The Pulaski citizen. [volume] (Pulaski, Tenn.) 1866-current, 1878-09-19
CALIFORNIA.
Her ClOudbursts and Earthquakes as
Nothing Compared TO the lorna
does and Epidemics of the East.
A Rosy Picture from a Prolific Pen
ola Land OF II ealth and Longevity.

!
The CITIzEN has been favored BY Mr.. New
| bill with the following interesting letter
from Capt. ToPp for pu5lieation.l
Cotton, CAL, Sept. lst, 1875
FRIEND NEWELL: The days, weeks,
and months glide quietly and pleas
anuy by with US here in Cotton.
We have had no terrific thunder
storms or tornadoes to visit our fair
land; no sultry hot weather to over
power the laborers, or BRING sun
strokes to the passing wayfarer,
anu no contagious diseases 10
spread death, sorrow and suffering
throughout our community. In
fact, the whole country enjoys al
most absolute immunity from those
disabilities. There is not a light
ming rod on this coast, and there il
no need OF them. YET, anomalous
as it may appear, at this very mo-
ment-this 10 o'clock A. NJ, Sunday,
Sept, lst, far to the eastward in the
direction of Yuma, and also over
hanging the Mojave desert, north
east of this, is a heavy, ominous
cloudbank that spreads a twilight
cleaning among the Sierras, while
"Far along,
From peak to peak the rafting crAgs among
LeAps the live thundern
These heavy detonations remind
me so forcibly OF artillery skirmish-
es out at the front, such as we often
heard in Virginia during the dies
ira. Every week or two of late,
there has been a cloudburst between
this and Yuma, somewhere along
the great basin OF the Colorado des-
ert which lies more than two hun
hundred feet below the sea level,
and a mile or two Of railroad track
is washed away.
No train came from Yuma this
morning, and the dispatches inform
US of another Washout. That oc-
Cured yesterday. To-day the same
grand sluicing operations are
taking place over in Halcomb and
Bean valleys. Cloud bursts over
on the desert are quite similar TO
water spouts at sea. Whirlwinds
or cyclones are generated by the
unequal temperature of atmosphere
Of the plains and mountains, the
cloud compelling influences are con
centrated by the centripetal force
within this spiral vortex, until there
Is an immense river standing on end
in cloud-land, and when the natural
forces Of impact cease this towering
mass of water comes laundering
and crashing down the mountain
sides-tearing away and converting
into powders masses of rock quite
as large as IA small house-tilhng
the dry arroyos with the debris, and
flooding the plain for many miles.
You can easily conceive how u small
farm might be washed TO the bed
rock, or be buried beneath the
bowlders. However that is at least
a hundred miles OF away over the
mountains. Here in this verdant
and breezy valley of San Bernardo
no, we are free from tue calamities
of "malus Jupiter" We have the
gentle rains during the rainy seas
on--that is from October to
May-and these sometimes occur
every day for week or more con
secutively, but still there is rarely a
day without some sunshine. We
sometimes have earthquakes that
hump US up little, and knock the
crockery of the shelves, but it is all
over in minute or less, and not
much harm comes. A single lorna
do any year back east does vastly
more damage in the destruction Of
life and property than all the earth
quakes have in California tor hum
dred years. Just summing up the
situation fair and square, ten years
of life in California is worth twenty
back in Tennessee, and, at the same
time, there is good assurance that il
twenty should be the limit of Ten
nesse, California could in good
faith promise forty. People will
die everywhere. Soon or late old
Charon will call out for tickets be
yond the Styx, but the expectation
is. To be very moderate, at least
thirty three and a third per cent. in
favor of Southern California. There
has not been more than twenty
eight years since this country was
first settled by the Americans, aud
consequently we have no test as yet
in regard to average longevity.
There was an old lady OF Spanish
descent, who died near tho Monte
not long since, who was known from
reliable records TO be one hundred
and forty years old, and there was
room TO believe her older than that.
We have some very ancient Mexi-
cans in this vicinity, and as / never
hear Of them dying, 1 just guess
they dry up and blow away.
1t makes me feel quite sad 20
hear of the great number Of my
friends and acquaintances who have
passed away since left Giles, and
the further sombre reflection comes
that the same causes which brought
death to them are actively prepar-
ing the bitter dregs for others.
According to my way Of think
ing there is much plausibility in
the theory which assumes the de
velopmcnt, under favorable condi-
tions, Of an infnitesimal number Of
spores which peryade The atmos-
phere, which are inhaled into the
lungs, and then by the circulation OF
the blood are transmitted through
out the system. These germs are
supposed By some 70 possess a vi
rus quite antagonistic 70 human
health; is in fact, the inception Of
"tbe pestilence that stalketh abroad
at noon day"-the harbinger Of dis
ease and death. They may be the
cause of epidemics, whether called
yellow fever, cholera, small pox,
malariaI complaints, pneumonia or
consumption. The type OF the NAL
ady may vary according TO the TEN
perature Of the weather, gaseous ex
halations, or electrical inhuences-
qnien ssJsl But still these germs Of
disease bring much suffering and |
often death to the human family. |
Savants tells US that the anatomical /
structure OF man indicates that be 1
should live 20 be several hundred /
years old, but as we know by expe
rience that three score and ten Is
-