Belmont chronicle. [volume] (St. Clairsville, Ohio) 1855-1973, 1856-04-24
-0fiaiilaI aaprtrv.
Lines written on hearing Of the
Catastrophe at Camden.

Gay, 90 you 0e1r tDdl sOuTu ol woe
That Hoatsu upon the Eastern breeze,
While throbs the heart in pulses low,
And the life blood's quick gushes freezel
Death seems to wear the yictor's crown,
And reign in triumph Ger our race;
As in the city, country, town,
His pallor's seen in every face.
The placid tide of Delaware
.. Has bursted from her icy chain,
Rejecting on her bosom fair
The forms of springs rsturning train,
When to their home. on Jerseys shore,
1sborne happy company,
Anticipating Joys in store
That home bestows, in friendship free.
Watched from the iers or either side,
The bark that held the living freight
Rode proudly DER the swelling ude-
As conscious Of her bur len great
When quick, ON ibeir DISTRACTED gaze,
Burst forth the flames OF larid light,
And every eye in sore amaze
Is fixed in terror on hesight.
Oh! dreadful was the scsne to view,
On board OF that devoted wreck,
When youth and age and beauty too,
Came crowding to the burning dock;
When groans and shrieks and plaintive cries,
From frightened hearts commingIing rose,
And paliid cheeks and quaiIing eyes
Betrayed the thoughts of coming woes!
And fervent prayers were breathed there
From lips that never prayed before,
While Faith in trust of High Heavens power
Beheld unblanched, deaths opening door;
And blasphemies and curses loud
Were yelled with wild and fearful rave,
As fying-wrapped in burning shrouds-
They plunged beneath the yawning wave,
And there were sudden partings too,
And mournful sights too sad to tell,
When dearest friends, long tried and rue,
Embraced and sighed their last farewell;
When husbands, wives and children all,
Whose hearts in fondest love were bound,
Were covered BY the watery pail
That closed their lifeless forms around.
And women fair. with stihed BREATH
Called hopelessly for helr to save,
And struggling in the jaws of d, aih
Strong men ~ere battling with the wave;
And there.--but who can e'er portray
uS doIIOIS VI I SCtnsi
When fire and flood in dire array
Were hurrying souls to realms unseen.
The morn, scarce by his Orient beams,
Had chased away the nightly gloom,
When far and near the water te, ms
With scarchers Of the fatal tomb;
And eager on the extended shore
A countless multitude appears,
Whose quiVering lips, and weepings sore
Told plainly of tormenting fears.
AS one by enc the ghastly dead
Are dr. gged from out tleir grave SO drear,
With anxious looks, 'twixt hope and dread,
They start to see their co mrades dear,
And then with one wild note of grief,
They clasp the cold and silent clay
OF what of all theirjoys seem ed chief,
Because twas torn SO soon away
Beside that sweet and lovely child
A fond and stricken mother swoons,
While DER his son in accents wild
doaring father cheerless mourns;
There held by deaths iyrannic thrall
Those. friends in life, together sleep;
As mindless of their orphan s call,
As needless of the tears they wee.L
There too wife with frantic cries
Calls loully on her husbands name,
And maidens fair with streaming eyes
Their brothers seek with maniac scream.
Enough, Oblivion hide for aye
The sad and sickenin2 sight from view,
And Heaven grant il worlls on hi h
That we may clasp our frienls anew
Barnesville, April 4th. TYRo.