The New York herald. [volume] (New York [N.Y.]) 1840-1920, 1874-05-17


can understand and with patience bow be-
fore calamities that in the old phrase of
pious resignation are "visitations OF God"
II may BE- that the theology which sees in
every event, from the desolating earthquake to
the falling sparrow, the special act of Provi-
dence. Is the most consoling in the presence
OF q disaster like this. But We have no such
consolation. When the famine began its ter
rible journey into India. and humane, honest
Englishmen were compelled to read of
the assured starvation of thousands of men,
with their wives and children, the terror Of
the thought was tempered by the conscious
ness that the resources of the British Empire
had been strained to relieve their sufferings,
and that but for the efforts OF the rulers Of
India the ravages would have increased
in q tenfold degree When Chicago was
almost destroyed by . fire We all felt that
much of the misfortune was owing TO our
needless, foolish way Of building barns and
shells for houses and calling multitude of
these houses . city. But although the fire
in Chicago arose from the improvidence of
our modern enterprise which we call civiliza-
ton, nature did SO much to fan the flames
with tempest and hurricane that we attri-
buted it largely to 'the visitation Of God,
and Joined hands from all sections of the
Union to rebuild the desolated metropolis OF
the lakes And 80 with the foods in the
Southwest. We may feel that had our gov
eminent after the war; instead Of concentrat-
| ing its energies on q Freedman's Bureau,
established also q Reconstruction Bureau, its
duties those of actual reconstruction, building
levees, dredging out rivers, replacing rail-
ways and encouraging conquered people in
| the pursuit of wealth and industry, there
would not have been these broken levees
which have invited the rush of the waters and
the destruction of so much life and property.
The disaster in Massachusetts, is as terrible
in its way as any that we have known for
long time. Its cruelty seems to recall the
eruption of Vesuvius and the overwhelming of
Pompei Then it was the burning lava and
the ashes from the implacable mountain; now
it is the water. But in either case it came
with fury, without warning, incapable of
control doing its fearful will even to de-
struction and death At an early hour yester
day morning three reservoirs, which had been
built for the purpose of supplying the wants
Of three manufacturing towns near Northamp-
ton-the towns of Williamsburg Leeds and
Haydenville- burst and swept down
upon the surrounding villages with volume OF
water that nothing could resist covering houses
destroying large manufacturing establish
ments as though they had been made Of
cards, carrying houses, railway stations
fences, mills, bridges men, women and chill
dren in its terrible and destructive eddies.
The telegraph adds, with cruel brevity, 'sThe
damage to property must be hundreds of
thousands of dollars, while it is impossible to
accurately estimate the loss Of life" Our
correspondents, whose reports will be found
elsewhere, give us all the information that
can be obtained, but we suppose much time
must elapse before the extent of the disaster
is accurately known. The details are as
painful as the imagination can conceive. One
conductor of railway train passed just ahead
of the food which carried away his wife and
child. In one factory several women who were
at work beginning the days employment were
instantly borne to death. A savings bank,
with all of its deposits was destroyed. In
many cases whole families were drowned in
simultaneously. One family of six children
was swept away. The first despatch an
nounces the number of lives lost as sixty; but,
as we have said, it will be impossible for q
day or two to know how many poor souls really
met their fate in this astounding calamity.
We believe that the cause of the disaster was
only another illustration of the needless, care
less spirit OF the present age. We are told
that the reservoir which broke its bounds had
been carefully built and only recently
examined, and that upon examination
its condition had been found perfectly
stanch. But the disaster shows that it
was badly built and had been badly
examined, and that this most appalling
and irremediable visitation really came from
the dishonest doing of work that should
have been honestly done. There is no excuse
for building reservoir that will burst into
death-dealing desolating tide under the i'm
pulse Of the first spring rains. Every engi-
neer and capitalist knows the fearful power
locked up in volume of water embosomed in
an artificial embankmant. There is no force
so terrible in nature-no force capable of such
wide spread destruction. Neither ice, nor
snow, nor the rolling floods, nor the earth
quake, nor the volcanic lava stream can do
such fearful damage as vast volume of
water suddenly released from its keeping.
Knowing thus, the building of reservoir,
which was not as strong and as compactly
guarded as science could make it, was
crime, and should be SO regarded. But the
truth is that in this case, as in many others,
we have permitted custom to become crime.
We build q city like Chicago as a temptation
to the flames. We hurriedly erect houses