New-York tribune., 1874-05-25

a.. - Az .ouuonly expressed and professeu oei'et
.., ,,; world is one of sin and sorrow, ana suner
inc and simply sort of probationary prisoh- po"so'
where il s necessary to pass lew trans''oiy se'
hofore entering upon q life o blissiui ammortan,y
srfter neople should be so 10th to quit it or shrink
hack from the golden gates and jasper pavemeh's
with the unmistakable horror they exhibit wheh
the thing looks likely. There are worse things IN
the world than death-and chief among these may
instance the fear of It Nevertheless, as my personal
acouaintance below the moon is considerably more
extensive than above it, 7 do not know that am
particularly anxious to have new address put upo"
my cards at present.
We arrived at Williamsburg late at night. 90
dark was il that from THO car-windows we coi1 So
nothing Of the ruin that had been wrought a'On
the line of read near the village. oh e''n e.s,o,ol
the same station met us. The Only .n'iie ~ 81,
that wo noficed was the arrival on INC s'ino -,
'nr' ", ,s Of n company of soldiers, in blue
"ni0" Ia carrying muskcts, who filed the ONLY
- tbot was in waiting. so we had TO pick our way
., a. ,i,,agc rs best we might. The James oolcn
,SuI was standing and looking much the same
a. ever when we passed 1t, pcElhg our way W.
.tumns and bowlders, and occasionally wading over
streams and remarked that the disaster seemed 10
have been much exaggerated. True, we FOUND ie"
,rno hou,es between the station and the village,
mt 7 accounted for this by suppoSlhg tha' VIC nav
somehow lost our way ana were piunuV' no - y
tbropob the fields though could remember no sucn
oec,iar geological formations as we were stunlDinS
,ver That the whole surface soil had been sKliheu
rT ovposinp the raw clay and gravel below, was an
i5ea which never occurred to me. And 1ound
the hons, of the friend who insisted on my max
ing that hOnse my headquarters win ha'
nal hospitality which dozen floods could not
,uelI. intact and unchanged, a. were all the
houses Immediately surrounding it. church post
ofcc LYMAN Jamcss store, there they all sloou uh-
harmed For this portion of the village lying along
this tine OF the fork whereof NH Liver represents
,beb.1dle. was untouched Early in the morning
myself a:.i companion were up and out, and very
few steps brought us into the midst of scene OF
devastation which have alleady hinted at, but
which no pen is competent TO describe. With our
starting point was familiar, and could now form
some idea OF what had occurred. Rather FAINT one
At frat however II standing the very sites OF the
eIistmH and carriage shop asked what part OF the
village Trey were in; it seemed to me l must be
mistaken in supposing that they were ever situated
where thea stood.
One of The freaks of the flood seems to have been
the lifting bodily of buildings and moving them
considerable distance. then to set them down as
squalcly as they were set on their original founda
tons There is one barn in particular Culver's,
think, which has been so moved. You almost refuse
10 DO ltlSttuSi llil IL Has bCVI hoNNu pS "~Ni
dental agency, yet it stands rods from the place
where it was built.
In some instances houses have been protected by
single trees which stood il front of them in Others
the trees were torn up and became missiles of de-
struction In the trees which the flood strewed
along it, path yOu evidence of the violence OF
the torrent; huge pines lie stripped of their bark
and branches and with their bleached roots twisted
and tom into splints, they look to be gigantic
brooms.
OF the amount of debris surface earth sand, and
brushwood brought down and deposited-you will
get some idea when tell you that several of the
bodies which have been recovered were found buried
2Ofeetbclow these accretions And fear that all
the mischief is not ended; like the fabled monster
of DID, flood slays with its breath, and unless
malignant fevers prevail in this valley through the
Summer. there Is nothing in precedent. This
has been the case in ali fresh-water floods of
which have any recollection; terrible, is it not
to think that TO such testament Of destruction
thero is still codicil of death attached!
The scene around the Haydenville brass foundery
reminds one of placeT-mining in the early days of
California Workmen with pick and shovel exca-
vate the sand and sift it carefully. exhumng, not
nuggets of gold, but metals that glitter SIMILARLY
nGots of copper and brass and slyer-plated goods.
But the mining going on of the huge piles of debris
AT WHICH men are ulgBllH anu HcNIiiS, dhi HduhbS,
is of a more terrible character. 1t is for corpses
they arc looking.
Strange how everything in this world seems to
exist simply by comparison that we can pronounce
upon nothing absolutely III itself until we consider
relative positions. As instance in point: under any
ordinary circumstances friend Henry James,
proprietor OF the Champion WOODEN Mills, would be
thought TO have been strangely unfortunate His
mill is left high and dry by the changed course of
the river-bed; its lower story is wrecked his dam
is torn away. the pond filled with sand, the dye
house dismantied the wooleD-shed shredded, and
large stock of wool gone; tenements for the opc-
ratives swept away, fine piece OF meadow land
ruined, and greatest misfortune of ALL the services
of faithful superintendent lost. But i'll
comparison with the loss incurred by some
others Mr.. james seems eminently fortu-
nate one set apart by the signal favor
of Providence. His mill with all its valuable
machinery is there, its upper stories just they
were left when the operatives fed. The looms stand
with the warps in them, aud full bobbns are in the
shuttles. only awaiting the impetus which shall
send them flying to and fro as of old Clear the
rubbish away from the lower floor sraighten up the
machinery little and apply power, and again
rivers of cassimeres and fusians and fannes would
flow over the rollers. Wife and children around
him. his house stands where it did, untouched, and
looking from its windows they SEQ but the village
as il was.
Iu contrast with his case take that Of William
skinner proprietor of large silk mill which stood
a mile or 30 lower down the river. Thirty years ago
Mr.. Skinner came to this country poor boy, whose
only capital was a knowledge of the silk business
acquired at Sptaelds, England, where the curricu-
lum is thorough. and the graduate can only get
through by sleeping under the looms. After various
vieissitudes, be succeeded in developing large and