Millheim Journal. [volume] (Millheim, Pa.) 1876-1984, 1883-04-12

dStSlS IlttI ldNc NlSlICo l'ollloiS VI thS
civilized world during the present year,
says the Cleveland LEADER and while
looking out for similar visitations
which are predicted, it will be interest,
ing, if not exactly reassuring to re-
view the frightful commissions and
eruptionS that have now and then Oc.
CURED, engulIing in ruin all who came
in their way. Without speaking OF
the cyclones which swept with destruc
tive violence over sections of this
country last year, or the other disasters
of recent date. on land and sea, earth
quakes and various conyulSionS of ma
ture that have taken place in the past,
and may he repeated when least ex-
pectcd.
In 1888 Iceland was visited by con-
vulSions which destroyed nearly one
fifth of the population. Twenty viii
lagos were consumed by fire or inun-
NdNIu ~ NdlCl, anu pllc CNuptloll oH
the mainland threw up "a mass of
lava greater than the bulk Of Mount
Blanc" A new island was thrown up
in the sea, but within a year it sunk,
leaving reef of rocks thirty fathoms
under water. In 1922 an earthquake
occurred on the island of Java The
earth shook, and immense columns of
hot water and boiling mud, mixed
with burning birthstone ashes and
lapilla, of the size of nuts, were pro-
jected from the mountain like a water
spout with such prodigious violence
that large quantities fell beyond the
river Tandio, which is forty miles dis
tant." The eruption lasted four hours,
destroying Ia villages. killing over
1000 human beings, converting "a
mountain ridge into IN enormous gulf"
and changing the face of the country
for miles around. On September l,
1870, the earth split in Lancerota, one
of the Canary islands. In few days
"a considerable hill of elected matter
was thrown up, vent opened sending
forth a stream of lava that overran
several villages, and flowed into the
sea-" These terrible connections
lasted five years, filling the air with
putrid vapors in the midst Of which
hundreds of human beings and animals
dropped dead. In 1919 the fort and
village of Sindree, on the eastern arm
of the Indus, sunk and tract of coun-
try 2000 square miles in extent was
submerged. In 1915 an eruption took
place in the province of Tomboro, and
only twenty-SiX persons survived out
of population of 10000. An account
of the fearful visitation says that "vio-
lent whirlwindS carried up men, horses,
and cattle into the air, tore up the
largest trees by the roots, and covered
the whole sea with floating timber"
Another account says "the floating
cinders to the westward of Sumatra
formed, on the 18th of April, a mass
two feet thick and several miles in ex-
tent, through which the ships with
difficulty forced their way" The
town of Tomboro on the west side of
Sumbawa, was overhowed by the sea
SO that the water remained permanent
ly eighteen feet in places where it was
dry land before The area covered by
this convulsion was 1000 miles in cir
cumference. On the 1st of November,
1775, at Lisbon, a sound of thunder
was heard, and in six minutes 10000
persons perished. "A great concourse
of people collected for safety upon a
new quay, built entirely of marble,
but it sunk with all upon it, and not
one body ever appeared upon the sur
face. a number of small boats went
down, and no fragments of their
wrecks ever were discovered Hum
boldt says that "a portion of the earths
surface four times as great as the size
Of Europe was shaken by this earth
quake"
We refer to but a few of these terri
fic manifestations Of the uncomfortable
forces of nature, without going back
to the eruptions by which whole cities
were buried for centuries from human
view, and without discussing the
theory advanced by some thinkers that
a vast continent, peopled by highly
civilized and populous race, was once
swallowed up in the region where now
rolls the Atlantic ocean. Innumerable |
incidents might be quoted from history
to prove how uncertain is the thread |
by which all the affairs of this world !
hang. There are no reasons to fear |
any such cataclysms as have at various !
times visited mankind, or to doubt |
that the earth will continue for centur-
les to come to TEEN with it's manifold |
blessings. Yet it is not impossible
that at some day all we see
"May be melted into air, into thin air;
And, like the baseless fabric of n vision.