Democratic banner., 1847-04-19

The child had been pulled out alive, anc
carried to the workhouse; but the father
was still lying there upon the dung heap Of
the fallen roof, slightly covered with &
piece of canvass. On lifting this, a humila.
ting spectacle presented itself. What rags
the poor man had upon him, when buried
beneath the failing root, were mostly torn
from lis body in the last faint struggle 70,
life; MS neck and shoulders and right arm
were burnt to a cindcr. Tims lie lay in the
ruin, like the carcase of a brute beast
thrown upon ti:e dung hill. As we contin-
Iued our walk along this filthy lane, half
naked wouncn and children would come out
of their ca"ins. apparently in :he last stage
of the fever, TO beg for food "for the honor
OF Cod rs they stood upon the wet
.grcrnd, We could almos: see :: smoke be-
meath their bar" iect. burning wish The fc-
YER We entered the graveyard. in the
midst ii mich was a smai: wotct .rrse.-
This rnlses1atr sled had scr;cd a. r grave
where iii" dying could barry Themselves
1t was seven feet long and SIX in breadth.
Ii was already walled round on the outside
with an em5ankinent of graves half way 10
the caves. The aperture Of this horrible
den Of death would scarcely admit the en-
trance of a common sized person. And
into this noiSolnc sepulchrc living men, wo-
men and children went down to die; to PHI
low upon the rotten straw, the grave clothes
vacated by preceding victims, and Tester
ing with their fever. Here they lay as
closely to each other as if crowded side by
side OF the bottom of one grave. Six per-
sons had been found in this fetid scpulchre
at one time, and with one only able to
crawl TO the door and to ask for water
Removing a board from the cntranccof this
black hole Of rrstilcnce, we found it cram.
med with wan victims of famine. ready and
willing to perish. A quiet, ~listlcss despair
over the population, and cradles,
men for the grave.
Returned from this painful walk, nearly
wet through and sad at TIE thought that |
could not administer any relief TO my per-,
Ishing fello" beings. spent this evening.
writing letters to England.
.SiGbeyeen, Frb. 81. DR.. Dono-
called at 2 p. NJ. and we proceeded to-
visit a laIc Of novels on the oppo-I
side Of the village. The wretched-
ness Of this little mud-cit of the dead and
lying wac Of a deeper stamp than the one
saw yesterday. Here human beings and
clayey hahitations seemed to be melt
ing down together into the earth. l can
no language or Illustration sufficiently
impressive to portray the spectacle to AMI
American reader. A cold drizzling rainI
sasdecpening the pools Of black filth, intoI
which it fell like ink drops from the clouds.
Few OF the young or old have not read of
he scene exhibited on the field of battleI
after the action, when visited by the sur
,eon. The cries of the wounded and dy-I
ng for hep have been described by many
pens. The agonizing entreaty for
water. wa:cr.! help! help!n' has been
conveyed to our minds with painful dis
inctness. | can likcn the scene we be-
lcld in this low lane of famine and pesti-
ence &c nothing of greater family rcscm-
than that of the battle field, wlrenI
he hostile armies have retired, leaving one
.tird of their number bleeding upon the
As soon as DR.. Donovan appeared at the
read of the lane, it was filled with misera-
BE beings, haggard, famine-stricken men,,
women and children, some far gone in the
consumption of the famine fever, and all
mploring him 'forthe honor of God" to goI
n and see ''my MOTHER" "ny father" "my
wife" ''my boy" "who is very bad your
And then in%terspersed with these
earnest entreaties, others louder still would
be raised for bread. In every howell we
we found the dying or the dead
In one of these straw rooted burrows eight