THE following tabulated statements present an analysis of the Presidential preferences of the delegates to the Republican State conventions of Ohio, Iowa, Texas, Michigan, Illinois, Missouri, Indiana, and Wisconsin, as well as those of the delegates to the Democratic State conventions of Illinois and California. These conventions have all been held in the past two weeks, and the views of the delegates, concisely expressed, as obtained by Globe-Democrat representatives, were pub lished in this journal at the time. The principal Republican preferences are appended : Blaine. Logan. Sherman. Allison. Ohio. Iowa Texas 8 One Ohio delegate and one Indiana delegate favored Gov. Foraker as first choice. Robert T. Lincoln was first choice of six Missouri delegates and three Wisconsin delegates. Five delegates of Missouri and two of Wisconsin favored Roscoe Conkling. Senator Edmunds was favored by two Missourians and one Wisconsonian, Senator Harrison by sixteen Indianians and one Missourian, Senator Evarts by one Missourian and four Wisconsonians, and ex-President Arthur by two Missourians. Of Indiana's delegates, six preferred Hon. A. G. Porter of that State for first choice, one Gen. Sherman, one Gen. Sheridan, one ex-Pension Commissioner Dudley, and one ex-Postmaster-General W. Q. Gresham. Among Wisconsin's delegates five were for Gov. Rusk for first choice, three for Gen. Sherman, two for Mr. Gresham, one for Gen. Fairchild, and one for Senator Hawley, of Connecticut. Blaine, it will be seen, was the choice of more than half of the delegates who expressed any preferences. In fact, his strength exceeded by thirtyone that of Logan, Sherman, and Allison combined. He led in every State except Ohio, Iowa, and Illinois, each of which has a prominent Presidential aspirant among its own citizens. And in all the States here mentioned he led as second choice, except in Indiana, which preferred Harrison. In the Michigan and Texas conventions the sentiment was overwhelmingly in his favor. Logan has a good lead over all other aspirants. The following gives the preferences of the delegates at the Democratic conventions in Illinois and California: One Illinois Senator preferred ex-Senator McDonald, and one Californian favored Senator Voorhees. Cleveland, however, was the choice of even a far greater proportion of the delegates of his own party than Blaine was of the Republicans. In the Missouri Democratic Convention, held about three weeks ago, the Globe-Democrat's interviewers ascertained that the drift of sentiment was equally in his favor, 325 delegates favoring him for renomination to 23 for all others. This presentation is valuable as showing the drift of public sentiment on the question of the Presidency about half way between the time at which the last National convention was held and that at which the next National convention meets. Some of the States here grouped will not hold another State convention until after the Presidential candidates for 1888 are placed in the field. The delegates who have given the Globe-Democrat their views are representative men in their respective parties, and fairly reflect public sentiment in the States in which they reside. It is from those men also that Presidential delegates are selected. The States embraced in this inquiry extend from Ohio and Indiana, in the central group, to Michigan and Wisconsin on the North, Texas in the Southwest, and California on the Pacific slope. Every shade of Presidential preference is here presented, at a period sufficiently distant from the last Presidential election to permit both parties to form an intelligent opinion as to the strength and popularity of the leading aspirants for the Presidency and their claims upon their compatriots. Of course there is a possi bility that the coming year and a half may bring new men and new issues to the surface in our politics. But the Globe-Democrat's inquiry has demonstrated that if the National conventions were to be held at any time in the coming six months Blaine and Cleveland would be made the standard-bearers of their respective parties on the first or second ballots. AN AWFUL EXAMPLE TO THE TORIES. Pittsburgh Dispatch (Ind.), September 11. An explanation of the American sympathy for the Irish cause is offered to the English by an American evidently of the Tory-worshiping class in a letter published in the London Times. He intimates that the Irish in America have not only captured the Democratic party, but are making strong moves toward bringing the Republican organization also under their control. Without considering it worth while to discuss the full truth of this proposition, it may be remarked that the Irish vote is a desirable thing for the politicians of both parties in this country. Indeed it is also for the politicians of both parties in England. It is just about a year since the Tories were bidding for the Irish vote; since when Mr. Gladstone has captured it, and Lord Randolph Churchill is making tentative efforts to get it over to his side. Supposing the dreadful state of affairs stated by our Anglomaniac friend to be true, then is it not a warning to England? If the agitation of the Irish issue has subjected America to Irish rule, as alleged, what will it do to England? If the Irish have a mortgage on both the Republican and Democratic parties here, how long at the present rate of progress will it take them to get a fee-simple on the Liberal and Tory organizations of England, unless the Irish question is settled up and put out of politics forever? Our Tory-loving American really furnished to the Tories, instead of the comfort he intended, the most dreadful picture of their danger. If they do not hurry up and get the Irish out of the English Parliament and into a parliament of their own, they may be subjected to all the horrors of Irish domination exemplified in the United States. LABOR DAY POLITICALLY CONSIDERED. The Craftsman, Washington, September 11. LABOR DAY has given, and will more in the future give, the politicians and parasites an idea of the cohesiveness and growing intelligence of organized labor. Already we hear the first notes of the fall campaign, and they do not awaken a responsive thrill in the breast of the ward politician. The new movement may not be successful in every case. It may be sold out, and cheated, and defeated by false promises and betrayed by traitors. All this happens to every new and worthy movement. But defeat will make it the stronger, and teach it to be ever alert in dealing with the old politicians. The ideas promulgated by the hosts of labor are not encouraged by the daily press. Workingmen are urged to array themselves against each other on the tariff and other old issues which are kept alive to