The New York Herald Newspaper, May 25, 1874, Page 5

| THE DESOLATE VALLEY, A Sorrowful Sabbath in the Churches on Mill River. THIRTY BODIES NOT RECOVERED Pastoral Ministering of Consola- m tion to the People. GOD’S WILL FOREVER GOOD. “He Carrieth Them Awav as With a Flood.” LESSONS OF GRIEF AND LOSS ‘Jadgment Upon Human Responsibility for the Disaster. WILLIAMSBURG, May 24, 1874. This has been a sad memorial day in the Mill River Valley. For the first time since the terrible disaster of a week ago Saturday the people have ome together to mingle their grief and sympa- thies. The churches which a week ago were de- serted, gave by the corpses of the unlortunate Victims of the calamity, were to-day oc- cupied by the sad and mourning surviv- ors, In all of the houses of worship fit- ting allusions were made by the respective pastors to the common bereavement, and the great @Miction and its full realization caused the whole community to weep tears of sadness. Not only ‘the citizens of the devasted region, but even the ,| Bundreds of visitora who came to look over the @oene of death and desolation, shared inthe unt- versal grief, ana many of them manifested the genuiness of their feelings by liberal contributions to the relief tund. A SAD SBARCH. ‘The search for bodies has been practically aban- @oned, Aji the heaps of rubbish have been orer- Rauled, and in many localities the huge sandheaps have been penetrated. It seems now almost hope- Jess to continue the search. Some thirty bodies remain to be recovered, but they will only be found by accident. : THE INQUEST. ‘The Coroner’s inquest will be commenced to-mor- row, and it is understood that tt willbe thorough nd impartial, and that the conclusions arrived a ‘wili be expressed in a most fearless and emphatic verdict. THE SERMONS. IN WILLIAMSBURG. t WILLIAMSBURO, Mass., May 24, 1874, Sermon by Rev. Mr. Thorndike, of the Methodist Church. Rev. Mr. Thorndike, pastor of the village Meth- @dist church, addressed a large and mournful con, @regation, taking his text from Matthew xxtv., “Therefore be ye also ready, for in such an hour as ye think not the Son of Man cometh.” Many came to our Saviour, he said, actuated by curiosity, asking questions and making inquiries @bout this and that, which was not of so much importance for them to know and understand per- ®onally as that which Christ could teach and do, @nd often was not for them nor for the angela to know. Our Lora was in the habit of calling the e@ttention of such persons in His wise way to Whatever concerned them more, and of strongly urging them to take care of ‘he duties of the present rather than Shose of the future that cannot be fully provided for now. So when the disciples came asking, ‘Tell us when these things shall be, and What shall be the sign ofthe coming and of the end of the world,” they, nor the thousands who Bave sought to know since, obtained any dtrect enewer. He intimated that His coming was not @lone connected with the end of the world, but as often, so far as it might be called in jadgment, as any calamity mignt come. One that omened the end of the world, the destruction of Jerusalem, ‘Was near, and with it the Sonof Man’came. Again and again has He repeated that coming 1m our Midst, Last Saturday tne Son of Man appeared. ‘Whenever an individual bas seen any of his life in gach & light a3 condemns tt, he bas been judged, Soult is with » multitude. Whenever disaster nas Befaiien one or thousands, then they know mm part what the coming of the Son of Man means, In a world populated pb: breakers “offences must needs come.” Kternal wisdom has predestinated it should be go, ‘What was designed to do us good, rightly used, be 4¢ material or spiritual blessing, can be mude to injure us. We would not, and God has not or- @amed it should be otherwise. Carelessness or breaking or neglecting law, natural or moral, ‘Rough it be through ignorance or wilfully, must, is, determined to bring calamity in a form more or Jess serious, The carclessness of those who built the reservoir has resuited in this awiul disaster that cl the beauty and prosperity of our val- Jey into chaotic agliness and the most perfected ruin that ever met human gaze. God bas no more done it than He vook the life of Abel, and 1s no @ore the author of it than of anyevil. Uniess | there had been transgression of law Unrist would | mot have come in the flesh nor im any of the comings in mercy and in judgment so many times Witnessed. There would be no need of the final Jadgment or the waking “all things new."’ Trans. gressors need diferent government from the } Obedient, yet in mercy to the transgressor and in possible good to the obedient they mingle together, and on them sunshine apa rain fall alike, and over them and | their property the’ natural waters tow | regardless of either; bat those born into the king- | dom of God spiritually come under power that shields trom ail waters bitter to the soul. It is be- | @ause their souls are true to the law that controls | spiritual things. We can all now by repentance and faith become members of a kingdom eternal and be eternally safe. Death is coming in an un- Known hour, and Christ aliudes to it as the hour of mest emergency and as an event of the high- est im ce tousa@d. For that be ready. ‘Do. that, the first thing; toen take every otuer reia- tion to life and events, as they cone, tn their iT order. 0 ige and obedience of phys- and moral law, as they increase, wiil lessen accident and wrong doll the great calam- boyy earth will be repeated less oiten. But it not probadlg the time will come in our day, if the inhabitants of this earth, when Perfectit loyal to the King, and then the soul Bale if al elge be lost. Sermon by the Rev. J. F. Gleason, the Williameberg Congregational Church. The memorial services in the Congregational church, commemorative of the great affliction, were largely attended by a sorrowful concourse of people. The church was appropriately draped in mourning, the pews vacated by famihes being eo tirely covered with black, The services were con- ducted by the Rev. Mr. Gleason, the pastor, assisted by the Rev. F, T. Perkins, of Naugatuck, Cona., a former pastor. Reckoning by events, said Mr. Gleason, instead of by the dial, the tume ts long since we last met. After spending one day among the ruins of our valley a Boston clergyman said it formed a quarter of his lifetime. If simply by reviewing the results of the disaster and receiving no personal injury so much seems added to nis life’s span, then there must be the full experience of a life bound up in the volume of the past week for you who witnessed all this and have been either stripped of your possessions or berelt of your iriends, A majority of the hecatomb of the dead of Williamsburg were members of tnis congregation. The waters leaped unheralded into the midst of our village and swept away many of our best citizens and dearly loved friends. As the suddenly added waters forced the stream to for- sake its time-worn bed and plough a new channel for its flow, so the rushing experiences of the past Week crowd our shoughts of pulpit ruts and homi- letic methods to range over unfrequented ground. This service is like the first roll call alter a terrible conflict, Until to-day it required much searching to find many of the living, as it did the dead. We were all struck dumb by the terrtole blow, and I should hardly dare to call the roll of the living, Jest there be some whose lips are still unsealed. For days we spoke one to another only with our hands and eyes, Men trom abroad could talk, but we were Well nigh speechless, Now that we have tenderly laid our dead to rest we may pronounce their names round this family altar. We bless God that the lives of many of them enable us two point to heaven as their names are called, and answer, “Gene above!’’ Dr. &. M. Jobnson, a dea- con of this church and a beloved physiclan—ne will be missed by many homes and hearts. His mother, Widow B, Johnson; nis wile; his chil- dren, Eddie, Mamie and Lottie—three generations im one grave! Superintendent Henry Birming- ham, Mrs Birmingham, Mary Birmingham, Lily Birmingham, Carrie Birmingham—a whole family together crossed the threshold of heaven. mrs. Elbridge G, Kingsiey, Mrs. E. D. and her little ones, Nettie and Lyman, leaving Teaved husbands and Jathers with the iamily Bible as the only souvenir of two happy homes, William’ H. Adams, who had just risen from his knees at the family altar, when he was called to siand be- fore the throne. ‘f. J. Hitchcock, Mrs. Electra Knight, Mrs. Geo. E. Lamb, Jeremiah Ward, Mrs, Caroline Ohandier and May, wife and daugh- ter of Conductor E. M, Chandler, whose train was chased down the valley by the leaping flood; En- gineer Alexander Roberts, Mrs, Roberts, our chief singer when with os, bat now in the choir of heaven, with their little ones, Nettle and baby Allie; Widow Sarah H. Snow and her grandson, Willie Tiiton, inseparable in life, undivided in death; Mr. E. C, Hubbard, his daughter, Mrs. Mer- nek Wood, and livtie Harry Wood; thus, with one fell swoop, did death cut down more than thurty this congregation. Within sight of my house twenty children went down by @ path through the waters up to the shining snore. Ob, how much we do miss them! We need all we have left to enliven our desolated homes. When the angel of death passed over Egypt “there was not a house where there was not one dead.” ‘There was a great cry matte ol, @ll the land, such as there was none like }t, nor shall be luke 1t any more.’ So it seems to be with us. But the story of these empty pews is not all sad, for there is something beautiful in the thought of wnole families going to heaven together. The removal of shattered tami- les will soon leave other pews vacant. To those among whom these bereaved ones find an asylum anda home | would say, ‘Comfort ye, my people.” Thirteen of these lost to us were members of this church, while several others were members of sister churches, but worshipped with us. at were to many and frends to all, We mourn around a common sepulchre. To you who have been be- reaved in your family we give our hearts full of sympathy. For seven days and nights we have sat with you in sympathetic silence, as did the friends of Job when he had lost children, flocks, crops, riches, everything; “for we have seen that your grief was Mer eer But now I open my mouth to thank the Lord that He took them home by such @ short and easy path. It seems more like transla- tion than death. I thank Him that, when I stood on the edge of the roaring torrent and with trans- fixed “je saw it bow and pick oe aiter house, I was able in so many instances to say, “There goes a household, every member having on the life preserver of a Christian nope.” I thank Him for the lignt which streamed from neaven when its gate swung wide to admit so many side by side. I thank im that some rose from prayer at the family altar to stand before the throne. I thank Him that He has sustained me by His own right hand in scenes through which I ray no other pastor may ever be called. I thank im for the signal examples of Christian fortitude which He has shown, the sustaming power of the Christian hope in the deepest floods and the strength of our anchor in the strongest current. [ thank Him that, although our church 1s weakened in numbers, yet In faith we are greatly strength- ened. I thank Him that the faith of the patriarchs has been repeated in our day, and that those who have been stripped of property, families and homes can still look up and say, “Though he slay me, yet willl trust in him.” Every aMiction has its compensation if our hearts will open to receive it. In what form it will come we know not. But every vessel of mercy is first scoured to brightness. There must b2 a bright bow for so dark a cloud. The sunbeams already struggle through the clouds and we can smile through our tears. Let us all look up, for our pathway is ascending. We shall soon have a broader landscape aod a clearer view. If the little girl’s eyes danced with delight when her doll was rescued irom the flood, and the father could rejoice because he still had nis family Bible as a precious relic of the loved and lost, then we, with homes intact and friends in health, will daly run up the scale of God’s mercies from doll to Bible, touching every note. Having looked at the situation, the desolation and some of the consolations of the hour, let us notice one of the questions which it forces upon us, How are we to regard this calamity? The fatal reservoir was not dug with the shovel of Divine aecrees, We cannot charge God with man’s ignorance or neg- lect. We know that water seeks the lowest level, and may know the exact pressure upon every Square inch of surface. Prudence and forethought have been given us, and when we fail to use them God will call us to a strict account if man does not. The nearest that avy sham work of man can be pushed towards the throne of God ts to get it just ‘Within the rim of His permissive providence. But in fixing responsibility we are called to the exercise of great charity of judgment, es- pecially when we reflect that the State itself may not be wholly guiltless. Whoever is a sharer of the guilt is bound to repair his quota of the terri- ble waste. To accept these chartered seas, held over the heads of our manufacturing villages, on | the recommendation of a Board of County Commis- sioners, Ronee Sor qualification, it may be, except the needed one of practical civil engineer- ing, 18 a custom against which we raise our ear- nest protest in the name of the cherished dead. Let us, with the shears of prudence, cut the locks of strength from these imprisoned giants around | Us, and atevery reservoir let a signal gun be placed, which shall send-its note of warning down he valley with swifter gue than those with which Collins Graves flew along the road. God gives His benediction to those who do their duty, and gives the benefit of doudt to the side of hnman safety, and we shall not withhold ours, But,the heroes and heroines of the bour are almost aa nu- ‘the greatest prudence V4) Dog non ag A owe us irom the possibility of instan' ready, | Bot becai the act of dying amounts to | go much, Doutiess, was but little | with those who were drowned. it necessary vecause we shall then change | our relations, The good and bad are separate in | Dg DO! Alter death | der the dominion of diferent governments. Law of love will reign among the,good and perhaps tne bad. Now we all have ra as God bas