AMERICA.

Southland Times, Issue 1198, 21 January 1870, Page 3

AMERICA.

There have been destructive fires and earthquakes at various places in America. A private cable despatch says that on the 27fch of October a severe earthquake shook Manilla. All the houses were shaken; some of the city walls fell. There were many accidents, but no Europeans are reported killed. The volcano of Perce, in the interior of Colombia, has had a violent eruption, and two or three villages are reported destroyed, with all the inhabitants. Soon after the eruption, the river Congo, at the town of Poplan, fifteen miles from the volcano, rose quite high, and quantities of lava floated thickly by, strewn wifch the dead bodies of the people. The next day the river was quite dry." A slight shock of earthquake occurred at Quito, Ecuador, on the 18th September, but did no damage. The earthquake reported as having been fejfc in Boston on the morning of Oct. 22, was also felt throughout New England and parts of New Brunswick. " The motion was a vibration like the jarring of a heavy team in its progress over a rough -pavement ;" and the report states that, though buildings were a good deal shaken, " nobody was hurt, and not even a glass broken." A great fire occurred at Pulaski, Tennessee, on Nov. 5 ; loss, 20,000 dols. A fire destroyed the planing mill of Ogden and Carpenter, East Twenty-third street, New York, with its contents ; loss 50,000 dols. The offices and stables adjoining and limestone yard were also destroyed ; loss, 310,000. A fire broke out in the Varieties Theatre, Kilena, on Nov. 7. The fire spread across the street, consuming seven dwellings. The total loss is 35,000 dols. A destructive fire occurred in the city of Greenville, Alabama, on Nov. 2, consuming seventeen business houses. The total loss is over 150,000 dols. The Lake House and Noye's block at Burlington, Vermont, were totally destroyed by fire. One man was killed, and nine injured by falling walls. The total loss was 75,000 dols. The dwelling of Nathan Dowry, in Harwich, Massachusetts, was burned on Nov. 10. His only children, two little girls of six and four years, perished. The parents were visiting a neighbor. A fire at Harrisburg, on Nov. 6, on Paxton street near the river bank, resulted in the total destruction of five houses and their contents. Loss, 8000 to 10,000 dols. The Rochester theatre caught fire in the greenroom and burned to the gound on Nov. 6. The total loss is about 50,000 dols. Some old buildings in Erie, Pennsylvania, used for the storage of patterns, were burned by an incendiary at two o'clock j on the morning of October 31. Loss, j 100,000 dols, A disastrous fire occurred i at Napoleon, Ohio, on Nov. 1, consuming an entire square. The losses aggregate ' 35,350 dols. A stable and the box manufactory of E. Delano, of Duxbury, wich four horses and a quantity of hay and grain, were consumed on Nov. 5. Loss, 40,000 dols. Fire was discovered on Nov. 6, midnight, by a watchmanat Pratt's Hotel, Eocklin. The flames enveloped the house, cutting off all means of escape through the maiu entrance. One man was burned to death, and another, in jumping from a window, broke both legs, and another almost disembellowed himself in seeking the same mode of escape. The inmates are supposed to have lost, on an average, 200 duls each. Alderman Russell's planing mill at Chicago, was completely destroyed by fire on Nov. 8. Total loss, "20,000 dols." Wilcox and Gibb's sewing machine manufactory, at Taunton, Massachusetts, Potter's machine shop, and Cusman and Coggshall's tack factory were totally destroyed by fire on Nov. 10. Lass, 250,000 dols. At the Jewish Convention in Philadelphia, on Nov. 11, the Eev. Dr Hirsch pronounced a eulogy on the late George Peabody. A resolution was passed that the command to marry the widow of a deceased brother and of taking off the shoe has lost for us all understanding, validity, and binding force. Wifch reference to circumcision, fche following resolution was adopted: The male child of a Jewish mother is, by its birth, no less than the female, in accordance with a principle never dis-

puted in Judaism, a member of the Jewish community. Eepolu tions were offered to dispen c with the ceremony of b circumcision to proselytes to Judaism. A special messenger to General Sully, Indian Superintendent, reports that the deaths among the Grosventre Indians, hy small-pox, number 600, or half the entire '> tribe. They are committing suicide by i blowing out their brains with revolvers. * The whites have taken the disease in the i form of light varioloid, but no fatal I cases. The dead Indians strew the road > from the Forks to Mill River. They t denand the Indian agents to act as * mediators with the Great Spirit and stop - the disease. » A Paris special telegram of Nov. 6 ' states that a concession for the proposed cable between Belgium and the United . States was signed yesterday, in Paris, by l the Belgium Minister, J. S. Bartlett. Tbe cable is to be laid from Ostend to some ' point between Maine and Georgia, by an American company. A disastrous inundation occurred in 1 the vicinity of Merida on Nov. 8. The 1 town of Mullunipue was completely destroyed, the cemetery washed away 1 and many corpses and skeletons (?) were found floating on the water. The Legislature of Panama have '• passed resolutions unanimously in favour of au Isthmus Canal. The burning of the suzar crop in Cuba, as proposed by the insurgent leader, Cespedes, in order to keep the Spaniards from using* it, will cost the United States, according to Cuban estimates, fifty to sixty million dollars in Customs revenue. It has been finally decided that the "United States invite the South American States, through our accredited Ministers, to send representatives to a conference in Washington. Jan. 15.