The Monitor. [volume] (Woodstown, N.J.) 1884-1892, 1886-09-03
JOSEPH MAeALTIosER President
j. S. BRADwAY. Secretary.
woodstown, y. j., Aug. Both, 1886.
The Earthquake e.

On Tuesday night about ten o'clock
many of o people sitting at home or "
ing in bed, noticed n very pereeptible jar or
shock of the houses which attracted dit
ferent degrees of notice, but 40 serious at
tention until the next mornings papers
brought news of an earthquake shock felt
along the Atlantic coast and over a large
area of country. No serious damage WAS
al first reported, but it was soon found
that communication with Charleston.
| South Carolina, mad been cut off and fears
were entertained that the city had been de
stroyed. Later adviees bring distressing
accounts of the ruin and loss of life sus-
tanned by the Inflated city, which seems to
have sustained tile full force Of the shock.
Millions of dollars worth of property
we're destroyed and twothirds Of the
houses of the city were rendered uninhab-
liable, and from fifty to one hundred lives
were lost and hundreds badly wounded.
Another shock near midnight on Wednes-
day, added to the horrors of the situation.
Charleston is a pleasant and prosperous
city, lying at the junction of the Ashley
and Cooper rivers, about seven miles in
land from the sea coast, and has a popula-
ton of over 100, 900, with many handsome
and costly public and private buildings.
The calamity which has visited the city is
beyond comparison the ~seyerest from tie
same cause that has ever belailcn any
portion of the United States.
1t is usually suppoSedthat this country is
practically free from earthquakes, and it
will probably surprise many to learn that
in 1885 their were fifty-niue earthquakes
recorded in the United States and Canada,
of which nine were in the Atlantic states
and thirty.four on the Pacific slope. Dur
ing twelve years. 1872 to 1888, there were
recorded in the same area 364 earthquakes,
Of which Iii were on the Atlantic slope,
sixtv-six in the-Mississippi valley and 1871
on the Pacific slope.
From this list it appears that in the en-
tire area earthquakes occur, on III average.
once in twelve days, and once a month on
the Atlantic slope. Many of these disiur-
Dances are, however. so light as to be I'M
perceived by the majority of the people:
and it should be observed that the list is
more complete in the densely populated
and frequently shaken Atlantic slope than
in either the seldom shaken Mississippi
Valley or the sparsely populated Pacific
slope. Since 1860 in different parts of the
world at least 100, 900 lives have been lost by
earthquakes. As 20 the cause of these con-
y~ulsions nothing certain is known, but the
accepted theory is that the interior Of the
earth is composed OF molten matter which
in its change produces explosions, oruptions
and shocks to the outside crust, vary
ing in force. but continually occur
ring at one place or another. 1t is well
known that twelve or thirteen earthquakes
more or less destructive Of life or property
oecur every year, and that the surface of the
globe is never free from sensible evidence
ofthe continued operation Of the internal
agency, whatever it may be, producing
these shocks.
Among tine more severe yisltati1ns may
be noticed that of 1883, wherein the Island
of Java was destroyed and 100, 900 lives
lost. In 1868 at Manila, in the Philippine
Isles, TO- 900 persisted. In 1865, in Perm and
Ecuador, 5000 lives were lost, and 800.
000, 900 worth Of porperty destroyed. The
picture in the older school Biographies ai
the destruction Of Caracas. in 1919, and
loss If Il. 900 lives, will be recalled to mind
by many OF four readers whose school-days
ended in the last generation. and the great
Lisbon earthquake OF 100, inwhich 10000
people were swallowed up, will be Thought
of, at least by those who have read Of the
"Deaoon's wonderful one-hoss shay.