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Show SELECTED. A Good Country fob Earthquakes. Earth-quakes. The cable announces that on Friday, July 1st, a terrible earthquake ras experienced throughout the Kingdom King-dom of Greece, by which great damage was done in many places. The only details of this catastrophe yet given us are that the town of Sartoria was "reduced "re-duced to a heap of ruins," and that a "neighboring island disappeared at the time of the shock." The town here spoken of is evidently the capital town of the Island of Santorin, no town of "Sartoria" existing in Greece; and the "neighboring island" is probably either Therasia or Aspro Nisi, both of which were formerly united with Santorin, and both of which were separated from it, as Pliny relates, by a tremendous earthquake, which occurred in the year 236 before Christ. j Santorin and the islands in its vicinity vi-cinity have locg been known as the the ater of some of the most curious and interesting geological phenomena of the globe. For now nearly two years a large portion of the island of Santorin itself, ou which the town of that name stands, or rather stood, has been literally lite-rally burning -ip with - subterranean fires. The names burst out along the sea line of the island in 1SC8, and they have never since ceased to rage, extending extend-ing their area steadily, and presenting one of the most striking and terrible spectacles in the world. Scientific expeditions ex-peditions have been seat from the mainland of Greece and from Austria to observe this awfal phenomenon, but the dwellers in Santorin themselves, like the residents of Torre del Greco, near Vesuvius, had not suffered its fearful proximity to disturb their devotion devo-tion to 'he culture of thtir vineyards, esteemed the best in the Grecian Archipelago, even as those of the e-suvius e-suvius slope are reputed the best in Southern Italy. Santorin, the southernmost south-ernmost of the famous group of islands known as the Cyclades, lies about halfway half-way between the Morea and the island of Rhodes, and almost due north of the town of Candia, in Crete. It was known to the Phoenicians, by whom it was originally settled, as the "Beautiful," "Beauti-ful," CallUte, and the "Bound," Strongute, the latter name indicating its form previous to the catastrophe by which, as we have said, the islets of Theresia and of Aspro Nisi were detached de-tached from it, more than 2.000 years ago. Six centuries before Christ it had become powerful and populous enough to found the Lybian city of Gyrene. In the third century of our era it was baptized by the Christian Dame of Saiut Irene, of which its modern name of Santorin is a corruption. corrup-tion. Ita area is comparatively small, as it is only about forty-eight miles in circumference, but as its soil is absolutely abso-lutely and entirely volcanic it is extremely ex-tremely fertile, and has long been famous for its wines. The vine occupies, indeed, the attention of its inhabitants so exclusively that all the necessaries of life have to be brought to them fioin the neighboring islands, upon which they are dependent even for their supply sup-ply of drinking water. In its popula tiou of some 13,000 are comprised some six or seven hundred Catholics, gathered around one school of Lazarist missionaries, and another of Sisters of Charity, bo'.h of which schools are notable no-table for the liberality with which they aflord instruction to all the inhabitants, without regard to their forms of faith. The town destroyed in Santorin, as we have said, is probably the capital of the island, Thei a, This town lies in the center of the semi-circle described by the island, and crowns the formidable formida-ble cliffs which here rise suddenly and steeply from a depth of water .so profound pro-found that no anchorage exists in front of the town. Over the whole surface of the island, among its green and glowing vineyards, lie scattered the traces of numbers of other towns which, in ancient d:!ys, rose and flour-i.-hed here. When we remember that no longer ago than last January an earthquake shock to pieces and destroyed des-troyed the island town of Santa Maura, in the Ionian sea, quite on the other side of the Greek mainland, and that violent shocks have since then, at three different times, startled Southern and Central Italy from its prosperity, one at lea-t uf the three having been attended at-tended with cm-iik-raMo losof ii;e and of property, it is impossible tn J.iuU hat the ea.-tt.rn ba.-in of the Me.uter-ranoan Me.uter-ranoan is just now the thuatir 'if fjree as yet utiiLCasur d I u' m i.j . ai: 1 iii'-t iu-p-'r ai t s'''V :.-t:-j-lion. w lor W ir'il. A lit ai a ntt I.T!rr.sr T.a e we-.k there O'Curn H in Uu hrt . Strange a!Jair, which i- -t u::m.-'.V' d in its particular, but which was one of those peculiar tran.-actions which seem to have no motive. A widow lady, with a daughter some eighteen years of age, lived ne?.r Mount Washington. They were without male protectors, and lived quietly and securely. One day the old lady received some joOOO in payment of an old account, and locked it up in her trunk. The night following was dark and gloomy, and one that would cause people naturally to bar and lock d'Xir- and windows and to hesitate to open them to a stranger. Toward night an old, bent-up, decrepit man came to the dour, and on it being opened, a.-ked for shelter for the night. The widow told hiiu she was alone, with no men folks about the house, and she disliked to take a stranger under her roof. The old man said he was a stranger, poor, decrepit and destitute, and only asked for shelter froni tho approaching night. The lady acceded to his request, and in due time he was shown to his room up stairs. The night g:ew darker outside, out-side, and the widow and her daughter were preparing to retire, when a heavy knock came Hpon the door and voices of men outside were heard demanding admittance in threatening tones. Terrified, Ter-rified, knowing the danger of possessing such a large sum of money, the widow concluded that the parties outside were confederates of the man to whom she had given shelter. Acting upon this srspicion, with trembling limbs she ran up stairs and locked the door of the suspicious stranger, llcturning down stairs she heard the blows of an ax upon the door, aud as she reached the loot of the stairs encountered the 1 man she supposed she had locked safely in his room. No longer decrepit, bent and feeble, the stranger stood upright up-right and assumed stalwart proportions. propor-tions. The gray hair and trembling voice had gone, and instead was a man of powerful and determined mien. Believing that a'l was lost, the widow exclaimed, "You know what I've got; I'll give it up !" The stranger, instead of acceding to the terrified woman's offer, replied, "Don't annoy me ; go into your room and I'll protect you." He held in his hands a rifle he had taken from the rack, and a-t the blows of the assailant's assail-ant's axe fell fast upon the door, pushed push-ed the widow into her room. The door gave way, and the first man that entered en-tered was shot by the stranger, who grasped the falling body and pulled it inside the door. He then pulled the door wide open and fired again, killing another of the assailants. 'I he party turned to fly, and another of their number received a shot from the valiant val-iant stranger. . The attacking party having fled, the door was secured and the affrighted inmates took occasion to examine the features of tho dead robber, who proved to be the son-in-law and neighbor of the widow. In the morning, another man was found leaning over the fence, with his arms thrown over the rails,dead. Mortally Mor-tally wounded, his failing strength had carried him to the fence, where, in supporting himself, he had died. The stranger gave himself up to a magistrate, magis-trate, who examined into the case, the stranger refusing to give either his name, place of residence, or the nature of his business. The magistrate ordered or-dered his discharge, and the mysterious mysteri-ous stranger departed. Who he was, why he assumed the disguise he did on that night, what wa3 the nature of his business or whither he went, is a mystery mys-tery not yet explained, and comment would be superfluous. Jjouisville Journal, Jour-nal, 4th. |