The Elk County advocate. [volume] (Ridgway, Pa.) 1868-1883, 1871-08-31
F0ur CalamitieS.

That misfortunes come not as single
spies, but in battalions, we have illustra-
ton in the reports of terrible disasters
in remote parts of the world. First are
the details of the gun cotton explosion
in England, by which twenty-five per-
sons were killed and sixty wounded, of
whom one-third will die. Then we have
a steamboat explosion on the peaceful
waters of Chautauqua Lake, when the
boat was quietly resting, and four per-
sons are killed and fourteen wounded.
The boat was at landing, precisely as
is that, as in the Staten Island Ferry
case, the engineer was away from his en-
gine room, and steam was dangerously
sccumulating in his absence. From
Pennsylvania comes another mining hor-
ror, to heap up still higher the fearful
record of human life lost by carelessness
and improvidence, and q reckless con-
tempt alike for law and for the safety of
individuals. The opening to this mine
was known to be unsafe. There was no
safety car-only ladder. The fre-damp
exploded and buried eighteen men in
the ruined arches brought down by the
conclusion. Five victims have been
taken out dead, and the rest have un-
doubtedly met the same fate. Again, as
on so many other occasions, the pit
mouth becomes the scene of agony and
activity. Women and children gather
with tears and lamentations, and sturdy
men bend to the work of rescue or re-
covery with stern and silent energy.
What curses must be suppressed in the
energetic natures of these men, who un-
dertake this life of peril, and know that
those who operate the work neglect suf-
ficient precautions. Will never mine
owner face the horrors of fre-damp !?
These mine calamities are as frequent as
they are fearful. To a certain degree
they are inevitable, but they are out of
all proportion in Pennsylvania, and
some stringent and obligatory legisla-
ton is required. But while these fatali-
ties occur near home, we rea1 of the ut
ter depopulation OF An entire island in
the Malay Archipelago. The forces of
nature, exercised in the irrepressible
power of the volcano and the earthquake
made one Of the grandest and most aw-
full exhibitions since the Noachian Del
uge. A huge ocean wave, one hundred
ohu o"Chty ACCt pOulCo WIFI IT,
sistless force upon the island, and swept
it clean of every living thing. The phe-
nomenon is described as fearful in the
extreme. New craters opened in the
volcano, and vomited lava, red hot
stones, mud, and ashes into the air and
sea. New hills were formed, and the
whole face of nature was changed. More
than four hundred persons perished.
Nothing could withstand this over
whelming convulsion. The Philippine
Islands, where a series of earthquakes
occurred a few weeks ago, are not re-
mote from the scene of this frightful ca
lamity, and possibly the two events were
nearly contemporaneous. Dreadful as
are the misfortunes caused by such agen-
eies as those over which man holds some
sort of control, they sink into insignifi-
canoe when compared with the prodi-
gious results of the action OF nature,
when her well-ordered forces become &C.
centric and work their own wild and
uncomfortable purpose. The flood, the
electric storm, the earthquake shock, the
volcanic overflow dwarf the more mode
rate effects of the forces which man par
TALLY subdues, but which, taking advan-
tage of his ignorance or carelessness or
avarice, turn upon and rend him.