Accounts were received on Thursday of an accident or calamity
in New York on the colossal scale usual with such occurrences in the United States. The large excursion steamer, the General Slocum,' had been chartered for a picnic party of Sunday-school children, and reached the Hell Gate channel in safety with some fifteen hundred passengers on board, chiefly women and children. There, however, a fire broke out, due, it is thought, to some upset in the kitchen, and the speed of the vessel blew the flames from end to end of the ship. The General Slocum' was entirely of wood; the decks were weak and collapsed, either under the stampede caused by panic or through the shock to the huge boat as she was beached; and the destruction of life was terrible. Those were fortunate who were only drowned. It is believed that more than a thousand perished; and it is probable, as the list of passengers was most imperfect, that the numbers will prove in the end to have been far greater than this. The wonder is that such catastrophes are not more frequent, for no experience will render Americans careful of human life ; and these excursion steamers, which seem so attractive to the eye, are really built of materials which burn like matches, and are at the best of times dependent on fine weather for safety. There is no evidence in this case of negligence on the part of the crew, and the efforts to save the children were often heroic.
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