The Caledonian

The following is one of the most touching tales of human affliction we remember to have read for many a day. We find it in the Kanawha Republican of the 5th instant:

Heart rending Occurrence.--On the 16th February, Mr. William McClung left his peaceful habitation, his wife and four children, in the wilderness of Nicholas county, Va., and went to Summersville to transact some business, with an intention to return home that evening; but the mountain storm became so intense in the afternoon, that he declined doing so.

His wife and children having retired to rest, were alarmed at a late hour by the burning of their house. She escaped with her little ones from the violence of the devouring fire--but, alas! it was only to perish by the pelting of the pitiless storm! The next day, when Mr. McClung returned home, he found his house consumed by the flames, and his wife and all his children frozen to death! The shock was too great for feeble human nature: he sunk under it, he became wild; he desired to be buried with his family; and his friends were compelled to put him in close confinement.

A sympathizing heart scarcely can determine which to pity most, the mother and the children, who perished in an hour, or the husband and the father, who lived to feel the pains of death a thousand times.