Democratic Sentinel, Volume 1, Number 46, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 28 December 1877 — DOMESTIC INTELLIGENCE. [ARTICLE]

DOMESTIC INTELLIGENCE.

l'iist;. The suits against the estates of Peter B. Sweeny and Elbert A. Woodward, of New York ring memory, have netted the city #444,982. John McAllister, Jr., optician, died lately, in Philadelphia, aged 92. He was the oldest living graduate of the University of Pennsylvania Three children of Mrs. Catherine Ilyan, of Randolph, Mass., were suffocated, a few nights ago, by ooal gas; also Mary E. Burry, who was stopping with thorn. Mrs. Ryan herself is not expected to live. A frightful disaster, caused by the explosion of a boiler in a candy factory and the immediate igniting of the building, occurred in New York, on the evening of Dec. 20. From the New York papers we glean the following particulars of the calamity: “The people in the neighborhood of Barclay streot and College place were startled by an explosion that sounded like the discharge of a cannon. The concussion broke many hundreds of window panes, some of them two or three blocks away, and instantly extinguished every gaslight burning within an equal radius. The rattle of window sash and the crash of broken glass was accompanied by a shock like that of an earthquako. This was followed by the crash of a falling building, and the people on Barclay street saw almost the whole inside of the five-story building, No. 63 Barclay street, torn out and shot up into the air with almost indescribable violence. The fountain of debris, according to the testimony of eyewitnesses, rose fully thirty feet above the roof, and before it had fallen the shell of the building, witla such of its inner fiamewoik as waH not torn away, was enveloped in flames. Thousands of people at once gathered, and in five minutes the engines were on the ground. The spectators were s+vtled a minute after by seeing a man emerge from the flames and appear on the rafters that supported the second floor. He was a horrible -jgJL't. hair and beard were burned ofT, blackened and smeared with blood and his clothes on fire. He stood for a moment as if irresolute, and the crowd yelled, ‘ Jump !’ «Jump !’ He glanced back once, and seeing certain death behind leaped to the ground. He was badly injured, but still alive when the ambulance took him to the A ladder was shortly placed against she broken front, when out of the burning interior came three men and two boys, their clothes on fire and their wounds bleeding. Tbs| their way down the ladder and were >i, M ff for treatment. Two or three only roni Sswciey street doer, One boy m <lt>f wt by tfe* inm tb« s«*<«

had entirely swallowed up the approach. Officer Dunlap, of the Twenty-seventh precinct, was the first man to clamber up the ladder. At the second story he found a young womrn, one of the employes in the confectionery establishment. He caught her just aB she was falling back, she having probably inhaled smoke or flames, and, telling her to cling around his neck, he Bwung her on his back and descended the adder. Reaching the ground, *he officer carried her to a store near by, but she was dead when he arrived there. Meantime the flames spread through the entire store, and burst out at the doors and windows of the College place front. Barclay street, College place, Park place, and Greenwich street were occupied by the engines. Three more alarms were rung, and soon nearly twenty engines were deluging the burning building with water. Hot withstanding all efforts, the flames gained rapidly. Within an hour the great candy store was a heap of rains. ’Hie interest frem the first had centered in the probable lose of life. Bo few were known to have escaped, and so many were known to be in the building at the time of the explosion that the most alarming rumors were set afloat. It was learned, however, before the fire was over that many persons, how many was uncertain, had escaped by the College place entrance. Borne were also known to have escaped through the hack yards and over the roofß of the neighboring buildings to the west, so that a reasonable hope existed that the most had been saved. The curious desire to gaze upon suffering and death was felt by many, and the police, who were present in large numbers, had all they could do to keep an avenue open from the store doors where the injured lay to the ambulances as they drove rapidly up. Every ambulance in the city had been ordered to the scene, and as fast as possible the sufferers were taken to the hospital.” Henry Van Dyke was hanged at Canton, N. Y., last week, for the murder of his wife, in July last. The criminal passed his last night on earth singing comic songs, clog-dancing and smoking. He told the Sheriff he wanted to be hanged at 11 o’clock, so as to be in hell for dinner. When some clergymen who had visited him started to leave, ho turned a couple of handsprings, and, bringing up with a circus pose, shouted after them, “ What do you soy?” A grand reception was tendered President Haves by the Union League Club, on the occasion of his visit to New York last week. West. It is reported that boring for oil has been begun 100 miles south of Dead wood, and that petroleum of a very good quality has been found. The California Legislature have elected J. T. Farley, a Democrat, to succeed Mr. Sargent in the United States Senate. 11. W. Wetherell, wholesale millinery and fancy-goods merchant, of Chicago, has failed. The failure of Kelley, Morley & Co., heavy coal dealers in Chicago, is also announced. Dispatches from Helena, Montana, report that Sitting Bull has recrossed the line, and is now camped in the Bear Paw mountains, with a largo force of Sioux and Nez Perccs Indians. South. At Riohmond, Va., a man has been arrested on suspicion of having murdered Charles Bolden, at Gilson, 111. He gives the name of Richard Robinson. This is one of the murders which have been laid to Frank Rande. All available United States troops have been ordered to tho relief of tho Texan militia on the Rio Grande. Affairs in El Paso county, Tex., were brought to a crisis on tho 17th by the surrender of the small band of Texans who were surrounded by overwhelming odds of infuriated Greasers. Three of the Americans, Judge Howard, Atkinson and Mcßride, were shot as soon as captured. Tho Governor, in his dispatch to Washington, expressed a fear that all the prisoners would be executed uuless speedily released by the arrival of United States troops. The troops who, under Col. Young and Lieut. Bullis, pursued a marauding party into Mexico, have returned in safety. On the return they encountered very had weather, rain falling continuously. A dippatch from Mesilla, N. M., dated Dec. 22, says: “The 1 Texas rangers who surrendered at San Elizario, having gathered reinforcements, started yesterday to recapture the arms taken by the Mexicans. It is reported that the forces encountered, and a fight followed, in which Lieut. Mortimer, of the regular army, was killed, and two soldiers captured, and that the invaders took a cannon from tho detachment of United States troops. A portion of the Mexicans then crossed the Rio Grande, whither they were followed by Texas rangers. Lively work may be expected at any hour. Gen. Hatch, with two batteries of artillery and one Gatling gun, has arrived at the scene of disorder.”