wreck
| and ruin, is utterly out Of the question. What
remains of the hull has been firmly dashed to
| The shore j; but it seems to have broken in two
and partially sunk. She had just taken on
board, at the Rail Road Depot about &c bales
Of cotton, nearly all of which together with
the money -chest and most of the cabin furn;
turs.) we are glad to learn, has been saved.
On reaching the spot under whip and spur,
We Immediately bent our steps towards the
temporary hospital hastily prepared for the re-
eepiion Of such as might be found to retain
spark of life. The scene was such as we hope
never to look upon again. The floor Of the
two large ware-rooms were literally strewed
with the wounded and dying, and others pour
Ling in as fast as it was possible to convey
them--praying, groaning, bowling, and writh-
| ing in every possible contortion of physical
agony. In the midst ofths confusing din; up
Ito their arm-pits in oil and cotton and banda
ges, we found our praiseworthy physicians,
| like good Samaritans, doing good, quietly and
silently, but with the activity, apparently, Of
fifty pair of hands-now washing burn now
dressing wound, and anon spintering frac-
tured limb. Indeed, our citizens generally
every man and mothers son-appeared only
anxious as to how they might render some
service to the sufferers.
The following are the most important par
ticulars, as far as we have been able to gather
them.
The crew consisted of captain, mate, Q
clerks, 3 engineers, 3 pilots, carpenter,
Waterman, chambermaid, stewards, 8
cooks, Is fireman, 8 deck hands.
Passengers-L. Thomas, missing; P. B.
Montamat, commission merchant, New Or
leans and one small boy wounded.
Deck passengers-l wounded 2 not hurt.
Capt. Laurent escaped unhurt. Mr.. Bes-
sey, chief clerk, missing, and second clerk
killed. John Tyson, chief engineer, badly
wounded. VIM. Sampler, second engineer,
was thrown $50 or 200 yards through the roof
and gable end of a house into back yard a.
| ganst fence-one arm torn off and fragments
Of his body scattered over the trees. William
Nelson, third engineer, killed. Arnault ].
L.vaud, pilot, missing; w. Wall, pilot killed;
jam Peterson, mate, badly scalded, though
likely to recover; Gabriel Pool, carpenter,
missing; Waterman, killed; Chambermaid,
saved unhurt; Stewards, all killed or miss
ing; two of the cooks killed aud one wounded:
eight fremen killed or missing; four deck
hands killed or missing.
i may be we'll enough here to state, that all
those who have been put down as missing,
aredeubtless dead, as every search has been
male in the vicinity to recover the bodies in
vain. They have doubtless found watery
grs'e. The remains of those picked I'D on
shore were inferred decently.
The Waterman, white man, was thrown
alive 100 yards through the solid wall of Ba-
ksr's Hotel, into bed. He retained his SEN
ses perfectly for some time after, but the poor
fellow expired during the evening. The cab.
| in boy was thrown 200 yards through the
| roof of shed, and was picked up in a man
ged condition.
Mr.. Thomas, the grocer of Bayou Sara,
had but just quit his family and stepped on
board when the explosion occurred. His wife
| and child. and another lady and child who
| happened to be with her, hearing the uproar
ran Immediately to the front window to ascer-
tain the cause. They had scarcely done so,
when with deafening crash, driving in
third of the entire roof in It's descent. Law a
vast fragment of the boiler on the yery spot
they had just quilted,
+. ). Since the above was in type, we have
learned the death of another fireman.
MARTIN VAN buren, AT HoME.-The Dem
ocratic Convention of Columbia county, New
York, at their recent session, adopted the fol-
lowing resolution, unanimously Mr.. Van
Buren, was born, reared and now resides in
Columbia county: