The Columbia herald. [volume] (Columbia, Tenn.) 1850-1873, 1871-10-20

thrown by the ,lntoward calmity I
| the city.
| All night the hurrying throngs ha
been driven before the fast travelin
flames. Goods taken from burnin
houses to localities supposed to
safe were soon endangered again, an
had to be removed to still more re
mote sections of the city, or abandon
ell at last as prey to the flames. Sud
denly, enveloped in dense clouds c
suff0cating smoke, great crowds rush
ed into the lake or the river. TIL
number of lives thus lost must hav
been great. Reliable persons stat
that they saw numbers Of peOpl
! throwing themselves into the lake t,
escape a more horrible fate by bein,
strangled by the sitting clouds of ho
| smoke from the raging cauldrOn O
fire on the south side of the river.
If the night had been one of alarms
and ceaseless anxiety to scores O
thousands, the dawn found then
hopeless and despairing. The wind
which had been blowing from the
first breeze that amounted almost tC
a gale, seemed to gatherstrength with
the coming day, and careered OveI
the doomed city, creating whirlwinds
of fire, which seemed to clutch every
object, and reach far out in quest OF
more food to appease its insatiate
fury!
HOMELESS.
All night the houseless and home
less people, filed with anxiety, and
frequently startled by fresh alarms,
had watched the sublime and awful
confiagration as it hurried forward to
fresh cOnquests over the proudest
works of man.
Many in the vastthrong of anxious
spectators of the awful scene had
been startled by the first alarm, and
left their homes supperless; but the
night passed and the day came again,
bringing no prospects of breakfast.
The sun mounted toward the zenith,
and yet the cravings of hunger were
not appeased. The scene became
pitiahle in the extreme. Thousands
of children, who had never known
what it was to want even for the
l,Ixuries of life, now piteously cried
for bread they could not get. Men
with haggard look and bloOd-shot
eyes, wearied by exertion and anxi-
Gus care, unrefreshed by slumber or
food, moved about with listlcss air.
and if spoken to, frequently returned
for an answer vacant and meaning
less stare, Us if reason and the power
of utterance had vanished together.
The day wore slowly away, and
still thousands had taken no food.
The cries of the children became
more boisterOus; women wept, and
even strong men bowed i'm unuttera-
BILE agony.
The wind blew clouds Of dust, ashes
and smoke into their very faces, and
and covered them up, I'M
til they scarcely wore the Semblance
of human beings. Nothing l ever
saw; nothing I ever read about; moth
ing the imagination ever conjectured
up, ever presented to my mind so
a picture of human woe as
the scene witnessed by the lakeside
on that terrible evening. There roll
ed up the dark, portentous clouds Of
smoke, mounting high up into the
heavens, that told of a devastated and
ruined city! Here were the inhabi-
tants, hurried out into the streets al
most without warning: away from
their homes, destitute of everything
that could minister to their comfort;
crying for bread, wearied by watch
ing, and awe-stricken by the extent
Of their misfOrtunes. 1t was alto
sether such sOene as the world has
seldom witnessed.
The red sun went down behind the
The mantle Of night
over the ruffied waters of
he lake. The lurid freight of the
still burning city cast great glare
over the scene. But never in the
history of man has a day closed so
'adly with so many hundreds Of !
of people watching by the !
ruins of their homes.
Never before has night fallen on ruins |
% vast 80 suddenly made.
f THE SCENE AT NIGHT.
If the day had passed so sadly and !
70 terribly, the night came on with |
till glOomier prospects. Toward |
evening some train loads of provis-
ons had arrived, and an effort was
made to supply the immediate de !
nands of the most necessitOus. The |
langs of hunger were in many cases |
,ppeased.
But the ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS still fitfully |
,lazed here and there with strange,
wild light marking out distinctly the |
track of the tornado of fire
hat had swept through it.
Further away lOOmed up the grand
md glowing light of the fire cloud, as
L rolled away beyond the river to the |
northward. The clatter, the noise,
he buzz, hum and confusion which
lad prevailed during the previous
night had sobered down somewhat.
The eXhilerating effects of the first
great storm of excitement had passed
away. Exhaustion had succeeded; the
1.-THE movements had ceased. Men
mOped around; women sObbed theDl-
selves into uneasy slumbers wherever
hey could find place under the broad
of heaven. The wailings of
distressed and homeless children came
borne in subdued murmers on the
night wind. Policemen, wearied by
heir constant exertion, lost their
and moved about with
q vacant listless air, while the ghouls
that haunted the scene of disaster
plundered at will. Devils wearing the
form Of men went about robbing the
helpless aud insulting the feeble and
1efenseless. The sick, carried from
homes of comfort and laid under the
Trees in the parks and on the beach,
expired unattended by groups of sOr-
rowing friends-died alone, with the
earth for a couch and the sky for
canopy.
Even amid these terrible scenes,
which were sufficient to move the very
stones to cry out in an agony Of SYM
pathy, there moved amid the wreck,
and through the smOke-filled streets,
beings wearing tue forms of men, but
with minds and hearts filled with
more than satanic maiignity, with de-
liberate purpose and prepared torches,
10 assist the uncomfortable cOnfagra-
lion to more speedy triumph. ! hear
that two of these genii OF destruction
were caught with saturated shavings,
in the act of setting fire to q house,
and hanged Immediately Oh lamp
post. 1t is also stated, and l shal II
be only too happy to confirm the re-
port, that five other ghOuls were
caught while maltreating and robbiDg
The helpless, aud summarily shot.
But why multiply horrors? Why
seek to convey to the minds of others
the distress OF our own? The details of
This unparalleled calamity would fill a
volume. Your correspondent, wearied
by watchfulness, was glad to welcome
The dawn of another day, which would
bring to him relief.
THE GHOULS AMONG THE RUINS.