GREAT DISASTERS
AND
HORRORS IN THE WORLD’S HISTORY.
A GRAPHIC ACCOUNT OF THE NOTABLE CALAMITIES
WHICH HAVE BEFALLEN MANKIND
IN ALL AGES, BOTH UPON LAND AND SEA.
EMBRACING
THE LOUISVILLE TORNADO, FLOODS IN THE SOUTH, CHARLESTON EARTHQUAKE,
JOHNSTOWN FLOOD, STORM ON THE COAST OF SAMOA, NOTED SHIPWRECKS,
GREAT FLOODS IN CHINA, HOLLAND AND JAPAN, AND OTHER NOTABLE
DISASTERS CAUSED BY STORM, FLOOD AND VOLCANIC ACTION,
AND OF THE LAWS OF THE
NATURAL PHENOMENA THAT PRODUCE THEM.
COMPRISING
THRILLING TALES OF HEROISM, GREAT DESTRUCTION OF TOWNS, CITIES, HOMES
AND LIVES, HEART-RENDING SCENES OF AGONY, DREADFUL SUFFERINGS,
MIRACULOUS ESCAPES, DARING ADVENTURES, ETC., ETC.,
TOGETHER WITH
NOBLE RESPONSES OF AID.
TO WHICH IS ADDED
AN ACCOUNT OF METHODS OF PREDICTION.
By A. H. GODBEY, A.M.,
Author of “Stanley in Africa,” “Light in Darkness,”
“Missions and Missionary Heroes,” etc.
_SUPERBLY ILLUSTRATED WITH 150 ENGRAVINGS._
PUBLISHED BY
ROYAL PUBLISHING CO.,
ST. LOUIS, MO.
[Illustration]
COPYRIGHT.
1890,
W. L. HOLLOWAY.
[Illustration]
PREFACE.
Whatever be the ideas of the public upon a glance at the title page of
this work, it is not intended to pander to the morbid desire for the
sensational or horrible, characteristic of weak minds. This volume is
not a literary morgue.
Mankind is constantly astonished by reports of mishaps and disasters of
manifold character, when there is seldom room for astonishment. A large
proportion of the calamities reported from day to day are directly due
to the haste, greed, and heedlessness of man himself, and need no
comment.
But there is a large class of disasters, due solely to meteorological or
geological conditions, which surpass all others in magnitude and
appalling destruction. In such cases men insist on prating about
“mysterious visitations,” as though these occurrences were subject to
the dominion of no law. To an examination of such is this book devoted.
When in school, the writer was often struck by the persistence with
which even the most diligent students would call upon the teachers of
physics and chemistry to suspend the recitation and devote the time to
illustrative experiments. Physical Geography was constantly pronounced
“very dry,” because of the scarcity of opportunities for illustration.
The writer has endeavored to present in a form acceptable to the popular
palate the general principles of the storm and earthquake so far as they
are understood: and numerous narratives of great disturbances have been
inserted that a clearer conception of the magnitude of these agencies
and their relative importance may be attained by the reader.
Much care has been spent in “steering between Scylla and Charybdis.”
While it has been designed to avoid merely scientific data, there has
been the equally delicate task of avoiding prolix narration and mere
sensational tales. It is hoped that the result will be useful and
interesting.
If the book shall lead the reader to higher views of the reign of
inexorable law in nature, and to a profounder reverence for the Author
of Law and his works, the labor of its compilation will not have been
spent in vain.
A. H. GODBEY.
TABLE OF CONTENTS.
CHAPTER I.
MYTHS OF THE WINDS.
PAGE.
Old Greek fancies--Their modern traces--Man seeking
mysteries--Personifications--The “air-mothers” 17
CHAPTER II.
CONSTANT WINDS.
Comparative climate--Expansive force of heat--Illustrations--The
trade-winds--Effect of the earth’s rotation--Return currents and
calms 26
CHAPTER III.
PERIODIC WINDS.
Modified trade winds--The monsoons--Local winds--Sea and land
breezes--The simoom: its terrible effects--The khamsin, and similar
winds--Moisture in the air: its effects--Rain and hail--Clouds: their
varieties--Mountain winds 34
CHAPTER IV.
