Cincinnati daily press. [volume] (Cincinnati [Ohio]) 1860-1862, 1861-02-08


Terrible Humiliation in HoIIand-Breal.
ing Of the DiKe-Great Destruction of
Property and Probable Loss Of Life =
Distress Among the People.
correspondent Of the London Netcs,
writing from Rotterdam on the 10th Janu-
ary, describes terrible inundation which
had occurred in Holland; t.H
In the beginning of January it was OBJ
served that the vast accumulation of snow
in this district was causing the rise of the
river to dangerous extent. With anxiety
and dread the Inhabitants watched the daily
increase of the invading waters, now laden
with immense masses of ice, and strenu-
ously exerted themselves to strengthen the
resistance offered by those artificial barriers
by which alone Holland is preserved from
total submersion. But still the food rose
and the ice masses formed themselves, rs it
were, into huge battering-rams pressing
with their irresistible strength against the
dikes and dams.
The sound of the church-bell, clear and
ominous in the frosty air, kept telling the
sad tale of imminent danger and warning
all who could labor to aid in the good cause,
and those who could not to prepare for the
worst. Higher and higher rose the waters,
and soon the surface of the ponderous shift
ing ice-mass stood within half an inch of the
dike-level. Good God should it rise that
hslfinch higher, their cottages, their cattle,
their provisions, their all would become a
prey to the unsparing havoc Then rose to
Heaven many prayer--for mercy At last
o bulging out in the dixie directed the anx
ious gsze of all to one spot-for the waters
were pressing hard upon it. With the
strength and energy of despair they tried to
stay the progress of the food as it sought
egress from its narrow channel into theiI
fields and dwellings. Xerxes as well tried
to bind the ocean in chains.
Suddenly the dixie yielded, and the waters
poured through the ice masses and the
flood rose above it, and swept on in their
terrific course, submerging fields, barns aud
cottages, drowning the cattle, destroying
all. The aged and the sick, the women and
the children, sought a refuge in their attics,
where, benumbed with cold, without bed
ding clothes, fire or provisions, they had tc
pass days of inexpressible terror-ot horrible
starvation. For long time it was impos.
sble to approach them, and it is feared many
a cottage has been swept away in the flood
and its inhabitants frozen to death on the
ice-masses.
One family, of seven persons, was rescued
from the attic, in which they had sought
shelter, go thoroughly exhausted by cold and
hunger that they could not even ,answeI
| the questions of their deliyereTs. A pool
mother with her infant to which she had
/ given premature birth, was lying in bed in
the bleak attic of her homely dwelling, while
her husband, from an aperture in the roof
sought by cries and signals, to attract thu
attention of a few brave men, who, at the
risk of their lives, were endeavoring to make
their way between the ice-blocks in order II
rescue their perishing felow-creatures from
destruction. They went to the poor fellow
help, descended into the attic through thu
aperture in the roof through which they re
: turned, bringing with them the mother ant
! her babe. 1t was time, for the water had al
ready risen to within two inches Of her bed
AS write, fresh intelligence arrives from
the inundated districts, detailing additiona
scenes of wretchedness-peo dying from
hunger aud cold, and their houses cut ava,
| by the ice, as the corn is mown down by thu
haryester's scythe; a church, which ha
stood hundreds of years, swept down, as
puff of wind sweeps down house of cards
and the prospect is even yet more fearful
Holland has often suffered much from inun
dations, but never, within the memory O
living man, has an inundation been accom-
panied with so much distress and destruc
tion-with so much heart-rending grief an
despair.