provided in the ‘Teaim of nature and of grace. Evil men may med- | gle with divine arrangement or not aid 10 carry- ing it out so far as piscea within their power, in Material and ritnal a all who wil | ‘geek frat ine kiagdom Reaven” can be @ecure jor whatever awaits that which man cagnot kul, We pre- | } get education in our | and & trade or prepare | Many ik to obtain wealth to against times of need. We are daily | ing efforts to be ready for various smaier i@ than death. Yet wi we do our best to act wisest, is an tnstant the labors of a life are are borne hurr a from us to be} marked with total ne! (AUnsions were aire lease: pp those who jost in great disaster). I! we are pot faitnral i caring and Errorosti ul ans strettenh ts sont pass must God, dwarfed, undeveloped, ‘unsaved, he mansion. | ved, no mansion, | whi ve robe, or evem.a drop of wv much character wil be worth at ths doa | Soon in that isaid torera has pot been tamee from y him up in society Without money and ws for sumicient means to rebulid. while Re fons / so much here it will be worth more when the spagnivede of the man God and the angels ee, | wealth will reach down a hand children, i govern the kind Of manson and the degree of inheritance We shall have im the great city, | humanity holds a8 by the hand. The as, where the river of it Will newer food nor the suranc of sympathy from every quarter.) @reen Leida aj den ever lose beaupy agd | are indeed very togchigg. This AWengthens us. |, | burden, a We have will hold | dows Us in our seventh. Merous as the dead. indicate their names would be to displease them, but I must teil, as one of the stare which shine through our cloud, how oar nébie young ladies, who, dnder ordinary circumstances would shrink from the sight of the dead, as the .sensitive plant does from our touch, took the mangled dead, shrouded them with their own garments, placed the May flowers in the | clasped hands, kissed the marble brows for their | absent friends and tenderly laid them in thetr coftins. And when I heard one of’the army of Visitors who daily march through this valley say, as he viewed the track of desoiation, *1 would not ve here now if I could have the whole vailey,’! my heart replied, “1 had rather live with these, | with my hut pitched on a scraped rock, thanin a / palace park with kings.” 0 First amon; of the hour is not to desert the valley, but to bend our ey torepair its waste. I Know the pros- cts of the future look dark to many, especialy those beyond middle life, who stand stri pged of the nonest accumulations of many years. You see hed roads and bridges gone, your pleasant fleids ied with boulders and débrig, or tne soil removed; +you miss the houses of neighbors, While they refuse to your call. You wonder taxes are to be paid, how the strap is tobe stretched to the buckle at the end of the year and how the schools and charches are to be tained, Many of our friends share in the wonder, and to one, who mentioned an inquiry as how you would be able to continue the nt I rapned that during this disaster you had paid it for several years in advance, in a coin old and stamped with the image of the duties eroisin in rand of faith in God in trial, Mk ts true you | ‘will be called to diligence, but we are used to that, w economy, the sacrifice of many former com: fora time, and posetbly, It may be, to hips. Bot many shouiders can bear a heavy bards tier borne this tremen- and the Ged of all consolation, who us in our sixth trial, will not desert Natate will exert all her ener- ne dear old Common- to her prostrate | the whole brotherhood of bas 6u, to reclothe our flelds, white me | urer than | | | ble indeed in the desolation and ruin that bave | health and peace -nearly 150 of our friends and | destruction.” ORK HERALD, MONDAY, MAY 25, 1874.-TRIPLE SHEET. of hundreds received by you Mention one. Almost as soon as the Ww was struck a former companion in arms sent to us on the wings of i—“Thy billows have come over me.” mak Ke our sorrow e ad 3° owift- na accuracy of arrows through oar reets—-I say G0 sooner had he disappeared from ‘than a tide of benevolence, impelled by ervow of human sympathy, bean to Let itcome. We shal) need it t the tide rise unsil it shal rebuild every and every factory and every cottagé and every church—volume enough to bring to families—and — th gEREE of g: ‘buat was the value of your motner’s ible? What price did you set upon the lost por- trait of your lost loved one? What answer would ou have given, had any one asked the value of @ little socks which you took from the baby’s feet when the angels calied him to heaven? The homes which this Catastrophe swept away were not those which are ished by three wooden chairs, a table and a lamp. They were homes of culture, where the Bible stood at the head of the library; where the fire of devotion burned brightly on the iamily altar; where the a@iphabet of praise was learned, that they might know the lan; of heaven; where nt flowers as well a# Christian graces were grown; where the youth were prepared for the college that prepared them for their fields of mission, Let no vain attempt be made to count the value of such homes in dollars and ceuts. Theu let the gener- ous tide roll on, that these persons who have once fought the battle to competence and wealth may not have to si Je again ce every phase of the condict with the added burdens of this dis- aster. m these Christian homes the streams of benevolence constantly flowed into the treasures of our great charitable institutions. And it will be the gladdest im the ‘ives of this peopie when they shail be able to return with tenfold volume the sweet benevolence of our friends, Then let the tide roll up. Letit come through Leeds and through Haydensville, setting the lathes and spindles in motion. Let it rise to Sk'nnersville, aud there, though it lilts its head like a mountain, it will Gnd something still higher. As te tall corn ships entering the barbor of an- Clent Rhodes sailed beneath the colossal statue that bestrode the harbor, so must this benevolence flow through the desoiated field covered by the large heart of William Skinner. If but a molet: of the wealth which has for many years flow through the channels of piety to our churche: colleges and schools, should return, like “bre: cast upon the waters,” to the generous givers, the valley would again be made giad, and the prayer go up from every hom “God bless the donors !”” Here Mr. Gleason set forth the lessons of this great event in a practical and forcible manner. IN HAYDENSVILLE. HAYDENSVILLE, Maas., May %, 1874. Sermon by the Rev. James P. Kimball, of the Haydensville Congregational Charch. Atthe village church in Haydensville the Rey. Mr. Kimball, the pastor, preached from the text, “Thou carriest them away as with a flood.” Our subject, he said, occupies all our waking thoughts, Only a week ago yesterday morning, as the gentle rain was falling and our hearts were made glad as we looked upon hillside and valley taking on their robe of green, suddenly a terrible sound was in our ears. Two or three strokes of the bell warned ts ofsome great danger. A jearful groan. ing, roaring and crashing filled the air. After the first alarm there was a breathing space of only five or six short minutes, and