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Miscellany

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Parent Issue
Day
31
Month
July
Year
1847
Copyright
Public Domain
OCR Text

A fe iv weeks ago, the:-e was cm accidental explosión !" a bomb-shell,in Charlton street, New York. And as I chañe1 ed lo baat the spot but a few minutes after the explosión, [ will give you a description of the tei rific scene ns it mel ririy eye. I wns sitting n rriy house, about a quartcr oía rnile from tlie place of the explosión, nt 4 o'clock in the aflernoon, when the whole house was shaken by the report of apparently the heaviest piece of nrtillery. I was just preparing to go down in town, and taking an omnibus, soon saW a niuhitiide of men and boys i running towords Charltun street. In a motront inore, a crowd cama around thf corner of (Jharlton street nto Hudson stroot hearing the body of a well-dressed rnnn, upon a window-shutter. They ! crossed the stree' directly by the ' l)iis and I ob-ervcd tnat the whole back side of the bead was biown ofF, and the lilood and brains were dropping down upon the shutter. Perceiving indications of great excitement in the rnpidly gathering crowd, and hearing exclamatio) of " explosión," '„' terrible explosión," &c. I left the omnibus to learn the cause of the dias!er. Entering Charlton street, gtiided by liundreds who were rushing to I that point Irom al) quarters, I observed boih sides of the street,for a littledistance, that the windows were entirely demolished, the fimes in many places blown in, doors shattered, and holes blown actually through the sides of the houses. In one place, fort y rods, I should judge, from the spot wliere the explosión took place, n hole wns blown through the front of a frame, house large enough for n man to enter. Upon the side-walk. in front of a shop of old iron, lay in disordersome thiity r forty rusty bomb-shells, about eight inclies in diameier, lt was said by the crowd that a man had one of these hetween his knees, endeavoring to loosen the chnrge witli a stick, tvhen it expioded, producing this scene of destruction and carnage. The body of Uu's man was torn lo piece, and scattered in fragments through the streets. Observing a crowd gnthered around an object in the slreet at a liltle distance, I approached it, and saw, apparently, a large piece of butcher's meat, which a boy was pushing around with bis foot. On examining it, it proved to be the lower portion of a man's leg, with the crushcd bonesnnd mangled flesh. " The otlier leg," said a by-stander, "was blown over into Hudson st." A crowd was collected round a window-sill, gazing at some object. It was a man's hand, the fingures burnt and crushed, and blackened, having been torn from the body, and thrown with violence against the brick wall. The mangled trunk of the unfortunate man, headless and limbless, hat been carried into the house, and the shrieksof his wife were to be heard over the blody remains. Upon nn iron window frame la}' the torn and bloodv body of another man. A fragment of the shell had torn away one half of his hend. He was dead. His blood and brains were dripping down upon the pavement, and a dny-luborer had his thumband finger upon his eyes, to close them forever. Two young men who hapened to bo passing by in the iniddle of the street, were litcrally blown up into the air, and feil, with broken and mangled limbs, upon the pavement. Thcy both dicd, 1 brlicvc. the next day. In Uie street lny a horse doad, nnd it was singular that he also had the whole ot the back of his head torn ofF by a fragment of the shell. A beautiful wagon to which he was attached was also demolislied, the spokesofthe wheels broken, and tho vehicle almost torn to pieces. Such wns the devastation produced by the explosión of one single shell. And yet this shell did but perform ils function. It was made for this very puipose - lo destroy property and life. It wns made to be thrown into the crowdeil streels of a city, the'-e to explode and blow up houses, and tear limb f rom limb. This was the function of the instrument. And this is war. To ihrow such missiles as these into the crowded si reets of a city, is the business of war. As I looked upon this scer.e, and witnessed its cnrnnge and woe, and reflected that it was the work of one single shell, and then reflected upon the consternaron and horror which must be produced by raining down a sliower of these sliells upon a city, crushing their way through the roofs of houses, eXplodinK in the charnbers of the dying, or in parlors where motliers and daughters are gathered in terror ; never did I so deeply feel before. tlie horrors - the unmitigated iniquity of war ; never before did I so deeply feel that it was the duty of every one who has a voice to speak, or a pen with which to writñ, to devote all bis influence to promote the abolition of this fiend like work. When Napoleon, with his blood-stained army, nrrived before the walls of Vienna, he planted his batteries, nnd in less than ten hours, threiv three thousand of these horrible project les into the city. Three hundred of these bom'o-shells exploded every hour, five every minu!e, n the streets and dwelling.s of that crowded metropolis. Who can imagine the terrors öf that dreadful night, when, amid the thunders of artillery, the cry and uproar of contending armie. and conilngrations breakiug out on every side, these terrible shells, like fiéry meteors with portentious glarPjWere streaking the air, and dpsccnditig likehail-stones üpn the doomed city? Crashing through the rdofs of the ! ings, they explodcd at the fireside, in the 1 very eradle of the infant, blowing their mangled limbs with fragments of their demolished homes far and wide into the air. In this way Napoleon conquered Vienna. In this wny England conquered Cantón. And in this demoniac work, thousands of our countryinon are now ready to engnge for the acqisition of Texas ind Oregun. The whole city of New York was throivn into excitement by the tale of the explosión of this one shell, nnd there is scarce!y a newspnper in the land which did not record the dreadful storv. And yet t is the business of war to cast these shells by thousands nmong the men and boys who crovrd thr, ships of the navy and merchant fleet, and among tlie nged men, the ers and maidens, and the children who throng the dwellings and the pavements of the city. O, merciful God, save the na'ions from the horrors of war ! May, 1815.

Article

Subjects
Signal of Liberty
Old News