Newspaper Page Text
THM BANNER.
- B. C Jt. 8. F. MURRAY Editor.
' LOUISIANA. MISSOURI.
MONDAY,
MAY 21.
Col. Benton the Democracy. We are
pleased to see the Democratic press in the
State receive the "protest" of Col. Benton
against the resolutions of the Legislature,
with merited indignation. The Union
alone, s far as we have seen, waits to hear
; his whole reasons, while the. independent
, press of the State hurl back the insult that
cast in me teem of the democracy, .we
. had prepared an article- upon this subject,
. which we are compelled to lay over to give
. place to late and important news. .
.;:? fThe accounts received through the
mail yesterday of the fire in St Louis, have
7 paused us to delay our paper a few houis,
in order to give them entire.
We publish on the first side of this
paper the City Charter of Louisiana. Hav
ing printed it in pamphlet forrn we are com
petted to insert it in order to bring out our
. paper in tolerable time. Next week we
will furnish a better variety.
IS" We are requested to say that a meet
ing of the Trustees of the Louisiana Acade
my will be held at the Academy on Wed
Besday evening next, at 4 o'clock, p. m.
. The following gentlemen compiise the
. present Board, viz : C. M. Duke, Wm.
Alexander, Edwin Draper, John S.Mark
ley, Wm. Luce, Robert J. Watson, E. M
Bartlett, L. Newnam, and J. C. Jackson.
A, punctual . attendance is requested, as
business of importance is expected to come
The Great Conflagration in Saint
.Loots. We crowd but this morning much
other matter prepared for this paper in or.
er to give full accounts of this awful ca
lamity. Comments by us would be without
interest the accounts are what will be
ought by tbe reader. The Union closes
,9&ie!r of this character in the following
expressive language; " .
: "It Iff, perhaps the best illustration of its
nvageerVcan eile, to say in conclusion
that out of all the periodical newspaper vjs
tablishments in tliiscity, aw-wlBce is the
only one, east ear paper th owlyMa printed
ia the Caeliah languag e, left to tell the fear
ful UU of the eJestrootion caused by' this
conflagration."
- Abandoned. The steamer" Monroe left
St Louis week Wet last for the Missouri
'river,' and shortly after ber departure the
cholera broke out amongst her passengers,
and raged with such violence that the boat
was, entirely. abandoned at Jefferson City.
The mortality, was, confined ; chiefly to the
vdWopassengers 35 of whom were report
edoead. -
We ae sorry to state that Mr. John Hub-rtMfjftBpyliBg-Green
Acad
emy, was amongst the passengers of that
ujffa ted. boat, and has not been heard from
since. Much anxiety ' ob that account is
fell by bis frieeds.
2J"Read the communication of "North-
Eat,, he wields a ready pen, and under
stands his subject :
25" There is but little additional in rela
tion to the Cholera; it is said to be declin
ing id St. Louis. '
" 2 The news from Europe and Califor
fthTs pacific. No more battles have been
fought, or "placers" discovered, since our
last.; . ,. ,,.
: -3Efr Dan Marble, the -celebrated delinea
tor of Yankee character, died recently on
the Ohio river of cholera. '
' Inasmuch as the Banner has hauled off
from the contest which it commenced with
the Rewrd", unprovoked and uncalled for,
we nad determined not to notice it again,
except in self defence, which our readers
will bear. ,us witness, has been our course
throughout Record, ISlhinst.
We don't know that we have ever seen a
cooler piece of arrogant impudence than
the above, We commenced no controver
By,unjesstwas a controversy to notice the
appearance of that paper in this city. In
m a sat . m - a v e .a
lae xdtfo. oi ine . itecora me Banner is
noticed ia five different editorial articles ;
two of which controvert the subject matter
published in the Banner without any refer
enceto that paper.
