Lamoille newsdealer. [volume] (Hyde Park, Vt.) 1860-1877, 1874-06-03
The Mill River Disaster.

The desola.ed valley continues to attract
4 sipht-seers, as i, will for months to come,
aud Saturday and Sunday furnished large
crowds of visitors. The most noteworthy
and encouraging thing that one sees who
rides through the valley now, for the first
time since the day Of the disaster, is the
abundant evidence Of Yankee energy
and hopefulness. Anybody who made the
almost dangerous journey up to Williams,
burg in a carriage, two weeks ago, aud
takes the same ride to-day, will be forci.
bly, struck with the Improvement in the
roads, which were left BY the food in the
most wretched condition. All along the
route, too, he will see the work Of re.
storaticu and reconstruction in Wig.
orous progress, here. half pros.
trate house being returned to hab.
liable attitude and condition there,
workmen clearing up the debris Of a ruin,
ed factory. It Is but a beginning, to be
sure, but it is enough TO show hat the
spirit of the people is u~nbrokeu, and that
the once thriving valley is sure in the
early future to regain its old prosperity.
And if the visitor needs other proofs Of
this than he sees, be will find fresh assur-
ance 10 conversation with people along the
line Of the disaster. The despair as to
the future which even the most brave.
hearted could hardly help sharing as they
contemplated the widespread devastation
in the drizzling rain of that gloomy Sat-
urday, has been succeeded by a moro
hopeful mood, as in q calmer survey it is
seen that the business capacities of the
region have survived the food, and that
the ruin, complete as it seemed at the
frs: shock, is by no means incapable of
being ~surmounted.
Williamsburg is especially happy over
the announcement that Ii. l.. James
wooden mill in that village will be again
in operation during the present week. BY
dint of hard work, Mr.. James has every.
thing ready to turn enough of the stream
back to its former channel, to-day to fur.
uish power temporarily for his mill, and
he expects to have 20 or 80 hands EN-.
ployed BY the middle Of the week. The
future of Skinnerville is not yet decided.
Mr.. Skinner leaves home, to-day, for a
business trip of a few days, after which
be will probably have made up his
mind whether to rebuild in Skinnerville
or accept one of the many offers to locate
elsewhere. Hayden, Gerc & Co. at Hay
denville, and George p. Warner, the but.
ton manufacturer at Leeds, will also de.
eide the question Of their business future
during the week. A new boiler was got
into the works of the emery-whcel factory
at Leeds. Saturday, the new engine will
follow in a few days, and by next week
work will be resumed there.
Scarcely anything has done more to en-
courage and stimulate the inhabitants iD
the work of reconstruction than the gener-
Gus contributions which their calamity has
called forth. The money receipts at the
central relief Office in Northampton are
considerably above $50, 600. besides which
a pretty large amount in the aggregate
has found its way in money gifts directly
to the sufferers or the local relief commit.
tees; then there are the generous contri-
buttons of food ADD clothing. so that we
can hardly exaggerate in saying that in al!
these various ways $780, 600 has found
its way from the pockets and household
supplies of the sympalbizing to the house,
less and destitute. The money receipts
of Saturday by Treasurer Bodman we're
S6sS. making bis total $50, 965. Among
the sums we're sl44 from WATERFOWL,
800 from Samuel Hill of San Francisco,
Cal, $50 from the Unitarian society of
Leicester and $50 from the Methodist
church at Middletown. CT. Besides this,
William Skinner of Skinnerville received
during the day $1,000 additional from
Franklin Allen Of New York, treasurer of
the silk ASSOCIATION, aud S65.25 from the
Odd Fellows of Yonkers, n. Y. Super.
intendent Edwards of the Northampton
schools also received s25 from the young
ladies' of M~iddleboro. The First church
in West Springfield has sent s65.50. The
finance committee held a meeting al
Northampton, Saturday evening, at which
they voted to pay all the bills for labor
amounting to $4,000, and for the cofius
used and appropriated from the general
fund $4,000 for relief work in Williams
burg.
The relief work is now very well syste.
matized and the bulk of it is now practi.
cally attended to. Thus at Williamsburg
the committee hardly think they will need
to keep the supply depot open any longer.
though there is a considerable amount of
clothing on hand for which there will be
found easy disposal among the sufferers,
nor, indeed. will it be necessary to keep
the relief rooms open IN the other villages
many days. Quite a considerable proper
tion of the destitute families have already
received sufficient sums of money TO estab-
lish themselves in housekeeping or get to
ether places where they eau find employ
nent. and the number thus disposed of in.
%crcases, every day. The greatest lack
now is house-room for the people who lost
their homes and have since been living as
best they could in the cramped quarters
which we're all that could be furnished.
We hear ofone French family at Williams
burg, consisting of father. mother and ten
children, who have lived ever since the
food in a single room of a small house
that was already occupied by another fam
iIy: and this. though an extreme case IL.