Omaha daily bee., 1889-06-06
MEMORABLE CALAMITIES.

LIE ueSJruCUlOn Oh JOnnSGOWn ana
con tiguous towns has no parallel in the
history of the country. The details of
the disaster appall the mind. Maps, dia-
grams and vivid description can not
comprehend the awful ruin wrought in
an hour. Where thriving cities were,
desolation reigns. Where hundreds of
busy workshops stood, where the hum
of industry mingled with the activities
of trade, and where thousands of homes
evidenced the thrift of the inhabitants,
there is nothing but vast sea of ruins,
the graveyard of thousands of human
beings.
1t is doubtful if the total loss OF life
will ever be known. Estimates range
from five to fifteen thousand. 1t is al
most certain to exceed ten thousand, or
one-fourth of the population of the de-
vastated valley. An unknown numb er
are buried beneath the debris of the
disaster. To recover them is an almost
hopeless task.
Ancient or modern history records
but few disasters approaching this in
destructive fury and suddeness. Ver-
suvius completed the ruin of Pompeii
and Herculaneum by burying the val
ley of the Campana under twenty to
eighty feet of lava, rock and ashes.
The convulsion of Lisbon in 1855, lev
eled the greater portion of the city in
an instant, killing forty thousand per-
sons. Like the Johustown disaster, fire
followed to complete the work of de-
struction.
Within the last ten years the world has
witnessed convulsions of nature, of ap-
palling magnitude and destructiveness.
Less than yearsago fifteen thousand
persons were killed by an earthquake
in Yum Nan, China. In 1887, the valley
of the Yellow river in China was over
whelmed with floods, which depopu-
lated and destroyed thousands of miles
of country. One hundred thousand
people lost their lives; and nearly two
million were rendered homeless and
destitute.
The Java earthquake of 1888 ranks
among the most destructive to life and
property of which there is any record,
The shock ravaged an area of land one
hundred miles square,, and extended
into the sea for great distance. The
lowest estimate of the loss of life was
fifty thousand, though it was nearer
eighty thousand. Two towns were de-
stroyed by lava. one swallowed up by
openings in the earth, and twenty de-
stroyed by tidal waves whi ch swept the
coasts.
The earthquake which rocked the
Island of Ischia, off the coast of Italy,
destroyed four thousand lives in mo-
ment, leveled three towns and partially
destroyed five. Two years before the
town of Chic, Greece, was shaken by an
earthquake and five thousand lives lost.
One thousand lives were lost by sim
liar conyulsion in Asiatic Turkey in
1888.
A terrific hurricane swept through
southern England and northern France
in 1884, destroying vast amount of
property on land and sea. One hundred
lives were lost in Great Britain alone.
The floods in Germany and Hungary in
1888 swept away fifteen hundred lives
and property worth millions.
During 1885 n terrible earthquake
ravaged one thousand square miles OF
Spain, destroying fifteen towns, twenty
thousand buildings and three thousand
lives. The shocks continued for twenty
days, causing loss of one hundred mil
lion dollars. A few months later the
vale of Cashmere was shaken by an
earthquake, killing three thousand per-
sons, forty thousand head of stock and
destroying seyenty-fve thousand build
ings. A year later SIX towns in Greece
were leveled by like destructive
agency, killing five hundred and
wounding one thousand persons.
The South Carolina earthq uake is
of comparative recent occurrence
The loss of life was small, consid-
ering the amount of property destroyed.
Compared with the Johnstown dis
aster, the Mill river flood IN Massa-
chusetts fifteen years ago pales into in
Significance. The reservoir covered
one hundred and twenty-four acres