W. F. MARSHALL, Editor md Proprietor. VOL. XXVII. ~-i. es?gg^nag‘^Bggsa ——■—■—■»»■ ■ Katana's vbooltnraabnt lor him- jL II trs but kitw 11— Wlto always pots. with all bis via, "T» HU ahuoltUf to It" _ r T 4* tAnd the main impetus of making the wheel of Fortune roll the way you want It is Saving. ^ ^ Bnt there arc ways and way* of saving. ^ 4» Ocpwtorc geccfrc Ertry Cmideratiea 4> t CITIZENS NATIONAL BANK i -t--*-1 Hi t 11 i kit i i i i i t i i WHEN EARTH TREMBLES. What Cuan Shock* Thai Da* •tray WhoU Cities — Short Wavao, bat Hlfh Spaed. BaHioors Hub. Earthquakes have been from the earliest times among the most terrifying of natural phe nomena. The manifestations vary from slight tremors of the earth that arc so frequent in Central America as to be scarce ly noticeable to the terrrible shocks with tidal waves that have in a moment destroyed great cities like Lisbon and ancient Gantemsla. While Caracas and Lisbon were shaken down almost in the twinkling of an eye. the earthquakes in Cala bria that began in 1873 con tinued for a period of four years. Scientists say that an earth quake begins at some point of subterranean shock called the centrum and travels in waves, with gradually dimisbing energy, in every direction from this point. These foci, they state, are commonly at depths of eight to ten miles below the surface of the earth and rarely as deep as 25 or 30 miles. The earthquake shock appears to be transmitted through rock in two waves—one of the com pression wave vibrating parallel to the direction of transmitsion. The waves are of small ampli tude. The gToncd moves up ward or downward, or obliquely or horizontally, usually through a very small fraction of an inch and seldom through a space of more than two or three inches. The destruction of the earth quake is dependent more on velocity than on amplitude of the wave movement. With great velocity a movement of» small fraction of. an inch will shatter brick buildings. Professor Milne concludes that the velocity of shocks varies from a few hun dreds to several thousands of feet in the same time, though other other investigators esti mate the velocity at the rate of almost a mile a second. Not infrequent earthquakes are accompanied by great tidal waves. When Lisbon was de stroyed • great wall of water swept from the sea and broke over the city. A submarine earthquake near the coast of Japan gave rise to set waves which swept across the Pacific ocean at the terrific rate of 370 miles an hour. In the earth quake at Simoda, Japan, the water swept up to a height of over 30 feet, while In a similar disturbance at Sun Diego, Cat., the rite in the height of the waves was only six inches. The Charleston earthquake of 1888, the moat severe ever felt in the eastern section of the United States, was felt over an area ot J.UUU by 800 mile*, the tremor being fait from Missouri to Canada. Authorities differ as to the ex act cause of earthquakes, though their intimate connection In many instances with volcanic eruptions baa been conclusively established. Lava in eruption contains a large quantity of steam and often this castes ex plosions, throwing the lava and rocks high into the air. In ai least one instance this force wm sufficient to blow the entire top off a mountain, and what was once the cone of the Krakatoa Mountain is now covered by 250 felhoms of wstcr. But there arc many earth-, quakes on record that apparent ly are not associated with vol canic eruption*. These are ex CUscd by geologists as caused cooling oil of ike earth's sur face, a process that lias been go ing on for thousands of years and by the aettliog of tbecrost of the earth This process hat beta SO gradual In its nature and so enonneae in exteat that gaologlatfl bold that the com par •lively few earthquake shocks that have taken place are but mere incident* in the general contraction of the earth's sur face. Karthquakes are so frequent in some parts of the world that these have been marked out as danger cones. Alt volcanic di» tricta. aucb ac Naples and the vicinity of Vesuvius, the Island of Martinique, St. Thomaa and St. Vincent, in the West Indies, and most ol Central America arc subject to frequent tremors of the earth. "The large earth quake belt” includes the conn triea along the Mediterranean Sea, the Azores, the West In dies, Central America and the Sandwich Islands, Japan, cer tain parta of China, portions of India, Persia and Asia Minor. This fqrms a belt extending al most ground the world. California and the lower Pa cific Coast baa never been en tirely free