TORNADOES AND CYCLONES.
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 the cyclone’s path--Great cyclone
of August, 1888--The planetary equinox theory--Objections to it--Safe
predictions--Sun-spots--Mysterious providences 48
CHAPTER V.
THE LOUISVILLE TORNADO.
Perspective of news--Amusing conceits--Distress at the door--The
tornado--Warning of the Signal Service--The storm strikes
Louisville--Its course--Wreck of Falls City Hall--Rescuing the
victims--Fire breaks out--Personal narratives--At the Union
Depot 65
CHAPTER VI.
INCIDENTS OF THE TORNADO.
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--Strange pranks of
the wind--The storm at Parkland--At Jeffersonville--The mammon
worshiper--Generosity and independence 87
CHAPTER VII.
OTHER TORNADOES.
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 Charleston, 1761--Tornadoes at
Natchez, 1840 and 1842--The Marshfield storm, 1880--Remarkably small
loss of life in tornadoes--Tornadoes in foreign lands 114
CHAPTER VIII.
TROPICAL CYCLONES.
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 and storm waves of
India--Typhoons in the China seas 141
CHAPTER IX.
PERILS OF THE SEA.
Songs of the sea--The ocean always admired--Its treasures and
dangers--Man’s greed a source of disaster--Criminal disregard of
life--Terrible fatalities in leaky ships--The Arctic seas--The ship
_Rufus_ 159
CHAPTER X.
LIFE-SAVING MEASURES.
Great storm of 1703--Humaneness and inhumanity--Diabolical
wreckers--Hovellers--Desperate struggles without a life-boat
illustrated by Dickens--The life-boat invented--Its
usefulness--Lighthouses and fog-bells 179
CHAPTER XI.
GREAT SAMOAN HURRICANE.
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 the
_Eber_--Magnanimous natives--The _Adler_ overturned--Struggle of
the _Nipsic_--Fouled by the _Olga_, and run ashore--Crew rescued by
the natives--The _Vandalia_ helpless--Bold feat of the _Calliope_
cheered--_Vandalia_ stranded--Many Drowned--At the last gasp--The
_Trenton_ drifts upon them--Defiance of the storm--The flag
triumphant 195
CHAPTER XII.
ELECTRIC STORMS.
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--Thunder--Peculiar
incidents--Lightning little to be feared--Foolish precautions--A
“dysentery conductor” wanted--St. Elmo’s fire--Electric halos--Their
part in history--The aurora--Popular myths--Aurora described 220
CHAPTER XIII.
RAIN, HAIL AND SNOW.
Clouds and cloud shapes--The storm changes national destinies--Cloud
halos--Specter of the Brocken--The “beautiful rain"--Amount
of rainfall--Snow--Its ravages--Remarkable showers of
hail--Prodigies 246
CHAPTER XIV.
FLOODS IN THE SOUTH.
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--Storm on the river--Scene at a
crevasse--The flood in the rural districts--In the city--Closing a
crevasse--Refugees on the levee--Crooked streams 261
CHAPTER XV.
THE FLOOD OF 1890.
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 the
damage--Objections to levees--Levees versus outlets--Terrible floods
in China--A proposed outlet--Reflection on present policy 296
CHAPTER XVI.
THE JOHNSTOWN FLOOD.
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 water would move--The dam
breaks--Terrible rush of the flood--An engine chased--A warning
whistle--Locomotives hurled about like toys--Flying for life--Escapes
and losses 324
CHAPTER XVII.
INCIDENTS AT JOHNSTOWN.
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; Dr. Beale and family--Morning:
the stricken multitude; Mr. Rose’s narrative; Talmage’s letter; the
grief of the survivors 343
CHAPTER XVIII.
RELIEF MEASURES.
The people in want--Johnstown after the flood--Human ghouls--Relic
hunters--Temporary government--A dictatorship--Hospitals and
morgues--Prompt response of the public--Aid from various
cities--Losses by the flood 367
CHAPTER XIX.
FAMINE AND PESTILENCE.
