Burlington weekly free press. [volume] (Burlington, Vt.) 1866-1928, 1885-01-09

The Record ofthc old Year
To-day is ushcrcd in the bcaming boy
with garlands of hope and promise of that
(which is to be''-the smiling New Year.
Eighteen Hundred and Eighty Five. His
predecessor has but just departed, and 50
familiar has he become to us that we hard
~ realize that we Shall see his face no
more. On the whole, the vanished Old
Year has n dealt with us unllindly. He
has brought some disaster, some difficulty,
us was his prcrogative, but he has also
crowned his reign with signal blessings
and with gentle ministratiOnS and the
farewell which goes out to him in the
darkness is sad and heartfelt one, for the
great multitude of the human race
Among the disasters of the wear
attended with great suffering and loss
of life, are to be mentioned the
collision on the Grand Trunk railroad
near Toronto, in which twenty-seven per
sons were killed the burning of the CON
vent of the immaculate Conception at
Belleville, H., attended by the loss of
tWenty-siX lives a: the wreck of the steam
er llwai-Iuen, on the HE Shan islands,
China, on january IA, with the terrible
loss of two hundred and seven lives the
/ memorable loss of the steamer City of Co
lumhus, january Is, on the rocks off Gay
Head, Mass, 10y which one hundred and
one persons persisted in the horrors of the
darkness and the icy flood the explosion
of iire-damp in Crested Butte coal mine.
Colorado, by which sixty of the miners
lost their lives disastrous floods in Ohio.
early in February, caused by heavy rains
and melting snow, several lives lost and
millions of dollars of damage done: news
of the massacre of three hundred Chris
tians in Tonqun, ON February III;
terrific cyclones in Georgia Ala
bama and other Southern States; three
or four hundred lives lost and millions
of property destroyed; the explosion of Il
mine at PucahontaS, Va, attended bv the
loss of one hundred and tifty-four lives ::
great suffering from floods in the Mssis-
sippi river valley, in the latter part of
March destructive cyclones in the West
ern States; wreck Of the steamer Daniel
Steinmann of Sambro, y. S, one hundred
and twenty lives lost ; collision in mid
ocean between the steamer State of
Florida and bark Panama, by which
both were sunk and one hundred and
thirty-iive lives We're lost; fire and panic
in circus at Bucharest and one hundred
persons killed and injured; Il poorhouse
near Hartford, Mich, burned and sixteen
persons suffocated: great destruction by
forest fires in New York, PENNSYLVANIA
and elsewhere earthquake on the island
of kiShur, near the Persian gulf two
hundred lives lost and twelve villages de
troyed; the brig Senorine sunk off the
Newfoundland banks, May %, and sixty
two lives were lost collision between the
British steamer LaXham and Spanish
steamer Gijon, one hundred and thirty
lives lost ; August 20, the United States
steamer Tallapoosa sunk by collision with
schooner, and two lives lost terrible ty
phoon at Yokohama, Japan, one hundred
and twenty-eight houses destroyed, and
three hundred and forty-three per
sons drowned; extensive inunda-
! ton i'll the province of Kiang-See,
China, by which 10000 people persisted :;
October 3, the royal palace in Copenhagen
was burned; news of great floods and loss
of life in theArgentine Republic October
3, Il great cyclone on the Island of Sicily :.
sixty persons killed and four hundred in
jured October 20, Carthage, in New York
nearly destroyed by fire St Johns Home
for boys in Brooklyn, n. Y, burned on De
cember Is, with twenty three lives lost,
and Theatre Comique burned in New York
on the 23d OF December.
/ Among the leading events of the year
the unparalleled excitement of the recent
! ly closed presidential contest, of course,
merits chief mention. The disappearance
OF Charles DelmOnico, the famous rcstuur-
ant prince of New York, and the acquittal
of James Mutt who shot and killed y. II.
Dukes, the slayer of his father, are notable
events which occurred early in the year
The defeat of the army of Bakar Pasha,
and the capture of Snkat by the
Soudan rebels and the massacre of
| It's garrison, are important events
OF the war in the East. On Feb
ruary 20 the bodies of De Long and his
companions who persisted in the Arctic
regions were received in New York o.
March II the Mexican treaty was ratified
by the Senate. On March 20 occurred the
terrible riot in Cincinnati. On May | the
steamer Thetis flagship of the Greedy re
lief expedition, left New York. May oc
Cured the suspension of the Marine bank
and the failure of Grant e. Ward on the
same day the Morrison tariff bill was de-