Rensselaer Republican, Volume 18, Number 17, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 31 December 1885 — DISASTERS OF THE YEAR. [ARTICLE]

DISASTERS OF THE YEAR.

ft* Appalling Catalogue of Accidents Involving I.oss of Human LHIb. Earthquakes, Cyolones, Shipwrecks, Mine Explosions, Bailway Collisions, Fires, Etc. Ttn jtezr has been droadfuHy prolific of disastm by land and -water, involving on appalling *—traction of life. Storms, floods, fires, earth - tiskN, plagues, explosions, railway oollisions, eOo., have played havoo with life and property Sa every quarter of the globe. The most remarkable of the disasters of the year are resrfowod below:

JANUARY. Stock by the thousands reported dying of hunger in the ranges of Montana. Shocks of earthqpxake in Spain created intense panic; a number oC towns ftijd villages were completely destroyed, and the surviving inhabitants desorb'd them. Losses from flres in the United States «nd Canada during 1884 were placed at $112,000,<Mo—over $15,000,000 in excess of the annual av«rago for nine years; loss during December, 1884, $11,000,000. The bodies of fourteen men Were found along a railroad grade between Valentine and Gordon City, Neb., who perished in a blizzard. Many lives, with a number of vessels, were lost in a great storm which swept the British coast. A cyclone whose roar could be heard for miles swept through Georgia and Alabama, carrying awav buildings and fences. Twenty -eight men buried alive by an explosion at fire-damp in the great coal mine at Liovin au Pas de Calais, France; all killed. Burning of fibe infirmary for male patients of the lunatic asylum at Kankakee, 111. j seventeen of the incurable inmates cremated. Twenty-eight lives lost by the sinking of the British packet Admiral Xoorsom, which collided with the ship Santa Anna near Holyhead, Wales. Enormous snow•Ude in the Alpine foothills of Switzerland and Piedmont, crushing two villages, with a loss of aver forty lives and the injury of nearly one hundred persons. The Bay State Sugar Kellner y burned at Boston; loss, $1,000,000. Burning of fibe steamer St. John—a very large and fine veseel at her pier in New York ; she originally cost •800,000. An avalanche at Melvulles, in the Ptench Alps, crushes a church and buries a congregation in the snow; twenty workmen in a marble quarry near by also buried. Some deaths, mnoh Buffering and many wrecks reported among the fishing fleets on the Newfoundland eeast, caused by a cold gale. Loss of tho Amori«an schooner Arcana in the Bay of Fundy, with Capt. Holmes and eight men. Forty passengers klaed by the wreck of a train at a bridge near Bydney, N. S. W. Total loss by fire In the United Slates and Canada during January, $8,500,000 more than $1,000,000 above average January loss fa nine years.

FEBRUARY. Eire at Marquette. Mich., destroyed 8250,000 worth of property. Loss of over 81,000,000 incurved by the burning of a marble building in Barclay street, New York. The village of Buttle lake, Minn., almost swej t out of existence by a conflagration. Fire in Gold and Sprnce streets, Mew York, destroyed property valued at $2.30,400. Steel works at Nashua, N. H., suffered • loss, of 8100,000 by the burning of ■late and bar mills. By a collisiou of freight wains on a bridge at New Brunswick, N. J., an •O tank exploded, and the burning fluid spread fla two manufactories, several dwellings, and a •table full of horses ; four persons perished In the flames, and the money loss reached 81,000,•h PowdCr works near Canton, China, exploded, killing 250 employes. By the fall of a •caffold on the Susquehanna briugo at Havre de Oraoe, five workmen fell through the ioe into <be fiver, fifty feet below, and two drowned. Tfehteeu miners killed by a colliery explosion at Maw Glasgow, N. 8. Twenty-eight insane in■netm of the county almshouse in West Philadelphia cremated in the destruction of that toatitution. The town of Alta, Utah, swept by a Issavy avalanche of snow, and three-fourths of flbs buildings destroyed; eighteen lives lost. Seventeen lives (nine of them civilians) lost and Hirh damage done at Gibraltar, Spain, by the •■plosion of a powder magazine. Potts’ville, Mai, had a 8100,000 conflagration. The entire fewtoess portion of Bisbee, Arizona, was reduced to ashes ; loss SIOO,OOO. Several manufactories at Lynn, Mass., were swept away, oausing a loss •fl SIOO,OOO. Explosion of gas in a Wilksbarre ■sine caused death of twelve men and serious homing of ten others. Of the Canadian voyagers who took Gen. Wolseley's boat up the Mile ten were drowned, two died from fever, and toio were killed on the railway in Egypt. Fire (destroyed the Grannis Block, in which Were three banks, a loss of 8300,000 being incurred ; four large business structures corner of •eoond and Chestnut streets, Philadelphia—loss fltS0,000; Jos. H. Brown’s grocery house at Fort Worth, Texas—loss *loo,OfcW; the Le Boy Pine Oovpany at Troy, N. Y.—4Ctea *90,000. Five permaom lost their lives fn a collision on the Virginia Midland Railroad at Four Mile, Va.; the contents of the express safe, *250,000, were destroyed, alto more valuable mail matter than was ever before known; the fire was so intense «■ to melt the gold and silver in transit Fire destroyed the Martin Safe Company's f•wtocy at ‘ Mew- Yovk, valued at 8230,000. John A. Ring * ■aaidanco in Philadelphia took fire before the •owpanta had risen from their couohes, and out d(the family of eight persons but three escaped •live. Ten business buildings at New Britain, Omn., valued with contents at $200,000, were harmed; one man lost his life. Citizens and live ■took were reported starting in McDowell Counfly, W.Va., a region 100 miles from any railroad, •n account of failure of crops last summer. An Illinois Central train consumed 168 hours in the trip from Bloomington to Kankahao—66 miles—owing to the snow blockade. The Steamer Allegheny, from Cardiff for Ceylon, was float with her crew of thirty persons. Flames ■wept away the National Theater at Washingtoe; loss *200,000. During February the Are loss reached *10,000,000. A terrific hurricane on the out coast of Madagascar sunk an American hack and two French steamers; seventeen per•mi perished.