Signs and omens--Natural causes--Bengal famine of 1866--Relief
Measures--Results--Pestilence and contagion--Black death--Its frequent
ravages--Fright--A romance of Florence 384
CHAPTER XX.
THE VOLCANO.
Erroneous views--Myths--Active principle in volcanoes--Atmospheric
pressure--Rain at eruptions--Lava, pumice, ashes and tufa--Different
phases of action--Stromboli, the “lighthouse"--Lava bubbles--Thrilling
adventure--Lost!--Theory of a molten earth--Objections to it--The
earth cools slowly--Subsidence and chemical action--Distribution of
volcanoes--Their work and forms 394
CHAPTER XXI.
GREAT ERUPTIONS OF VESUVIUS.
Pompeii long buried--Excavations begun--A hermetically sealed
city--Scenes in the town--Pliny’s story--Hundreds stifled--Finding the
bodies--Subsequent eruptions--Notable convulsion of 1538--The eruption
of 1531, 1737 and 1793--Recent observations 421
CHAPTER XXII.
OTHER GREAT ERUPTIONS.
Destruction of Sodom--Arguments--The pitch lake of Trinidad--Ætna:
eruption of 1669--Thousands perish--Catania destroyed--Other
outbreaks--Iceland: Mt. Hecla--Tremendous eruption of Skaptar
Jokul--One-fifth of the people perish--Millions of cubic yards
of lava--Disturbances in the sea--Jorullo: a mountain made in a
night--Fearful outburst of Sumbawa--Twenty-six people out of twelve
thousand escape--Explosions heard nine hundred miles--Other Malaysian
volcanoes--Geysers--Terrible eruption of Cosequina--Heard one
thousand miles--Eruptions in South America--Force required to send
out lava--In the Sandwich Islands--Krakatoa: the greatest eruption in
history--A chorus of volcanoes--Awful destruction--Perceived around
the world--Unparalleled sea wave 440
CHAPTER XXIII.
EARTHQUAKES.
Myths of the earthquake--Ancient theories--Modern
research--Earthquakes and volcanic agency--Speed of a shock--The
atmospheric theory--Earthquakes at particular seasons--The “planetary
influence” theory--Character of motions 481
CHAPTER XXIV.
EUROPEAN EARTHQUAKES.
Legends of the flood--Sparta Destroyed--Bura and Helice
engulfed--Numerous convulsions in Asia Minor--Antioch repeatedly
destroyed--North Africa suffers--Calabrian earthquake of 1693--A
tremendous convulsion in 1783--Immense chasms--People swallowed
up--Great landslides--Terrible catastrophe at Scylla--Ruffians
amid the wreck--The great Lisbon earthquake--Its vast
extent--Awful destruction--Earthquake at Chio--In Switzerland--In
Ischia--Distressing scenes in the ruins--Disastrous shocks in
Spain 496
CHAPTER XXV.
EARTHQUAKES IN THE UNITED STATES AND ENGLAND.
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 second in 1663--Shock
of 1727--Great convulsions of 1755--Damage and great alarm at
Boston--“The end of the world!"--Great disturbance in the Mississippi
Valley, 1811--Strange feats--The Charleston earthquake--Numerous
English earthquakes--Comparatively small loss of life 535
CHAPTER XXVI.
EARTHQUAKES IN TROPICAL AMERICA.
Shocks in Asia: lack of reliable information--The Andes region--Great
earthquake of Riobamba--Humboldt’s description--Numerous shocks in
Venezuela--Catastrophe of Caracas--Effect on the survivors--Frequent
convulsions at San Salvador--Total destruction in 1854--Ruffians on
the scene--Sudden disaster of Mendoza--Touching incidents--Faithful
dogs--Shocks in Peru and gigantic sea wave--Numerous great shocks--The
end of all things--The last man 563
CHAPTER XXVII.
PREDICTION AND PREVENTION.
Futile efforts to control the future--Law neglected for
superstition--Pretentious prophets--Humbugs--Laws of
weather changes--Actions of animals--Methods for producing
rain suggested--Earthquake indicators--A force beyond
control--Possibilities 589
CHAPTER XXVIII.