then the destroyer Was upon us, and ali those who bad not heard the warning and fled for their lives from his fatat track were remorselessly swept away. Those of us who were above the reach of harm looked down upon & scene such as words or pencil can never depict—a scene which no stretch of years can ever efface. The swollen tide surged along the river bed and through the streets, carrying all before it. Where its full force was felt frame buildings were raised from their founda- tions, tossed about like egg sheils and then crushed to fragments, The most substantial masonry was utterly unable to stand such astrain. Our strongest mills, our stores and shops and our dear homes fellone by one and disappeared. The waters en- closed and seemed about to carry away our sanc- tuary, but just then—Oh how like hours the min- utes seemedt—came the glad cry, “The food is abating |” and in a few minutes more the fearfal work was done. While it was passing we could not.venture in to help our dearest iriends. We could only stand in silent horror and pray that the end might soon come. Surely, we know by sad ex- perience how expressive 1s the figure of the text— “Thou carriest them away as with a food.” The calamity which has come upon us is terrible. It appais us if we consider its extent. A man is carried over the falls of Niagara, a family are all buried by 4 land slide and the whole country shud- ders; but here is @ calamity which plunges a whole valley in mourning, in which village after village shares alike, A flood, a8 resistless for the time as Hiagara, has passed through the streets of these villages; has come down bd half a score of mills filled with hd pare poured itself over hundreds of homes a has carried Lage nearly everything that was found within its track. It has been almost impossible to e: rate the mischief that has been wrought. calamity is the most appalling in the suddenness with which it has burst upon us. When the Mis- sissippi swept over levees and overwhelmed plan- | tations and whole parishes With its turbid wave | there was @ chance for escape. People could take warning and flee for their lives. Here there was nO commotion among the elements, | no excitement, no rising of the waters. As I came through Leeds at sunset I re- member distinctly how gentle seemed the mur- mar of the stream, There was in the morning not | the least sign of danger, and yet even then the Monster was let loose which was to swallow up such @ vast amount of property and so many | precious lives. Un that still morning air the cry rang out “The reservoir has given way.” Those | who failed 1o catch the warning, or who lingered | @ moment in securing valaables or in helping | their friends, were instantly borne down to death. | it was all over almost before we knew that it was | upon us. But for the tidings brought in such swift | haste by those brave men—collins Graves, Jerome Hillman and Myron Day—at the risk of’their own lives, hundreds more would almost surely have been whelmed in ruin. The calamity was terri- | followed in its track. No fire could possibly ex- | pose the people of this valley to the same amount of loss. all these buildings which we have | lost been consumed in one short homr the damage | wonld not have been as at as now. The ground would have been unchanged, the founda- tions would have remained and there would have been iarge insurance, but now more than @ hun- dred families have lost everything. They have no house, no household furniture, no provisions, not even so much as & Change of clothing but ior sym- Pathizing friends. Stores and shops have been swept utterly away, milis, with their machin. ery, all their valuable raw material and all that was on bana of finished work, went crashing down to ruin. Many handred thousand dollars’ worth of property—the fortunes of the rich, the homes and competence of those well-to-do in life | and the last earnings of the poor—tin one half hour were utterly lost. This valley, bat now so charm., mg, full of enterprise and things of beauty, witn' bridges all swept away, th roads almost obiiterated, robbed of many of its trees and in many places even of its very soil, loaded down with unsightly wrecks and so marred and battered ‘that as we look upon it we scarcely know where we are, seems to us, n- | deed, the valley of desolation; and the worst fea- ture of this sudden, dark calamity is the great destruction of precious human lives. In a time of | ueighbors have in @ single hour death. Many whom this town co’ lose will be with us no more. and this village have, indeed, suffered:less than those avove and those below.us; but Mrs. Hill, the devoted wite and mother, and her aged father, Mr. Kaplinger, will be seen among us nO more, Little Aggie and Georgie Miller will be missed from the Sunday senool. Little did we think when last we | saw them there that soon their still cold forms | would be brought into that very room to be robed ne down to ot afford to This congregation for the grave. We have lost those who were dear to gus. The whole valley is plunged into -mourning. In this terrible Calathity we must re ige iGod’s hand, He uses the forces of nature to do His bidding. He does not lose controi of the current of affairs be- cause of the: mistakes or crimes of wicked men, Ifthere are those who are responsible for this frightful evil let them be held responsibie, but let ug not forget that it is “God that turneth man to “Ho carrieth them away as with a flood.” in the wide sweep of His providence our interest, our lives may be enguife We can only submit while be says, ‘be still, and know that I God is teaching us that in His hands our breath ts. He ts teaching us to set our hearts on Him and not upon any form of earthly god. He is teaching us to do what we do, whether it be | for God or man, in the best possible manner, We | swept away in a moment. | but what morality requires, husband from’ the wife, the children from the | mother and left widows and orphans to the guar- Gianship of the Church. There is # perceptible | gap im our congregation, As my eye wanders | down the nave of the church I miss many & familiar countenance, many & Btal- wart form, many ao faithful triend. The ye | 0 | and afterwards comes the words of solace, “And they that fear the Lord shail find bim.” This ts | our consolation—this the balm o/ solace for every wounded heart—our friends stall be remembered, Ob! itis hard to die in the bright Maytime of youth, when the trees are putiing on their brilliant garniture and all Nature showers her benisons on ail sides with generous hand. It is gad thas ie raven Wings oi death should brood over our little mission during our month of Mary, ‘ent Oo! sorrowing significance that the stroke of ction should fall so suddenly upon our hearth- stones, turning to blight the blossoming hopes of many Of our people; but, Catuolics, take this com- fort to your hearts, your friends und relatives were not tossed about without a chart to cates them on iife’s vast ocean; they had the truths of religion to guide them; they now have the suffrages of the taithiul to succor them. What need they fear the result of the change {rom a ti tory ex- istence to inheritance of immortality, Since purely and honestly and wifilled their faithiully? It