Great Disasters and Horrors in the World's History

“Hast thou observed the ancient tract, That was trodden by wicked mortals, Who were arrested on a sudden, Whose foundation is a molten flood? Who said to God, Depart from us, Wh...

“The thunder roared his signal to the sea, While shook the frightened earth through all her coasts, And mountains bowed their trembling heads in awe, And yawning gulfs leaped up...

Flowers the river snatches, while it calls so-- Flowers its lean hands never snatched before, Will it snatch these human flowers also, Where they cling, sad creatures of the sho...

“Far along, From peak to peak the rattling crags among, Leaps the live thunder! Not from one lone cloud, But every mountain now hath found a tongue, And Jura answers through her...

“And it bubbles, and seethes, and hisses, and roars, As when fire is with water commixed and comblending, And a hell-molten surf thunders wild on its shores, While a red-tumblin...

The fowls of every hue, “Crowding together, sailed on weary wing, And hovering, oft they seemed about to light, Then soared as if they deemed the earth unsafe. The cattle looked...

“And rearing Lindis backward pressed, Shook all her trembling bankes amaine, Then madly at the eygre’s breast Flung up her weltering walles againe, Then banks came down with rui...

“They shall sleep Where death may deal not again forever, Where change may come not till all change end. From the graves they have made they shall rise up never, Who have left n...

“Roll on, thou deep and dark-blue Ocean, roll! Ten thousand fleets sweep over thee in vain. Man marks the earth with ruin: his control Stops with thy shores: upon the watery pla...

“Hark! louder on the blast come hollow shrieks Of dissolution; in the fitful scowl Of night, near and more near, angels of death Incessant flap their deadly wings, and roar Thro...

“O cold and savage wind! It racks my soul to hear the wild lamenting Of wounded hearts whose grief knows no relenting, Can not their woe e’er sway thee to repenting? O cold and...

“From the dark earth impervious vapors rise, Increase the darkness and involve the skies. At once the rushing winds, with roaring sound, Burst from th’ Æolian caves and rend the...

“E’en while they cheered the gladiator’s thrust, And shouted as the lion crunched his bones, Up sprang the Fire King from his ages’ sleep Shook wide his robe of ever-deepening n...

“At eve along the calm resplendent west I marked a cloud alive with fairy light, So warmly pure, so sweetly, richly bright, It seemed a spirit of ether, floating blest, In its o...

“Man is born on a battle-field. Round him to rend Or resist, the dread Powers he displaces, attend By the cradle which Nature, amid the stern shocks That have shattered creation...

“O sad and mournful wind! From what wild depths of human pain and sorrow Could’st thou those tones of restless anguish borrow As of a soul that dreams of no to-morrow, O sad and...

“A sullen hoarse murmur, and nameless fear!-- A sound like the tread of a hurrying host!-- A roar like the storm, as the wild waters near, Like the dash of the sea on a crag-bor...

“Diseased Nature oftentimes breaks forth In strange eruptions: and the teeming earth Is with a kind of colic pinched and vexed By the imprisoning of unruly wind Within her womb;...

“Abou Ben Adhem (may his tribe increase) Awoke one night from a deep dream of peace, And saw within the moonlight of his room, Making it rich and like a lily in bloom, An angel...

The preceding pages show only the destructive power of the small tornadoes of our land. We are fortunate in that the great cyclone is, comparatively, a rare visitor among us. A...

The Storm at Sea! From the days of David to the present, the poet and the novelist have taxed their energies to portray the perils of those who go down into the deep in ships. T...

“I bring fresh showers for the thirsty flowers, From the seas and the streams, I bear light shade for the leaves when laid In their noonday dreams. From my wings are shaken the...

One of the most destructive storms on record, and certainly the most terrible ever known on the whole English coast is the great storm of 1703. It is the only storm which has ev...

