Connecticut western news., 1884-02-27
NEWS OF THE DAY
GENERAL ITEMS.

bill prohibiting the making of any further contracts for convict labor in the State prisons.
 In many places in the flooded Ohio Valley even people with money. cannot purchase necessaries, for their is noth- ing left to purchase. In one district of twenty-five miles one-half of the houses were washed away.
 The dead body of Salmi Morse, the author of the "Passion Play," was dis covered in the North River, at the foot of Eighty-eighth street, New York. Dependency, want of money, defeated ambition, was the cause of his suicide.
 A national convention of the Green- back-Labor party is to be held at In dianapolis, May 28.
 Two brothers were sentenced at Bridgeport, Conn. to impris onment for thirty-tive years each.
 At the investigation of the City of Columbus disaster a diver testified to finding within a few feet of the hull huge powder having a piece split off from it, and alongside @ portion of the lost steamers keel, which had evidently been torn away by the shock of sudden contact.
 The resolutions granting loan of nearly S30, 100000 to the Canadian Pacific Railway were carried through the Dominion House Of Commons in com mittee of the whole.
 The unveiling of the statue of Gen. Lee, at Lee Circle, on St. Charles street, New Orleans, took place on Feb. 22d.
 A fight occurred in Montana be- tween four Crow Indians and seven white men, on one side, and five Piegans, who had stolen the Crows ponies, on the other. Four of the Piegans and two white men were killed and two other white men wounded. Horses seem dear and life cheap in Montana.
 During 8 fight that occurred in a North Carolina mine three men were killed.
 At Cincinnati the bodies of O negro, his wife and child were found in a medi- cal college, with indications that they had been murdered. Their house, few miles distant, was burned a few nights ago, since which time they had been missing.
 The little mining village of West Leisenring, situated four miles north of Uniontown, Pa., was Wednesday morn ing the scene of the most terrible ex- plosion ever known in the Coke region, resulting in the death of 19 miners. At about half-past six o'clock, while the men where digging, suddenly and without warning, there occurred an explosion that convulsed the mine in every apartment and threw the men into the utmost consternation. The awful scenes that ensued among the terror stricken miners cannot be de- scribed. All their lamps were blown out and they were left in utter darkness and confusion. They had not time to recover from the shock until they found themselves unable to breathe. Of all the men who were in the heading where the explosion occurred Dick Balseley alone escaped to tell the awful story. Balseley was just changing his clothes, and he at once wound portion of his clothing tightly around his face and mouth to keep the foul air from choking him. His escape is regarded by experienced miners as one of the most marvellous on record. He says some of the men kept their heads under water as long as they could and would have to change from the water to the ''after damp" until they gave up the unequal struggle.
 At Canton, Georgia, several school children were killed by falling house during cyclone which passed over that section. There have been several deaths at Cave Spring. Many persons were in jured and much property destroyed wherever the cyclone touched. The tor. nado did much damage in lower Missis, sippi and in portions of Kentucky.
 pr. Rufus Peacock was sentenced il Jersey City to two years in State Prison for defrauding the American Legion o Honor.
 The New York State Press Associa ton will hold its next convention il Plattsburg in June, and make an excur sion thence to Montreal and Quebec. A disastrous wreck occurred Tuesday at Trenton, Ohio, on the Pan Handle Railway, whereby three tramps were killed outright, and one so seriously injured that it is thought he will die. An engineer, conductor and two brake. men were also badly injured, and two engines and twenty-one freight cars were almost entirely demolished. The scene of the accident is at the foot of long grade, down which the first section of 8 freight train was running at a high rate of speed. At the foot of the hill is 6 little station and side tracks. Some evi disposed persons had moved switch rail without disturbing the sigma light, and when the train came laundering along the engine crushed into two cars standing on the siding. Before fagman could get far enough back tt warn the section following, it cam, crashing into the first section of the train piling cars and engine in a mass O debris. Trains were delayed more thai
 twelve hours.
 A terrible cyclone in Alabama de
 stroyed the town of Anderson. It Ii
 reported that number of persons wer | killed,