hide the questions of life. When organized labor goes into politics in dead earnest it will tell just what it wants, and will work and vote industriously till it obtains it. Of course the politicians will promise all the reforms which labor can ask. They have been promising for years. We have starved and died, and been shot 'down and imprisoned, with promises always just ahead, like the ignus fatuus, but they have never materialized. Labor's holiday has shown that we have a large army of men engaged in peaceful pursuits, every man with a vote, and that intelligence is rapidly permeating this vast army. Labor will trust no more to promises. It will attend to the fruition of its own ideas, and will gather the fruit itself. hath its victories no less renowned than war." "Peace THERE has been much said this year about a mysterious new political organization in the Southwest, called the "Agricultural Wheel," with headquarters in Arkansas. It claims to have 40,000 Arkansas voters in its membership, and also that the Knights of Labor had affiliated with it, materially increasing its voting strength. Had the members of the "Wheel" all voted its ticket, the Democrats would have been defeated in Arkansas. But the result shows that only a sprinkling of the membership stood by the "Wheel" at the polls. The lesson of this is, that the masses of the people will not leave their party affiliations to vote on a single idea. No party has ever risen to enduring power on the strength of a single issue alone. Here is a moral for our third-party friends. It might be possible for a single campaign to be carried in this way-as witness the Know-Nothing party of the early half of the '50's; but enduring success can not be obtained. People have their own ideas about what is the main issue of a campaign, and the issue which our third party friends believe to be the supreme one is not so considered by a large mjaority of the people. Let them learn wisdom from the Arkansas "Wheel" campaign. NATURE. RECENT EARTHQUAKES. THE recent earthquakes that have occurred in Greece, New Zealand, Morea, Italy, and especially in America have caused great discussion all over the world by authorities on science, religion, medicine, and history, besides much comment on the theories given by these to explain the terrible phenomena. The reader will find opinions arranged under their respective heads, with general comment below: SCIENTIFIC. The National Republican. OUR weather and volcanic expert, Mr. Capen, seems to take the current events -so startling and absorbing to the public-in a very quiet way. Amateur scientists and enthusiastic theorists, in their commendable quest for knowledge, everywhere on the alert, are probing every possible avenue of light except that which, somehow or another, has amassed sufficient solid information to constitute a reliable basis for actual prediction. Wiggins affirms a change in the center of gravity and poise of the earth, and McGee has already convinced the world that a belt of our coast has actually slid seaward, one of which theories must have inevitably changed the longitudinal relations to the pole star of every place on the globe; the other that of every place on the slide; both of which could be settled in twentyfour hours by a few astronomical observations, either by our efficient Coast or Geological Survey. Gen. Hazen, too, every dollar of whose plethoric appropriation was so rigidly set apart to some special object that nothing could be used to test the value of Mr. Capen's method of advanced weather prediction, hesitates not but hastens to send a supernumerary at considerable expense to look up a matter that belongs exclusively to geology and is wholly extraneous from the signal service and the weather. In such a crisis every thoughtful man forms his theory and it is right and commendable to do so. While all this is going on our expert quietly, yet as confidently, proceeds as when, in 1871, he predicted an eruption of Vesuvius, Prof. Palmeri to the contrary notwithstanding. He again announces and defines the next earthquake period, affirming it to be more severe than that just passed and, indeed, the most intense and concentrated that he has ever computed. He earnestly maintains that no step in actual rebuilding should be taken in Charleston till after the next period further than to construct, as expeditiously as possible, strong-framed wooden buildings for protection from storms and cold. Science. Powell, director of the Geological Survey, to the conclusion that the convulsion THE hypothesis has been advanced by Perrey that earthquakes are connected with subterranean tides due to the combined influence of the sun and moon, and analagous to those in the ocean. At a given point the earth's strata are under the accumulated tension of centuries, and this pressure is slowly but steadily increasing, until it reaches a point when fracture is imminent. Twice a day the great oceanic tidal waves sweep along the coast, the tremendous changes of pressure due to them being possibly augumented by analagous movements beneath the crust, and at a critical moment they add "the last straw" that determines the fracture. It is very interesting to notice, in this connection, that at the time of the severe shock at Charleston this tidal influence was at its maximum. The moon was in perigee at 2 a. m., August 29; new moon at 8 a. m. the same day, acting in a direct line with the sun (the eclipse of the sun occurred at 5 a. mn., August 29); extremely high tides occurred, therefore, for several days following. The moon's upper transit at Charleston occurred at 2.22 p. m., on August 31. The high tide following (the higher of the two daily tides) was at 9.35 p. m., just twenty minutes before the shock oocurred. This remarkable coincidence is, of course, extremely interesting. It seems remarkable that no sea-wave followed the shock, and indeed it was providential that it did not, as the resultiug destruction and loss of life would have been a hundredfold greater. A sea-wave (often very incorrectly called a tidal-wave) of greater or less size is the almost invariable accompaniment of a severe shock occurring near the sea-coast. The Scientific American. JAPANESE THEORIES OF EARTHQUAKES. IN the Transactions of the Seismological Society of Japan, Prof. Knott discusses the well-worn subject of earthquake frequency, but in a wholly new and original way. His object is to determine the effects of the various causes which are said to influence earthquakes, and his conclusion is that the annual periodicity in earthquake frequency, when it does exist, finds a possible explanation in the annual periodicity of two well-known meteorological phenomena-namely, snow accumu lations