The evening telegraph. [volume] (Philadelphia [Pa.]) 1864-1918, 1868-09-18
The Day of Wra tn.
From The ". Y. Independent.

from Hle ~. i. independent.
1t makes a man hold his breath TO read the
accounts of the appalling earthquake which
lately ran like a sea-wave up aud down the
west coast of South America, overthrowing
ten cities and hundreds of towns and villages;
killing probably thirty thousand people, and
manning an unnumbered multitude besides;
destroying ships, houses, churches, and
various property, officially valued at three
hundred million dollars; and, altogether, cou-
stltutiDg one of the most extensive, destruc-
tive, and awful calamties which have ever
befsllen the human race.
The accounts thus far received are crude
and meager, giving rough guesses rather than
accurate statements of losses; but all the
writers unite in a concurrent testimony to the
unparalleled havoc caused by the earthquake,
and to the universal panic among the people.
After various premonitory symptoms, the
chiet shock was felt almost simultaneously
throughout all Peru, at about o'clock p. M,
August 13. The convulsion extended more or
less destructively through forty degrees Of
latitude-or one-ninth part of the earth's cir
cumference. The horrible phenomenon took
some new shape in each new place, but pre-
served some general features everywhere. For
instance, reports from widely distant places
mention that the earth opened in regular
seams and assures, emitting clouds of sulfo-
eating dust and gas aud the sea retired from
waves, rolling far inland with indescribable
fury. In many places the atmosphere was so
charged with electricity that ii a man touched
his hand to his hair, or to his clothes, sparks
would be emitted. Birds flew out of their nests,
and sought refuge in the upper air, making
unusual noises in their flight. B bling hot
water was beohed up through riffs in dislo-
Gated rocks. Floating vapors gave strange
cOlors to the sky. IL localities where the
earth was not actually cleft it was seen to
undulate as if its surface were rising and
falling to the motion OF internal waves.
The richest cities If he west coast of South
America have been worse than totally de-
stroyed-for their inhabitants have been de-
stroyed with them. What a drama Of an
guish was enacted in Callao, in africa, in
Lima, in lbalra in Qoito Whole families
crushed to sud len death under their own
tumblng roofs ! Hosts of mangled survivors
left who al this moment are enduring the pro-
longed agonies of too slow death
Not far from quarter of a million of people
are made houseless and homeless by this Gala
nifty; and tens of thousands of these are suf-
feIipg for want of clothing and food.
1t is a case for the whole worlds charity.
We sincerely hope the Government and citi-
Zens of the United States will show princey
bene6cence towards these ruined 81 ter rapub-
lies and their stricken people. Moreover a
scientific commission ought TO be formed, with
Professor Agassiz at its head, to proceed at
once to South America, for the purpose of
collecting, without delay, accurate data of
this great upheaval, with view to thorough
inquiry into the origin of earthquskes-a mys-
terious problem still unsolved.