The Donaldsonville chief. [volume] (Donaldsonville, La.) 1871-current, 1880-07-10
louaIosol,biIle Cl|lef.
Our Broadbriln Letters.


a week 81 startling Accidents Crimes
and Oasualies on Land and Sea Bad
Effect q the snltry Weather Political
Metamorphoses A Wife's Value as 9
Marketable Commodity.
New York, June 26, 1880.
Ep1roR CHIEF:
A week Of startling accidents: fires,
murders, suicides and dreadful calam-
tiles by sea and land. Looking over
the predictions Of the Canadian
. weather prophet, it is no more than
might be reasonably expected. Ju-
pi.er, Saturn, Mars and Venus have
been raising hob, and in view Of their
uncomfortable proximity, we will be
exceedingly lucky if some disrepn-
table comet does not strike us astern
or abaft tho beam one Of these bright.
afternoons, aud send US all flying to
Dayy Jones' locker. Every day, when
a vessel arrives from Europe, we get
fearful accounts of the icebergs that
cover tho sea. Que ship arrived in
the lower llarbor, with her bows all
stoves to pieces, she having tried the
experiment Of ramming an iceberg,
which, regret to say, was not a sue
cess. The iceberg sustained COM
pound fracture forward Of the star
hoard beam, but the ship knocked
her bowsprit all to flinders, lost her
forefoot aud about IA feet Of her keel,
besides having hole knocked in her
side long enough to serve as hatch
way for "a. Notwithstanding the
fact that the accident occurred $50
miles from land, the plucky captain
brought his ship safely to halbor,
which was much more than could
reasonably be expected under the
circumstances. On Tuesday couple
Of gigantic ocean steamers came into
port with holes in them big enough
to hold pic bic in, and yet they did
not 90 to the bottom. And this brings
to mind the difference in ship build
ing. A few years ago a French
steamer was stranded on the Jersey
shore. She was exposed to fearful
wintry storms; she was squeezed in
the ice and pounded by the ocean
waves for nearly six months, yet, in
the early summer she was dug out Of
her tomb upon the sands, and to-day
she floats upon the ocean waves, as
staunch steamer as phys between
the United States and Europe. A
few months ago, an American built
steamer went ashore in moderate
gale upon the coast Of North Carolina,
and in two hours she was pounded to
pieces, and half of her crew and pas
sengers were lost. It was certainly a
wonderful sight to see the jagged
bows Of these ocean giants all torn
and shattered, and yet to see them
bear their crews, their cargo and their
passengers in safety to the shore.
Thousands OF people surrounded them
oil day, and even rough old sea dogs,
whose llulls had heen battered by
forty years of storm, declared that
they could not have believed if the
evidence was not before their eyes,
that they could ever have reached
the land.
don't know if it is the weather
that has produced sucl, al evil effect
on the people, but an unusual num-
Der of them appear to be bent on
mischief. 1t seems to take no special
direction, but to cover the whole cal
.endar Of crime. Men aud boys, women
aud girls, saints and sinners, rich and
poor, all seem to be equally con-
cerned. A pious church trustee robs
q bank of $500, 600; little girl steals
her mothers watch aud earrings; a
good little boy abstracts $500 from
Il safe; worthy merchant runs off
with another merchants wife; Il HUI
man brute heats his sick wife to
death, and when. with her dying
breath, she asks for drink Of water
to cool her fevcrcd lips, lac gives it to
her boiling hot from the stove, and
curses her when she refuses to drink );
three wretchel mothers have aban.
doned their children in the street,
but, thanks to the society organized
for their protection, they found kind
friends aud Il better home than they
ever knew before. With all this
crime and ignorance and suffering in
our midst, it is pleasant to know that
the gifts to foreign missions have
been unusually large during the past
year, aud let us hope that the evan
gclization of some renegade Jew in
Palestine, sosae disreputable Moslem
at Constantinople, or some vagabond
Chinaman in Hong Kong or Pehin
may reward the generous donor and
enthusiastic evangelist for forgetting
the waits at our own door, who need