The Brookhaven leader. [volume] (Brookhaven, Miss.) 1883-1891, 1883-08-30
THE EARTHQUAKES POWER.


THE EARTHQUAKES POWER.
The awful calamity that has befallen
the island of lschia, near Naples, Italy,
is a grim commentary upon the prog
ress of the age, of which mortals of the
present day are much given to boast
ING. Man has during late years made
wonderful advancement in knowledge,
and been enabled by scientific inquiry
and experiment to control and turn to
his own advantage many of the forces
of nature. He has acquainted himself
with the secrets that have been hidden
from the view of the wisest of his kind
for thousands of years, till the intelli-
gent person of to-day can read as from
an open book many of the laws that
govern physical action in the universe.
And yet in the face of a mighty display
of Natures power like this dreadful
earthquake. how weak and helpless he
seems, how puerile his efforts to master
the elements, how trivial and useless all
his scientific lorei 1t is as though Ma
ture. having tolerated for time human
cncroachment on her domain, aroused
for moment in her majestic strength,
and with one touch of her hand swept
away his petty pretension at sover-
eighty.
The world has been terrified often
before this with the frightful destruc-
ton wrought by earthquakes, but some
how such an occurrence as that at
lschia, dreadful enough in ITSELF though
slight as compared with other earth
quake calamities on record, seems to
take on fresh terror, coming as it does
In these latter days. People as a rule
regard an earthquake attended with
great destruction of life and property as
something inappropriate and abnormal
in this bustling age, with all its 'mOd-
ern improvements" Such disasters be-
long to the olden time, and one expects
TO find them recorded on the page of
history, not in the telegraphic columns
Of his daily paper. But there are the
details, as minute and matter-Of-fact as
the latest railroad casualty, of which
every one reads with a transient
shudder, though without wonder. The
one seems to us like relic of antiquity,
the other is common though deplora-
bic accompaniment of our every -day life.
lschia and its vicinity in ancient days
would doubtless have been regarded as
the objects of the special wrath of the
gods, so often and so terribly have they
suffered from earthquakes. They lie,
in fact, in the very heart of ''the earth
quake belt,n and have seldom escaped
visitation in periods of disturbance of
this sort. The latest manifestations
were in 1881, when the town of Casam-
icciola, now almost entirely destroyed,
was nearly ruined, while the loss of life
was ia. Three earthquakes visited the
island that year, which was also made
memorable by the destruction wrought
by the same means in Scio, in the
Egean Sea, where 1000 persons lost
their lives. The Island of Ischia is a
tayorite resort for Neapolitans, Italians
generally and other foreigners, owing
to the excellence of its baths, the
salubrity of its climate and its beautiful
scenery. The chief town is Casamic-
cola, which contained about 4,200 in
habitants and commands magnificent
view of the famous Bay of Naples.
Legend, history and poetry have COM
bined to make the region celebrated and
attractive, and it is one of the objective
points of most tourists travelling in
Europe. Just at this time it contains
large transient population, comprising
wealthy and distinguished Italians seek
ing health and recreation, and hundreds
CT travellers from abroad Some of these
have fallen victims to the earthquakes,
and thus the effect of the calamity will
be felt far and wide.
Earthquakes have been so numerous
IN the past that it would overtax our
space to give anything approaching a
correct and complete record of them.
Some of the more famous ones may be
enumerated by way of interesting re-
mlnders of what malefic power lies in
Natures hands. Among the earliest
mentioned is one in 425 B. c., which
made Euboea, in the Egean Sea, an
island. The history of Southern Italy,
Sicily. Greece, the Turkish islands in
the Mediterranean, Spain and Portugal
abounds in accounts of earthquakes,
both before and since the Christian era,
though of course most of the reliable
stories of these disasters are dated with
IN that period. In A, ID. 16, during the
reign of Tiberius, 10000 people lost
their lives in one day in consequence of
an earthquake, and according to Glib
bon 250, 700 human beings were de-
stroyed in 526. In 63 Herculaneum
and Pompeii were destroyed by an
earthquake, this being sixteen years be-
fore the burial of those cities by the
eruption of Vesuvius. The city of Ju-
dea was destroyed in 81 B. c., when
10000 people lost their lives. An
earthquake was felt by "nearly
the whole world" 1. e., the eastern
hemisphere-in 543. There was
an awful one in TAP in Syria, Pales-
tine and Asia, when the loss of life
exceeded all calculation" Greece,
Turkey, Syria, the Sicilies and other
areas within "the earthquake zone"
were visited again and again after the