Custer chronicle. [volume] (Custer City, Black Hills, D.T. [S.D.]) 1880-1890, 1889-04-13

kin 6habazpore. In the midnight of DC
t)ber, 1877, ON 81 thOeo three islands the
cry was: The water-. the waters! a
cyclone arose and rolled the sea over
those three islands, and Of a population
Of $40, 600, 215, 600 were drowned. Only
those saved who had climbed TO the top
of the highest trees. Did you ever see a
cyclone2 No? Then | pray God you
may never see one. / saw one on the
ocean, and it swept us 800 miles back
from Our course, and for thirty-six hours
during the cyclone and after it we ex-
peCted every moment TO 60 10 the bot
tom. They told us before we retired at .
o'clock that the barometer had fallen,
but at II o'clock at night we were awak-
ened with the shock Of the waves. All
the lights Quit Crash! went all the life
boats. Waters rushing through the SKY
lights down into the cabin and down on
the furnaces until they Kissed and smoked
in the deluge. Seven hundred people
praying, disappearing, shrieking. Our
great ship poised q moment on the top OF
u mountain of phosphorescent ire, and
then plunged down, down, until 1t seemed
as if she never would again be righted.
Ali you never want TO see a cyclone at
sea. But | was in Minnesota, where
there was one of those cyclones on land
that swept the city Of Rochester from It's
foundations, and took dwelling houses,
| barns, men, children, horses,
cattle. and tossed them into indiscrimi-
nate ruin, and lifted q rail train ana
dashed it down, "A mightier hand than
that of the engineer on the air brake.
Cyclone in Kansas, cyclone in Missouri,
g clone in Wisconsin, cyclone in Illinois,
cyclone in Iowa. Satan, prince of the
power of the air, never made such cy-
clonic disturbances as he has in our day.
And am | not right in saying that
one Of the characteristics Of the time IN
which we live is disaster ~cyclonicE
But look at the disasters oceanic. Shall
call the roll OF the dead shipping? le
monsters 90 the deep answer when call
your names. Vile de Hav It.: the Schiller,
City of Boston, the Mclv- c, the Presi-
dent, the Cimbria. But wy should 60
on calling the roll when none Of them
answer, aud the roll is as long 90 the
| white scroll Of the Atlantic surf at Cape
Hatteras breakers2 II the oceanic cables
could report all the scattered life and all
the bleachGd bones that they rub against
in the depths of the ocean, what Ii mes
sage Of pathOs and tragedy for both
beaChesl Ir one storm eighty fishermen
persisted of the coast Of Newfoundland,
and whole reats Of them eft the coast Of
England. God help the poor fellows at
sea, ana give high seats in heaven 10 the
Grace Darlings and Ida Lewises and the
lifebOat men lowering around GoOdwin's
Sands and the Skerries. The sea, own
ing th~rec.quartcrs OF the earth, proposes
to capture the other fourth, and Is bonn
harding the land all around the earth.
The moving Of our hotels at Brighton
Beach backward 100 yards from where
they once stood, q type Of what is going
on all around the world and on every
coast. The Dead sea rolls today where
ancient cities stood. Pillars Of temples
that stood on hills biologists now find
three-Quartcrs under the water or alto
Cether submerged. The sea, having
wrecked SO many merchantmen and
~lotiIlas, wants TO wreck the continents,
and hence disasters oceanic.
Look at the disasters epidemic. Ispeak
not Of the plague in the fourth century
that ravagcd Europe, and in Moscow and
the Neapolilan domini9ns and Marseilles
wrought such terror in the eighteenth
| AtiAAbAN btA d w HA N'1 NNA'C' 'NNNN't
and the cholcras, ard the d~iphtheriaa,
and the scarlet fcvcrs, and the typhOids
Of our own time. Herr Tue waiting Of
Memphis. and Shreveport, and New
Orleans and Jacksonville Of the last few
dccades. From Hurdwar, India, where
every twelfth year 80 0,00O devotccs
corgrccate. the caravans brought The
cholera. and that disease slew II 900 in
eighteen days in Bo3sorah. Twelve
thousand H. one summer slain by il in
India and %, 600 in Egypt. Disasters
epidemic. Some IF the finest onumcI t.
in Greenwood and Laural Hill ana MI.
Auburn are to doctors who lost their life
battling win southern epidemic.
But now ! turn the leaf in my subject,
and / piant the white lilies AID the palm
tree amid the night shade and the myrtle.
This age Is no more characterized by
wonders Of disaster than by wonders OF
blessing. Blessing Of longevity; the
average of human lie rapidly increasing.
Forty wears now worth 400 years once.
Now ! can travel from MAnitoba to New
York in three days and three nights. In
other times 1t would have taken thee
months. in other words, three days and
nights now are worth three months Of
ClltG Jays. Inv dNNAoSN Va b'ii"' 'N
practically greater now than When
Noah lived his $50 years and MethusaIeh
lived his 900 years. Blessings OF intelli
gence: The Salmon =. Chases and the
Abraham Lincclns and the Henry vii
sons of the coming time will not be re
quired to learn to read by pine kno'
lights, or seated on shoemaker's bench
nor will the Fergusons have 10 study
astronomy while wGlching the cattle
knowledge rolls its tides along every
poor man s door, and his children may
80 down and battle in them. II thu
philosophers of the last century werj
called up to recite in a class with GU
/; boys At the Polytechnic, or our girls a
the Packer, those old philosophers woul'
; be sent down to the foot of the class be
, cause they failed to answer the questions
l Free libraries in all the important town
! and cities Of the land. Historical alcove
i and poetical shelves and magazine table
4 for all tina, desire to walk through then
: Blessings of quick information: News
papers falling all around us thick &
J leaves in a September e%quinoctial. New
!, three days old, rancid and stale. We sc
= the whole world twice a ~day-throug
the newspaper at the breakfast tabl'
4 and through the newspaper at the tt
= table, with an extra here and thel
- | 10.