Dire Disaster

A Hartford (Ct.) dispatoh giving particulars of the terrible railroad disaster near that city says : Over 500 residente of "Winstead, Cauaan, Salisbury, and other places in the -western section of the State had visited the Moody and Sankey revival meeting, and embarked for home after services, leaving j ford by a special train of eleven cars and two locomotives. The party had enjoyed a rare feast of ! religious coinmunion with the great evangelista, and little did they imagine the fearful oatastrophe so close at hand. There was no warning - nothing to lead to apprehension. Crossing the Farmington river bridge, one mile from Tariffville, the train was just entering upon the trestle-work stretching across the I meadows when an ominons crnsh was heard ahead of the train. The west span, 100 feet long, on the Howe truss j principie, liad yiclded to the overweight ■ of two engines, and, parting near an ; abutment, caved into the stream, crushing through six inches of ice with. which j it was covered. The first engine cleared the woodwork of the bridge proper, and, i turning over, landed bottom up, j trievably damaged. lts mate went down, enwrapped in the wreek of the bridge, both laudiüg upon solid gronnd, but the baggage-car erashed through the ice into six feet of water, and deposited its dozen occupants in the icy flood, mixed up -with the myriad of splinters into which the woodwork was shattered. The first passenger-car was next crushed to lialf a.ze. Swinging around at right angles, into its weakest spot, the side, carne like a catapult upon the heavy front platform of the next car, the rear end of whioh remained upheld against the cen tral pier of the bridge. The fourth l air, striking its predecessor, 8wung j off diagonally, and pitched ! foremost into the chasm. This ended the crash, for tbc remaining cars were saved i rom going off by the ends of the two cars resting against the pier as desohbea. In a moment the I shrieks of wonien ind groans of men rang out upon the piercing coJd air - ' the shrieks of crushed, mangled bcmgs, struggling to olitaic release f rom the i i meshes iuto which the shock had hurled thcm in the ends of the overturned cars. i The unlmrt hastened to help the ■ gir:d, anj ndditional aid came from tlie ' vilhigersof Tariffville, who werearoused ! by the noise of the crash. A meraiful Providence preserved the passengers from the usual terrible feature of flre originating f rom lamps and stoves, but the occupants of the iirst two cars were bronght face to face xriih death j by drowning, as tho cars forming their prisons settled gradually down in the ! water and sand. Measures for relief were well organized by a few j ing spirits, and soon the workers hewed ' i and tore away timbers with a will until, in less than two hours, every car was ' cleared of its living occupants, the j wounded being borne away to the river i j bank on sledgcs hastily iniprovi.sed from ! saplings and car-eushions, and thenco to I tlio genial warmth of the cars which had remained on the track, and where friends were ready to minister to their needs. Telegrams were dispatched to Hartford and Winsted for aid, and j special trains arrived soon after, Hartford contributing a dozen surgeons under the excitement j fioncd by the report that at least fifty ; deatks bad happened and wounds were j innumerable. The worst injured were : removed to hotels nnd private dwellings j paople throwing open their doors and offering every accommódation. Two ! hours later the members of the party ; able to travel were sent home by a ] '■ cial train over other roads affording ! neetion beyond the break. Moautimo i : seiirch for the doad bfgan, and five j j corpsen of ■women were taken from the ' wreek, all having died from drowning. Further search yielded the bodies of six ' young men who met death in the same way, liaviug been standing on a front ; platform when the car went down, and ! being pushed under the watir. Strange ! to say, of an aggregute of thirteen deaths 1 reported, all but two are by drowning, ! j only one passenger, Fred Hotchins, and ' Engineer Hatch, dying from injuries usually incident to such a disaster as this. Tlie woundedmimberaboutthirty. Nearly all the dead were in the first passenger car, which was almost a complete -wreek, although one body was '■ en from the second e.'ir, where it was found catight under a broken seat. Tive ! young men from New Hartford, among the killed, were of a party of six who were on the platform of a car enjoying a moonlight riele and whistling in chorus. The only gurvivor of the six was inside at the time. An Important Claim Bill. A very important bilí is now before the House Jndiciary Committee, and I will soon be taken up for action. It provides that all claims against the Government, of Mrliatever nature or standing, shall be referred to the Courl of Claims I for adjudication. This bill will take ; from every department of the Government claims arising out of their busii ness, ineludiug pensions, bounties, : Southeni claims, and everything of that charactcr. Tlie bill was introduced by Mr. Frye, by requestof the Washington lawyers. AVhen tíie bill comes up for action in the committee, each Cabinet oftïcer will be asked to appear beforo the committee aud give his views. The Aitorney General is strongly opposed to the proposition, but it seems to have : many friends, particularly in the South. ; - Cor. Chicago Tribune. Export ot Buttcr and Clieese. The Bureau of Statistics has prepared i a paper showiug the export of choese from this oouutry in each year siuce 1700. The total sum is 1,262,953,571 pound?. The greatest export in any i year was ia 1877, being 107,864,666. ! This id doublé the export in 1867, and that was, with one sligtit exception, the largf st up to that date. In 1862 the export was 32,361,468 pouuds - doublé what it liad ever been before, und the inoreaee siuce 1862 has been marvelous. ; Tluio has been some cnrious fluctua1 tions, hh shown by these figures of years and amouuts: 1796, 2,313,093 poumls; : 1H00. 913.843; 1808, 316,878; 1831, 1,131,! 817; 1882, 198,709; 1852, 6,650,420; 1853, I 3,763,932.