The Lancaster gazette. [volume] (Lancaster, Ohio) 1863-1886, 1868-09-17

Albert Pike never wrote line
Of poetry as worthy TO be remem-
bcrcd as that Commercial.
A Great Earthquake in South
America.
Accounts have just reached us
of the devastation of some hun
dreds of miles of seacoast in South
America, embracing large districts
Of Peru, Ecuador and Chill, by an
earthquake. One account dates
the occurrence on the 18th and an
other on the 18th of August, the
probability being that there was a
succession Of shocks during the
four days embraced by and be.
tween the two dates. Arequipa,
the chief city Of southern Peru,
with population of somo 35, 900,
was utterly destroyed; but the peo.
pie Jared better there than in many
other places, for only four hum
drcd lives were lost. The city was
founded by Pizarro in 1885, and
was situated, in a vale of the An
dos. 1t had q most unpleasant
neighbor in the active volcano Of
the same namo only fourteen miles
distant, and towering to tho hight
of over eighteen thousand feet.
Tho town has suffered frequently
heretofore from earthquakes, and
was very strongly built of stone,
the houses being, generally, OF on.
ly ono story. africa, another con
siderable city, lying two hundred
miles southeast Of Arequipa, was
also destroyed, not o house being
left standing, Five hundred pco
ple perished here, out of a popula
ton of twenty-five thousand. At
this place, huge tidal wave, forty
feet high, rushed upon the shore,
dashipg TO pieces tho United States
naval store, ship Fredonia, with
nearly 81 100000 worth of supplies,
All OH board were lost. The arm
cd stehmor Watereo, Of our navy,
was swept half u mile inland, and
is likely TO leave her bones there,
it being impossible to get her ahoat
again. She lost only one man.
There was, Of course, great destruc-
tion of other shipping. The names
of u dozen Of tho smaller towns OF
Peru and Chilli arc given, in which
the destruction Of life was appall,
ing. In many OF them scarcely a
soul was left alive; and in others,
the few terrified survivors were
unable to bury their dead, and
were flying from their dcsola.cd
homes to escape the eflluvia of pu-
trefying bodies. The whole loss
of life by this irightful calamity is
roughly estimated ut twenty five
to thirty two thousand, and prop.
erty supposed to 30 worth threc
hundred millions was pulverizcd
or cngulfcd,
In the extent of country violent.
ly affected, as we'll as in the prodi.
gious destruction it has wrought,
this is one Of the most remarkable
convulsions on record. The visi.
tation of the West Indies, last sea,
son, wasa trifing affair, by compar,
lson. Nevertheless, it will not bo
worth while to relinquish faith in
the solid durability of our planet
just yet, There is, indeed, in this
aguo fit Of mother earth, which
crumblos to dust majestic cities,
hundreds of miles apart, a rather
disagrecable suggestion of q posi-.
bic grand explosion, some day,
which shall send the fragments Of
our great globe reeling into space,
and furnish thencolorth great graf,
iflcation to curious astronomers OF
our sister planets, who will cackle
from time TO time, with tho volu.
bility of parturient biddies, over
the discovery of these fragmentary
asteroids, and speculate with scion.
ti6c ingenuity about their origin
But, aftor all, wo may console our
selves with the reflection that this
latest was by no means tho only
great shaking up our earth has re
ceived, nor was it tho most destruc.
tive of human lilo. A hundred
and thirteen years ago, tho world
was shocked by accounts of the
great Lisbon earthquake, in which
no less than sixty thousand per.
sons met their death, in that city
alOno. The effects Of shat convul.
sion extended on tho north to the
shores of Finland, and on the west
to the banks of tho St. Lawrence
and tho West India Islands. A
scientific calculator has computed
that tho area OF the earth's surface
then disturbed was 100000
square miles, and that q mass of u
hundred and fifty millions of cubic
miles of solid matter was moved.
There have been some pretty SO.
we're shakings since then that of
Calabria, in Southern Italy, whore.
by forty thousand lives were lost,
being ono of tho most noticeable
yet the crust on which men walk.
and write and fight, and toll and
speculate, has stood tho pressure Of
them oil pretty we'll for so long
that we are justified in supposing
it will at least hold out for our
time; and, "aiter us--the doluge."
Commercial.
The Daily News, q leading John.
son paper in Philadelphia. and
hitherto strongly against Grant,