SSHHKbB
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SECOND PART.
-- 1
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-
THEIEJITAPH;
The 10,000 New Tombs in the
Conemangh Yalley.
MJY WILL BE UNMAEKED,
And Aching Hearts of Survivors
Will Make a Vale oi Sadness.
BETIEWOF ALL TflE FLOOD LOSSES.
What Changes a Week Has Wrought Among
the nins at Johnstown.
SOMETHINGS MYEK XETTOLDLNPBLNT
OD moves In a mys
tenous way
Hiswonders to per
form; He plants His foot,
steps in the sea.
And rides upon toe
storm.
Blind unbelief is sure
to err,
And scan His work
in ram;
God is His own in
terpreter. And He will make
it plain.
Night I Night! Everlasting night ! It
teemed to have descended upon Johnstown
and its surrounding peaceful towns of the
Conemaugh Valley. To the dead, to the
living, to both alike, there came but one
message darkness! There is a fitness in
all things; why not in fate? And so it hap
pened that this Message of Gloom came,
not upon a Monday, the fresh and buoyant
beginning of new life; not upon a Saturday,
the restful close of toil and strife; nor upon
the tranquillity and sacredness of the Sab
bath; but it was written and delivered upon
a day peculiarly associated in all the world's
history with shadows BLACK FEIDAY.
A NIGHT OF DESPAIB.
It was night to the dead -when the roaring
waters closed their eyes. It was bight to
the living in the whole week that has since
followed. Darkened souls have had no
light, and tear-dimmed vision no illumina
tion,for strangely enough the six days have
been sir days of clouds. There has not been
sunshine across the mountain tops uninter
ruptedly for two hours during the whole
week. Hope entirely fled. The blackness
of despair followed. First they said "1,500
drowned." Then it increased to 3,000
next to 5,000 8,000 10,000 and now they
say 12,000 and 15,000! The survivors groan.
The ties of Dlood and friendship link them
all to the dead! They murmur, and their
General Axllnt, of Ohio.
stony gaze is upturned to heaven with a
look of commingled supplication and con
tempt. "Light! Light!" Ah, no. They did
not say that. You misunderstood the faint
Toices.
"Night! Night!" was what they echoed
over and over again. The other words,
they would probably have told you, could
have been nothing more than the mockery
of fate.
THEIE XEA&ON TOTTEBED.
Few, indeed, were those who confessed
iemselves able to see Providence towering
over the stupendous wreck. After the first
rush of waters and the subsequent discovery
of the frightful loss of life, the popular
tendency was to curse the Almighty. The
awf ulness of the calamity set people crazy,
a sense of their tremendous loss made them
think they were forsaken. Think, did I
say? No, people could not think! It
seemed to be something like an inherent
rising against heaven, earth and hell.
Season was well-nigh dethroned. That is
why, during the first few days of the ex
citement, so many incidents crept into the
newspapers similar to that of the woman
who had. survived her family of seven, ask
ing the reporter with a demoniacal laugh,
"God, why where was He?"
But as each succeeding morning has
come, and the survivors have gradually
learned to realize that their relatives and
friends are really dead, that inquiry which
is almost a part of every human heart
'Whence have they gone?" has checked
this wholesale drift toward doubt of an over
- ruling Providence. '
THE BLASPHEMOUS ANATHEMA, .
born of a vast sorrow, has gently melted
away as the star of hope appears in an un
friendly sky. Cowper's lines, quoted above,
contain the sentiment that will heal thou
sands of the wounded hearts. And besides
that, even torn and bleeding hearts may be
touched. Something has touched those
which abound along the polluted Cone
mangh. It was the wonderful wave of sym
pathy which, starting in Pittsburg, rolled
westward to the Golden Gate, and eastward
to the Atlantic's silvery strand. The gen
erosity which knows no South, no North, is
feeding the suffering survivors, burying
'their dead, and preparing for the rebuilding
of a blighted city. All this reawakens
hope. An Omnipotent Interpreter is trying
to make it plain.
More than a week has passed since the
' first body was taken from the river and the
wreck. Yet it is not possible to state how
many have actually perished. The recov
ery of corpses has gone steadily forward all
this time, but no man is yet able to tell how
nearly
THE GHASTLY WOKE IS COMPLETED.
