The Stourbridge Observer, Cradley Heath, Halesowen & District Chronicle.
Stourbridge, West Midlands, England, 1881-09-24 00:00:00

THE RECENT LANDSLIP IN SWITZER-
LAND.

The Geneva Correspondent of The Times, in giving further
particulars respecting the recent landslip in Switzerland,
says :

No one seems to have thought the village was in
danger until Sunday afternoon, when as the people were
coming from church a quantity of stones rolling from the
Ischingel crushed several houses in Unterthal nearest
the foot of the Alp. Ten minutes later came the great
catastrophe; a thunderous noise rent the air, a black
dust cloud overspread the valley, and all was still. In
those two or three seconds Unterthal had disappeared,
and with it were buried nearly everyone of the unfor-
tunates, who a few malutes previously were•worship-
ping in the village church. Scarcely any, in fact, who
on the first alarm crossed the Sernft, either out of
curiosity or fear or to lend a helping hand to those
whose houses had been struck escaped, and they in-
clude nearly all the manhood of the village. The pro-
prietor of the Elm Hotel was thrown by the concus-
sion of air from the iron bridge over the Sernft into
the stream, and drowned. His brother, who had
reached the Unterthal side, was crushed benea% a

fragment of rock. In one h.ouse there was a christen-
ing party of fifteen persons, most kinsfolk, all of
whom, save the child's father, were killed; at one
stroke he was bereft of family, relatives, and estate.
His house is gone, and his fields are buried under the
wreck of the mountain. From the first, rescue, though
energetically attempted, was seen to be hopeless;
rocks and earth are piled over Unterthal to a height
of 50ft., and the area covered by the debris is com-
puted at from six to eight square miles.
A correspondent of the Neue Zitricher Zeitung, who
visited Elm on Tuesday in last week describes the
scene as weird, wild, and melancholy beyond the
p)wer of words to express. Above the rolling clouds
which hung about the skirts of the mountains rose
the white summit of the Plattenberg. Every few
minutes a great fragment of rock thundered down the
side of the Tschingler Alp. Where Unterthal had
been was a mass of stones and earth as high as the
church steeple. A great part of the village on the
other side of the stream was under water, and the
Sernft, forced from its bed, was vainly dashing itself
against the obstructions that barred its way. Through
a driving rain men were carrying shapeless bodies
and laying them in the church, one of the few
buildings which have escaped destruction. A weep-
ing woman was searching among the ruins for some
vestigø of her lost little ones; and an old man, whose
wife, children, and grandchildren had all perished
together, was wandering about heedless of everything,
praying that the rooks might crush him also. But
except these two the villagers, fearing another earth.
slip, had fled.

In another letter, the Correspondent a The Times
writes :

The engineers ascribe the landslip to a combination
of causes rather than to one single cause. The quarry-
ing operations cannot alone be held responsible for the
disaster any more than the rain. The material of
which the Tschingel Alp is composed renders it ex-
tremely liable to rupture after heavy rainfalls or
thaws, a, liability in the present instance greatly
increased by the slate getting and the incidental
blasting, as well as by the numerous earthquake
shocks that have occurred in Switzerland during
the last twelve months. Into the fissures thus formed
poured the heavy rains that set in late in August
—when the rainfall of a few days exceeded the average
of a month—and so loosened the foundations of the
Tschingel that it literally burst asunder. There was
a slight landslip a month ago. On Friday last the
men in the quarries refused to go on working, and the
same day the proprietor of the Martinsloch Inn
(Martinsloch is a curious hole in the precipice,
thiough which the sun shines two or three times a
year on the village of Elm) vacated his house and
took away the greater part of his funiture. The inn
is now buried hundreds of feet deep under the
Bergsturtz. On Saturday and Sunday morning stones
were seen to roll down the side of the Tschingel, and
the forest master warned the people who liyed nearest
•to the foot of the Alps to leave their houses, but he
never anticipated so frightful a catastrophe as that
which a few hours later befell.

