The Kenosha telegraph. [volume] (Kenosha, Wis.) 1860-1888, 1880-06-18
DEVASTATING STORMS.
Gigantic Power of the Winds That
Has Been Attested by Many Dis

From the New York Evening Post
The tremendous wind-storms lately
experienced in the western part Of the
United States will not, we trust, find
coming parallel on the Atlantic coast !;
but 1t cannot be denied that the suffo-
eating heat, unexampled as it is for the
month of May, by which we have been
and are still visited, is likely to be fol-
lowed by atmospheric preturbations Of a
violent character. While we may hope,
therefore, that such vicissitudes, if they
come, may prove Of harmless descrip-
ton, it is timely and interesting to con-
slider the nature and scope of such phe-
nomena as are supplied by historical
data. j .s
Calamity, when it does not Immediate
ly touch ourselves, is apt to slip easily
from the mind, and hence events often
appear unique, precedents for which
have in fact often been established. The
recent destruction of Western towns by
Violent gales Of wind has thus probably
been regarded by. many persons as a
novel display Of the malefc forces Of
nature; but there are. in truth a great
number Of accounts Of similar expert
ences of authentic character preserved
in the records. Nor are these Instances
confined to tropical regions or to settle
ments of new or fragile construc ton );
they have occurred in ATTITUDES as tenn
Eperate as our own, and the most solid
STRUCTURES erected by the hand of man
have sometimes been FRUSTRATED by the
overwhe Ginning fury Of the elements. y
The gigantic power of the wind has
been illustrated by the repeated demoli
ton of lighthouses built on the famous
Eddystone rock, and the same thing, it
will be recalled, happened on our own
coast to the lighthouse on Minot's
ledge, near Boston, on the 10Th of
April, 1851. These events, however,
like those of the terrible East Indian
storm of Oct. Is, 1737-which destroyed
hundreds Of ships and $4,000 human
lives-and perhaps the earlier, or
"great" storm, on the coast of England
in November, 1903, may be imputed in
considerable degree to the accumulated
stress Of the wind gathered in crossing
vast bodies of water. But the gale that
ravaged England in February, 1861,
when the spire of Chichester Cathedral
and part Of the Crystal Palace at Syden-
ham were blown down, was of mani
testify different character.
London itself has many times been
.disastrously visited in the same manner.
In 944 it is recorded that storm burst
upon that capital that overthrow 1900
houses. In 1901 500 houses were blown
down there and, MOTTO mention inter-
vening and lesser catastrophes of this
nature, tremendous hurricanes felled
the years 1900 and 1888. In 1914, 1922
and 1923 there were like outbreaks
throughout the United Kingdom. In
1839-Jan. ST, 1839-the west coast OF
England and many parts of Ireland sUf-
fered terribly from the same cause.
Twenty persons were killed in Liverpool
by the falling buildings, and great num-
! bers were drowned in and about the
Mersey. Dublin, Limerick, Galway and
other towns were similarly afflicted, and
with them the prostration of houses and
the concurrent loss of life were followed,
as in examples lately chronicled, by con-
fagration, the winds spreading the fires.
AS regards the details Of mischief
wrought by past great storms, and the
comparison of those details with the
damage done by late tempests in our
Western States, it will be found that
parallels have been recorded to the
worst of what has lately been suffered,
and perhaps to exceed it. In one of the
examples we have cited, that of the
English hurricane Of November 26 and
OF 1709 6 000 nnTsOns arn said To havo
persisted in the floods of the Severn and
the Thames alone. Ships were blown
from their anchorage and never heard
of more. Twelve men-of-war went
down in full sight of the English coast.
Seventeen thousand trees were torn
up by the roots in Kent alone.
The Eddystone lighthouse was dashed
into the sea, it's engineer, Win
stanley, being within it. Cattle were
drowned in tens of thousands. The
Bishop of Bath and Wells and his wife
we're killed in bed at their palace in
Somersetshire. Such an accumulation
of horrors is not outstripped, it must be
owned, by any evils with which, unhap-
PLY, the last few days have made us IA
miliar Such dire catastrophes are I'M
common, it is true, in immediately-m
ern days, but they have been sadly
plentiful for all that, and what is more,
and Mr.. Buckle and Mr.. Vennor to the
contrary Notwithstanding, there is Meth
er measurable periodicity nor other
trustworthy data about these dismal in
fictions whereby mankind can prepare
Dor or evade them.