Los Angeles daily herald. [microfilm reel] (Los Angeles [Calif.]) 1884-1890, 1886-04-16
The cyclone as an Imnigratio"
Agent.

The cyclone as an imntgratio"
Agent.
Cyclones seem to be becoming very
much domesticated in the northwest,
Judging from the dispatches when
reach us from Minnesota and the
upper Mississippi. Beginning in a
modest way, fifteen or twenty years
ago, by the throwing down OF an oe-
casional steeple or barn, the "bliz-
card" OF the trans Rocky Mountain
States has attained TO very robust
growth. 1t has grown with the
growth OF the great northwest and
strengtheDed--wlrh the strength OF
that section, until now it can look the
most veteran meteorological in the eye
without quailing and make him feel
like getting up and busting to some
other country if he would like decent
lease OF life. The subject is entirely
too grim for any attempt at humor.
II is dread and terrible development
of only the other day that takes hold
both OF the judgment and the imag-
ination. A great ado used to be made
about the occasional earthquakes OF
California, and this bug-a-boo I'M
doubtedly did much to retard immi-
grafton to the Pacific Coast. Yet day
before yesterday there was greater
destruction of life and property by
this single blizzard than has been
recorded in California by all meteoro-
logical and seismic agencies since the
American occupation. Here we have
whole villages tumbled down in ruins
upon their helpless occupants, the
death walls of the sufferers floating
out over hundreds OF miles OF terri
tory. The floods OF the Mississippi
valley were bad enough but the bliz-
zard of the same valley is far worse.
No wonder that multitudes Of people
wish to escape the combined rigors
and perils of such region and seek
An California a climate which admits
OF the inhabitants sitting down under
their own vine aud fig trees, with no
one to make them afraid.
The cyclone seems to be a thing OF
certainly not more than twenty years
growth. We can recall no incident
on the western plains deserving the
name OF an earlier date than 1866.
Their number and violence were both
progressive. 1t seems to be estab-
lished, as far as Minnesota, Kansas,
Wyoming, and other states and terri
tories of the northwest are concerned,
that they follow, at least for great dis
tances, in their inception, the lines of
thetelegraph and railway. They have
been knownt to stick to the railway track
in Kansas for a distance of three hun
dred miles, at no point DETECTING
more than six or seven miles TO the
right or left OF the road. OF course,
when they have attained a consid-
cradle degree OF velocity and momen-
tum, they do not stop when the rail-
way runs out, but keep on in their
mad Career of devastation and death.
That the horrors which have been
depicted in the columns OF the HER
AID will lead multitudes OF people in
the Northwest to seek homes else
where cannot be doubted, and that
they will be apt to move West rather
than East is equally certain. To earn
ones daily bread in the very shadow
OF death is what no man who can
transport himself and family to a
place OF security will willingly do.
He will prefer to HE him to land
where the climate is so mild and
equable that even the heart OF winter
affords nothing more severe than an
early April day in the East, and
where the casualties from any freak
of nature amount to absolutely moth
ing. The rigorsof an Eastern Winter
are OF themselves sufficient to super
induce a great deal OF immigration to
a semi-tropical climate, like that OF
Los Angeles, but when to the low tenn
perature and hyperborean privations
is added the imminent peril OF death
in the cyclone, the impulse to change
ones residence becomes irresistible.
Addison pictured the Angel OF Death
as riding on the whrlwind and direct
ing the storm. lie must have had Il
provision of the Minnesota and Kan
sas OF to-day. Hamlet asks the ghost
OF his father whether he brings with
him airs from heaven or blasts from
hell. The Northwestern cyclone be-
longs TO neither category. 1t is
sui generis. Its like has been seen
nowhere else on earth. But, such as
it is, it has contributed, is contribut-
ing and will contr butte to the growth
Of California. OF this fact no one
need have any doubt whatsoever.
This will exemplify for the thousandth
time the old adage that ait is an ill
wind that blows good to nobody"