The Stourbridge Observer, Cradley Heath, Halesowen & District Chronicle.
Stourbridge, West Midlands, England, 1879-03-22 00:00:00

THE GREAT FLOODS IN HUNGARY,

The Daily News of Monday published the following from
their Special Correspondent :
SZEGEDIN, Saturday.

We have had another fearful night, but have re-
moved great part of the population. The cold is
intense for this season. It is believed that over two
thousand persons have been drowned. The houses are
still falling by hundreds. It is estimated that out of
seven thousand five thousand will be in complete ruin
before the waters retire. We have registered only six
inches fall in all. Our situation is very bad indeed.
I obtained a view over part of the town from the
top of one railway station With the exception of the
churches and a few well-built houses nothing could be
seen but ruins, with the cold wind whistling through
the wreck of what a short time ago were the happy
homes of the most thrifty and industrious people in
Hungary.
SZEGEDIN, Sunday.

The only portion of the town not under water is
about a hundred yards of a raised street on one side
of the Hotel Hunpria, where I am staying.
Telegraphic communication has been reopened, and
after floating on a board .and getting wet through, I
reached the office.

We have had another terrible night of suffering,
which was increased on account of the intense cold,
ten degrees of frost, with wind and snow. A rim of
ice round the buildings and ruins shows a fall in the
water of three inches; but unfortunately there is every
probability of the water remaining about the same for
a long time, as the rider, though terribly swollen, runs
but slowly.

The greatest praise is due to Captain Hainch, of the
English steamer Czongrad. He has not rested since
the waters broke in. He and his men, with one beat
from the steamer, have saved an immense number of
lives. The steamer even to the engine-room is packed
full with a living freight. I saw on. board mothers
hugging and weeping over their dead infants. Nothing
will persuade them to part with the bodies.

As I got off the steamer early this morning and
walked down two miles on the strip of river embank-
ment covered with thousands of half frozen people%
eating corn and seeds snatched from the waters, the
scene was one which no pen could describe. Out of
the thousands a few had managed to scrape together
enough half-dry wood to make fires' round which
peasant and citizen, oblivious of rank and position,
were huddled together, the furs of the one rubbing
against the sheepskins of the other.
This day is to me more painful almost than the
first, though then the excitement was greater and the
cries of women and children more heartrending. Now
the look of utter desolation and helplessness depicted
on every countenance, especially since the intense cild
of last night, is sad in the extreme.
Count Szapary and another Minister have arrived
from Pesth. Ten thousand loaves of bread have also
arrived, but unfortunately it is very difficult to dis-
tribute them on account of the scarcity of boats. The
telegraph authorities are workbag admirably, but have
not a single boat at their disposal, and even they are
very short of food. I am writing in their office, but
as the back of the house shows signs of craeking it
may be my last opportunity from here.

PF.STH, Sunday Night.

I have just returnei from Szegedin. I came back
by way of Temesvar and Arad, where many of the un-
fortunate inhabitants of what was once Szegedin are
quartered.

It is difficult to realise the destruction of an entire
town, and it is sad to see thousands of its inhabitants
wandering from village to village, seeking shelter and
protection from the icy cold winds, and the yet more
cruel waters which have robbed them of their all.
The country roads towards Temeavar were crowded
with refugees. Many were suffering terribly from the
cold, being but thinly clad. These poor people have
been living in the open air, with but scanty food, since
Tuesday night.
When it was known that a collection, under the
presidency of the Lord Mayor,. was being opened
in London, great thankfulness was expressed every-
where.

I travelled back with a Hungarian general who was
at ;.zegedin during the disaster and has lived there
some years. He is of opinion that at least four thou-
s.,nd lives are lost, and his opinion is backed by many
others. The water still being in the town, it is quite
impossible to arrive at the correct number of deaths;
but the number is very large, for, in consequence of a
high wind prevailing at first, only about one quarter
of the town could have heard the signal of distress.
The Emperor, accompanied by the Minister-Presi-
dent Herr Tisza, leavts to-night for the scene of the
disaster,

We have received sympathetic telegrams from every
part of Europe, and specially sympathetic ones from
England.

(From Tuesday's Daily Newts)
rEsru, Monday.
Great satisfaction is felt here at the article published in
the Daily News conceruing the floods. All the newspapers
in the country reproduce it.
The Pester Lloyd publishes a telegram from SzPgedin
this morning stating that the town and environs con-
tained 9,700 houses, and that yesterday, after an offi-
cial kispection in the four districts of the number
of houses now standing, there were found to be in the
first district 8, in the second 14, in the third 56, in
the fourth or tuner town 182 I here, including the railway
station, make 261 still standing in all, out of which 72 are in
a precarious pssition. In fact this once most important
centre of lintgary, containing two railway stations, fac-
tories, asylums, handsome schoolhouses and a few reaUy
line public buildings, is now a mere mass of ruins.