After awhile all efforts to further prose
cute the search will cease, but even then no
one will suppose that all who were drowned
will have been found. The truth can never
be known. Even such a perfect system as
registering the survivors in order to find
who are missing las pretty nearly failed of
its purpose. Last week one poor woman
passed through Pittsburg, ,beasd for
Youngstown. She lost her whole family,
"and I am so heart-broken," she said, "that
I have left Johnstown and never want to
eee it again."
That woman did not register as among
the living. She left no relatives in the
ruined city to inquire about her, and con
sequently neither she nor her family will
probably ever be missed. So it will be
with scores of other families. Johnstown
being a comparatively large city, it is more
than probable that new families were con
stantly moving there.
THEIB SAD PATE TTNWBPT.
As is the case in all large communities
where laborers are employed for manufact
uring purposes new arrivals, and especially
foreigners, were little known. Suppose
whole families were swept out of existence
in the crowded quarters of Johnstown.
Very many of them had no relatives short
of thld country, and were not on terms of
speaking acquaintance with their neigh
borsdid not even know their names, Con
sequently who will even think of inquir
ing whether such families were drowned.
Yet, it is known positively that hundreds
of just such families were annihilated.
It is perhaps well that the authorities at
Johnstown have devoted their efforts more
to making a register of the living rather
- i i
..' - v. v r,' - i ,
J
than tabulating the names of the dead.
The latter is only possible in one register,
and that is the Besurection Book.
THREATENED BY FAMINE.
Reviewing the condition of the people
who survived the flood, it can only be said
to be better in one way than it was the
morning after the catastrophe. They
have been kept from starving. But even
after this lapse of time they are said to be
in great need. If reports be true from the
scene of operations the meat ran out as late
as last Thursday. Of. courae this is in all
probability replenished py this time. How'
ever, there has been ample clothing dis
tributed to make everybody comfortable
from the elements. But during the first
part of the week just ended the suffering for
proper shelter was dreadful.
It was impossible ,to reach such settle
ments as Woodvale and upper Conemaugh
until late in the week. There the people
were crowded together in the few houses
left standing, and had not sufficient bed
clothing to cover them. Happily all these
things are now being remedied. Under the
efficient leadership of Mr. James B. Scott,
of Pittsburg, and with the methodical as
sistance of Adjutant Generals Hastings and
Axline, of Pennsylvania and Ohio, the dis
tribution of food and supplies is now on a
basis that promises quick and permanent
relief for all the survivors.
THE NOBLE BED CBOSS. ,
To minister to the wants and injuries of
the people such eminent persons as Clara
Barton, the leader of the Bed Cross Asso
ciation; Drs. Lea (State Board of Health),
Fields and O'Neill, of Philadelphia, with a
corps of 25 other physicians and nurses
from the Quaker City; Dr. McCann and 15
physicians from Pittsburg, and the score or
more of noble women from both Pittsburg
and Philadelphia, cqme to care for their
unfortunate sisters and to find homes all
over the continent for the many orphans
produced by'the disaster.
Booth & Fliun, the Pittsburg contractors,
have accomplished wonders in clearing up
some of the wreck and debris, but they offi
cially announce that it will take a month
more, with 10,000 laborers, to put the city
in passable condition. Bebuilding homes
and stores can scarcely be commenced on a
general scale before then; As to whether
fire and the use of dynamite will help in
this great work of cleaning np as much as
has been expected a reference to our latest
news dispatches will show.
MILLIONS MOBE NEEDED.
One thing is certain, and that is that the
million and more of dollars already raised
by the spontaneous liberality of the people
of the United States for the sufferers, will
hardly be a drop in the bucket for placing
the sufferers on their feet. Millions more
are needed. The public clamor for an extra
session of the State Legislature at once is
growing every day. An appropriation from
the State seems to be the real way for
quickly and thoroughly reaching the
remedy.
At this writing the work most occupying
the attention of the people at Johnstown Is
the burial of the dead. The illustrations
in this article relate particularly to that sad
duty. What has made it sadder is the
haste and demoralization with 'which, the
burials have to be conducted. In but ve:
iew instances are religions services Hi
Adjutant General Hastings' Headquarter.
THE PITTSBURG . DISPATCH.
