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29 chapters
PREFACE.
PREFACE.
Whatever be the ideas of the public upon a glance at the title page of this work, it is not intended to pander to the morbid desire for the sensational or horrible, characteristic of weak minds. This volume is not a literary morgue. Mankind is constantly astonished by reports of mishaps and disasters of manifold character, when there is seldom room for astonishment. A large proportion of the calamities reported from day to day are directly due to the haste, greed, and heedlessness of man himself
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CHAPTER I. MYTHS OF THE WINDS.
CHAPTER I. MYTHS OF THE WINDS.
S O sang the bard of the fabled cave of the winds. Thus the old Romans and Greeks have taught us to think and to speak of the spirits of the air. Thus the very name of “spirit” was originally identical with “breath” or “wind.” Those poetic old Hellenes! They contrived to find something delightfully human in all the phenomena of nature. The woods were peopled with fauns and dryads. Around the bend of yonder rushy stream, a wary woodsman found a bathing nymph. Beyond that rock Actæon saw the chast
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CHAPTER II. CONSTANT WINDS.
CHAPTER II. CONSTANT WINDS.
T HE phenomena of climate and seasons are too familiar to need especial comment or description. They are dependent, in the first place, upon the annual journey of the earth about the sun, the inclination of the earth’s axis to its orbit, and the distance of any particular region in question, from the equator. But the changes thus constantly made are greatly modified by other factors. Chief among these agencies are the form and extent of the continents, their position relative to each other and t
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CHAPTER III. PERIODIC WINDS.
CHAPTER III. PERIODIC WINDS.
S O the seasons tread their ceaseless round in the temperate zones, and to a certain degree in the colder regions of the earth. But when we examine the change of seasons in the tropical world, we find a state of things so different that we are at once led to inquire the reason: and it will be found primarily in certain periodical winds. When the sun is north of the equator: that is, while our northern summer is in progress, India enjoys a steady sea wind from the southwest, which brings a rainy
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CHAPTER IV. TORNADOES AND CYCLONES.
CHAPTER IV. TORNADOES AND CYCLONES.
M EN find no difficulty in recognizing law and system in the phenomena that are of constant or frequent recurrence. That which is most difficult to explain, may pass without a serious thought so long as it manifests no stupendous or sudden power. The water may wear away the stone for centuries and its progress be unheeded by those who daily visit the pool. So all observe and admire the beauty and order that prevails in the system of winds hitherto described. Their movements seem so simple and na
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CHAPTER V. THE LOUISVILLE TORNADO.
CHAPTER V. THE LOUISVILLE TORNADO.
T HERE is a perspective of news as well as of art, which requires that such features in a view as are supposed to be nearest to the observer must be given larger detail. It is a natural consequence of the fact that a small object near by may conceal from view a mountain in the distance. So in the news world a dog run over on Washington avenue takes rank with a wreck in the Indian Ocean. A fight in a neighboring saloon gets ten inches: a strike in Germany ten lines. Your neighbor’s new barn is a
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CHAPTER VI INCIDENTS OF THE TORNADO.
CHAPTER VI INCIDENTS OF THE TORNADO.
T OO frequently in the confusion of great disasters the woes of the poorer classes are forgotten in the attention given to their more opulent neighbors. There is only too often good cause given for a slight modification of Shylock’s speech, “Hath not a Jew eyes?” etc. There is no sadder record than that so frequently given in a single line: “Dead—a woman, name unknown.” What fearful heart-aches often end in the Potter’s field! Adjoining the Louisville Hotel was a saloon and cigar store, the room
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CHAPTER VII. OTHER TORNADOES.
CHAPTER VII. OTHER TORNADOES.
A casual glance at the papers during the last days of March would have satisfied any one that the storm which passed over the country was anything but insignificant. So far, we have given only the story of a single neighborhood; while a score of others suffered more or less. A brief account of some of these will be of interest, and will give us a far better idea of the character of great storms and tornadoes. The farthest point west touched by a tornado on that memorable day was a strip near the
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CHAPTER VIII. TROPICAL CYCLONES.