over continental areas and barometric gradients. No other cause, he says, that can be imagined or named fulfils all the conditions. Mr. Shida describes an automatic current recorded of his own invention. The resolution of the Interna tional Electric Congress held in Paris in 1884, that observations of earth-currents should be pursued in all countries was communicated to various governments, to that of Japan amongst the number. Mr. Shida is chief engineer to the Japanese telegraph department, and it devolved on him to take the subject up. To this fact, doubtless, we also owe the third paper, which is by the same gentleman, on earthcurrents. He describes briefly the work that has been done in the subject in the past, what is being done and what might be done in Japan. From an examination of the magnetic observations made at the meteorological department of Tokio it appears that the declination variations are not the effect of earth-cur. rents, for, if this were so, then an increase of the western declination ought to correspond to a decrease of earth-current flowing from north to south, not an increase, as has been found by actual observation. The results show that both magnetic and earth.current variations are regulated by the same cause or causes, and that the sun plays an important part in producing the effects which are observed. The fact, however, that there appear to be two maxima and two minima in these variations tends to show that they are in part due to the action of the moon. The study of earth-currents, says Mr. Shida, has not advanced parri passu with other branches of seismological science, and he desires to establish a system of observation of the currents, and to devise and improve methods of observing. The second part of the Transactions contains an elaborate and exhaustive paper (it fills nearly 200 printed octavo pages), by Prof. Milne, on the volcanoes of Japan. It repre sents the labor and collections of about ten years, and is deserving of special detailed notice. We are glad to observe, from a notice sent with the numbers, that the Japanese Transactions of the Society (i. e. those written or translated into Japanese) have now reached their third volume. Taken all in all, this Society is by far the most active and thriving of all the learned societies of the far East, and we have little doubt that it owes a great part of its vitality to the fact that Japanese men of science are pursuing the work inaugurated by Prof. Milne with the enterprise and THE cause of earthquakes, like that of geysers and of volcanoes, is a mystery. They very high specific gravity of the earth makes its interior composition quite uncertain, and assimilates it to that of meteorites. If in a liquid state, the enormous compression it is subjected to by gravity would probably modify its rigidity somewhat. Even if the earth is solid, but hot, as is probably the case, and is continually cooling, then in the shrinking of the crust we could find a force powerful enough to cause the most intense of earthquake disturbances if it were rightly directed. The present way of treating the subject is to assume a subterranean shock given at a place which is called the focus. This is supposed to be subterranean, and to vary in its depth below the surface, as a maximum being thirty miles. From this focus two series of waves emanate-one longitudinal, resembling sound waves, and of rapid motion of translation. They are accompanied by the slower lateral waves, resembling the waves of water. It is the longitudinal waves that produce the principal results, the others being of little account. amplitude of waves that cause damage may be very slight. An oscillation in the earth's surface of 21⁄2 inches amplitude will crack masonry. These considerations bring the subject within the scope of mathematical treatment, but leave the ultimate cause as great a mystery as ever. If a cause for the initial shock can be formulated, then the theory will be complete. Boston Transcript. The THE scientists sent to Charleston by the Government to make observations of the earthquake have collected a great amount of interesting data, which leads Major ardor of their race. RELIGIOUS. National Republican. NOTHING but a deplorable shallowness of brain and heart can account for the sugarcoating to the earthquake pill now being so largely dealt out from various pulpits. If one-hundred-thousandth part of what is said be true either Charleston is the wickedest city on earth, or the Deity plays fast and loose with natural laws and sends a "shaker-up" to Charleston as a sportive method of calling the remnant of the United States to consciousness of their depravity. Charleston is, we guess, not much worse than other cities of the same size, or better-except in the matter of earthquakes, and a repetition of the Egyptian plagues. But what an incarnate fiend the monster must be whom people's vulgar imaginations conjure up as capable of voluntarily visiting a city packed with human creatures made after the supposed image of the Creator, and wreaking vengeance on women and children in South Carolina in order that the inhabitants of New York, Dakota, and Nova Scotia, along with the governor of Texas and the special envoy to Mexico, may be induced to bring their headlong careers to a halt. The conclusion is lame and impotent enough, but it is adamantine strength as compared with the logic of the premises, which are generally as much wanting in sense as they are deficient in religious feeling or accurate knowledge. For instance, one gifted representative of Jehovah calmly said on Sunday: "While men know little at present of the nature or laws of earthquakes, they could prepare for their coming, as the laws of cyclones and storms were now fully developed." What necessary connection has been estab lished between cyclones and earthquakes, except in the place furnishing an apol ogy for a mind of the learned theologian whom we have quoted? But it is not enough to prevent earthquakes by understanding cyclones. Our preacher gra ciously advances to sea storms and shipwrecks, just as De Quincey shows that murder ought to be avoided generally, not because it is bad in itself, but because degradation the descent is easy to the lowest depth of Sabbath-breaking. Hearken eventually it may lead to stealing, thence to swearing and laziness, from which to the voice of the wise man: "With due care and the observance of well-known indications maritime disasters could in a very large degree be avoided." But soft! Here comes the soverign balm for the wounds of people who have lost their friends, their wealth, and health in the Charleston catastrophe: "There were owners or commanders of vessels who have never lost a ship or life." We