Over the remains of those found the first
few days more attention was devoted by
minister and priest, but of late immediate
interment has become so imperative from a
sanitary point of view that promptness is
more
OP A PEATUEE THAN CEREMONY.
In a great many instances people are be
ing buried without any knowledge of who
they are. So fastis decomposition going on
that there is no time for identification. In
other cases as many as 25 bodies have been
buried in the same ditch.. Old undertakers
say the horror of the Johnstown burials in
this respect burpass the quick and silent in
terment in Pittsburg during the great
cholera plague.
Coffins soon became the most familiar ob
jects -in the stricken town. They were to
be seen everywhere on the street corners,
in the yards of homes, at the depots, and
even between every box of food handed off
a provision train was passed out a coffin.
Thousands of them have already been used.
It is difficult to walk along the streets with
out kicking a casket. One of the oldest
newspaper correspondents sent to Johns
town, a man who has in his day reported all
sorts of horrors, and whom I supposed had
become hardened to ghastly sights, told me
that every time he shut his eyes in the vain J
BEADY FOE BUEIAIi.
endeavor to sleep after his telegrams were
gone, he saw but one vision,
THAT -WAS A COFFIN.
Now and then a whole family is identi
fied among the dead; they are coffined and
the caskets are piled one upon the other to
await burial. In this way the grave
diggers are able to.know a family of corpses
when they begin removing the coffins, and
they are either put in the same grave or in
a group of graves close beside one another.
Or course, however, where surviving mem-
bers of the family identify remains they are
allowed to conduct the funeral themselves,
and thus family burial lots in regular ceme
teries are filled up.
Before leaving Johnstown I understood
that if the death list reached even 8,000
several additional acres of groupd would
have to be purchased to make the city's
largest cemetery big enough to hold all the
new residents of that new city of the dead.
In the years which are to come the marble
cutters of all Western' Pennsylvania will be
kept busy making tombstones for these
graves. But, ah! how many of the little
mounds will have to remain unmarked and
unknown? And along the forest-clad
mountain slopes between Johnstown and
Nineveh new graveyards have already been
laid out, and the travelers of future days
will be told that they are the last resting
places of Pennsylvanias flood victims.
vast monetaby loss.
Vast indeed has been the monetary loss
involved in the disaster. As far as Johns
town is concerned it is estimated at any
where from 538,000,000 to $45,000,000. More
than two-thirds of all the mercantile and
manufacturing establishments of the thriv
ing city and its environs have been 'swept
outof existence. The largest of these- has,
already commenced to repair its main build
ings the Cambria Iron Works and the
firm will rebuild the Gauntier steel mill
and the wire mill, both of which were com
pletely annihilated, as soon as possible.
Some other industrial concerns there will
do all in their power to resurrect the city,
so far as business and the industry goes.
The loss to the Pennsylvania Bailroad Com
pany by damages to its property is at least
$2,000,000. The complete suspension of its
through passenger and freight traffic for
more than a week will possibly add many
hundreds of thousands to that At Cone
maugh yards, just above Johnstown. Mr.
Miller says that four of the. most perfect
tracks made up the road here. Two were
new and had never been used. Now they
can be seen with the ties standing on their
ends in the middle of the river and on the
hillside.
A BURIED BAILBOAD.
There were enough cars and engines in
he yards to equip many a railroad. Just
34 locomotives were carried away,and some of
them can be seen now projecting above the
Camp W. X. Jones.
rifts of mud and sand. Many of these en
gines had just been bnilt at Altoona, and
belonged to the heavy class. The road was
storing them there, waiting for a rush fn the
freight business. How many freight and
passenger cars were lost is not known, but
the loss in equipment will not" be less than
$2,000,000. Superintendent Miller has a
gang building a temporary bridge across the
Conemaugh. They will work, night and
day.
Memories of the calamity will never be
effaced. '.They wjll live for years to comin
the insane asvlums of' the land. An inci
dent is related by the officials in Municipal j
Jw-RJOHl r X' rC
PITTSBURG, SUNDAY, JUNE 9,' 1889.
Hall of a man whom they saw at Johns
town on Monday last, whose portrait still
haunts them.
' HE "WAS A FATHEB.
"With his whole family he had gone down
in the flood with the ruins of their home.