A Correspondent of the Bund, writing from Elm on
Tuesday, says that he found it almost impossible to
obtain from the survivors anything like a consecutive
account of the signs that immediately preceded the
disaster, or of the disaster itself. They say that the
shock was so terrible, the uproar so tremendous, that
their minds seemed paralyzed; all their energies were
concentrated in frantic efforts to escape, and they did
escape. They remember nothing else. They seemed
stupefied, and go about like men in a state of somnam-
bulism. All who have been questioned are
agreed as to the main facts—that there were
two slips, and that, after the first, many of the
Elm people ran across the bridge to Unterthal,
where they were surprised by a second and still more
terrible earth avalanche, which broke from the upper
part of the Alp above the quarries, and swept
everything before it like dust before the wind. But
there is a curious discrepancy—perhaps, in the circum-
stances' not to be wondered at—in the estimates of the
time that elapsed between these two events. They
vary from ten minutes to sixty. In any case, it is ex-
tremely probable that the houses in Unterthal which
first fell were struck down by the concussion of air,
not by stones as was at first stated, for the ground
that first went down was near the foot of the Alp and
covered with trees, and could hardly have reached the
village. It is almost certain, too, that many of those
who perished were asphyxiated by the rushing wind
before they were crushed by the falling rocks. The
weight of the mass that fell is roughly estimated at
300,000,000 kilogrammes, and as it fell from a height
of 2,0001 t. it must have produced a concussion in the
air enough to kill evely living creature within its
sway.
The loss of life is likely ,J think, to prove less than
was at first supposed. The number of missing has
been ascertained to amount to about 120. The Neue
Ziirich.er Zeitung gives a list of 111, with the remark,
however, that it must not be regarded as complete. The
names given are those of well-known natives of the
valley who, as they are not to be found, are counted by
their friends and kinsfolk as among the lost. But over
and above these it is known that a considerable num-
ber of Italian workmen, of whom some 80 or 90 were
employed in the slate quarries, were in and about
Unterthal at the time of its destruction. How many
will probably never be accurately known, so that the
number of those who have perished must remain, in
some measure, a matter of conjecture. It may exceed
150, but can hardly reach 200. As yet only 15 bodies
have been recovered and buried.
Elm is both a village and a commune. As a com-
mune it includes the hamlets of Sulabach, Hinter-
steinbach, Obmoos, Schwandi' and Elm, with Tinterthal, the latter of which has been utterly destroyed.
Its 1,000 inhabitants (now about 850) are nearly all
Protestants, and before the terrible disaster of last
Sunday they were one of the most thriving com-
munities in Switzerland. As it is they have lost
nearly everything. The slate quarries, which belonged
to some, and found employment for others, can be
worked no more ; their fields are wasted, their houses
either wholly or partially destroyed, and the necessity
laid on them to quit their native valley and seek
homes elsewhere adds the finishing stroke to their
misfortunes and and completes their ruin. I mention
these facts because an appeal on behalf of the stricken
people will doubtless be made to the public of
England. The appeal made on their behalf to their
fellow countrymen is meeting with a hearty and
generous response.

MR. G. W. P. BENTINCK, M.P., ON
PROTECTION.
Mr. Bentinck, M.P. for West Norfolk, has published a
letter boldly demanding a return to protection. The hon.
gentleman says
"The problem to be solved is whether one-sided
free trade can be endured any longer by this country.
Making all allowance for the consequences of several
successive bad harvests upon the prosperity of agri-
culture, it cannot be denied that foreign competition,
coupled with the effects of one-sided free trade, and
the consequent exclusion of British manufacturers
from foreign markets by high protectiVb duties,
has ruinously affected all capital embarked in this
country in commerce and agriculture, and must lead,
if the present state of things continues, to its annihila-
tion. Is this country to sit still and to be ruined
without an effort to stir itself frcm the consequences
of adhering to a financial policy which is rejected
by the great majority of the civilized world ? Those
often-repeated words 'cheap food' involve a plausible
but an obvious fallacy. Food is cheap or dear to the
great body of the people, not according to its actual
price, but to the means which they may possess of
purchasing it, and the possession of those means
depends solely upon the value of their labour, which
must depend upon the inducements held out to
capital to employ labour. I have always contended
that another fallacy in the teaching of those who
advocate the doctrines of free trade is to be found in
the misapprehension under which they labour as to the
comparative numbers and position of those classes who
are generally described as consumers and producers.
The upholders of the policy of free trade have,
always contended that the chief object of our legis-
lation should be to benefit the consumer. This
is an obvious error. The consuming class, as
apart from and compared with the producing
classes of the community, is Comparatively a very
small one, and as far as it contributes little or nothing
to the wealth of the country, an unimportant one. It
is chiefly composed of annuitants and others who may
be described as the non-producing classes, and who
are gainers by the low prices of British produce. On
the other hand, among the producers must be included
all whose capital is embarked in agriculture and in
commerce of every description; and more especially
must be included every citizen and every agricultural
labourer in the country whose welfare depends solely
upon the value of his labour, and the value of which
labour requires, as has been shown in all other great
countries, to be protected by import duties from foreign
competition. These are the producers of the wealth of the
country. They comprise all immense majority of the
population, and unless they are protected from the conse-
quences of one-sided free trade, the present condition
of things tells us plainly that they must ere long be
consigned to a condition of starvation, and with their
ruin must come the downfall of the wealth and pros-
perity of Eniland. I would ask the taxpayers of
Great Britian to consider how many millions might
be annually raised by a moderate duty levied upon all
articles of foreign produce which compete with
British industry, and which, without causing any
perceptible increase in the cost of those articles to the
consumer, would enable us to reduce our taxation by
the annual amount so levied. Is it better that the
whole amount of our taxation should be paid by our
selves, or that a large proportion of it should be ex-
tracted from the pockets of those countries who refuse
to deal with us on fair and equal terms ?"