MARCH. Fire-damp in the Us worth Colliery, at Usworth, England, caused an explosion and the •ass of fortv-eight lives. From a coal mino in Austrian Silesia in which an explosion occurred, IM corpses were taken. Of 220 miners employed hi a colliery at Camphausen, Rhenish Prussia, «JI were either crashed to death or asphyxiated by aa explosion of fire-damp except thirty. The Tallinn Hotel at Chicago was destroyed by •re, causing the loss pi five lives. Twelve Miners lost their lives by a terrible explosion in e«osi mine at McAllister, Indian Territory. APRIL. While workmen were bracing up the yielding flsnilstions of eight five-story tenements in New Tork City the entire structure fell, burying about flgty workmen in the rnins j (he contractor fled to escape lynching. Tramps who had been •riven away from Senator Stanford’s Vina (Cal.) —rh returned and fired his stables, 111 horses and mules being burned to death. A volcanic eruption causing the death of 100 per•oos occurred on the Island of Java. Vicksburg, Miss., waa visited by a, destructive fire which ■snr~l the loss of forty lives: thirty-two of the victims were buried one day; the telegraph gave •aly the hriefeet mention of the disaster. An •valanche in Iceland swept fifteen dwellings, vrith their inhabitants, into the sea, and twentyfloor persons drowned. Aggregate losses by Are In the United States and Canada in April, *7,750,000; for the first four months of *■*s7*3s,2so,ooo—at the rate of over *105,000,000 flat the year. MAY. A Portsmouth (Pa.) dispatch dated the Ist - loot, announced: *The plague here is increastota horror daily; fourteen funerals yesterday; LTCO persons now under medical treatment, and flAyviclens exhausted with their labors.* Ah ■toempt to raise a five-story factory in Brooklyn. M. Y.,,resulted in the collapse of the building ; bondreda of men, women, and girls were eiABrty of whom lost lam age. 8300,000. a farnn.. were buroowstorm prevailed ngarv on the 17th ons were frozen to were destroyed, ployed in a Cineina fire, leaped from d all were killed : ihe upper floor; esoff. and telegraph j of ladders by the 3g, the steamship i the French bark and, tweßty-two of A rain-storm deli River, Texas, rewire : the losses exy fire in the United £750,000; v; ' ■ India, was visited Seriuaattr, one of lestroyefl, and the the ground; 50 sol--20 miles north of and 400^ereons Mute: the enraged fit and roasted him

