The Stourbridge Observer, Cradley Heath, Halesowen & District Chronicle.
Stourbridge, West Midlands, England, 1879-10-25 00:00:00

SATURDAY, OCT. 25, 1879:

THE FLOODS IN SPAIN.

aA. further details of the inundationm in Murcia—
„'±leaster unparalleled in,Spain..avven by the floods of
V°l.---are given !Sy telegraph tcs 'Vie" Teslwiites
a aril correspondent of The Times). It appears that
_storm of hail and rain commenced on the evening of
Irle 14th in the provinces of Malaga, Almeria,
zar,,al3,4a, and Seville' and was especially violent at
a 71 eta and Alicante, in the Segura Valley, where
`:rofeht of some months had greatly injured
Jriculture and increased emigration to Algeria.
¶1 and Segura and lYiundo basin, flanked by hills
NISg, and mills, many of them below the low
/fountains, is a plain covered with palms,
le,alower
of the beds of the rivers and gulleys dry at this
Ceer;• Between midnight and 2 am., after a seven
8 etl,ra storm, the Segura and Mundo brought down
tte a volume of water that the plain was covered,
all'aelirrent sweeping away dykes, sluices, mills, farms,
/111age°. Nonduermas, Fra Alta, Torre Aguerra,
cantarilla, and Larya, with their hundreds of houses,
gere carried away, and the plain for a stretch of 30
ofarce.was converted into a lake, to the destruction
the
~ 0 Uailes of telegraph, several roads and bridges, and
wpral.lwaY. The towns of Murcia, Orihuela, and Lor.ca
„-.`a, invaded at night by the water, which extun-
'Z;deued the gas, overwhelmed churches and houses, and
to"t9
perfect panic. The authorities of Murcia by
wrught rescued the inhabitants of three villages,
There the bursting of a dike destroyed 200 houses.
di e hospital was flooded, the patients being with
ten.ifellitY rescued. Next day the authorities provided
13r,a,Perary accommodation in the public buildings and
1)115 palace, while boats collected persons who had
to the roofs or upper stories. One hundred and
io'rt, corpses have been discovered at Murcia. For
vititP'eight hours it was impossible to succour the
agea and farms, where the losses are incalculable,
tetica
tthe waters are carrying down cattle, crops, and
otiraphdtite• Many acts of heroism are cited, especially
ate-ue part of the gendarmerie and clergy. Orihuela
r
0,4 Lorca were surprised the same night, and most of
B houses were carried away, the panic causing terrible
ater,nek At Murcia the number of victims exceed 200,
vrihuela 50 and at Lorca 60. At Malaga the
wathedral and s'everal churches were flooded, the gas
tha:„„„etiuguished and the alarm was very great. In
'"uages of Almeria and Malaga there have been
~tuaaerona victims, and the storm reached the localities
:',(_3lte the coast, causing great damage to the small
t'ourtn sof Alicante. The total damage is estimated at
f.. 3,500 houses and 120 mills being de-
l% More than 500 lives have been lost. Clothes
abnflm'erleY are being sent from Madrid to the local
o,7orities who have to board and lodge thousands of
The King has subscribed 50,0001., the
8„--Lceas of Asturias 5,000 piastres, The Bank of
"44 haB already collected 60,000 f.

Some

412: Correspondent of th,t Daily News, writing from
n id on Sunday night, says .
t ‘jfacial telegrams say that 500 bodies have been
aelle42vsred among the ruins in the suburbs of Murcia,
hb" lo the parts where the water rose eight metres
fl''c'e the ordinary level.
c„i9le greatest havoc was caused by the water over the
ivrated fields and villages in the plains, some of
.like Nonduermas, have entirely disappeared.
str._,lnaPortant mills and factories have been de-
of ts-i'm Dear Murcia and Horisuela. The lower part
towns was flooded. 250 houses in Murcia, 400
41orisuela, and 150 in Lorca have been wrecked.
tiv„eillurcher of bodies interred in these towns respec-
'lB 230, 67, and 5L The civil guards find it
to .1e to recover the bodies in the villages owing
mud and the intolerable stench.
414 'Aue,tiadrid papers are full of details of the terrible
601",, gsof the inhabitants of the province of Marcia,
e gallant attempts to save lives.
'uo Government, by a circular in the Gazette anda
chol decree, has made an earnest appeal to
i public
iktltY, and munificent donations are coming n from
officials and the nobility. The King and the
s.e ters head the list. The King starts on Monday
th0111tg„ tng by special train for Murcia, en route for Car-
With several generals and Ministers.
cet;clal accounts say that the provinces of Alba-
km Almeria, and Malaga have suffered lees than

