Butler citizen. [volume] (Butler, Pa.) 1877-1922, 1884-01-09
THE EVENTS OF 1888.

Old Father Tine has cut another
coupon and we now write 1884 on our
noJes
1t is customary on such occasions to
bid the old year an affectionate fare
well, and to pretend to be sympathetic
and sorry at his departure little
piece of poetical folly that has come
down to US from the time when the
human mind seems to have been unable
to conceive as an entity anything it
could not personify, and hence persona
fed the facts set down in the almanac,
that it might regard them as one whole
in q series.
But it is useful to take note from
time to time of the relation of fixed
peri DDS in our lives to current history,
and the beginning of new year is a
good one for this purpose In the his
tory of humanity 1883 will not be
counted as one of the great years. In
deed, with regard to historical events
of the first order, it was what the poll
ticians call an "off year." but, as if
compensation were an indispensable in
gredient in the destiny of years, rs
dull poverty IN the chronicle of human
actions is balanced by an unusual glory
in the succession of startling natural
phenomena There were in the year
just completed as many famous earth
quakes as the small biographies refer
to for the previous course of recorded
calamities of that kind. Spain led off
with the earthquake at Mulcia in JAN
uaryj and In July came the fearful cat
astrophe at Ischia, by which favorite
summer city was tumbled down in two
or three minutes and the population
buried in the ruins. Java was shaken
terribly in August. and Asia Minor and
the Isles of Greece in October; and in
October also, as recently reported, we
contributed frst-class earthquake and
volcano of our own up in Alaska. 1t
is only lately that We have entered the
field as producers of earthquakes, but
this youngest OF our infant industries
is clearly not in need Of protection.
Rpt though the North American earth
quake is little known, the North Ameri-
can tornado has reputation which has
been sustained this year by six dread
full experiences. In one tornado alone,
in April, two hundred persons perish
ed. Perhaps when science has classi-
fed all the earthquakes and tornadoes
of this year it may guess out the
meteorological significance of our fiery
sunsets.
In the Old World there were several
little wars AS curiosity it may be
noted that England did not help her.
self to any new countries either in Asia
or Africa, and consequently did not
have any war of conquest on her hands;
but in the war of Egypt against the re-
volted tribes oe the Soudan, led By the
Mahdi, England had the interest of one
who perceives that the possession he
covets is thrust upon him. Perhaps
it may be written down that the
Mahdi has made Egypt a British prov
ince. In July that province was raw
aged by epidemic cholera-a pestilence
that followed naturally upon the war
of the year before; but the mortality
was nearly confined to the natives of
the country. In March England man.
aged to have missionary get into
scrape in Madagascar. Commonly
such an event wonld lead to a war Of
conquest against some barbarian prince,
but on this occasion the missionary was
troubled by a European State, and
England conteDted herself with much
complaint and little indemnify. Ire
land was apparently more prosperous
than in former years, but equally un-
easy under the influence of the various
organized agitations, and there was a
great deal of dynamite talked about
and some exploded. In March gov
ernment Office in London was blown
up and there were in October two ex-
plosions on the Underground Railway.
These events excited opinion in Eng
land very greatly, and as some persons
arriving in England from this country
were captured with dynamite in their
possession, and societies here ostenta-
tiously declared their intention to make
a dynamite war, these things became
the subject of diplomatic correspond
ence Joe Brady, the famous Ph9nx
Park murderer, was hanged; Ca"ey
was sent abroad aDd murdered in turn,
and his murderer was also hanged, and
the rope proved upon the whole more
fatal than dynamite.
France burned some gunpowder on
the coast of Madagascar, sent troops to
Senegal, and, through the killing OF
Captain Riviere in May. became invol-
we'd in the hostilities in Tonquin which
still engage her attention. Early in
the year some adventurous persons
thought that French throne was to
be had by little scrambling. and Bon
apartists and legitimists We're equally
ready to scramble. But that little
farce ended with the arrest of Prince
Jerome Napoleon and the passage of
bill giving the President discretionary
power to expeI other pretenders. By
the death of the Count of Cham bnrd
there was fusion of the monarchies,
since the heir of Louis Philippe be-
came also the heir of the elder line of
Bourbon. Through the disappearance
of every dangerous imperial pretender
and the consolidation of other royal
claims there was realized union OF
the dynastic interests the division of
which first made possible the organiza-
ton of the present Republic. But no
harm seems as yet likely to come of
this, even though Europe has lately
had demonstration of the existence of
triple alliance made especially against
France, and which appears inclined to
coquette with the royal pretender.
On this side the seattle natural
phenomena of tornadoes and earth
quakes aside-the year has been one of
exemplary calm. Perhaps the most in