isa Cathotic’s sacred duty to pray for the dead itis a Oatholic’s pre- cious obligation to honor their memory. It a Catholic’s crowning glory to have the Church's aid. The recent calamity was a scene which | pray God may never be repeated in the valley. It was too terrible for vie to adequately describe, to view the cold and rigtd bodies, that but two sup- days ago were animated wiih life and listened to my words of instruction with the true Catholic respect that is characteristic of the faithful And how can you aia the souls Cree departed friends? By protecting those whom they have ieit behind; by assisting the widow and the orpnan; by offer- ing 2 return for their friendship while in life the fragrant incense of your prayers. Let your Nae A ers, then, be waited daily to the throne of the Almighty in their behalf. Our affliction is at, bat let our trust be in Him who doeth all things well. May we be ever ready to yield our souls to God’s sacred keeping by a fatthful observance of His most holy law, by trusting ourselves to the guidance oi the Church’s hand along the narrow paths, strewn with mercies, that lead to bliss eter- nal Whether gentle be the call or quick aud sud- den be the warning, let our lamps be trimmed ready for the bridegroom’s coming. We might wish to tarry here till our 1aith grow stronger, but our lives are in His hands, and we know not the minute Death may claim us, Pale with fear we hold our breath in dread anticipation of the fatal messenger, who comes at times unheralded, takes one irom our midst and passes on his way, A yacant seat in the church or at the fireside, a familiar countenance and loved voice miseed for a ume, and then in the hurry and pustie of the world, we press along and are apt to forget the loved and lost, but oh! let not such be your case, my friends; the memory of the good re- mains in benediction. Preserve the memory of your iriends by your prayers; preserve it by the brill- janey of your example and the purity of your lives; preserve it by Keeping from the desolation of the world’s triais the Catholic women and chil- dren 80 suddenly bereit of support; comfort them in this their hour of sorrow; cheer and encourage the faint hearted; stand by the little church which must now guard with sacred trust the orphans, and must be to them another mother; be united from henceforth in a bond of synpachy, one for another, that will end only in deat! member that you are all brethren in faith, and are ren- dered more closely allied to one another by a com- mon suffering which renders all akin. Murmur not, taen, however terrible the biow, for you know not the good that may be evolved from the present aMiction. There is light beyond the black clouds, and the angel of peace shall again spread her white wings over the valley, heralding God’s golden benediction and a iuture of unparalleled triumph for the iaith in the Mill River Valley. IN SOUTH’ HADLEY, South Hapiey, Mass., May 24, 1874, Rev. Dr. Herrick on the Lessons of the Disaster. Rey. Dr. Herrick, of the South Hadley Congrega- ttonal church, in his discourse this morning re- ferred feelingly to the great calamity which has visited the neighboring valley. It was not neces- sary to portray the heartrending scenes of a week ago yesterday on Mill River. For a whole week the papers have been giving us the particuiars. The facts are well known, and now, if it were pos- sible, 16 is neither necessary nor desirable to at- tempt a picture of what is and still more has been at Williamsburg, Skinnerville, Haydensville and Leeds; but it is appropriate, while the events fresh, and while frém lapse of some days we can think more deliberately than could be possible at first, to gather up and impress some of the lessons of this terrible disaster which ought to be received and become practical. I desire to present the tok lowing :—The destruction of human life in this dis- aster renders the demand imperative and morally binding that there shall be security against such calamities. It is implied, I Know, that this is a de- struction not to be at once referred to a mysterious Providence, but to man’s reckless improvidence. Who can recall the testimony given in @ case and believe otherwise? A wall and embankment could have been built at the lower end of that reservoir which in depth and thickness might reasonably have allayed fear, instead of causing all below it to live in fear of their lives—this to be realized in the most jeartul death of 150 to 200 buman beings,jwho were hurled to destruction by the first stroke of the torrent. And such calamities include what are called acci- dents by land and by sea. How many railroad ac- cidenta, steamboat accidents on the broad Atlan- tic, on our inland waters! What fearful loss of life has resulted during the past two years from these accidents! And yet the result of the inves- tigations in most (eases has beén carelessness, recklessness! 19 1t not possible to provide some | security against such fearful destruction of lie? When one on the Continent of Europe comes in contact with public works he has a feeling of safety, and because he sees that great care is taken of human life, Cannot our general legisia- tion and State Legislature and local authorities have an eye and a hand upon railroading and | steam navigation and public works, and bring | about such a change that in respect to security of Me we shall at least approxi- mate to the countries of the Old orld ? They can, and are morally bound to do it, | The Fogg Ty loss shows that true economy does | not he in want ot true security. Men may in busi- | ness be as Bunyan says ‘“ Penny wise and pound | foolish.” Such a work as that of securing te resere |, D afllict the good man bere it is com oraae © reflect D. this. Without these laws we should not what to depend upon, could make no calculal have no ight, carry out no rigid laws teach us prudence, reward carefulness, are a wholesome pine and remind us of higher laws whicn it may be quite as well to obey. It is suggested by this text that this is not a world of retribution. These physical laws are anrelent- ing and they exact retribution; but they are in- tended onty as chastisement, while the at day know | tions, of exact reckoning 0; moral recom) es in the hereafter, Catastrophes and suife! are often sugwestive of the danger of negiect delay. No harm is intended, but proper precautions are not taken to provide against harm. The New York builder does not mean to kiN anybody, but he slights his work and puts up unsubstantial walls, They fal and men are crushed. The steamboat prowminter does not re mean to destroy lives, ut he sends out an old, inferior vessel, bopes It will make another venture successfully, and the | explosion or the fire or the wreck follows with d lamentations, God does not interfere | so prevent the legitimate cousequeaces of human cupidity and folly and unfaithiulness, If atten tion is called to the mischief of abusing trusts, mignting contracts with sham work and pre- tended inspections, then @ startling calamity will not be without its benefits, Nature treats care- lesa neglect and detay of duty as a crime and comes down upon it with vengeance. The man says 1 meant no harm. Nature says you should have guarded against it, heediessness