New-York tribune. [volume] (New York [N.Y.]) 1866-1924, 1875-07-27
A TEMPEST IN GENEVA.
LETTER FROM T. ADoLpHUs TRoLLOPE.


GENEVA, July 10.-A great calamity has happened
4o this ordinarily gay-oobing and thriving city,
which has recently become one Of the favorite
Aahing-places for American tourists during the
Summer months and as il IL probable that some
appeal for assistance may be made to America, rs
well az to England-the two giving countries par
ercellcnce-it may not he aInss that should give
Won some account Of the disaster. About midnight
following Wednesday, the 9TH Of this month,
storm broke the City of Geneva. There does
not seem to BE- very much in that announcement.
But this was q storm CONNIE IL en- pen, fortunately
"A storm such as no man in this country remembers
70 have ever seen the like of, and which really APP
pears to have been one of the most remarkable
manifestations of the fury of the elements on record
The previous day had been very hot heavy and
sntry. with heat that all who felt il declared to
be especially and unusually enervaing. Nor did the
setng of the sun bring any relief with il. The sky
was serene and siart, and the heat, even after the
sun had gone down. continued insulportahie fei-
sons learned in mountain weather wisdom, however,
had watched the signs of the time with some ms
giving. The atmosphere was by no means clear,
being filed with heavy, motoness mist
And vet the great, ghostlike shapes OF 'he
mountains were not only visible, but seemed to he
90 near that people said: 1T seems a. if yon could
touch them by stretching out the hand" This Is q
phenomenon known the forcrunner Of bad weather
in this Alpine land: but rarely has IT been seen III
snch perfection as was the case the evening of
the 9TH. There must have been some special quail
ty a. regards the transmission of light, about the
component parts of that INST II seemed as II II
acted with the power of magnifying lens, 50 per-
fectly were all the details of the outlines of The
mountains pcrcCptiblc About o'clock few
heavy drops of rain began 10 fall. And at the same
time the whole circumference of the horizon began
- # .l..,.t ltlt
ming. But there no thunder. Once oniy during
the entire light was there one terrific clap Of thun
der and that was whca the storm Just over; "a
terrible sOt of announcement that the work Of the
tempest d0De ne lightning gradually in
creased in intensity, al lost its character of fitu-
ness. IL became. indeed, actually and without eN-
aggcraton, continuous The entire atmosphere
seemed to be an element of flame. The city aud
every object in il envcloped III the flashing light
And all this time there was not the slightest
movement of the air in the streets. At
about IL o'clock it was observed that any
small objects which happened to be lying
on the roofs of the houses began to feel the
wind. They were caught mp and whirlcd around as
by a cyclone. And sill there was no movement OF
air in the streets below. And this continued till AZ
nearly as possible midnight. BY that hour all
Geneva, a population of early habits has gone to
bed But on the night Of the 9TH of July, they did
not remain there long. At midnight the tempest
came. IL came mainly from the Jura range and
from the southwest. travelling in that direction to-
ward the basin of Lake Leman. 1t seemed, and the
accuracy of the observation has since been verified,
that the path of the storm, as il MP the valley
OF the RhOne toward Geneva, was very marrow III
extent. But as it neared the Lake it seemed 10
spread out into fan-like FORM with front suiii-
GENTLY wide TO embrace the entire city.
Few of the citizens Of Geneva will forget the ten
minutes which followed that midnight 1t did not
last much longer than ten mnutes-from that to a
quarter of an hour-but what ten minutes it Was
The e dUrdis quart dhcwe" of Radicals with a
vengeance At the end of il the City of Geneva
was wrecked as no army Of besiegers could have
wrecked il in the same space of time. II came with
the suddenness of thunderclap Only for a few
minutes previously there bad been warning voice,
which those who heard it describe to have been q
very terrible one-wich was not the sound Of the
wind even when il blows its hardest which
was not the sound Of thunder, but a
kind of strange, hollow, angry growl, with
an ever recendO force. Then Just on the stroke of
II came the bodily presence Of the storm itself 1t
came in the shape hardly of hail storm, in the
ordinary acccptaiOn of the word but in that OF an
almost compact sheet of ice, driven horizon
tally before the tempest blast In the first instant,
every gas-lamp in the streets of Geneva save here
protecting roof was smashed TO atoms and eXtin-
euished But the city was not in darkness For the
masses OF coagulated hail, which already were lying
on the pavement of the streets reflected the blue
light of the lightning iii a CHASTITY and opinous
manner. Geneva is u city which displays ali cs-
pccially large extent Of window-glass. The delicate
processes Of its manufactures Of patchwork and
jewelry need abundant light and most Of the large
factories display almost much glass as wall. They
h. cf t,a hon anil tl,uul
more completely exposed to the fury of tie storm.
At the first blast OF the tempest the whole of these
throughout the city were smashed into myrlads Of
fragments. Geneva is especially also city OF sky
lights and these il is hardly necessary &c say were
as though they had never been! The windows OF
dwelling houses were forced from their fastcnings
besides having all the glass shycred aud bedrooms
and starcases and saloons thus thrown open 70
the Storm and III a minute or two hall
filed with masses of ice, far beyond the
immediate power of the inhabitants to remove.
For the storm was marked by this peculianty,
that the hail-stones OF ice fragments rather, com
pacted themselves into one solid mass as they
fell Accurate inquiry enables me to state without
fear of eXaggeIatiOn that the greater part OF the
ha-siones before they fell were about the size of
chestnuts or wainuts smaller quantity was no
larger than haze-nuts; ard large numbers were as
big as the largest sized fowls eggs One picked
up at midday on the following day, and found to
weigh two pounds.
These statements may make of the effects of
the storm 10 be recorded appear credible than
might otherwise be the case. The windows Of tie
building containing the collection of pictures called
the "Mus6e Rath," were smashed-that of course.-
but the hail after traversng them pierced holes
through the canvas of of the pictures, il it