In the whole district now under water about 120,000
persons have been flooded out of home and home.

Parliament is now debating what ought to be done with
these refugees. Ifsndsome collections are coming in from all
directions. Mr. Whitehead, of the torpedo factory at Fiume,
has given 6,C00 florins.
PESTII, Monday ntght.

Punctually at seven o'clock this morning the Emperor
arrived at the scene of the disistet. He was accompanied
by the Mtnlater-President (Herr Ti•za), Baron Wenckheim,
and General Pulz. ills Majesty was received with great
cheering by the people assembled on the railway embank-
ment. The Mayor of Szegedin then made the following
speech to the Emperor : .

"We appear before your Imperial and Royal Majesty in
the greatest trouble and affliction, with the announcement
that Szegedin, once the most flourishing and populous
town of the , Alpoeld, is now in ruins. Your Majesty, we
have lost all our fields, our goods, our houses. All we
have is destroyed. Only one thing is left to us That is
love and loyalty to your Imperial Majesty, who is the first
one to come to our assistance." A few more followedaclosing
with 'God bless and keep your Majesty for the good of our
country."
The Emperor answered:
"The great sorrow in my heart brings me here to see with
my own eyes the fearful catastrophe which has befallen
Szegedin. My heart pains me greatly as I see this terrible
affliction, but let us hope that good times may yet come, and
that this town may yet be restored to its former power and
wealth."

His Majesty then stepped into a pontoon, and was rowed
through the ruins of the town. He stopped at some of the
larger buildings which still stand, and spoke to some of the
unfortunate Inmates, telling them to bear up well in their
misfortune, that help was coming, and everything possible
would be done for them. After the inspection the Emperor
returned direct, v%S. Pesth, to Vienna.
SzEGEDIN, March 17.

tip to the present 23,000 of the fugitive inhabitants have
been removed from the town. Hitherto there has been no
lack of provisions f)r thus who remain._

PESTII, March 17.

The work of affording relief to the sufferers from the In-
undation actively continues. The Theiss has fallen 30 cen-
timetres, and the waters of its tributaries are also falling.
The dams at Czongrad, which have suffered from the flood,
have been repaired, and the preservation of the embank-
ments at Szentes, on which 1,500 men are continually work-
ing, is also considered probable.
VIENNA, March 17.

The Neue Freie Preese to-day publishes intelligence from
Szegedin, stating that out of 10,000 buildings in that town
8200, have fallen in up to the present, including about 4,800
dwelling-houses, and that as far as at present ascertained
1,900 persons have perished.

Writing from Peath on the 18th, the correspondent
of The Times says
"The Emperor's visit to Szegedin has had the best effect on
the people, shaking them out of the torpor and despondency
lot° which they were sink,ing—a state which was but a
natural reaction alter the great excitement of the past days,
more particularly among a people rather prone to extremes,
capable of almo•lt superhuman exertion as long as there is
any hope to animate them, but relapsing into listless apathy
all around them seems hopeless. A large town sub-
merged ar.: only a ruined fragment still hanging above the
menacing wat-3:3 ',Tight well seem a hopeless situation.

. _
"Besides this salutarg eff-Ict on the spirits of the popula-
tion,t he visit will not fairot dizect practical results as well.
Short as was the time apant there, tile plus for draining off
the water were examined and discussed. The ff;st idea of
closing the gap in the upper dyke of Peracora has, indeed,
after repeated inspection been found for the moment im-
practicable, the ,chasua, being some 160 yards wide and 3011.
deep. Both civil and nallitayy erigineers, however, consider
it possible to heal the gap, only sorae .10 yards wide and not
so deep, in the railway embankment, where also the
rush of the waters is not so impetuous as at the
upper dike, at which the water flaws in immediately Irons
the river. The Minister-P:esident remains at Szegedin till
this evening, and yesterday evening a conference was held
on this subject, at which resolutions for carrying out this
temporary work were adopted and measures discussed for
riving the town in future from a similar catastrophe, it
being proposed to raise the low railway embankments on the
west side of the town and the dike leading from these em-
binkmentri to the river. This work, it is believed, can be pro-
ceeded with and accomplished as soon as the present gap
in the railway embankment is -stopped. The waters
when the breach is closed will be diverted into the
river, those covering the parts of the town below the level of
the river being pumped out. In the meantime, the first s'gns
of reviving liteand activity are becoming visible. In the
s m portion
thoet the
shopstownare aboveagain wbaetienrg, coopneentsetd, h
in gw ofil
en
threeo t
the
four streets,
betas Embankment and at New Bzegedin, on the opposite
bank of the river, a number of provision dealers have set up
,
their stand/ and improvised shops among the motley crowd,