Memphis daily appeal. [volume] (Memphis, Tenn.) 1847-1886, 1882-03-31
DONE TO DEATH
In a Brief Moment, in the Twink
ling of an Eye--The Awful
Ordeal of Fire or
Water.
A Hundred Dreaming Souls Rude
ly Awakened to a Dreadful
Fate at the Dawn of
Day.
In Vain Was the Bravery of the
Engineer and Pilot at Their
Posts, the Doom Was
Death
No ShrieEs Rent the Air, There
was No Noise, No Confusion,
Only the Silence of
Despair.
Courage was There, but it was
Unavailing to Save All 80
Twenty-Six Persons
Perished.
An Awful Warming Against Grim
inaI observation-disclosures
of the Officers and
Passengers.
Incidents of the Holocaust Which
Filled the City With Sadness
and With GlOOm---The
Insurance.
Incidents of the Holocaust Which
Filled the City With Sadness
and With GlOOm.-The
Insurance.

The city was suddenly awakened yesterday
morning from its sleep and its dreams by
several alarms of fire, the last one between 4
and o'clock. The 6remen had been
busy for two hours running about and
subduing flames, and were about re-
turning to their "houses" when a call
sounded clear upon the morning air, followed
by steam whistles and the loud calls from
scared spectators, who shouted and
gesticulated in a way that was all
vanity and vexation of spirit, all
the while that the steamer Golden City
was being eaten by the flames, fed by most
infammable cargo of oil and jute. There
was no noise or confusion on the boat. There
was no time for it. The summons was too
sudden Some of the unfortunate passengers
were no doubt smothered in their berths and
never heard the dread alarm of "frei firelr
The few who had watched the boat as she
pushed into the bank, say there was perhaps
moment between her appearance and the
shooting of the flames. The poor dumb
brutes of Stoves circus were silent
as the grave. The smoke asphyxiated
falo and bear made their escape, the
former in pitiable plight, shorn of his hair
and almost blind. AS to the men and
women and children, they jumped to
the coal barges near by or into the water
they could and just as they were. There
was no thought of conditions. Naked or
semi-nude, they leaped from the all-consum-
ing flames and away from the impending
doom of death. The holocaust las the work of
an instant, and it passed before the eyes of the
fast increasing beholders like distempered
dream. Nothing like it has occurred here in
a long time. But our people, tried as they
have so often been in misfortune, were equal
to the dread emergency, and did everything
that was possible for the survivors. They
were taken possession of by many good
Samaritans and all their wants were sup
piled. Most of them have gone to their
homes at the North, but the agony through
which they passed has left its awful
memory to linger with US as it
will with them for years. The story, the
time of which was SO brief, but the sum of
which is death, and sorrow, and heartbreak,
and mourning, is told below. All points
and views are presented, and all the Incl
dents and information possible are printed.
1t will lead the reader away from the
carelessness which produced ii to the narrow
escapes and the sad, sad deaths, and
up to the heroism of the engineer,
who died at his post, and of the pilot,
who stood at the wheel until his power of
control had passed from his hands to the
flames. Forever green be the memory of
the one, and for ever blessed for his BRAY
cry be the other.