THE REIGN OF LAW.
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--Examples--Man slow
to learn--Eternal wisdom and goodness--Progress, past, present and
future 600
LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS.
PAGE.
Cave of the Winds 18
The Simoom 40
Forms of Clouds 45
Path of Cyclones 54
Rotation of Storms 56
Water-spouts at Sea 60
Where the Storm entered Louisville 68
Baxter Park, Louisville 71
Falls City Hall 75
At Work in the Wreck 78
Main Street, between Eleventh and Twelfth, Louisville 82
Union Depot, Louisville 85
Eighth and Main, Louisville 90
Corner Main and Clinton, Louisville 94
Looking East from Tenth and Main, Louisville 96
Corner Jefferson and Twelfth, Louisville 99
On Ninth Street, Louisville 102
Ruined Tobacco Warehouses 104
View of Jeffersonville 108
Wall and Front Streets, Jeffersonville 109
Wreck at Jeffersonville 110
Tenth and Main, Louisville 112
Looking West from Tenth and Main, Louisville 115
View of the Residence District, Louisville 118
Ruined Dwellings 121
Path of Tornado, Olney, Ill. 124
Scene at Olney, Ill. 126
Whirlwind from Burnt Prairie 127
Tornado followed by Rain Storm 129
Instantaneous View of Tornado 130
Tornado at Monville 132
Water-spout at Sea 135
Minnesota Tornado 137
Sand-spouts in the Desert 139
Cyclone, Fire and Earthquake, St. Thomas 145
“Drowning with its Terrible Roar” 147
Hurricane in the Tropics 151
Coast of India Submerged by a Storm 156
“He Sinks into Thy Depths” 160
Cast Ashore 163
Wreck of the _Minotaur_ 167
Wrecked on a Rock 171
Castaways on a Raft 173
Sinking of the _London_ 177
Storm on the Shoals, 1703 180
On a Lee Shore 184
Hovellers Relieving a Vessel 187
The Life-boat 190
The Life-boat at Work 193
Bow of the _Eber_ Cast Ashore 201
The _Adler_ on the Reef 204
Samoans Rescuing American Sailors 207
The _Calliope_ Putting to Sea 210
Bow of the Sunken _Vandalia_ 214
After the Storm 218
The Lyse Fiord 221
Ideal Subterranean Storm 225
Harvesters Killed by Lightning 232
Land of the Aurora 243
Field of Waterloo 249
Specter of the Brocken 252
Tropical Flood 264
Making Mats for Levee Fronts 266
Struggle to Hold the Levee 269
A Mountain Torrent 271
“No Time for Prayin’!” 273
Funeral During the Flood 275
Breaking of the Levee 277
Surprised by the Water 279
Not so Romantic as it Looks 282
Telegraphing Under Difficulties 285
Rescuing People 288
Camps on the Levee 290
Waiting for a Steamer 292
The Search Light 293
Scene at High Water 297
Negroes Moving Out 301
Stock Raft 303
Picking Up Refugees 306
Deserted Farmhouse 308
Flood in China 312
Dykes of Holland 316
Relief of Leyden 318
Breaking of the Dykes, Holland 322
Map of Conemaugh Valley 325
The Broken Dam 334
Fleeing Engine 337
Wreck of the Trains 340
Mill Creek 345
At the Stone Bridge 349
Desperate Struggle 354
The Gorge at the Bridge 358
Battle with the Waters 362
Johnstown After the Flood 371
At the Morgue 376
Conemaugh Viaduct 381
At the Summit of Popocatepetl 397
View in Active Crater 401
Crater of Orizaba 405
Eruption of Vesuvius 411
Coral Reefs 418
Destruction of Pompeii 424
Vesuvius in 1737 435
Destruction of Sodom 441
Destruction of Catania 446
Mt. Hecla 450
Jorullo 455
Geyser 457
The Yellowstone Park 462
Cattle in Volcanic Mud 473
Convulsion on the Coast of Sumatra 478
Effect of Earthquake on Masonry 484
The Deluge 497
Ruined Roman Colonnade 500
Antioch 502
Massive Architecture Wrecked, Asia Minor 504
Ruins Near Cairo 506
Ruins Near Nineveh 507
Remains of Ancient Hebrew Masonry 509
Great Earthquake in Calabria 511
Destruction of Messina 513
Disaster of Scylla 515
Lisbon 517
Earthquake at Lisbon 520
Ruined Cathedral 522
Scene at Chio 524
Panic at Casamicciola 529
Earthquake in Andalusia 532
Wreck of the Charleston Earthquake 538
Houses Thrown into Ravine 542
Wreck on King Street, Charleston 544
Scene at Charleston 548
Old State House, Charleston 551
Charleston 554
Wreck of Factory 557
Ruined Dwelling 560
Earthquake in China 564
After the Shock 568
Scene at Caracas 571
Ruins of San Salvador 573
Fright at San Salvador 575
Shock at Lake in Honduras 577
Wreck at Mendoza 579
Great Sea Wave 583
Earthquake in Spain 586
GREAT DISASTERS
AND
HORRORS IN THE WORLD’S HISTORY.
