The Vancouver independent. (Vancouver, W.T. [Wash.]) 1875-1910, 1880-08-26
Cities and Grand Catastrophes.

Considering the crowded cOndltlOn OF
great cities, the entire dependence Of
their inhabitants for food upon supplies
from the outside, their liability to fire,
the temptations to form huge crowds
and break into grand stampedes, the aw-
full destruction that an earthquake, or
food or waterspout might produce, and
the special dangers from epidemics and
from the great aggregations OF criminals
within their limits, the exemption of
first class capitals from grand or scenic
catastrophes is very striking. Every
first class capital, except st. Petersburg
and Madrid, has some grand catastrophe
upon it's records; but how few there
are which have suffered, more than Gle
large enough to be'recorded in history.
London has had its great fire, and so
has Moscow; Lisbon was destroyed once
by an earthquake; modern Rome has
been sacked; Paris had it's rel On of the
Commune, which, though it produced
only limited catastrophe, was intended
to have ended in a much greater one,
and begot as much horror as if it mad;
Vienna had endured one great siege,
and Constantinople one tremend Gus
sack and overthrow, altering all the con-
ditions of its life; but each of these oc-
currences have been exceptional, and
each has left the city living and popu-
lous still.
No catastrophe has ever destroyed
European capital-blotted it out as
Asiatic cities have been blotted out AL
most every great city has been exposed
at some time or other to burst Of pes
thence, but in no instance has the popu-
lation persisted, or proportion of it
large enough to seriousl y effect the cities
prosperity for two generations afterward
There has been no such occurrence in
history as lack of bare bread in great
European city, unless produced by a
siege. Considering the vast numbers
frequently gathered together, the liabil-
ity Of granarles to fire, the poverty into
which large populations have often tenn.
porarly fallen, and the possibility of oc-
currences such as unexpected frosts or
floods, that last exemption is very sin
gular one.
Bread never fails in London, Paris
or New York, and it never so failed as
to produce great mortality IN ancient
Rome, where population, probably crowd
ed like the population of Naples,
and believed by serious students to
have exceeded two millions, was de-
pendent on food brought across the sea,
and stored in granaries which angry
slaves might at any moment have fired.
The rather clever writer. who has re-
Gently been describing London depopu-
lated by fog, which, owing to some
unusual atmospheric conditions, had be
come deadly to animal life, perceptibly
strains his imagination but it would
take no Edgar Poe TO think Of occur
rences which would isolate London for
a week, and so kill large propol ton of
it's people with hunger. A fall of snow
such as occurred this winter in the
Scotch Highlands would do it, and so
would certain amount of fog which
the quiescence of the atmosphere caused
to continue for some days. Yet that
kind of accident does not occur in any
city, and from one to three millions of
people who rise in the morning as uaable
to produce food on the spot as if they
were living in stone dungeon without
door, 60 to bed every night sufficiently
fed t" keep up the ordinary health and
strength. 1.-THE Spectator.