190

THE ASHTABULA DISASTER.

although it was composed on the occasion of thatother tire which consumed his home and thehomes of thousands of others in the doomedcity. It reads:

Hark ! the alarm, the clang of the bells!

Signal of danger, it rises and swells!

Flashes like lightning illumine the sky,

See the red glare as the flames mount on high!

Chorus —Roll on, roll on, O billows of fire!

Dash with thy fiery waves higher andhigher;

Ours is a mission abiding and sure—

Ours is a kingdom eternal, secure.

On like a fiend in its towering wrath,

On, and destruction alone points the path;

Mercy, O heaven! the sufferers wail;

Feeble humanity naught can avail.

The manner of Air. Bliss’ death was remark-able. He had been with his wife to the home ofhis parents in Towanda, Pa. , where his childrenwere staying, but as he had an appointment atChicago for the Sabbath , he hastened to return.

Kissing the children a last farewell he leftRome, Pa., and took the Erie train at "Waverlv,for Chicago . His last stop was at Ilornellsville,where the strange presentiments came upon himwhich were so near to persuading him to forsakethe ill-fated train and take another route.