The Vermont watchman. [volume] (Montpelier, Vt.) 1883-1911, 1884-12-31

The record of signal disasters, by
land and water, began with the loss of
the City of Columbus, January 1S, in
Vineyard Sound. One hundred per-
sons, chiefly New England people seek
ing in the sunny South a respite from
the rigors of winter, found watery
grave. February brought recurrence
of devastating floods in the Ohio valley
Cincinnati was again submerged and
many lives were lost. Much suffering
was caused and vast amounts of prop
erty destroyed. Scarcely had the city
been rescued from the incursion of the
waters when mob of the populace, en-
ragged at the verdict of jury in muir
der case, spread terror through its
streets. For three days the riot lasted,
public buildings were burned and much
property destroyed. The entire state
militia was called out, and in the con-
flicts that ensued forty-five of the peo-
pie were killed and one hundred thirty
eight wounded. In March, by an ex-
plosion in the Pocahontas mine in
western Virginia, one hundred fifty
four miners were killed. In April, by
a. collision in mid-ocean between the
steamer Florida and bark Pomona, one
hundred thirty-fve people persisted, and
in October the steamers Gijon and Lap
ham sank off the coast of Corunna,
carrying down one hundred thirty souls.
In May an earthquake on the Island of
Kishur, near the mouth of the Persian
Gulf, destroying twelve villages and
two hundred people, family recalled
the terrors of Krakatoa. Between these
startling incidents in the story of the
years misfortunes, the full narrative
would supply connecting links of casu-
alities by fire, railway, explosion, storm
and tornado, and the thousand ways in
which human life has been crushed out
and human beings manned by tens and
twenties, by fifties and hundreds. The
appearance of cholera in France and
Italy in midsummer, the breaking out
of war between France and China, are
the events of the year which rise to the
rank of national misfortunes. The res
cue of Lieutenant Greedy and his COM
rades from the horrors of their Arctic
prison and the story of suffering and
81 I,o
and their rescuers told, more than any
other event of the year, stirred the emo
lions of civilized peoples on both sides
of the Atlantic.
Death and disaster have been at work,
business depression has caused some
deprivation, but the old year should be
credited, possibly, with more than an
average amount of human enjoyment
and prosperity. Our own country has
been given fresh evidence of the in
herent strength of its institutions. In
a national election in which partisan
feeling was deeply stirred, the political
power has been transferred from hands
that have held it for twenty-four years,
by plurality in the "pivotal state " so
slight that among people less intelli-
gent and law-abiding, less loyal, under
powerful temptation in the white heat
of party strife, to constitutional pro-
visions, revolution must have ensued.
The assembling, in southern city, of
the whole nation with the nations of
the world in display of the arts of
peace, for an interchange of fraternal
sentiments and the cementing of the
bonds Of national union, is an suspicious
closing of the old year. May the peace
full light shed from the Crescent City
cast its rays far out on the future his
tory of the nation, dispelling sectional
strife and bitterness, and enlightening
every corner of the land.