His wife and one child were drowned before
his eyes. His was one of those natures that
loves with madness. Take away the love,
and madness only remains.. Brooding over
his own loss, and seeing the awful mass of
clammy corpses around him, he had become
insane. When the Pittsburgers saw him he
had stopped short in the middle of the
street, filed his five children off in a row
before him, and then he commenced, with a
series of wild gestures:
"One, two, three, four, five! You are all
there!,
Two squares further on he stopped sud
denly strain, and weni through the same
performance:
"One, two, three, four, fiye! No more
drowned yet! Ha! Ha!"
CEAZED BY SOBBOW.
Some of the injured lying in the impro
vised hospitals of the unfortunate town, and
in Mercy Hospital in Pittsburg, have gone
stark mad from a sense of their losses. The
Dispatch has already described how some
of the patients brought to Pittsburg were
overheard praying for death.
The memories will be perpetuated in the
lives of the hundreds of orphans who must
now become the wards of the charitable of
the nation. Bev. Morgan Dix, of New
York, in taking, or agreeing to take when
all are recovered, 24 orphans to apportion
among some of the best families of the
PLACING BODIES
metropolis, furnishes an illustration of how
far-reaching the present sympathy extends,
and how sure &e heart of the whole coun
try will be to soften in the next decade
whenever the name of "Johnstown" or
"Conemaugh" is mentioned.
SUSTAINED BY FAITH.
The pulpit will cherish some of the mem
ories of the disaster.- Beligion has been
left some remarkable testimonials in the
stories of death and escapes at Johnstown.
The thrilling and strangely beautiful inci
dent ofhow the nuns of the Catholic con
vent were saved while gathered in the far
ther wing of the church on their bended
knees when the balance of the church went
down with a crash, while they surrounding
the holy sacrament were the only survivors
in tha,t section of the town. The recovery
of many bodies, the hands of which were
still elapsed in prayer, and the knees bent
stiff in the kneeling posture of prayer; the
statement of John Becd, a survivor, that as
he was washed past a floatincr mass of
debris on which was a bed occupied by an
apparently sick woman, he heard her sing
ing, clear and sweet, a religious hymn; the
authenticated stories of bravery and Chris
tian courage with which so many young
women perished; the fact that the Methodist
Church stood like a perfect Gibraltar in the
part of town where the flood was most vio
lent; that churches generally seemed to
have been of superhuman strength, as evi
denced by the fact that their walls were left
standing where not a brick remained of
other great structures supposed to have been
built upon a rock, so to speak all these
things are materials for clergymen to work
morals out of for years to come.
LINGEBING MEMORIES.
Three generations must live and pass
away before, the people who now remain,
and will remain at their homes in the Cone
maugh Yalley, can get rid of the horrible
vision of Friday, May 31, 1889. Thus will
the memories be hardest to bear in that
stretch of country lying between the Laurel
Hill and the Allegheny Mountain. Years
and years to como will not people (he
church yards and burial grounds up there
as fast as has the one great cemetery of
Johnstown grown up, as if by magic, in one
week. New York City, with her character
istic cosmopolitan practicalness, will very
soon forget the hundreds of thousands she
has given, aye, even forget the location of
such a place as Johnstown. Philadelphia
will turn her attention shortly to the needs
of the living multitudes. Even Pittsburg,
sincere and hearty always, will in the course
of human affairs let Johnstown people
themselves take up their own affairs again.
The nation will go on as it has forever gone
on, and the grass of decades will gradually
become greener and more "profuse over the
mountain tombs. '-T - '
L. 2. SlOFIEL.
GETTING THE NEWS.
How the .Daily Papers Told the
World of the Terrible Flood.
REPORTING UNDER DIFFICULTIES.
Railroads and Telegraphs Were Hade Sub
servient to the Press.
EXPOSURE OP THE CORRESPONDENTS
HE quartet of newspaper
reporters who left Pitts
burg hurriedly on a
special locomotive, Fri
day night a week ago, never dreamed
of the amount of work ahead of
them. It was first rumored in the
city early that evening that about 90
lives were lost in the Johnstown flood.
Making an allowance for the usual exagger
ation of such rumors, it was figured out by
the journalists that upon reaching the spot
probably 20 or 30 persons would be found to
be drowned. To properly report a disaster
of that extent with a corps of competent
men, such as were sent out, would have re
quired not more than two days at the
farthest.
