The New York herald. [volume] (New York [N.Y.]) 1840-1920, 1872-11-01

nOte Ii WORM more III the Danh De rOJlen tn8n
if the bank is sound
The Floods ON the River P0-A stormy
October In Both Hemisphere.
From Rome we have dispatches which
inform us that, from the overflow of the
river, the floods on the banks of the Po>
(which courses Italy above the boot top from!
Mont Cents to the Adriatc Sea) have not
abated that four thousand worklnen are en-
gagged night and day on the dykes, or levees.
to confine the river, if possible, within ita
banks; that the damages caused to property
and crops in Mantua and Ferrara are meal
culable; that in Ferrara alone forty thousand
persons have been rendered homeless but
that from all points relief is coming IN
to the suffering people. Further, it APP
pears that many persons have been
drowned, and that the Italian Minister OF
Public Works, who has gone to the scene OF
destruction, is experimenting the work of
relieving the distressed people The basin OF
the Pc is the garden of Italy, and, from it's
fertile soil of 'riyer bottom lands" as We
would call them, and from careful cultivation,
is exceedingly productive. The periodical
nOOuS VI tuo ~, WHICH, WOulu OtutTWlbc EcBu-
larly overflow its bottom lands in the lower
river, are now kept in by its artificial embank-
ments, except in cases like the present OF
unusually heavy freshets in the numerous
tributaries which descend into the main stream
from the Alps. Unusually heavy rains in the
Alps, with an increased dissolution of the ice
and SHOWS Of their lofty plateaux, peaks and
ridges, are therefore the immediate causes OF
this inundation of the Pc; and if these Oc-
tober rains of Northern Italy have extended
southwark over the Apennines we shall next
hear, no doubt, of another overflow from tha
Tiber at Rome
Next, recent dispatches from London state
that the weather in England and along her
coasts has been tempestuous; and from several
dispatches of the same purport within the last
three or four weeks It appears that the month
Of October, 1872, has been remarkable for
its heavy rains and storms in the United States,
in the British Islands, and across the Euro
pean Continent to the Alps, and beyond them,
to the Lower Danube. These general Autumn
nal rains in both hemispheres are due to the
same general causes or forces operating upon
the great equatorial current or currents OF the
Atlantic, from the Gulf Of Mexico, the great
rain boiler Of the United States to the tropical
stream which is difft,sed around the British
Islands. Astronomers tell us that the all-suffi-
cient primary cause for this exceptionally rainy
Autumn north of the Equator may be found
in the tremendously increased beat Of the sun.
from its recently increased volumes OF incan-
descent magnesium. For the present, how
ever, the facts we have mentioned are particu-
larly interesting as evidences of the same gen.
eral causes governing the fluctuations of the
seasons, from the Rocky Mountains to the
Alps
Here in the United oJates, from the great
Palms. if not from the Rocky Mountains to the
Atlantic, and from the Gulf of Mexico to the
Gulf OF the ST. Lawrence we have just passed
through some of the heaviest and most extensive
Autumnal nor casters known in this country for
many years. Several snow storms unusually
heavy for October, have marked the weather
reports of the month for the silver mountains
of Utah, and doubtless these SHOWS have COW
cred all the loftier peaks and ridges of the
Rocky Mountain chain from Colorado up into
the British possessions. This Autumnal sea-
son, in word, has been remarkably stormy
one in both hemispheres, within the ATTITUDES
Of the United States; and while these abound
ing rains this season have saved us from re-
currence of those sweeping prairie and forest
fires which were so disastrous in the Northwest
this last October one year ago, the enormous
downpourings from the Alps have flooded the
most fruitful of the plains Of Italy. We pre-
sume however, that these foundations have
not been so disastrous as to require from other
nations helping hand for the suffering Ital-
ians. But if they want assistance from abroad,
they have only to say So and the American
people will promptly respond, remembering
the universal relief which came to Chicago
and the foresters of Wisconsin last Autumn
upon the wings of the lightning.
SOUTHWARK THE EprHIpPIc TAXES Irs
WAY.-It has appeared in Pittsburg, Balti-
more, and also in Norfolk and Portsmouth.
Va This is, indeed, startling, and looks as il
it would traverse the entire Continent from
North to South. In the city there were nearly
as many deaths yesterday as on the day pre-
vious, the total loss to US in hcrsefiesh reach
ing probably three hundred animals. 1t will,
of course, be understood that these are gen.
orally the least valuable, as horses worth
more than the average have been we'll
cared for, and so escaped for the present
the final fate that attends equines. On the
other hand, outside Of the wretched beasts
owned by the car companies, this loss falls on
class badly able to bear it. The trotting
stock seems to have escaped thus far with
very few cases of sickness
In THE McWnIIAMs CASE, IN JERSEY CrrY,
the jury disagreed yesterday, nine being un-