Civilian & telegraph. [volume] (Cumberland, Md.) 1859-1875, 1861-02-14
Terrible foundations In Holland
BreakingOfthe Dyke-DiStreSS
Among the People.

A correspondent of the London Dali
ly News, writing from Rotterdam on the
18th of January, describes terrible in :
undation which had occurred in Hol-
land
In the beginning of January it was
observed 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 inva-
ding waters, now laden with immense
masses Of ice, and strenuously cxerted
themselves to strengthen the resistance
offered by these artificial barriers, by
which alone Holland is preserved from
total subme.s;on. But still the food
rose. and the ice-masses formed them
selves, as it were, into huge battering
rams, pressing with their irresistible
strength against the dykes and dams.
The souni of the church bell, clear
aud ominous in the frosty air, kept tel
ling the sad tale of imminent danger
aud 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 md soon the
surface of the ponderous shifting irc- mas
stood WITHIN half an inch of the dyke
level. Good Godl should it rise that
half inch higher their cottages; their cat
tie, their provisions, their all would be-
come prey 10 the unsparing havoc!-
Then rose to heaven many prayer for
hclp--!or mercy At last a bullying
out in the dyke directed the anxious
gaze Of ali to one spot-ior the waters
were pressing hard upon it. With the
strength and energy of despair they
tried to stay the progress of the flood as
it sought egress from its narrow channel
into their fields and dwellings,. Xerxes
as we'll tried to bind the ocean in chains
Suddenly the dyke yielded, and the
waters poured through-the ice masses
and the fl ,od rose above it, and swept
on in their terrific course submerging
fields, barns and cottages, drowning the
cattle. destroying all. The aged and
the sick, the women and the children,
sought refuge in their attics. where
bcnumbed with cold, without bedding
clothes, FIRE or provisions. they had to
pass days of inexpresSble terror of hor-
rihle starvation. For long time it was
impossible to approach them, aid it is
feared many a cottage has been swept
away in the food, and its inhabitants
frozen to death on the ice masses One
family Of seven persons were rescued
from the attic in which they had sought
shelter, so thoroughly exhausted by cold
and hunger that they could no: even an
swer the questions of their deivcrers.
A poor mother with her infant. to
which she had given premature birth
was lying in bed in the bleak attic of her
homcly dwelling, while her husband
from an aperture in the roof, sought b.
cries and signals to attract the attention
of few brave men, who, at tic immi-
neut risk of their lives, were endeavor-
ing to make their way between the ice
| blocks in order to rescue some of their
perishing fellow creatures from destruc-
ton. 1hey went to the poor fellows
help, descended into the attic through
the aperture in the roof. through which
they returned, bringing with them the
mother and her babe. IL was time for
the waters had alrsady risen to within
two inches of her bed.
AS | write, fresh intelligence arrives
from the inundated districts detailing I'D
ditional sccnes.of wrctchedness-people
dying from hunger aud cold; their hou-
SEES cut away by the ice, as corn is mowu
down by the harvester S scythe; church
which has stood hundreds of years swept
down, az puff of wind sweeps down u
house of cards; and the prospect is even
yet more fearful. Holland has often suf-
fered much from inundations, but never
within the memory of living man has
an inundation been accompanied with St
much distress aud destruction-wth st
much heartrcnding grief aud despair