don't envy the mind of any man who could violate the Sabbath and his holy office by such paltry platitudes which make us only feel that if we had ever happened to be in the position of a great first cause, and our misrepresentations on earth took upon themselves the mystery of things after this fashion, we should be inclined to repeat the unhallowed language of the mortal poet: It is all very well to dissemble your love But why did you kick me down stairs ? But the morality is even more objectionable than the belated intelligence manifested in this method of improving every terrible occasion pro bono publico. Instead of telling the man in every walk of life who "puts sand in his sugar " that earthquakes are sent to warn him, the true preacher, not being an idiot, would say: My friends, I don't know anything about earthquakes. I don't think they do themselves. But I do know that all of us who are humbugs shall be punished, sooner or later, by earthquake or otherwise, therefore don't put sand in your moral sugar, and then let old mother earth quake as much as she pleases. Boston Globe. THE scientists who went to Charleston to investigate the causes of the earthquake expressed their indignation to the reporters that the clergy, instead of attributing it to rational causes, were content to rest the matter by ascribing it to the providence of God. That the conflict of science and religion should thrust itself before the public over this sad calamity is rather humiliating to contemplate. It shows that dogmatism is not confined to theology, but appears wherever a hobby is erected. However, men may question the propriety of ascribing the sad fate of Charleston's homeless people to Divine Providence, it is certain that as a sedative to reconcile them to their fate it did some good and could not possibly do them any harm. On the other hand, a dispatch from the stricken city says that the unfortunate people "are so confused by the statements and predictions of scientists that they are in despatr." When a man becomes hide-bound to his scientific creed he is apt to think everybody a fool who does not share his theories. This has been the case with the various experts who have figured on the causes of the earthquake. Each derides the theory of the other as preposterous, ridiculous, and absurd, till finally the untutored mind inclines to believe that one scientist knows about as much about it as the other, and that the whole of them put together know very little indeed. The poor people who gathered in the shattered churches of Charleston last Sunday were in no frame of mind to listen to fine-spun theories on the causes of their affliction. They needed consolation, and the clergymen administered it in the old appointed way. This may not suit the scientist in his study, but that is no reason why he should be indignant at the clergy. When clergymen go out of their way to ridicule science they leave themselves open to retort; but intelligent clergymen do not do this. Provided science and theology both keep their own ground there is no call for a quarrel, and when a calamity like that which has stricken Charleston is made the basis of one it is rather disgraceful. In this case science appears to have been the aggressor. The scientists seem to be in bad humor over their own failure to agree on a verdict. Birmingham, Ala., Age. THE clergy of Charleston assembled their flocks as best they might, on Sunday last, and discoursed reverently to them upon the heavy dispensation of Providence surrounding their homes. The clergy attributed the earthquake to God's special visitation of sin with suffering. Now, at that very time there were wise men from the East come to the afflicted city to search out the meaning of the subterranean trouble. The scientists claim that until they had been given time to publish a theory, the clergy should not have prejudiced them by proclaiming there could be no theory to publish; the event being one sent specially by God for a prescribed purpose, viz: the chastisement of the city. The scientists, unfortunately, could give no very good and sufficient reason for their opinions, and by opinions alone could they appeal to men's confidence. The clergy only repeated the teachings familiar to their flocks, and turned to the desolation around them for illustration. The scientists, after their manner, and the clergy after theirs, unite to declare the littleness of man in the presence of his Creator. The scientific explanation of the earthquake will some day come, and stand in harmony with the word the clergy proclaim, whether rightly understood by them now or not. At least such has been the ultimate concurrence of the two in equally great trials in the past. Baltimore News. THERE is one good result at least of all this-it has strongly stimulated religious feeling. Several persons in the afflicted districts have become deranged from terror. Thousands of others, still retaining their minds, are yet overcome with a consciousness of their sinful lives hitherto and are doing works of repentence and amendment. There is a very widespread agreement that the end of the world can not now be postponed much longer. Certainly the end of the world will arrive soon for very many, as it does, indeed, for myriads over the globe every day. The lesson that all should be prepared is one that, whether earthquakes occur or not, is always in order. As to the colored people, it is something to be thankful for that the spring chicken and watermelon season is practically over, so that the powers of darkness will be deprived of some of their most potent means of seduction. There is, as the newspapers show, a great awakening all over the South. People are praying who have not been on their knees for thirty and forty years. Some of the oldest and toughest sinners feel softened. The shake-up has accomplished more conversions in a short space than all the exhortations of the preachers since the war. In this respect, if the convulsion did some physical damage, it exerted on the other hand, in a spiritual way, an incalculable amount of good. MEDICAL. New York Medical Journal. SUCH a calamity as has overtaken the fair city of Charieston is likely to involve certain consequences that call for consideration from a medical point of view. Some of them are chiefly of interest in a theoretical way, but most of them are of intense and many of them of urgent import to the people of the afflicted town. But they are not all necessarily of a gloomy nature. It does not seem irrational to entertain the expectation that some good will be found to have resulted from the earthquake in individual instances. It goes without saying that the emotional strain under which the people of Charleston have