Daily globe. [volume] (St. Paul, Minn.) 1878-1884, 1883-01-25
HORRORS BY FIRE AND FLOOD.

The year 1888, of which less than thirty
days have flown, presents an aggregation
of disasters and loss of life that it is quite
impossible to comprehend. The month of
January, this year of grace, will be of
notable memory for its horrors. January
End, by the sinking of an overloaded fiat
boat in a North Carolina river, eighteen
convicts sank to a watery grave, and by
similar disaster in Germany thirty-fy
lives were lost, while by the floods and
foundations in Hungary and Germany, the
angry waters closed forever over the life
less bodies of one hundred and forty per-
sons.
January 9Th, the City of Brussels, of the
Inman line of steamers, was sunk by a
collision in Liverpool harbor, and twelve
persons persisted.
January 9th, the ship British Empire
burned at sea, sixteen being the number of
victims of that calamity.
January 10th, by an explosion in coal
mine at Coulterville, H., ten persons were
killed, and January 10th was the fated
day of the burning of the Newhall house at
Milwaukee, with the heart-rending loss of
more than eighty men, women andlchildren,
very many of whom were consumed be-
yend recognition.
January 14th is the date of the woful
burning of the circus at Berditchef, Poland,
where two hundred and sixty eight human
beings were literally roasted in the con-
suming flames.
January 18th, at Meriden, Holland,
a gunpowder factory exploded,
killing forty persons, unroofng
nearly every house in the hamlet, and
breaking window glass at Amsterdam,
eight miles away.
January Piston the Southern Pacific rail
way, near Tepachapi occurred peculiar
disaster resulting in the death of twenty
people, and the cruel injury of about twice
that number. Also upon January 21st oc-
Cured the sinking OF the Cimbria in the
German ocean, where it seems probable
more than four hundred persons were
drowned, most of whom had gathered togeth-
er all their means and hidden adieu forever
to the Fatherland to found new homes and
seek for fortune amid the inviting offerings
of hospitable America.
January 22nd closes this birds-eye record,
with the giant powder factory explosion at
Point Clement, California, where thirty
Cinnamon were hurled to death in
breath.
These horrors by fire and food are almost
too startling to permit of serious rehec-
ton. More than 1000 human beings
fastened to eternity, whole families oblit-
Grated, and thousands bereaved and in
mourning for the loved and lost who come
not back again. It may be said that, for
the most part, these calamities could not
have been averted by the most prudent
human foresight and provision, butts this
So and if it be true, is it creditable to the
intelligence and civilization of the most
enlightened period of the worlds history? Is
there not found, in this grouping of hor-
rors. that have so swiftly chased each other
into the record of few brief days, an
illustration of the little thought that is
really given to the safety of human life.
How can the measure of responsibility be
fixed, and when and how shall there be en-
grated throughout the world that new and
better sentiment, which can render the oc-
currence of such appalling calamities i'm
possible?