Morning journal and courier., 1890-03-01
AT NORTH sHERFHRLD HALL.

AT NORTH sHEFFIRLD HAIL. i Vivid Description Givcn Last Rve-
 ming of Memorable Event in His. |
 tory-The Mechanics' Courss of Lect- |
 ures.
 In spite of the nasty weather large num- ber of people were present at North Shelf field hall last evening to listen to Professor Lounsbury's lecture on "The London Earth. quake of 1750." Those who did venture out were amply repaid for their trouble by an exposition of an obscure point of history of great interest. The professor spoke substan- tially as follows. On the 9th of February, 175O, between the hours of noon and one o'clock the inhabitants of London were startled by the shock of an earthquake. It was sensibly felt within a radius of ten miles from the center of the city. In par. ticular places in that region 1t created con- siderable panic, occupants of houses rushed out of them under the fear that they would come tumbling about their heads. But the record of disaster wrought by the disturb- ance is not very striking. Not living soul is recorded to have been injured and many were at GQo tlLu0 #Alkluk tue bbIcctb huu not aware that anything unusual had oc- cured. Precisely four weeks afterward Q second shook followed, of longer continuance and greater violence, preceded by tremen- dous storm. It occurred about half-past five o'clock in the morning and violently aroused the people from their sleep. Some little damage was done to both persons and things. About these successive shocks which will include under the common name of the earthquake of 1750 there has certainly so far nothing been mentioned which is cal- culated to arouse special interest, either as scientific phenomenon or it's severity. As earthquakes go. 1t was nothing but an order- ly ll-bshaved decent earthquake, affording just the maximum of excitement and danger term it an amiable earthquake. if that may be applied to disturbances of this sort, but unhappily amiable earthquakes like amiable people are exceedingly apt not to be interesting. What they gain on the side of gentleness, they lose in dignity and impress eiveness.
 It is absurd alnaost to compare 1t with the gigantic convulsions of nature that have attended the agonies of a world coming into being, when plains and mountain peaks have reared themselves above the waters surface. But an earthquake is always an earthquake, and the mildest of them ia something to be treated with respect. It Is an elemental force that man never pretends to hold in subjection. It was feeling of curi- osity rather than fear that followed the first shock of the earthquake of 1750 and many were the theories advanced as explanations of it's cause, among which was the belief that it was an expression of Gods displeasure, confined to few, but this interpretation be- came general after the second. In the minds of many it was no question that these two shocks, the second much more violent than the first, were sent by the Deity as warnings of his displeasure and that if the call to re- pentance was not not needed at once @ cal. amity would follow which would involve everybody and everything in general ruin. The vengeance of God was to fall upon the doomed city for It's manifold iniquities. All London was soon in an infammable state and it needed only spark to set ablaze. It was Seeker, then bishop of Oxford, who first applied the torch. On tho 9th of March he preached sermon upon the subject and advised the members of his flock not to withdraw from the place, but await Gods pleasure in fear and s tren- bling. Later another prelate, Sherlock, bishop of London, came forward to take up the prophecy and addressed pastoral letter to the people of warning character. He made strong hints that unless the city re- pented at once in sack cloth and ashes au- other and heavier calamity would follow. But with him, as with us all, there was the disposition to be prophetic, but unsccompa- nied with the requisite courage. The great law of supply and demand seems to prevail in the prophetic world as well as in the eco nomic, and as soon as a prophet is felt to be needed prophet Is sure to be forthcoming This demand was answered by private in Lord Delawares regiment, who become pos sessed with the idea that the almighty had and had selected him as the instrument to make them known. He now took up the burden of warning aud an- nounced that the great and terrible day of tho Lord would come the 9th of April. He proved to be insane and was confined by the authorities, but he only had the char actsristics that were evident in others. It is scarcely possible to e1aggerate the excite ment that prevailed. There was nothing too absurd to be credited. nothing too silly to be done. As the day of doom forstold by the insane prophet drew near, the excitement and terror increased. On Wednesday, April 4, the eliminating point was reached. It was supremely solemn day in London. The whole town was in hourly expectation of .he coming earthquake. During the afternoon | all the highways leading from the city In every direction were filled with the human tide pouring through them without cessation; it was pilgrims' progress on . gigantic scale and not undertaken with the loftisst of motives. One curious manifestation of human nature which attend ed was the mingled spirit of
 pleasure which proposed to spend the night in dancing and cord-playing. Schemes of this kind, apparently arranged with the double purpose of escaping the wrath of the
 Lord and of conciliating the devil, were in
 instances carried into effect. The next
 morning dawned fair and bright and the ex-
 pected third shock proved to be no shock at | al and fha rttv VT aolfd . Rut
 still there was more or less cause for alarm,
 as there were some who maintained that the insane prophet had mixed things and that
 the third shock would occur . month later.
 But gradually the human tide drifted back
 to the city somewhat crestfallen.
 It would be an entirely wrong impression | to believe that this panic was universal, be-
 cause there are letters printed which show that there were some who remained behind
 and looked upon 1t all with undisguissd oon- | tempt.
 | It was doubtless inevitable that the mo-
 mentary piety which owed Its sxistenos to
 the panic should be followed by reaction as were the wild extremes that society plunged
 into after its trembling terror. This unwrit-
 ten chapter in English social history may
 seem to some chapter that can never be re-
 peated. This view is perhaps correct, but it
 can hardly be deemed certain, for 1t is no
 story of the dark ages. The circumstances
 took place in Q period which boasted itself
 to be one of freedom and of special intelu-
 gence and in particular to be ono of freedom
 from superstition.
 MORE WORK FOR THE TEACHERS Additions 70 tho Rules of she School 1 District Necessited by she Introduc-
 SiOn Of Free Text Books-Teachers l RespOnsible for Care ef the Books | The Finance AHairs.
 Several new clauses were added to the rules of the school district last night at the special meeting of tho board of education to
 hear the reports of the oommittses on free
 text books and finance. MT. Avis and Mr.
 Leigh were the only absent members. The
 committee on rules was requested several
 weeks ego to formulate rules governing the introduction of free books.
 This committee through It's chairman, Dr. Carmalt, recommended several additions to | the rules which bear directly upon the intro.