NEWS OF THE WEEK.
ATERRIBLE calamity took place in Regent's Park last Tuesday evening, just as it was growing dark, a little before four o'clock. The frost was not so keen as it had been, and the ice had been weak- ened by being cut round the shore near private houses, in order to proven t skating trespassers from invading the gardens. A grea.t many fortunately had already left the ice as dangerous, but there were still probably 200 skaters and sliders upon it, when it gave way all at once in a hundred different places, and most of those then on the ice fell into water twelve feet deep. Much the greater number were eventually either able to escape for themselves or were rescued, but no less than thirty-seven corpses have been already found. The agitation and screams of the bystanders, many of whom saw their children, or brothers, or husbands drowning before their eyes, were even more terrible than the cries of the drowning. One lady saw her husband drown, while two others were screaming in the greatest agony for some one to save their brother. Children went down crying to their mothers for help where none could be given. The ice was too rotten to hold, and too thick for swimmers to penetrate. The boats crushed their way through it at a snail's pace with the greatest difficulty. Many were saved by ropes, of which, however, there were not a quarter enough at hand for an accident on such a scale. It was more than an hour before all those who were clinging to the floes were rescued. Several died afterwards who were not drowned, and almost all these, it is said, were delirious, supposing themselves to be swimming matches during the night. Many of the rescued were taken to private houses in the park, others to the Marylebone Workhouse, where Mr. and Mrs. Douglas's arrangements and care seem to have almost surpassed praise.
