MOST
OISAS
YEARJNTHE
HISTORY OF
THEWORLD
riXETEEX HUNDRED AND
EIGHT the most terrible
year of disaster In the his
tory of the modern -world.
That Is the black record
which Time has entered in
his books for the year
which has Just closed. A quarter of
a million people destroyed in awful
cat acy Isms, billions of dollars worth
of property wiped out of existence, a
sum of pain and human anguish which
can never be expressed in words or
figures such is the balance which
must be carried to the debit side of
the world's account books.
The mention of the word catastro
phe will of course bring the thoughts
of every one back to the great Italian
earthquake,- the greatest single dis
aster ia the world's history, a tragedy
which cost 125.000 lives and wiped out
of existence great and historic cities.
In the shadow of that terrible holo
caust the world has failed to realize
that it was merely the climax- of a
long series of horrors which followed
one on the heels of the other from
the first day of January, 1308, to the
first day of January, 1909.
The chimes of the rejoicing bells
that rang in the new year of 190S had
cot died away when the grim fiend of
destruction commenced Us work in
a mine at Carthage, X. M. Twelve
miners were blown out of human rec
ognition and the black year had
opened.
The first big blow fell 11 days later
when 309 people were incinerated in
a restaurant fire at Cantou. China. It
was followed the nest day by a trag-
ejy in America which shook the coun
try to the core and sent thousands
iuio mourning. The opera house at
Boytrtown. Pa., was burned down dur
ing an amateur performance, and 172
charred and mangled bodies were sub
sequently taken from the ruins.
The first month of the ominous
year waned to a close amid a series of
minor, disasters at home auJ abroad
which were overshadowed by the hor-
rurs wmcu prvccura mem ana me
yet greater horror which were to
come. The first of February ushered
in the first cyclone, which devastated
Mississippi, leaving SO dead bodies
and hundreds of ruined homesteads in
its wake. Two days later news was
flashed across the wires that a mine
explosion In Japan had destroyed 91
miners and that SI lives had been
lost in a snowstorm in Algeria.
Devastated by Cyclone.
Scarcely a week had elapsed before
the cyclone fiend made its second ap
pearance, sweeping through Minne
sota and Texas, claiming 13 lives. On
the same day a mine explosion in
Natal put an abrupt end to the hazard-
ous calling of 32 miners. Within two
weeks similar accidents in England
and Spain had called 92 more men to
their account, while a dynamite acci
dent ia California was paid for with
30 Uvea.
As it each month was endeavoring
to outdo in horror its predecessors,
March opened with a record of terrrble
disasters, among which is numbered
the most heartrending American trag
edy sinco the Iroquois fire. Ta
carnival of destruction opened on da
SS . .fa h
TRQU5
first of the month with an avrUanche in
Switzerland which cost 61 lives,
among the lost being several Ameri
cans. Three days afterward came the
schoolhouse fire at Coliingwood, O.
One hundred and seventy-eight chil
dren burned, trampled and crushed to
death! No adjectives and no words cf
any language could adequately de
scribe such an appalling event. Vio
lent death invested with terrors al
ways strikes humanity with peculiar
fiendishness when it seizes as its prey
helpless and innocent children. This
holocaust of childhood stunned the
country into oblivion of lesser calam
ities, while the despairing shrieks of
hundreds of mothers and fathers rang
across the world. The month closed
with an earthquake in Mexico in
which 500 people were killed and a
mine explosion at Havana. Wyo.,
which added 70 more items to the long
toll of the year's violent deaths.
Fire and earthquake gave place to
flood and storm in April, and the loss
of life leaped upward with terrific
bounds. The first great disaster of the
month occurred in China, where 2.000
people were drowned in a flood which
inundated the province of Hu-pih. A
few days later two railway accidents,
one in Australia and the other ia
Alberta, accounted for 6S more on
fortunates. On April 24 a series of
cyclones of unprecedented fury burst
over the southern states, destroying
368 lives, annihilating villages, and
devastating property to the extent of
millions of dollars. Mississippi paid
229 lives to the rage of the storm.
Louisiana ' contributed ICS. and Ala
bama 31.
