Burlington weekly free press. [volume] (Burlington, Vt.) 1866-1928, 1901-12-12

1877, on all those three islands the cry
was, "The watcrs!" A cyclone arose and
rolled tho sea over those three islands,
and OF n population of 100000, 215,000
were drowned. Only those saved who
had climbed to the top of the highest
trees! Did you ever see a cyclone? No?
Then | pray God you may never see one.
| saw Il cyclone on the ocean, md it
swept us o miles back from our course,
and for thirty six hours during the cy-
clone and after it we expected every mo-
ment to go to the bottom. They told US
before we retired at q o'clock that the ba-
romcter had fallen, hut at II O'Clock ct
night we were awakened with the shock
of the waves. All the lights out. Crash
went all the lircboats. Waters rushing
through the skylights down into the cnb-
in and down on the furnaces until they
Missed and smoked in the dclugc. Seven
hundred people praying, shrieking. Our
great ship poised a moment on the top Of
a mountain of phoSphoresccnt fire and
then plunged down. down, down, until it
seemed as if She never would again be
righted. All. you never want TO see a cy-
Zone at sea!
But | was in Minnesota, where there
Eas one IT those cyclones on land that
swept the city Of Rochester from its foun-
dations and took dwelling houses, barns,
men, women, children. horses, cattle, and
tossed them into indiscriminatc ruin and
lifted a rail train and dashed il down. a
mighticr hand than that OF engineer on
the airbraEc. Cyclone in Kansas, cyclone
in Missouri. cyclone in Wisconsin. cyclone
in Illinois. cyclone in Iowa, Satan. prince
of the power Of the air, never made such
c|ycionic disturbances rs he has in our
day. And am ] not right in snying that
one of the characteristics of the time in
which we live is disaster cyclonicf
But look NJ the disasters oceanic. Shall
| call the roll Of the dcad shipping? Ic
monsters of the deep, anSwcr when | call
your names. The Vile de Bavre, the
Schiller, the city Of Boston, the Melville,
the President, the Cimbria, the Oregon,
the Moheran. But why should ] 20 ON
calling the roll when none of them answers
and the roll is as long rs the white scroll
Of the Atlantic surf Mt Cape Hatteras
breakers If the oceanic cables could re
port all the scattered life and all the
hleached bones that they rub against in
the ocean. what n message Of pathos and
tragedy for both beaches, In one storm
eighty fishermen persisted off the coast of
Newfoundland and whole fleets of them
of the coast Of England God help the
poor fellows ~ sea and give high seats in
heaven to IN, Grace Darlings and tho Ida
Lewises an. the lfcboa men lowering
around Goodwin sands and the SkerTies.
The sea. owning thrcc-fourths OF the
earth. proposes 10 capture the other
fourth and is homhardinc the land al!
around thu earth. The moving Of the no.
tells at Brighton Beach backward 100
yards from whore they once stood a type
OF what is going on all around the world
and on every coast. The Dead sea rolls
today where ancient cities stood. Pillars
of temples that stood on hills biologists
now find three quarters under the water
or altoccthcr submerged. The sea, having
wrecked SO many mcrchantmen and hotll-
las wants 10 wreck the c~oh'lhohts' ana
hence disasters oceanic AIas Tor caves
ton ana other cites almost drowned!
The Work of ~Epidemics.
Look at the disasters epidemic. | speak
not of the plague in the fourth century
that ravaged Europe and in Moscow and
the Neapolitan dominions and Marseilles
wrought such terror in the eighteenth
century, but ] look at the yellow fevers
aud the choleras and the diphtherias and
the scarlet fcvcrs and the typhoids of our
time. From IIurdwar, India. where every
twelfth yea 100000 devotees congre-
gate, the caravans brought the cholera,
and that one d scase slew $4,000 in eight
cen days in BosSorah. Twelve thousand
in one summer slain by it in India and
-. OOC in EEVUt Disasters CDidamip.