THE KENNEDY FAMILY.

South Canterbury Times, Issue 2574, 21 June 1881, Page 2

THE KENNEDY FAMILY.

The following sad but interesting letter, received by Mr R. Kennedy, nar rates the circumstances attending the finding of his brothers and sisters : “ Nice, Saturday, 8.30 a.m. Dear Father and Mother, —I have tried two or three times to write to you, but the mind won’t come to the work. When we say they are dead all seems told, and anything further in explanation seems a hollow play upon words. But you must be told a few of the circumstances. I was accompanied soon after my arrival by two old ladies to the place where the bodies were lying, and what I saw and heard in the first instance made me turn sick with the fear of never peeing again “ rag nor bane o’ my ain kith and kin," as has happened to a vast number. We have been spared this, and will have the sweet satisfaction of giving our dear ones Christian burial. The place chosen for the examination of the bodies is at some distance from the theatre, which we could not enter, as the walls are threatening to fall ; and there, nndey the budding branches of the trees, encased in rude but cleanly coffins, I found them. Lizzie seems but to sleep, and none of them have suffered bodily. There would be simply time for an acute mental pang, and all wov.ld then be over. I have in the meantime taken Jim’s watch, chain, and seals, together with some minor tokens from him and from the others, and will soe that everything is done that can be done in the way of preserving relics. It seem§Mhat thieves have already been at work amongst the dead, but to all appearance ours have been Overlooked. But we need no relics of them. They live here in the memory of all who have made their acquaintance in their short stay as good honest souls, with kindly words for everybody. The landlady cannot express sufficiently her regard for them. The restaurantkeeper where they dined weeps at the thought of them. Lamherti is brokenhearted. He has lost, so they say, seven pupils by the fire, among them Zenari and her mother, who were with them and her sisters."