Wyandot County Republican. [volume] (Upper Sandusky, Ohio) 1869-1903, 1871-11-16
The Philosophy of Our Great Fires.

The Philosophy of Our Great Fires.
Buckles theory of moral and criminal
epidemics seems 10 find new illustration
in the large series of startling disasters
which have occurred in this country with
in the present year. The same calamities
have revived the great question of the
Middle Ages, as to whether fire or pesti-
lence was the destroying angel of the an
clients Hebrews. But as this is not the
time for abstract discussion we need make
no further notice of these points than to
remark that, with us, fire, in one form or
other, has been the chief destroyer but
much mischief as it has done, ii is not so
bad as an epidemic pestilence. This it
were easy to show by referring to the de-
vastations of the plague, as described by
the most reliable historians, ancient and
modern. The ruin produced even AT Chi
cago would seem very slight if compared
with the scourgings inflicted on Athens,
Rome, Marseilles, Florence and London,
without either fire or steam, battering ram,
or cannon.
None will deny, on reflection, that it is
better that one hundred and fifty millions
worth of property, or three hundred mill
ions worth, should be destroyed, than
that twot thirds, one-half, third, or even
one-tenth of the inhabitants of pOpu-
lous city should be put to death in such a
manner as to render them loathsome to
those to whom they are most dear That
so large a proportion as two-thirds of the
population of a great city should be de-
stroyed may well seem incredible but we
need not go beyond Florence for an ex-
ample, and Florence was thus stricken
down in the days of her greatest glory.
/ Then, as to the moral effect of those
scourgeS on the survivors, all the great
/ fires of the world have not produces so
much decentralization 1t was in order to
illustrate this, and not to make any exhi-
bition of his courage or contempt of death,
that Archimedes uttered his famous apo
thegm. When informed that Syracuse,
the beloved city he had saved more than
once by his learning and genius, was in
flames, and that he would soon be con-
sumed if he did not Immediately seek
refuge in flight, the only reply of the phi
loSOpher was, "That is true, for it is the
nature of fire TO act in circle"
There is much more science and phi
losophy in this brief remark of Archim-
edes than is apparent at first view it is
also more applicable to existing circum-
stances. Whatever may have been the
immediate causes of our great fires
and great explosions, both the latter have
occurred in accordance with laws which
were as much in force in Sicily two thous
and years ago as they are to-day in the
United States. If there were not insur-
ance companies then to be defrauded by
means of the incendiary torch, certain
class of people coveted their neighbors
share quite as much as the same class dc
now and nothing-eXcept,p perhaps, higl
official position-affords a more favor
able opportunity for peculation than ;
great fire in wealthy city.
If it be denied that incendiaries, like
other indicators, act in a circle, on the
Archimedean principle if the progress
of science in our time requires that we &C
beyond the surface of things TO discover
the causes of so many great igneous ca
taStrOpheS, is there not fire enough IL
the earth still to destroy dozens of cities
Precisely because we claim to be a scien
tific and thoughtful people we ought tC
remember that extensive forests and ever
mountains, in state of conflagration ar
no new phenomena If it is not proved
that forests have taken fire spontaneously
during unusually hot summers in Russi;
and other parts of the world, it is beyonC
dispute that the slightest accident ha
set them on fire. Upon the other hand
the intense cold and almost perpetua
snow of Iceland cannot cool its boiling
springs.
, 1t may be asked why should either tn
solar heat or the terrestrial heat becom
so much more intense and DESTRUCTIVE
this year in certain parts of this country
than it has ever been known to be before
But the simplest treatise on geology vii
answer the question. 1t is only necessar,
to bear in mind that the internal sea o
liquid fire is constantly advancing in on
part and receding in the other exactly a
the external ocean does. This may ac
count for the increased or diminishe,
temperature in any locality, without as
suming that the solar heat has undergon
any change. 1t was in accordance witt
this last that Sir Charles Lyell found TIL
temperature of the northern shore of LAX
Superior considerably higher than that o
the southern shore. If it now evince
more partiality for our Western country
there is nothing in the fact that ought +
overwhelm us with astonishment. True
this theory does not account for disaster
like the explosion of the Staten Islam,
ferryboat; but, having explained tina
phenomena on a former occasion, we nee,
allude to it any further than to observ
; that the Westfield catastrophe was ais,
the result of natural causes those cause
assuming in this case the forms of avarice
greed, ignorance, dilapidation, rust, etc.
Since it is at least possible, according T.
the best scientific authorities, that tn
great fires in our Western country hav
| thus been produced without malice or an,
f human agency, it is as well to regard then
in that light as to attribute them to tn
love of plumber. If men have been hun,
from lamp-posts as incendiaries at Chica
go, that is no proof that they were such
In times of great public suffering and eS
citement the most innocent are liable to b
made victims Hundreds have been exc
cuted for poisoning wells in ancient ant
modern times, when the only poison use,
, was that of the pestilence Accordingly
| while the confiagration was raging in Chi
cago, man who was poor and unknown
was in as much danger, if placed in Gil
, cumstances that excited suspicious agains
him, as poor, old, wrinkled woman wa
} In Salem in WITHDRAWING times. AS
: does not follow that, because certain Del
) sons were burned for witchcraft, the
: were witches, so it does not follow that
because certain persons have been hange,
or otherwise maltreated at Chicago for in
cendiarism, they were really incendiaries
: Nor is it fair to accuse the Jews merel
because they entertain certain views as +
the prOpriety of Christians, or becaus
they are supposed to have stronger lus
OF gain and less principle than other sect
or nationalities. The race, which ha
, numbered its years by its captivities, ha
suffered SO much in other parts Of tn
world without any adequate cause tina
| even their misfortuncs should shield then
from indiscriminatc accusations in
country at once so enlightened and $,
fond of g fair play" as ours. If individ
uals belonging to any sect or nationalit,
are found to have taken any voluntar11
! part in producing so much ruin and de
vastation, let them receive the most sever,
punishment which the law prescribes fo
so base and fiendish a crime. But III,
dogma of visiting the sins of the father,
upon the children, or those of the chill
dren upon the fathers, does not belong tc