The Portland daily press. [volume] (Portland, Me.) 1862-1921, 1881-04-11
Hartford Courant.l
A Turbulent Year.

The year 1881 has already distinguished it
self, and without very much aid from man.
Whether the earth itself is in sympathy with
certain planetary conjunctions or not it has as
serted its power in way to pour contempt up
on the might of man and his little securities
and civilizations.
Great perturbations of the earth, commissions
and cataclysmic changes VIC had come to re
gard as historical studies and curiosities; and
extreme violence in the weather on this conti-
nent seemed to US to have abated contempora-
neously with our scientific observation of the
elements. Yet this year has already taught US
that the solid earth is really very shaky and
insecure dependence, and that the elemental
forces that roam over its surface have in no re-
spect abated their power of mischief and tor
ture.
Two recent earthquakes,-one in the east
and the other in the west Mediterr anean,-
have been such warnings of insecurity as to fill
all the inhabitants of the classic shores and Is
lands with alarm. The disasters on the lovely
and sunny island of Ischia, which nearly de-
stroyed the pleasant village of Casamicciola.
and killed and wounded hundreds of people,
will not only alright strangers from that favo-
rite summer and winter resort, but deter many
from any prolonged stay amid the shaky shores
of the Bay of Naples. And now the calamity
at Scio, which excels almost all the historical
horrors of the kind, will send sense of inse-
curity through all the Grecian archipelago.
The danger of war between Greece and Turkey
and the disputes of the great powers over the
sovereignty of the Bosphorus and the Mediter-
ranean are nothing to this frightful possibility
of sudden and unforeseen death. Evidently
the whole of the Mediterranean coast is in
shaky condition, troubled with internal wars,
and it would be great relief if the old volca-
noes, the vents of this disturbance, could
break out into their ancient activity and relieve
the pressure. People can readily flee from a
volcanic eruption, but there is slight chance of
escape from the earth gaping under their feet
and the houses crashing about their heads.
The severity OF the weather in America, the
unrelenting grip of an almost unprecedented
winter from October till now, is more uni
versal and serious calamity than the earth
shaking about the Mediterranean. Here at
the east we have escaped much Of its severity,
although we have been worn out with its per-
tinacity and more or less enfeebled by its at
tacks. We are probably as well prepared for
cold weather as any people except the Rus
slams, but this year has been marked by an in
crease of disease, wholly due to the weather.
is wholesome, bracing, and all that The
trouble with this winter is, that while the
range OF its temperature has been all the time
very low, it has been subject to as violent and
extreme and sudden changes as usual. The
oscillation between zero and freezing is harder
to bear, we think, than the more common
changes of our winters from q little below
freezing to sixty degrees. There has been lit
tie or no respite from extreme weather, In
which one has constant sense of fighting for
his life.
But if the east is weary, the west is exhausted
with the struggle. The weather in the west
has taken on the proportions of q calamity.
Immense masses OF snow, coming in rapid re-
lays from October till now, have wrought ru-
in which is not yet estimated, and cannot but
seriously interfere with our national prosperity.
Snow that comes before the corn crop is gath
cred and prevents its full harvest, and fingers
so long that plowing has not yet begun, is an
unprecedented disaster in most of the western
country.
Quite as serious has been the interruption Of
communication by rail. This has amounted
not simply to serious interruption of travel,
but the stoppage of freight has resulted In q
famine of fuel and supplies to many regions.
A vast number of cattle have died Of hunger,
and fences and corn and even houses have
been consumed for fuel.
This is a striking comment upon the inade-
quacy of the elaborate machinery Of our civili-
zation to meet any reverse that throws 1t out
of gear. The people of the West depend al
most altogether upon railways. Some OF the
great lines have had to be abandoned for days
and weeks together, and those who trusted
to them foe supplies and communication with
the world have been in serious straits. We had
a little exhibition of the weakness of our ma
chinery few years ago when the horse dis
ease for some time made us almost helpless in
the midst of all our wealth and our elaborate
contrivances. SO now a snow blockade, con-
tinued for months in effect, has paralyzed the
West and reduced large sections of it to de-
SPAR. We live in this age so entirely by asso-
citation and communication, and depend so
much upon the great machine, and the indi-
vidual providence for long and hard winter
is so disused that such winter as this finds
our civilization wholly untitled to cope with it.
The solitary New England farmer of old al
ways provided for a seige at the approach of
winter. He laid in fuel and supplies in his
own wood-shed, cellar and barns, and he could
exist till late Spring with little help from the
outside world. Now, however, nearly every
body depends upon his neighbor for his daily
bread as well as for his daily ideas.