Southport telegraph. [volume] (Southport, W.T. [i.e. Kenosha, Wis.]) 1840-1850, 1847-12-01
THE PROPELLER PHOENIX.

will be found in an article from the Milwau-
kee Sentinel, on our first page.
That the fire was the result of carelessness
the most criminal, is sufficiently evident.
The I'd Engineer, who is among the lost,
and who, consequently, can "lelI no tales"
is made to bear the burden of the blame.
Whether the culpability should all attach to
HIM, and the other officers Of the Inflated
craft be released entirely from responsibility
in the premises, is question which cannot
now be satisfactorily determined. One fact,
however, cannot but strike The public unfa-
vorably as regards the officers and crew of
the boat, viz: that SO great proportion of
their number was saved, and so small pro-
portion of the passengers. The Captain
may escape censure, under the circumstan-
ces, but public opinion cannot exonerate and
excuse the rest.
An awful responsibility rests somewhere !!
to have been even the unthinking, careless
instruments of so awful calamity, will
occasion feelings and reflections in the
breasts Of those who know themselves TO
be culpable, TO the force and poignancy of
which public sentiment, however exhibited,
could add but little. We speak not con-
corning the dead. However terrible may
have been their sufferings during the brief
period of their struggle with the fiery ele-
ment by which they were surrounded, or
with the hardly less threatening surges of
the dark sea of water into which they may
have been driven-these are all over now
and the story of those sufferings, in each in
dividual case, must forever remain untold
to mortal ears, except so far as the blacken-
ed, stiffened corses which may strew the
beach, shall unfold it. Upon the living has
the heaviest blow been inflicted. Here
may be found the saddest chapter Of the
history-a chapter of desolated hearhs and
stricken and agonized hearts--a chapter the
material for which may be gathered not from
the Borrowings of one bereaved spirit alone,
but from those of hundreds, nor from the
loss of one family circle, or of one neighbor-
hood alone, but from that Of many. To
! have the dearest ties of nature sundered by
the hand of death, even when the approach
of the grim monster is expected, and he
appears in his most common form, is no
slight trial for the human heart; but when
those ties are sundered under circumstances
like these, who can picture the intensity
of suffering which the bereayed spirit is
called upon TO bear!
The slight hope entertained for day or
two after the news of the calamity, that our
fellow -townsman Mr.. Bish might, after all,
be found among the saved, and be restored
to his family and friends, is of course no
longer INDUCED in. That he was one of
the victims, admits no longer of doubt.
Our friend is no more! In recording
his death, we cannot forbear a passing tri-
butte to his memory. Mr.. Blish was one Of
the earliest residents of Wisconsin, having
emigrated TO the Territory in 1888 or "a.
He was born in Walpole, n. H., and AT the
time of his death, was within a few days
OF thrtythree years of age. For six or
seven years prior to 1910, he resided at
Green Bay. In 1910 he removed to this
village, and engaged in the mercantile BUSH
/ ness. He had earned for himself an envia-
BILE reputation as a business man, and a high
character as an intelligent and useful citizen
Our village furnishes evidences OF his enter
prize. The large warehouse and pier he
had just completed are among these eviden-
ces. His loss cannot but be considered a
public loss. But however much, as the
loss of useful citizen, the death of Mr.. b.
may be lamented, his friends, those who
had known him longest and best, have other
reasons for their regret. They mourn the
loss of one whom generous nature, and
shining social qualities, had made an object
peculiarly worthy of regard and affection.
The nobeness and generosity of his DISPOSE
ton were strikingly exhibited in his efforts
for the preservation of the lives of others
even at the risk and sacrifice of his Hn life.
The incident, as related, of the assistance he
gave to the invalid commander of the ill-la-
ted Phenix, helping him from his berth to
the deck, and then insisting upon his taking
aplace in one of the small boats which SEEM
ed TO be the only chance for the preservation
of life, while he himself stood aside, decln-
ing to occupy the place-is one which illus
trates the noble and generous points OF his
character in language more forcble than any
we could employ. II selishness had been
a part of his nature surely it would have
shown itself at a time like this. Such a
spirit may not have bowed itself to crecds,
nor have worshipped in the public congre-
CATION but there was a divinity in it which
Mainly ,ndicated i,s ieoitima TO home in no