AUGUST 18 the whole world was startled by telegraphic news that severe earthquakes had occurred in the country of Chile, west coast of South America. Sunday morning, August 19, that news was confirmed by cable messages that Santiago was destroyed and 175,000 homeless, and that 5,000 deaths were reported from Valparaiso. The shock occurred at eight o'clock in the evening, and the shaking continued for hours after. Reports were that Valparaiso, Limache, a city of 4,000 inhabitants, Le Ligua, with a population of 15,000, Vina Del Mar, Quilque, and other towns were in ruins and thousands of people homeless.
Valparaiso is the seaport town of Chile, and one of the most advanced and progressive cities of South America. The population is about 150,000, having besides its Spanish and native population a large English, German, and Dutch contingent. The city is so situated in a little hollow bowl facing the coast that it is peculiarly subject to earthquakes, landslides, or tidal waves. Valparaiso means "the Vale of Paradise," but, no doubt, it has seemed to many of those who have formerly rejoiced in it, the gateway to Hades. It was a well-lighted, a well-watered city, having all the conveniences of modern municipalities. But all these seem to have been ruined; in fact, fires followed the earthquake, and the latest advices, August 23, tell us that the fires are still burning, many of them doubtless caused by electricity.
Thousands were killed by the falling of houses, others seem to have been buried under landslides in the hills and mountains at the back of the town. The loss in Chile is estimated at $250,000,000. The conservative estimate of the loss of life is 2,500 in Valparaiso alone.
One of the worst features connected with the earthquake is the fact that it is now midwinter in Chile, and the nights are very cold, and the people in many cases are without shelter. Provision-men, whose hearts seem to be moved by greed, have raised the price of provisions until milk costs two Chilean dollars a liter, and it is almost impossible to obtain meat of any kind. We are told that the situation is very much worse than it was in San Francisco. One hundred thousand people are homeless and penniless. Much of the food supply was destroyed by fire.
The first paper was published in Valparaiso, August 21. The first shock lasted four minutes and fifty seconds, causing the bells of the churches to ring. There was a great heaving motion of the ground. Islands have been thrown up in the sea, the coast line has been changed in many places, great fissures have been filled in the mountains and others opened; in fact, it is impossible to tell from the reports which have come to us anything definitely except that one of the great calamities of the world has overtaken the people of our sister republic.
The night following the first severe shock there were eighty-one more. Since that, they have run up into the hundreds. The earthquake has been recorded in Italy, Albany, N. Y., and presumably at many of the great observatories in the world. One of the tidal waves from its effect reached the Hawaiian Islands, threw the big trans-Pacific Manchuria out of her course, and ran her onto a reef. While all souls were saved, the fate of the steamship itself seems hopeless.
Despatches of August 22 declare that instead of decreasing, the horror of the situation grows with every hour. Fires are still burning in every section of the city, while thousands of men and women are almost without food, half-crazed by the awful calamity. Thousands of them have gone to Santiago, and the authorities are alarmed at the awful condition. The deaths, we are told, will probably reach 3,000, but this is a mere guess. Many who were killed by the earthquake have doubtless been consumed by the flames, even as they were in San Francisco. Few of those who were killed in the open have been buried. In one house fifty children and three Catholic nuns who were attempting to rescue them were crushed to death. Of the one hundred forty prisoners in the jail when it collapsed all but one were killed. Of the forty who were working on telephones, thirty-eight were killed. People arriving in Valparaiso from every direction say that they saw nothing but devastation and ruin wherever they have been.
All of these, we need not say, are evidences that the earth is waxing old, as God has told us again and again in His Word. The time is soon coming when "as a vesture" the Creator shall change them, and they shall be changed, when at His coming in glory His voice shall shake the earth that everything worthless shall be shaken out, that that which is of Himself and can not be shaken may remain.
Some in San Francisco have responded to Chile's awful need, and $10,000 have already been sent from one stricken city to a city worse stricken. As we receive authentic and connected reports from our representatives there, to whom we have cabled, we will lay the facts more fully before our readers.
Chilean Insurance Companies Face Fire Losses
It is said that the loss by fire in Chile falls largely upon Chilean insurance companies. The law has been such that nearly all the foreign companies have been driven out; consequently Chilean capital will have to suffer almost wholly from the awful calamity.
