An appalling array of facts and figures is the result of but little study and search into the records for the short period from Jan. 1, 1906, to the present time. Disasters and catastrophes of every nature have visited every continent and nearly every country. The following is a partial list, enough to set any one thinking:
Post Office, Rogers' Store, and a large building under construction, Castro Street, Mountain View.
January 7. Earthquake shocks were felt in eastern Kansas and northeastern Missouri.
January. During the early part of the month, earthquakes were frequent in Mexico. Floods followed, which ruined crops and did much other serious damage.
January 22. The steamship "Valencia" was wrecked near Cape Beale, British Columbia. 120 perished.
January. Twenty-three deaths reported in Havana, resulting from yellow fever.
January 25. A sharp earthquake, which did considerable damage, was felt in New Mexico and Arizona.
January 28. The naval training station at Newport was damaged to the extent of $100,000 by fire.
January 31. Long and severe earthquake shock in Buena Ventura, Colombia, 2,000 killed. Shock lasted seven minutes. Many villages destroyed.
January 31. Tidal wave followed earthquake, destroying many more villages, killing many people.
January 31. Earthquake in Ecuador. At least 300 killed.
February and onward. Great famine in Japan.
February 1. A fire in Panama caused loss of $500,000.
February 3. An East St. Louis elevator burned. Loss $1,000,000.
February 3 and onward. Mount Vesuvius in eruption. Four towns destroyed. Naples covered from two to four feet deep with ashes. Hundreds killed; the property loss very large.
February 7, 8. Cyclone and tidal wave in Society Islands of the Pacific. Many islands swept of inhabitants. Property loss $2,000,000.
February 8. Earthquake in West Indies. Many ships lost, with many on board. Also many inhabitants killed.
February 15. Great tidal wave destroyed coast towns of Colombia.
February 16. Severe shocks at Kingston, St. Vincent, British West Indies.
February 17. Shocks in other islands of the West Indies.
March 2. Tornado at Meridian, Miss. Nineteen killed, twenty-four injured. Loss of property $1,000,000.
March 5. Car barns burned in New York. Loss, $200,000.
March 5. About 800 fishermen and their families perished on floating ice cakes in the Gulf of Finland in a severe storm.
March 10. More than 1,200 miners killed by an explosion of gas in a coal mine at Courrieres, near Bethune, in the French coal region.
March 11. In the foundering of the steamer "British King," off the Massachusetts' coast, twenty-seven men were lost.
March 14. Over 1,000 killed, many more wounded, in earthquake in Formosa. 1,200 homes destroyed; loss, $45,000,000.
March 16. More than forty people killed in a railroad collision near Adobe, Colo.
March 19. Six thousand reported killed in earthquake in Formosa.
March. Volcanic eruption on island of Savaii, of the Samoan group. Three villages destroyed by streams of lava.
Cobb Block, Healdsburg.
March 24. Explosion in a coal mine at Century, W. Va., entombs 150 miners.
April 5. Vesuvius still in state of eruption. Five streams of lava. Many towns destroyed. Land covered with ashes and mud. Ruined for agricultural purposes for ten years at least. Naples suffering.
April 14. Another earthquake in Formosa. 1,000 killed. More than 1,000 injured.
April 18. Earthquake shock extending along Pacific Coast. San Francisco, San Jose, Stanford University, Santa Rosa, and many cities and towns destroyed. Property loss very great. Thousands of lives lost.
April 21. Mariquina, Rizal Province, Philippines, burned. Thousands homeless and starving. Town of Pasil, near Cebu, also destroyed.
Mr. Allen's two-story brick furniture store in Mountain View, after the earthquake.
EARTHQUAKE SIGNATURES.
Three Seismographic Records: (a) that of the earthquake of April 19, 1892, at 2:49:2 A.M. Its duration was 58 seconds. This is a very long vibration. The scale of each is the same, we presume, as they are all records of the same seismograph. It is 1 to 7; that is, the pen of the seismograph passes over seven times more space than the vibration of the earth.
(b) The seismographic record of the earthquake of March 30, 1898, 11:45 P.M. The duration was 45 seconds, the most violent earthquake since 1868 until the recent one. The damage to buildings all told was estimated at $342,000. No lives were lost, but many persons were badly frightened. Notice the difference between the two signatures. The upper one is quite smooth in its tracing, while the second one looks like the tracing of a decrepit old man.
SEISMOGRAPHIC RECORD CHABOT OBSERVATORY Oakland
(c) The signature of the earthquake of April 18, 1906. The following is its description from the pen of Professor Burckhalter of Chabot Observatory.
