Western Sun & General Advertiser, Volume 17, Number 41, Vincennes, Knox County, 18 November 1826 — Page 4

Poelicul.

THE BLIGHTED FLOWER. The spoiler came." There bloomed a lovtly little flower, And in the wild it grew ; T'was born in summer sweetest hour. And round its vude, secluded bower, Ablcssctl fragrance threw. Chill autumn came with frown severe And swept the verdant spot ; The tree was stnpt, the leaf was sear, Yet midst the waste so sad and drear, The flow ret perish'd not. Stem winter now his mantle white, O'er autumn's ravage threw ; Cold was the day, and drear the night, And yet the flowrU felt no blight, But beauteous still it grew. A being of angelic form, All heavenly to behold, Espied and from the wint'ry slorm, The flowrct in his mansion warm, Ilc shielded from the cold. A vihile it shed a fragrance round, Til all its sweets were fled ; Then like a weed was drooping found, Neglected trodden to the groundpale withcr'd blighted dead ! Oh ! would'st thou know that beings name The mansion, and its guest ? MAN; MAN! to thy eternal shame; Thon and that being are the same, WOMAN, the flowrct doom'd to shame, The ulansion curst, thv breait ! The Earth quakes at iVeto Madrid in 1812. The following is an interesting, and vve have no doubt, accurate account of the TCarrhquakcs which destroyed New Madrid, and the surrounding country on the Mississippi in 1812 Many of the particulars here recited of this scene of horror, must he remem bercd by some of our readers, as they were generally known al the time of the catastrophe Congress was petitioned by the sufferers, and a considerable donation of land was granted to thorn, which subsequently became a distinct subject of speculation by the land jobbers o. Missouri. from FHfs " Ten years in the V'.llt the Mississippi EAIIT IKiUAKU AT NfiW M AD III ft Kin 1812 From all accounts, cor Vected one by another, and com pared with the very imperfect narratives which were published. I infer that these earthquakes in the immediate vicinity of the centre of their force, must have equalled in their terrible heaving of the earth, any tiling of the kind that b is been recorded. I do not be lieve that the public have ever yet v. bad any adequate idea ol the. concussions. We are accustomed to measure this by the buildings ovct turned, and the mortality that results Here the country M as thinlv settled. The houses, for tunately. were frail and of logs, the most difficult to overturn that could be constructed. Yet. as it , V was. whole t''act were plunged into the. b''d of (be river The grave-van1 at New Madrid, with all is sleeping tenants, was precipitated into the bed of the str .m Mosr of the houses were thrown down. Large lakes of twenty V a 1 . . mi pc hi rvrnr uim'P m:im in rn hour. Other lakes were drained 'The whole country, to the mouth of the Ohio in one direction, and to St Fiaia is in the other, in eluding a front of three hundred nines, was eonvuistu to suen a i ti. i r degree as to create lakes and is , lands, the number of w hich is not yet known to cover a tract of ma v miles in extent. near the Lit tie IVarie. wnh water 3 or 4 feet deep; and w'en the water disappearcd. a stiatum of sand of the same thickness wasleft in its place, Thc trees plit in the midst, lashed one to another, and are still visible over great tracts of country, inclin -

ing in every direction and in every 1 angle to the eartb and the horizon.

They described the indulaton of the earth as resemblinir waves increasing in elevation as they ad vanced, & when they had attained a certain fearful height, the earth would burst, and vast volumes of water and sand and pit coal were discharged as high as the tops of the trees. I have seen a hundred of these chasms, which remain fearfully deep, although in a very tender alluvial soil, and after a lapse of seven years. Whole dis triets were covered with white sand, so as to become uninhabitable. The water at first covered the whole country, particularly at the Little Prairie ; and it must have been, inded. a scene of horror, in these deep forests. c in the gloom of the darkest night, Sf by wading in the water to the middle, to (lv from those concussions, which were occurring every few hours, with a noise equally terrible to the beasts and birds, as to men. The birds themselves lost all power & disposition to fly ; and retreated to the bosoms of men, their fellow su ffercrs i n t! u s general c on v u 1 si o n . A lew persons sunk in these chams. and were providentially extricated. One perished miserably on an island, which retained its original level in the midst of a wide lake created bv the earth quake. The hat and clothes of this man were found. A number perished, who sunk with their

boats in the river. A bursting of j lament, which consisted of a bunthe earth just below the village of died families, and which was lo New Madrid, arrested this migh cated in a wide and very deep and t y stream in its course, and caused lertile bottom, broken up. When a reflux of its waves, by which in I passed it, and stopped to con a little time a great number of i template the traces of the catas-

boat were swept by the ascending current into the mouth oi i' the HatfoUn carried out and left upon the dry earth when the accumula ting waters of the river had again cleared their curre.c. There was a great number ol severe shoe us, hut two series o concussions were particularly terrible. ; far more so than the rest. And thev remark that the shocks were clearly ditinguishable into two classes ; those in which the moiion wa? horizontal, and those in which it was perpendicular The latter wese attended with the 9 explosions and the tenible mix ture of noise?, that preceded and accompanied the earthquakes, in a louder degree, but were by no . means so desolating & destructive as the other. When they were felt, the houses crumbled, the trees waved together, the ground sunk, and all the destructive phenomena were more conspicuous In the interval of the earthquakes there was one evening, & that a brilliant and cloudlets one, in which the western sky was a continued glaie of vivid flashes of lightning, and ol repeated peals ol subterranean thunder, seeming to proceed, as the flashes did, from below the horizon. Thev remark that the night so conspicuous for subterranean thunder, was the same period in -which the fatal eartb quakes at Carracas oecured. and they seem to suppose these flashes, and that event parts of the same scene. One result from these terrific phenomena was very obvious The people of this vil lage had been noted for their prof ligacy. and impiety In the midst of these scenes of terror, all. Catholics and Protestants, praying and prolane, became of one religion, & partook of one feeling. Two

