The Magnolia gazette. [volume] (Magnolia, Miss.) 1872-current, 1883-02-22

are altcUuy saying III lDef hpariSi = IL
will be n disagreeable year, il nothing
w blse.n
Before the agencies of cam, elee.
tricity and the public press were muHt
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 rumol
of the disaster wastarried 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 few weeks
ago was telegraphed instantly TO the
endgof 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 81 arcely y 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 insurances
canvassers may have obtained new
fact to lay before, working people; but
the human suffering which had been
caused left no impression uron the
minds Of readers at a distance. Three
hundred people are trampled under
foot or burned to death in circus in
4 Poland; but the fact eXeites no more
emotion in the heart Of an American
reader than the footings of a table OF
mortality statistics, Four hundred
emigrants and sailors are suddenly
\ swallowed up by the sea. There is
short controversy respecting compart-
ments in n ships hull and momentary
curiosity to learn what excuse the com
mander Of the othersteamship can offer
for not attempting n rescue; but the
! agony which was caused in a single in
4 slant, when hundreds of these quiet and
! simple peasants and working people
/ were brought face to face with their
I doom, is only a vague generalization.
In week it is forgotten by the general
4 public.
! 1t Is only in exceptional instances that
4 these tragic occurrences leave any per-
I manent impression upon the public
mind outside the immediate localities
4 where they occur. The facts are known.
but suffering is not brought close to the
emotions and s}mpathies. A day
pas; es, and men are thinking o. some
thing newer and pleasanter. A month
goes by. and 1883 is not considered
especially unlueky, but only an average
year, with startling occurrences now
and then, but with the rsual out ONE
of peace, prosperity and security, A
year rolls by, and there is a vague feeling
of disappointment and depression and
an eager hope that another year will be
bcheerier and brighter There is in
variably a speedy reaction from the dis
couragemcnt and sense of insecurity
caused by the vicissitudes o. human
destiny. ..
II may be that the world as it grows
older is becoming more and more ac-
customed to the conditions of its being.
Certa My the impressions Of helples :
ness caused by catastrophes like those
which have been recently recorded are
only vague and transitory. The thrill
OF horror eycited by such recitals is felt
only momentarily; the sense of insecur-
4 ity and the feeling of unrest soon pass
away. Men learn to expect catastro.
phes and to make allowance for them
in the Proyidential scheme OF the uni
verse. Yet they can not explain them.
That seventy weary travellers and hotel
servants should suddenly be exposed 10
the horrors Of an agon zing death, that
\ three hundred men, women and chill
dren should be wrenched out Of life
with tortures unspeakable while en- 'oy-
ing town show in Poland, or that four
hundred emigrants seeking their fort
unes in new land shoul be drowned
before they have fairly lost sight of the
old country, is as inexplicab'e 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: 'Haye these men sinned
or their fathers, that they should perish
Z. so miserablyp But it is no easier now
. than it was then to reconcile the yicis-
siludes and mysteries OF human fate
with an orderly scheme of government
for the universe. ~ Y. 1ri6aae.