Morgan County Democrat. (McConnelsville, Ohio) 1886-1943, 1925-10-15
is NOT DISTURBED BY
CALIFORNIA EARTHQUAKE

excitement is settled. and the evi-
renee all in, / shall with your per-
mission give some items of the
earthquake at Santa Barbara, Cal.
Santa Barbara is on the coast and
had severe earthquake about 112
years ago 1t is small city Of 30,-
600 inhabitants. Most of the build
ings that collapsed were of the
fiimsy, seaside resort character The
old Mission founded by FIR. Junipero
Sierra about 125 years ago, built per-
haps of adobe or sundried brick, is
a complete wreck. Other buildings
of better material were injured
more or less, but can be repaired.
The city has $500 buildings. 275
suffered slight damage, about so
were severely damaged and 80 per-
haps will have to be torn down. The
residential part of town was not in
Jured One may ride through Santa
Barbara streets in any but the bus
mess sections for miles, without
seeing single sign of damage.
There have been only three earth
quakes in California for a period of
113 years with death roll-one in
1912, one in 1906. at San Fran
cisco, and the latter at Santa Bar
bara. The total death list for all
California for 200 years is less than
500, and the total list for. southern
Caiifa' MA tor the same leneti of
tirlc is less than 100. ut is sad of
course, that any are killed, but the
plain facts are that earthquakes in
California which occur at intervals
of 20 to .40years kill far fewer. peo-
pie in those periods than the cy-
clones in the middle west, the tor
nadoes and foods in the southern,
states, and the lightning storms and
heat waves in the eastern states, kill
every year. -" Quite a number of
years ago a cyclone strnck the little
city of Grinnell, Ia.,- several miles
south of where we lived. 1t de-
molished the college building, al
most destroying the town, killing as
/ remember now 100 or more stu
dents, as well as many other resi-
dents Of the city. While living in
Sioux Falls, S. D., 40 or more of our
neighbors and friends were frozen to
death one night in snow blizzard;
teachers, school children and others
had limbs frozen so as to require
amputation. We may also recall
other disasters of later dates-tha
collapse of the dance hall in Boston
fire in the moving picture theatre in
Kansas City, the cyclone in southern
Illinois few months ago, and all or
any one of those catastrophes
compared with the disaster at Santa
Barbara, forces us to say that
the latter is rather mild tragedy.
Twelve people were killed, regret
table of course, that any lost their
ed by automobiles in and around
Los Angeles every fortnight. San
Diego is not far behind comparative
ly. Santa Barbara is well taken
care ONO extreme suffering any
where, plenty to eat, plenty to wear
Or rather something to wear Tenn
porary buildings are put up for
school and church purpose. Tents
for those that have no homes, and
everyone happy. Why not? I'M
mune from almost all violent de-
structive forces of nature, and hav-
ing all good and pleasant forces at
our command. 1t is rather amusing
to get letters from the east inquiring
about our safety If we were injured
in the earthquake or felt the jolt.
We appreciate their thoughtfulness
and care over us, and thank them
for being SO kindly remembered. We
are 800 miles south of the disaster
and of course did not hear any
noise, neither did those living FIVE
miles distant feel any tremors-and
many in Santa Barbara did not know
of the quake until many hours later.
Earthquakes sometimes are a bless
ing in disguise. In San Francisco
for instance, opening up and expos
ing the filthy, stenchy Asiatic un-
derground cesspools of iniqaity and
sin; the occupants fleeing like rats
from their dens. ~.
We do not wholly approve of
earthquakes, but prefer them to cy-
clones, or floods or lightning storms.
They are less frequent and less
fatal. ! would a thousand times
rather take off my hat to respec-
table California earthquake, than
rub elbows With q middle west