The New York herald., 1874-07-29

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traverses it. If he fails to prosecute Tilton or
to answer the charges he must accept the
popular verdict, but it would be an outrage to
drag him into police court and question him
concerning his own and another honor.
Tho Pittsburg Calamity and It's Les
sons-Late Cataclysms in the Northern
Hemisphere.
The particulars Of the direful disaster that
visited devoted Pittsburg on Sunday evening
are heartrending in every sense of the word.
Inc account of such rain storm with its
awful consequences reads to us, far removed
from the scene of its fury, like chapter from
y romance. The foodgates of heaven seemed
to have been thrown open to their widest ex-
tent and to have converted the rills on the hill
sides surrounding the city into raging Niagaras.
AS the overwhelming volume of water poured
down and rushed through the densely popu-
lated streets the giant-like force of the de-
stroylng element was at once revealed. The
ghastly details cannot be read without emo
ton. AS the liberated waters of the reservoir
on Mill River converted the fair valley be-
meath them into shapeless ruin, SO the
deluge of rain that fell on the hills around
Pittsburg swept portion of the ill-fated city
as if the destroying angel had passed over it.
$50 resistless was the torrent says O local
paper, ''that nothing in its path es-
capped observation-disclosures, fences, bridges,
trees, all going down before it."
N v>loco tho hnrcf on6
the water rushed under the houses, tossing
them up in the air, tearing lampposts and
gaspipes asunder and causing universal de-
structlon. During that awful Sunday night
over two hundred lives were lost, the particu-
lars of the disaster being more painful, if pos
ity. In the presence of this appalling vista
ton the only feeling that can be experienced
is one of awe and fear. No human foresight
or power could have provided against it. No
contractors, engineers or builders can be
charged with negligence in this case. AS an
earthquake, or the sudden eruption Of vol
cano, the deluge came into crowded city,
and before its might the stoutest structures
built by human hands melted away. From
the dismal scene Of death fetid odors arise,
and through the dense moss OF ruin workmen
are digging day and night in search of the
bodies of their neighbors and friends. The
two cities, Pittsburg and Allegheny, and their
suburbs for miles around, have suffered so
terribly by the storm that the opportunity
should not be allowed to pass to show that
New York is truly the city Of charities in ex.
tending immediate aid to the sufferers.
The terrible storms which have recently
burst over various portions Of the Northern
Hemisphere may well elicit profound atten-
ton. The tidings of the Nevada waterspout,
followed by those of the Pittsburg tempest
and cataclysm, were re-echoed over Europe by
the similar storm in Moravia, Of which the
cable has informed us. At this season of the
year the Continent is heated, and the rising air
columns must be replaced by immense in
draughts from the surrounding oceans. 1t is
not remarkable that such indraughts furnish
the vaporous material for the most terrific dis
turbances. The poet was not far from the
truth in picturing these storm-laden currents
as
Silent, borne along heavy and slow,
With the big stores OF Steamtng oceans charged.
Meanwhile, amid these upper seas, con-
densed ''around the cold aerial mountains
brow" the moist southerly winds which came
to us last week from the Atlantic, it would
seem, were suddenly condensed amid
the Alleghanies, and, precipitating Their
burden of water, caused fearful scenes
at and around Pittsburg. The same
phenomenon was witnessed on the Pacific
Coast, in the Nevada cataclysp, and no doubt,
under similar circumstances, the same thing
occurred a few years ago, in September, in
the valley of the Patapsco, causing tremen-
dous disasters. On the Goth of July, Just fifty
five years ago, at Catskill, in this State, there
fell fifteen inches of rain in half that number
of hours, and in 1861 a similar deluge of rain
visited Fairfield Ohio, on the 18th of August,
with eight inches of rain in eleven hours.
These remarkable facts seem explicable on
the grounds stated as explanatory of the Pitts
burg horror but the low temperatures which
We have experienced, and which the HERALD
some time ago predicted as likely for the
perigee period of Coggia's comet, have, doubt
less, had much to do with condensing these
floating vapor masses and precipitating their
watery reservoirs upon the surface of the
earth. The physical connection between
these apparently far separated phenomena
needs earnest investigation.
Mr.. STANLEY's ExpEDITIoN.-We acknowl-
edge the receipt of large number of com
munications from all parts of tbe country and