Perilous Times by Editor

Seventh-day Adventist Missionary Society · Oakland, California · Jun 29, 1882

Perilous Times.

By Editor

MORE calamities have been recorded during the week just past, than in any similar period, for a long time. Passing over the list of fires, murders, suicides, lynchings, robberies, and numerous other crimes, we notice briefly a few of the most important disasters occurring in our own country.

First in order was the terrible cyclone in Iowa, June 17. This storm exceeded in severity and extent anything ever known in the Mississippi Valley. The following appeal for aid, from the Mayor of Grinnell, where the greatest damage was done, will give some idea of the work of destruction:—

To the Public: After two nights spent in traversing the track of the tornado that swept over this State with such fearful havoc last Saturday night, and having reports from scores of reporters sent to all parts of it, I find the condition of the stricken people so piteous, so needful of instant, generous help, that I send this appeal to the people of the United States, in their behalf. The tornado made a swath of destruction through a thickly settled portion of Iowa, some 150 miles in length and an average half-mile in width, extending from a point south of Ames, in the center of the State, whence it swept in the shape of a crescent to South English, in Keokuk County, in the southeastern part of the State. We have the names now of sixty-nine dead and five hundred wounded. Half of the latter are grievously hurt, probably a fifth of them fatally. Over 300 families have had their homes totally destroyed. There are now, at least, 1,500 people homeless and in want. The loss in property will exceed $2,000,000, and may reach $3,000,000. In the town of Grinnell alone, over $400,000 in property was destroyed, on none of which was a cent of insurance, as in case of fires. It will take at least $300,000 to put the people there beyond need and distress. It will take $100,000 at once to put the wounded people in condition to be cared for. It will take $1,000,000, at the lowest, to keep the sufferers from want, and to help them to put the humblest of roofs over their heads. The people of Iowa are responding generously. It will take the help of every humane city and town in the West, of every liberal city and town in the East, to put comfort and safety between the stricken people and further suffering.

Grinnell is a town of New England people, thrifty and intelligent—a people with the lowest rate of crime and illiteracy in the State, and the highest rate of intelligence and morality. The rich towns of the East may well help these sons of New England in a calamity which has killed so many of their people, destroyed 160 of their homes, maimed and mutilated 200 more of their people, many of whom will soon die, and all of whom must be cared for for months, and wiped out totally nearly $500,000 in uninsured property. Iowa College has had all its buildings destroyed, its 400 students made homeless, and has suffered a loss of $75,000 uninsured property. The condition of other towns and farming communities is fully as pitiable and helpless.

The fury and power of this utter calamity were as indescribable in their mightiness of strength as their havoc and powers were cruel and complete. Of the houses of many people, there was left not a splinter as large as a finger, not a shred of furniture as large as a skein of silk, and hundreds have no length left except the night-clothes they had on.

Every condition of woe exists that most tenderly appeals to the human heart. The wounds inflicted by the debris that filled the air like chaos, by electric balls of fire that seemed to traverse every inch of space, and that exploded with fearfully fatal effect, will, many of them, defy all the skill and nursing, even with the tenderest care. The fury of the storm, which was clearly of electric origin, and which, indeed, may be described as having been electricity itself, precipitated in chaos, may be understood from the statement that in various places it took houses up a thousand feet in its great spirals or funnels, and carried large flocks of cattle through the air for thousands of feet, and dashed them down dead in heaps. Many thousands of cattle, horses, hogs, and other animals, now lie in the track of the tornado.

Mt. Pleasant, Iowa, is also reported as having been damaged to the extent of half a million dollars.

The same day different places in Missouri, Kansas, and Illinois were visited by heavy storms. At Leavenworth, Kan., and vicinity, the loss is put at $500,000. Several persons were also killed. Heavy damage is also reported from the eastern part of Michigan; also from New York, and New England.

This storm was followed by another in the southern and western parts of Iowa, and soon after by a third in the northern and western portions of the State. The last two, although very destructive, were much less severe than the first.

Then we have the strange account of a tidal wave at Cleveland, O., June 23. The wave was said to be two miles wide and eleven feet higher than the surface of the lake. It came in the wake of an angry black cloud, with neither wind nor rain. Boats were thrown on the shore, and everything lying on the shore was scattered.

Nearer home we have to record the loss of the British steamship, Escambia, bound to Liverpool with a cargo of wheat. She was just outside the Golden Gate when she capsized and sunk. The captain and three sailors were washed ashore, but twenty-five men were drowned. The accident is generally attributed to carelessness, the vessel being overloaded and topheavy.

The same night a portion of Oakland Long Wharf, the C. P. R. R. warehouse, and the American bark Great Western, were burned. Other vessels were injured. This was at the old depot, and did not interfere with travel.

Every morning the papers bring further accounts of disasters by wind and rain, the greatest damage being done in Iowa and Minnesota. Omaha has also been visited with a storm of great severity. Houses were unroofed, and portions of the town were flooded.

God is warning the world by his word and by his providence. The evidence in the Scriptures proves beyond a question that we are in "the last days." Perils and dangers are fast increasing. We will not publish accounts of the crimes which are committed every day; their number is appalling, and the details are horrible. And it is impossible, in our limited space, to record all the fatalities by crimes, accidents, fires, floods, and hurricanes. All seem to be greatly on the increase.

But we have no idea that the mass of the people will be aroused more by these providences, which are foretold in the Scriptures, than they are by the more direct warnings of the words of prophecy. As did Pharaoh, they will harden their hearts by means of the very judgments which God sends to convince them of his will in regard to them. Instead of bowing to these judgments and inquiring what these things mean, they will shut their eyes against evidence, and so endeavor to explain the "seven last plagues" by "science," and attribute them to "natural causes."

But there will be a "few" who will heed the warnings, and find the narrow way that leads to life. A "little flock" will receive the kingdom. For these we labor in hope. If the multitude turn away from our testimony, we know they turned away from the warnings and entreaties of the Saviour, and we will not be discouraged. "The servant is not greater than his Lord." But we shall labor and pray that some who are crying, "Peace and safety," may accept the warning before "sudden destruction shall come upon them."