to death over a bonfire. An explosion in the Philadelphia Colliery, near Durham, England, caused the death of 33 men and boys. The FYeneh war-ship Bonard, with a crew of 137, foundered in the Red He a. Nearly 300 lives were lost by the bursting of a waterspout ‘ in the mountains Hear the dividing, line between the Mexican States of Guanajuato and Jalisco. By the full of a Crowded stairway In the Court House in Thiers, France, 35 persons were killed and 168 injured. Twenty lives were least and over 50 persons were severely injured by a destructive storm vvjiiqh visited the western and northern portions of low'a; the loss to property was 8700,000. As a result of the earthquakes in Cashmere, India, 8,081 persons lost their lives, 70,000 houses were laid in ruins, and 78,000 animals perished. In a single day 338 deaths from cholera were reported in Spain, with 491 new oases. A terrible explosion occurred at the Pemllebgry colliery, near Manchester, England, and of the 349 miners employed therein 100 perished. Cholera reports from Spain for one day show 316 deaths and 719 new cases. The fire losses in this country dnr.ingthe first six months of 1885 amounted to $56,750,000. JULY. Floods In China caused great loss of life and enormous destruction of property. Tojurha, Japan, was visited by a conflagration which destroyed 5,917 houses. Stoughton, Wis., suffered a loss of $650,000 by fire ; about one-third of the tobacco crop of the State was consumed. The steam-yacht Minnie Cook wuh capsized on Lake Minnetonka during a storm, and ten persons, including ex-Mayor Hand, of Minneapolis, his wife and two sons, were ’drowned. Fire at Washington, D. C., destroyed tho> presses and composing and oditorial rooms of the Post, National Republican, Critic, and Sunday Gazette; loss 8150,000. A lifeboat which started from Yarmouth, England, to the relief of a brig in distress sank before reaching its destination, and eight of its crew were drowned. Thirteen persons were killed and 22 injured by lightning during a storm at Torre Cajotani, Italy. Total losses by fire in this country during the mouth of July estimated at $8,000,000. , AUGUST. Half a mile along the water-front of Toronto, occupied by .boat houses, lumber yards, elevators, etc., was destroyed by fire scores of vessels wore burned; the loss of property was placed at $1,(XX),000. A great earthquake in tho region of Taslikend, in Asiatic Turkey, swallowed up portions of villages and citieß, killing many people. A great flood devastated the province of Canton, China, causing the death of 10,000 people and the destruction of many villages. An explosion of gas at tho Mocanaqua (Pa.) coal mines caused the death of twenty men and boys. The little town of Norwood, 8t "i.ftrvrenco County, N. Y., was visited by a terrlfio storm of only three minutes’ duration ; but during that time eight persons were killed arid the place almost wiped out of existence. Tho American barks Napoleon and Gazelle were lost in the ice in the Northern Pacific, and twenty-two persons perished. Tho British ship Haddingtonshire was wrecked in tho Pacific Ocean, in the vacinltv'of San Francisco; eighteen of the crew perished. The German corvette Augusta and a crew of 238 officers and sailors were lost in a cyclone in tho lied Sea. T.he Scotch steam-dredge Beaufort, with a crew of twelve persons, was lost in a hurricane off the Bermudas ; officers and men are said to have been drunk. A steamer carrying pilgrims was wrecked in the Gulf of Aden; 100 lives lost. A month of cholera cost Spain greater loss in money and life than a war of a year's duration calling all her able-bodied men into the field ; over 70,000 people died in August. Charleston, S. C., was visited by a cyolone, which unroofed one-fourth of tho buildings ip tho city and destroyed a vast amount of property, the aggregate loss being estimated at 81,000,000; great havio was also caused along tho entire South Atlantic coast. Three pilot boats hailing from Beaufort. 8. C., were wrecked in a hurricane, fourteen lives being lost. The losses by fire in tho United States and Canada during August reached 85,500,000, the average for the month named for ten years being 87,000,000; for eight months of 1885 the fire waste footed up 865,500,000.

SEITEMBGK. Ship-yards at Barrow-in-Furness, England, burned, causing a loss of 81,000,000, and depriving two thousand men of employment. Near Copenhagen the British steamer'Auekland camo in collision with the German gunboat Blitz and was sent to the bottom, only two of tho Auckland’s crew of seventeen being rescued, In a collision between the steamers Drenda ami Dolphin, off tho southeast coast ot England, seventeen of tho crew and passengers of tho latter wore lost. Prairie fires destroyed over a million dollars’ worth of crops and otlfer property in Dakota; a solid stretch of over 100 miles along the line of the Northern Pacific was burned. People to tho mini her of .30,000 assembled in front of Mme. Christine Nilsson’s hotel at Stockholm, Sweden, to hear her sing from the balcony, and in the crush that'ensued seventeen persons perished; twenty-nine others were seriously ininrod. Disastrous floods, covering an area of 3,500 square miles, occurred in the presidency of Bengal, British India, causing immense damage to property and loss of life; 300 persons were drowned. A great fire visited Iquique, Peru, destroying ovyr 82,000,000 worth of property. The fire losses for September in the United. State's and Canada were computed at *6,525,000—83,700,000Te5s than during the corresponding month of 1881.

