The free press., 1893-07-20
EARTHQUAKES.
Shocks Which Have Killed Many
Thousands.
Most Tremendous UpheaYaI
of Modern Times.


persons perished. This convulsion,
which spread along the coast 200
leagues, began about 1880 o'clock at
night. The noise, the shock and the
ruin took 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 $4,000 per-
ished out population of 80, 900, 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.
Callao was utterly destroyed, and
even its very shape was changed by
hugh heaps of sand and gravel. At
the moment of the earthquake the sea
rose mountains high and rolled on till
1t buried the city and destroyed every
thing except the TWO great gates. Of
the ), 1000 inhanbtants only about 200
escaped by clinging to timbers and
pieces of wreck.
The most tremendous earthquake of
modern times was that of Lisbon, of
November l, 1855.
The people had risen as usual that
morning, and looked out upon Belem
and the Tagus, the little villas among
the olive groves, the orange trees, the
bull ring, the hospitals, the converts
and the shops. In the seventy-tive
converts and forty churches of Lisbon
the bells had tingled and the early
prayer had been said. The birds were
gayly singing their mathis in suburban
gardens of Alcantara and Campo
Grande. The blue sky gave no omen
of evil, and the river lay for mile af-
ter mile smiling in the golden sun
light.
Suddenly the city fell 10 pieces like
a children's tower of cards. Roofs
crushed in, arcades gaped in two,
towers fell, steeples snapped, palaces
tottered. walls were levelled. The
air grew black with rising clouds of
dust and was filled with the crash of
ceaseless destruction. AT the same
time, as if the terrors of the apoca-
lypse had broken at last on Lisbon,
the sea, agitaied TO its depths by the
awful convulsion, rose and spread
over the shore. One of the quays also
opened Its dark jaws and swallowed,
in an instant, 600 persons who had
taken refuge Oh il.
In minute or two more fresh ca
lamities fell on the unhappy city, for,
the fires being hurled down among
the fallen tlmbers, conflagrations
broke out in several parts of the city.
To add to the general misery thieves
and murderers, escaping from the
shattered prisons, plundered and
robbed indiscriminately. One of these
villains confessed to setting fire to the
In1; a hn tn m nj N
the ruins in seven places. The earth
quake continued with gentle, intermit-
ting tremors, felt even on the river,
for eighteen days.
The first great shock convulsed the
earth for 5000 miles, overturned
many cities and never halted in its
tremendous march till it reached Scot
land. The year 1855 was very wet
and rainy. The summer was unusu-
ally cool, aud during the forty days
preceding the earthquake the weather
was clear, but not remarkably so. On
the day immediately preceding the
earthquake a remarkable gloominess
prevailed, but on the morning of the
fatal day the fog was dissipated by the
sun.
There was no wind nor the least
agitation of the sea, and he weather
was remarkably warm. This great
earthquake of Lisbon, when in few
minutes swallowed $4,000 persons,
had precursor in 1881. which in the
same city 1000 houses and 10000
persons were destroyed, and several
peighboring towns engulfed with all
their population. -[Chicago Herald.
The rice erOn this year Will aQgre-