New-York tribune. [volume] (New York [N.Y.]) 1866-1924, 1871-08-01
HUO Is RESPONSIBILITY

Last Sunday, when peace and tranquility
seemed to float in the soft Summer sky, fierce
| explosion rent the air of Ncw-YOrk Bay. In
an instant of time pleasure steamer, crowded
with pleasure-loving, animated groups, was
transformed into an awful crater, to whose
| smoking rim chung hundreds of wounded,
! horror-stricken people, OF lifelessly hung the
marred remains of those who had so suddenly
| passed ont of the land of the living.
! The sunny waters were dotted with
the struggling forms of tho wounded and
dying and the still shapes Of the dead. A
wrthing mass of human beings gasped in
agony; shrieks of pain and wailings for the
dead afflicted the ear; and nm unutterable wO
settled down upon the horrible scene where
strong men suffered silently and children
breathed out in pain their sweet young life
forever.
BY this calamity, one Of the most dreadful
which the country has ever known, Tifty-nine
of our citizens have lost their lives, and One
Hundred and Six are wounded with more or
less severity From this fixed center of loss
of life and manning flow the widening circles
of sorrow, tears, and mourning, the margin of
which no man can measure. Can the respon-
siblity for all this loss Of life, suffering, and
wo be anywhere fxed7 Must disasters such
as these continue in O perpetually recurring
chain and the world move on over the chasm
where love, and life, and hope went down,
and forget to make inquisition for blood7
The steamers boiler had been repaired the
explosion seems to have begun at point
where the patch had been riveted on. But
the United States Inspector had examined the
boiler since that repair had been made; and
only six weeks ago no declared the work safe with
a pressure Of twenty-five pounds TO the square
inch. At the time Of the explosion the en-
| gineer (reckOned q careful and trustworthy
pcrsOn) was not at his post. How
| long he had been absent we cannot
now say; but when he left it there
was pressure of twentyseven pound;
against the iron shell which contained the
death and destruction that so soon burst upon
the pleasurc-seeking thrOng The boiler has
borne pressure of thirty-fOur pounds hydro
static pressure. Two pounds more than the
maximum allowed by the Inspector was not
much of an excess. But was this all the ex-
cess Who shall tell
| To examine all accessible facts and ascer-
tain where the responsibility OF this disaster
justly belongs is now the duty of a sworn
jury. Why the steamer was not supplied with
the registering steam gauge as required by
law; how long the engineer was absent from
his post; what was the condition of the fires
when he left; what the possibility of an in
creased pressure In his absence; what the
value of the Inspectors certifcate-all these
and other considerations which determine the
direction that verdict must take, belong to the
jury of inquest. Let US have rigid and i'm
partial examination upon which may be here
after based such laws and regulations as shall
prevent recurrence Of similar disasters. And,
for once, let us have the man or men respon-
| sible for this awful destruction of life held to
a punishment from which no chicane of the
law or spasm of relenting Courts shall tolerate
escape. Any punishment must be monstrously
inadequate; there is no possible atonement for
those corpses in the Morgue,--but even if it
be found to touch the highest heads let not
Justice fall one hairs breadth short of it's
uttermost demands