Bi.WJisn that paper became abusive and per
, a. ..
sosair we noticed u and its writers as we
tUcught they deserved.'
finWper of
the 9th inst, nearly two columns of fulsome
abuse and sickly arguments were aimed at
the Banner, by, as we believe,: the "corpo
ration" editor, in defence of its abolition
editor and the Wilmot proviso. This we
passed as unworthy of notice. Not satis
fied with that, he indites in his last issue
the above quotation, placing himself in the
right arid us in the wrong, and then says he
is willing to stop! Magnanimous:! we
are rather too fast, he didn't stop here, but
inserts in the same paper a personal com
munication from a man whom he says "was
ruthlessly and vindictively assailed in the
Banner," &c. As that man has spoken
over his name, would it not have been as
trtftl Jtsi4 A In 4lii0 aa A 1 1 t 1 of ttim oat I. a in an If,
i.if vuo asa tisaa vmiivi w ioi mil) iiiuiogii
right? . Our readers will at once see the
fairness of this man. After calling us mean
and such other epithets as his comprehen
sire mind could gfasp, in the Record of the
9th, he too, like his fallen coadjutor, shifts
the responsibility of his abuse upon the
shoulders of an ignoramus, and hints, also,
that this mutton-headed fellow is at the Re
cord office, with a "great array of bone and
muscle," and is solely responsible for their
abuse. Now if this fellow is rf ally ambi
tious of a "set-to," and will so inform us,
we will engage, if we can, a "big buck ne
gro:' to take a tilt with him at an early day.
In the same article this writer makes the
following assertion : "This paper (the Re
cord) has but one editor, and that one is
ourself ; 'boss' as we before said, and en
hrely and solely responsibility as editor and
proprietor.'
Is there any one in this community who
can read the above extract, and then the
certificates in another article in this paper,
without feeling hit cheeks tinge with shame
for these men? We now say to the scrib
blers for the Record, we have no objection
to such ninnies writing for that paper
but when unjustly assailed, we will, as far
as we can, saddle the responsibility upon
the responsible man. We seek no contro
versy "we shrink from no responsibility."!
A fair field and open action is all we desire
PERSONAL.
It is known to ta readers of the Ban
ner and Record that recently several arti
cles have appeared in their columns tend
ing to a personal character, which- is con.
summated in the last number of the Record
over the signature of M. W. Gordon. Of
the origin of this personal controversy I
have now briefly to speak, and then of the
manner an d facts in which it has been con
ducted. In doing this, I shall make no al
legations without cause, nor state any things
for facts without evidence.
In the editorials of the two papers up
to tb 2d lost, there had been nothing of a
personal character, beyond ordinary news
paper repartees certainly nothing often
sive to M. W. Gordon. In the Record of
that date, an editorial article anne ared, deal-'
ingin personalities and vituperations of the
bitterest kind, in which both of the editors
of the Banner were named in studied insult
ing language, and an invitation given tbem
to fight the nominal of that paper, in the
following bullying language :
"Should you fancy such Exercise, con
tract the muscles of your arms, gently
though for goodness sake, and try your com
pressive powers on the 'young man' he, it
may be, will give you sqnall No. 2."
When I (the resident editor,) saw this
article, I knew its object and author with
as much certainty as a full knowledge of
the heart of that nan would permit Ac
cordingly in the Banner of the next Mon
day, I took such notice of the article and
its author as I believed they merited, with
out fighting the "young man" as the author
seemed . anxious I should. I pronounc
ed the article scurrilous, libellous, and ma
licious, and the author a sculking abolition
scullion. . I know that this is strong Ian
guage, but it is only stronger than that which
it was used to repel on account of the
truths which it conveys. The article was
"scurrilous" because of its vituperation and
obscenity; "libellous" because it charged
that we had lied, when we stated that we
had noticed the Record favorably, and con
tained language of ours clipped from a fa
vorable notice of that paper. "Malicious"
because its author, without provocation,
sought to stab us in reputation from the
dark and over the shoulder of a simple and
ignorant "young man. The author was
"sculking" because he sought to keep be
hind the screen and to thrust an ignoram
us between himself and responsibility.