been trying to bear up ever since the catastrophe took place must have had a very pronounced depressing effect, especially among the blacks. In many cases it has doubtless turned the scale in the fatal direction with invalids, and it has probably brought on premature labor, with all its attendant perils heightened by the abnormal situation, in the case of many a poor woman.. Emotional excitement, however, especially in the form of sudden and intense shock, is occassonally not only not injurious but positively beneficial, as is well known to alienists. Certain forms of insanity-sometimes yield entirely and somewhat suddenly to a profound mental or emotional impression. Especially is this observed in cases of mental derangement of puerperal origin, after the acute maniacal stage has given way to a lingering melancholia. We may entertain the hope, then, that something of this sort may have happened to light up the gloom that has settled on Charleston; indeed the statement is already suddenly recovered the power of speech under the terror inspired by the earthcurrent that a lady of that city who for many years had been afflicted with aphonia quake. That case, to be sure, was not of the character that we have specially alluded to, but, considered as a neurosis—and it seems reasonable to so consider it— its sudden termination may be looked upon as strengthening the hope we have expressed. The Medical Record. IN the telegraph reports of the calamity which has visited Charleston much is said of the general distress which prevails, and instances of individual sufering are related, but we do not remember to have seen any mention of the trials of the physicians. As is usual at such times, they have been silently going about doing good and administering to the needs of others, while themselves homeless and ruined. Yet the wants of the business classes and of the laborers and others are telegraphed abroad, and appeals for help for them are made, while the physician, too busy in his work of mercy to think of himself, is suffering and toiling without one word of recognition or even thanks. We are permitted to present the following extract from a private letter from one of Charleston's best known physicians to a medical gentleman in this city. "We are distressed," he writes, "almost beyond endurance. Our women and children are our sources of anxious solicitude. May God protect them in the open field, tenting in the night air! My entire family-wife and four children, the oldest eleven years of age-are out of house and home, like hundreds of other sufferers." We think little more need be said to show the necessity of speedy aid for the sufferers among our own brethern in Charleston. There are no doubt many cases of individual want among medical men and their families, for while their services are in demand, and they are busied in attending to those suffering from injuries and the results of exposure, yet they arc seldom paid, at least in cash. Their families are homeless and must be provided for, but food and shelter are not to be obtained without ready money in such times, and ready money the physician but rarely obtains. New Orleans Times-Democrat. A STRANGE incident of last week's earthquake shock is the recovery of the power of speech by Miss Mamie Martus, daughter of a retired officer of the regular army, at Savannah, Ga. At the close of the war her father was put in charge of Forts Pulaski and Jackson, below that city. While at the former fort the daughter, then a bright, intelligent child, had an attack of meningitis, which left her voiceless. The best medical skill was obtained, and the father took his afflicted child traveling, but nothing did her any good. She was dumb, but had all the other senses. During the excitement of the first earthquake shock Tuesday night, August 31, she in her fright attempted to call her brother. He was frightened himself when he heard her whisper his name. Since then she has gradually regained her voice, and now talks with perfect fluency. She says she was almost delirious with joy when she found that she could speak. Her voice was low and her throat sore for three days, and she had trouble in finding words to express her thoughts. It was much like learning a new tongue, except that she knew the words but had forgotten how to pronounce them. City physicians are deeply interested in the case. Their explanation is that the recovery was due to intense mental excitement. GENERAL. The Hour. THE Charleston earthquake was the severest visitation of the kind which has occurred in the northern part of our continent within the historical period. It extended over a vast area of territory, comparatively speaking thickly settled and built up, so that the opportunity for accurate observation was excellent. Within the more than twenty-five States in which the shocks were felt are a large number of Government and collegiate observatories, together with a considerable proportion of the Signal Service stations, but, unfortunately, very few of the gentlemen whose business it is supposed to be to watch phenomena of this kind were at their posts; or, if they were, they had not been provided with the proper instruments. As a result, not a single accurate observation, so far as we have yet seen, was taken. The neglect of the officials in Washington, according to the reports from that city, is positively scandalous. The National Observatory at that point is supposed to be one of the best equipped institutions of the kind in the world-it has certainly cost This money enough to make it so-and yet it has sent out only a few words which are The Nation. THE small extent of knowledge respecting the causes of earthquakes, even among those scientists who have given the subject most attention, is strikingly shown by an incident which has just happened in London. Prof. Dawson, principal of McGill College in Montreal, read on Wednesday week before the British Association an exhaustive paper on the geological formation of the bed of the Atlantic, with especial reference to its bearing upon the question of earthquakes. The paper was highly praised and regarded as a valuable contribution to the discussion, but within a day came the full account of the Charleston upheaval, and Prof. Dawson now frankly makes this confession : "The phenomena of the present earthquake convulsions in America and elsewhere, but particular in America, are extremely puzzling, and completely upset some of the conclusions set forth in the address I read last evening." * * How can it possibly be determined even now without a survey whether North Carolina has not trespassed bodily upon the South Carolina line, while her neighbors to the north have invaded her territory in a similar