"The above is a copy direct from the original from the seismograph of the Chabot Observatory, Oakland, Cal. It shows that the main motion was gyratory, but the wave-like, and the up and down motions were present also. The dashes and dots represent the up and down motion. The instrument enlarges the diagram, the real movement of the earth's surface being a little over half an inch, but not as much as six tenths of an inch. The time was 5:14:48 A.M., April 18, and the duration 28 seconds. The shock was so violent that the pen ran off the plate several times; that is, the instrument was not capable of recording so severe a shock."
CHINATOWN REVEALED.
By W. W. Overton
[By W. W. Overton, in despatch from Los Angeles. Mr. Overton was one of those who was in the city at the time of the earthquake and fire.]
STRANGE is the scene where San Francisco's Chinatown stood. A heap of smoking ruins marks the site of the wooden warrens where the slant-eyed men of the Orient dwelt in thousands. The place is pitted with deep holes and seared with dark passageways from whose depths come smoke wreaths. All the wood is gone, and the wind is strewing the ashes.
Men, white men, never knew the depth of Chinatown's underground city. They often talked of these subterranean runways. And many of them had gone beneath the street levels two and three stories. But now that Chinatown has been unmasked,—for the destroyed buildings were only a mask,—men from the hillside have looked on where the inner secrets lay. In places they can see passages one hundred feet deep.
Odd Fellows' Hall, Healdsburg.
The fire swept this Mongolian section clean. It left no shred of the painted wooden fabric. It ate it down to the bare ground, and this lies stark, for the breezes have taken away the light ashes. Joss houses and mission schools, grocery stores and opium dens, gambling-hells and theaters—all of them went.
Mountain View's Experience
By Editor
OUR home town is fortunate in having but few brick houses. Of these few, four are in heaps of ruins, and the others are seriously damaged. One two-story structure, tho not demolished, was so damaged as to be immediately abandoned. An adjacent building was also abandoned.
One building with a general merchandise store and the post-office on the first floor, and a lodging-house upstairs, was thrown into a miscellaneous heap. Some of the lodgers were injured, but none fatally.
Another building, containing two stores below and a large hall above, was mostly tumbled into the street. A large two-story furniture establishment fell flat to the earth. A large fruit-drying and packing house was also totally wrecked.
Two two-story frame buildings were ruined, and many others more or less damaged. Broken windows, dishes, or furniture were the order common to all houses. Many windmills and water tanks were thrown down, and fallen chimneys are to be seen anywhere, as also broken plaster in plastered houses.
East wall of the Pacific Press Building, looking into the type room and foundry. The front wall is the only part of the outside of the structure saved.
The two large tanks of the town water-works—100 feet high, and containing 70,000 gallons—fell to the ground. However, the pumping apparatus was not injured, and water for the town is pumped directly into the mains.
The financial damage, estimating all losses, will reach approximately $175,000, to say nothing of loss of business for a time. There was no loss of life, altho a dozen persons were more or less injured.
Our own building, the Pacific Press Publishing Company's plant, was terribly shaken. The east and west end walls were, in the main, thrown to the ground; and so badly wrenched were the remaining portions of these two ends that they had to be torn down and replaced with wood frame. The back wall on the side next to the railroad is also being replaced with wood. This is a one-story wall, 175 feet in length. The front two-story wall will be saved by reinforcing it on the inside with independent frame floor support.
Fortunately the roof was not injured, and enough sound wall was left to support it until the frame could be built under it. The foundation was also uninjured, so the frame was rapidly adjusted by a large force of carpenters.
With the exception of our two linotype machines and a small quantity of type, our working material is practically uninjured. These machines will be out of use for some time, as there is no place on the Coast where they can be repaired at present. They were broken by a portion of the brick wall falling in upon them, and they are damaged to the extent of several hundred dollars. Operators had been working all night, and had left their posts but half an hour before the crash came. Aside from these machines, work could proceed in all departments after clearing away the debris. Of course this was aside from the possible danger of succeeding shocks, which might complete the wreck; and this led to some timidity as to continuing work.
Had we been in some incorporated city, the authorities would not have allowed us to go to work on the inside at all; but as it was, working or not working was voluntary only as individuals felt impressed to service because of the urgent need. The response was quite general, and the clearing out was done in short order. As light temblors were felt during Thursday, the workers would lose little time in getting outside, but most of them would return as soon as it appeared that the shocks were past. Quite naturally, tho, some preferred to sit at a supposedly safe distance and watch for further results, and perhaps they were the wiser ones. Some had work that could be done at a little distance from the shattered structure.
