The Montgomery advertiser., 1906-11-25
JONAH CITIES.
Towns Which Are Always ExpeEAemc-
 ing Some Dire Disaster


 r,..x,.. ing Some Dire Disaster
 Poor Valparaiso! Its name means Vale of Paradise, but never was a prophecy in the way of names worse fulfilled. The Spaniards founded 1t in 1886, and made none too good a choice of a situation, Tor the bay is very open and dangerous anchorage in a gale from sea. Hardly was the place a town before Drake descended upon it and sacked it. In 1596 Flaw kins raided 1t and got much booty, and only four years later the unhappy town was burnt by a Dutch corsair.
 Tn 1929. again in 1851, and once more dn lSs0, 1t was nearly leveled by earths quakes, and in 1866 a Spanish fleet en- tered the bay and bombarded the place. causing terrible loss of property and life. Tn 1891 came the biggest rev. olution that ever convulsed a South American Republic, and the city was the scene of three days continuous and terrifc lighting. On August 2T the In surgents entered Valparaiso ,and loot ing and burning cost the unfortunate inhabitants half a million of money.
 Valparaiso naturally brings to mind poor San Francisco, which is, however, rapidly rising from its ruins. Terrible as the disaster of April last was to the golden city of the West, yet it can not rank San Francisco among un- lucky cities. Barring the great fire of 1850 and two earthquakes since ..the city has enjoyed enormous prosperity, and it's disasters have only resulted in its rising more beauttful and better built after each, 4et s se,ls.a s
 To turn to Europe. it is really a difficult matter to decide which of the great cities can claim the record for disaster. Probably Lisbon. It would ne AVaa fA rr4f d mere list of its, early victssitudes be- tween Lusitanians, Romans, Goths and Moors. In 1147, English, German and Flemish crusades seized it. in 1873 the city was captured and burnt by the Castillians. Eleven years later they besieged it again, and many of the people died of hunger.
 The cruel Alva seized Lisbon in 15sO and committed atrocities unspeakable. in le40, after fierce lighting, Lisbon once more became the capital of Port ugal In 1907 the French held Lisbon for nearly g year.
 In 1894 the place was wrecked by earthquake; four years later nearly all its inhabitants died of plague. Then in 1755 came that appalling earthquake, probably the worst of which any record exists. Lisbon was literally swallowed up, and what remained was left. heap of ruins; s5,000 people were killed out right; the damage was 20,0OO, 900 pounds. Yet even this record does not include the full tale of Lisbon's i'll luck. in 1881 there was a fierce revolt, and the city suffered frightfully, while in 1859 yellow fever appeared and the vis- ftatIon proved little less awfulthan that of the plague five centuries previously.
 Paris has suffered eleven sieges and been almost destroyed four times. Ant werp has been in the hands of the ene- my seven times, and Naples has been hesieged six times. Rome has under gone nd, fewer than fifteen sieges. but is today more prosperous perhaps than at any time since the days of the Ro- man Enperors.
 It would, however. be difficult to find any other European city with the pos sible exception of Lisbon, which has suffered more terribly than Constanti- nopIe Since A. D., .330, when the Emper- or Constantine removed his capital to the mouth of the Bosphorus and turned Byzantium into Constantinople, the place has been besieged on twenty-six different occasions and has been taken eight times.
 TO Europe's shame, be 1t said. 1t was the Latins, under Baldwin and Dandolo,