way? Detroit Tribune. It is high time to call a halt on the alleged scientists who are so voluminous in predictions as to what is now going to happen in the way of seismic disturbancefrom the officious ignoramuses in the departments at Washington down to the offensive assumptions of E. Stone Wiggins. They are making a bad matter worse by flying into print with what are alleged to be scientific predictions of further trouble, and there can be no doubt that their haphazard guesses are doing the city of Charleston much permanent harm. It is beginning to be a serious question, in fact, whether the work of the "scientists" has not been more disastrous to the city than the earthquake itself. The people of shaken sections of the country would do very well, in view of the exceeding freshness of these forecasting quacks, to remember that in the present state of knowledge concerning their causes, all predictions as to earthquakes are mere guesses. It is possible that other shocks may occur at Charleston and elsewhere, because a repetition of certain causes world be very apt to result in a repetition of their effects. But it is equally probable that, having had its "shake," Charleston may never experience another. At any rate While the South is suffering from earthquake shocks, the North is having a terrible visitation from earthquake theories; they attack the brain and produce a more or less serious mental deterioration. The earthquakes centering in the Carolinas have been ascribed to sunspots, to lunar action, and to the linear pull of a string of planets; to the earthquakes in Greece, to volcanic action, to chemical action, to electric action. Hardly any attention is given to the simplest and most natural of all explanations, and only the most cautious theorists venture to suggest that the Carolina earthquakes are due to earthquakes in Carolina. Volcanoes and earthquakes are so commonly associated that the reporters may well be excused for finding signs. of eruption in every crack in the ground that gives forth bad-smelling water and mud. Detroit Free Press. * . * * is certain that the pretenders to scientific foreknowledge of what is going to happen in this direction are mere guessers, and that they are therefore unscientific quacks. Major Powell, Professors Newcomb, Dawson, Mendenhall, and McGee, and "Prophet" Wiggins all appear to be in the same boat. They have made guys of themselves, and discredited science. THE land slide theory by which Professor McGee explains the recent seismological disturbances is finding a great deal of favor. It is plausible in that it harmonizes with nearly all the observed phenomena; and it is interesting because it opens up a vast and novel field for scientific and unscientific speculation. The theory is not wholly new, for the land slide on a small scale has long been known; but it has never before been known or suspected that the land slide on so gigantic a scale as to embrace a fourth of a continent was among the possibilities. Scientifically or unscientifically considered the theory is a very important one and has a very important bearing, not only upon individuals but upon states and nations. It has long been one of the periodical jokes-which it is the bad fashion of our day to call chestnuts that somebody's farm had slid out of one town or county into another and raised serious questions of title. In the light of this theory of Professor McGee's this ceases to become a joke and takes on a very serious aspect. The theory is that the rock foundation in South Carolina slopes from the mountains of the Appalachian system and that there has been a general movement southward and seaward of the entire mass of superincumbent soil. How far back the movement can be traced has not yet been determined; but it is clearly apparent if the theory is sound that it either extended-or in time may extend at least to the line in the Appalachian range where the rock crops out. A movement of that extent means not only a vast physical disturbance but a serious derangement of State lines. Troy Telegram. THE Conclusion to be drawn from the fact that so many savants of equal prominence have each a different theory as to the cause of the Charleston earthquake is that as yet we know very little regarding these disturbances, and in the absence of definite knowledge as to cause all prediction of future shocks must be based on theory. But we are gaining knowledge every day, and it is worthy of attention that men of recognized ability, not weather prophet cranks, have the courage to make such bold and startling assertions. The fulfilment of Professer Devoe's prediction, for instance, would go far toward proving his theories as to cause. Another shock in the vicinity of Charleston would be regarded as a vindication of the "seaward slip" explanation of Professor McGee, and so each savant would find in the character of recurring shocks something to sustain his ideas. From all the knowledge thus gained, there may be in time evolved a basis for the prediction of earthquakes just as it is now possible to foretell the time, direction and character of great storms, but until there is positive verification of some of these predic tions, the public will pay little attention to them. New York Herald. WHILE SO many earthquake theories of the Charleston catastrophe are under discussion it is noteworthy that the Atlantic ocean has recently been remarkably placid. The commanders of the steamers Etruria, Greece, City of Chicago, and City of Rome, who have recently arrived at this port, report smooth seas, with little swell, during most of the transatlantic passage. This fact is very important in any scientific effort to determine the cause of the earth waves. While it is barely possible that the great shock may have been propagated from the central Atlantic bed, such a thing is very improbable in the absence of large sea waves, which would have been seen in the main routes of ocean commerce. This evidence strongly favors the hypothesis that the fatal earthquake wave was not propagated from the deep ocean bed, but originated on the continent itself in the displacement of the earth's crust somewhere within the Carolinas. It is probable, therefore, that any disastrous shock at Charleston hereafter will be heralded, as that of August 31 was, by several slight shocks. Boston Journal. BUT it does not appear that from all these observations there is deducible any clear and entirely satisfactory theory as to the cause of these disturbances; still less, any data from which it would be practicable to predict them and prescribe their limits. Various theories are advocated by different observers and students. According to one, the cause is chemical degradation which works