New-York tribune. [volume] (New York [N.Y.]) 1866-1924, 1883-02-22
4 GLOOMY RECORD.

PEOPLE soy this il an unlucky year. Ana
VET so rapdly has one woe trodden upon an
others heels. and so easily do we forget last
,reeL's calamity in the contemplation OF the
fresh one that few actually realize how gloomy
the record of the seven weeks since New Years
really is.
January opened with n series OF catastrophes
nm land and sea, and the record of disaster and
death has been continuous TO tins time. IN
Germany widespread CONSERVATION anu suffer
ing we're caused by the foods, especially la The
middle Rhine district, as many as HoOo per
sons being homeless in Mannheim, orms ana
Ludwigshafen. In Hungary the foundations
of the Danube and its tributaries created SINH
lar feeling of alarm, there being y heavy loss
cs life In Rnab and 10000 persons being lelt
rooasss. if not homeless. Many villages III
France have been damaged by fio"ds, End SINH
lar havoc has been wrought In the lake region
of England In the United States enormous
lo.ses have been sustained from high water,
and the Ohio Valley has been devastated from
pittsburg TO Cairo. Ireland shares In the us
,ress of nations because last seasons crops were
worth 81 9. SOC. 900 less than the average annual
vi.Id Of the decade, and consequently there are
snnr.bensons of scarcity of food in the least
nrosperous sections of the island Even as far
away as Iceland the year has opened ominouSly
with signs of starvation. To these national
ca,amities due to natural causes, must be
added local catastrophes such as the destruction
of the wiss villsge of Marais by landslide,
the disastrous snOwslide near Crested Butte III
Colorado. and the entombment of seventy MIN
ers at Diamond, ILL.,
Human agencies, moreover, have contributed
Law their blindness, recklessness and p0werless-
mesa to swell this list Of calamities III great
storms have swept over the seas AMI lelt theh'
strewn with wrecks, and If the floods have
clappcd their hands IN many lands, mans igno-
rance and helplessness have added to the sense
of insecurity which the opening year has I'M
parted. Two ocean steamships have been SUNK
in collisions one carrying down with her over
400 Messengers and seamen. Three great
b,t.ls have been burned in the United States,
tb loss Of life in one instance being very large.
In Russia tbe town of Kherson has been nearly
destroyed by Gre, and in Poland 218lives have
been lost in panic in circus In New DIX
,ixtesu or more school children have been
trampled to death in n panic, and In Milwaukee
an audience has narrowly escaped similar
fate. There have been startling railway accl-
deuts nj Tehlchpa and elsewhere, and disas-
trous explosions in San Francisco Puget Sound
Glasgow and Holland These and many other
calamities have made the opening year con-
spicuous for its misfortunes.
The rayages of death, moreover, have heavi-
" depleted the worlds working stock of ge-
MUS, wisdom and philanthropy. On the frs
day of the year came the tidings that France
had lost in Gambettit it's greatest man, and
Washington was startled 10y the sudden dealt
of veteran diplomatist at public reception
| Not long afterward France lost its greatest sol