"Abolition" because his speeches made on
the - Wilmot proviso question before a pub-1
iicassemDiyiiiwsiiyleucueairomagen-
' '
tlemao in reply the declaration that, "the
spirit that dictated, such' sentiments would,
under other circumstances, influenoe itiner
ant abolitionists to enter thi cabbins of the
South, and' steal the negroes therefrom"
which if he did not hear, it was because he
shrunk. into a dark room adjoining, whence
he escaped through the window; and be
cause he voted at the last Presidential elec
tion, with all other abolitionists, for Martin
Van Buren. "Scullion" because none but
a scullion in disposition would stand in the
dark and voluntarily do the dirty work of
such a paper as the Record to abuse and
scandalize anyone.
I have said thus much to substantiate
those "allegations" because M. V Gordon
has pronounced the one in relation to the
author of the article a "falsehood."
In my notice of that article I no where
named its author, except by his general
character, and the finger of public opinion'
pointed at the man. In the 2d No. of the
Record after my reply, asi have said,
M. W. Gordon comes forward and says the
attack was made upon him. What attack?
I made no attack, but repelled indignant
ly the vituperation of the author of that
article. . If he wrote that article he was not
attacked, but was gratuitously the aggres
sor. If he did not write it, my remarks
so far as applicable to him have been ag
gressive, and from him are withdrawn : but
stand in full farce against the author.
I will say here I believe he wrote it,
for if he did not by what right does he de
ny the truth of my assertion. His last arti
cle is a virtual acknowledgement of the
authorship of the first, and I would have
been justified in so treating it. But I
knew the man. I saw running throng!
the article over his signature a studied
non-committalism to the first, which indue.
ed mo to address him the following note, on
the evening of the appearance of his arti
cle:
Banner Office, Louisiana, )
May 16th, 1849.
M. W. Gordon. Esq.. Sir : Am I to
understand by the article over your sienna
tura ia the Record of this day, that you as
same the authorship and responsibility of a
certain editorial article of a personal char
acter ia that paper of the 2d instant f
fci. U. NUnnAlt -Tli
above not wa. handed to Mr. Gor
don by Doctor S. W. Buckner on the morn
ing of Thursday, by whom he returned,
in substance, the following verbal reply,
which was committed to paper in the pres
ence of that gentleman :
"I do not assume the authorship or re
sponsibility of thatartie'e I did not write
it or have anything to do with it"
One would now suppose that I was in a
dilemma that Gordon is an injured man.
Were it not for self vindication I would
gladly let the matter here sleep. O shame!
a . a A a i a a
wnere is my diush : i nave in my pos
session proof, positive, that Gordon is the
author of that article. Here it is :
This is to certify thaton or about the 11th
inst, Thomas H. Ellis, Esq., stated to me
tuat certain gentleman asaea mm to per
mit M. W. Gordon to write an article for the
Record in reply to the Banner, which he
(Ellis) said he agreed to, if Gordon would
come and ask it himself. He also said that
Mr. Gordon did ask the privilege and wrote
the personal article in that paper of the 2d
inst. . CHAS. BACON.
May 19th, 1849.
I hereby certify that in a conversation
with Thos. H. Ellis, Esq., subsequent to the
2d inst, he told me that M. W. Gordon
wrote the personal article that appeared in
his paper of the 2d inst. He also showed
me the manuscript, in which I recogniz
ed the -handwriting of Mr. Gordon. I
would further state that I regarded Mr.
Gordon'j article over his signature in the
Record of the 16th inst., as assuming upon
his part the authorship of the article above
alluded to, before I spoke of it to Mr. Mur
ray. I had no liberty to mention it before.
A. J. PICKENS
May 19th, 1849.
Comment is unnecessary. I would not
now weight him with a feather. I have
now briefly, if indeed it is necessary, to
notice his aspersions against me.