OCTOBER. A railway accident in Greece caused the death or injury of between forty and sixty persons. London had a 815,000,000 conflagration; a block of thirteen eight-story business buildingß waa consumed in Aldersgate. Floods in the valleys of Switzerland destroyed a large amount of property, and caused, the loss of a number of lives. Cholera in Tonquin carried off 3,000 Frenchmen in nine months. Deaths in Montreal for five days, from small-pox, numbered 1,370; on one Btreet in Ste. Cunegondo there was a case to every house. At Perigeux, Franoe, the Ohancelade quarries fell in, destroying a village, and killing many people. During a storm on the Labrador coast, 70 vessels were wrecked and 300 lives lost; 2,000 shipwrecked persona on the shore wore rendered destitute. A rainstorm of eighteen hours' duration caused floods in the Shenandoah Valley, Va., more water falling than in.the two previous vears. The losses by tire during October, in the United States and Canada, reached 857150.000 — about $2,250,000 less than the average for October in the past ten years. The U. S. Consul at Palermo reported 2.000 deaths in that city from cholera up to October 12. and stated that over 60,000 persons fled from the epidemic.

NOVEMBER. A cyclone at Dangerfield, Tex., killed a colored family of six persons. Nearly a score of persons were 'killed and forty or fifty seriously injured near Selma, Ala., by a destructive cvclone. Tho iron steamer Algoma, belonging to the Canadian Pacific Koad, struck a reef off Port Arthur, Lake Superior, in a dense fog, and went down ; 45 of the passengers were lost, and 14 of the crewsaved. Flames in Galveston, Texas, destroyed 400 houses, mostly residences, the losses being $2,500,000. A cyclone in the Philippine Islands destroyed 8,000 buildings and killed manv people. A cyclone in the Oressa, Moorsliedabad and Huddea districts of India desolated vast extents of country, submerged 150 villages, and destroyed 5,000 lives. A remarkable tidal wave along the Atlantic coast on the 24th caused great damage on the New England seaboard as well as in New York harbor and on the New Jersey coast; a submarine earthquake was believed to have caused the sudden rise. The loss by fire in the United States and Canada during November was placed at $7,500,000, and for the eleven months, to Dec. 1, the loss footed up $85,000,000.

DECEMBER. Fire consumed tho B&ruam Wire Works at Detroit, valued at 8277,000. and employing 20Q men. An earthquake ravaged four populous towns of Algeria, killing 32 persons, among them several Europeans. Through the failure of a grip oh a cable train on the East River Bridge, at New York, two cars slipped back down the curve at the Brooklyn end, crashing into another train ; five persons received serious injuries ; the bridge officials repeat that the cable road has carried 38,500,000 passengers without losing a life; Brooklyn people to the number of 16,000 an hour are transported to New York during the morning hours on week days. The Pennsylvania Company paid $29,398 to William Fitz Simmons, one ‘of iTs former engineers, who was crippled for life in a collision caused by* a train-dispatcher’s,, blunder. Two men engaged in the construction of the new Croton aqueduct, at Merritt's Comers, N. Y’., were killed, luakiug thirty-eight who have lost their lives in connection with this work. (Near Atlanta, Ga.. a collision occurred between trains of the Georgia Pacific and East Tennessee Roads, on a high trestle; twelve persons were killed and three others feceiyed fatal injuries, Flames originating on the dock at Jacksonville, Fla., destroyed a number of business houses, valued at *450,000. A cyclone at Aspinwall sunk fifteen vessels, wi£h their crews. Thirty Hungarians were drowned in a mine at Nanti'coke, Pa., by a rise in the Susquehanna River. A dvnamite explosion in a Siberian mine caused the loss of from 400 to 1,000 lives. r . . ; .. =^x “Do you like to look At pretty dishes, Mr. Golliper*" said a lady to a gent in a State street store the other day. “Yes indeed, ma’am; I like to look at anything pretty,” said he, os he looked i right at her. If yon want to live to a ripe old age, don’t worry about riches. It is fonnd that the centenarians are mostly people in hamble circumstances. “Poor | and content iB rich, and rich enough."