Raftsman's journal. [volume] (Clearfield, Pa.) 1854-1948, 1864-01-27
TERRIFIC TRAGEDY IN CHILL.
Probably Two Thousand Five Hundred Per-
sons Roasted to Death in Church.
Corregpondence of the n, Y Times.

A catastrophe gigantic, horrible, unexam-
pied III the annals of our country and per-
haps Of the world, has absorbed every one 5
mind for many days past. We will use the
utmost brevity in relating the calamity to our
foreign readers.
Ever since the newly invented mystery of
the Immaculate Conception Of Mary was de-
cared at Rome, in 1857, the Church of the
Conpday, formerly belonging to the Jesuits,
had become the focus Of devotion Of a vast
Sisterhood called the Daughters Of Nary, In
which, on payment Of so much u year, al
most all the women of our capital where en-
rolled
Every year, from tn Sth of November to
the Sth Of December, the day Of the Immacu-
late Conception, lasted splendid festival
in which orchestral music, singing and an
astonishing prodigality of incense, of lights
of oil, liquid gas, wax and every luminous
conlbustible in the world, glittered and flash
ed in every part, IN the cornices, in the cell
ing and particularly on the high alter. Ev-
cry night the church blazed with sea of
flame and 1uttered with clouds of muslin
and gauze draperies 1t could only be light
ed up in time by beginning in the middle of
the afternoon and the work of extinguishing
was ended when the nigh thad far advanced
In 1858 they thought Of adopting hydrogen
gas, but the engineer ; plan, though conve
nient and safe, was rejected.
\ priest named Ugarte, whose mind ma
riolatry had marked for It's own, headed that
Sisterhood from the beginning and worked
his way down to such depth of supersti-
tion that one of his least extravagances was
the invention of a Celestial PoSt-o65ce trick,
by which the Doughters Of Nary might
correspond with the Virgin in writing At
L. = fa,,1,,lo ba Lot
ter-box was constantly open, and there per-
sons of robust faith deposited in sealed
letters their wishes and their prayers.
Every Wednesday that letter-box for Eter-
nifty was placed before the high alter, and T.
CARTE, who acted as postman between the
Mother Of God and her daughters, exhibit
ed to the Divinity those offerings, of course
keeping that singular correspondence to HIM
self. This same mountebank got up reli-
gious rattle for the favor of the Virgin-in
a recent instance two prizes being drawn by
a skeptical Minister of State, and a woman
whose character was not dubious. The old
times of pagan idolitary had resusciated in
the centre Of exaggerated catholicism.
The church Of the Company, built the
latter half of the seventeenth century, pos
sessed a spacious nave, but roof that da--
ted only from Is years ago, of painted tim
DtT Lit OU1N uOtT Vi dCCOSo W ttiC
gregation was the principle one in the
centre. the small doors leading into the
aisles being opened only half way, obstruct-
ed by screens Near the high alter there
was little door communicating with the
sacristy.
A few minutes before : o clock In the
evening of Tuesday, the Sth of December,
more than 5000 women and few hundred
men knet in that church, crammed to over
flowing. However, that did not prevent a
compact mass of fanatics from attempting to
ht,theirway in fromthe steps, because twas
the last night of the Month Of Mary, and no
one could bear to lose the closing sermon of
the priest Ugarte, who always succeeded by
his exciting declarations in drowning In tears
that place so soon to be a sea of FIRE. Then
Eizaguirre, the apostolic Nuncio and favor
ite of PIUs TX, the founder of the Ameri
can college at Rome, was TO preach also, 1t
is said that Ugarte, wounded in his feelings
as chaplain Of the Daughters OF Mary;
because Eizaguirre had told him that the IL
of his church could not be COM
pared with what he had seen in Rome, ex-
CHARMED with enthusiasm Il will give him
when he comes to preach, such an illumina-
ton as the world has never seen Nobody
can deny that Ugarte has kept his word
Indeed never had such pyrotechny been
seen before-2o, 900 lights, in long festoons of
colored globes, blazed the church into a hall
of fire The lighting of all the lamps and
candles was hardly finished, when the liquid
gas In a transparency on the high alter, at the
foot of the gigantic image of the Virgin
Mary, set ON fire its woodworks and wrap
ped in flame kind of tabernacle, wholly
composed of canvas, pasteboard' and wood.
In less than two minutes the alter; about