He charges me with bullying.' The on
ly belligerent language used in this contro
versy was by him, when he thought be was
behind the Screen. I never had a rencoun
tre with a man in all my life.
He charges me with inconsistency in saying
that his name would sink forever the pros
pects of any paper, when he was "in the
dark days of the Banner" made its "sole
editor." If he means since the resident
editor has been in this State, ' about two
years, his assertion about "sole editor" is
false. He never was sole editor of the Ban-
ner,iBcei have knownit.
When I came
to the State the editor of the Banner as a
candidate for office, and Gordon and myself
edited the" Banner perhajisl three or four
weeks, when Gordon withdrew. .He occa
sionally for a short time aftefwa'rds,jfrote
a short article or communication, which was
generally trimmed and pruned. This per
haps gave him offence and caused him to
withdraw. I am also authorized to say the
same thing is true of his "sole editing" be
fore I came to the State. He insinuates
that it was held out to the people that he
was to edit the Banner, in the event of the
election of a certain candidate. . Does . he
suppose that that procured many votes?
am authorized to say that in that event it
Ws not known certainly who would edit
ithe Banner,and no one was spoken of as cer
tain,- and that nothing of the kind was held
out to the voters that his name might have
been mentioned with jhe ."probables," and
only when interrogated upon that subject.
I have been informed that Gordon himself
electioneered with that capital. Is this the
cause of his malice?
He asks why was his name selected, from
amongst the most talented of the Democ
racy, and published in the Banner previous
to the last August election as the name of
one who was every way qualified to repre
sent the Democrats of Pike in the Legisla
ture of Missouri. His name was not se
lected ; it was classified with names that had
been mentioned in connexion with that of
fice to what extent they were all mention
ed our readers in Pike are aware. But it
will be borne in mind this was done without
a knowledge of his "free soil" notions end
whig communications and then not by my
self. Is this the way he trumpets himself
into notice? He charges me with with
holdingac.t in my possession, in relation
to a certain transaction which be has rela
ted. I withheld no facts to his prejudice
that I knew to be such. The only fact that
I do know in relation to the circumstance
he has related, is his habit of damning the
man thai he styles ia his article great and
good. E. C. MURRAY.
From the SL Lome Union of the 19th.
TKKMENDUUS CONf LAuKATIUN IF
23 STEAMBOATS BURNED!
SEVERAL SQUARES IJV ASHES.
Lota of Life!!
riva auixiuit ur rsurtan vt
About ten o'clock last night, the stasmer
White lloud, lyinor near the head of the
levee, was discovered to be on fire. At the
time, there was a stiff breeze blowing from
the north east, which son's earned the flames
acros to the Edward Bates, the nexf boat
below, the heat from these, set nraylp the
Eudora, lying above them : the Beyer Isle,
next below the Bates, then caught fire. By
this tune, one or two boats below were
dropped down, leaving a vacancy between
those on tire and the boats below them. .
At this tint the Ed vsr4 Bates, being
about half burnt .up, was .cast loae and
went floating down the levee, setffi'ia fire to
those boats still lying at the leveeas she
approached them, in the folIowmter:
1 he Julia but slightly injured ; the Uncle
C " ' -1 1 . 1 I.I V l . ' 7 . .
oaui, also vat' iigRiiw iniaf-earjTW-csie
u.. u. i. t,j .c "t jrrrit. -
uu uaicij Hiuciiau tiiese UQaia,uewiK; taagv
immediately below her. Tlie folio wing
steamboats, with a large number of wood-
ooais, barges, ace. &c, Were entirely con
sumed: The Martha. . Sarah." Taoliona.
Montauk, Red Wing, Alexander Hamilton,
Koreas Wo. 3, Timour, Mandan, St. Peters,
Kit Carson, Mameluke, Pairie State.
We do not presume that this comprises
all' the boats destroyed, but these are all
me names we were able to get hold of.
ine following boats were saved: The
Autocrat, De Witt Clinton, Danube, Em
bassy, South America. New Uncle Sam.
