The Highland weekly news. [volume] (Hillsborough [Hillsboro], Highland County, Ohio) 1853-1886, 1868-07-23
BLOWN UP.

How 1t Feels---Graphic Account
Of a Michigan Editors Expes
rience.
The steamer Magnolia was blown up
on the Ohio river, some ten miles
above Cincinnati, in March last. Men
ton was made at the time Of the sup
posed fatal injuries received by Charles
B. Lewis C"Em Quad'), ex-local Of
the Lansing Democrat, who was on
his way to accept a situation on the
Maysville (Ky.) Bulletin. Being now,
after lapse of more than three months,
partially able to resume his duties, he
thus writes up an account Of his acci-
dent for the JacksOnian:
81, sWhen I bought my ticket, I asked
the clerk if the Magnolia was consider
eds safe boat. He looked at me with a
half sneering, half plying expression,
and replied by inquiring If I had ever
travelled much.
WELL nO-nOt above the aver
age.' =.
{" sThen you'll learn something, by
and BY he continued.
tI did. Was seated in the cabin
between an eX-cOlOnel Of a Georgian
regiment and a Cincinnati pork dealer,
and we were all talking over the i'm
.peachment matter. Ny fellow -passen-
gers soon became heated and angry.
They were cursing Congress and the
President across my head--eaeh one
as he felt-and I was looking for q
muss. Their angry talk soon collected
a crowd. I had just got up from my
chair to keep clear Of the coming
fracas, when I heard a yell of agony,
and before you could have counted
three, up through the cabin, and
almost under our feet, came a huge,
jagged mass Of iron.
"For an instant thereafter I was
conscious Of everything going on.
saw the cabin roof lifted up, heard the
angry hiss Of steam, the crashing OF
timbers, and cry from the injured
and frightened passengers that viii
never be forgotten. Then was lifted
from my feet 1 felt an intense pain
in the back of the head, and a biting,
stinging sensation over my entire
body. Sixteen days afterwards I
awoke in the Commercial Hospital in
Cincinnati. I knew that was badly
hurt, but I could not remember how
or when was injured.
Gas afterwards ascertained, was
blown out of the cabin into the river.
When the explosion occurred the steam
er was just rounding the bend above
California, hugging pretty close to the
| Ohio shore to avoid the heavy current.
I must have taken ajump Of at least
two hundred feet, as 1 was picked up
close to the bank. The survivors
were conveyed down to the city on a
tug, and here comes the only joke /
can discover in the whole affair.
"F'rom some cause or other, my face
was turned to as deep a black as 3
NEGRO ever wore, and I was according
Iy treated as one. A dead cart was
sent down from the hospital, and side
by side with two wounded darkeys,
Lying on the same mattrass, was Car-
Tried up. The mistake was not discOv-
cred until the surgeons commenced
shaving the hair off my head to get at
my broken skull. I was supposed for
the first two days, to be a deck hand,
but a 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, I
inquired how badly was hurt. The
| only answer 1 received was to keep
still Considering 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 in the back of my head /;
second, the sight entirely gone from
my left optic and the skin peeled of
my face and ears; third, that I 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 hos
pital twenty-nine days, and then con-
cIuded to go home. Had not yet been
able to leave my bed, but accompanied
/ by my brother-in-law, c. IL. 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 q cof-
fn-my wounds had all filed up with
'pround fesh.' This of course had
| to be burned Out-driving me crazy
! for a night and day-and compelling
me to use solution of blue vitriOl
twice a day for forty days. So you
can form 4 slight idea Of the pain and
suffering, and how much 'ye local can
endure without becoming dead mat
ter
"Now, after a lapse Of almost one
hundred days, find myselfOnce more
about, but condemned to wear the saw
age marks Of the steam-hend to my
grave. A bald spot where the iron
missile crushed my skull. a 'pieDald'
eve, a face that resemble a beet, and
over my arms, body and limbs are
scars that resembles. great slices ot
fresh beef laid upon the skin. But a.
ter all, I am yet alive, and getting
ready to once more pursue the item
izing' business, which you know is vast
Iy better than being fshed out Of the
Ohio some torpid day, with no coroner
handy for an inquest"
CAUTION ABOUT MowERs.-Last