The Jeffersonian. [volume] (Stroudsburg, Pa.) 1853-1911, 1872-04-18
FEARFUL EARTH SLIDES.
THREE TERRIBLE ACCIDENTS WITHIN
FIFTEEN MINUTES. Ff

The Pittsburg Dispatch says There
was moving" scene in Monongahela
borough yesterday, which not only carried
ror to the hearts of those who witnessed
it, but through its consequences as still
visible, might we'll create similar feel.
ing. The latter part of the night had
been stormy, and after daybreak the rain
fell in torrents, while shifting winds blew
with great force, at places making play
things OF loose signs, awnings and every
thing OF such character that presented
itself. On the top of the almost perpen-
dicular hill looking down upon the Dor,
ough named, and having the Pittsburgh,
Cincinnati and St. Louis railroad running
along its base, the storm was particularly
| felt. Such was the effect of the rain that
it gradually loosened overhanging lodges
! OF rock-huge projections, weighing many
tons, and these, unsupported, fell with
i tremendous force from their places, strik-
ing the hardened railroad bed 100 feet be-
low, and bounding thence, some of them
almost unbroken, others in an hundred
splinters, through the air for fifteen or
twenty yards, until they encountered and
! literally tore away portion of row of
frame houses owned by Graf, Bennett q
Co, situated below their mill and tenant
ed by their employees. 5aa
/ The first crash and monitor Of the ap-
| preaching greater peril came at some
! twenty minutes past seven o'clock At
this time in one of the shanties, occupied
by the families Of John Uolleran and Ber
nard McCaffcrty, preparations for break
fait and early attendance at Easter ehurcl,
services were in progress. Holeran liv,
ed in the half of the house nearest the
railroad and Nc 'Cafferty in the other half
fronting on the street. The first named
had been up stairs with his wife and a
man named Joyce, and all three were now
/ descending to the lower story, Joyce lead
ing the way. When about half dozen
steps from the bottom piece of rock,
weighing at least half ton, came whiz
zing, through the side of the house, bear
| ing with it walls and doors, and tearing
away the stairs just from below the step
on which Joyce was standing Its course
then lay through the floor into the celler,
bringing Joyce along, but apart from in
tjuries to his legs and some slight bruises,
not injuring him severely. Hollerau and
his vile, strange TO say, were left stand
Ling on the upper and unsupported portion
of the steps frightened out of their wits,
but otherwise unharmed. Two minutes
after this another rock came into the
building swept the clock off the mantle
! piece, dashing it into many fragments,
and tearing through the room occupied by
Mr.. NJ Catferty and his family
The crash of the falling rocks woke up
the entire row very quickly, and in mo-
ment the situation was so far understood
that preparations were made for safety.
A widow named Mrs Jones had, with her
daughter, only little while left house
occupied by them, few doors remov ed
from that Of which Holerau and NJ CAT
ferty were tenants, when another immense
weight of stone whirled through the Jones
building, cutting it completely, tearing
away the. stairs, breaking the furniture,
aud eventually lodging in the cellar The
wreck was not quite so bad as that made
in the first Instance, yet a glance at it suf.
fees to show with what terrible power the
| projectile invaded the premises, and sug
gests it to have been an exceedingly for
tunatc circumstance that no human being
stood in its way.
The worst accident occurred in less than
fifteen minutes, on the premises of man
named John Golden. Golden, his wife
and their little child, baby of some nine
months old, occupied a one-story shanty,
where single apartment was made to an
swer all the purposes of sleeping room,
aud parlor. Mr.. and Mrs. Golden, on
! learning what had occurred farther up,
left their place and went to family next
door, allowing, however, their baby to re
main in bed in their own house. They
had been away some time when little
! girl OF seven years thought of the slum
/ bering child, returned to see how it Jared
/ and brouget il out of the house. She had
no more than left with her charge W hen
the largest piece of rock that had yet fal
len came with a terrific crash throught the
house, leaving it simply mass of spin
tered timbers and landing ten feet beyond
| The circumstance, as reported by the eve
witness, would show that there was never
a closer escape from what would have been
! terrible and instantaneous death All
through yesterday the greatest alarm pre-
vailed among residents on the row, and a
constant watch was Kept upon the frowning
hill above, which at that place seemed on
the point of dissolution. 1t is only mat
ter of time for further falls, aud the fact
is SO well known that the Italians never
looked with greater anxiety and suspense
for their native avalanches than do the
Mouougahla borough folks at present an
ticipate he dreaded land slides from
Mount Washington.
Seventy four persons died of small pox
in Philadelphia last week /; the whole
number of deaths from all causes being
/ l20 In Nary Nnrk md Hrnnk L. n small