“Earth has each year her resurrection hours When the spring stirs within her, and the powers Of life revive; the sleeping zephyrs rouse, The blushing orchards clothe their naked...

“Fain would th’ ephemeral pigmies then aspire To drive, like Phäethon, the sun’s coach of fire, To grapple with the lightning in the sky, Or with the restless winds abroad to fl...

“Then--see those million worlds which burn and roll, Around us--their inhabitants beheld My spher’ed light wave in wide Heaven; the sea Was lifted by strange tempests, and new f...

“Up from the sea I sprang, O voyager, Ere Aphrodite rose from out its foam. I am a banned, unresting wanderer, Doomed o’er the surface of the deep to roam. Without being aged, o...

“Gray in his mossy cave Æolus stood Gazing in reverie at the distant sails, That skimmed the surface of the glassy deep, Unvexed by blasts of Eurus’ boisterous whims. The restle...

Knowledge only from experience--Partial mastery by faith--Natural law the ruling force--Good and bad results of faith in the Supernatural--Sin punished--Ignorance punished--Exam...

Destruction of Sodom--Arguments--The pitch lake of Trinidad--Ætna: eruption of 1669--Thousands perish--Catania destroyed--Other outbreaks--Iceland: Mt. Hecla--Tremendous eruptio...

All nature uneasy--The terrifying character of an earthquake--Signs and wonders--“El Gran Ruido,” of Guanajuato--Frequency of earthquakes--Earthquake in New England, 1638--A sec...

Germany and Samoa--Naboth’s vineyard--War breaks out--The assembled navy--Situation of the harbor--The hurricane--Fears of the natives--Vessels dragging anchors--Sudden wreck of...

Shocks in Asia: lack of reliable information--The Andes region--Great earthquake of Riobamba--Humboldt’s description--Numerous shocks in Venezuela--Catastrophe of Caracas--Effec...

Legends of the flood--Sparta Destroyed--Bura and Helice engulfed--Numerous convulsions in Asia Minor--Antioch repeatedly destroyed--North Africa suffers--Calabrian earthquake of...

The dam system of India--American “cheap goods and haste"--The Little Conemaugh Valley--Heavy rains--Johnstown flooded--The artificial lake--A poor dam--No uneasiness--How the w...

Rivers a universal problem--Character of the Mississippi--Failure of the levee system--The building of levees--Three great sections--Damage of overflows--Fighting for the levee-...

Suddenness of the flood--It divides--A chaotic scene--Fire breaks out--Faith of the perishing--Narratives: the Hulbert House; Rev. D. M. Miller’s story; Mr. Calliver’s escape; D...

The tornado in East Kansas--In Southeast Missouri--Great damage in Illinois--Water-spout at Metropolis--Many distinct whirlwinds--Effect of forest and prairie fires--Tornado of...

Byron’s fire--Myths of the lightning--Causes of thunder storms--Strange freaks of the lightning--Numerous fatalities--Some curious cases--A lightning stroke a Divine favor--Thun...

Erroneous views--Myths--Active principle in volcanoes--Atmospheric pressure--Rain at eruptions--Lava, pumice, ashes and tufa--Different phases of action--Stromboli, the “lightho...

Floods of other years--Warning of the Signal Service--The water rising--At Greenville, Mississippi--The fight for the Morganza line--The waters win--Other crevasses--Extent of t...

The poor to be remembered--Peddlers, publicans and sinners--The freaks of “Providence"--Deaths in the storm remarkably few--Wonderful escapes--Explosive effects of confined air-...

Unheeded law--Peculiarities of storms--Cyclonic storms--Theoretical Illustrations--A “cyclone hot-bed"--Traveling of a cyclone--Its curves in accordance with law--Features of th...

Cyclones on our eastern borders--The Nova Scotia cyclone--St. Thomas cyclone and earthquake, 1837--Cyclone of 1867--Barbadoes storm, 1831--Great storm of 1780--Terrible cyclones...