As the editors sought their offices they were confronted by a distressing sight. In one room large book-cases and their contents were piled in the middle of the floor. The books were mingled with broken plaster, broken glass, and splintered wood. In another room a glass-front book-case lay face downward across the desk and chairs of the proof-readers. The result can be imagined. In the hall, in front of our doors, lay an immense pile of miscellaneous engravings. The cabinets of drawers containing hundreds of these had fallen forward from the wall, and lay in a miscellaneous heap.
In the reading-room and in an adjoining room, that had been occupied by a children's division of the Sabbath-school, the "baby organ" and other furniture, including a steam radiator lay on the floor. The chapel-room, also used by the Mountain View church, which is in the second story, was entirely open at one end, the wall being upon the ground.
In the manager's room, counting-room, and job proof-reading room, there was extensive fall of plaster, and some overturning of furniture. In the Book Department one entire side was laid open, besides the falling of plaster. The same was the experience of the bindery, the composing room, and the foundry. The power house was left in running order, altho the brick walls were cracked and otherwise injured. About half of the brick smokestack came down in two pieces, one piece upon the roof, breaking it in, and the other breaking in the frame carpenter shop close by.
The main tank house, which is of frame, is uninjured. Another high tank tower, about sixty rods distant, also the property of the Press, is thrown out of plumb, and will have to be strongly anchored, or perhaps taken down. It cost over $2,000. Had it been as thoroughly braced as the other tank tower by the office, it would have stood as well.
Our new two-story boarding-house, frame and plaster, suffered no damage to speak of. It stands within a hundred feet of the brick publishing house. This emphasizes the impracticability of brick buildings where there is liability to earthquakes,—and that is everywhere in these last days. The wise will note this fact, and act accordingly.
As to loss, that is to some extent a matter of conjecture. It is variously estimated according to the standpoint of the estimator. We hope to make all repairs come within $15,000; but the loss of business is another item to be considered. Our commercial work comes largely from San Francisco, and all manner of business is at a standstill there—for how long no one knows. Old customers are ruined for the present, if not permanently. Accounts for work done, and pay for jobs partially done, are matters of uncertainty. Losses in the way of business in the near future will equal, if not double, the property loss. These losses time alone will determine.
But, praise the Lord, "we are all here," and all alive, and, we hope, have profited by the experience. The church held Sabbath service in a nearby grove, and Brother J. O. Corliss preached a ringing discourse on the general theme of what these things mean. It was a real "message" sermon, and it surely did the believers good in the way of encouragement and reassurance in the way. "O that men would praise the Lord for His goodness, and for His wonderful works to the children of men!" Ps. 107:8, 15, 21, 31.
GRAND' CANYON
OF ARIZONA
"A whole chaotic underworld. Most sublime scene on earth. A mile deep, 13 miles wide, 217 miles long, and painted like a flower."
The great round world has nothing like it. A railroad to the rim. Excellent hotels: El Tovar, Bright Angel, and Grand View. Passengers going via Santa Fe may stop over at Williams for side trip to the Canyon. Round trip fare $6.50. Ask for pamphlet, "Titan of Chasms."
FRED W. PRINCE, city ticket agent,
649 MARKET ST., SAN FRANCISCO, CAL.
Detecting Forged Handwriting
How detected and demonstrated in a 300-paged book by a world-famed handwriting expert; bound in law sheep; mailed for $2.00. Expert counsel and testimony given respecting forged or contested writing by Daniel T. Ames, Mountain View, California.
The Real Pure Food
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TRINITY COTTON OIL CO., Dallas, Texas.
A Timely Appeal
A Timely Appeal.—Gen. Harrison Gray Otis, editor and proprietor of the Los Angeles Times, gave $10,000 to San Francisco's sufferers, and carried it there in person to make sure of its being used for the benefit of those most in need. Then, in addition, he turns his attention to the wants of the smaller towns that were afflicted by the disaster. Editorially he says:
Because of the magnitude of the disaster that has befallen San Francisco, public attention during the past few days has, almost inevitably, been centered on that one city, to the exclusion of the other towns that suffered heavily by the same earthquake shock. But for the fact of the bigger calamity overshadowing the smaller ones, many columns of the newspapers would have been filled with accounts of the havoc wrought in Santa Rosa, San Jose, Salinas, and other populous places within the hundred square miles most affected by the seismic disturbance. In the hour of the metropolitan city's overwhelming sorrow, its sisterhood of smaller cities must not be forgotten. For them, too, pity, sympathy, and material aid are required.