Julia, Old Uncle Sam, Marshal Nev.
bo intense was the heat arising from this
great conflagration, which extended with
short intervals from the bead of the levee
to the head of Duncan's Island, that it set
fire to the buildings at various points along
we icvee, an oi wmcn above Vine street
were extinguished, but a low of shanties
extending from Locust un towards Vine
street was destroyed, and now, while we
are writing, one o'clock this morning the
enure oiocic bounded by the levee. Main,
Al! aw. " . . "
viive, ana iiocust streets, is wrapped in
flames, as are those houses in th
fronting the levee between Pine and Olive
streets.
And various houses on tha ) nt
main street, from Canters & Simons at the
Br. . wi
corner or Locust and Main sheets to Olive.
Mr. John Mader's large cooper shop at the
south west corner of the levee and Elm
street, and, also, a large two-story brick
house on the west side of Main below Elm
street, and the names are rapidly spreading,
and where they may be stayed man cannot
tell. This is by lar, the most awful catas
trophe that has ever fallen to the lot of anv
-i vi mo Aiicgany mountains.
In addition to the property enumerated. tW.
was a vast amount ol Brain in ,nV. hum k
&cn &c, on the lavee, which, caught from the
; i , wiugji. cauant irom tha i . .r j' I ."vw iciaiira to mm
het .entoffby the boats ,d wa. owtroyH.andl'cli&n PW,Wn'' butn,"y rfth "K
unfortunately, on one Pie of hemp w,4 m AL'V"00 f our old
oovered by a tarpaulin it ia :ssid, four persons
were sleeping, and weie destroyed. We -aaw
the body or one oiinem, a dovv wbjc&:wbi
ed into the Police Office. -. There were a
bet of kegs ef powder on board the vwidtts boate
And tha fire reached them the calif ht aad ex
ploded with a terrific crah,scattering the burning
irnnenta in wild confusion into the upper air.
Kv one of these exDli aions one man..aunauar
a - --
on the levee was killed by bring etsfcck with a
fVatrmetit blown irom uie ourmmr wreca uw
Martha; another was shockingly lacerated in dlA
ferent parts of his ; body but v ham- htuaf 'poor
wretcnes nave laiien vicuna. toe v " a
flames aa they hare gone sweeping in wild gran
dura fran boat to boat and from house to bouse,
and front street to street, no saan can ever tell.
One of the'wildest. and mot .brart-reoderiTff
spectacle ever witnessed in our city "wm ex-
niDiiea uist nigw. x rum iuuu .wm,
teadinf nerhaw a half or three fourths of a mile in
a continuous hnsftip the river, the burning wreck
of boat-met boat, and rolled their united clouds
of deep black smoke, and lurid flame in wild con
fusion into' upper air; on tbe other band the long
lofty range of stores fronting the river, sent np a
cloud of sparks and sheets of .-dazxling '. flames,
which threw aTed and glaring light tar away into
the darknef of night which hung upon our wes
tern borders!' Here and there were seen half
frantic men,' running in bewilderment irom point
to point, scarce knowing where, or staggering
from their burning homes under a load of their
most precious property, followed by a weeping
wife and her tender babe. '.' ' '
Since wrHine the above, we have taken-anoth
er walk through the burning district, which now
at a quarter before three o'clocklreadyextends
Irom the levee,-west to second street, ana from
LocusL south of Elm street This entire space ia
not now burned over.but mu:h of it is, and much
more will be before the flames are extinguished.
We cannot pretend to particularize the bum
ines burnt, but wilt mention the Teleereph Oftce
the United State Hotel, the Reville Office, Re
publican Office, the Organ Office and the New
Era Office. These comprise all the English
uanjr papers in inc ciiy, ezcepi our own: we
.L i . . . . i . m '
ucnig vii uie nona iae or ivvcusi aoove main
street, have, fortunately, escaped. - We m form
no estimate of the lost by this fire it may pre.
haMy be put bown at five million of dollars. J
In onr evening edition we will rive an the
particulars that can nossiblv be relative to this
awful catastrophe. At this time, half past faar,
the flame are nearly extinguished sad though
our gaiiant u rem en are almost exhausted, yet we
nope out nine more aamage win oe done,
Fnnn the SL Louis Union, Evening Edition.)
