The Kenosha telegraph. [volume] (Kenosha, Wis.) 1860-1888, 1883-02-16
Catastrenhes.

The year has opened with series Of
terrible warnings of the REPRESENTATIVES.
of human life. The old year is uniform
| y dismissed without regret as weari-
some and disappointing. if not down.
| right unlucky. The new year is hailed
with eager haste as one that NAV be deS-
tined TO stand out in human memory
as a brighter and happier period, in
which the depressing Influences of I'M
foreseen calamities and economic dis
asters may be avoided. Eighteen hum
dred and eighty-three, however, has
dawned with leaden skies and portents
of evil, In France the greatest Repub-
lican has been stricken down, and his
death has been followed by many signs
of political incapacity, social agitation
and national dependency. On the
Continent the floods have borne devas-
tation ami misery in their train. From
every quarter there are tidingS of dis
aSter. The hotel fire in Milwaukee, the
circus catastrophe in Russia, the railway
accident near Tehichipa Pass. the loss
OF two staunch ocean steamships, and
numerous other disasters on sea and
land, are not only appalling horrors, but
omens of depression and gloom. Men
are already saying in their hearts: " 1t
will be a disagreeable year. if nothing
worsem
Before the agencies of seam, cleo
tricity and the public press were multi
piled, the effect of sudden catastrophes
was confined to the localities in which
they occurred. When the tower in
Sloan fell, there was no lack of talk in
the neighboring villages, and the rumor
OF the disaster was carried beyond Jeru-
salem into the hill-country, but the
world outside did not know what had
happened. The collapse of the great
chimney-stack in Bradford a few weeks
ago was telegraphed instantly to the
ends of the earth, SO that it was known
simultaneously in Calcutta, the Eu-
ropean capitals, San Francisco and New
York that sixty men, women and chill
dren had suddenly ceased to exist in the
workaday world. But outside Bradford
there was st arcely single point of hui
man interest in the calamity. Archi-
tects may have been warned against
sacrificing the principles of security to
hapely proportions, and life assurances
canvassers may have obtained a new
fact to lay before working people, but
the human suffering which had been
caused left no impression upon the
minds of readers at distance. Three
hundred people are trampled under
foot or burned to death in circus in
Poland; but the fact excites no more
emotion in the heart of an American
reader than the footings of table of
mortality statistics. Four hundred
emigrants and sailors are suddenly
swallowed up by the sea. There is a
short controversy respecting compart-
mentS in ships hull and momentary
curiosity to learn what excuse the COM
mander) of the other steamship can offer
for not attempting rescue; but the
agony which was caused in q single in
slant, when hundreds of these quiet and
simple peasants and working people
were brought face to face with their
doom, is only vague generalization.
In week it is forgotten by the general
public. 1873
: 1t S only in exceptional instances that
these tragic occurrences leave anv per-
manent impression upon the public
mind outside the immediate localities
where they occur. The facts are known,
but suffering is not brought close to the
emotions and sympathies. A day
passes, and men are thinking of some
thing newer and pleasanter. A month
goes by, and 1888 is not considered
especially unlucky, bntonly an average
year, with startling occurrences now
and then, but with the usual outcome
of peace, prosperity and security. A
year rolls by, and there is vague feeling
of disappointment and depression and
an eager hope that another year will be
cheerier and brighter. There is in
variably speedy reaction from the dis
couragement and sense of insecurity
caused by the vicissitudes of human
destiny.
1t may be that the world as it grows
older is becoming more and more ac-
customed to the conditions of its being.
Certainly the impressions of helpless
ness caused by catastrophes like those
which have been recently recorded are
only vague and transitory. The thrill
of horror excited by such recitals is felt
only momentarily; the sense of insecur-
ity and the feeling of unrest soon pass
away. Men learn to expect catastro-
Plies and to make allowance for them
in the Provtdential scheme of the uni
verse. Yet they can not explain them.
That seventy weary travellers and hotel
servants should suddenly be exposed to
the horrors of an agonizing death, that
three hundred men, women and chill
dren should be wrenched out of life
with fortunes unspeakable while en- ;oy-
ing town show in Poland, or that four
hundred emigrants seeking their fort
unes in new land should be drowned
before they have fairly lost sight of the
old country, is as inexplicable to-day as
the death of the thirty victims of the
Tower of Sloan was TO the Jews of
old. The question is no longer asked,
as it was then: ''Have these men sinned
or their fathers, that they should perish
50 miserably?" But it is no easier now
than it was then to reconcile the vicis-
STUDIES and mysteries of human fate
with an orderly scheme of government
for the universe. IN Y. Tribune.