DISASTERS IN 1890. 



251 



ing the commander-in-chief of the army, was 

 generally approved by military experts, but not 

 the proposed fort, which is declared to be useless 

 for the purpose of defending the city from bom- 

 bardment with long-range guns. The Govern- 

 ment asked for 9,000,000 kroner, to be distributed 

 over three years. The Folkething, of course, re- 

 fused to grant the money. The Minister of War 

 withdrew the item from the consideration of the 

 Folkething, only to insert it in the provisional 

 budget, the seventh that has been decreed since 

 the legislative deadlock began. On the final day 

 of the session, March 31, the Landsthing, by a 

 majority of 40 to 13, passed resolutions approv- 

 ing all the financial proposals of the Government 

 and throwing on the Folkething the responsibility 

 for the continued absence of a regular budget. 

 The Minister of War was authorized by the 

 Council of State to devote 3,500,000 kroner to 

 the sea defenses of the capital during the finan- 

 cial year 1890-'91. Great irritation was shown 

 by the people at this arbitrary disposition of so 

 large a sum of money. For the proposed free 

 port of entry 400,000 kroner were appropriated. 

 In the beginning of March Count Holstein-Ledre- 

 borg, representing the party of discussion, offered 

 a, bill for the reconstruction of the Supreme 

 Court, which had been packed with partisans of 

 the Government and had prolonged the conflict 

 by an interpretation of the Constitution opposed 

 to the general sense of the nation. The Ministry 

 did not respond to any of the endeavors to effect 

 a compromise and terminate the long-standing 

 conflict, and Count Holstein-Ledreborg and .his 

 friends ceased their efforts, and most of his fol- 

 lowers went over to the Berg party. 



Ministerial projects for the revision of taxation 

 and the tariff and for invalid and accident in- 

 surance for working-men hardly came to legisla- 

 tive discussion. A royal commission to consider 

 the subject of industrial legislation was appointed 

 in May. By order of the ministry all persons 

 suspected of partaking of the doctrines of Social- 

 ism or of sympathizing with Socialists or giving 

 their votes for them were dismissed from the 

 railroads, workshops, and other establishments of 

 the state. In taking energetic measures to hold 

 the Social Democracy in bounds the Government 

 could count on the sympathies of a considerable 

 section of its political opponents. There were 

 at the time of the elections more than 80 So- 

 cialistic political organizations, 5 Socialist news- 

 papers, and in the capital alone 70 trade unions. 

 A protracted strike of masons occurred in Co- 

 penhagen, and in May steam shipping was de- 

 tained for a time on account of a demand of the 

 seamen for 12 kroner more wages a month. 



DISASTERS IN 1890. Perhaps the most 

 noteworthy feature of the year's casualties is 

 found in the unusual frequency and violence of 

 storms on land and sea. Loss of life and destruc- 

 tion of property by these agencies is often una- 

 voidable. By far the greater part, however, of the 

 accidents herewith enumerated might have been 

 avoided by the exercise of reasonable foresight. 

 To carelessness, in one shape or another, is to 

 be ascribed nearly all the railway accidents, 

 the fires, the falling buildings, and the explo- 

 sions that -almost daily carry distress into so 

 many households. The following list is neces- 

 sarily incomplete. The monthly summaries of 



railway accidents are from statistical tables pub- 

 lished by the ''Railway Gazette" of New York. 

 It will be seen that the casualties given in the 

 summaries are largely in excess of those enumer- 

 ated in the record. This is due to the inten- 

 tional omission from the latter of many minor 

 accidents, involving the loss, perhaps, of only 

 one life, and the infliction only of trifling inju- 

 ries. Verified figures in such matters are unat- 

 tainable in time for an annual publication. 



January 1. Fires: charity school burned in Lon- 

 don, 26 boys suffocated ; the summer palace of the 

 King of Belgium near Brussels burned. Heavy rains 

 and destructive floods in Indiana. 



2. Faulty construction : an amphitheatre gives 

 way at a bull fight near the city of Mexico, several 

 hundred persons hurt. Floods in Queensland, about 

 25 drowned. Kailway collision near Wichita, Kan., 

 2 killed. Kailway bridge breaks near Hallettsville, 

 Texas, 4 drowned, 1 killed, 1 hurt. Shipwreck : the 

 steamer Persia goes ashore on the island of Corsica, 

 about 130 lives lost. 



4. Avalanche near Sierra City, Cal., 7 killed. In- 

 tense cold in the Northwestern States. Destructive 

 rains in the Southwest. Railway collision near Mal- 

 colm, Iowa, 3 killed, several hurt. Eunaway freight 

 train near Shippens, Pa., 2 killed, 1 hurt. 



6. Eailway collision near Westmoreland, N. H., 2 

 killed, several hurt. 



8. lire: St. Louis, Western Union Telegraph office 

 burned j cause, an electric wire. 



9. Bridge caisson fills with water near Louisville, 

 Ky., 16 drowned. Faulty construction : a church 

 wall falls in Brooklyn, N. Y., 2 killed, several hurt. 

 Explosion : a Pittsburg furnace, 1 killed, several hurt. 



10. Tornadoes in Missouri, Ohio, and Kentucky, 18 

 killed. 



12. Storms and extreme cold in the Northwest, sev- 

 eral lives lost in St. Louis and elsewhere. 



13. Fire : a grain elevator "burned in Baltimore, 

 Md., loss, $800,000 ; steamship Sacrobosco burned at 

 the same time, 3 lives lost. Tornado at Clinton, Ky., 

 10 killed, 60 hurt. Destructive storms in central 

 New York. 



14. Eailway collision near Chesterfield, England, 

 75 hurt. 



15. Earthquake in Austria. 



16. Eailway collision near Opelika, Ohio, 3 killed. 



17. Eailway collision near Winton Place, Ohio, 5 

 killed,4 hurt. 



18. Disastrous gales on the north Atlantic and 

 along the British Islands. Much damage to shipping, 

 3 men killed by explosion on British steamer Catar 

 Ionia. 



19. Steamer sinks in the Mississippi, 4 lives lost. 



21. Train derailed near Galveston, Texas, 8 hurt. 



22. Explosion : natural gas in Pittsburg, 1 killed, 

 several hurt. 



23. Explosion : fire-damp in a colliery near Ponty- 

 pool, England, 5 killed. 



24. Explosion : natural gas in Columbus, Ohio, 3 

 killed, many hurt. Snow blockade begins on the 

 transcontinental railroads. Explosion of steam gauge 

 on British steamer Sardinian, 3 killed. 



25. Eailway collision near Camphill, Ala., 1 killed, 

 7 hurt. 



26. Fierce storm along the British Isles. Many 

 shipwrecks, and several lives lost. 



27. Train derailed near Carmel, Ind., 6 killed, 26 

 hurt. 



28. Two Mississippi steamers lost : the Ohio sinks, 

 the De Soto is burned. Several members of a sur- 

 veying party perish from exposure in. Marble Canon, 

 Col. Violent hurricanes and rains in different parts 

 of the northern hemisphere. Eailway collision near 

 Owego, N. Y. , 6 hurt. 



30. Train derailed by a cow near Seymoursville, 

 La., 2 killed, 3 hurt. 



31. Influenza : the epidemic was so prevalent dur- 



