The Middlebury register. [volume] (Middlebury, Vt.) 1850-1882, 1882-03-24
famOus i'hpa.er tires.

The most fatal theater fires v ss the
burning Of the Ssragossa Thester in
l778, when eco persons lost their lives.
At the Oarlsruhe Theater, in 1S47, 104
persons persisted. The burning OF the
Opera House, at Nice, in 1881, in which
sixty-two persons were burned or crushed
to death, Is still fresh in the public
bmcmory. II these islands many
theaters have been burnt down, but
some providential chance has always in
tervened to limit the proportions of the
catastrophe The fire had broken out
In the daytime ; the performance had
not begun or had not ended or there
were few spectators in the house If,
for example, the Surrey Theater, wher
1t was burnt down during the daytime
in 1865, had contained an audience, few
would have escaped alive, so rapid was
the action of the flames. But OF all the
calamities which have ever in modern
times overtaken q crowd OF human
beings in a single building, the burning
Of the church OF La Campsnia, Santiago,
in 1863, has never been equalled or ap-
preached. In one short hour 1000
people, nearly all ladies OF youth, rank,
and beauty, were reduced to ashes. The
flower of the capital of Chih had
gathered in the church, in a spirit OF
religious excitement, to pay its devo-
tions at the closing celebration OF the
Immaculate Conception. Every seat
was full. Nothing that invention could
suggest or wealth supply was omitted
in the sdornments of the occasion. The
interior OF the church was hung from
roof to floor with floating gauze and rich
drapery. and lighted with festoons Of
innumerable paraffine lamps. An acolyte,
IA lighting the last lamp before the
shrine, raised fame which spread in
simultaneously. A rush soon choked the
entrances with wall of dead and dying
twelve feet in height. The melting
lead from the roof and the blazing oil
OF the severed lamps poured down upon
the heads Of 2, 600 tender women, who
could be seen from the windows Of
neighboring houses, rushing wildly to
and fro, without an outlet of escape.
The falling ofthe roof put an end to their
agonies and completed q catastrophe
which stands without parallel.-Lon-
don Times.
Labor Oh a Sandwich Island Plantation.
A letter from the Sandwich Islands
gives this interesting account Of life on
the plantations there: In the field and
at the mill hands work lazily, talking
and laughing among themselves, look
ing healthy, cheerful and contented
and on the best terms with the planters
and overseers. The work is what any
boy or girl fifteen years old could per-
form, but the boys anCI girls must 60
TO school. No matter how far the cane
field may be from their houses. labosers
are not required to start any earlier in
the morning. and they reach home just
as soon in the evening. The hardest
work is hoeing, and that consists OF
only turning light, sandy soil, and
they themselves say they are never hur-
ried a. ainst their will. The method
adopted by manager to get good
days work out OF them is to go among
them and talk freely, allowing them OPP
rortunities Of showing their wit, and
then pit one gang against another. The
native is particularly susceptible to this
treatment. Natives usually reship
Chinese never do, but they haunt a
plantation after the expiration OF their
contract, gambling with the hands. sell
ing them smuggled opium and liquor.
The native, like the child that he is,
gives them all he earns in exchange for
liquor which he cannot resist Con
tracts, which are usually for one to
three years, o al for ten hours work per
day, but the days they work SO long are
few and far between. At the Koloa
mill they were grinding from l
o'clock In the morning till in the
evening. with separate gang for night
and day, making eight and half hours
all told, including the dinner hour.
Hands employed at feeding the rollers
knocked of shortly after O'Clock
In the afternoon. This is one Of the
Oldest plantations in the kingdom, and
never has had any trouble with its men.