from tremors and slight shocks have been reported from time to time throughout that entire region. There have been several shocks at San Francisco and Sau Diego. The whole of the Lower California province of Mexico is subject to such disturbances. OHi Midi 6tlftil|. CkulotU ObMVYtr. Next Saturday, May 12th,. tbe election will take place to de termine whether or not Rocking ham county shall issne $300,000 worth of bonds for macadamiz ing her roada. To an Observer reporter yesterday, one of the visitors, a prosperous looking intelligent farmer, stated that; the. opposition to the bond issue, which was very vigorous at first, j is gradually dying out. During the past several months, a nura-1 her of well-known cilisensof tbe contity have visited Mecklen burg connty and have seen for themselves what the roads are and what good they have done. Several of those who came were oppoaedto tbe measure before they left borne but returned con verted. Within the past several weeks, the general sentiment had turned and those favoring the bond issue were confident of carrying it. Excellent Temperance Condi tinas. Biblical Icnnkt. We need to be constantly re minded that we have in North Carolina excellent temperance iawa and condition*—the very beat in the Nation, we think. Let’s ace. We have State prohibition in the rural districts and in' unin corporated towns. In Incorporated towna we have local option—the univer sally approved method of ad ministering the drink evil where population ia numerous. In our local option we have choice of saloons or dispensary or prohibition, giving ua the desired elasticity. That is to say, there are placet that am not ready for prohibition. lo them we may sat np dispen saries. There are other places whert prevailing sentiment f’tvora the saloon. In them are .nay carry on our work of edu cation. We have less than 250 saloons in tha entire State and only nine dispensaries. Question: Will it not be better to close these saloons and dispensaries slowly by educat ing sentiment than by a State prohibition enactment, which if not approved by a majority, say in Wilmington, Asheville, or Salisbury, would certainly not be sustained Beers of law? If we should them by local public sentiment, they woold stay closed; if vi should clone them by State law, they would only ran to eover. In tima wa win certainly clout them. . .. ' "> SUE KHAN’S JMABCH REVIVED. A March »l Baglas awl Inis my that wm a Shame ta the Ualeo Ml Should be Forget!eu. Rlctnooml New»X»*4»r. V»r *. Father Shennan, now ol the Catholic clmrcb and son of General William Tccitnueh Sherman, doubtless ia a very good tuati and worthy gentle man. bnt be and General Duvall, cotnmaudiug the Uoited State* troop* at Atlanta, Go., have concocted between them a most miserable mesa. Father Sher man started out to follow from Atlanta the course of hi* father's march to the sea. General Duvall furnished him with an escort of soldiers. If there is one episode of the Civil war which the whole conn try should wish to have- for gotten it is Sherman's match to the its. It was far more dis graceful and shameful than Sheridan's devastation of the Valley of Yitginia. For the latter there was a plea of mili tary necessity because the Valley was one of the great centers and snarces of food supply for the Confederate army. The rnin which Sherman left in bis wake nuima ana 10c aiuduc w«* wanton, unprovoked, in excusable, savage. It is ill work to speak evil of the dead, bat it is a fact written on the landscape, punctuated and em phasized by hundreds of black chimneys standing to mark the sues of peaceful homes, that the army under General Sherman’s command was changed from an army of soldiers to a body of bummers, rob bet s and maraud ers. Generally the actual per sons of white women were re st»ected, bnt with that exception no invasion of Goths or Huns or vandals was worse or more ruth less than Sbermau's foray through Georgia and South Carolina. It was a personal disgrace to the commanding general which will cling to bis name forever, a shaiue to the Union, its army and its (lag. In multiplied in stances helpless women and chil dren were routed from their homes at the point iof the bayo net and the torch applied when robbery and plunder bad ex hausted themselves and even the little sacred family and honse bold relies and trinkets hat) been itoleu and carried away. We of the Souths try to forget these tliiugs, as in honor bound. The people of the whole conutry should do likewise. It is well for os to put that (anions aud in 4 a m nn ■ msw