i sin; take the consequences—and remember God estab> shes nature's laws, Another observation to be made is tbat physical suffering is for moral usage. Ivis not sent a5 measuring the degree of guilt, but to work repentance, These losses and trials show ‘that in asiniul world everything 1s yctuating ex- character atid ‘God. They bid us cept these laws an lay up our treasure in neaven. The plougnsnare is driven thre the soul to break up the hard clods end make the soil mellow for the good seed and for the dews of heaven. ters beget a fellowship of sympathy. We are drawn out from our selfish {solation and learn to bear one auoth- er’s burdens, and we catch someth} of the spint of Him who came not to be ministered unto, but to minister. Physical sufferings and desolations an- swer a wotmMhy end they put the grand immorial soul upon a ee eA path- Way. What, after all, is the loss of property compared with the uplifting and glory of @ deatbless spirit. I think Christ’s m! le among the Gadarenes was for just this lesson. What was it that a herd of swine perished in the waters, so much live stock lost, provided the devil went out of the man and the man was in his right mind, a saved Man. One more moral use of liction is to bring about @ readiness for departure out of tuis disap- ointing world. In view of all the distresses which that heaven will be ample compensa‘ What difference does it make now or will it in the ages to come that John the Baptist and Paul went to heaven by the hand of the executioner, or that one went in @ chariot of fire and the other in @ chariot of water? The great fact, they will say, is that we are here—sinners saved anto glory, honor and immortality. Well, have we cleared up the mysteries of Providence? 1 havo not attempted this—only to say what may relieve certain perplexities and afford some com/ort. Still the great comforter 1s faith to trust where we cannot see, From tazza of my boarding house among the White Mountains of New Hamp- shire Icould see there in the clear atmosphere the monarch Washington Mountain towering up in solid majesty, but there would be days when I looked and not a trace of it could be seen. The eye could not tell me it was there, but I never doubted it. The righteousness of God is like the great mountain. Clouds and darkness are round about Him, but righteousness and judgment are the habitation of His throne, Calamities are calls to conversion, When Christ speaks of Stioam He adas “*Inink ye they were sinners above all others? I tell you nay, but except ye repent ye shall all like- wise perish.” Rev. Dr. Leavitt, of the First Norfhamp- ton Congregational Church. In the First charch, Northampton, the pastor, Rev. Mr. Leavitt, preached from Job, xxxiiL, 14— “For God speaketh once, yea, twice; yet man perceiveth it not.” He mentioned the work and word and spirit of God as voices by which He is constantly speaking to man; and then sald, ‘There: is still another voice, which 1s never silent, but which sometimes speaks in language so dis- tinct that no one can mistake it. That voice ts the providence of God. It is thus we all feel that He has been speaking to us in the terrible event which for @ week past has occupied all our thoughte— that mountain of water, rushing with lightning speed through the narrow valley and sweeping before it flelds, gardens, factories, happy nomes and precious lives, it left in its track, and no words can deepen the We have seen the desolation | s!most impression of it in our minds. I have said thas this is the providence of God speaking to us; and this 18 true, however we may account for the | event, and however justly or unjustly we may blame any human negligence or parsimony and death are the proofs of it. Investigation may show whether this insufficiency was the result of nature of the defect, and the precise way in and changeless laws of nature, gradually under- Still we are not satisfied; still we cannot rest till we have referred the wnole event and its dreadful consequences to the providence of God, And we have aright todotnis. We have aright to think that nothing escapes the watchiul eye and govern- ment of God; that He, His love and wisdom are present everywhere; that life and death, pros- to think that He is working behind the blackest cloud, and that the most impenetrable veil of mys- tery and woe is only hiding His purposes of in- finite beneficence. Nothing will satisfy us but come from chance, or from the caprice and negligence of man, oreven irom the mechanical and unintelligent operations of law; and under the heaviest burdens it is @ relief to think that Ua 4 are laid upon us by the wisest mind and the kindest heart in the universe; it ts a com- fort to know that human prosperity and life do not fall to the ground, any more than & sparrow does, “without our Father.’ What lessons, then, is the providence of God teaching us by this great dis- aster? I think we ought to have no sympathy with voir must be let out to the lowest bidder and be pressed upon the acceptance of the county com- | missioners, when inadequate and unsafe. And in addition to the loss of 160 lives, $1,000,000 was A limited part of this | amount wisely added to the expense of building the dam would doubtless have made all secure. | This 1s now evident. Pity men must learn through | great pecuniary loas not only whatis wise economy | We ought to learn, | trom the fact that riches so quickly perish, not to rize them too highly or seek them too Cee i j e do estimate wealth too highiy—estimate worth, or try to doso, by a money standard—sometimes sell | our manhood for goid or greenbacks,and yet a mil- lion dollars may be swept away in a half hour’stime ; ana if @ Man’s Worth lies in that he posseses, this comes #0 near being worthless that it is hardly | \We have here a jorcible lesson on the uncertainty of ile. Of this you do not wish to hear much sata, but this awiul destruction of human beings so | near us compels us tO look upon death—iife quenched instantly, death coming suddenly, an- expectedly, the vigor of healtn and activity,no | security against sudden death. How important to be prepared for death at all times, to be alw: ready, to make provision fora iife beyond ud and 4 Dicssed immortalit; NomTnamrrox, Mass., May 24, 1874. | Sermon by Rev. Dr. Hall, of the Second * Congregational Church. In the Second church (Congregational) Rev. Dr. Gordon Hall, the pastor, preached an appropriate discourse to large and affected audience. His text was from Luke, thirteenth chapter and fourth verse:—“Or those eighteen upon whom the tower in Stioam fell and slew them, tnink ye they were sinners above all men that dwelt in Jerusalem The preacher said that when an extraordinary , calamity occurs the people want to know what they have done to deserve such an affliction. There 1s nothing in the text, he added, to show that such visitations are inflicted by God. When John the Baptist was beheaded it did not indicate the moral estimate in which God held him, and those Galileans whose blood mingled with their sacrifices were not proved by this to be extraordinary sinners, Still, our Lord does not deny that they were sin- ners, and it is only sin, after all, that accouats for fee] Him drawing us to Himself as He alway’ does ped mito ae py us ed ourselves up | wholly to Him an en in the greatest dangers we shall be sale. . eee f Remarks of Rev. Father Barry, at the St. Mary’s (Catholic) Cnurch. | “Blessed are they that mourn, for they stiall be | comforted” was thé text selected by Rey. Mathor | Barry for his discourse at the Haydensville Catho- | lic church. 