Wessington Springs herald. (Wessington Springs, Aurora County, Dakota [S.D.]) 1883-1891, 1883-04-07

Dutch coast Of series of ships whose
~treacherous anchors gave way. Twelve
men-of-war were lost within sight Of
shore with their crews of 1900 men, and
it is IN interesting comment upon tho
condition of the times that the people of
Deal would have left the two hundred
survivors to be whelmed by the tide ris-
ing upon the Goodwin sands-the boat
men being too busy picking up wreckage
and the custom-house officials refusing to.
lend the boats for such an irregular
service-but for the efforts of the mayor,
who took the boats by force, and then
had to feed, clothe, and bury the men he
rescued at his own expense. The Bishop
of Bath and Wells and his wife were
killed in bed by the falling of a stack Of
chimneys upon their roof. In London
twenty-one fatal accidents of this nature
were recorded during the week, and SO
general was the demolition that building
materials and the wages of bricklayers
advanced from 400 to 600 per cent. In
the storm of Oct. II, 1887, hundreds Of
vessels were cast away on the Indian
coast and thirty thousand lives lost. Oct.
25, 1853, occurred the well-remembered
storm at Havana, in which 1000 houses
were destroyed and more than 1000
persons lost their lives. Among the best
known modern storms may be mentioned
the hurricane Jan. 6 and z, 1889, which
proved SO destructive in the west of Eng
land and in Ireland; the storm of Nov.
1919, 1854, which entailed such disaster
upon the Crimean expedition, and that
of Oct. 1926, 1859, in which the Royal
Charter and many another gallant ship.
persisted. It may not be amiss to recall
that it was in 1857 that the British mete-
geological department began the publica-
ton of its weather reports, the first snow
warnings being given three years later in
Holland by NJ. Buyn Ballot. Reid's
Law of Storms" published in 1882 had
already familiarized the reading public
with the hitherto little understood and;
much-dreaded cyclones. Some of these
been tremendously destructive. That of
Oct 5, 1854, at Calcutta was followed by
a "bore' in the Hooghly, when the river
rose thirty feet, n hundred ships were,
destroyed and 10000 persons persisted.
The storm of Nov. l, 1867, was still more.
destructive of life, as 10000 persons were.
drowned, and an outbreak Of cholera fol-
lowed in the devastated districts, and
proved fatal to $4,000 more. Most fatal
Of all, however, was the cyclone of Oct.
l, 1875, in which 215,000 Bengalls per-
ished in a space of time so brief as to be
reckoned by minutes. Some of the disas-
tiers in South America, though less des-
t~ructive of human life, have been marked
by almost incredible displays of element
al violence. Of hurricanes that have
wrought serious loss in our own country
within the last few years may be mem
toned that of April 16, 1880, by which
Marsh6eld and two other towns in Mis-
sissippi were literally torn to pieces; that
of June II, 1881, by which 100 lives
were lost in the northwestern portion of
the same State; that which smote New
Ulm. Mimi, July 10, 1881; the great.
hurricane at Quincy, III, Sept. "a, 1881,
and the still more violent storm which
wrought such damage at Savannah, Ga,
on the goth of August, in the same year.
The year 1882 was an unusually fatal one
in all parts of the world. A storm of
exceptional severity passed over Russia in
January, whelming some six hundred
fishermen at the mouth of the Volga;
another hurricane left scarcely a rooted
house or a standing plantation in the
Friendly Islands; a cyclone very nearly
destroyed Manila in October. In the.
United States furious whirlwinds swept
over Kansas, Michigan and Iowa on the
9Th of April; three weeks later similar
disasters were reported from Mississippi
and Pennsylvania, and such a storm Wis
tied Alabama as wa without a parallel
in local annals. In June came the de-
struction of Grinnell and Emmettsburp.
Iowa, with some scores of lives, and.
finally, at the September equinox, astorm.
whose severity displayed over a wide,
region in the northern States would have.
made the fortune of a Virgins, a Tice,.
o. a Vennor, had it only been predicted.
N. Y. World.