Bellows Falls times. [volume] (Bellows Falls, Vt.) 1856-1965, 1868-09-04
Aiseellauu.
How it Feels to be Blown up.
AN EDITORS EXPERIENCE.

Most OF our readers will doubtless re-
member the explosion of the steamer
Magnolia on the Ohio river, some ten
miles above Cincinnati, in March last.
Mention was made at the time of the
supposed fatal injuries received by Chas.
B. Lewis, {" En- Quad" y of the Lansing
Democrat, who was on his way to accept
a situation on the Marysville (Ky.) Bull
letin. Being now, after lapse of more
than three months, partially able to re-
sumo his duties, he thus writes up an ac-
count of the accident for the Jacksonian
When l bought my ticket, l asked the
clerk if the Magnolia was considered a
safe boat. He looked at me with half
sneering Multiplying expression, and re-
piled by inquiring if had ever travelled
much.
"Well, no-not above the average"
"Then you'll learn something by-and
by" he continued.
| did. was seated in the cabin be-
tween an ex-colonel of Georgia regi-
ment and Cincinnati pork dealer, and
we were all talking over the impeach-
ment matter. My fellow passengers soon
became heated and angry. They were
cursing Congress and the President across
my head-each one Us he felt, and | was
looking for muss. | had just got up
from my chair to keep clear of the COM
ing fracas, when ! heard a yell of ag-
ony; and before you could have counted
three, up through the cabin, almost un-
der our feet, came huge jagged mass of
iron.
] For an instant thereafter, l was con
scious Of everything going on. L saw
the cabin roof lifted up, heard the angry
hiss of steam, the. crashing of timbers
and cry from the frightened and injur
ed passengers that will never be forgot
ten. Then / was lifted from my feet.
felt an intense pain in the back of m,
head, and a biting singing sensation
over my whole body. Sixteen days al
terward, awoke in the Commercial hos
pital at Cincinnati. | knew that wa
badly hurt, but could not remember ho'
nor when l had been injured.
As afterwards ascertained, l wa
blown out of the cabin window into th
river. When the explosion occurred
the steamer was just rounding the hea
above California, hugging pretty close
the Ohio shore to avoid the heavy Gu
rent. / must have taken a jump OF
least two hundred feet, as / was picke
up close to the bank. The survivor
we're taken down to the city on tug
And here comes the only joke | can dl
cover in the whole affair.
For some cause or other, my face WI
turned to as deep a black as neg
ever wore; and l was accordingly trea
ed as one. A dead-cart was sent dow
from the hospital, and side by side Wi
two wounded darkies, lying on ms
tress, | was carried up. The mistal
was not discovered until the surgeon col
menced shaving the hair off to get at
broken skull. Was supposed for t
first two days to be a deck hand; but
telegram from my wife to the editor
the Inquirer, who came and hunted
. up, soon set the matter right.
On awakening in the hospital,
: quired how badly was hurt. The OIL
answer l received was to "keep still.
Considering that 1 could move neltf
!, hand nor foot, / regarded this advice
entirely thrown away. But it did
take me long to find out that, first, tn
d was an uncomfortable "air hole IN
back part of my head; second, the sls
U entirely gone from my left Optic and
skin peeled off my face and ears TIM
$. that / had been steamed" or rat
: cooked, from head to heel, including b
arms and lastly, the doctors had
pulled me through severe attack
nneumonia. Remained in the hosp
: twenty-nine days, and then concluded
90 home. Had not yet been able
leave my bed; but accompanied by
~ brother-in-law, c. H. Hulison, Esq,
la had nursed me from the third day
made the journey.
: Getting home, (my friends had
looking to see me come in a coihn)
an. wounds had all filed with proud fie4
Of Of This, of course, had to be burned
driving me crazy for night and
= and compelling me to use solution
blue yitriol twice day for forty-e
hours. So you can form a slight ide
'cn H. na;n and suffering, and how u