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THE ASHTABULA DISASTER .

CHAPTER XI.

TITE PUBLIC EXCITEMENT.

f llE morning dawned. Those who hadknown of the event, awoke as if from afearful dream. The horror of the great calamityhaunted the sleeping hours, and came back withreturning consciousness. The dream was, indeed,a sad reality. The bodies, which were wrappedin the sleep of death and whose bed was thedriven snow, were the first thought at the awak-ening of the living; nothing else was thought ofin the village. Those who had not heard of itwere startled by the news, but those who hadseen and known, were strangely impressed. Thesmell of the burning flesh seemed to pervade theair. The sight of dead bodies seemed to fill theeye. The flames — the fearful flames — theghastly wounds, the blackened bodies and the un-known, unburied dead were before the mind.