Did You Notice
That we change this ad every week? We do that so you will get the habit of reading it, and when you come to Mountain View you will know that the
Bank of Mountain View
is the old reliable Bank and the place where you will do your business. If there is anything that you would like to know about California, write to us and we will reply. Address
Bank of Mountain View, MOUNTAIN VIEW, Santa Clara Co., California
Devotional Songs
One-half new songs that will never grow old
One-half old songs that will always be new
Devotional Songs
250 pages, cloth, $25.00 per 100; 30 cents each by mail.
A copy for examination will be mailed on request. Returnable. Published by the publishers of the famous "Gospel Hymns."
THE BIGLOW & MAIN Co., New York and Chicago
Millennial Text-Book
MILLENNIAL TEXT-BOOK.—Every known reference, over 500 arranged according to events, adapted for instant reference or profound Bible study; result of 12 years' search. Mailed for 10 one-cent stamps, or a dime. Eugene A. Brown, Phoenix, Ariz.
Three Timely Books
Would you know the meaning of the appalling loss of life and property by fire, flood, and storm? The outcome of the gigantic struggle between capital and labor? The significance of the Sodom-like condition of our cities? And above all else would you so learn the lessons which these conditions teach that they may be to you a "door of hope"—"Heralds of the Morning"? If so, you will be glad to carefully read
Heralds of the Morning
Revised and enlarged edition, 358 pages, fully illustrated. Here are some of its chapter headings:
Watchman, What of the Night?
A Remarkable Century
The Prevalence of Crime—A Sign of Our Times
Judgment Is Turned Away Backward
The Earth Is Filled with Violence
The Social Vice
Ye Have Heaped Treasure for the Last Days
And the Nations Were Angry
The Voice of the Elements
The Testimony of the Earth
Our Refuge and Fortress
Price, $1.50.
The Great Controversy
In the great final conflict, Satan will employ the same policy, manifest the same spirit, and work for the same end, as in all preceding ages. That which has been will be, except that the coming struggle will be marked with a terrible intensity such as the world has never witnessed.—Extract from the author's preface.
Therefore the author has selected such events in the history of the struggle of the church as foreshadow the conflict just before it, and grouped them so that their meaning can not be misunderstood. In addition to the history thus introduced, there are several chapters devoted entirely to the future. From them we select the following:
The Impending Conflict
The Final Warning
The Time of Trouble
God's People Delivered
Desolation of the Earth
These chapters picture the terrible intensity of the last conflict in a most vivid manner, and should be read by all interested in the final triumph of right principles.
This work contains over 700 pages and is strongly bound in cloth, at $2.50
Also published in Danish, Swedish, German, and French.
Daniel and the Revelation
The response of history to the voice of prophecy. A verse by verse study of these important books of the Bible. No other books than Daniel and Revelation contain so many chains of prophecy reaching down to the end. In no other books is the grand procession of events that leads us through to the termination of probationary time, and ushers us in to the realities of the eternal state, so fully and minutely set forth. No other books embrace so completely all the truths that concern the last generation of the inhabitants of the earth and set forth so comprehensively all the aspects of our times, physical, moral, and political, in which the triumphs of earthly wo and wickedness shall end and the eternal reign of righteousness begin. Many have considered the prophecies of these two books hard to understand, but this book contains a key which has made plain to thousands what was before dark and obscure.
A truly remarkable volume, containing 757 pages, exclusive of numerous full-page engravings. Cloth, marbled edges, $2.50.
Pacific Press Publishing Company
Mountain View, Cal.
1109 E. 12th St., Kansas City, Mo. 285 Salmon St., Portland, Ore.
Chicago and San Francisco
Chicago and San Francisco. —In 1871 came Chicago's great fire. From private and voluntary contribution she received $3,500,000, not a very large sum. San Francisco sent $100,000. Chicago, we are told, has multiplied that by ten for San Francisco. But San Francisco before her fire was less than one tenth of what Chicago is now. Donations to San Francisco, voluntary and private, will reach a much greater sum than Chicago received. Much more wealth in comparison to size of city, perished in San Francisco.
San Francisco’s Unprecedented Calamity
By Editor
San Francisco's awful calamity grows upon one the more he sees of it. Again and again have we looked upon its square miles of earthquake-shaken, fire-swept area, and each time it seems more dreadful, more appalling, more incomprehensible. The great Chicago fire, the great Baltimore fire, the big Boston fire altogether were, all told, not to be compared with San Francisco's awful holocaust. All the fires combined, of any account, in the large cities of the United States in the last half century, it is safe to say, do not equal this. The people of the United States can not appreciate it. One needs to think in "trust figures" and over "trust" areas. He needs to see it and walk over its square miles of desolation. The stricken city and its people need help, and all the generous response of other cities north, east, and south is still in demand in all its actuality. Let no city diminish its contribution; rather let it be multiplied.