1t 18. appropriate, he said, that I, your pastor, should speak words of comfort to you amid | the univereal desolation that has rudely vistted | your late happy valley,.brought death into almost | every familz. snatched with lightuing speed the | suffering under God’s government. God deals with the world by comprehensive laws, which we call laws of nature, and men of every character must conform to those laws or take the conse- quences. The prophet asks, “Oan a man take fre in his bosom and not be burned *’ If a good man should be so foolish as to do that God would not interfere to prevent the result of His wholesome laws. Itis good that there be such a law as gri itation, and that same form of gravita- tion which makes the water carry our ma- chinery makes {¢ rush ~ down the valley and cause devastition. These laws, used pru- dently, are a blessing unspeakable; abused, they | Wark jhigolief: put they were Bo} Agyoled for | | observation, let our human’ the disposition that sees in every calamity a judg- ment of God upon the sufferers. That disposition is @ growth of ignorance and bigotry, It shows All barbarous tribes are full of it, and even in cul- tivated and Christian communities it lingers in ignorant and superstitious minds. But Christ has expressly taught us otherwise. ‘Those eighteen upon whom the tower in Siloam fell and slew them, suppose ye that they were sinners above all the men who dwelt in mined the wailand at length burst it asunder. | | Of goed repute, with crowded bars and staring this. We are not willing to have our calamities | as being its tmimediate cause. It ts plain enough that the wall which held the | waters back was insuficient. Destruction an {nnocent mistake in judgment or ofa criminal | negligence. We may, perhaps, iearn the exact | with them at which the water, acting according to the regalar | | | | | | epirits, was there throt gathering the spirits can bat perity and ruip, are in His hand. We have a right,| hs 9 5 - ——_——— And there is one more lesson. Whence came those weasels fowins sympathies, those charities that from afl parts of the land bave come on the wings of the lightning to meet and aia the sudden woe? There is butone answer. Godis the author of m. He has inspired them. They are only drops from the ocean of God’s love. must mot the ocean be greater than the spray that comes from it? if human charity 18 80 largo and free, must not God's charity be freer, larger, broader, deeper? If human hearts have been so Willing, and hi hands #0 ktnd, to search day atter day through storm and darkness for the precious podies that were lost, and when they were found to bear them tenderly, tirst to the recognition of mourning friends and then to the ve, may we not hope that God, the Father of hall the rain as tenderly himself? And so our lesson and our comfort is that over all that is most mysterious and sad, over property wrecked and homes destroyed, over families swept away, over widows and orphans, Over sorrows that we rtially relieve, over griefs that we cap- not comfort, over al! that valley of death, span- bing ay a8 @ rainbow, rests the immeasurable love ol le CONEY ISLAND. Opening of the Season at the Poor Man’s Water- ing Place—The Rural Beauties of Kings County—A Wonderful Cow That Keeps the Sabbath—Venus and the Coney Island Innkeepers. No matter how many “fresh fields and pastares new" in the way of summer resorts may be dis- covered or created, there is no doubt that old Coney Island still retains tts great attractions for @ large class of our city population. The “best families’ may go to Newport and Saratoga, and the favorites of shoddy fortune may go to Long Branch or some warmer place to display their val- gar wealth; but the honest workingman, the decent clerk and mechantc and the prudent trades- man will continue to patronize Coney Island, at least forthe one day of his busy week which he can devote to country air breathing. clam eating, sea bathing and all manner of harmless and wholesome SALT WATER DISSIPATION. This fact made itself patent yesterday to every person who visited the popular bathing place. The early hours gave such promise of a bright and pleasant day that thousands of our good citizens regarded the evil predictions of “Old Probabilities” with the contempt they now and then deserve, and prepared them- selves to take riskson the unclouded skies and genial sunshine ef the morning. During the | whole forenoon a lively passenger trafic was car- ried on over all the available approaches to “the Istand.” Many took the steam cars from the gate of Greenwooa Cemetery, but by far tne larger number preferred the open horse cars, which en- abled them to enjoy a comparatively leisurely drive and “take in” the delightful giimpses of country scenery that one runs past om the horse railroad line from Prospect Park to the beach, That this drive is a very enjoyable one all who frequent that road are prepared to acmit; bat that it could be made much more at- tractive and pleasant and be rendered entirely freo from many petty bat annoying inconven- tences, by something of a more liberal and enter- prising spirit on the part of the Brooxlyn and Coney !siand Railroad Company, there can be 20 doubt whatever. A LITTLE RIVALRY, in the way of another railroad line or two, willbe apt to mend mattersin this particular; and the regular frequenters of Coney Island, as well as the dwellers in the pleasant places along the road, are already congratulating themselves on the an- nouncement that the Gravesend Avenue Compan, are about to supply the rivalry that, in probability, will result im giving them all the travelling accommodations they require. Mean- time, the company that at present enjoys the exclusive right to Coney Island transportation would do well to take time by the foreiock and give their patrons the improvements they look for in the way of regular time, more fre- quent trips and an accommoaation car or two in the carly morning and late at night. But, de all it may, the old road looked lively yester- a ‘2 THE MAGNIFICENT BOULEVARD | that sweeps majestically from the southwestern | gate of the Park to Gravesend, there aashed along every species of vehicle known to civilization, car- | rying representatives of every well-to-do class, | from neat-handed professional gentility down to the diamond-fronted represemative of “the liquor interest” and its weil-conditioned wife. His friends travel on the horse cars. He takes glass “home brewed’? Ward's" and starts with them jor the [sland. Down the level, lively road, the tresh verdure and bright apple blossoms giaddened the eye all the way; past peacefal-looking farmsteads; “past swift-going light wagons and sover old rock- aways, with equally merry occupants; past hotels piazzas, and it one of decidedly not good repute, which has I ely been established on that road, and which ¢) ‘operty owners Phould get rid of at once for shame’s sake; past the tollgate