Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1909-01-03
emphasizing England's peril from tn

most fortunate. October d he, with a
passenger in Ais aeroplane. remained In
the air one hour four minutes and twenty
seconds. Since then Wright has taken a
passenger for still longer trips. Orville
Wright. after many successful flights at
Fort Myer, Va. was dashed to earth
September II and seriously hurt by the
breaking of a propeller blade. Lieut..
Thomas f. Selfridge was killed.
Count Zeppelin of Germany in his great
400-foot dirigible airship July 1 made a
twelve-hour flight and travelled $50 miles.
reaching maximum height of 800 feet.
The airship later was wrecked by an ex-
plosion, even while the world was con-
graduating him on his achievement. The
contributions which poured in from the
counts sympat hizers all over Germany
he devoted to building another dirigible,
in which he has made several successful
voyages.
The year was not characterized by
many great labor disputes the result.
no doubt. Of the finan-
Roll Of cial depression. In Can
,r.-e. ada 5000 shop men of
iSAoi '0 the Canadian Pacific
were ordered out on strike on August
4. Trouble did not cease until October
4, when it was settled under the Do
minion labor act. Strikes in the Lam
NeiSALi o CottOi HILLS III otptSHDcI tHISW
10000 out of employment. The Paris
strikes last summer were quickly
broken up by the police.
Just as the world was congratulating
itself that the year had passed without
great disaster the most appalling catas-
trophe in 200 years startled the universe.
Earthquake and tidal wave devastated the
coast of Italy and Sicily and destroyed
lives estimated at about 100000.
The forest fires. which ravaged large
n on on hn CT FOO hot
New York and Minnesota, proved espe-
ciallys destructive because of the
drought. In the state of Michigan
alone the loss was estimated at $780,.
in the northwest. Fires in Canada de-
stroyed great quantity of valuable
timber and the town Of Fernie, and
cost the lives Of hundreds who could
not escape. The total loss in American
timber is estimated at SS5,00O.000.
Disastrous floods visited Georgia and
the Carolinas late in August. working
special havoc In Augusta and bringing
ruin to thousands of acres Of cotton.
Other calamities resulting from ele-
mental causes were the fire on January
ID at Boyerstown. Pa, in which 200
lives were lost; an earthquake on jan
uary Is. followed by tidal wave at
Gonaives. Haiti; fire at Portland. Me,
and county buildings. with loss Of
$1.0O0.OO0; tornado on February IA.
which destroyed three Mississippi
towns and killed twenty people. and a
fire In Bahia, on March IS. destroying
81 100000 worth of property.
Two hundred were drowned on March
23 when the Japanese ship Lusu was
sunk. On March % sixty miners were
| entombed in the Union Pacific mines at
Hanna, Wyo.. by an explosion. A fire in
Chelsea, Mass, on April IL, destroyed
many public and private buildings.
causing damage amounting to $6,000.000
and resulting in the death of twelve
and the injury of fifty. Floods in Han
kow on April 13 caused the loss of 500
lives.
On March a schoolhouse suddenly
took fire in Collingwood, a suburb Of
Cleveland. which resulted in the death OF
1856 children. The fearful loss of life was
due to the fact that the building had
only two fire escapes Most OF the little
ones were killed by being crushed in a
wild stampede. The disaster 'caused the
reconstruction of many schoolhouses In
nearly all the large cities Of the United
States.
A series of tornadoes which swept Texas.
Oklahoma, Arkansas. Louisiana, Missis-
sippi, Tennessee. Alabama and Georgia
April % caused the death of $40 people
and the loss of $12.O00,0O0 property. May
8 fire destroyed two blocks in Atlanta.
Ga, causing property loss of 81. 600.
June 5 a typhoon destroyed a pearling
fleet off West Australia with the result
that forty ships were lost and 30 men
drowned.
About 300 miners were killed as result
Of an explosion of gas in the Rikovski
mine, Russia, July .. On the same day
fire caused by fireworks in Cleveland
killed seven. July one-third Of the city
of Port au Prince, Haiti, was destroyed
by fire. A typhoon in Manila bay July
16 upset a pleasure launch, drowning
twenty-five. Fire in the elevator and
freight warehouse district in Chicago de-
stroyed property valued at over $2,OO0OO0
and caused the death of eight. August
10 seventy men were entombed by an
explosion in the Maypole mine, at Wal
gram, England. When the British ship
Duncan foundered off the coast of Japan
August 26 fifty-two lives were lost. Fire
in the business part of New Orleans
August 30 destroyed property worth
81, 100000. Fire September practically
wiped out the mining camp of Rawhide.
causing loss of $3.50. 900 and making 5000
people homeless.
November 80 were lost in the sink
ing of the steamer Taish off the japanese
coast. On the 10Th storm caused the
loss Of a score of lives and $3.O00,O0O Of
property at Cape Town. On the 18th the
steamship Sardinia burned up within sight
of Malta and 100 lives were lost. Three
days later an explosion in a model mine
at Marianna Pa, resulted in the death
of 80 miners
The most disastrous railroad accident Of
the year occurred at Contich Belgium,
May q, the dead numbering sixty and the
injured 100
Cholera in ST. Petersburg ragged through
out the month of September, causing the
death of as many as $50 in a day In
Manila the same disease killed twenty and
more a day during the same month. Blu
bonic plague at Caracas caused an en-
barge on the shipping from that port by
Venezuela.
In addition to the Dowager Empress
and the Emperor of China and King
Carlos and the Crown
Claimed Prince of Portugal, death
-, claimed many a notable
Dy DeatH. victim in 1908 Among
them were Grover Cleveland. whose SIM
pie funeral at Princeton was attended by
President Roosevelt; former Senator Ed
ward w. Carmack Of Tennessee, who was
shot down in Nashville, Tenn, in Novem-
Der by Robin ]. Cooper as the result of a
political quarrel; Senator Stephen r. NAL
lory of Florida. John Chandler Bancroft
Davis, formerly minister to Germany;
Bishop Edward G. Andrews of the Meth
odist Episcopal Church, James Ryder
Randall. writer Of Maryland. My Mary
land; Edmund Clarence Stedman, the
banker-poet; Charles Emory Smith, editor
of the Philadelphia Press; Crosby s.
Moves, editor of the Washington Star;
Morris K. Jessup New York banker and
philanthropist: Edward Mcdowell, the
the novelist; Cardinal Richard Of Paris,
Vol orxr1or fnrr onr1 mo md