CHAPTER I.
MYTHS OF THE WINDS.
“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 restless winds in leash about their lord
Full often murmuring, plucked his floating robe,
Or stirred his tangled tresses with their breath,
Impatient at the lack of wilder liberty.”
So sang the bard of the fabled cave of the winds. Thus the old Romans
and Greeks have taught us to think and to speak of the spirits of the
air. Thus the very name of “spirit” was originally identical with
“breath” or “wind.” Those poetic old Hellenes! They contrived to find
something delightfully human in all the phenomena of nature. The woods
were peopled with fauns and dryads. Around the bend of yonder rushy
stream, a wary woodsman found a bathing nymph. Beyond that rock Actæon
saw the chaste Diana sporting in the crystal pool. Here is the spot
where baffled Phœbus found his Daphne changed into a laurel tree.
See you those stately poplars by the side of Italy’s stream? There
Phaëthon’s mourning sisters changed their fleshly robes for those green
spires. From their waving boughs the cry of the kingfisher Alcyone
reminds us that
[Illustration: CAVE OF THE WINDS.]
halcyon days may yet be in store for the most unfortunate. The response
hurled back from yonder cliff warns us to drop a tear for the poor nymph
Echo, whose unrequited love caused her to pine away till only a voice
was left. To this day she answers every call, hoping to yet meet her
love. That flaunting yellow flower is sprung from that very Narcissus
who was so handsome he fell in love with himself. Ten thousand egotistic
beauties of later days have not met so happy a fate.
Hark! was that the sea-shell of Triton? Neptune approaches with his
Naiad train. You may see the plunge of his dolphin steeds. And see! what
vision of incomparable loveliness is that? It is Aphrodite, goddess of
love--sprung from the foam of the sea--as fragile as the fleecy mass
from whence she came; as inconstant as the tossing wave on which she
dances. How can love be otherwise, since she is its queen? In the sky
above you see the beautiful Andromeda with the radiant Perseus. There
Hercules yet wields his club and wears his lion-skin. And there--
It is vanished. The disenchantment is complete. Modern civilization has
replaced the nymph with the peasant, and the faun with the brigand. The
pipe of Pan is forever silent. Marsyas is revenged, for Apollo is no
more. Jupiter dethroned Saturn; Jupiter has long since been dethroned.
Where are the hands that penned those beauteous fancies; the bards that
sung the deeds of the gods? Dust and ashes these two thousand years.
Their works live after them. Passing centuries have not improved upon
their lovely phantasies: it may be because they could not. Rome has
named the months of our year: Norway has aided to name the days of our
week. Easter preserves the name of Œstara, Teuton goddess of
springtime, of new life, new light. So the names of the winds remain.
Auster, the south wind, has his memorial in Australia. Zephyr, the
gentle west wind, is still a theme for poet’s song. Rude Boreas,
“blustering railer,” will always find a home in the north. Civilization
has not driven him from his domain. Æolus, the master spirit, most
powerful because most delicate and beautiful, still stirs our wind-harps
with his breath. The spirits of the air are as boisterous and untamed as
in the days of Æneas.
