p. 75 | The Stormy Summer

Seventh-day Adventist Publishing Association · Battle Creek, Mich. · Sep 9, 1875

The Stormy Summer.

This may well be termed the stormy season, and it has been such in both the new world and the old. The elements seem to have been unusually disturbed, and the world has witnessed phenomenal freaks of remarkable character and variety. In the Western and South-western States the clouds have poured out water with a freedom which has led to the destruction of life and a vast amount of property. Rivers have disdained their ancient barriers, and the swollen flood,

“Wasting towns, plantations, meadows,” has rolled on in wrath, and uncontrolled. In the valleys of the lower Mississippi and its tributaries, we hear that many miles of railroad have been swept away, leaving not even the old foundation to build upon.

The tidings received from Europe also report disastrous storms as well as convulsions of nature. France has had her deluge, and also Germany. The Cologne Gazette states that the vineyards in that section are irretrievably ruined by the copious rains, which have not only destroyed the vines but washed away the very soil, exposing bare rocks. On the 9th of July, the towns of Melsungen, Gensungen, and Haven, were visited by fearful rain and hail-storms, by which they were terribly desolated. On the same day there was a great storm at Geneva and vicinity, which laid waste the entire harvest for miles around. Trees a century old were broken like reeds, and birds of the air were killed by the hail-stones. A few days later, an earthquake shock at Heckington, Germany, was followed by destructive storms and floods.

On the 5th inst. a water-spout burst over the town of Kirm, Rhenish Prussia, inundating the whole place, sweeping away houses and bridges, and drowning thirteen persons. A Calcutta dispatch of the same day said: “Disastrous floods have occurred in the north-western provinces. Many of the dwellings of the natives have been destroyed, and it is feared that serious loss of life has occurred in the interior.” Late Chinese advices also report fearful storms along the coast, destroying a great amount of shipping. This is inclusive of only some of the storms and their disastrous results, but it is enough to show how general and how almost simultaneous has been the disturbance of the elements during the summer.—Sel.