t.p. Iteuter's telegram under date Oct. 19, says :
It tyther inundations are reported from Cuevas, Al.
Malaga, and Alicante, causing the loss of
kveral lives and much damage to property. In the
de:tl,.aga and Alicante districts 2,000.
%houses have been
'Yed by the inundations. Railway communict.-
nael.with Murcia has been restored. At a public
held here to-day under the presidency of the
Patriarch of the Indies, resolutions were
fe,:v`ed for opening a subscription in aid of the suf-
-11;84 from the floods. The number of persons who
leave ye, rished in the inundations is believed to be list
eatlnati 500, and the damage done to property is
.""4ted at above 30,000,000 francs."

MADRID, Oct. 19, Evening.
detk.telegram from Murcia of this evening giving
be 448 of the floods state that 570 bodies have already
emean found, and it is believed tbat more than a thou-
Vie, People have perished. The inhabitants of lie 3
the-ge of Nonduermas have all b?on drowned, with
ref exception of the cure, who escaped by taking
uge in the belfry of the church. No particulars
been received of the floods in the province of
owing to telegraphic communication being
6:I•FIIPted. The Epoca of to-day states that the sea
4_3" !ilvaded the port of Aquilas (Murcia), on the
'4lterranean. Several buildings were destroyed.
The

Muria inundations have excited a feeling of
orerßal sympathy in Paris (tsar the Correspondent
an,-,211e Tinto). The Spanish mbasqy has warmly
eili'ealed to public liberality for the relief of the
aedleras numerous committees are aboutto be formed,
tit Loo newspapers are laudably eager to give publi-
4to these organizations. It is announced that King
his°liso has declared that in view of such a calamity
on-ttarriage shall not become an occasion of expense
the, 4.8 Part of individuals or public bodies, and that
h." e‘l'ongest proof of attachment that can be shiwn
dlixi will be to devote to the sufferers the mime
DeaB,llned to marriage fetes. Such a resolution on the
h" of the young King is quite consistent with his
aracter.

b Alfonso made a tour of inspection on horse
Tuesday morning through the town of Murcia
vOtthe surrounding district. The King, after having
h'°l4ed the plain of Murcia and distributed relief
lica"rig the sufferers from the inundations, returned to
caPital.