Tobacco and Physical Degeneracy
Occasionally there is an alarm sounded concerning the deadly tobacco habit, but it is usually because army and navy authorities find that it interferes with their securing recruits. Somehow people generally do not realize that any habit which unfits young men physically for active service in the army or navy naturally unfits them for more useful employment. If the loss to those worse than useless occupations were all the evil effects of tobacco upon our youth, it would be a comparatively small matter. But we hear more complaints from these sources than from any other, and are therefore indebted to them for some very practical information, which might be advantageously applied to all other callings. If people in general would reflect that the peculiar character of the physical injuries inflicted by the use of tobacco works in an especial manner to impoverish the mind, there would be far more effort to discourage, or even to prevent its use. But the latest complaint from the army is that of Lieutenant Bennett, a recruiting officer in New Orleans. He says that out of 106 applications for enlistment during July only twenty-nine were accepted. Cigaret smoking is given as the principal cause of physical degeneracy among the youth of Louisiana, Mississippi, and Texas. It is one of the causes everywhere.
Truth Is the Strongest Argument
The truth is always the strongest argument.— Socrates.
Enlargement of the Printing Factory
Our temporary factory is being enlarged by an extension, 34x48 feet. This is an addition of nearly two-thirds to the former "shack," which is 48x56. In the first building we have two large presses—one is a Miehle, with bed 46x62 inches, and the other is a C. B. Cottrell, bed 33x46 inches. Both are new and first-class. This paper was printed on the Miehle, which takes the whole sixteen pages. Besides these presses we have a half-medium Colt's Armory job press. We have also a linotype machine, on which the type is set for the Signs and Our Little Friend. In addition to this machine, we have a few stands and cabinets of type of various styles. Other machinery includes a mailing machine, a wire stitcher, a power paper cutter,
and a board cutter for binders' use. This material is all new. The book department occupies the remainder of this building. The annex to this structure will be used for bindery, as soon as the machinery arrives, and folding tables, which are now inconveniently housed in a tent, and thus rendered too liable to accident. We have no room yet for an electrotype foundry, which requires more substantial quarters. We are still obliged to use electricity furnished by the public corporation, and it will be some time before our own power-house can be rehabilitated. The wreck of our once excellent engine, boilers, and dynamo, and their roofless and charred and blackened quarters are still reminders of the uncertain duration of the greatest power that man can devise, of its limitations and susceptibility to sudden check by the elements of nature.
THE AMERICAN FEDERATION OF CATHOLIC SOCIETIES.
IN this issue will be found the first instalment of one report on the above organization. In publishing this and the articles which may accompany it, we know we are risking the friendship of many of our readers who are in sympathy with Roman Catholics, or are Protestant Catholics. We ask all such to hear us patiently, considering what we have to say, and weigh well the evidence of history and Holy Scripture.
LET us here say at the outset that we have naught against a single Roman Catholic in the world from Pope Pius X. to the last convert in New Guinea.
WE believe that the Roman Catholic has as good a right to espouse his religion and teach it as any soul upon earth, and no more. He has the fullest rights to dissent from, protest against, and by proper arguments and methods oppose any other religion upon earth. And he claims this.
BUT any other soul on earth has a wholly equal right to espouse his religion, of either positives or negatives, as has the Roman Catholic. Any other man, whatsoever his belief, or non-belief, has the fullest right to dissent from, protest against, and by proper arguments and methods to maintain his own views and to oppose the Roman Catholic or any other religion upon earth. In other words the Catholic and the non-Catholic are equal in this respect before God, and should be so before the law. These rights are natural and unalienable. No man can of right be deprived of them, nor has he power to barter them away.
MORE than this: If a man truly believes in these rights, he holds them not for himself, but for his opponent. He believes in the other man's right to think and pray and preach for himself within the bounds of civility.
IT is the crowning glory of the Christian religion, the religion of the Bible, that it does not compel, coerce, or seek in any way to bind or dethrone the conscience of men. That conscience may be all wrong, the majority may be all in the right, but the majority of either numbers or might have no right to bind or coerce a single soul. Listen to Him whose life alone has the right to condemn all unrighteousness:
"If any man hear My words and believe not, I judge him not; for I came not to judge the world, but to save the world." John 12:47.
Listen to the great apostle to the Gentiles:
"Knowing therefore the terror of the Lord, we persuade men." 2 Cor. 5:11. "Not that we have dominion over your faith, but are helpers of your joy; for by faith ye stand." 2 Cor. 1:24.
Listen to the bold disciple Peter, in his instruction to those who have charge of the flock:
"Feed the flock of God which is among you, taking the oversight thereof, not by constraint, but willingly; not for filthy lucre, but of a ready mind; neither as being lords over God's heritage, but being ensamples to the flock." 1 Peter 5:2, 3.