changes out of sight; another attributes it to volcanic evisceration, which must be followed by a readjustment of the earth's surface to fill the emptied space; another makes the cause the result of faulting, or breaks in the rocky surface of the earth; another attributes it to explosions of steam from the interior; while other theories include the attraction of heavenly bodies, the effect of tides and fluctuations in temperature among the elements of the problem. This variety of theories indicates how little science really knows of the tremendous forces which are at work beneath the earth's crust. WHAT is the immediate cause of these earthquakes can only be conjectured. It is natural to connect the American calamity with those in Europe which immediately preceded, or, as in the Smyrna shocks, were actually coincident with them. Yet, unless the tremor which seemed to have had its focus in the Levant was prop agated for more than two thousand miles under the Atlantic without losing force, the connection is somewhat hard to establish. It is not improbable that in time we may learn of disturbances in other parts of the world, which may materially assist us in formulating a theory. Hitherto, however, no great ocean waves seem to have struck either the Atlantic or the Pacific coasts, so that serious movements in the Pacific or in mid-Atlantic are unlikely. Daily Telegraph. WE are all undoubtedly playing about on a powder barrel, as far as the thinness of the crust of the globe is concerned, and we only regard the position with equanimity in England, because we are so rarely reminded of it by a personal experience of these unwelcome phenomena. The American earthquake, of which we may hope we have now heard the worst effects, is another indication of how little we really know of the forces of nature, at whose mercy and by whose forbearance we carry on our daily life. Daily News. THE loss of property in Charleston alone is estimated at two million of dollars; but this is hardly worth taking into account as a check on the enterprise of an American city. The recent shock in Italy was so localized that it has been possible, as our Naples correspondent reports, to invent a story of a peasant who had to ask his way to the earthquake when the news arrived. No man throughout the length if not throughout the breadth of the United States could have asked that question on Tuesday. SPORT. THE INTERNATIONAL YACHT RACE. THE international yacht race between the American sloop Mayflower and the English cutter Galatea resulted in a decided victory for the American vessel in both of the two trials, the latter of which came off on Saturday, September II. Opinions on the superiority of the Mayflower, the benefits following such friendly rivalries, &c., will be found in the following selections: New York Tribune, September 12. THE international yacht race yesterday showed conclusively that "cutter weather" is still more emphatically sloop weather, so far at least as the Mayflower is concerned. It is true that our British cousins have "hedged" from the first, by protesting that the Galatea is not a fair representative of their fastest cutters. That she is not a fast enough cutter for the best type of American sloop has certainly been demonstrated beyond cavil. If she is not the best the English yacht builders can produce that is not the fault of our yachtsmen, who are only too anxious to meet a boat which shall by common consent of the cutter champions be acknowledged a complete model of their best type. The fact that the Irex has been claimed to be a faster boat than the Galatea will no doubt afford the cutter men a loophole for escape from the conclusion that yesterday's race settles the cuttersloop controversy in favor of the latter; but people who are not biased will generally hold that the Galatea fairly represents her type, and that in her successive defeats its inferiority has been manifested. Lieutenant Henn, of the Galatea, has had an unpleasant experience, for it is no slight test of any man's equanimity to bring a yacht 3,000 miles only to see her beaten at every point in her own weather. But it is some consolation to him to know that his gallantry, courtesy, and unfailing good nature have been fully appreciated by American yachtsmen and the American pnblic, and that while it is not in human nature for the victors to refrain from exultation, their rejoicing is tempered by admiration and sympathy for so worthy an antagonist. The America cup remains in its present keeping, but the results of the last two years' contests can not but be stimulating to the pride and the invention of our cousins, and if, perchance, they are led to depend less confidently upon the inspiration of Mr. Beavor-Webb, and are moved by bitter experience to modify their conservatism in yacht-building, the final outcome may be a boat which will give our big sloops all the work they can handle. In the meantime we are entitled to claim that the cutter model has been found wanting, and until the English or some other nation can bring forward a yacht capable of out-footing the Mayflower we may without immodesty assert that we hold the yachting championship of the seas. New York Sun, September 12. Ir the piece of silver known as the America's cup could speak, it would probably say that of the seven yachts which had fought the seven battles for its posses. sion the greatest of all was the conquerer of the Galatea. As a sloop is the superior of a schooner, and of our three single stickers that have fought for the cup the Mayflower is the best, she must stand as the queen of this coast. The America, the Magic, the Columbia, the Madeleine, the Mischief, and the Puritan have gallantly and victoriously preceded her, but her pre-eminence will not be disputed by them any more than it can be now by the Galatea. A noticeable difference between this race and the Puritan-Genesta race was that the Mayflower in running down to the stakeboat beat the Galatea by thirteen minutes and forty-five seconds, while before the wind the Genesta beat the Puritan by two minutes and six seconds. So superior does the Mayflower appear to be to the Galatea in every point of sailing that it might almost be safe betting that she would beat her somehow with both headed dead into the wind's eye. But can the poor cup, which is at the mercy of any adventurous yacht to try for, be sure that the danger of being carried back to England is over, and that the swiftest champion from the other side has presented herself here and been defeated? Is our boat beyond question the best on the British coast, as she is on our own? That still must be considered undecided. The Irex, a cutter of the Galatea's class, is better, and she is not