WOPULLY UNDERESTIMATED.
Now maris the wonderful difference from
the early estimate of
Friday evening, May
31. Nine days and
eight nights have
passed since then.
The Dispatch has
kept constantly on the
scene of disaster from
six to eight reporters,
besides two and three
artists. The other
Pittsburg dailies have
had from two to five
men each on hand.
New York journals
sent at least ten writ
ers and artists. Chi
cago and Cincinnati
papers
sented
were repre-4 eP'"'r fust Arrivea.
by six more. Philadelphia news
papers came last with five corre
spondents. The Associated Press and
other press associations had four or five
men on the spot. This made a colony of
about 63 journalists suddenly assembled in
the ruined city of Johnstown. To-day they,
or their relief substitutes, are still there.
This number will probably be increased
within the next few days by the arrival of
IN THE COFFINS.
recruits from Boston and Baltimore. It may
reach 75.
Of all this large newspaper contingent
The Dispatch and Times were the first to
start an expedition to the unfortunate city.
Therefore we are in a position to know all
about the early difficulties in getting the
news of the awful calamity to the world.
The four men left the Union station with
their locomotive at 735. Tbey had had
no dinner, a tele
graphic order ahead
brought sandwiches
and coffee aboard at
Blairsville Inter
section and lanterns
at Derry. The
lady telegraph
operator in the sig
nal tower at Blairs
ville Intersection
was quickly notified
to hire an extra
operator at any cost,
because from .2,000
to 10,000 words
would swoop down
upon her within the
next three hours.
Thi Reporter Mayed
Out.
V' -2flr
m
i
A
Before leaving town the reporters had
been informed by the railroad officials
that they could not get nearer
Johnstown that night than Boli
var, which is 18 miles this side of the scene
of the accident. In most of the signal tow
ers along the Pennsylvania Bailroad only
railroad business is permitted over the
wires, hut on this occasion it was known
that by hiring an extra operator at Bolivar
the press matter could be sent through to
Pittsburg by "relaying" or resending it.
from Blairsville Intersection.
Bolivar was reached at 930. There was
plenty of news to be gathered. Both dead
and dying were being taken from the river
there and at Loekport, two miles above.
By interviewing the rescued men and
women some rather startling and accurate
news was soon obtained about the character'
and
EXTENT OP THE PLOOD
at Johnstown in spite of tho absence 'of all
telegraphic and railroad communication
with the belated city. The extra operator
was speedily ferreted out 'from among a
crow'dof blockaded railroad crews, his
salary aid in advance, and off went the
first news before 10 o'clock. Among the
most important nuggets of news sent ont
yvic X
Office of The Pittsburg Dispatch.
from here within the next 40 minutes
was the story of a rescued man
who had floated down the river
from Johnstown "that 1,500 persons had
perished." The most dashing correspondent
of the party hesitated before he sent such an
apparently wild estimate as that out. But
how small even those figures appeared two
days later when the full enormity of the
catastrophe was first realized,
THEY FOLLOWED FAST.
Two hours later another special train ar
rived, bearing representatives of the other
Pittsburg papers. But the meager tele
graphic facilities at Bolivar, then crowded
with the matter of the other two papers,
prevented them from getting news
away from this point Blairsville
Intersection, six miles below, was
also inaccessible to . them on account
of the relaying then in progress. At 1 A.
M. the second party divided, one section go-
Headquarters of Other Pittsburg Dailies.
ins by wagon over the mountain to New
Florence, six miles east, and the others re
turning to Derry station, "'hear Latrobe.
From these two points they sent away news
from 2 to 7 A. M. In the meantime The
Dispatch moved its locomotive all along
the line between Bolivar and Blairsville,
picking up the news and"
KEEPING THE OPEBATOBS AWAKE.
At 5 A. M. Superintendent Pitcairn's pri
vate train, thundering westward, announced
that the water had receded from the tracks
and the line was open as far as New Flor
ence. To that point the locomotive pro
ceeded with the dawn of day. A few hours
later the party divided, and while some took
a regularpassenger train for an experimental
trip to Sang Hollow, the other reporter rode
horseback over the mountains from Flor
ence to Johnstown, reaching there at 1230.
Another Despatch man came in fr,om
Somerset by carriage about the same time.
