Marshall County Democrat. (Plymouth, Ind.) 1855-1859, 1858-05-13

stairs, but not without having his hair and
eyebrows pretty badly singed Here, at
the forward deck, he found crowd of men
all waiting for the boat to strike to shore.
He jumped when the rest did. and landing
safely, he began to throw in the river all
the pieces Of wood or logs he could gather
on the shore. While on the shore he saw
the women rushing over the top of the
boat, some on the hurricane roof, and some
even with their children up on the texas,
all imploring for help and screaming from
the fright of the moment He saw one
mother bring three children to the edge of
the hurricane roof, the oldest being proba
bly, about ten years old. She first caught
her youngest In her arms, and gave it a
desperate fling. 1t struck the shore with
great violence, and must have been seri-
ously injured. TIE second child she could
not throw so far. and it fell in the water,
where its little hands, padding above the
surface, arrested the attention of some
gentlemen, who reached in and saved il.
The third child. being SO heavy, fell far
J ther from shore, and would probably have
drowned but for some noble hearted man,
who having witnessed the efforts Of the
heroic mother, plunged in head foremost,
. and brought the child to the surface and to
, the shore. The mother after wards leaped
/ in the water and was rescued.
/ Mr.. Denison says some four or five wo-
men were found clinging to one woman,
} who had hold of the rudder of the Star
of the West.
: The captain, clerk, pilots and mates were
| saved. All the cabin boys. but one. were
saved.
He also saw some poor Irishman sitting
f on a log, weeping over the loss of his
D brother.
8 DIR. Deniston relates that while the
: flames were raging. he saw some poor wo-
man at the railing just in front of the wheel
e house. Those on shore shouted to her to
jump. which she attempted to do, but was
caught by her clothing, and swung in un-
j, der the railing, down into the engine room
g where all was in blaze.
2 Mr.. Deniston thinks there cannot have
t been less than twenty lives lost. He
n thinks there were 60 or 70 passengers in
y all, and large number of these deck pass
: engers.
: LIFE PREsERvERs.
t The state-rooms were allI supplied prop
a erly with life-preservers, very few, if any
e at all, of which seemed to have been used.
: The lightning-like speedswi;h which the
e flames sped along the boats, may have pre-
vented any access them by the alarmed
= passengers and crow, who had run hither
n and thither in order to see from whence
g the flames proceeded.
q THE BOOKS, AND THE NUMBER OF PASS
ENGERs.
8 Mr.. Russell, the clerk, made an attempt
+ to secure the books, but failed. He sup
# poses the number of cabin passengers to
o have been between 80 and 40 One of
n them was named j. M. Davidson, of Lew
: istown, Ills. There were also J. McCros-
e key and lady, of Rushville, Ills. who were
il saved.
8 HOW THE KEOKUK WAS BURNED.
d The starboard wheel of the Ocean Spray
It after she reached the bank, continued to
p revolve. and brought her close to the stern
J, of, and little between, the Keokuk and
n the shore. There she renamed until the
It fire was thoroughly communicated to the
Keokuk.
o The latter was secured to the shore by
Q strcng chains She burned to the waters
}, edge, and now lies sunk, at the bank
}, There was probably nobody on board but
9 a watchman, and he, doubtless, made his
j escape.
PERSONS SAVED.
.. Waldo Marsh captain; John Russo;
: first clerk;J. NJ. Salisbury, second clerk;
: Walker Leitch, pilot; Hugh Davis, pilot;
e VIM. Spargoe and Stephen Spargoe. engi-
: neers; Daniel Wolff, mate; George Wolff,
steward; Matthias Cousin, bar-keeper; por
: ter, (colored, -, ehambermaid, (col.
t ored.
q HOW TIRE STAR OF THE WEST WAS BURNED.
s The steamer Star of the West, which
q was lying about three hundred ward. l.
--,U Ue-
~" 'n0 heoAaA' '-~Aped the fire until 10
s.ock on Thursday evening, when the
hull of the Keokuk, which had burned
loose from its moorings came floating down
h IL m