TI:11-2 -ACCIDENT ON THE MICHIGAN
CENTRAL RAILROAD.
le/Thee details of the shocking catastrophe on the
genee'll?an Central Railroad have been received by the
cee—e"tican papers. The accident occurred at about
clock on the morning of the 10th, close to
e"enThe Pacific express train, bound
%per. Junction. e
,00, which left Detroit 40 minutes late, came into
gen 91°11 with a switch engine on the main track, tele-
ee—Le'ng the baggage and express cars and piling the
otii'lling coaches, 11 in number, on the top of each
of ell The first coach was filled with emigrants, most
oe wucnn were killed or seriously Injured. Many
flarPante of the other coaches were also killed or
lire&
The
dark?, 80ene after the collision was terrible, and the
isitne7P'B of the night increased the terrors of the
bleed".l". Among the debris lay a heap of bzuised,
Ing, and dying human beings, whose moans and
dein of distress filled the air. Mutilated bodies of the
coe-pl,ennid be seen among the ruins of the wrecked
the,-,„"e8; Under the shapeless mass which was once
rie -ngule of the express were the bodies of the engi-
t)
and fireman, which were extricated as ;Cl)4Bible. 130011 as
Death to them and many other victims
izeaet have been instantaneous. The engineer and fire-
le„4 of the switch engine, seeing their peril in time,
en"Ded from their places and escaped injury. It Is
1.415°1ed there were about twenty or twenty-five pas-
thege" killed, and from twenty to thirty wounded,
tuajority of them being emigrants and second class
clangers. Physicians were at once summoned from
t7B", and a special train carrying physicians left
tat?, reit at five a.m. A force of the employes of the
eitroad company, together with a large number of the
cae„zeeneB of Jackson, immediately set to work to extri-
-1)(41:ua bodies from the wreck. Up to noon eighteen
tak '4l nad been taken from the wreck, ten of which,
froan the emigrant car, had not been identified.
111,714 trying and touching scenes occurred, and
he„,Y, acts of heroism were recorded. William
e-,;ecule. of Unverness, Canada, was in the first
eetiti-m3 on the second seat from the front of the
t. 'There were about a dozen women in the
reZ". and he helped them to get out before he
Weeized the extent of the smash-up. Mrs. R. J.
rell of Ganges, Allegan County, with her son,
11'n ie thirteen years old, was in the second coach.
'eree,,,_was on her way home from the State of New
where she had been visiting for several weeks.
was", occupied seats on the side of the coach that
fro' 8° badly smashed, the boy lying asleep on the seat
Rk of his mother. When she heard the crash and
eh'? ,tne aide of the car come crushing in towards her,
boy Involuntarily leaned over towards her sleeping
ee'. and in this position she was held until
mericated. Her shonlders and back were con-
bruised, but the injuries are not of a serious
tieellte. The saddest case which came under observe-
eye- was that of Willie Rice, a fair-hailed and bright-
Cltttle boy, four years of age, whose father and
"ber and sister were all killed. He was found
el7Pecl in his dead mother's arm, and so fastened in
Ide'viereck that it took three hours to extricate him.
badl eft leg was broken, and his left arm and his chin
we r nut. His family lived in Philadelphia, and
Q.:O on their way to some point in the West. Mrs,
leeerge A, Jones, of Chalado, Pa,, was on her way to
!,88ka to join her husband. She had with her her
gierY, consisting of five children. Of these a little
ee-04,1,18 months old, was killed instantly, and the
eth""er never saw it after the accident. One of the
feetteer children sustained a slight contusion on the
We. 1!.1r, S. M. Sparklin, of Philadelphia, thought his
4The and children, aged four and six years, were
g the dead, but their bodies had not been found.
eh,'" track where the accident occurred passes
4411 a somewhat deep cut, and the road was of
cei- Be. completely blockaded. The morning eastward
kreels, was obliged to cross over the Lake Shore and
videuie'Van Southern Railroad, and reached Detroit,
--1-" roe, many hours late. One of the most
tet_ractelous facts in connexion with the accident was
ent none in the sleeping cars were in the leapt injured
walle it seems impossible that such a collision could
Zreactunr. without resulting in general ruin to the entire
The
out, accident was caused by the switchman having
Jur:g,e, of making up the freight train at Jackson
-•e"°11, who occupied the main track with twitch
VMe and caboose, understanding that the Pacific
aArese was considerably behind time. The express,
ewPver, had made up nearly all the lost time, The
hfficlals of the railroad held ani nquiry on the spot on
the ~eyening after the occurrence, and it appeared that
eato."'en engaged in making up a freight train at the
end of the yard went to the telegraph office at the
Vnetion and got information that the Pacific express
tz,tendearly fifty minutes late, The yard master re
to the engineer of the switch engine that they
ee'lf.,_°nY-five minutes of the Pacific's time in which
UP the freight train, and it was on this work
I'lere engaged when tits collision occurred.

', •

The SANITARY CONGRESS at CROYDON.

"SALIJILAND, AN IDEAL OF A HEALTHY
PEOPLE."
• The annual Congress of the Sanitary Institute was opened
op Tuesday at Croydon, and in illustration of the practical
objects of the Congress, an exhibition of engineering ap-
pliances and of articles serving in the advancement of
domestic knowledge and economy, had been brought to-
gether, with much care and commensurate success. The
meeting was numerously attended by gentlemen interested
in the progress of sanitary reform.
Dr. A. Carpenter, on behalf of the inhabitants of Croydon,
gave the Institute a cordial welcome to Croydon, and dwelt
upon the important task it had undertaken in the work of
preventive medicine. He expressed the hope that, sooner
or later, the Institute would obtain a charter, to give the
stamp of authority for its teachings to sanitary officers; but
he considered that even now local health authorities should
not appoint sanitary officers—surveyors and inspectors—who
had not obtAned the certificate of the institute showing
that they were fully competent to discharge the important
duties of their offices.

