The Jasper weekly courier. [volume] (Jasper, Ind.) 1858-1922, 1897-07-30
EARTHQUAKES THIS YEAR.
Have shaken Many Countries, Hut
Not Much Harm Done.

Not Much Harm Done.
The news comes from India that
nearly every building IN Calcutta has
been injured by the recent earthquake
there. and that still greater damage
has been done i'm the villages Of the
interior.
This is not unexpected; that is. while
we did not know of an earthquake in
India. and had no special reason to ex-
pect one, il was certain. from all pre-
ccdcnts. that we would sooner or later
hear OF serious earthquake some
where. Seismic disturbances always
occur at nearly the same time at wide
~ different points Of the earth. We
of the United States are apparently
less subject TO them. When. there
fore, an earthquake occurs here we
may be quite sure Of hearing in the
next few days of far more serious
one in some of the great seismic CEN
tiers of the world-the Grecian archi-
pelago, South America. India or Nal
aysia. While, therefore, no one could
predict just where the bad news would
come from, scientists have for the past
few weeks been expecting to hear of
serious earthquakes somewhere.
This will go on record as an earth
quake year--not that there has been
so far any serious loss of life from
these disturbances, but that they have
been exceptionally frequent and wide
ly distributed. They have been Sc
we're, too, but, fortunately, free from
loss of life. more by accident, it would
seem. than from any special cause,
for there is no way of providing
against loss and damage by these con-
WILSON'S of the earth
So far in the last few weeks they
haze occurred in Canada, Mexico, Italy,
Japan. in the central part of the
Crited States. and last of all, in India,
and. it is believed, generally through
out the East Indies. Our own earth
quake. extending along the line Of the
Aleghenies. with its central point in
southwestern Virginia. was a more Sc
rious one than any we have had since
the shaking up and down Of Charles
ton. There was great deal of dam
age done. but fortunately the worst
country, sparsely settled. where there
were no large towns to suffer dam
age.
News from India is still meager, and
it may prove when we get the returns
from the far-away districts, that the
disaster has been even greater than at
Calcutta, and accompanied by some
loss of life. At Calcutta walls were
cracked and some of them fell. The
earthquake was accompanied by those
phenomena peculiar to them. 1t was
followed by an amazingly red and
brilliant sunset, said by the seismolo-
gists to be due to the dirt stirred up
by the fall of houses, and by the dis
turbances of the ground over space
of many miles. The air was filed with
sewer gas and sulphurous fumes. the
former natural enough when it is con-
sidered that the drains were broken.
and the sewers clogged and choked
by the falling walls and buildings.
Nor is there any reason TO believe
that the seismic disturbances are yet
over, for they generally wind up in
some severe shock before the earth
rearranges itself. Against such dis
turbances, however, we are reasonably
safe, for the United States seldom
suffers more than slight seismic
shake, and New Orleans and the coun-
try around scarcely feel it.-N. o.
Iimes-Democrat.