Evening star., 1927-10-10

!. Death and destruction. inflicted upon
st. Louis by a mighty storm so soon
after the devastation of. the lower
Mississippi Valley by flood turns the
thoughts of the country again to the
terrible powers of Nature in her angry
moods and to the heroism of humanity
in meeting such crises.
"Cities are heroic when crises
come" declares the Oklahoma City
Times, which reviews st. Louis ex-
perience with more damaging tor
nado in 1896, and says: "A greater
city followed that earlier disaster.
Finer homes and greater industries
will be reared above the ruins strewn
by this latest blast. st. Louis is IKE
that. Most American cities are:
Chicago, Baltimore, San Francisco,
built to new glories after sweeping
fires; Galveston, razed by hurricane
and tidal wave, rebuilt and with a
sea wall for defense against the angry
elements: Miami, beating back, after
a Caribbean storm"
With tie statement that 'the spirit
of st. Louis is now being tested the
Lexington Leader predicts that 1T
will rise to the occasion as Lind
bergh's plane rose in its epochal flight
over land and sea. carrying the fame
Father of Waters to- the ends of the
earth" In the optimistic view of the
DAYTON Daily News, such is the
vitality of the modern large city th2.
hardly a year will pass before the
scars of this newest destruction shall
have been wiped out. Nations come
AMI co." the News adds, "but cities
such as ST. Louis are where they arr
bv virtue of natural forces which sur
vive ordinary human vicissitudes."
Enthusiastic over the power of man,
the New York Herald Tribune muses.:
Mature can crack humanity between
her little fingers; but humanity can
despise Nature, and Nature cannot de-
spise humanity. Mankind sets her to
ripening his fields, feeding his herds,
carving his ships, driving his trains,
running his errands. building his
houses and weaving his clothes. Ma
tura can make her sudden wild re-
sponses-she can send earthquakes,
floods, tornadoes. tidal waves, confia-
gra atoms, pestilences-but they pass
and, when they are over, the men who
are left set themselves to repairing
the damage, reharnessing her forces
and devising ways to teach her better
manners next time"
X \ \ y
"Science is unable to find way to
check or control the wild whims Of
the wind, but humanity has found
way to alleviate suffering and repair
damage after it has been DONE" ac-
cording to the Flint Daily Journal
while the Topeka Daily Capital points
to the cities which overcome the raw
ages of fire, flood and storm and are
more firmly rooted than ever in their
stability and prosperity"
This crippled giant-St. Louis"
says the Birmingham News, will
build statelier and stronger edifices
that were just now filled with teem-
ing hives of men and women and chill
dren. Grieving, they will bury their
dead. But tomorrow and tomorrow
they will go back to the old wrestle
with Nature. They will not lose heart.
Not for long will they be discouraged.
Mans genius for ,recuperation is what
gave him the power and will to evolve
from lower forms. He may seem to
be broken ard spent, but something
there is in the going spirit of the races
that makes man-erect at last the cap
tain of his own soul.
The Pittsburgh PoSt-Gazette is sure
that lin st. Louis, now bowed with
grief. the sun will shine more kindly
another day; that ION another day
rugged hearts will turn, confident
again, to rebuilding the shattered
homes and broken lives
but the malevolence. of tornadoes,
earthquakes. volcanoes. the hatreds
and destruction of wars. the malice
of neverglutted oceans the storms
and the havoc in mans own soul, the
pestifence that strikes unseen--in the
face of these things man Is troubled
and confused"' exclaims the Asheville
Times. He gronas as best he can. on
the stairs Of faIth. seeking some high