Dr. Richardson (the President of the Congress), in respond-
ing to the welcome, commented on the success which had
attended the work ef the Institute.

The Chairman of the day OIL Drummond), in responding
to the toast of his health, gave a short and interesting sketch
of the town's history as regards its health, of the work of its
Local Board, and the success which had attended its efforts.
In 1848, he said, when the Act of Parliament passed which
gave localities the power to form Local Boards of Health,
Croydon was one of the first to apply for a provisional
order. He described the valley of the Wandle below
Croydon as being at that time in a marshy state, but
by the work of the Board the land was drained, and the
rateable value at once increased. At that time, 1843, the
town of Croydon, which was spread over a large acre-
age, had no sewerage. The Local Board mapped out the
town and carried out the works ; but the cost was practi-
cally nil, for the money was borrowed over a term of years,
and the increased rentals bore the cost. The rates were
35. 4d. in the pound 16 years ago, and they were the same
now with all the improvements carried out. In the same
way Croydon had supplied its own water. The population
of Croydon, when these works commenced, was 20,000; now
it was 70,000; its rental value had increased &tom £60,000 to
£350,000, and its death-rate, which up to 1848 stood at 23'66
per 1,000, was now far below the average rate of London,
being only 17 84 per 1,000.
In the evening the meeting was held in the great public
hall to hear Dr. Richardson's address, entitled—" Salutland,
an Ideal of a Healthy People," and the following report of
which we take from The Times :

Dr. Richardson commenced by giving the ages to
which various animals lived naturally, as stated by
Dr. Owen and Flourens. From these figures it ap.

peared that animal life extended to five times the num.
ber of years taken by the animal to arrive at maturity.
Thus an elephant was young at 30, and lived to 150
years; a horse was matured at five years and was full.
aged at 25; the lion and ox, which were matured at
four, came to full age at 20; the cat, which matured
at 18 months, had full life at seven and a half years;
and the rabbit, which matured in a year, came to
full age at five. Continuing, Dr. Richardson pro-
ceeded to say :—" From these contemplations our
minds very naturally revert to the animal man
—to the members of the human family. . Man, we

