Sunbury American. [volume] (Sunbury, Pa.) 1848-1879, 1849-08-04
THE DESTROYER.

Ll-oll 20 f' -- H.5rr
. THE DESTROYER.
I Truly the destroyer is in our midst
among US is 'the pestilence that walketh
IN darkness, and wasteth at noonday.'-
week after week hundreds have fallen
around, and. as yet, there is but little abate-
ment IN the number of deaths. Death is
everywhere. We see his traces by the
Grape upon the door, BY the s'weeds" upon
lamenting friends, and by the many pro-
cesslons which pass our streets.
Nor is it merely an individual here and
there who falls a victim. Whole families
are swept away, and lasye buildings are left
desolate. Directly between our Office and
residence the disease assumed a most ma
llgnant aspect. The locality is elevated
from one to three hundred feet above the
level of the river, and for few weeks but
little indication of sickness was manifest;
bnt 1T came suddenly like the falling of an
avalanche, and the whole hillside became
scene ofsuftring and wo. rf.
with one family we were personally ac-
qualnted. The parents were members of
the Church in Pittsburg, where we were
stationed in 1884, and frequently had we
met together in the house of God and in a
praying circle. On Sunday, their son, a
lad Of some fourteen years, was severely
attacked, and on Monday morning daugli-
ter passed rapidly into collapse. We visi-
ted them on Monday, and the rest of the
family appeared TO be in good health. We
T1prt tn col lad L., Al e
ternoon we were ourselves put upon bed
OF sickness. BY. the following Thursday.
the father, mother and three daughters were
swept away, the son alone slowly recover
ing. rrss# --.y -ar4f .sg
When we visited them, lady sat watch
ing the boy while the parents were more
particularly employed in behalf OF their
daughter, who was in severe pain. We
noticed the countenance of the lady as she
sat by the bedside. No tear dropped from
her eye, no word Of sorrow broke from her
| lips. But she sat as if communing with
grief. She was their next door neighbor,
stranger recently from Baltimore. The
day before she had lost three children, and
one of them then lay unburied, while she
was watching with her neighbors, who had
been attentive to her poor departed ones.
She, too, passed away, and the husband
alone remained, having, in a few days,
buried his wife and all his children. Poor
woman, we thought, she had met her chill
dren Why should she weep for the sep
aration OF a few hours,
Immediately across the street the entire
family died at the same period, while in
adjoining houses many were suddenly cut
off. Thus has the cholera performed its
othce among us, removing alike the old
man bending under the weight of years,
and the child full of life and buoyancy.-
The poor and the rich have bowed before
it and though its greatest ,ravages have
been among the foreign population, yet
many Of the most estimable and pious of
our native population have perished. We
now hope that we have passed through the
severest of the attack, and that henceforth
it will diminish: but this is known only to
God.-Cincinnati Christian .7drocate.
INCIDENTS OF THE WRECK OF THE CHARLES
BARrLErr.-A lady passenger in the steamer
Europa, in a letter TO the National Intelligent
Ger, relates the following incidents in that
terrible catastrophe;- '-o ' '
"The wild despair of one poor man shall
never forget; he, literally lost his all-his
wife and four, children, his aged parents,
brother, wife, and their children, and his
whole fortune, The poor creature wrung his
hands and tore his hair-it was heartrending
to see him. There were 35 children under
sixteen, and seven under eleven months on
board, = =, i. Capt. Forbes, of Bos-
ton, as soon as the accident took place, pulled
off his coat and shoes and plunged overheard
rope in hand, TO do all he could; he saved
one poor man, who died before he got him
alongside the ship. A more heroic. deed
never saw, and sturdy men shed tears when
he came back to the cabin safe among us.
The captain of the wrecked bark is sun
burt old sailor, with thirty years Of his service
to look back to, and, as he told US this is his
first accident; he had never buried soul
from any ship he had commanded. 4 The
tears ran down his rough and sunbunt face
as he told US the scene before his vessel went
down." I'd. 90 7..3.. ... ..r..4.s .. ca
| A lady was asked TO Join a division of the
Daughter, of Temperance. She replied, 'It
is unnecessary; as it is my intention to join
one of the Sons soon.n
TIM STATE TAx--Berks county has paid