without Paying tolland past Peter Ravenhall’s wonderful cow, a8 she grazeson the roadside, near Peter's hotel, in the mossy-avennued village of Parkville. THE BATHING HOUSES, were not extensively patronized yesterday; but the hotels, which for the most part were opened jor the first time this season, sudered nothing from the coldness of the breezes. Indted those same breezes were so fresn that they kept on doing nothing if not suggesting frequent Visits to reireshment rooms all day, The landlords, however, have to depend altogether on the patronage of casual vtsitors just now, and must for some time to come—that is, until the dead summer ‘heat drives regular rders to ‘sojourn’? by the sad sea waves. The reporter hor- Tiflea one Boniface yesterday by suggesting that, as far as the old-fashioned summer fs concerned, the nose of this planet has been pat of joint com- pletely; that VENUS 18 TO HAVA RAPID TRANSIT this year; that she has come between us and the sun, to the almost entire exclusion from his favors of our hapless world; and that, in short, we are to have no summer at all this time. “Mine host’? | Proposes to form a Coney Island association to | Itself most where there 1s the most of ignorance. | raise funds and send a deicgation to have tiis out- rageous injustice represented in the proper quar- ter, wherever that is, The visitors to the Island yeste the respectable middie class, and conducted them- Those innocent children swept by the waters into | death, those mothers who perisbed with them; | those honest laborers in the shops; those brave | portion men who lost their lives with their iamilies or per- | above all who dwelt in that desolated valley—were selves accordingly. Indeed, the persons visiting that part of the island which 1s) renoned by the erusalein?’ Let all reason and | cars are always decent and well behaved, the instincts answer. | property owners and hotel keepers having made arrangements to make the place dectdedly un- tes a Troughs, The hotels on the western f the island—the part affected by the dis- orderly ‘bhoys’’ of the city, who always patronize | ished in the effort to save them, were they sinners | the Coney Island boats—are not yet opened; so that the entire beach from end to end was.as they sinners above us whom the flood has not | irom the rowdy clement yesterday as Fifth Avenue. wi ter on t ursuit of | Foren, te waite Mojenter on the hot pursuit of | normed? We dare not say or think ie Netther and seex the ‘«lurable riches,” and to begin to es- | Christianity nor common humanity will suffer us timate @ man’s worth by something else than by | 10 insult their memories with the thought, There “the abandance of the things which be possesses.’’ | 18 one lesson which comes to us legttimately and | from this calamity—a lesson 90 of direc | acered and so much neglected that we-may wrell Bay of it, in the language of the text, “God speak- eth once, yea, twice; yet man perceiveth it not.” That lesson is the importance.of honest and sub- stantial work. Neglgence of this.has been called, with much truth, an American characteristic; atid yet there have been scenes of late on the ocean Which proved thas it was not limited to these Western shores, with magnificent decorations and dil them with splendid furniture, and trust that the storm will never find out the weak spot which the magnifi- | cence hides. We erect buildings, not stron, enough to bear their own weight, which fall an crush those who are in thom and those who are passing by. We bulla bridges that are good only while they are new; and we let them stand | Sill some Catastropue forces us to build atronger. | We build reservo ra, and if they stand we increase | recklessly the pressure of water on them till the wail | structure yields and the pathway of the flood is strewn with misery and death. And‘ to-day how many @ city and town Is trembling veneata its reservoirs, lest the same ruin work should be done by them! | Now, it is not engngh to say that all this happened by the providence of God. What ts the providence of Go bag bon Fd us? Is it not this? Do your work honestly: makdé it etrong. Do it aq well where it cannot be seen and-examined aa where itcan. It is just a@ much a Christian duty. ag to go to the prayer meeting or send Bibles to’ the heathen. are often greatly troubied about the theological opinions o| there is no heretical opinion 80 bad as sham work. Better tn the sight of God and_man ts the heretic, the Mohammedan, the heatien, who makes his work honest and secure, than the Christiah who does tt deceitfully and brings harm upon his neigh- bor who trusted it, My {riends, the voice of been @ habit with us to do or to acquiesce in the doing of work that was tmperiec’ unfaithful and not strong enough for what it was meant to M heed to the voice, of us that “God 8 erceiveth it not.” Tf can only mention in word, and that ts the wide | extent of human charity and sympathy, How prompt and generous have been the impulses of compassion! How free and ready the gifts of ‘e butid ships ana cover them | | our neighbors; but | is to all of us—tne community, the nation—for it | SEASIDE AND COUNTRY. Keyport is unlocked, Tarrytown will do to stop at. Great Neck is good to embrace. Old Orckard Beach begins to blossom. Islip should be appreacbed with caution. Croton Lake is where the “big bugs” thrive, New Brighton has probably been re-galvanized, The Highwood Hotel, Tenafly, N. J., 18 now open. The Forest House, Budd’s Lake, N. 2., will open sune 16. Mount Mansfield, if you would aspire to high climbing. Many Philadelphia belies would lke to be Queen of Cape May. Lord Willoughby has taken up his regidence at his Saratoga viila, William C, Barrett, Sr., will build a cottage at Saratoga on a-part of the Walworth estate. The News says rents have not gone up in New- Port, nor have they materially declined since last season. John B. Cozens has leased the Grand Central # Hotel at Saratoga, and can accommodate 1,000 guests, Whitestone is not a grave resort, nevertheless {¢ undertakes much jor the earthly welfare of ite visitors. Mr. and Mrs. W. R. Travers and family, of No. 19 ‘Madison avenue, will leave for Newpost the frat week tn June. George P. Wetmore has arrived at Newport to Superintend the completion of his residence om Bellevue avenue. North Conway’s ‘White Horse” looks like Death’s pale charger. The landlords there are pretty good chargers, t00. Ballston, N. Y., already has had one marriage— the Comte Charles Philippe Otto von Schwerin to labor, iood, clothing, money to relieve the desti- | Miss Fannie B., daughter of Ellis Boker, ot Albany, tute, to find and bury the remains of those who died! It teaches us that there is something good in hum: thoughts of man; it shows us how the jeasons of. | Christianity and its spirit of charity—that charity which Pau) says iy greater than faith and hope— have leavened the whole nation, spreading rough au creeds amd ghurches aud beyond them all. nature; it gives us better and nobier | The Fenimore House, Cooperstown, Will have as \ guests John G, Hamilton and family, Mr. Green -and family, of Thirty-first street; General Post and family, of Madison avenue, and Mrs, Denis Harrts, of Porcy-sikth street. Ib is managed by D, P, Patera were all of .