The Emporia weekly news. [volume] (Emporia, Kan.) 1881-1889, 1883-07-26
THE STORM YEAR.

Hiawatha World: An eastern neWspa
per has complied list OF the fatalities
of the year up to July first, and 1t finds
that about 5000 lives have been lost
Wind and rain storms are becoming re
markedly frequent and very destructive
of life and properly, and the storms Of
the present year have been more numer
Gus and disastrous than those Of any pre-
vioas period Of equal length.
Last week, on the day and night Of
Friday, the 18th, fearful storms prevailed
in many states. The loss of life was
snail, but the destruction of property
was great and wide spread. Kansas
City, Atchiseh and ST. Joseph had very
severe wind storms. Burlington JUNO
'tion, Mo-, "a town Of 1900 people. was
sweBtout OF extsiast,e. MaEysville, no,
Albany, Bethany, BrookGeld. and many
other Missouri towns suffered severely.
Hamburg, Iowa, was seriously wrecked,
and the storm, or branches OF it. ex-
tended east to the Atlantic states. Per-
haps no other day in our eounlTy's his
tory has seen so many storm ruins
In our own county there was no loss
of life, but the blowing down of trees,
forest and orchard. is reported IN many
localities, chiefly 10 the eastern part of
the county. Brown county was on the
west side OF a storm that stretched half
way across the continent We seem al
ways TO escape the worst, but the dark
clouds, shifting winds, sudden cooling
of the temperature, foFked lightning and
floods of water are beginning to alarm
the most calm observer. It will evil
IDENTIFY be good thing to get over this
year with your house standing on the
same foundation stones, and your head
wagging on the same body. But heads
and houses, sides and siding, get won
derfuiiy mixed when the tornado gets in
its work
What will be the effect On the mind
and temperament, on old and young,
of these years OF alarm and panic
Mr.. Buckles History OF Civilization
in England'' failed to reach the histori-
cal part, but it touched upon all other
topics in Its wondrously rich thousand
odd pages. If his theories are correct
the coming man in Kansas and in all
the wind-swept prairies of the west will
be thickly interleaved with supersti-
tions. lie says sailors are the most
superstitious class, and we live IN the
sea, the pillows of the prairie.
MIR. Buckle says that nation ignoraR
of physical laws will refer to supernat-
ura causes all the phenomena by which
it is surrounded. Discoveries IN natural
science. by ascertAining the laws which
governs certain events, deprive them
of that apparent mystery in which
they were before involved. The love
of the marvellous becomes diminished.
When any science has made such pro-
gress as to enable those acquainted with
it to foretcll the events with which it
deals, those events are at once with
drawn from the jurisdiction of the su-
pernatural. The superstition of a nation
bears an exact proportion to the extent
of its physical knowledge.
The different classes OF society are SUI
perstitious in proportion as the phenom-
ena with which they are brought in con-
tact have or have not been explained by
natural laws. The credulity of sailors
is notorious. MeteorOlogy has not yet
been raised to a science; the laws which
regulate winds and storms being still
unknown, the class of men most expos
ed to their danger Is the class which is
most superstitious.
So far Buckle. As for ourselves we
have rescinded the order for balloon.
Our voyage to the moon is indefinitely
postponed. Since the air is so iqil Of
portents, of twisters, we seek the cave
and leave the realms of space to be ex-
plored by more curious observers.