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HISTORY OF FLOODS.
i lie Johnstown Calamity Compar
ed With Other Disasters—The
Previous Great Floods iu
Europe, Africa and
India,
It may not ire generally known,
hut. it is true, that the great flood
ot Johnstown in Pennsylvania, is
t;a. most disastrous so far as loss
of life is concerned, that lias occurr
ed in either Europe or Amerieafor
nearly three centuries.
There have been floods and lloods
since the deluge. It has been no
uncommon thing to look for re
ports of overtlows in the ''■’alley of
the Xile, With great loss ol life.
Nor do floods in India cause any
great surprise, for the frequency
with which the Ganges and other
rivers of India break their bounds,
is well known. The same is Iruo
of the rivers of China, and was once
true of those of Spain, in the older
times the breaking of d : kes in lid
land carried desolation into many
thousand families.
But since James I? sat on the
throne of England there has been
no such horror known as that cans
ed by the floods in southwestern
Pennsylvania, with the exception
of one in China, although even in
> nr own country, tho Mississippi,
nod many smaller streams have
played very serious pranks with
the people who happened to live
near their banks.
Probably tha most disastrous
European Hood oa record within
1 lie last 500 years was caused by
the failure of tlie dike in Holland
m 1500. A general inundation fol
lowed and 400,000 persons are said
to have been drowned. The great
est following this was Hie iloods in
Catalonia in 1617, when 50,000
persons lost their lives.
'i here have, however, been some
big Hoods during the present cen
jury, both in this and other coun
tries, that were damaging enough
in their way. It was but shortly
after the opening ot the century,
in December 1802, that the river
Li dev broke its bounds and did a
vast amount of damage in the city
of Dublin. It was even earlier in
the same year that Lorea, a city in
Spain, was destroyed by the burst
ing of reservoir, which inundated
t wenty leagues and drowned more
than one thousand persons,
In 1811 the Danube overflowed
at a point near Pesth and swept
away twenty-four villages and
their inhabitants, and these Iloods
were followed by others almost as
disastrous in the summer of ISI3,
when whole villages in Austria-
Hungary and Poland wero swept
away, In September ol ISI3 the
Danube rose and swept away a
corps of Turkish troops, 2,000
strong, who were encamped on an
iwand in the river near Wifiner.
During the same year 6,000 men
ai d women were drowned in the
tiiesia and 4,000 in Poland.
In 1816, in January, there were
e veral iloods at Strabane, Ireland,
t sed Ly the melting of snow on
jl:_ mountains. In the same year
tLj river Vistula overflowed and
destroyed 10,000 head of cattle anti
4,000 houses, beside numerous liv
es, During 1810 there was a flood
in the fen countrios in England,
when 51000 acres of land were in
undated. In IS3O there were great
floods iu Vv’ica, and in 1833 came
the great overt! >w in China, when
1.000 persons were drowned in Can
ton alone. Iu 18-10 Lyons, Mar
s dies and other towns in France
were submerged by a break in the
banks of the river Rhone. And so
the list goes. Hero is something.'
like the ehrenolical order in which
various floods occurred:
18-10. Overflow of tho river
Loire in the west and southwest of
France, Damage, $20,000,000.
The Loire rose 20 feet in one night.
1S4!). May—New Orleans flood
ed by the inundation of tho Miss
issippi.
1852. Floods at Ilolmfirlh in
%d>ruary. Overflow of the Rhine
and Rhone in September. City of
Hamburg flooded by tho Elbe.
1856. Floods m the south of
France,
1804, Lradfleld reservoir, Eng
land, Wrst March 11/ 250 persons
drowned.
1862. Forty thousand acres in
Holland submerged. Inundations
in France.
ISG9. January—Cork, Dublin
and other Irish cities were flooded
and much suffering was caused.
1666, September—Great inun
dations in the south of France.
November—Great floods in Lan
cashire, Yorkshire and Derbyshire,
England. Mills were carried away,
mines were flooded, railroads were
torn up and many lives were lost.
IS7O. Home was inundated and
many lives were lost. The Xdng
was obliged to relieve the sufferers
wiih money,
1872. In October there were
great floods in Nothern Italy and
thousands of persons at Mantua,
Ferrara and other toivns were left
homeless.
1874, The banks of the Tham
es river were swept and many lives
were lost. May 16, the reservoir
near Northampton, Mass., burst
much in the same manner as did
that above Johnstown, Mill Riv
er Valley was swept by Ihe flood,
144 persons lost their lives. July
2-iih a waterspout burst; at Eureka,
Nevada, and many lives were lost.
July 20th 220 persons were drown
ed in Pittsbfirg and Allegheny by
the rising ol the rivers in Western
Pennsylvania.
1575. By tho rising of the riv
er Garonne in France a portion of
Toulouse was destroyed in June
and 1,000 lives were lost. From
July until November of the same
year England and Wales suffered
from heavy floods. During the
same period some 20,000 persons
were left homeless in India by tho
same causes. 1876. March—Se
vere floods in France and Holland.
December—Floods in England.
1877. New Year’s Pay the water
overflowed the piers at Payer, Folke
stone and Eastings, England, causing
niueh damage.
IS7B. April—London suffered from
inundations for several days.