While the cyclones were still ravag
ing the south, in far northern Alberta
a snowslide buried 40 persons and
obliterated a village. The last week
of April saw a last supreme effort put
forth by the malign fates to make the
first of the month of spring the most
deadly of the dread year. Forty lives
were lost in a raiiroad accident in
Australia and 28 more in a similar dis
aster in Mexico. A landslide at Notre
Dame de Sabelle. Canada, added 36
to the swelling total, and finally the
Japanese cruiser Mulsushim blew up
and 240 members of Its crew perished.
Past Mere Foretaste of Future.
It might well have seemed that the
fury of the fates would have been ex
hausted by this time, but instead hu
manity had ouly experienced the first
few blows of the terrible scourging
which was to be visited upon it. In
the first three days of the next month
26 persons were burned to death in
America, 13 in Norway, and the col
lapse of a tenement in London ac
counted for 20 more. The following
day a ferryboat capsized in Russia and
121 passengers were drowned. A
week later another terrific cyclone
burst over the doomed southern
states and took toll of 42 lives in
Louisiana, 17 in east Nebraska, and 14
in Oklahoma.
The sequel to this prelude came on
the 13th. when 10,000 lives want out
in another Chinese flood at Hankow.
Beside this appalling tragedy a rail
road accident in Belgium with 60 fatal
ities seemed trivial. As a grand
finale the iU-faied Hankow was slruik
by a typhoon and the total of her dead
was increased 1,000. The following
day another thousand lives were sacri
ficed in a mine fire at Kewang. China.
June apparently despaired of ever
competing successfully with her sister
month. However, she continued to
pile tragedy on tragedy. On the first
of the month an accident on the Amur
river in China resulted in 89 deaths,
and 18 was added to the day's roll by
a flood in Mexico. On the fourth a
typhcon on the west coast of Australia
wiped out 270 lives, and two days aft
erward another cyclone burst- in Ne
braska at a cost of 28 lives, to be fol
lowed the next day with another cy
clone in Iowa which increased the list
by five. On the same day 20 persons
were lost in a flood in Mexico and 18
in an explosion in Vienna. The month
of roses concluded its list with a tor
nado, which struck the Portuguese
coast and slew 400, while Oklahoma
contributed 100 more of her citizens
to another storm.
As far as America was concerned
July was the most merciful month of
the year. Fifty-two lives was the en
tire tribute collected in the United
States through , the agencies of flood,
fire and storm. Tills leniency was
more than compensated, however, by
the list of fatalities abroad. On the
second of the month Batavia, Java,
was ravaged by a storm which de
stroyed 600 lives. On the same day a
mine explosion in Russia was respoa-
sible for 235 fatalities. , On the 13th
57 lives were lost in a storm off the
coast of Spain, and on the 15th a flood
in Asia Minor swept away 2,000 peo
ple. Few Fatalities in August.
August was the most merciful
month in the year. In the United
States the death roll was 170, prin
cipally caused by floods in North and
South Carolina and Georgia. The
biggest disaster abroad was a cyclone
in Hungary which killed 74 people. It
was closely followed by a mine ex
plosion in England with 70 fatalities.
The total deathroll for the remaining
disasters was 81, the largest single
item being 39 lives lost in forest fires
in British Columbia.
The United States was still fortun
ate through September with a total
of fatalities merely amounting to 33,
but abroad the ominous figures com
menced to mount with a rush again.
Five thousand lives were lost in a
flood in India and 140 through a ferry
disaster at Synirna.
October was the month of the great
forest fires which devastated Michi
gan, destroying 50 lives and $20,000,
000 worth of property. A typhoon in
the Philippines added its quota of 00
souls, and a second typhoon off China
claimed 5.000 victims.
Both at home and abroad November
proved a comparatively innocuous
month, although it was marked by two
comparatively large disasters. Three
hundred and thirty-nine lives were lost
in a mine explosion in Germany, and
123 deaths resulted from the burning
of the steamer Sardinia at Malta.
December and Vuletide came and
exhausted humanity saw the black
year drawing to a close in apparent
calm. They were looking forward to
the new year in eager hope that the
evil days were over, when the great
est biw of all felL
On December 28. 1908, occurred the
great Italian earthquake, the most
stupendous disaster of the world's his
tory. Even yet it is impossible to
make an accurate estimate of what its
cost was either in loss of human life
or property. It is known that 125,000
people perished, but in actual fact
it is probable that figure is far below
the real number of victims. In mate
rial loss it is impossible to nam any
figure.
Far Surpassed Lisbon Disaster,
Up to the time of the Italian earth
quake the record disaster had been
tba earthquake at Lisbon in 1755,
when 6O,d00 lives had been lost. This
terrible tragedy had been for over a
century and a half the object of the
awful dismay of the world. It be
comes almost insignificant in view of
the calamity which befell in the clos
ing days of 1908. For every soul that
went out at Lisbon two were quenched
in Sicily and Italy and 5,000 more
were added for good measure.
Another point of interest, especially
for" those who cherish the venerable
superstition anent the unluckiness of
the number 13, is the discovery that
there was a disaster on every thir
teenth day of the month for the first
seven months of the year. The rec
ord was started on January 13, the
date of the Boyertown theater fire. A
month later there was a boiler ex
plosion in Pennsylvania, followed in
March by an avalanche which took 18
lives in Siberia. April 13 saw a flood
in China which cost 2,000 lives, and
the same day in May a similar disas
ter was responsible for the loss of
10,000 people, while 42 people died in
a cyclone in Louisiana. June 13 a
dynamite explosion took nine lives in
Winnipeg, and on July 13 47 lives
were lost in a storm off the coast of
Spain.
Another curiosity is discovered in
connection with the highly-useful ele
vator which has made possible sky
scrapers. While it is fairly common
to hear of accicsnts in elevators, few
people realize what a heavy toll it
takes on life. In the United States in
1908 108 people were killed and 57
injured in elevator accidents.
A significant feature of the list ia
the exceptionally high number of fatal
ities which resulted from the acci
dental discharge of high explosives.
In spite of the elaborate 'precautions
which are generally observed in the
handling of such material as dyna
mite death marshaled a large army
of victims from premature explosions.
Altogether 499 lives were lost through
this class of disaster.
Dangers Surround Earth's Delvers.
' An examination of the figures brings
home forcibly the terribly dangerous
conditions under which work the men
who go down into the earth to delve
for wealth. From every country in
the world which owns mines was, con
tributed the tale of a grewsome un
derground tragedy. In all 2,270 min
ers were sacrificed, and the universal
distribution of the disasters would
seem to indicate that no precautions
can be taken which will guarantee
safety with any certainty to the sub
terranean workers.
In considering the statistics given
here it must not be forgotten that
they do not include many thousands
of violent deaths which would run the
total far above its present tremend
ous total of over a quarter of a mil
lion. No account is taken in these
figures of single fatalities, such
persons killed by street cars and in
other thoroughfare accidents and the
long list of individual deaths for
which the railroads are annually re
sponsible. Also the criminal statistics
are not included, and it is only too
true that the number of persons who
meet their death from assassination
every year is a large one. Suicides
also are not included, nor the big
number who lose their lives through
individual drowning accidents, care
less handling of firearms, and the
numberless other stray hazards which
surround life.
If all these figures could be collected
and added it is not an exaggeration
to say that it wonld be found that at
least 300,000 persons came to a violent
end during the fata months of 1908.
That is to say that the year saw the
violent destruction of a population of
a city almost as large as Pittsburg. As
a matter of fact the true figures would
probably he much in excess of that
number.
fPlISAHADFORD
mS&mSug editor
Mr. William A. Radford win answer ,
Questions and give advice FREE OF
COST on ail subjects pertaining to the
subject of building for the readers of this
paper. On account of his wide expe
rience as Editor. Author and Manufac
turer, he is, without doubt, the highest
authority on all these subjects. Address
all inquiries to William A. Radford, No.
1M Fifth Ave.. Chicago. 111., and only
en-Jose two-cent stamp for "--iiv-
S would be difficult to design a prac
tical house any cheaper than this. It
Is a small affair intended for a new
married couple who don't require very
much room. It is a very neat, pretty
little story-and-a-half house 25 feet 6
inches wide by 27 feet 6 inches long.
exclusive of porches. Love in a cot
tage used to mean more or less dis
comfort in the winter time as soon as
the weather got cold, but modern in
ventions have been lately introduced
into the smaller houses and we are
applying them in a sensible way.