And what figures would appeal more strongly to the imagination than
these simple personifications? How can too great importance be attached
to the part the winds perform in the economy of nature? Without them the
land would become a Sahara; the seas would be covered with a London fog.
In the rustle of the breeze, as well as in the roar of hurricane, there
is purpose and energy. The hand that guides one, controls the other. “He
holdeth the wind in his fists.”
In every age man’s imagination has been strongly influenced by the
mysterious or unknown. There is little play for poetic sentiment in the
cold practicality of science. That which is clearly comprehended, loses
half its charm. The botanist carefully plucks to pieces a flower; it is
analyzed, and all its mechanism understood--but it is no longer a
flower. The alchemist has produced the wonderful science of chemistry;
but the philosopher’s stone and the secret of producing gold are forever
numbered among the shadowy myths of the past. The explorer has roamed in
countless climes amid a myriad perils: a thousand treasures has he given
to the world: but his El Dorado and the Fountain of Perpetual Youth have
become as a dream in the night. And thus for aye will phantoms vanish as
we grasp. Truth bears a magic wand at whose touch the unreal dies as a
snowflake in a flame. All time has borne its legends of the risen
departed, whose spirits roam the earth by night; but we have not proved
that the dead have done in six thousand years so much evil as the living
in a single day.
So one by one our cherished fables disappear. The steam-engine seems a
thing of life; but we do not find a hidden geni therein. Electricity,
one of the youngest of man’s practical discoveries, has become the most
easily controlled. The bolts of Jove are the prisoners of man. The river
is harnessed to the mill and factory. But the winds roam as free as in
the day of creation “when the morning stars sang together, and all the
sons of God shouted for joy.” Of all the forces of nature the wind and
sea are least beneath control of man. The command “Subdue and have
dominion” has not yet been fully obeyed.
Small wonder, then, that a glamour of mysticism remains about the storm
and its birth. Man finds himself in the presence of a power beyond his
comprehension. Of the various elements of nature, the wind, the sea and
the storm are more than ever the realm of fancy and awe. One often
wonders at many other ancient myths; but there seems nothing surprising
in the Grecian fancy that the winds were the spirit slaves of Æolus; or
in the Arabian thought, that storms were but the battles of wonderful
genii, whose weapons were fire, water, and their own powerful breath. In
the crash of the thunder the Arab heard their terrible strokes. The
Northman beheld giants, contending now with each other, now with the
giants of frost or of fire; now resting a moment in their cavern
home--now chasing the clouds like frightened sheep from their realm of
Mistheim. Some day all these powers would be arrayed in battle with the
gods themselves, and Ragnarok, or universal chaos would follow. God
made man in his own image; man has ever since endeavored to make all
things in his own. So have the winds become personified in every age and
land.
Charles Kingsley has given us a beautiful picture of the “air mothers,”
and the part they play in the realm of nature. Compare the ancient with
the modern. We now know the laws and the work of the winds; but we have
not found a better manner of picturing them. They are still the
beautiful spirits of the air; the Peris of the upper deep, thoughtless
in life, weeping repentant tears in the hour of their death.
“Who are these who follow us softly over the moor in the autumn evening?
Their wings brush and rustle in the fir boughs, and they whisper before
and behind us, as if they called gently to each other, like birds
flocking homeward to their nests.
“The woodpecker on the pine stems knows them, and laughs aloud for joy
as they pass. The rooks above the pasture know them, and wheel around
and tumble in their play.
“The brown leaves on the oak-tree know them, and flutter faintly, and
beckon as they pass. In the chattering of the dry leaves there is a
meaning, and a cry of weary things longing for rest.
“‘Take us home, take us home, you soft air-mothers, now our fathers, the
sunbeams, are grown dull. Our green summer beauty is all draggled, and
our faces are grown wan and thin; and the buds, the ungrateful children
whom we nourished, thrust us off from our seats. Waft us down, you soft
air-mothers, upon your wings, to the quiet earth, that we may go to our
home, as all things go, and become air and sunlight once again!’
