The Cambria freeman. [volume] (Ebensburg, Pa.) 1867-1938, 1868-08-27
HOW 1T FEELS TO BE BLOWN UP,

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 Charles
b. Lewis (''Em Qaad"), ex local of the
Lansing Democrat, who was on his way
to accept a situation on the MaysyiIIe
(hy) Bulletin. Being, after lapse of
more than three months, partially able to
resume his duties, he thus writes up an
account of his accident for the ,Jacksoniaa
"When l bought my ticket, asked the
clerk if the Magnolia was considered a
safe boat. He looked at me with a half
sneering, half pitying expression, and
replied by inquiring if had ever travelled
much.
"'Well, no-not above the average
Then you'll learn something by and
by, he continued.
Il did. Was seated IN the cabin.
between an ex>Colonel of a Georgia repi-
ment and a Cincinnati pork dealer, and we
were all talking over the Impeachment
matter, My fellow passengers soon be-
came heated and angry. They were
cursing Congress and Il President across
my head-each one as he felt-and | was
looking for muss. Their angry talk
soon collected crowd. l had just got
up from my chair to keep clear of the
coming fracas, when l heard a veil of
agony, and before you could have counted
three, up through the cabin, and almost
under our feet, came huge jagged mass
of iron.
"For al instant thereafter 1 was con-
sclous OF every thing goirg 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 l was lifted from my feet felt an
intense pain in the back of my head, and
biting, singing sensation ovel my entire
body. Sixteen days afterward l awoke
in the Commercial Hospital at Cincinnati.
knew that | was badly hurt, bat could
not remember how or when l was injured.
''As afierward 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. i must have
taken Jump of at least two hundred feet,
as l 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 any ne
gro ever wore, and l was accordingly
treated as one. A dead cart was sent
down from the hospital, and side by side
with two wounded darkies, lying on
mattress, l was carried up, The mistake
was not discovered until the surgeons
commenced shaving the hair off to get at
my broken skull. l was supposed, 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 in
quired how badly was hurt. The only
answer / received was to keep sill
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 doctors had just pulled me
through a severe attack of pneumonia
Remained in the hospital twenty mine
days, and then concluded to 90 home
Had not yet been able to leave my bed
bat, accompanied by my brother-in-law,
/ G. ii. Rullison, ESD, who had nursed me
! from the third day, | made the journey.
.Getting home-my friends had been
looking TO see me come in a coifin-mv
wounds had all filled up with proud
flesh This, of course, had to be burned
out-driving me crazy for a night and
day-and compelling me to use a solu-
ton of blue vitriol twice day for forty
days. So you can form slight idea of
the pain and suffering, and how much
! 'ye local can endure without becoming
/ dead matter.
''Now, after a lapse of almost one
hundred days, l find myself once more
| about, but condemned to wear the savage
marks of the steam -fend to my grave. A
| bald spot where the iron missile crushed
my skull, 'piebaId' eye, face that re-
sembles beet, and over my arms, body
and limbs are scars that resemble great
slices of fresh beef laid upon the skim
But after all, | am yet alive and getting
ready to once more pursue the 'itemizing'
business, which you know is vastly better
than being fished out of the Ohio some
torpid day, with no Coroner handy for an
inquest"
The so-called Autier sYmnathetic