New-York tribune. [volume] (New York [N.Y.]) 1866-1924, 1874-05-25
PRICE FOUR CENTS.
A DESOLATED VALLEY.

UNIVERSAL WOE - LARGE BUILDINGS MOVED
BODILY FOR MANY YARDs-vIGoR AND PERsE-
| vERANCE or THE PEOPLE-A FRIENDLY SUCCESS
! TON AS TO THE CONTRACTORS.
/ lrRox AN OCCASIONAL CORRESPONDENT THE TRIBUNE
WILLIAMSBURG Mass, May 2l-Four times within
the year have been at Williamsburg-once but
fortnight ago. No need TO describe Williamsburg as
it then to any who have passed through Mas
sachusetts or Connecticut for TO have seen Of
these little manufacturing villages is to have seen
all Nesting down wherever there Is enough water
to turn wheel. they dot the green banks with their
white cottages measure the pulsebeats of time with
the swifter and equally regular throbs of their
ponderous hammers, make the night well az the
day alive with the hum of their busy industries, and
| tangle the tops of their tall chimneys in among
church spires. If to labor is to pray" the mingins
is not homogeneous, for the chimney Of work shop
must in logical sequence be very nearly akin to a
steepe the ringing Of anvils TO that of church besi
One who now for the first time visits these vii
lagos of the valley cannot realize the change which
that brief terrible half hour with the details OF
which you are al familiar, wrought. he will come,
for instance. upon naked areas Of territory where
nothing seems to have been destroyed simply be-
cause there is no evidence TO lead Won to
suppose that anything ever existed. To men
ton one case in point, he will find
powders over which stream trickles in irregular
channels-you do not know that this waste but i've
DAYS since was a fertile meadow, for there IL moth
ing 10 show that il has not been as it now IL snce
the first flood. In another case picking your way
along over broken ground, where never wheel
seems to have rolled, how is the stranger TO know
that he is in reality threading what was nam
street. along the line Of which stood the usual array
of houses Even I. who should be somewhat famil-
lar with the old localities. stood on piece of low
ground just outside the village of Williamsburg AZ
| supposed, over which the water had evidently
swept and remarked to a bystander what for
tunate thing it was that no one had bullded
there. To my surprise he informed me that | was
standing near the junction of two streets, aud on
ground once covered with houses. Twenty-six
dwellings were swept away IN this vicinity alone.
and with them ffty-seven human beings were borne
10 destruction. Inquiring what some twisted leaden
pipes were which odd intervals protruded from tho
ground and spouted water into the air in All appa-
rentv aimess way, was told that they once led
spring water into The kitchens of houses which had
gone away from over them, and Of which no other
trace remains.
have heard the devastation here wrought COM
pared to that occas0ued by great fire. Fire leaves
vestiges of what IL consumes-ashes at least m tho
path Of this fierce flood you find patches Of naked
l
stood. and vet ut the very moment per-
haps are standingin depression that last Saturday
morning was the cellar of a substantial dwelling.
Destruction is not the word annhIation alone can
describe it, and scarcely adequately at that. Com
mare this fearful work with that wrought by hre'
| indeed When fire comes You have something "a
fight; You can stay aud defend your property until
the flames die ont orthe rafters fall IN. When TINS
avalanche of water dashed down upon Williamsburg
there was nothing to do but for it, and fortunate
! indeed was the father mother with children IN
arms that could run fast enough 10 ind safety.
Fancy the swiftness of destruction, when the bell
which rung to warn the inhabitants came near being
whirled from the belfry and carried along on tho
crest of the torrent with its first stroke choked upon
its iron lips and the bellman had 10 drop the rope
and take to the hills. Even he who swift horse
flew through the valley shouting Flyl for your
lives fy ~ could not stop TO gather breath or say
to the wondering dwellers along the stream WHY
they should fly or where they should y to- for death
roared at his horses heels. and 10 pause for one
instant was to be overtaken and overwhelmed.
The suddenness and completeness OF the fate which
came upon Hercuaneum and Pompeii IL thought ID
be marked BY the bread and roasted meats found in
ovens Here you may ovens with unbaked
loaves therein-lOaves that did not even have time
to brown before the fire eXtngulshed aud both
stove and kitchen carried into another village.
II have now IN any degree made you understand
the suddenness and completeness of the catastrophe
which came upon Williamsburg and its SISTER ham,
let's have brought You TO a point At which myself
have not yet arrived though in addition to the ac-
counts which have met my eye and all have heard
from eye-wtnesses am personally upon the ground
and have explored 1T thoroughly III every direction
Can YOU lmagine OF enter into the feelings with
which now seat myself to write what l have seen,
the sensation akin 10 despair OF its accomplishment
which comes upon me as l contemplate the task Y
For two DAYS | have been wandering through q
desert where but yesterday. it were, | left a
garden for two days have been dwelling amid
desolation, and yet this very spot where even tho
trees are uprooted when before was here bios
somed with thrift, was hung on every side with tho
ripened fruits of industry. Sad women on every
side you see going about IN black, but Of the be-
reaved the greater number by far have no black 10
wear, for with the bereavement came the loss OF
ali that could enable them to symbolic it outwardly.
OF friends whom 1 loved and whose hospitaliues
I have received. some are utterly ruined others
have lost what it will take them Yeas To regain
Others still suspense and do not know whether
or not they are worth a dollar among them all. Is
il strange then that take up my pen as one might
who dreams that he but dreams and Is going Ia put
upou paper that which he will lind blotted
out on awakening; 10 record what he hopes
aud almost believes will turn out to be
but a distressing vision which came with
the night, and will vanish with tbe day
You remember it claimed for q Clergyman
once as a reason for giving hun call" that hs
was powerful in prayer and especially happy at
funerals" Now funerals were a source of much
enjoyment TO me, aud the funeral of several whole
villages at once hope never again To attend.
Ny attention Just called To a man evi-
IDENTIFY bearing overburdeniug about with