Besides a hall we have three good
large rooms on the first floor and we
have two very good bedrooms and a
eathdoom tucked awav in the roof
gables. In fact, it might properly be
called a gable end house. All the win
dows you get upstairs are in the
gables, and, by the way, these win
dows just add the necessary finishing
touches to the large gables. A house
gable was never finished satisfactorily
until the three-window frame was in
vented, and that didn't happen until
recently. There was some objection
at first to triple windows like this.
casement windows they are sometimes
call, until the women found out how
to dress them np satisfactorily, but we
don't hear any complaints now. The
fashion seems to have come to stay
because the women have given it their
sanction. When the women nail a
fashion it stays nailed until they
change their minds, and they haven't
published any change of sentiment in
regard to a triple window, especially
when it decorates the gable end of a
house roof. The reason probably is
that they have found a satisfactory
way to arrange the shades and cur
tains and they have also fonnd out
First Floor Plan.
that a window of this kind admits
more light, sunshine and air than a
narrow, contracted, old-fashioned af
fair. One great advantage of a house like
this is the ease with which the house
work is carried on. There are many
pleasant features about the plan, one
of which is the combination living
room and dining-room which make
practically one room nearly 2T feet
long by 13 feet in width. The partial
division in the center may be hang
with curtains or not, but usually the
archway is left open, especially In the
summer time. If a woman has hand
some portieres she likes to display
them at the proper time, but she also
likes to put them away in summer out
of the way of moths and the fading
propensities of sunlight. And I often
think that - she does it to have a
change. I don't care how handsome a
curtain is, if it hangs before you the
year round you become indifferent to
it, in fact, yon don't see it, yon don't
know it is there. But if your wife
puts it away you miss it and when it
comes back again you are pleased to
renew old acquaintances. A real live,
womanly woman is fully alive to the
fact that most men and some women
r 9P1M "" '"m"
rdlL I
-fl '
"jl T " " O Tan-m-
J f f
forget thsng3 when they are oat of
sight and out of hearing, so next fail
the old curtains pass for new drap
eries.
The from hail connects with the
kitchen by way of a sort of cellar
vestibule. This arrangement is all
right. A great many house are so
built that you can't get from the
kitchen to the front door itlwt.
passing through the drains-room and)
Second Floor Plan.
parlor. The idea seems to be that a
door opening from the kitchen to the
direction of the front hall is likely to
disseminate the savory odors of cook'
ing when certain vegetables are
dergoing the boiling process, and the
perfume is not considered sufficiently
bon .ton to associate on eonal terras
with the guests in the parlor.
This plan, however, provides for
double doors, a precaution that is like-
t.
ly to meet with approval from tbs
most fastidious housekeepers. Tha
cellarway leads down from this littta
vestibule and there is also a set of
shelves reaching front the floor to tbo
ceiling. This set of cellarway shelves
is about as useful as any other featsro
of the house. For some reason it ia
almost impossible to keep Jellies ia
the cellar without having them mold
in the glasses. If kept in the kitchen
the jellies shrink until the glasses are
not more than half full, but shelves ia
a cellarway built like this seem to hit
the happy medium and the frnft comes
out just as nice in the winUr time as
when pat np in summer. Dry air la
the house and damp cellar air meet
here and the results are very satisfac
tory. The value of a house is made op of
little things. It is the many lit I in
things added together that make th?
round, satisfactory whole. The man
or woman who wants a house to suit
them must study the details before
starting to build, otherwise the honsf
will be unsatisfactory when fiaistted.
The fact is, few families can find a
satisfactory house ready made. It is
difficult for anyone to feel really, thor
oughly at home ia a rented house.
There are fifty little things yon wonid
like to have different but yo posi
tively refuse to put time aad expense
on a house that belongs to some one
else. This is one reason why I so often
recommend young people to start out
In a home of their own. It may sot
be elaborate but if it fits the pocket
book it is very likely to prove the
nucleus of a happy acd prcaperoas
life.
Advice for Life's Course.
Be and continue poor, young ma&
while others around yon grow rich by
fraud and disloyalty; be wit hoot place
or power, while others beg their way
upward; bear the pain of disappointed!
hopes, while others gain the accoo.
plishment of theirs by flattery; forego
the gracious pressure of the hand for
which others cringe and erawL Wrap
yourself in your own virtue, aad seek
a friend and your daily bread. If yaw
have in such a coarse grown gray,
with unbleached hoaor. bless God. and
die. Heinzelman.
Same Old Exception.
Singleton Does your wife ever ac
knowledge your superiority?
Wedderty Only when she fcas s
lead pencil that requires saarpeniax.
Chicago News.
rr . T