The Hawaiian gazette. [volume] (Honolulu [Oahu, Hawaii]) 1865-1918, 1868-09-23

SENSATIONS CONNECTED WITH A STRAIN
BOAT EXPLOSION B. Lewis, for.
merly local editor Of the Langsing Mich.
gam Democrat was blown up by the ex.
plosion of the boilers Of the steamer Nag
R0'fd, while on his way to accept situa-
ton on the Maysville Kentucky Bulletin.
At the time of the accident he was sup
posed TO be fatally injured. but row. after
lapse Of more than three months, he
writes up the following first class "sensa-
tional, narrating the circumstances Of the
disaster, and bravely evincing his deter
mination to keep stiff upper lip:
When bought my ticket. asked the
clerk if the Magnolia was considered a
safe boat. He looked at me with half
sneering, Multiplying expression, and re-
piled by iuquiring 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, between
an ex-colonel of Georgia regiment and a
Cincinnati pork dealer, and we were all
talking over the impeachment matter
My fellow passengers soon became heated
and angry. They were cursing Congress
and the President across my head-each
one as he felt-and | was looking for a
muss. Their angry talk soon collected a
crowd. had just got up from my chair to
escape the coming fracas, when heard a
yell Of agony, and before you could have
counted three, up through the cabin, and
almost under our feet, came huge Jag
ged mass Of iron.
For an instant thereafter l was con-
scious of what was going on. | saw the
cabin roof lifted up. heard the angry hiss
OF steam, the crashing of timbers, and a
cry from the injured and frightened pas
sengers that will never be forgotten. Then
| was lifted off my feet; felt an intense
pain in the back Of my head, and a biting,
stinging sensation over my entire body.
Sixteen days afterward awoke in the
Commercial Hospital at Cincinnati. l
knew that | was badly hurt, but could not
remember how or where | was injured.
As l afterward ascertained, was blown
out Of the cabin into the river When
the explosion occurred, the steamer was
just rounding the bend above California,
hugging pretty close to the Ohio shore to
avoid the heavy current. | must have
taken & jump at least two hundred feet,
as was picked up close to the bank. The
survivors were conveyed down to the city
on tug, and here comes the only joke
can discover in the whole affair.
From some cause or other my face was
turned to as deep black as negro ever
wore. and was accordingly treated as one.
A dead-cart sent down from the hospital,
and side by side with two wounded darkies,
lying on a mattress. | was carried up.
The mistake was not discovered until the
surgeons commenced shaving the hair off
to get at my broken skull. / was suppos-
ed, for the first two days, to be deck
hand, but telegram from my wife to the
editor of the Enquirer. who came and
hunted me up. soon set the matter right.
On awakening in the hospital inquired
how badly had been hurt The only an
swer | received was keep still" Con-
sidering that | could move neither hand
nor foot. i regarded this advice as entirely
thrown away. But it did not take me
long to find out that, first, there was an
uncomfortable air hole f" in the back of
my head second. the sight entirely gone
from my left optic, and the skin peeling off
my face and ears third, that | had been
steamed, or cooked, from head to heel, in
Guiding both arms; and lastly, that the
doctors had just pulled me through a Sc
we're attack of pneumonia Remained in
the hospital twenty-nine days, and then
concluded to go home Had not yet been
able to leave my bed. but accompanied by
my brother-in-law, G. FL. Rulison, ESQ.,,
who had nursed me from the third day,
made the journey.
Getting home-my friends had been
looking to see me come in cofin-my
wounds had filled up with proud hesh.n
This of course, had to be burned out,
driving me crazy for night and a day,
me to use solution of blue
vitriol twice day for forty days. So you
can form slight idea Of the pain and
and how much aye local" can
endure without becoming "dead matter"
Now, after lapse of almost one hun
bred days, 1 find myself once more about,
but compelled to wear the savage marks
Of the steam-fend to my grave. A bald
spot where the iron missile crushed my |
skull, "piebaldr eye, a face that resem-
oles beet, and over my arms, body and |
limbs are scars that resemble great slices
IF fresh beef laid upon the skin. But, |
liter all, | am yet alive, and getting ready |
20 pursue the itemizing business, which, |
7ou know, is vastly better than being fish
ID out of the Ohio some torpid day, with
10 coroner handy for an inqeest."