Year: 1869

The COnGRRrntiOn in Delaware CITY.


The Wilmington Commercial of last evening
contains the following news:-


The fire at Delaware City, on Tuesday evening,
proves not to have been of incendiary origin, as
was at first supposed 1t resulted from the fall
of a lamp which was hanging in the stable.
There were several drivers in the stable at the
time and, on the discovery of the fire, they in-
mediately gave each other the alarm, and all
sprang from the windows except one, who,
thinking they were only awaking him to fool
him, lay still until it was too late for escape.
He was q well-known character about the town
- known almost entirely by the name of
"Jimmy"-and was n driver on the canal The
number of mules destroyed was forty. There
were also eight tons of hay and some feed in the
stable, which were also consumed.


The fire at one time assumed threatening pro-
portions, and it was only with the greatest diff
Guilty that the extensive carriage making shop of
Jesse Alexander could be prevented from catch
ing fire. The stable of Major j. b. Henry did
catch fire several times, but the flames were
suppressed each time and the building thus saved.


The sight next morning was most sickening,
the bodies of the animals being strewn amongst
the ruins. The body of Jimmy" the driver,
was not found until some search had been made,
and it was horrible sight, nothing being left
but the blackened trunk, his legs arms, and
head having been burned entirely off


A Noble Deed-The HerOism of n Lame Boy.


The Commercial also says:-


On Monday last a young boy, son of Mrs.
Forest living on Riddles Banks, near this city,
had occasion to take his aunt across the dam of
Jessup d Moore's paper mills, to the east side of
the Brandywine creek. On returning, owing to
the strong wind and high freshet, the boat be-
came unmanageable and was carried over the
dam breast. Providentially, the boat, as it was
rushing down the rapid water below the dam,
struck upon the only rock in the creek
whose top was above the water, and here
young Forest scrambled and thereby was
saved from immediate drowning. The
people soon gathered for the rescue, but the
question arose as to how the boy was to be saved
from his perilous condition. At that moment a
lame boy, with crutch, came forward and said,
jected, until his father, Patrick Murien, who
was present, said LET him go: you can't drown
that boy" A rope was procured, and young
Mulrien, with rope and crutch, went to the
rescue. After feeling the water a little, he
threw the crutch ashore, and manfully plunged
into the rapid, rushing flood of waters,
headed for the rock in the middle of the
creek, where sat the half-drowned, chilled, and
frightened boy. Mulrien swan round and
round till he got through the eddying water,
and on to the lee side of the rock, where
he scrambled up; tied his rope around
young Forest, and with his feet had to push him
off the rock into the seething, boiling current
the boy stubbornly refused to leave the only
place of safety, being benumbed with cold, and
afraid to face the dangers of the rapid flood
again. The man soon pulled him ashore where
kind hands ministered to his wants. The
trouble then was how Mulrien was to get back
again, as he still sat upon the rock and looked
quietly at the people, then at the rushing flood
He prepared himself for the plunge, and, after
circling round the partly covered dangerous
rocks, directed his course down the creek, made
headway with the current, and very soon gained
the shore, some distance below the scene of the
disaster.