The Portland daily press., 1883-09-07
A Year of Disaster.

Had Professor Grimm, who year or two
ago predicted dire calamities from the por-
tentous aspect of the great planetary bodies,
postponed the disastrous epoch until the
present, he could with confidence have
claimed that his prophecies of evil had been
literally fulfilled. One-fourth of 1888 is yet
to come. but its appalling record of death
from accidents and elemental disturbances
gives to it CHASTITY prominence, and 1t will
pass into history as the year of disaster.
The great agents of destruction-food, fire,
famine, volcano, earthquake, tornado and
epidemic-have each contributed long list
of victims, which seemingly unusually fire.
quent minor accidents ON land and sea have
helped to swell to frightful proportions.
A statistician who kept an imperfect rec
ord of the first seven months of the year es-
timated that the fatalities resulting from
extraordinary causes had then already
reached the enormous aggregate of $1,000.
To this now must be added the awful des-
truction of life by the overwhelming calami-
ty in the Indian Archipelago. But it is to
be hoped that more careful survey of the
desolated region will reduce tn fearful loss
of life now reported. At present lis esti-
mated that from $1,000 to $4,000 human
lives we're lost Should these figures, how
ever, not be disproved, the widespread disas-
ter which overwhelmed these tropic isles
will prove the most destructive of modern
times. Below we give in tabular form list
of those calamities which have resulted in
the greatest loss of life during the first three
fvurths of the present year:
January By floods in Germany and Hungary
Jan. 11-Burning of the Newhall House, Milwau-
kee, and loss of SO lives.
Jan. ia circus building in Poland was burned
Jan. 21-By an accident on the Southern Pacific
Railway, at Tehichapi Pass % were burned and
Jan. The steamer Cimbria collided with the
Sultan off Berknm Island, ana 1913 were lost.
Jan 22-By explosion of powder works at Oak
land, CAL, 26 were killed.
Jan. 24-Flooding of mine in Australia caused
the loss of % lives.
Feb Italian steamer Ansonla wrecked on the
coast of Tripoli; loss 20.
Feb. 2-Panic in factory at Bombay; loss %.
Feb. 5-SSeamer Kenmore Castle wrecked in the
Bay Of Biscay; loss 81.
Feb. IA cident in Diamond Coal mine at JOLT
et ILL.,; loss II.
Feb. 21-Fire and panic in Catholic school in
New York; loss Is.
March 5-steamer Gypsy sunk near New orleans;
March 1o-HuI and Yarmouth (England) fshins
fleets wrecked; loss 1875.
March 11-Stesmer Navarro foundered on voyage
from Copenhagen to Leith; loss 40.
March 10 Ship Dunslafnage wrecked on Aber-
deenshire coast; loss %.
$50.
April Wreck of six Yarmouth (Eng) fishing
vessels; loss 40.
pril Z-Boer explosion at st. Dizer, France;
81 Killed. So injured.
April 6-Explosion of powder depot at Rome;
loss 40.
April t7-Sixty-two persons drowned while en-
gagged in religious ceremony at Secunderbad, In-
April 2e-ship County Aberdeen coliided with
ship British Commerce; loss 25
April 2e-Expiosion of mine at Besseges, France;
April Of Tornado in Mississippi Georgia and
South Carolina loss $50.
May 4-steamr Grappler burned In Puget
Sound; loss To.
May 6-Large number of person killed by an
earthquake at Tabreez Persia.
May IA Cyclone in Illinois, Ohio and Missouri;
May 18-Cyclone in Illinois and Wisconsin; loss
May 23-Two sohooners wrecked on Lake Michi-
May 80 Twelve persons killed and many injured
by panic on he Brooklyn Bridge.
June 9-Powder magazine at Scutari struck by
June ia panic among school children attend
ing an entertainment at Sunderland. Eng; loss 1877.
.June 25-Burning OF a theatre on Lake Como, It
ally, and loss of Al lives
july 3-Steamer Daphne, while being launched
on the Clyde capsized; loss 150:
July 23-Pier gave way at Baltimore; loss rs.
July 27-Collision Rome. Watert town q Og-
densburg Railroad; % killed, 35 wounded. .oo
July % Earthquake at Ischia; between 3ooo
and 1000 killed and 1000 injured.
July 29-Explosion of a mine in Sicily; loss 30.
Aug. 21-Cyclone at Rochester, Mimi; loss 49,.
Aug; 29.-Steamer Woodburn run down on Eddy
stone Light; loss l8.
Aug. 20 Volcanic eruptions in Java; loss esti-
mated at from 10, 900 to $4,000.
Aug 81 Storm on the Grand Banks and re-
ported loss of 80 men.
Sep. 2-By railroad acct lent to a train between
Berlin and Stegitz, ~ persons were killed and
wounded.
1t is also estimated that nearly 10000 peo-
pie have perished from cholera in India and
Egypt Taking these figures together with
the estimsted loss of life In Java, the grand
total will reach the frightful sum of over