The Elk County advocate. [volume] (Ridgway, Pa.) 1868-1883, 1875-10-28
The Destruction of Lisbon.

A writer in Nppincotfs gives the fol-
lowing description of the destruction of
Lisbon The morning of November l
dawned serene, but the heavens were
hazy since midnight the Thermometer
had risen one degree, and stood at nine
o'clock at fourteen above freezing,
Reaumur. As it was the feast of Ali
Saints, the churches we're thronged from
an early hour, and all their affairs bril-
liantly illuminated with thousands of
tapers, and decorated with garlands of
various-tinted muslius and thin silks.
At quarter of ten o'clock the first
shock was felt. 1t was so slight that
many attributed it to the passage of
heavy wagons in the street, and even to
mere fancy. Three minutes afterward
second shock occurred, SO violent that it
seemed as if the heavens and earth were
passing away. This agitation lasted
fully ten minutes, and ere it diminished
the greater portion of the city was in
ruins. The dust raised obscured the
sun an Egyptian darkness prevailed,
and to add to the universal horror the
fearful screams of the living and the
gronns of the dying rose through the
air. In twenty minutes all became calm
again, and people began to look around
them and consider the best means of
escape. Some were for going to the
hills, but were soon discouraged from
so doing by the rumors that those who
had already gone thither were suffocat-
ing from the effects of the dense fog of
dust which still roso from the falling
buildings. Then they rushed toward
the quays which line part of the
Tagus, but only to learn the horrible
news that these had sunk into the earth
with all the people and edifces upon
them. Those who thought to put out
to sea were told to look at the river, and,
10! in its center they beheld whirlpool
which was sucking in all the boats and
vessels in its vicinity, and not frag
ment of them ever being seen again.
The royal palace had been entirely swal-
lowed up, and over its site is now the
vast square of the Paco, or Black
Horse, one Of the largest public places
in Europe.
The great library of the Holy Ghost
was in flames, and its priceless Moorish
and Hebrew manuscripts fast becoming
ashes. The opera house had fallen in,
the Inquisition was no more, and the
great church, of San Domingo was but
heap of stones, beneath which lay
crushed to atoms the entire congrega-
ton. The Irish church of st. Paul was
the death place of one thousand per-
sons, and the palace of Bemposta, where
Catharine of Braganza, widow of
Charles H., lived and died, had fallen
over from the heights on which if was
built, and utterly destroyed the poor
but populous part of the town whichlay
beneath it. In a word, where but an
hour since was T.. b was now nothing
but desolation. As TO the people, who
deaSriloo their soonditi~-.e --
10000 persons had persisted, and the
majority of the survivors were cruelty
wounded and i'll agony of mind and
body. Some went mad with fright,
some lost forever the power of speech /;
sinners went about confessing their
secret crimes, and fanatics, believing
the last day had come, cried out to the
horror-stricken multitude "to repent,
for that Christ was coming to judge the
quick and the dead"