The Denison review. [volume] (Denison, Iowa) 1867-current, 1902-07-25
TOWNS D1sLIKED BY NATURE,
Certain Communities That Seem I.
Be Visited by the Creates Vio-
lence of the Elements,

a curious spite, as if she would say:
"This site is not meant to build upon
Langtoft, a little place of some 600
people in the East Riding of Yorkshire,
! England, is one of these. Over and
over again has the weather all round
been fine and clear, yet the valley in
which Langtoft stands has been
shrouded in heavy clouds and drenched
with rain. The snow in winter always
1 seems to lie thickest on the wolds
! above the town, and to cause floods
more or less disastrous as it melts in
the spring.
| The climax came on a Sunday even
] ing two summers ago, says the Chicago
Tribune.
1 After a hot day violent thunder
storm broke. Then there appeared in
the west an inky cloud, from which
hung four long, twisting black col
umns.
Suddenly, just after six o'clock, wall
side above the village. When it struck
the upper end of the street it was seven
feet high. In twinllling it had demol-
| ished number of houses, and torn par
titions from others, and swept away
everything in its path What was left
was so plastered with mud and earth
as to be almost useless.
No one was killed, but the destruc-
! ton of domestic animals, of houses,
property and roads was complete. Gar
dens and grazing lands were ruined.
Even the parish we'll was utterly
choked with mud and dead animals.
Southbourne-on-Sea, four miles on
the east of Bournemouth, has far bet
ter air than the latter town, and looks
as if it ought to be just the site for a
health resort. Tens of thousands have
been spent in the effort to make it so,
yet nature had said no, and mans eff
forts have proved unavailing.
A handsome pier was built, support
ed on the shore by immense cement
walls. The pier is now only APP
preached by a single plank. It's center
supports are gone, and it is the resort
only of two or there fishermen. The
cement wall looks like wave-eaten
cliff. Further along the shore a neat
row of houses was built in great re-
cess, cut back at vast expense in the
cliff. The sea cut in below them, and
the owner was forced to raze them
and carry the material away.
There is no great city in Europe
which nature SO evidently wishes to
be rid>o as St. Petersburg. Built in
the first place on low-lying swamp,
which was filled in at cost of hun
dreds of lives and hundreds of thou
sands of pounds, fevers reduced its
population and gave it death rate
higher than any other European cap
ital. Failing SO to GUST its builders, ma
ture used new weapon. The ice came
down in spring out of Lake Ladoga,
and, piling against the new wharves
and bridges, damned the Neva and
flooded the city. Every spring saw a
repetition of these disastrous floods.
which, even after they dried away, left
the streets mere quagmires. The ST.
Petersburgers now defeat the flood
by setting to work thousands of men
at the first spring thaw, who cut and
blast the river ice, and leave free pass
, ages for the lake ice to sail down
stream unhindered.
Yet still the struggle goes on. For
some years past it has been apparent
that ST. Petersburg is becoming city
of toothless people. Dentists ascribe
this curious fact to the effluvia from
the rotten vegetation deep buried I'M
der the new suburbs of the city. So
serious is the matter becoming that
there is a strong agitation in favor of
once more removing the capital of Rus
STA to some other site.
Russia has another town against
natural forces are waging terrible
war. This is Schemacha, in the eau
it was for long impossible to get sup
ply of drinking water. The difficulty
was overcome by bringing water from
distance. Next came a series of ter
rible epidemics-frst smallpox. then
cholera, and then smallpox again. Yet
the city grew, helped to prosperity by
the petroleum trade, and began this
year with $4,000 people.
In February last the town was hum
ming WIN industry, Wnen one dull but
warm morning came suddenly terrific
crash of thunder. The solid ground be-
gan to vibrate. A few seconds later
there was horrible cracking sound,
and the whole of the Mohammedan
quarter was thrust upwards bubble
| like, till it's houses were reared high
upon hill. The bubble burst, and in
stead of town there lay formless
heap of ruins, from which red flames
! leaped and cracked toward the gigan-
] tic pail of dust which hid the sky.
Within a week Schemacha's survivors
determined to rebuild their ruined CITY,
They had hardly reached the decision
when once more the ground began to
tremble and the night sky grew ruddy
with flame. News came that new
volcano had burst out in the noun
tains nearby. No palmer warning
could be given. Extinct volcanoes have
often burst out afresh, and with shock
ing and terrible results, as in the case
of the recent disaster at st. Pierre.
whose thousands of inhabitants have