The Dorset County Express and Agricultural Gazette.
Dorchester, Dorset, England, 1879-03-18 00:00:00

A TOWN DROWNID.

fialledin., in Hangars, has not escaped tea long
thresonsed fate. The river wag five feet above the
original level of the anbankineat and was on 4
kept oat by the efforts of the Inhabitants, aided 117
Ireope day and sight Military law wee
aini7.l,rk& every one compelled to help. Another
ern sad three small villages were under water, with the
cattle and folds clinging to whatever hillock or heves
roof remained available, and at the railway embenkroest
thousands of heads IMO piling up earth to keep out the
waters. Even WOOND and ehildrsa were employed at
this work The sight of the little oboe bringing up earth
In confute was qiktorishing.
On Tuesday the poitirm remalwed the lame as
regarded the eaf yof the town. 71bousands worked oa
the embankment all lest rinht by tosehlight, and slight
hopes were entertained. Th• inkabitanta worked end
behaved in • manner beyoad all pram An expedition
zittame River Thnsew on
teboard •
wa crumbling down,
met verY
• undara".44r, and nahlag but water as far aa the
eye reached. On on. portion of aa embankment were
over fifteen hundred pants le great suffering. The
enamor broeght more than three hundred back.
At two o'clock on Wednesday macslag, the water broke
through the dam, and rmlted in broaf streams toward.
toe town.

Carried away a whoa a/ the railway dation.
with the embankment sod Um stock. and large numbers
of houses Iran swept away with their Inmates
It is estimated that upwards of 80.000 perms, are
rendered bouselsea whilst immense ambers hare been
drowned.

Un the banks of Use Med* towns and Tillages are under
water, and terrible sulferinp and enilsty trove&
The Thelma, anciently known as lb. Wens, rims in
the Ustpethiss bloenteMs, and drains the eastern port of
Hungary and most of Truwivania. The length Is (1115
miles, and for the greater portia. of its courts tbe stream
Is broad end deep, but tortuous and Inbesopened with
sandbanks. It is navigable for vessels°, a tolerably *Me
tonnage. The Mar* by far the most important river
at Transylvania, emptier itself into the Theirs near
The triangular space at the continence
Fort two rivers is an immense alluvial plain. At
this spot and in its vicinity the fearful calamity
occurred. Hoping against hope the people clung to
their houses to the last, In the vain expectation that the
' swollen waters would subside. The inhabitants of
Plasgedin worked with swill day and night, endeavouring
to prop up and streo4tb.n the dykes to resist the incises-
fag pressure of the Immense volume el liquid ; but the
waters rose, until bursting their ioniser in the
imeara
dawa, they tore away the embankment, swept
nvetrZirnPeallig, crushing through foundations, and oarry-
inleorta, settle, door-poste, timber,sain furniture.
et-a—
tin le • large town in the Wig of • dreary deed
level, t the soil around is %raft the last omens It
was estimated to have over DUN Mnabliento The
streets are wide, and primitivebv ;paved with the trunks el
trivia It is divided into two towns, the spoor on •
height, the lower on the east beak of the , Is
by • bridge of boats. There are Mes on mer'
MPl.rTilt're,d which ply twice a weak. Corn, tallow , and
rapeseed were exported from the district, and the
manufactures comprised woollens, linens, mop, ketber,
and tobaixo. . .

—Them is always a lurking dread of the overflow of the
Theis*, and in recent times embankments have been raised
to protect the marshy but productive margin from
eecreachments. firmii a disastrous inundation has not
occurred In Hungary within tb• memory of man. To
Sad • parallel in our own times to the Mirrors emend at
Sasgedla we have to go to the records of the intadetions
at Toulouse in 1575, when • Mtge part of the city was
destroyed by the rising of the Garonne, an I upwards of
• thousand time were lost.
No hope now remains that any large portion of the
town of Basgedin will be yreserved, for the flood still
continues and the houses are constricted of poor
materials. Although peat efforts have been made to
rescue those who were driven from their Meow families
still roman on the reefs of banana and In the trees. The
town is • heap of reins, a few Meng only excepied.
Most of the Inhabitants have been removed, but awe
boats and pounces. are badly wanted. Some pima
died from cold. SOON incendiaries have been
who had set ere to four houses. About twee
houses are in ruins. The orphanage, crammed mitk
ehildren, sad the Minitel, with dm hundred paths* are
V•htil ehaeagered. 114 gat works were destroyed and
the horrienne which followed the flood aggravated the
&Ann as by extinguishing the torches, it left the piece
In almost toted de:knew The scenes of misery and
honor were indencribable.
From all parts trains came to rearm as messy as possible.
Sir thousand were still hopelenly besnmed in by the
waters under tottering roofs. The safety of the centre of
the city in almost despaired of as the means for rescue
are utterly inadequate The military have done deeds of
unrivalled bravery. One soldier saved fortyane women
and thirty-two children. Lieutenant Zubovic, who is
known in London sporting efrclee. saved ninety-three
women and sitn-asven mem_
The extent of the inundation In the district is nearly
one thousand English square mike of the most (arta*
land imaginable
The latest despatches my that houses are still collapsing*,
every street I. • torrent In the river are the corpses of
many children, carried about by the current Among the
rescued very few families are complete. Most of the
refugees are penniless at New ignmedM, on the other side
of the river, these haring crossed the pontoon bridge In
good time
Angerlin has ceased to exist: the town of Dorosnsa is
total!y destroyed, the towns of Ceengrad and Semites are
also thristened with destruction.
In an autograph letter addressed by the Emperor of
Austria to the President of the Hungarian Council of
Minister,, hi. Manny nye that in view of the terrible
at Beseedin. he has abandoned his intention
of proceeding to Penis to receive the congratulations of
the Inhabitants on the occasion of the approaching cele-
bration of his silver wedding anniversary. His Majssty
at the same time etymons' his desire that the gam which
would have been expanded on the proposed festivities
should be distributed among the sufferers from the
Inundation. In addition to the contribution which he
has already made, the Emperor events a further ones of
10,000 ening, in aid of the distressed indabitanta of
Bustedin.
Herr Karim', the official who was delegated 13 the
unicipaltr; o÷ th Pesth to proceed to e scene the
disaster at in, reports that he was conveyed in a
boat through snionerged streets, and found three-
fourths of the buildings in ruins. Hs predicts that if
the water continues in its present state for a few days
longer tamely two hundred houses will remain standing.
The Burgomaster, Herr Pally, estimates the number of
the dead at several thousand, and attributes the diasoter
mainly to the indolence of the inhabitants and the
advised measure of the Government representatives, who,
thinking only of the pr.sejvation of the dams, made no
provision fora poesibiecaiaotroph., Preening only • few
ships, no raft., and no other means of rescue