The Elk County advocate. [volume] (Ridgway, Pa.) 1868-1883, 1874-10-29
THE FALLING OF THE MILL,

lHE EALblNU II Vf HE MILL,
1t was the 10th day of January, 1860.
On that day, while the machinery of
the Pemberton mill, of Lawrence,
Mass, was in motion, the main build
ing fell, without warning, and O con-
fagration soon after broke out in the
ruins. OF 700 persons in the building
at the time, seventy-seven were killed,
and one hundred and thirty-four in
jured, OF whom fourteen subsequently
died. The cause of the disaster was
the faulty construction Of the iron pil.
lars which supported the floor tinbers,
and the lack Of adhesive power in the
mortar.
Miss Elizabeth Stuart Phelps gave a
thrilling and vivid description of the
disaster in story entitled "The Tenth
of January" extracts from which will
be found OF deep interest in this con-
nection.
The silent city stepped and bathed
itself in rose tints the river ran red
and the snow crimsoned on the distant
New Hampshire hills. Pemberton,
mute and cold, frowned across the disk
of the climbing sun and dipped, as
she had seen it dip before, in blood.
The day broke softly, the snow melted,
and the wind blew warm from the
river.
Sene was little dizzy ahis morning
the constan! palpitation of the floors
always made her dizzy, after a walleful
highland 30 her colored threads
danced out Of place and troubled her.
Del Ivory, working beside her, said :
Show the mill shakes What's going
on?"
"It's the new machinery they're
h'isting in" observed the overscer,
carelessly. "Great improvement, but
very, very heavy; they calc'late on get
ting it all into place to-day
The wind began at last TO grow chilly
up the staircase and in at the cracks ;
the melted drifts out under the walls
to harden the sun dipped above the
dam the mill dimmed slowly; shadows
crept down between the frames.
"It's timo for lights said Meg
Match, and swore little at her spools.
"Del," said Sene, II think tomor-
row.
She stopped. Something strange
happened to her frame it Jared, buz-
zed, snapped. the threads untwisted
and flew out OF place.
"Cqrious ~ she said, and looked up.
Looked up to see her overseer turn
wildly, clap his hands to his head, and
fall to hear a shrek from Del that
froze her blood to see the solid cell
ing cape above her; to see the walls
and windows stagger to sec iron pill
lars reel and vast machinery throw
up its giant arms, and a tangle Of hu-
man faces blanch and writhe She
sprang as the floor sunk. As pillar
after pillar gave way, che bounded up
an incline plane, with the gulf yawn-
ing after her. Il gained upon her be-
yond were the stairs and an open door;
she threw out her arms and struggled
on with hands and knees, tripped in
the gearing, and saw, as she fell, a
square oaken beam above her yield and
crash it was of a fresh, red color she
dimly wondered why; as she felt her
hands slip, her knees slide, support,
time, ald reason go utterly out.
At ten minutes before five, on Tues
day, the tenth of January, the Pember-
ton mill, all hands being at the time on
duty, fell to the ground.
So the record flashed over the tele-
graph wires, sprang into large type in
the newspapers, passed from lip to lip,
a nine-days' wonder, gave place to the
successful candidate and the muttering
South, and was forgotten.
Who shall say what it was to tie 750
souls who were buried in the ruins
What to the eighty-eight who died that
death OF exquisite agony? What to the
wrecks of men and women who endure
even to this day lie that is worse than
death? What to the architect and en-
gineer who, when the fatal pillars were
first delivered to them for inspection,
had found one broken under their eyes,
yet receipted the contract and built with
them mill whose thin walls and wide,
unsupported stretches could never keep
their place unaided? One that we love
may go to the battle-ground, and We
are ready for the worst we have said
our goodbye; our hearts wait and
pray; it is his life, not his death, which
is the surprise. But that he should go
out to his safe, daily commonplace oc-
cupation, unnoticed and uncaressed,
scolded a little, perhaps, because he
leaves the door open and tells us how
cross we are this morning, and they
bring him up the steps, by-and-bye,
it0hSSiCN Il0oO VI NhSNV4 s<1o @iNNNO-
that is hard.
Sene's father heard, at twenty min
utes of five, what he thought to be the
rumble of an earthquake under his
very feet, and stood with bated breath
waiting for the crash. AS nothing fur
ther appeared to happen he took his
stick and limped out into the street.
A crowd of men with white lips Were
counting the mills. Pacific, Atlantic,
Observation-Disclosures Where was
Pemberton9 Where Pemberton had
blazed with it's lamps last night, and
hummed with its iron lips this noon,
cloud of dust, black, silent, horrible,
puffed hundred feet into the air.
=
Asenath opened her eyes after time.
Beautiful green and purple lights had
been dancing about her, hut she had
had no thoughts. 1t occurred to her
now that she had been struck on the
head. The church clocks were striking
eight. A bonfire, which had been built
at distance to light the citizens in the