Ashtabula telegraph. (Ashtabula, Ohio) 1874-1880, 1877-02-02
For the Telegraph.
THE ASHTABULA DISASTER.

Gone are the stalWart and manly, 7-
The womanly and the fair. .f -v-l
That so lately filed the coaches-
One mass of ruin there!
There was life and health and beauty,
The grace Of womanhoOd's years,
The pride and strength of manhood
With childhOOd's joys and fears, 81
BuOyant with life they entered,
With many a smiles tear;
The wild waves proved their winding g-sheet,
Each coach funeral bierl
Some by the hand of providence
Escaped to tell the story.
Some, by the help most timely given,
Were rescued, bruised and CORY. a-
Yet we remember them by hundreds,
The lives so noble and true,
That perished-pause we for mourning,
Though strangers to me and to you;
Strangers cen to each other,
They thrOnged the fatal tram,
Bent on some mission of duty,
Or pleasQre-perchance of pain.
Filled with thoughts of happiness,
That only the holidays bring
Did ne thought of coming evil
A shadow across them fling,
TO warn them of danger? We trust not,
They suffered enough, heaven knows;
The worst of all possible evils
Are those of imagined woes. . arH
Onward, the train went, bearing
Its burden of human life,
The brother, father and husband,
The sister, mother and wife;
Thinking of those left behind them, l
Dreaming Of dear ones to greet
Life looked d long stretch before them,
As in fancy they culled out the sweet.
Nearer it draws, still nearerl ...
The deSOlate bridge of fate,
While wrapt in varied diversions,
The passengers musingly wait;
Across speeds the foremost engine. Ill,
1t scarcely had over flown, -'0''
When the bridge gave way-the coaches
To the right and left swaying down.
Down, down to the icy water, sif -
A distance of eighty feet, ,.
The crushed, the stunned, the uninjured
Swift doomed the mad flames to meet Il
a moments lull, dread stiffness, "a,
A sound but of smothered woe! -'''
Then shrieks and cIies,of anguish,
As the flames leaped brightly aglew. r..
And brighter the flames and broader, ai
More piteous the cries for aid,
But never a friendly engine
On the burning wreck made raid! H
Great God! in this age of improvements,
mo wonder we think with dismay,l
OF the lives without timely suceor, i,, .H.
So ruthlessly swept away. -rl
True, townsmen were out prompt and
ready, -
Who worked with vigor and will, T. '''
To rescue the dead and the dying, .,, o.
While the fire hissed nearer still
But the flames worked still more boldly,
Water, only, could quench their might,
That being withheld, they triumphant
Made lurid the storm-clad night.
Oh, swiftly the scorching demon, %
Swept on through the fated train, ''
Caressing alike each victim Z, .-..-f III,
With its fiery tongue of flame.
The reality beggars descriptions sI
Pen cannot portray such despair; ,- u.
Where, where, were the hose and the en-
,l glneS EgE -4ufIt.tZ ZHfi sil"@
Listen! Echo sadly says, where! ..a
Sympathy's tears swift were falling, "
When the terrible news reached our ears,
While sll through the land there was
mourning, 45lFt Hafi HFah --'
Too deep and too sacred for tears; t
Sad the fate Of many that nighttime,
But sadder Weoften will find. So o.
Than even their untold sufferings, r.
The long mourning that's left behind
.rr- ,.rt -'ai III #.HL i M H. r.