learn, follows the same rule asthe rest of living beings.
His maturity—perhaps not quite the full maturity—
is twenty years. His full age, therefore, is hundred
Nears. This is the anatomical estimate of human life,
the surest and by far the best of all that can be sup-
plied, since it defines a law irrespective of and over-
riding all those accidental circumstances of social and
physical storm and strife which may interfere, and,
indeed, do interfere, with every estimate based on the
career of lies itself, as it is shown in the epehemera
by and through whom it is phenomenally demon-
etrated. We are led once again to the inevitable con-
conclusion that man, even in this stage of his proba-
tion on the planet, is naturally destined to walk upon
it, endowed with sensibilities of life and intelligence,
for a period of a hundred years, and that until he
realizes this destiny practically he is in value of physi-
cal life actually degraded far below his earth-mates,
whom he designates the brute creation, and over
whom he presumes to exercise his, to them, almighty
will. The constant of human life is naturally 100
years, But more remains. Because the fulness of
age is 100 years it is not an essential that death shall
immediately crown the advent of that fulness. To
certain parts of the scheme of natural life there is a
boundary. The period of maturity of development
has its boundary of twenty years, when the body, as
Flourens says, ceases to grow; but if it ceases, in the
ordinary sense of the term, to grow, it does not cease
to increase; its nutrition improves and perfects for
twenty years more at least, and then only has reached
its complete physical condition. It should never fro.n
that period gain in weight, and for a long time it
should not lose. It goes on now through a third
period, which Flourens admirably calls the period
of invigoration, during which all its parts become
firmer, all its functions more certain, all its organi-
zation more perfect, and this period covers thirty
years. At seventy old age begins—the first
old age, in which naturally the fruits of wisdom are
most bountifully developed, and which lasts from fifteen
years to 20, to mellow down to a period of ripe old
age, commencing at 85 years and lasting 15 years
more—i. e., until the constant is attained. And yet
there need not now be death; for though, as Lord
Bacon has said, old men are like ruined towers, and
though, as Flourens has quoted, youths live in a double
sense, with forces in reserve and forces in action,
vires in posse et vires in actu,—the radical forces and
acting forces of Barthez, while old men live only on
the forces in action,—' vires in actu,' possessing no
reserve, it is wonderful how the forces in action will
continue after the reserve is withdrawn. This kind of
half-life has continued unquestionably many years
beyond the fulness of age, both in man and lower
animals, and to give it 20 years beyond the natural
100 is to be just without being in any extreme sense
generous. In this anatomical reading of human life
we see the growth, the increase, the invigora-
ration, and the solidification of the body ; we see
the life with its reserves on its two threads; the life
without reserve on its one thread; and, finally—the
force in action being withdrawn—the life ceasing,
and the earth, proclaiming her mastery, dragging the
actor as unconsciously to herself at death as he was
unconsciously projected into the world at birth. How
many sink naturally to the earth for her final and
gentle embrace? The answer to this question appals
the mind. Some individual lives the whole natural
period of life, exceptionally, as an elephant, a horse, a
lion, a dog, a eat lives it ordinarily, and thus, by ad-
venture, proves the truth of the law which has been
laid down. The event, perfectly commonplace in the
case of a lower animal—a dog that lives to ten—is a
perfect.marvel, when it happens, to a man who lives
to a hundred years, the equal term. To see a cen-
tenarian we travel miles and miles, and discuss the
time of his birth with keenest criticism, so truly un-
natural is the state of things under which human exist._
ence at present is unfilled. The question arises, how long
is this condition of affairs to last? No more vital ques-
tion stands for solution at the bar of civilization. To
speak in plain terms—and if ever plain terms were de-
mended the yare demanded no w—the world in this matter
of life and death has by daily observation of the
phenomena got into the habit of looking on wrong as
right, and on what is practically suicidal death as
death that is natural. It is a strange fatuity. If we
were for a short time, to see the lower domestic
creatures under the same curse; if we were to witness
horses enjoying ten, dogs four, and cats three years,
as an average duration of their lives, we should think
that a persistent murrian had come upon them, and
that, in relation to these useful domestic animals, the
whole course of life had undergone a deteriorative
change. Yet that is what, in effect, we are observing
among our own kind. Why should we, of all animals,
perish as we do in the first part of the second third of
our natural career? The answer is that we have never
as a community let ourselves study the question; have
never, in truth, looked at the facts plainly as they
stand forth. And now comes another question—
Knowing what is the natural term of human life,
can mankind learn to attain that term? Can man
learn to live his hundred years, with a prospective
chance of extension to a fifth of a century more? I do
not dare answer that question on my own account,
because it is answered for me. He who gave the life
has answered the question. He has written it for us
in unmistakeable language. He has shown all of us
who can read His natural designs, that it is one of
them that man may live the term if he will. Free-will,
making a man a free agent, is all that is set above the
natural law, and free-will is natural law too, governed
by intelligence which is as natural, and is as freely
supplied. How, then, shall civilized man live, that
the natural term may be found? There are many
modes of replying to this inquiry. I prefer, in the
reply I shall venture to offer, to frame what I have to
say in the most easy form. I address you, a learned
body of men and women; but I remember, at the
same time, that through you I am addressing thou-
seeds also who will read what you hear, many of
whom are most easily approachable by a description
which will hold the imagination while it conveys the
moral. Permit me, therefore, after having built an
ideal city, now to create an ideal people that shall
show a model longevity ; a people that shall have an
ordinary term of lite of 100, and prospective term of
120 years."
Dr. Richardson then sketched out his people of
Salutland "as a people dwelling in the 50th year of
tho 21st century of the Christian era in a point of the
earth's surface lying to the extreme south of the
region fancifully called New America. The land he
pictured as having been peopled 100 years at the time
he gives their history, and he sketches their lives.
They have never engaged in war, they have no centre
of Government, all their cities being equal, and they
practise the cardinal virtues of the Christian religion
in loving their neighbours as themselves. In regard
to their social and domestic life he puts it that
"it is considered that a centre of life con-
taining, in a limited space, more than 100,000
people is a danger, is in truth, for all purposes of
health, unmanageable. Death, they hold, is the shadow
of birth, and if large communities be admitted in
which people are herded together the shadow may be
calculated with as much accuracy as an eclipse. Five
separate dvvelling-honses to an acre of land, and five
persons to a separate dwelling-house, is the densest
population allowed. The houses large and small, are
all built, with varieties only Of artistic design, on
arches which raise them from the ground; the bed-
rooms are disconnected altogether from the living
rooms; gardens are all around, and gardens are on the
roofs. In the midst of the towns the eye is struck
with the cultivation of fruit trees that prevails. The
towns of Salutland might be called, as ancient Nor-
wich once was called, the towns or cities of erchards.
Throughout all the country the land is under cultiva-
tion of the most perfect kind for cereal produce and
fruit and vegetables. Through this cultivation there
are interspersed magnificent parks and glades, in which
harmless animals of the most beautiful kind are free to
wander. Every tameable animal is there, and all ani-
mals are objects of singular and lively interest. The
rivers and lakes are filled with varied kinds of fish,
and every sort of bird that can be collected, retained,
and naturalized on the land is also to be seen. A
man, woman or child, who for wanton pleasure
should hunt Sown or torture one of the inferior cress-
tures would be cast out of society, while the idea of
having the dumb creature killed and hung up in
open shops to bleed and be quartered and cooked
for human beings to live on, would be treated with
as much disgust as we should now treat the prac-
tice of the owners of those African shambles for
heman remains, which Professor Huxley, in one of
his most charming books, has so faithfully re-
copied to illustrate the history of a past civilisation.
Animals are, notwithstanding, still used by our model
people. Their fleeces are used for clothing, their milk
for food, and rushy of them are made to work. The