1879. A flood in Szegendin, Hun
gary, swept away the entire town. Ov
er one hundred persons v ere drowned
and more than six thousand dwellings
were destroyed. .Ju e—The riyere
Po snd Mncio overflowed, causing
conch damage in me north of Itah.
October 16 17—Floods in Alicante and
other Kpanish provinces destroyed
1,000 lives and swept away several
thousands of houses. December—Hun
gry was again visited by floods.
1880. The midland counties of Eo
gland suffered severely from overflows,
1882. In January there weie bea
■y\ Hoods ail through the Ohio and
Mississippi valleys, and there was
much loss of life and property.
1887. From three to four million
lives lost by inundation in China.
l.eirer,
[From the Journal’s Correspondent.]
Washington, Aug. 12, ISB9.—what
become of all the defeated politicians
of high rank? Where go all the men
who march out of tho political arena
to the gay music of triumph that in
stalls the sncieesora? Right here in
Washington scores of them remair.
Some of them fall in love with the wide
avenues, the cleanliness and the ele
gance of the city. O.hers find that
they have been so long away from the
places they ones called “home,” that
old associates and interests are severed.
You can hardly go a block on the av
enue cn any sunshiny day iu the sea
son without seeing a hall dozen people
intimately associated with the official
life of yesterday. They are for the
most part a prosperous, happy set. fond
of good dinners, inclined to doze over
the wine, and worried no more by
their constituents. The gout has now
more teirots for them than tho “dees
trict committee’' ever had.
Tbere is Gen. Belknap, whose wife
has recently returned from Paris to in
troduce her daughter into society. 11 a
erect, slow moving figure and long
white beard seem always on the street
in the evening. He smokes slowly
and solemnly, after the manner of his
old chief, then Pres. Grant. Toe
shadow of the big scandals that dis
tinguiehed bis administr.atftn as aca 1 •
inet officer seem to havo died out of
his mind, even as the recollection of
the insane extravagance of his wife
that forced the good-natured weak man
into the toils, has been softened. Gen
Belknap is now a lobbyist.
The iron gray hair and brown eyes
of Grant’s secretary of the treasury,
now “Lawyer’’ Boutwell, are familiar
to all elub men. lie looks upon the
time when ha did not call Washington
“fume” as being lost, and the thought
makes him sombre.
His successor in the cabinet, Wil
liaiu A. Richardson, is now Chief Jus
tice of the Court of Claims, and lives
in a magnificent house in the North
west. His residence is near that of ex-
Postmaster-Gen. Cress well, still an
other of Grant’s advisers, and now the
busy president of the Citizen’s Na
tional Bank.
Hon. George Bsncrott, waiting, Bd
aDd full of honors for the coming <d
the gi v en messenger, is a figure of tire
long past; he was secretary of ihe ua
vy under Pres. Polk, and had a bri!
liaut career in the diplomatic service,
although bis political reputation was
loDg since swallowed up in his fame
as a historian. He abandoned horse
back ri-ling last season and even sold
his saddle horses* and is now seldom
seen beyond the flower beds of his
own home,
Ex-Secretary McCulloch has a con
stitution ot iron and is as hale and
hearty as when ha was secretary ot ihe
treasury under i’res. Lincoln, au office
that he has tw.ee had tho itouor of
holding.
New’Millinery Store*
James T. Comer,
MAYSVILLE, GEOrGIA
Has Employed A First Class
uV* V Qv \A/vVw\rV*
With a New Stock of Hats from New York and Baltimore of the latest
styles, from the finest to the cheapest. Also fine Dress Goods, Ribbons ami
Laces, Kid Gloves, Embroideries, Corsets of all kinds. In fact a Complete
stock of fancy notions. Shoes, Mats and Clothing. Tobacco, Staple Grocer
ies, and Harness and Leather. All Kinds of
Drugs and Patent Medicines,
COMER’S GUARANTEE CHICKEN CHOLERA CURE.
Standard and Pacific Kerocene, Machine and Castor Oils, by the bottle or
gallon. Agent for Athens Factory goods, and many more. A D. Boone’s
Georgia Test and Acid Work’s Pure Bone, Fermau’s Soluble Bone and Kein
ical Guario. The best line of guanos in the united states, prie sas cheap as
the cheapest. Breeder of fifteen varieties ot fancy Ducks, Chickens and Geese.
Eggs lor 6ale. 44.
Gunnels, Power & Cos.,
—.HARMONY - GROVE,— * — v
DEALERS IN f
Plantation Supplies.
*
x 'YJGQ^
v 6
<maA Qwgmo*
•
We Keep in stock a fall supply of good and fresh goods. We can not be
surpassed in Quality and Dnranility. We buy at lowest market figures; we
defy competition in prices. We want only a living profit on onr sales, Me
do not claim to be Yanderbilts, nor do we wish to accumulate their fortunes.
We are receivins daily, a full snpplv of our Customers every day wants.
Country Produce Taken in Exchange at Highest Market Prices.
Hardman & 0 omp’ny,
t
I-larMONy GrOVE
DEALERS IN
HardwarE & Cutl’rY.
Oor Lino of Stoves, Tinware, Agricultural Implements, Etc., can ... .
round in better Quality aDd Durability, Elsewhere. We also keep ago ii
ot guns for the fall trade. Cali and examine our stock and prices, i D