Alexandria gazette. [volume] (Alexandria, D.C.) 1834-1974, 1903-06-19
FRIDAY EVENING. JUNE 10, 1908.

ATTENTION has been called by the
Gazette several times recently to the
momentous events Of the present year.
1t has hardly run half its course, and II
the next six months are destined to pro-
duce an equal amount of history, the
year will stand forth as one of the most
eyentful to be found in the annals OF the
world. Disasters, in one form or another,
have been universal and contracted to
no particular country, and list OF the
more serious fatalities will form memoir
anda for the scrap book. Landslides,
floods, tornadoes and collisions on both
land and water have contributed to the
loss of hundreds of lives.
On January, 27 near Westfield, n.
j. an express train dashed by the block
SIGNALS on the New Jersey Central Rail
road. and crushed into local train,
causing the loss of twenty-three lives and
the injury of far greater number OF
persons.
On February 10 a heavy loaded troll
lev car in Newark, n. j., got beyond
the control of the mOtOrman and ran
down sharp incline, coming in collision
with the engine of a Delaware, Lacka-
wanna and Western train, causing the
deaths of nine persons, nearly all OF
them school girls.
On March 20 a collision occurred on
Long Island Sound between the freight
steamer City of Taunton and the passen-
ger steamer Plymouth, off Fishers Is
land. in which six persons were killed
and over five hundred were in peril.
On April 9 tOrnadOes wrought deatruc-
tion in Arkansas and Alabama, nine
persons being killed in the former State,
and twelve in the latter.
On April % the side of a mountain
slid down on the town of Frank, in
southwestern Alberta, Canada, causing
the death of fifty-siX persons and prop
erty loss estimated at 81 500, 600.
On May 80 and the following days
floods caused great loss Of life and prop
erty ON the Kansas, Missouri and Des
Moines rivers. The loss of life at North
Topeka and Manhattan, Kan, was first
reported at $50, but proved to be about
half of this number; twenty-five lives
were lost in Kansas City, Kan, and a
dozen in Kansas City, Mo-, while in
these cities and in Des Moines, as well
as many smaller places, there were
thousands of persons made homeless.
The property losses in Kansas were estl-
mated at $l7, 900, 600, and the damage
to corps at s., 900, 600.
On Jane / tornado swept over
Gainesville, Ga, causing loss OF about
one hundred lives and property damage
estimated at half million dollars.
On June a cloudburst at Clifton,
- :. c.. caused the loss of iiity-eight lives
and property damage to manufacturing
villages Of SO, 500, 600.
On June s thirty-fve lives were lost
bv the rush of waters when levee broke
at Granite City, H., on the Mississippi
river, and great damage was done at
other places in the vicinity of st. Louis.
Thirty more lives were lost the next day,
when an embankment broke and East St.
Louis, H., was twO-thirds submerged.
On June II the latest of this series OF
disasters befel Heppner, Ore, in the
shape of a cloudburst, which 1t Is estl-
mated caused the loss of the lives of no
less than five hundred persons, with
great property damage To the list of
disasters of the year must be added the
property losses due to the forest fires
which ragged early this month in the
Adirondacks, White Mountains and the
Catskills, due largely to the excessive
drought that prevailed for nearly two
months.
In addition to these disasters massacres,
assassinatiOns, regicides, revolutions,
brutal murders here and there, disorderly
strikes &c, have produced commissions
which are causing natural apprehension.
As suggested above, there is no telling
what will be sprungupon the world before
the death knell of the year 1903 shall
sound, but a careful reading of the more
colossal disasters which have come upon
humanity during the partial sidereal
journey of the planet affords food for
thought.