“The bold young fir seeds know them, and rattle impatiently in their
cones. ‘Blow more strongly, blow more fiercely, slow air-mothers, and
shake us from our prisons of dead wood, that we may fly and spur away
northeastward, each on his horny wing. We will dive like arrows through
the heather, and drive our sharp beaks into the soil, and rise again, as
green trees, toward the sunlight, and spread out lusty boughs.’
“They never think, bold fools, of what is coming to bring them low in
the midst of their pride--of the reckless axe which will fell them, and
saws which will shape them into logs, and the trains which will roar and
rattle over them as they lie buried in the gravel of the way, till they
are ground and rattled into powder, and dug up and flung upon the fire,
that they too may return home, like all things, and become air and
sunlight once again.
“The air-mothers hear their prayers, and do their bidding: but faintly,
for they themselves are tired and sad, and their garments rent and worn.
Ah! how different were those soft air-mothers, when, invisible to mortal
eyes, they started on their long sky journey, five thousand miles across
the sea.
“Out of the blazing caldron which lies between the two New Worlds, they
leaped up, when the great sun called them, in whirls and spouts of clear
hot steam, and rushed to the northward, while the whirling earthball
whirled them east.
“So northeastward they rushed aloft, across the gay West Indian Isles,
having below the glitter of the flying-fish, and the sidelong eyes of
cruel sharks: above the canefields and the plantain gardens, and the
cocoanut groves which fringe the shores: above the rocks which throbbed
with earthquakes, and the peaks of old volcanoes, cinder-strewn: while
far beneath, the ghosts of their dead sisters hurried homeward on the
northeast breeze.
“Wild deeds they did, as they rushed onward, and struggled and fought
among themselves, up and down, and round and backward in the fury of
their blind hot youth. They tired themselves by struggling with each
other, and by tearing the heavy water into waves; and their wings grew
clogged with sea-spray, and soaked more and more with steam.
“At last, the sea grew cold beneath them, and their clear steam sank to
mist; and they saw themselves and each other wrapped in dull, rain-laden
clouds. Then they drew their white cloud garments around them, and
veiled themselves for very shame: and they said, ‘We have been wild and
wayward: and alas, our pure youth is gone. But we will do one good deed,
yet, before we die, and so we shall not have lived in vain. We will
glide onward to the land and weep there, and refresh all things with
warm, soft rain, and make the grass grow, and the buds burst; we will
quench the thirst of man and beast, and wash the soiled world clean.’
“So they are wandering past us, the air-mothers, to weep the leaves into
their graves: to weep the seeds into their seed-beds, and to weep the
soil into the plains: to get the rich earth ready for the winter, and
then creep northward and die there. But will they live again, those
chilled air-mothers? Yes; they must live again. For all things move
forever: and not even ghosts can rest.
“The corpses of their sisters piling on them from above, press them
onward, press them southward toward the sun once more, across the floes,
and round the icebergs--weeping tears of snow and sleet--while men hate
their wild, harsh voices, and shrink before their bitter breath. They
know not that the cold bleak snow-storms, as they hurtle from the black
northeast, bear back the ghosts of the soft air-mothers, as penitents,
to their father, the great sun.
“But as they fly southward warm life thrills them, and they drop their
loads of sleet and snow, and meet their young live sisters from the
south, and greet them with flash and thunderpeal. Men call them the
southwest wind, those air-mothers: and their ghosts, the northeast
trade; and value them, and rightly; because they bear the traders out
and back across the sea.”
So they live, and so they die, those beautiful air-mothers--for life is
evermore fed by death. And in their wayward course they bring the early
and the latter rain: that so long as time shall be, seed-time and
harvest and summer and winter shall not fail. And men love them, and
welcome each in their turn, whether laden with the pure white snow, or
the cooling moisture of the distant sea; for man is a fickle creature,
and remains constant to none. In summer he sings of the Arctic winds;
and in winter, he longs for the breath of the south; for like the
air-mothers, his course is ever onward, seeking that which he has not.
Yet, sometimes in his discontent, he would curse the soft air-mothers:
but without them he could not live. But the bard knows them all, and
will sing of their deeds till the sun waxes cold with the weight of
years.