hundred people, speaking English, French and Spanish, crowded together, their visages pale, the mothers embracing their children, as the omen that preceded the earthquakes became visible, as soon as the air became a little ob scored, as tho1 a sudden mist arose from the east, all, in their different languages and forms, but all deep ly in earnest, betook themselves to prayer. The cattle as much terrified as the rational creation, crowded about the assemblage of men, and seemed to demand protection, or community of danger. One lady ran as far as her strength

would permit, and then fell exhausted and fainting, from which she never recovered. The general impulse, when the shocks com rneu.ed. was to run; and yet when the v were a the severest point of their motion, the people were thrown on the ground at al most every step A French gen.i i . ticman tosu me mat in escaping from his house, the largest in the village, he found he had left an infant behind, and he attempted to mount up the raised piazza to re cover the child, and was thrown down a dozen times in successi on The veneiable lady in whose beuse we Iodized, was extracted from the ruins of her house, hav ing lost every thing that apper tained to her establishment, which could be broken or destroyed - The people at the Little Prairie, who suffered most, had their set j U'ophe which remained after se ven years, the crevices where the ' rac th had burst were sufficiently manifest, and the whole region was covered with sand to the depth of two or three feet. The surface was red with oxide py- ! rites of iron, and the sand blows, a- they were called, were abundantly mixed with this kind of ear th, aud with pieces of pit coal, lint two families remained of the whole settlement The object seems to have been in the first paroxysms of alarm to escape to the hills at the distance of 25 miles. The depth of the water that covered the surface soon precluded escape. THE FUTURE It is covered with darkness. Uncertainty hovereth over it No mm ial ken reachcth beyond the present now. We may dream about it, and fancy we see it beyond the eyes, and live in the midst of it by anti cipation--but after all our'faney. ings. it is not. An inseparable cloud hangeth over it and shutteth it up from the prying eyes of mortals. We See not tlu bnr nnrl rugged path over which our feet are destined to travel. The tortures by which our finest feelings may yet be tried, we feel not The shock of parting spirits, and the almost insufferable pangs of widowed loneliness we cannot re alize The ills of life of which the flesh is heir to, are so distant iw uui c ininK nought about them, but press alons: in our f A Alin tMtll - . i L! I- f 'journeying through this unfriend iy eiime, piucking the roses as they bloom. And although our fellow travellers are daily suffering before our eyes to warn us of what we ourselves must sooner or later endure ; still we go forward without thought, unprovided for

the future, and putting off from

day to day the great preparation necessary for the hour of trial. O how thoughtlessly we live. How caielessly we provide for the future. How little-do we es timate our time. That precious jewel which if weighed in a bal ance would be found inestimable1 beyond price ! 4i more precious than silver or gold, or all that this earth can afford. Its embraces are friendly, but they are short lived. It offereth us the opportunity to prepare for its departure, but stayeth not to hear our excuses waitetb not upon us, but passeth on. wards without delay, leaving us when it is too late, to curse our folly and indecision. What we have left undone, must remain undone forever. The future will fill up the chasm we have made in our past lives. We cannot recall the past, neither can we blot it from our memory. It w ill remain there through all future time, to disturb us with its baleful presence. The future, although not seen, is at hand. It cometh to weigh our conduct in the balances of truth. Its voice will be like thunder. Its charges weighty & just. It is fraught with the richest harvest of our past and present industry, or with the briars, and thorns and pains, and sorrows, . m m the natural consequences of our shameful neglect and sinful sluggishness. It beareth along with it riches and honors, peace and contentment; or poverty and disgrace, wickedness and misery It cometh to scatter our plumes in the dust, and to cover us with clouds and darkness or to light up our souls with the bow of joy and of hope. Would we look at the future with composure let us improve the present. Do we tremble at what befalls us before we lay our beads down in the dust? Let us remember that pure and undcfiled religion can support us in all our trials here below. Is there a fearful foi boding and uncertainty resting on our minds concerning an hereafter? Thanks be to God. even in this we may be confident, that he who applies his heart unto wisdom, and lives inconstant preparation for his last aud great change, shall be covered with the pavillion of God's loye and over him the fmure will spread the sheltering arms of an approved conscience. I never knew but one person said Stern, who interfered be tween man & wife either with safe ty or success Upon a domestic proSi'Con once between the parties, that was rising e en to blows, a friend of mine, who happened to come by, bit the husband a stroke with his right band. Be quiet, you brute," and struck the woman at the same time with his left, saying Hold your tongue you vixen." Then repeating his moral admonition and friendly buffets, with a" Peace, you monster Have done, termagant Hands oil, you coward Iletire, vou viraTo" a fit nf champ at luirrhfort ! seized them both at the same time at such extiaordinary and impart tial umpirism ; they shook hands immediately, and became good friends for the rest of their lives. Lord Chesterfield's physician9 having informed him, that he was dying by inches, he thanked God. that he was not so tall by a foot a half as sir Thomas Robison.