Sir Michael Hicks-Beach, M.P., in addressing his
constituents in the eastern division of the county of
Gloucester, recognised the fact of depression amongst agri-
cult,iri:ts, buf, whilst not taking a pessimist view of agri-
culture, he thought that much might he done to relieve
tenant farmers if there was an equitable reorganisation of
local taxation. It was not properly borne in mind that the
production of food was overtaxed in this country, and Par-
liament could 'do much in reducing taxation. on food and
in making personal property bear its fair share of taxa-
tion.

AN ADVENTURE AT NIAGARA FALLS.

A correspomlent of the Boston Transcript gives the follow-
ing account of an interview he had with John Greenwood,
one of the three men who had a narrow escape from being
sucked over Niagara Falls while crossing the river in an open
boat.

The three men,°father and son named Lehmen in one
boat, and Greenwood in another, started just before
dark from a spot hardly a mile above the falls, and
only a half-mile from where the terrible suction of the
rapids begin. One of those damp, thick fogs, due
chiefly to the spray of the cataract being driven up
stream by a strong wind, suddenly enveloped the two
boats, and the occupants, appalled at the sudden pre;
dicament in which they found themselves, lost their
reckoning, and knew not which way to steer for the
nearest shore. Their cries for help brought out the
town, and as their boats were gradually drifting
within reach of the roar of the cataract and out of
reach of human voice, the town bell was rung in order
to attract the attention of the men, and direct them
which way to steer.
There was the most intense excitement, and the
people lined the river banks, peering into the impene-
trable fog, in the hope of catching a glimpse of the
imperiled men. From the cries which came out, of the
darkness it was evident that the boats were nearing
the falls, and were coming within the influence of the
rapids—the long arms of the devil-fish, as it were,
which drag the victim to his death. Their occupants
rowed for life, and at the last moment a friendly eddy
caught the Lehmans' craft and brought it within easy
reach of the shore, which the two men lost no time in
gaining.
Of his own experience, Greenwood says :—" I
pulled with all my strength toward the shore when I
heard the bell, and so did the Lehmans. I was further
out in the river than they, and seemed to catch more
of the current, and this soon dragged me out of all
sound of my companions. All I could hear was the
horrible roar of the falls and an occasional peal of the
bell. I was driven half mad, and once I thought of
leaping overboard and swimming straight for that
horribly fascinating roar. I must have been completely
out of my mind for about a minute. My reason re-
turned as suddenly as it had left me, and I caught
myself with one hand on the gunwale in the very act
of preparing to go overboard. Then I began to have
a glimmering of hope as another and louder peal of
the town bell struck my ear. I thought how far away
the falls were (half a mile at the furthest), and how
near the shore was, and as I remembered how close I
came to going overboard, the perspiration stood out
on my face and neck as big as big pearls. I was
ing lustily for the bell when one oar :mapped, ana ,
blade became useless. I could feel the waters straining
at the bottom of the boat, as if they took a human de-
light; in urging us on toward the falls. Suddenly I
thought of the little anchor in the bow, and crawling
forward I pulled it out, carefully examined the knot
with which it was fastened to the rope, and then the
knot which bound the rope to the boat. The rope was
little larger than a clothes-line, and the anchor was a
poor affair, but they were any only hope. If the
piece of iron only caught in some of the rocks as we
drifted toward the falls, the rope might hold the boat
in one position till daylight and help should arrive.
The anchor flukes bit first one piece of rock and then
another, without taking firm hold, and I began to
think again of the horrible roar which was now be-
coming more and more distinct, when all of a sudden
the rope stretched out with a snap that brought up the
boat with a shock, and we were fast anchored in the
rapids. Would the rope hold? I can tell you I prayed
that it would. I got away forward and kept carefully
examining it as far out as I could reach, for I thought
of one strand parting and then another, and the
plunge over the falls into eternity. I shrank back
every time that my anxiety urged me to examine the
rope, and each time my fingers began their work my
heart was like lead, for surely, I said, they will find a
broken strand this time. Then, as inch by inch they
went over the rope, travelling beyond the gunwale an
arm's length, and finding nothing, my heart began to
lighten. And when, with my arms stretched to its
furthest, my finger tips assured me that the rope was
whole, I shouted with joy. The rope might have been
parting under water all that time for aught I knew, but
I knew nothing of that portion and cared nothing. It
was only that part that I could feel, perhaps two feet
and a half altogether, that I was concerned about. If
it broke it must break somewhere in that small stretch,
and I quivered like a leaf whenever I examined it. And
so the long night wore away, I praying, examining my
rope, and shouting till I was hoarse. I think I must
have grown old a hundred years in that time. My
joints feel stiff now, my mind dazed, and it will be
weeks before I recover from the effect of that terrible
strain en my nerves."

Greenwood's boat proved to be anchored much nearer
the shore than he had any idea of, and he was rescued
without much difficulty by the townspeople the. fol-
lowing morning. Money, he says will never tempt
him to cross the river above Niagara Falls in an open
boat again.