Lancaster daily intelligencer. [volume] (Lancaster, Pa.) 1864-1928, 1886-09-02

@I51 ol0I vDR0 WHICH OaS Hahakou iOuk
~ q our country with its culminat-
Rel IN Chax1eston Is the most threat
~ ovont 70 our prosperity and happiness
- perhaps ever occurred. We have
Ieo enjoyed immunity from these
occurrences and the thought Of an
4uake g possible destroyer Of our
and lives has never occurred to us.
sead cf the great devastation caused
Aem in remote and barbarous part Of
= World, without any such sympathy
"a TIE sufferers rs springs from feeling
ouch some day may be our experience.
3 havo had tremors but they were mild
n W6lced only to give US something to
y md joke about. The world had en-
11fell 70 long without giving disastrous
1ake to our land that we concluded 1t to
- nnahakable.
Now We know otherwise. Carolina Is
& NY near homo, and the vibration that
Ime thence here without damage to us
10y q another time, strike us with its
&ezoneest force. The position is just this,
4 th6t while heretofore we have been, In our
l5olief ,exempt from earthquake danger now
& 2>Fe suddenly know that We are subject to
And what are we going to do about it,
y What can we do? Prevention is impossi.
hle, 90 far "a our science knows. 1t Is as
vain TO seek to ward off the earthquake as
Sthe thunder bolt. We can only prepare
~ IT, o. We do for the lightning with the
nd, by building our towns 50 that they
viii b able to endure the earthquake, as
IN q they can be 20 made. This is the
dictate OF . common prudence. The build
s lngs We already have must take their
chances, and they viii stand until an earth
quake comes to knock them down. But
thoee hereafter built should he 50 con-
st1qcted a. to resist the shock, and open
spaces should be left In different sections
of all cities to which the people may repair.
These things should be required by law.
It Is doubtful whether single experience,
narrowing even rs that of Charleston, will
move the people sufficiently to secure the
needed safeguards itmay take another
Y Of tho kind and nearer home and the
strong probability is that we win get 1t.
What terrible thing 1t Is Who can
exaggerate its horror, of which the shock
ifself and the damage done is not the
greatest part. The dreadful expectation
OF being crushed which is upon you while
tho shock lasts and which Is with you rs
yon await the successive shocks, and
stays with you for hours and days, with
10 chance to escape it-what experience
can be imagined that is more fearful
IN gh0fTors and ter,ors of the battle field
pale before 1t, and even the perils Of
q ahipwreck. The lightning fash which
makes 80 many tremble as often IS Its harm.
/ le. stroke passes by, is a childish terror
compared to this for reason comforts you
amid the tempest's roar by convincing you
of the very slight danger 1t threatens. But
what can reason say while the earth is
shaking when we know how destructive
of life and property such visitation may be,
and will be II the vibrations are strong
enough.
Give rs any other land toliye in but one
AZ quaking. 1t may be that the earth af.
fords none, since our own land, that we
thought SO secure, is not free from the
shock. A new terror is added to life.
But who can wonder at the earthquake?
Finding as we do in those latter days what
strange things are in the earth, and how oil
! And gas I'LL It's veins. May It not even be
Mat the loosing from the bowels of the
onrth of these elements has added to the
liability to the disturbance Of its crust. 1t
peas reasonable to expect that when these
oors are taken from the places In which
fheir force has been confined for ages, there
may be q resultant effect in obtaining
new outbreak place for the earth's impris.
@oned forces.