Great Disasters and Horrors in the World's History

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.

Copyright. 1890, W. L. HOLLOWAY.

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.