-s/ (

elephant works with an intelligence and skill that is
almost human, and with a power that is superhuman,
so that he is one of the most useful and faithful. and
best beloved of all the lower animals in the land. He is
the rival of the horse which is also much cared for, and
is bred in a state of great perfection for bearing the
rider, to which duty he is mainly consigned. He is
In much request, for all persons in Salutland, male
and female, are consummate in the saddle; their
country, which contains vast and fertile plains,
divided by splendid roads, and their atmosphere which,
except during a short periodical rainy season, is mild
and dry, being remarkably suitable for horse exercise.
The roads leading from one paz t of the country to the
other are maintained in the most perfeat efficiency,
smooth in all parts, and dry as our best asphalt°.
Transit along these highways on horseback and by
velocipede has supplanted most other modes of per-
sonal conveyance. The lines of railway, once so general,
have lapsed now into conveyance for heavy goods
mainly. The cat of coal has rendered steam locomotive
power very limited, while aerial locomotion has replaced
steam-propelled carriages in a marked degree." In this
land there would be no workhouses or gaols, and Dr
Richardson entered fully into the fanciful day-by-day
work, and described the people as in the keenest
enjoyment of life. One reason of their acquired
health would be that they had mastered the pesti-
lential diseases. An epidemic from pollution of air,
of water, of food would be with them impossible.
The hereditary tendencies to disease would be either
lost altogether or so nearly eradicated as to be prac-
tically removed. Thus with the fewest aoeidental
exceptions, the men and women would attain the
sacred age. Their death-rate would be normal and
constant, at eight in the thousand per year, and death
itself, painless, final sleep, would be hardly more than
departure to rest when the day of work was done. He
traced out at length the measures by which this could
be attained by a thoughtful and studious people, and
interspersed his fanciful pictures with many hints of
practical value, in which he urged the evils of inter-
marriage, by which diseases of the hereditary type
progressed, and he gave suggestions with regard to the
conversion of man to be a frugivorous or fruit-eating
animal, urging that life was greatly shortened by the
overwork thrown upon the stomach.
The address occupied nearly two hours in delivery.
It was frequently applauded, and some of Dr.
Richardson's fancies caused much laughter. He re-
sumed his seat amid much cheering, and Mr. Drum-
mond, who spoke of the lessons to be learnt from the
address moved a vote of thanks, which was carried
and acknowledged.