CHAPTER LIII
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EARTHQUAKE THEORIES AND WALL STREET AFFAIRS.
THE SHOCK OF EVERY CALAMITY FELT IN WALL STREET.—EARTHQUAKES THE ONLY DISASTERS WHICH SEEM TO DEFY THE POWER OF PRECAUTION.—BECOMING A SUBJECT OF SERIOUS THOUGHT FOR WALL STREET MEN AND BUSINESS MEN.—THE VOLCANO THEORY OF EARTHQUAKES.—OTHER CAUSES AT WORK PRODUCING THESE TERRIFIC UPHEAVALS.—WHY CHARLESTON WAS MORE SEVERELY SHAKEN UP THAN NEW YORK.—WHY THE SOUTHERN EARTHQUAKE DID NOT STRIKE WALL STREET WITH GREAT FORCE.—EARTHQUAKES LIKELY TO BECOME THE GREAT DISASTERS OF THE FUTURE.
Wall Street is the financial centre of this country as much so as London is recognized to be the financial centre of the world at the present time. Hence it is really the heart of the nation, through which its financial blood flows to invigorate and impart new life to every section of the land. Hence, also, every section and city have an influence on Wall Street. When the Chicago fire occurred it immediately created a panic. When a calamity occurs at any part of the country the shock is first felt in Wall Street. When a large failure happens, such as that of a bank or important railway, in any other locality, the influence is at once imparted to Wall Street. This is owing to the fact that Wall Street is the recognized and only market for securities of every description. All sections are dependent upon it, because it controls the money market. It is the great connecting link of the financial transactions of the whole country. A probable disaster through fire, like that which occurred at Chicago, is now no longer a terror to the Street or to the country, as was the case for a long time after that terrible calamity, for the reason that methods have been adopted for the purpose of restricting the conflagration and confining it within narrow limits. Fires which occur now are soon extinguished, and it is unlikely that they can ever play such havoc as they have done in the past. The possibility, with our enlarged experience, of taking precaution against those various calamities has robbed fires of most of their former terrors. Science and machinery have furnished us with the means of grappling with them.
But the one great, and now very alarming exception, which seems to defy the power of science and every human precaution, is an earthquake. This remarkable phenomenon has awakened great interest and inspired terror in the minds of the people at the present time, because the exhibition of its destructive powers is fresh in our memories on account of its terrific visitation at Charleston. Hence, many people are in great fear that some other section of the country may be stricken at any moment with a similar overwhelming disaster. It is the insidious and uncertain nature of the calamity that strikes the mind with awe. There is no possibility of anticipating it or making the least provision to avoid its dreadful consequences. The Charleston earthquake wiped out over ten millions of property. It came, like a thief in the night, and before morning the greater portion of the city was a mass of ruins. When we reflect on the extent of the destruction of property, it is marvellous how few people were killed—only about one hundred, and only two or three hundred were wounded. One of the greatest wonders why this calamity should have occurred in Charleston is, that part of the city has stood for nearly two centuries, and the recent earthquake has been the first it has experienced. Another curious circumstance is, that the disaster should have occurred on so large a scale there, as the locality is so far removed from the region of any volcano.
This clearly demonstrates that the old “volcano” theory of earthquakes is thoroughly exploded, and we must seek for causes and the explanations in other quarters. Although Wall Street has not been governed by any known law of earthquakes, except as regards the fluctuations of the properties in a bear market dealt in at the Exchange, yet a great number of Wall Street habitues, as well as other business men, are beginning to think seriously on the subject of earthquakes, and are attempting to penetrate their causes. Reflecting upon the upheaval—or rather the settling down of Charleston—I have come to the conclusion that similar disasters may be looked for in other localities, hitherto not subject to them, and considered by scientists absolutely free from these phenomena, at least on so large a scale. These peculiar disturbances that now make life so precarious on this planet, I attribute to the innumerable and so largely increasing excavations going on in various parts of the country, in the different mining operations, which displace the underpinning of the surface and cause it to sink beneath the weight which it carries. Of all the great mining industries which conspire to produce earthquakes, I think that of oil plays the most important part, and is the most treacherous in its operations beneath the surface of the earth. The pumping of oil from the bowels of the earth has been going on for thirty years in this country in several districts. I believe it is not too large an estimate to state that in that time an enormous lake of oil has been removed, that would probably fill the basin of Lake Erie or Ontario. That fluid made its way, probably, some of it from long distances in subterraneous rivers before reaching the place where the nature of the soil permitted it to gush through a shaft to the surface, as it does in such abundance in the oil regions of Pennsylvania. Some of those undercurrents may have come from other States, percolating through and disintegrating the soil in their passage for hundreds of miles, until they found an outlet, on the principle that all fluids have a tendency to find their level. There may be a great underground reservoir of this oil, which has taken many years to penetrate through the earth owing to the tendency stated, cleaving, in its subterraneous journey, fissures through ranges of mountains, and thus loosening the earth and taking away the support from the surface wherever it has penetrated. The fluid, percolating through various strata of clay and rock, has displaced these in its course. Owing to this displacement there must, of necessity, be a settling down of the land in the various regions through which the oil has passed, which will, of course, differ in degree owing to the density of the rock or clay. If the earth should be of a pulpy, soft nature the settling will be greater, and when it happens to be the foundation of a town or city the catastrophe will also be greater in inverse proportion to the degree of consistency of the earth. It is presumable, therefore, that some of the streets beneath the foundation of Charleston is of this pulpy, yielding character, and hence great was the fall of that city.