In our moraine edition, wi s-ava what, of in
terest we were able to collect,' relative to the
cvnoaKTsuou wnscn Das aua in asnes a aura
portion of St Louis. We aho masked Itmi
XX . t - . . w. . . .
sur reaaers, in our evenine issue, as detailed aa
J . . . r . r. .
Isocount as it was possible to cetleet: but n et
wnirw iite.aiuuaiw accurate nanzMBt of
the amount of propel tr destroved. or Amnher
oriives lost is not within tbe range of poasibil
itv. We can only follow tbe Moerat raits of
. . Jthe fire, without going into detail. We begin
omfijr --;s u"- nkiija iii ore iirst
started on shore, was at the corner of Locust
street and the ie ve tbe corner house, and three
buildings above it. fronting the Levee, werad.
troyet; the flames then crossed Locust, kqd swept
house wiih fine exception,; in me block
fronting the Levee and Main street, and extemd
ing from Locust street southward , fo Che,
nut street, a distance or three squares. At
Chesnut street, it turned up and creased ever tt
khe next block south, at the junction of Commer-
ciai aiicj mia uui street, ana iroen ine aaey lo
Main, and down to Market street, burning all
except two buildings at the corner of Market
.treet and Com. Alley. At the junction of Mar
ket and Main street the flames crossed diagonal
ly to the Market Street House, and followed both
sidea of Market street no to Second atrec.
Then crossing Main street the flames train swept
every building from Locust to Market except a
row of four four-slonr fire nroof hriek kmlfiin-..
just below Locust street .
rawing up Hne, Chestnut and Market streets,
tha devouring i1m-n xunuml .u. i
ftho two Mocks intervening between tha street
meiNionea, ana main and Second streets, and
thoe on nearly half of the block north of Olive.
Here its ravages were stayed in this part ef
the city. Before the progree of the flame could
be arrested it was found necessary to blow up
one or two house near the comes f M.rl.f
and Second streets, and in doing so at least three
peron were killed. The Iragmanta ef one er
their bodies were found ea Dm nnnnaifa .u. -r
jthe street Me near Walnut en Second afreet and
to. u. go oeaeand a root belonging to another,
near the foot of Walnut street lome two or
three quare from where the bouses ware blown
up. 'These, with the body of the boy burst on
the levee, make four that are now at the police
office. The military, fireman, and citizens, are
to form a procession, and bury tbem- sometime
during the day. ' ' . . . ; .
... ... -
n e wm now go farther south, to the foot of
lm rtreet, where the lire made anotkar lodge
ment, and spreading oHaejWulry through : thi
block, it swept up to Main, and down to Spruce
street a distance north and tumth
and crossing Main, it carried nearly every thine
before it, up irery nearly to Third street, three
square to the west of its starting point: At
Main street, the flames crossed Elm and can-
uuicu uim-iourui oi ine block north of Elm and
west of Main street. .' From the foot of Elm. un
iti southern ude to Second street. ' st.t.l Y,
two squares, note house ia atmnding.. By tbia
dire calamity, hundred of ; families are made
houseless, and many who were ia afluenoed, are
reduced to poverty. . , "f'
South Market and the Town H. 11 ........ c.
at ona time, but by great exertiona of a few aer-
sons nraannfL tha .. J
-. T 1 J " v.w T OU. - . )-.,., .
Mearlv everv nana oT k.. tv.
for half a' souare h&Z?"??
ket and Second street, weV. Tbn to
cussion at the time of the blowinr un Vh.
ouiiding at that point " '
r The police arrested and mhiCiuJ t. v. .' .
calaboose nearly fifty po foV 1.
. oenevc to nave lost their
