Evansville daily journal. (Evansville, Ind.) 1863-1866, 1864-01-23
[From the Mercurio del vapir, 18th ult.l


A dreadful visitation has fallen upon
IT,
Truly this is day of trouble and re-
luke for blasphemy The voice of Ia
nentation is heard all over the land the
bitter weeping of fathers, husbands,
1rothers aud lovers for those who were
he Joy and brightness of their life, that
refuses to be eomforted because they are
not Hundreds of young girls, only yes |
terday radiant and beautiful in the lux
uriant bloom of the fresh, hopeful spring
of life, are to day calcined, hideous |
corpses, horrible, loathsome to the sight,
impossible to be recognized.
The Sth of December was great tri-
umph for the clergymen of the Church
of the Jesuits in Santiago. An enthusi-
astic audience filled every mock. There
were hardly any men there's but three
thousand women, composing the flower
of the beauty and fashion of the Capital,
were at the FEET of the ecclesiastics, very
many against the will of fathers and
husbands, but that, of course, only showed
forth the might and power of the Gospel.
Never had such pyrotechny been seen
before; twenty thousand lights, mostly
camphene, in 'o1g festoons of colored
globes, blazed the church into haltof
fire. But the performance had not yet
begun when the crescent of fire at the
foot of the gigantic image of the Virgin,
over the high altar, overfowed, and
climbing up the muslin draperies and
pasteboard devices to the wooden roof,
rolled torrent of fame.
The suddenness of the fire was awful.
The dense mass of women, frightened
out of their senses, numbers fainting,
and all entangled by their long swelling
dresses, rushed as those who know that
death was at their heels to the one door,
which soon became choked up. Fire
was everywhere Steaming along the
wooden ceiling, it flung the camphene
lamps, hung in rows there, among the
struggling women.
In moment the gorgeos church was
a sea of fame. Michael Angeles fear
full picture of He'll was there, but exceed-
ed. Help was all but impossible Her
cules might have strained his strength
in vain to pull one from the serried mass
of frenzied wretches who, piled one above
another, as they climbed over to reach
the air, wildly fastened the grip of death
upon any one escaping, in order that
they light be dragged out with them.
Those who longed to save them wera
doomed to bear the must narrowing sight
that ever scared human eyeballs-to see
mothers, sisters, timed women, dying
that dreadful death, that appalled, the
| stoutest heart of man, within one yard
of salvation, within one yard of men
who would have given their lives ovel
and over again for them. 1t was mad
dening, the screaming and wringing Of
hands for help as the remorseless flames
came on; and then, while some already
dead with fright, were buFned in CHASTITY
Indifference, others in their horrible ago.
ny-somein prayer, were tearing theiI
hair and battering their faces Women
seized in the embraces Of the flames
were seen to undergo transformation
as though by optical delusion-frst daz
cling bright, then horribly lean and
shrunk up, then black statues rigidly fix
ed in death.
The fire, imprisoned by the immense
thickness of the walls, had devoured
everything eombustible by 10 o'clock;
and then, defying the sickening stencil,
the people came to look for their lost
ones. Oh, what sight, the fair, placid
moon looked down uponl Closely pack
ed crowds of calcined, distorted forms,
wearing the fearful expression of the
last pang, whose smile was once a
heaven; the CHASTITY phalanx of black
statutes, twisted in every variety of ago.
ny, stretching out their arms as if I'M
ploring mercy; and then, of the heap
that had checked up the door, multitudes
with their lower parts entirely untouch-
ed, and some all shapeless mass, but
with an arm or foot unscathed. ar &
The silence, after those piercing
screams were hushed in death, was hor-
rible. 1t was the silence of the grave,
unbroken but by the bitter wall or faint
ing cry-oyer 1000 souls had passed
through that ordeal of fire to the iudg-
ment seat of God.
Heroic acts of sublime daring have
not been wanting Enduring gratitude
has been excited in every Christian heart
by the gallant efforts of Mr. Nelson, the
Minister of the United States, his coun-
tryman, Mr.. Meiggs, and several gene.
rous men who defed the fury of the
flames to save lives, and some of these
died martyrs to their noble hearts An
Englishman or an American, it is I'M
known which, was seen to rush through
the flames, to seize in his powerful arms
a lady, stride with her little way and
then, with his hair in blaze and choked
with smoke, fell back into the volcano
never To rise again. A young lady nam
ed Ovelo, having in vain implored some
bystanders to save her mother, rushed in
and shortly afterward tremendously is
sued forth with her parent in her arms,
saved A young lady by the name of
Solar, Just before the smoke suffocated
her, had the presence of mind to tie her
handkerchief around her leg, so that her
body might be recognized.
The writer now continues to speak OF
the fire, and to whom :he blame for the
catastrophe is attributable. He handles
the clergy in the most severe manner,
and says The population of Santiago,
so supine and so priest-ridden. are fired
with indescribable indignation at the
monstrous conduct of the priests. The
public conscience holds them guilty of
the death of all these victims, and par
ticular the mountsbank Ugarte, the in
venter of the Virgins Post-office imbo-
sure (see extracts from the "Reyiew Of
the Fortnight,) because by collecting
together all the material most likely to
produce fre-a countless number of
lights, pasteboard scenery and muslin
hangings-and admitting vast crowd
and covering the one door open with a
screen, they took every pains to bring
about a tragedy When the fire broke
out and the people were escaping by the
secristy they blocked up the door to de-
vote themselves the more. undisturbedly
to saving their gimcracks.
The list of things saved makes ones
blood run cold. What The priests saved,
what they put away in cigar shops and
the houses in front area gilt image,
some wooden saints, a sacred sophie or
two, some books, chalices, silver candle