When New York was visited by the earthquake in 1884, and at various other times, there was only a moderate shaking up, comparatively speaking. Why? Because its substructure is solid stone to an immense depth, even lower than the depths of the ocean. Of these subterraneous rivers of which I have spoken we have many examples besides that of oil, and also proofs that they traverse great distances, as, for instance, in the case of the Saratoga Springs. It is clearly demonstrated that in the case of these and other springs the waters must come from various sources, and pass through many varieties of minerals before they arrive at their destination, and thus receive the combination of elements which impart to them their medicinal qualities. Then there are numerous instances of this remarkable power of water in the case of these monstrous land slides in mountainous regions, such as the Alps. In the act of attempting to find its level, too, water sometimes exerts its influence, in breaking up rocks, equal in its manifestation to a powerful explosive. Thus we see the great influences that are at work everywhere capable of producing earthquakes without the necessity of resorting to the volcanic theory and without the aid of fire.
In further illustration of this theory of earthquakes, let us suppose that one of these immense oil lakes which must exist in the bowels of the earth should be situated beneath a mountain, where it has been undisturbed for ages, but through some recent disturbing cause—most likely that of excavating, to which I have referred—it begins to find an outlet through various fissures. When once started, this great mass of fluid matter begins to go with a rush, forcing innumerable outlets, until the internal lake is in a measure exhausted. This creates an immense vacuum, which deprives the mountain of a large portion of its support; hence there is a settling down of several inches or several feet, according to the nature and the solidity of the support. It is this process of settling down and the struggle of the large masses of fluid to force their way out, that create the rumbling noise resembling that of distant thunder, and which also cause the tremulous and quivering motion felt at the surface of the earth, and still more distinctly in the houses, and most distinctly of all in the upper stories thereof. These effects may be produced at a great distance from the original cause of action, varying, of course, in their intensity according to that distance. Several of these effects have been distinctly experienced in Charleston since the first great catastrophe, but showing that the cause is weaker and further removed from the scene of the disaster than it was during the first fearful shock.
The Charleston earthquake did not strike Wall Street with very great force. The very fact of its weak effect upon the great financial centre of gravity created about as much surprise in the Street as the frightful shock itself did in a very different and opposite manner upon the people of Charleston. The reason that the great catastrophe which overwhelmed Charleston had so little effect on Wall Street was chiefly owing to the fact that comparatively little loss fell upon the corporations or the people connected with Wall Street interests. The loss of ten millions fell mainly upon the people of the doomed city alone. Only a small portion fell upon people located elsewhere either in the North or the South. Had such a disaster happened in any of the large cities North, East or West, owing to their intertwining connections with Wall Street, a panic would have been the result not unlike the one which followed the Chicago fire.
Earthquakes are likely to become the great disasters of the future most to be dreaded. Our population now comprises sixty millions, which, at the present rate of increase, will soon reach one hundred millions. Among these is a large proportion of go-ahead, driving men, who are constantly diving into the bowels of the earth to dig up the vast treasures which are there concealed. Through this laudable enterprise the underpinning of the surface of our globe is being constantly disturbed; and though it is far from a consoling reflection, the time may come, and may not be far distant, when such calamities as that of Charleston may be as common as railroad accidents are now.
[Illustration:
_August Belmont_ ]
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