Iuka reporter. (Iuka, Miss.) 1888-1894, 1892-06-23
AN ERA OF FATAL ACCIDENT 5

The past few weeks have chronicled
more fatal and disastrous accidents
than probably any similar period in
the worlds history Man is constantly
inventing new explosives and manu-
featuring new dangers; and nature of
late has seemed to be a little out of
gear and has been giving us too free
! an exhibit of her powers.
| The past few weeks have witnessed
scores of accidents, accidents of the
most varied kinds. which show the
dangers that surround us, and they
have generally been accidents of phe
nomenal magnitude as far as loss of
life and property is concerned.
1t was but IA few days ago that the
news came, from Berkenburg, in Aus
| tria, Of one Of the worst of mine acci-
dents ever chronic!ed in any country.
| by which 352 men lost their lives and
2S5 women were made widows. AL
most at the same time the news reached
us from across the seas that a cyclone
storm of such proportions as has sell
dom been witnessed ravaged the Island
of Mauritius. With the wind blowing
250 miles an hour. everything went
down before it, houses, trees. CROPS,
etc. The total deaths reached the
frightful figure of 1900, with between
5000 and 5000 wounded.
We had scarcely recovered from the
| shock when, by a most extraordinary
and uncomfortable combir alton OF
cloud bursts. lightning and oil tank
explosions the entire Oil Creek valley
of Pennsylvania was laid waste within
a few minutes, first swept by the food,
then ravaged by the fire. While the
lives lost in that disaster did not equal
the Mauritus horror. the cataclysm
was more awful in the horrors it de-
veloped and the tale of loss was bad
enough, for the total lives lost was
frightful, and the property destroyed
was valued at $3, 000,00o.
Take as a sample of accidents three
days, The papers of late date told of
the Newport-Covington bridge disas-
ter with the long list of twenty-iour
killed and twenty-four wounded; and
of a Canada cyclone that swept out of
existence some twelve children and
wounded twenty or thirty others.
Still later comes the news of the
/ tornado that visited south Minnesota,
totally destroying buildings, crops and
forty or fifty lives. The country swept
! is greater than ever before known in
| the history of the state.
The previous day the steamer Pc
trolia was burned in Bordeaux harbor
and twenty-four persons aboard cooked
to death, while one ferry accid snt
killed four and three railroad acci-
dents killed and wounded ten persons.
and u, million dollars was swept out of
existence by a single fire in Baltimore.
In the past week a spell of hot
weather suddenly descended on the
country and Stayed its hundreds by
sunstroke; on the other side of this
country an explosion in the Mare
Island navy yard sent fifteen persons
to the other world; and in Spain flash
of lightning killed the same number of
persons while praying in church.
And thus the record goes on from
day to day. Whether working or
amusing ourselves, praying or gam
bling, travelling or at home, there is
always danger about; and no one
know, how maoy the dangt RS a Id how
far more numerous they have becon 9
| Of late. We have the lightning, the
! storm, the coud burst, fire, explosion
and hundred others alwavs near us.
The newspapers. OF course, keep the
world informed of all these disasters.
and this accounts for some of the ap-
parent increase. Mr. Beecher was n t
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