unlikely to be seen here next year. Then it would not be surprising, now that the Britishers have their hand in in sending yachts here, if a smaller boat, for instance the Marjorie or the Tara, of forty or fifty tons, should slip over, in the hope of find ing us unprepared in boats of that size. But come what may, the Mayflower is the queen of this year, for all its seasons, and their compliments and ours go out to her and her owner in the fulness of a pleased and patriotic heart. National Republican, September 14. MR. HENN seems to have sent a boy on a man's errand, and the Mayflower's owner reversed the process. It is not very gratifying to be told upon the authority of the New York Herald, that, in the opinion of the best-informed men on yachting matters, the Galatea is only a second-class boat. One gentleman then gives her record, which, if correct, shows that she is a very, very second-class boat. The owner of the yacht is described first. "He is a splendid fellow, and we like him, but his yacht is not a racing craft. She is good enough for cruising in, and when he rigs her as a yawl she will make a comfortable boat for sailing about the Mediterranean, or, for that matter, anywhere else Mr. Henn's fancy may lead him. But I tell you emphatically that the Galatea is not a racer." As if this were not sufficiently damning with faint praise, the speaker is wicked enough to prove his statement: "Just look at the Galatea's record," he said, "and no sensible man can come to any other conclusion. She was launched in the spring of 1885, and was entered in several regattas that year. She sailed several matches, too, this season, and with what result? All she won was one second prize, and unless she improves with age I don't think she has much chance of winning another." It is surprising that the managers of the race did not find out all this before the match was made, but under the circumstances it is natural enough that the New York Yacht Club should now conclude to decline the challenge, hereafter, of any boat whose record as a racer is not of the first class. It is a deplorable waste of force to send a man on a boy's errand. New York Herald, September 12. As had been anticipated the Mayflower had no difficulty in successfully defending the America's cup against the attack of the Galatea. The English cutter may be a very able boat in her own waters, but here she seems out of place and at the mercy of any one of the four big sloops which American enterprise and skill have constructed in order to keep on this side of the Atlantic the international trophy. The cutter was sailed excellently yesterday. She ran very fast and also did capital windward work, but soon after the start it became evident that she was no match for the Mayflower. The Boston boat maintained her high reputation based on the many successes of this her first season, and at the finish the cutter was be-tween four and five miles astern. This wide difference was due not altogether to the superiority of the sloop's sailing, but was owing in a measure to the freaks of the breeze. The sloop showed that she could have beaten her rival easily, but the victory would not have been so marked had the fortune of the wind favored each boat alike. We hope the Galatea will have better luck in the Newport race, in which Mr. Henn has promised that the cutter shall sail. A consolation prize to take across the water would take the rough edge off the Galatea's signal defeat. We trust, also, that the Irex will come over next season. English cutters are handsome boats and we like to see them in our harbor. To speak the candid truth, a yachting season without the excitement of a battle between English and American yachts would be, in the estimation of many sportsmen, rather dull and tedious. Cleveland Plain Dealer, September 12. THE last of the contests this year for the America's cup has been made, and the cup remains in the custody of the New York yacht club, subject to challenge from any English yacht in the years to come. So far the attempts to win back the trophy proudly borne away from English waters by the schooner-yacht America thirty-five years ago have been in vain. The improvements made in English yachts have been more than kept pace with on this side, and though the newcomer might possibly have outsailed the American winner of the previous year she finds herself opposed by a new boat with all the merits of her predecessor and some additional. It is gratifying that the contests of last year and this have been conducted on both sides in the best possible spirit. The American yachtsmen have done their utmost to make the visitors feel that they were in the hands of friends, and every possible proof has been given that the desire was not to keep the trophy unless it fairly belonged here, but that the best boat should win, whether she was American or English. On the other hand the visitors have behaved admirably, exhibited no carping or quibbling disposition, and accepted gracefully the defeat which their competitors endeavor to soften by additional courtesies. The international yachting contests of last year and this have tended to strengthen good feeling between the people of the two countries and have at the same time done very much to revive the maritime feeeling which greatly needed reawakening in this country. Philadelphia Press, September 13. THE Mayflower should go to England and come back with her cup larder stocked. It is all very well to defend the America trophy and to build fast boats to that end in sizes and shapes to suit the successive Britons who may be seized with covetousness therefor. But this is not exactly the same thing as beating the English at yachting, and yet the zest which the Galatea and Genesta contests have stimulated in nine out of ten Americans who care anything about the sport or about international rivalry of this sort depends almost entirely on the conviction that our victories demonstrate our superiority in an absolute sense. The Galatea is not the fastest cutter afloat, perhaps, but there is little doubt after the races which have just taken place that neither the Irex nor the Marjorie would have fared very much better had she been in the Galatea's place. But it is entirely open to the Englishmen to maintain that the truth of this depends upon the wind and weather rather than on the absolute superiority of the Mayflower. Would this admirable sailer sail so admirably in British waters, with the chop sea and cap-full breezes there to be encountered? This is a question which Englishmen may fairly ask, and until it is summarily answered by actual experiment all that can be said to be positively demonstrated by the Mayflower and Puritan triumphs is the fact that we |