An appalling array of facts and figures is the result of but little study and search into the records for the short period from Jan. 1, 1906, to the present time. Disasters and catastrophes of every nature have visited every continent and nearly every country. The following is a partial list, enough to set any one thinking:
January 7. Earthquake shocks were felt in eastern Kansas and northeastern Missouri.
January. During the early part of the month, earthquakes were frequent in Mexico. Floods followed, which ruined crops and did much other serious damage.
January 22. The steamship Valencia was wrecked near Cape Beale, British Columbia. 120 perished.
January. Twenty-three deaths reported in Havana, resulting from yellow fever.
January 25. A sharp earthquake, which did considerable damage was felt in New Mexico and Arizona.
January 28. The naval training station at Newport was damaged to the extent of $100,000 by fire.
January 31. Long and severe earthquake shock in Buena Ventura, Colombia, 2,000 killed. Shock lasted seven minutes. Many villages destroyed.
January 31. Tidal wave followed earthquake, destroying many more villages, killing many people.
January 31. Earthquake in Ecuador. At least 300 killed.
February and onward. Great famine in Japan.
February 1. A fire in Panama caused loss of $500,000.
February 3. An East St. Louis elevator burned. Loss $1,000,000.
February 3 and onward. Mount Vesuvius in eruption. Four towns destroyed. Naples covered from two to four feet deep with ashes. Hundreds killed; the property loss very large.
February 7, 8. Cyclone and tidal wave in Society Islands of the Pacific. Many islands swept of inhabitants. Property loss $2,000,000.
February 8. Earthquake in West Indies. Many ships lost, with many on board. Also many inhabitants killed.
February 15. Great tidal wave destroyed coast towns of Colombia.
February 16. Severe shocks at Kingston, St. Vincent, British West Indies.
February 17. Shocks in other islands of the West Indies.
March 2. Tornado at Meridian, Miss. Nineteen killed, twenty-four injured. Loss of property $1,000,000.
March 5. Car barns burned in New York. Loss $200,000.
March 5. About 800 fishermen and their families perished on floating ice cakes in the Gulf of Finland in a severe storm.
March 10. More than 1,200 miners killed by an explosion of gas in a coal mine at Courrieres, near Bethune, in the French coal region.
March 11. In the foundering of the steamer British King, off the Massachusetts' coast, twenty-seven men were lost.
One of several wrecks in the town of Mountain View. This is the east end of the Pacific Press Publishing Company's Plant. All the wall, excepting the greater portion of the front wall, was wrecked by the earthquake, and had to be torn down. The inner supports sustained the roof.
March 14. Over 1,000 killed, many more wounded, in earthquake in Formosa. 1,200 homes destroyed; loss, $45,000,000.
March 16. More than forty people killed in a railroad collision near Adobe, Colo.
March 19. Six thousand reported killed in earthquake in Formosa.
March. Volcanic eruption on island of Savaii, of the Samoan group. Three villages destroyed by streams of lava.
March 24. Explosion in a coal mine at Century, W. Va., entombs 150 miners.
April 5. Vesuvius still in state of eruption. Five streams of lava. Many towns destroyed. Land covered with ashes and mud. Ruined for agricultural purposes for ten years at least. Naples suffering.
April 14. Another earthquake in Formosa. 1,000 killed. More than 1,000 injured.
April 18. Earthquake shock extending along Pacific Coast. San Francisco, San Jose, Stanford University, Santa Rosa, and many cities and towns destroyed. Property loss very great. Thousands of lives lost.
April 21. Mariquina, Rizal Province, Philippines, burned. Thousands homeless and starving. Town of Pasil, near Cebu, also destroyed.
April 22. Twenty-two miners killed in a coal mine forty miles west of Trinidad, Colo.
April 26. Entire town of Bellevue, Texas, destroyed by a tornado, only three houses remaining of more than two hundred. Thirteen killed and six hundred rendered homeless.
April 30. Destructive conflagration in Fez, Morocco.
May 5. Ten persons killed and twenty injured in a railway collision near Clover Creek, Penn.
May 7. An earthquake in Uniankai, North China, causing great loss of life. A chasm several feet wide opened; much property destroyed.
May 7. Disastrous floods reported along the Hainanghas River, China. Thousands drowned. At Hsinangton, China, the city caught fire, and a great part of it was destroyed, with much loss of life.
May 8. Earthquake shocks in Connecticut and Scotland.
May 15. Severe electric storms throughout a large part of Germany. A number of persons and domestic animals killed by lightning, many houses burned, and crops greatly injured by hail.
May 28. Seven persons drowned, and the town of Galconda, Nevada, and a mile of railway track, destroyed by a cloudburst.
May 28. A passenger train derailed in the station at Louisville, Ky., killing eight persons and injuring twelve.
May 28. Lightning struck a group of base-ball spectators, near Mobile, Ala., killing five and injuring twenty-five. The field was strewn with bits of clothing torn from the bodies of the victims.
May 29. Great floods occurred in the vicinity of Walla Walla, Wash., and Pendleton, Ore., during the latter part of May. In the latter vicinity the property loss is placed at a million dollars.
June 3. Eleven persons were killed and a score injured in a trolley-car accident near East Providence, R. I.
June 4. Fearful winds and hailstorms in Oklahoma and Indian Territories cause damages running into the hundred thousands, and sixty families homeless.
June 5. Scott Town, Ohio, a village of 200 inhabitants, completely washed away by a cloudburst; two drowned.
It is utterly impossible to give an exact statement of the loss of life in all these disasters. Approximately the following figures may be given, not attempting to include the late earthquake on the Pacific Coast, for the true statistics in regard to this will probably never be known:
