The New York Herald

Horrible Accident—Three Children Drowned.—Yesterday morning, about half-past 5 o'clock, the wife of Mr. John Murphy, a moulder, residing in a small frame building in North Broadway, missed her three children, who had been playing in the house and yard, and went out in the latter place to find them; to her indescribable horror, in passing the cistern she saw the head of one and the feet of another above the water. She instantly gave the alarm to some workmen in the brewery, who came to her aid, and rescued them from their watery grave. Her oldest child, a girl named Catharine, about eight years of age, was dead, as also was the baby, (which she had been taking care of,) Honora, about eight months old. The second child, Elizabeth, five years old, showed some faint sparks of life, and the usual restoratives were used; but whether it will live or not is a doubtful matter. Doctors Bay and Freeman were called in, who did everything in the power of medical skill to save the child's life. The top of the cistern is only two feet in diameter, and there was probably not more than twenty-six inches of water in it at the time. How they got in is inconceivable, unless the babe first fell from Catharine's arms, and she and her sister went in to rescue it. They made no outcry, and, had not their mother been looking for them, might have remained in the cistern for hours without being discovered.—Albany Knickerbocker, May 18.