That evening the nearest point to get the
news telegraphed was at Hoovlersville, a
small settlement 18 miles south of Johns
town, on the Baltimore and Ohio branch
railroad. Another special -locomotive was
utilized in reaching that point. There the
youthful operator not accustomed to send
ing more than ten 'commercial dispatches a
day finally relused to send another line
after he had wired aboat 3,000 words. It
was then only midnight, and the 'two cor
respondents were left with three columns
more of written copy on their hands. The
paper at home was willing to hold open
until 6 a.m. if they could only get the mat
ter. But no, a greenback of large denomina
tion laid down before the boy could not in
duce him
TO BEOPEN THAT EST.
On Sunday night a journey clear to Som
erset, 38 miles distant was necessary to
reach a telegraph office eapablepf handling
a large amount of matter. Even (there- an
extra operator had to behired and a new in-
THE CAMP AT JOHNSTOWN.
strument rigged up hurriedly. Over 10,000
words were put through from this point to
The Dispatch, while other staff men sta
tioned in the various signal towers along
the Pennsylvania Bailroad sent nearly 15,
000 additional words.
, By Monday the Western Union Tele-
Associated Press Office.
graph Company had succeeded in poling
their wires that had been lying in the Cone
maugh river, and they at once rigged up a
temporary office at the Cambria City end of
the Pennsylvania Bailroad stone bridge
entering Johnstown. This temporary of
fice is an old coal shed.
It may be seen in the illustration immedi
ately adjoining The Dispatch headquar
ters in the rear. Into thisdirty shed nine
operators were crowded. Later two more
were added. The quarters occupied by The
Dispatch are about 6x4 feet Two years
ago the shanty was a pig pen. Latterly.it
Sleeping Quarters.
was a scale weighhouse. Only two men
can write in it at once. The others write
their matter sitting on railroad ties, door
steps or on the ground. The other newspapers
domiciled their men in a brick kiln just
across the roadway. On the second story of
this shanty there was established Associated
Press telegraphio and reportorial head
quarters. A few New York Serald men
are to be seen in the picture
SITTING UPON GBINDSJONE3
in this apartment writing their "stuff."
Also on the second floor of this build
ing is a haymow, in which the
writers tried' to .snatch a few hours
of sleep at intervals. This was impossi
ible, however, On account of rats, until the
blankets sent by newspaper proprietors at
Pittsburg could be received. Later on
tents were furnished the reporters. All
newspaper representatives, having to take
their chances with the common sufferers in
receiving food from provision headquarters,
and not having time to go out for it, were
almost starved. When this news reached
Pittsburg several of the newspaper proprie
tors sent ample food by courier to their
representatives. '
But columns more could be written with
out telling all the privations, hard
ships, exposune,- dangers, and loss of
sleep the corps of journalists have under
gone in Johnstown during the past week.
Tbirty-six and 48 hours without a wink of
sleep was a common occurrence with them.
The first Eastern newspaper men to arrive
ou the scene were two representatives of the
New York Sun, and Harper's Weekly artist
They reached Johnstown Monday at 130 P.
M. by.8pecial train over the Baltimore and
Ohio from Pittsburg. They left
New York Saturday morning at 7
o'clock. Beaching Harrisburg they found
a corps of six men from the World bound on
the same mission. The latter had Ieit the
metropolis two hours sooner than the Sun
party. West of Harrisburg the floods had
demoralized the P. B. B.
Afraid there would be serious delay there
the Sun bovs returned to New York at once,
went up the New York Central road to Al
bany, thence to Buffalo, thence to Cleve
land and down to Ashtabula, reaching
Pittsburg by that route at 3 A. M. Monday.
The TForW gang remained at Harrisburg
in hopes of getting through by the P. E. B.,
finally took, as they supposed, the trail of
their rivals, and went to Baltimore via
Northern Central Bailroad, never dreaming
but that they could get through to Johns
town via Boekwood on the B. & O. from
the East But they were dismayed upon
finding the Potomac all over the B. &
O. tracks. They almost gave up
inidespair at Martmsburg, W. Va., lying
there a whole day, and finally setting out in
wagons for a mountain ride from that point
to Johnstown. They arrived in the ruined
-city Tuesday afternoon, and were joyfully
told by the Sun hustlers that the World, al
though leaving New York-first, was 24
Tours behind in sending news from the
scene of the flood. - Stopiel.
