Dodge City times. [volume] (Dodge City, Kan.) 1876-1892, 1883-08-30
THE EARTHQUAKES POWER.

The awful calamity that has befallen
the island of Ischia, near Naples, tia Y.
Is 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 wears made
wonderful advancement in knowledge.
and been enabled by scientific in uirv
and experiment to control and turn 10
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
Tor thousands of years, till the inteli-
gent person of day can read rs from
an open book many of the laws that
govern physical acton in the universe.
And yet in the face of a mighty display
of NatueS power like this dreadful
earthquake. how weak and helpless he
seems. how puerile his efforts 10 master
the elements. how trivial and useless all
his scientific lore, 1t is as though Ma
fure, having tolerated for time human
encroachmcnt on her domain, aroused
Tor a moment in her ma este strength.
and with one touch of her hand swept
away his petty prctens!on at soyer-
eighty.
The world has been terrified often
before this with the frightlul deStruc-
ton wrought by earthquakes. but some
how such an occurrence as that II
lschia. dreadful enough in itself. thoug,
slight as compared with other earth
quake calamties on record, seems to
take on reSh terror, coming as it does
in these latter days. People as Il rule
regard an earthquake attended with
great destruction OF life and property as
something inappropriate and abnormal
in this busting 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 81 transient
shudder, though without wonder The
one seems to Us like a relic of antiquity.
the other Is common though dcplora-
Die accompaniment Of ourevery-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 1.-The earth
quake belt, and have seldom ESCAPED
visitation in periods of disturbance of
this sort. The latest manifestations
were in 1881, when the town of Casam-
lcciola, now almost entirely DESTROYED.
was neary ruined, while the loss of ijfe
was IA. Three earthquakes visited the
island that year. VIII ;ch was also made
memorable by the destruction wrought
by the same means in Scio. in the
-tgean Sea, where. 1000 persons lost
their lives. The Island of CHA is n
favorite resort for Neapolitans. Italians
generally and other foreigners, owing
TO the excellence of It's baths. the
salnbrity of its climate and its beautiful
scenery. The chief town is Casamic-
cioia, which contained about 1920 in
habitants and commands a magnificent
view of the famous Bay of Naples.
Legend, history and poetry have cont
blned to make the REQ ion celebrated and
attractive, and it is one of the objective
points Of most tourists travelling in
Europe. just at this time il contains a
large transient population, comprising /
wealthy and distinguished Italians seek |
ing health and recreation. and hundreds |
OF 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 il would overtax our |
space TO give anything approaching Il
correct and complete record of them. |
Some of the more famous ones NAV be !
enumerated by way of interesting re- !
minders Of what maleiic power lies in ,
Nature hands. Among the earliest
mentioned is one in 40 b. c.. which
made Euboea. in the .Egean Sea. an /
island. The history of Southern Italy.
Sicily, Greece, tire Turkish islands in
the Mediterranean. Spain and Pc tugal
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. l6. during the
reign of Tiberius. 10000 people lost
their lives in one day in consequence of
an earthquake, and according to Glib
bon 250,O00 human beings were de-
stroyed in 526. In 63 Herculaneum
and Pompeii We're destroyed by an
earthquake, this being sixteen years be-
fore the burial of those cities bv 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
1.-The whole world" i. c., the eastern
hemisphere-in 543. There was
an awful one in 742 in Syria, Pales-
tine and Asia, when the loss of life
:" exceeded all calculation" Greece.
Turkey, Syria, the Sicilies and other
areas within "fbe earthquake zone
were visited again and again after the
last-named date, and thousands of per.
sons persisted. In Cilicia 10000 Der.
sous were killed in 1868. In 1874 there
YVES great shock in England, and
Glastonbury was destroyed; the island
was again shaken by the greatest earth
quake ever known there in 1918. In
l4o6 10000 persons persisted in Naples.
In 1909 Constantinople suffered the loss
OF many thousand lives. At Lisbon.
Portugal, in 1881, 1900 houses were