History of Lynn, Essex County, Massachusetts, including Lynnfield ...

44 ANNALS OF LYNN I 8/ 1.
nies took place. The oration was delivered by J. K. Tarbox, Esq.
of Lawrence.
The corner stone of Odd Fellows' Hall, on the site of the old
Lyceum Hall, on Market street, corner of Summer, was laid on
Monday, June 12, with appropriate ceremonies. Preparations
had been made for a grand display, and organizations from abroad
had been invited. But the unpropitious weather interfered with
many details.
It is an old belief, traces of which may be found reaching back
to periods long before European settlement commenced here,
that shell fish, clams especially, are poisonous during the warm
season, or, as it is usually expressed, during every month that is
spelled without an r. Many, however, have contended that the
bivalves are as healthy for food at one time as another. But an
incident occurred here, on July 6, which was accepted by many
as confirmatory. Four men went over to Pines Point, and there
ate rather bountifully of raw clams. They were soon taken sick
and hastened homeward. Immediately after their arrival two
died ; but the others, after much suffering, recovered. Such a
meal, however, might be accounted sufficiently dangerous for
any stomach, irrespective of the idea of poison. An incident
similar to the foregoing occurred in June, 1848.
A singular case of spontaneous combustion took place in
August, in a body of some four hundred tons of Sydney coal, on
a wharf running from Broad street. It appears to have smouldered
for a few days, when, on the nth, it set fire to the shed
under which it lay. A steam fire engine was employed in the
attempt to extinguish it, but it was necessary to throw a portion
into the dock, to save the remainder. About sixty tons were
lost. The combustion appeared to have been caused by rain
and the heat of the sun.
An unusually long drought occurred in the summer of this
year. No rain fell for forty-two days.
number who usually appear
Five tents of Indians — about the
here when the summer visitors arrive — encamped on the Beach,
near the foot of Beach street, and remaine-'^ a month or two,
plying their humble trade in baskets and bead-vvork.
A terrible disaster took place on the Eastern Rail-road, at
Revere, on the evening of Saturday, Aug. 26, the weather being
damp and foggy. An accommodation train from Boston reached
the Revere station soon after eight o'clock. The passengers for
that place had landed and the train was just beginning to move
forward when an express train, with a terrific crash, dashed
down upon it, the locomotive fairly burying itself in the rear car,
which was crowded with passengers, their number being not less
than a hundred, many of whom were standing. By this appalling
casualty thirty persons were killed, eleven of them of Lynn, and