CHAPTER VIII. TROPICAL CYCLONES.
T HE preceding pages show only the destructive power of the small tornadoes of our land. We are fortunate in that the great cyclone is, comparatively, a rare visitor among us. A moment’s consideration of this ravager, as he appears in the tropics, will show how trifling are the storms that have swept over our own land. A few examples will convince the most skeptical. Of the great cyclones which have traversed our country in recent times, we may mention the hurricane of October 21-24, 1878. Gen.
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CHAPTER IX. PERILS OF THE SEA.
CHAPTER IX. PERILS OF THE SEA.
T HE Storm at Sea! From the days of David to the present, the poet and the novelist have taxed their energies to portray the perils of those who go down into the deep in ships. The ravages of the hurricane on shore are confined largely to those portions of the world unknown to the ancients; but the treacherous deep has been sung in every age. We may hardly choose which of the myriad wrecks to describe. St. Paul’s perilous voyage to Rome is familiar wherever the gospel is preached; Jonah has furn
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CHAPTER X. LIFE-SAVING MEASURES.
CHAPTER X. LIFE-SAVING MEASURES.
O NE of the most destructive storms on record, and certainly the most terrible ever known on the whole English coast is the great storm of 1703. It is the only storm which has ever been made the subject of a Parliamentary memorial. It raged for a week over nearly the whole of England. Scores of vessels were driven on shore and perished. At Bristol, the in-driven sea filled the merchants’ cellars, destroying sugar, tobacco, and other produce, to the value of hundreds of thousands of dollars. Eigh
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CHAPTER XI. GREAT SAMOAN HURRICANE.
CHAPTER XI. GREAT SAMOAN HURRICANE.
D URING the fall of 1888, no little interest centered in one of the little inland groups of the Pacific. In 1887, German officers in the Samoan group conceived that the king, Malietoa, was so prejudiced toward their interests that he should be deposed. So without much ceremony they laid hands upon and carried him into exile, placing him on an island some thousands of miles distant. There seems no reason to doubt that Germany’s ultimate design was to formally occupy the islands. It is the old sto
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CHAPTER XII. ELECTRIC STORMS.
CHAPTER XII. ELECTRIC STORMS.
W HO has not quailed before the storm? Few, indeed, are they whose spirits kindle with the flash of the lightning, and joy in the roar of the thunder, that fills the heavens like the voice of many waters. Bold is the heart that in such scenes can mount with a Byron, and say to the Avernian gloom that wraps the frightened world, Only that fiery, untameable spirit, fearless of man or demon, dare so approach the King of the Storm, or pat the mane of Ocean in his wrath. A thousand plaudits has he wo
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CHAPTER XIII. RAIN, HAIL AND SNOW.
CHAPTER XIII. RAIN, HAIL AND SNOW.
T HE cloud is well worth Shelley’s admiration; for though it be but a vague oppressive mist when it enwraps, yet afar it assumes either beauty or gloom, as its seeming whims may dictate. Few are they who have never paused in silent admiration of some beautiful fleecy spirit of the upper deep, changing every instant like the shifting figures of a kaleidoscope, or presenting fantastic likenesses of natural objects, or ever and anon presenting pictures of strange monsters, such as only the supersti
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CHAPTER XIV. FLOODS IN THE SOUTH.
CHAPTER XIV. FLOODS IN THE SOUTH.
E VERY country is confronted with a serious problem in its great rivers. In some lands the only problem is, how to get rid of flood-water as quickly as possible: in others, comes the additional question of securing sufficient water for irrigation during the dry season. Egypt occupies an anomalous position, the latter question being the only one of any practical interest. Without rains, she depends on the rise of the Nile for her existence, and no one dreams of such a thing as endeavoring to chec
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CHAPTER XV. THE FLOOD OF 1890.