M.
PAGES 9 TO f6.
HOW ST0MS ARISE.
The Sun Eesponsible for Nearly All
Atmospherical Disturbances.
YAEIATIOflS IN TEMPERATURE.
A Scientific Explanation; of the Action of
Cyclones.
S0MJJ CUBIOUSFEATUBES OP T0ENAD0E3
prannx roE the dispatch.1
HE living creature
of the earth's surface
dwell in either of two
elements, the water or
the air. The original
home of tne jearlier
life was in the seas;
In that state of being1
organisms were sub
jected to but slight changes of temperature
and were exempt from nearly all violent
movements of the medium in which they
dwelt The better chance of breathing
which the air affords led many forms
in the early ages to betake themselves
to the land. In that new realm, they ob
tained a more vigorbns life for the reason
that in the atmosphere they procured a
larger share of oxygen, which brought about
a more rapid process of combustion in their
bodies, the swifter generation of force and
consequently a higher activity in the mental
and physical machinery of their bodies.
For thisprofit they had to pay a price; they
became subjected to sudden variations ia
temperature " and to violent movements in
the aerial ocean. These movements aro
known as storms. Ever since the first and.
lowest animals appeared upon the earth,
they have been engaged in the battle of life
with these rude accidents of the air.
We propose to set before the reader the
principal conditions which determine thesa
atmospheric disturbances, in order that wa
may see how they originate, the mechanical
ways in which they are propagated and their
effect for good or bad on the living beings of
the land, principally on the creatures of
most interest to us, the race of man.
solas influences.
All the disturbances in the atmospherai
except those local and temporary accident!
due to volcanic explosion, which, though
violent, aflect but a small portion of the
surface and that seldom, are due to the ao
tion of the sun's heat. If the sun were ex
tinguished for a single year the air would
come to a state of perfect repose, unstirred
by the faintest breath. Let us conceive that
in this way the atmosphere were deprive
arm tax
mm mi'
Fig. 1 Diaeram showins the normal circulu
tion of tne atmosphere. f
of the endless motion which has character
ized it ever since the earth was quickened
by solar heat; then let us supposejfhct, the)
sun again began to blaze in the firmament!
as it does to-day, and note the effect ofK
that central fire on the atmosphere. Passing;
swiftly through the ethereal realm, tha
revived sun rays would penstratetheearth'ai
atmosphere, then entirely cloudless, for tha.
reason that in the degree of cold which
would characterize the atmosphere no parti
cle of water ,would remain suspended iu tha
air. Passing through the realm of air, ths
rays of heat would strike upon the surface
of the earth. As soon as intercepted by the
earth's surface, they would tend to fly off
again into space; but though as direct rays
of the sun they pass easily through tha
atmosphere, as reflected rays they would
encounter some difficulty in passing out-
f t14 rV.
.OLmoi
W4f
BsttbkYHIinwtt
Via. 2 Illustrates the manner in which hoi
air passes np alongside the trunk and branches!
of a tree, thus creating a draft, sad escaping
into the layer of cold air above.
ward. The result would be that the surfaos
of the sea and land would become heated
above the temperature of the air which en
veloped them. As the temperature of thlt
surface was raised, it would slowly warn
the layer of air which lay next to the sur
face of the earth. On this peculiar differ
ence in the ease at movement with whioh
the direct rays proceed to the earth's sur
face and the indirect rays of heat proceed
from it depends all the warmth which seta
the machinery of the earth's surface ia
motion, which gives play to wind and wave,
produces the machinery of the rains and
stirs the currents in every organic body,
If the heat went out as easily as it came in,
the earth's surface would remain in every
part far below any degree of cold whic
has ever been experienced by man.
AN TJNSEEN VAPOB.
As soon as the earth's surface becaraa
warmed above the freezing point of water a
considerable amount of vapor oi that sub
stance would pass upward into the atmos
phere, remaining for a time In the invisibla
lormj gradually, as the amountof vapor in
creased, passing into the condition of cloud.
For every particle of this unseen vapor of
water which enters the atmosphere ths re
sistance opposed to the outward movement
of heat would be increased, while the oppo
sition to the inward movement from the sua
would not be much enhanced. The result
would be that in a short time the prtser
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