THE only thing, therefore, that the civil law should jealously guard is not the religion or the religious dogmas and institutions held by any man as sacred, but the rights of the individual, be he Catholic or Protestant, Mohammedan or Jew. For when the rights of the individual are guarded, the rights of all are guarded and protected in him. For these rights for all we contend. A religion that has not within itself sufficient preservative power deserves to die.
WHATEVER we may have to say as to Roman Catholic aims, objects, and principles is in harmony with the foregoing. We plead for the man Catholic, but we can not indorse his principles of the relationship between the church and the state, because we believe these principles to contravene the liberty which is consonant to the Gospel of Christ; because we believe them to be subversive of the best interests of the church and state. And our whole aim is to warn him and all others of the fearful outcome of such principles, and to persuade him, if possible, to accept in their stead the glorious Gospel of Jesus Christ.
To All Our Friends
To All Our Friends.—Please send no more papers unless we write for them.
Workers After the Fire
As we look over our company of busy, pleasant, earnest workers we praise God that the fire did not burn hearts and brains and muscles. All are at work.
Repairing the Mailing Lists
Our mailing lists are rapidly being mended. The SIGNS list is nearly complete. Our Little Friend list is still defective, but by the help of our friends in the field and the just complaint of subscribers who do not get the paper we hope soon to have it in perfect shape.
Go Forward
"Go Forward"—it is God's battle cry of the ages. Mountains may tower on either side, the Red Sea may roll its waves before, but "Go forward" is still the cry. God can make a path through the sea or level the mountains. Only let them know that they are following the cloudy, fiery pillar of God's presence. Where He leads, it is ever safe to follow, and He leads in no pathway that is not consecrated by His presence.
Insurance Settlement
Our insurance is at last settled. We have received seventy-two and one-half per cent. of the amount insured for. While this is less than it should have been, in view of the earthquake and the San Francisco fire, we are glad that it is as much as it is. Some men of good judgment thought, in view of the circumstances, we would do well to get fifty per cent. Others thought we would get nothing. Justly, we should have gotten the full amount. Our brethren who have had it in hand have done nobly.
A New Seismograph
A New Seismograph.—A despatch from San Francisco, dated August 4, to an eastern paper, says that Prof. A. O. Leuschner, director of the observatory of the University of California, has invented a new type of seismograph, one that even indicates the effect that the tide has upon the earth, and is quoted as saying, "The tide was not known to have depressed the shore previous to the earthquake. I believe we would have known it, however, if we had had the new seismograph in operation then. In my opinion the same condition always prevailed." This, the professor tells us, is no cause for alarm because it has always been known that the earth is elastic. We wonder if the next thing we hear will be that the earthquake itself was caused by the tide. We wonder what theories men will have and what seismographs will show when Ps. 46:1-3 is fulfilled.
Revolution Spreading in Cuba
From Cuba comes the news of a revolution which seems to be rapidly spreading throughout the island. In one or two engagements the rebels have come off at least evenly victorious in their conflicts with the government troops. President Palma fears for his life. There seems to be no desire on the part of the American Government to interfere, and yet the revolutionists seem to be doing all they can to provoke interference. They have shown special enmity toward American settlers there. It certainly was to be hoped that Cuba might make a success of self-government, for surely the island has had enough of the ravages of war. Later: The Cuban Government has called on this government for help.
National Corruption and Decay
In the history of the great nations of the past, it was first a growth of power through self-denial and great energy and endurance; then, following power, wealth accumulated; then luxury followed, then corruption, and then—decay. Now the Word of God tells us that "the thing that hath been, it is that which shall be; and that which is done is that which shall be done; and there is no new thing under the sun." There is not a great nation to-day whose history—past, present, and future—is not written in the histories of the great nations that are past. Every one of them is in the corruption stage, following in the inevitable rut of human government. A straw comes in the form of a press despatch from Berlin: "A gambling case in the garrison town of Dienze, Lorraine, is up before court-martial. A number of Bavarian officers, including a son of an eminent duke, are said to be implicated in the affair. Balls were given by the club, at which the guests were practically unclothed, and at which, in cases of last resort, women gamblers were the stakes. The affair is said to be the cause of much excitement. It is doubtful if Belshazzar's feast, the last given in Great Babylon before its fall, descended to such a depth of immorality."
ASSURANCE.
"For tho the fig tree shall not flourish,
Neither shall fruit be on the vines;
The labor of the olive shall fail,
And the fields shall yield no food;
The flock shall be cut off from the fold,
And there shall be no herd in the stalls;
Yet I will rejoice in Jehovah,
I will joy in the God of my salvation.
Jehovah, the Lord, is my strength;
And He maketh my feet like hind's feet,
And will make me to walk upon my
high places."
