The Wichita daily eagle. [volume] (Wichita, Kan.) 1890-1906, 1893-04-14
ANCIENT EARTHQUAKES
Convusions Of the Earth Which
Have Killed Thousands.
China aud Italy the Countries Most At.
hieted by the Awful Upiearals-
Whole Cities Completely
Overturned.

At PekiR. China. three hundred thou-
sand persons were buried N a moment
! IN 1862, and one hundred thousand
/ again IN the same city in 1871 The
/ eartho uake at Lima on October IS, 1916,
! extended to Callao, and eighteen thou.
sand persons persisted. This CONFUSION,
which spread along the coast two hun
dred leagues. began abou. 1880 O'Clock
/ at night The noise. the shock and tia
ruin teai, place in the space OF only four
minutes The day being one dedicated
TO ST. Simon and ST. Jude, the people OF
Lima attributed to the agency of those
saints the fact that only eighteen thou
sand persons persisted out of popuIa-
ton of fifty thousand. Vast quantities
OF gold, silver and jewels were buried
among the seventy-four churches and
the fourteen monasteries. The public
fountains were buried, the statues of
the Spanish kings crushed and the
streets barricaded with fallen houses.
Cauao was utterly destroyed, and even
its 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 destroyed every
:hiag except the two great gates. OF
.he FIVE thousand Inhabitants only
about two hundred escaped by clinging
to timbers and pieces of wreck.
The most tremendous earthquake of
modern times, according to the Chicago
Herald, was that of Lisbon, OF Noveu-
Der /, 1855. The people had risen as
usual that morning. and looked out
upon Beiern and the Tagus, the little
villas among the olive groves, the orange
trees, the bull ring. the hospitals. the
ty-hve converts and forty churches Of
Lisbon the bells had tinkled and the
early prayer had been said. The birds |
were gayly singing their maths in the !
suburban gardens of Alcantara 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 1
like children's tower of c4rris. Roofs /
crushed in. arcades gaped in two, tow
ers fell, steepIes snapped, palaces tot
tered, walls were leveled. The air grew
black with rising clouds of dust and /
was filed with the crash of ceaseless
destruction. At the same time, as if
the terrors Of the apocalypse had
broken at last on Lisbon, the sea, agi-
tated to its depths by the awful convul-
sion, rose and spread over the shore.
One of the quays also opened its dark
hundred persons who had taken refuge
IN it. In minute or two more fresh
,alanities fell on the unhappy city, for,
he fires being hurled down among the
ALLEN timbers, CONGREGATIONS broke out
n several parts OF the city. To add to
he general misery, thieves and muir
lerers, escaping from the shattered
prisons, plundered and robbed indis-
One of these villains con-
essed to setting fire TO the Indian house
md another to burning the ruins in
even places. The earthquake con-
inued with gentle. internitting trem-
us, felt even on the river, for eighteen |
lays The first great shock convulsed
he earth for FIVE thousand miles, over
urned many cities and never halted in
IS tremendous march till it reached |
scotland The year 1856 was very wet
nd rainy. The summer was unusually
DOL, and during the forty days proceed
1g the earthquake the weather was
lear, but not remar kably so. On the
az Immediately preceding the earth
uake remarkable gloominess pre-
allied, but on the morning Of the
ataI day the fog was dissipated
= the sun. There was no wind
or the least agitation of the sea, and
he weather was remarkably warm.
his great earthquake of Lisbon, which
! a few minutes swallowed fifty thou
and persons, had a precursor in 1881.
hen in the same city fifteen hundred ,
ouses and thirty thousand persons d
-ere destroyed. and several neighbor- E,
lg towns ingulfed with all their popu-
atoms.