CHAPTER XV. THE FLOOD OF 1890.
T HE great flood of 1874 is remembered as the most destructive of human life in the history of the Mississippi valley. It came almost without warning. The rolling river rose rapidly, and the levees broke in many places before the masses suspected danger. Hundreds of people were drowned; and as for the losses of property, no attempt was made to estimate the amount. Certainly it amounted to many millions. Perhaps only the Chicago fire could compare with it in this respect. Another great year of hi
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CHAPTER XVI. THE JOHNSTOWN FLOOD.
CHAPTER XVI. THE JOHNSTOWN FLOOD.
I NDIA, profiting by long and sad experience, has provided, as far as may be possible, against the contingencies of drought and famine, by the establishment of a magnificent system of storage reservoirs, to furnish water for irrigating when rain is wanting. Some of these tanks are fine specimens of engineering, and so far as records go, no disaster has ever attended their establishment. But to be ready and efficient, for purposes of irrigation, the water must be above the level of the surroundin
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CHAPTER XVII. INCIDENTS AT JOHNSTOWN.
CHAPTER XVII. INCIDENTS AT JOHNSTOWN.
T HE Johnstown flood has no parallel in suddenness and destructiveness, save in the convulsions of the earthquake and volcano, agencies which will be noticed shortly, but which have never wrought such serious havoc in our own land as elsewhere. But the most deplorable feature of this terrible calamity is, that it might easily have been averted. It was due entirely to the culpable carelessness of a club of wealthy pleasure-seekers. It would be senseless to prate of “mysteries of Providence” in th
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CHAPTER XVIII. RELIEF MEASURES.
CHAPTER XVIII. RELIEF MEASURES.
I T goes without saying that the destitution and suffering occasioned by the flood were fearful. Everywhere might be seen hundreds of sad-eyed, disconsolate, almost famished creatures, groping about the wreck, almost unconscious of present necessities by reason of present woe. Scores were compelled to drag their precious dead from the wreck and bury them with their own hands—a trying task. Other scores found never a trace of many whom they sought. Hundreds of telegrams of anxious inquiries will
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CHAPTER XIX. FAMINE AND PESTILENCE.
CHAPTER XIX. FAMINE AND PESTILENCE.
S IGNS and wonders, grave omens, strange portents, have by the ignorant and superstitious been believed to precede and presage the approach of famine and pestilence. Comets have terrified the multitudes; the rabble has quailed at the aurora, and blanched with fear at the sight of colored rain and snow. And yet nothing is clearer than that famine is the result of the simplest meteorological causes. A deficiency in rainfall is sufficient cause—is almost the only cause. Elsewhere we have noted how
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CHAPTER XX. THE VOLCANO.
CHAPTER XX. THE VOLCANO.
I T is an axiom that there are three misstatements in the popular description of a crab: “A fish, of a red color, that runs backward.” Ques. What is a volcano? Ans. A volcano is a burning mountain, from the summit of which issue smoke and flames. ( Old Geography. ) The writer remembers the surprise he felt when a lad of nine, full of childish confidence in the infallibility of text-book misinformation, on reading in Prescott’s “Conquest in Mexico” that Cortez obtained sulphur to replenish his st
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CHAPTER XXI. GREAT ERUPTIONS OF VESUVIUS.
CHAPTER XXI. GREAT ERUPTIONS OF VESUVIUS.
F OR nearly seventeen hundred years there lay beneath a sea of ashes near the Naples Bay, a city whose destruction had not been described by the younger Pliny; and in the lapse of years its site had been forgotten. During the construction of an aqueduct in 1592, workmen frequently came upon foundations of buildings. No curiosity seems to have been aroused. Nearly a hundred years later other buildings were discovered, with the inscription “ Pompeii .” Still there was no practical interest. Then t
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CHAPTER XXII. OTHER GREAT ERUPTIONS.
