Public ledger. [volume] (Memphis, Tenn.) 1865-1893, 1868-07-16
LARGEST CITY CIRCULATION.
How il Feels TO b. Blown Up-A NirhiEAn
Local Editors Experience.

Most OF our fthutfo wiz uooobooo W
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.
II. Lewis ("Em Qnad"), ex local OF the
Lansing Democrat, who was on his way
IN accept situation on the Maysville
XVI Bulletin. Being now, after q lapse
of more than three months, partially able
TO resume his duties, he thus writes up an
account of the accident for the Jack
sonian:
When bought my ticket, / asked the
clerk IL the Magnolia was considered =
safe boat. He looked at me with hall
sneering, half plying expression, and
replied by inquiriug IL / had ever trav :
eled much.
"Well, no-not above the average"
"Tben 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 talking over the impeachment
matter. My fellow passengers soon be :
came heated and angry. They we're
cursing Congress and the President
across my head-each one as be felt
and / was looking for muss. Their
angry talk soon collected crowd. 1
had Just got up from my chair to keep
clear of the coming fracas. when l heard
n veil of agony, and before you could
have counted three. up through the cabin,
almost under our feet, came huge, Jag
ged mass of iron.
For an instant thereafter | was con-
scious of everything going on. i saw the
cabin roof lifted up, heard the angry
hiss of steam, the crashing OF timbers, and
a cry from the injured and frightened
messengers that never will be forgotten.
Then / was lifted from my feet; l felt
an intense pain inAhe back Of my head,
and biting singing sensation over my
entire body. Sixteen days afterward |
awoke in the Commercial Hospital, at
Cincinnati | knew that | was badly
hurt. but could not remember how or
when was injured.
AS afterwards ascertained, / was
blown out of the cabin into the river.
When the explosion occurred, the steamer
was lust rounding the bend above Cali
fornia, hugging pretty close to the Ohio
shore to avoid the heavy current
must have taken jump of at least two |
hundred feet, as | was picked up close to |
the bank. The survivors we're 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 was sent down from
the hospital, and, side by side with two
wounded darkies, lying on q mattress, l |
was carried up. The mistake was not |
discovered until the surgeons commenced
shaving the hair off to get at my broken
skull. Was supposed for the first two |
days TO be deck hand, but a telegram
from my wife to the editor of the En-
ouirer, who came and hunted me up,
soon set the matter right.
On awakening in the hospital, | IN,
ouired how badly was hurt. The only
answer received was to keep still
Considering that could move neither
hand nor foot, / 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 = in
the back of my head; second, the sight
entirely gone from my left optic, and the
skin peeled off my face and ears; third,
that had been steamed or rather
cooked. from head to heel, including both
arms, and lastly, that the doctor had just
pulled me through severe attack of
pneumonia. Remained in the hospital
tweDty-nine days, and then concluded to
90 home. Had not yet been able to leave
my bed, but, accompanied by my broth
in-law, c. H. 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 a cofin-my
wounds had all filled up with proud
flesh" This, of course, had to be burned
out-driving me crazy for night and
day-and compelling me to use solu-
ton of blue vitriol twice a day for forty
days. SO you can form a slight idea Of
the pain and suffering, and how much
eye local" can endure without becom-
ing dead matter"
Now, after a lapse Of almost one hun
bred days, l fad myself once more
about, but condemned to wear the saw
age marks of the steam-fend to my
grave. A bald spot where the iron mis-.
sile crashed my skull, "piebald " eye,
face that resembles beet, and over my
arms, body and limbs are scars that re-
semble great slices of fresh beef laid
upon the skin. But after all, | am yet
alive and getting ready to once more
pursue the itemizing business" which
you know is vastly better than being
fshed out of the Ohio some torpid day,
with no coroner ready for an inquest.