Evening star., 1922-04-16

eartnquake in SAlnornsa, says The
Star OF April 10. 1872.
Pacific Coast comes the story by
r.LL..r cable Of q far greater
SAA4 ""S' calamity of a similar
character at the famous old city Of An
tioch. Syria, by which nearly 1.5oo OF
her 5000 Inhabitants were instantly
killed, while thousands were injured,
and nearly all were deprived Of their
homes. Founded about the year 300
BE-. the city has been FIVE times pros
trated by earthquakes before the pres
ent visitation, which has laid about half
of 1t in ruins. The cable does
not give us the date OF this last earth
quake, but following SO Immediately
after the series of shocks along the Pa
cific coast, one is apt to connect them,
particularly as Antioch Is situated be-
tween parallels SO and 81. which is pre-
cisely the latitude of Owens lake, Visa
liza and other places in California, where
the shock of the 26th ult. was severest.
The coincidence of two such phenomena.
one of the most serious earthquakes that
have occurred in California since 1872,
and the other the most destructive that
has befallen Antioch in centuries, hap
penfng only, few days apart, and on
the same belt of latitude. seems to indf-
cate a connection between the two.
OF course, the newspapers can
not let such an opportunity pass OF
trotting out their several pet earthquake
theories again, and most OF the profni-
nent journals of the country devote con-
siderable space to the subject The
New York Herald sticks to the old die
tum of a rolling sea Of fire within the
EARTH affected by electric and atmos-
pheric changes. The earthquake philo-
sopher of the Tribune, on the other
hand, thinks that there are objections
to the melted nucleus hypothesis which
are well-nigh insuperable. As he don't
advance anything more reasonable. how
ever, and makes such a grave mistake
as to assert that the shell being heavier
than the nucleus, there would be
strong tendency OF surface to tumble
in,' his speculations don't amount to
much. Astronomers nave demonstraied
beyond a doubt that the specific gravity
of the earth is several times greater
than the heaviest rocks upon its sur
face. which is In strict accordance with
natural laws; for were the globe again
in fluid state the heaviest matter
Tribune philosopher or any other man
can prove by putting q little Oil and
water in tunbler."
Further earthquake theories were
follows:
Eorfhnnake California savants are
not yet done fixing re-
Ineorles. sponsibility for the late
earthquakes, and each expert has mis-
own theory different from anybody
else's. As there is sect Of Philosophers
who contend that nothing is but that
everything only seems to be, and that
the object is evolved out of the inner
of the subject, SO there
was a school of Pacific slopers VINO.
with their experience of earthquakes
which were no great shakes, mao
come to the conclusion that the Ell
fects they witnessed were the result
of some electric or atmospheric ois-
turbance which shook the ouildings
and other subjects on the surface OF
the ground, which in the general com
motion only seemed to tremble. This
theory is upset py the
dispatches from Lone Pine, which
state that the earth opened wide IN
moved southwark fourteen feet; that
some thousand distinct shocks have
occurred; that huge rocks were hurled
down the Yosemite valley, shlverlng
the giant trees. and that immense
waves rolled up the CUR OF Sali-
fornia. All these phenomena have been
laid upon electricity. of course, and
then upon all the heavenly bodies In
'Philomath.' by communl-
cation in the San Francisco papers, Is
dead sure il is all Jupiter's fault. He
clears it all up thus: But when a
nIanet SO large as Jupiter is nearer
the earth by one hundred millions OF
miles the tendency to lift the COM
thin crust of the same is
pruportionately greater"