CHAPTER XXII. OTHER GREAT ERUPTIONS.
S UCH is Dr. Henderson’s translation of Job XXII, 15-20. By many the passage has been supposed to refer to the destruction of the cities of the plain, and used to support the theory that a volcanic eruption was the means of their overthrow. If the theory were true, the catastrophe is the earliest historic eruption. A brief statement of the reasons for the belief may interest the reader. The entire Dead Sea valley is depressed far below the level of the sea. From the Dead Sea to the head of the R
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CHAPTER XXIII. EARTHQUAKES.
CHAPTER XXIII. EARTHQUAKES.
S UCH is the theory of earthquakes as laid down by “Wild Will Shakespeare.” Whether it be an expression of the popular belief of the day, or a personal opinion, is not easy to determine. If the latter, he had, as we shall see by and by, many predecessors in the same belief. His metaphor, though more elegantly expressed, cannot compare with the Indian’s for terseness and force: “Ground heap sick—heap belly ache—no good!” We have already seen that the forces producing earthquakes and volcanic acti
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CHAPTER XXIV. EUROPEAN EARTHQUAKES.
CHAPTER XXIV. EUROPEAN EARTHQUAKES.
R ECORDS and myths of great earthquakes go back almost to prehistoric times. The Greeks tell of an immense flood—perhaps a sea wave—which overwhelmed Attica immediately after an earthquake in the nineteenth century before Christ. It is known as the deluge of Ogyges, from the name of the reigning king. Some three centuries later is the story of a great earthquake and flood in Thessaly, from which Deucalion and Pyrrha escaped. There is a still vaguer legend of an immense earthquake about 2400 B. C
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CHAPTER XXV. EARTHQUAKES IN THE UNITED STATES AND ENGLAND.
CHAPTER XXV. EARTHQUAKES IN THE UNITED STATES AND ENGLAND.
I T is a common assertion that when persons are drowning, all the events of past life rush suddenly before them with startling distinctness: sometimes in amusing combinations: generally the reverse. Something of the same effect is produced by the earthquake; but in a far more terrifying way. Each one is witness to the panic of his neighbor; and no fright is so terrible as that which is infectious. In moments of great peril a single calm master-spirit may quiet a mob. But when the eternal hills a
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CHAPTER XXVI. EARTHQUAKES IN TROPICAL AMERICA.
CHAPTER XXVI. EARTHQUAKES IN TROPICAL AMERICA.
T HE reader will be assured, from the facts given concerning volcanic eruptions, and the earthquakes of Asia Minor mentioned in the former chapter, that great earthquakes are as numerous in Asiatic districts as elsewhere; but beyond the bare fact, little is known of most of these. India has preserved no written history: and China and Japan have been till recently almost inaccessible to Europeans. So while the disturbances there are equal in importance to those of other lands, it is but lately th
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CHAPTER XXVII. PREDICTION AND PREVENTION.
CHAPTER XXVII. PREDICTION AND PREVENTION.
E VER since man has dwelt upon the earth, there has been a constant effort, not merely to foretell the future, but to control it. So strong is man’s faith in his own capacity, that wizards, jugglers, fakirs and tricksters, and necromancers have always found their vocation a lucrative one. It is easy to make one’s living by imposing upon the credulity of the public. Not merely the American people, but every other people, like to be humbugged. So strong is the tendency to gullibility, that the mos
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CHAPTER XXVIII. THE REIGN OF LAW.
CHAPTER XXVIII. THE REIGN OF LAW.
T HE original condition of the human race was not one of knowledge. When the first man and the first monkey were created and finished, the monkey knew as much as the man. Both found themselves in a world of forces, of the nature of which, beyond what was revealed to their native instincts, they knew nothing at all. The man’s superiority lay not in knowledge, but in capacity to know. Man learned the forces and facts of Nature by experience. He learned them at the cost to himself of fear and pain
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