Morning journal and courier., 1891-10-22

1862.
 From the Chicago Herald-l
 ''Did you feel the trembling of the earthquakei" asked Mexican of Chica-
 goan who was visiting there. ''No," was the response. But you saw the people fleeing from the churchf' continued the other. 70, yes," said the Chicsgoan,
 ''but I supposed that was because the con tribution basket was being passed" Will Chicagoans ever become more familiar
 with earthquakes than they are nowl Is
 this old earth loaded, and will it go of
 sometime and blow everything to piecesi Are earthquakes caused by the sudden contract of subterranean water with sub terranesn fire and the instant generation of vast volumes of explosive and irresisti- ble steaml We will let it go st that while We recall some of the more important earthquakes in the past few centuries. At Pekin, China, three hundred thousand persons were buried in a moment in 1862, and one hundred thousand again in the same city in 1731. The earthquake at Lima, October 2S, 1916, extended to Cal lao, and eighteen thousand persons per ished. This convulsion, which spread along the coast two hundred leagues, be- gan about half-past ten o'clock at night. The noise, the shock and the run took place in the space of only four minutes. The day being one dedicated to St. Simon and St. Jude, the people of Lima sttribu- ted to the agency of those saints the fact | that only eighteen thousand persons per
 ished out of a population of fifty thou | sand. Vast quantities of gold, silver and jewels were buried among the seventy-four churches and the fourteen monateries The public fountains were buried, the statues of the Spanish kings crushed and the streets barricaded with fallen houses. Callao was utterly destroyed and even it's
 very shape was changed by huge heaps of | sand and gravel. At the moment of the | earthquake the sea rose mountain high | and rolled on till it buried the city and de stroyed everything except the two great | gates. Of the five thousand inhabitants | only about two hundred escaped by cling | ing to timbers and pieces of wreck.
 The most tremendous earthquake of | modern times was that of Lisbon, Novem-
 Der l, 1755. The people had risen as usu- | al that morning, and looked out upon Be- | lem and the Tagus, the little villas among | the olive groves, the orange trees, the bull
 ring, the hospitals, the convents and the | shops. In the seventy-five convents and II
 tinkled and the early prayer had been
 said. The birds were gayly singing their
 maths in the suburban gardens of Alcen-
 tara and Campo Grande. The blue sky | gave no omen of evil, and the river lay for mile after mile smiling in the golden sun light. Suddenly the city fell to pieces like a children's tower of cards. Roofs
 crushed in, srcsdes gaped in two, towers
 fell, steeples snapped, palaces tottered, I II | with rising clouds of dust and was filled
 with the crash of ceaseless destruction.
 At the same time, ss 1T tine terrors of the
 apocalypse had broken at last on Lisbon,
 the sea, agitated to its depths by the aw-
 full convulsion, rose and spread over the
 shore. One of tine qusys also open its
 dark jrws and swallowed, in an instant,
 six hundred persons who had taken re-
 fuge on it. In a minute or two more
 fresh calamities fell on the unhappy city,
 for, the fires being hurled down among
 the fallen timbers, confsgrations broke
 out in several parts of the city. To add
 to the general misery, thieves and murder
 CTS, escaping from the shattered prisons
 plundered and robbed indiscriminately
 One of these villains confessed to setting
 fire to the Indian house and another tC
 burning the ruins in seven places. The
 earthquake continued with gentle, inter
 mitting trsmors, felt even on the river, fol
 eighteen days. The first great shock con
 vulsed the eartq for five thousand miles overturned many cities aud never halted in it's tremendous march till it reached
 Scotland. The year 1755 was vey wet and rainy. The summer was unusually cool } and during the forty days preceding th, earthquake the weather was clear, but no remarkably so. On the day immedistel,
 preceding the earthquake a remarkabl gloominess prevailed, but on the mornin, l of the fatal day the fog was dissipated b, the sun. There was no wind, nor tn , least agitation of the sea, and the westhe
 was remarkably warm. This great earth quake of Lisbon, which in few minute swallowed fifty thousand persons, had l precursor in 1531, when in the same cit, 2 fifteen hundred houses and thirty thou 3 sam persons were destroyed, and severs 3 neighboring towns engulfed with all thei t populations.
 Is this old earth cooling of and gettini rid of its surplus heat through its volcan ic fire escapes, or is i. simply preparing : for another mighty effort to wreck things , Let us hope that, at any rate, nothing SC rious will happen till after we have helC