The Tiffin tribune. (Tiffin, Ohio) 1868-1887, 1874-11-26
TIE CHINESE fYgHsOS.

An Appalling Catalogue OF Horrors
Loss OF Over twenty thousand Live
The Destruction or Property Esii
maIed Sc Many dIlllOEs or Dollars
Pirates Burn seven Hundred Build
ings In Hsca0 During the Storm
From the Hong Kong (ChIna) Press, seps. q
It is our painful duty to record by
the present mail one of the most ap
palllng disasters that has ever hap
pened in this Colony. A typhOoE o
unprecedented violence ragged in thi:
neighbOIhood on Tuesday night, Sep
tember 22d, and Wednesday morning
last. TIE weather during the day haC
been threatening, the barometer hav-
ing fallen very considerably during
the forenoon, and still remaining lOH
in the evening. About O'Clock the
wind began to threaten, and shortly
after o'clock was blowing a strong
gale. This Increased rapidly, and in
the course OF an hour it was evident
that a typhoon of a severe character
was to e apprehended, and this prov
ed too soon to be the case. The bar
ometer kept rapidly falling, and the
wind increased frightfully in violence,
raging apd bowling at first, and after
time sounding like one continued
peal of musketry, broken at intervals
by artillery, as sudden and mere vic.
lent gusts swept through the barber
and over the lard. At times even
above the fierce bowling OF the wind
could he heard the pitiful cries OF
Thousands vainly bsttling with the
| storm.
FEARFUL HAVOC.
Not 3 single ship in port escaped
undamased, and the casualties and
loss of fEe-the latter estimated at
over 1000 souIs-has exceeded any
thing which has ever before been on
record. The city, after the occurrence,
presented the appearance of q town
that had been besieged. In all direc-
tions were TOOfiess and shattered
houses, crumbling walls, naked poles,
ard rafters standing gloomily against
the leaden sky. The roads were strewn
right and left with debris, wrecks of
boats, and trees-some OF gigantic sizs
torn up by the roots. The telegraph
on the island, and the marine tele-
graph between Hong Kong and Saigon
was interrupted the gas pipes were
torn up dead bodies IN all directions
washed ashore /; the flagstaff at the
Peak was seen leaning at an angle, q
sad signal 10 ships miles away from
the ravages to which the Colony has
been subjected. The tide was excep-
tionally high, which materially in
creased the amount of damage infiict-
ed, and to the eastward a great deal OF
injury, both to life and property, was
caused by the height of the water,
which on the plain at East Point was
on an average about four feet high.
THE LATEsF-5, 900 LIVES LosF-DAM-
AGE TO PROPERTY s1, ,000,00
From the Hong Kong Press, Oct. 81
The particulars of the sad disaster of
the 22d and 23d OF September are
gradually coming to light; but even
up to the present time the full effects
of the typnoon cannot be surmised.
1t is certain that the estimate of the
number who have been lost is eonsid
erably under the actual total, which
will not be less than 5000 at Hong
Kong and Macao together, even if that
comes up to the fact. Vessels arriv-
ing at tue present time report meet
ing with dead bodies q long distance
before reaching the port, and eOrpses
continue daily to be washed ashore on
various parts of the island. The
damage done to property also turns out
to be much larger than was anticipat
ed. Persons well able to judge, esti-
mate that in Hong Kong alone, the
property lost in the form of vessels,
damage to houses, buildings destroy
ed, and goods damaged, can not be
short of e, ,OO0, 600. The steamer Albay
and Leanore still lie in the harbor,
the latter with thirty or forty dead
passengers in her, and it is doubtful
whether they can be raised and, al
though efforts have been made to
move the Pacific Mail steamer Alaska
from her position ashore at Aberdeen,
they were, we regret to say, unsuc-
cessful.
After the typhoon great difficulty
was experienced in removing the dead
bodies which came ashore in all di-
rections. The destruction of life in
native craft greatly outnumbers any,
Sinasv Sur t1aE has occurred before. In or
binary tyPnoC.-- tho -f.is~S~s -F -t,alter
which the Chinese, VINO have mar
velous instinct, i'll foreseeiug the ad-
vent OF these terrible visitations, seek,
are sufficient to protect the large bulk
of the junks and sam-pans. The poor
people mad in the present instance, re-
lied upon the shelter which had afford
ed them protection on former occa-
sions, but were utterly mistaken in
their calculations, as their crafts were
driven from their places of refuge and,
in the words of an eyewitness who
himself had q narrow escape in his
vessels, large junks broke up actually
like match-boxes. One of the officers
who was on board the Pacific Mail
steamer Alaska, says that he saw a
batch Of fully hundred junks found
er all at once. The misery which has
been spread, both in this colony and
at Macao, is something appalling.
One of the saddest considerations is
that mum berless junks have utterly
gone to atoms with every soul on
board, so that hundreds of people must
be kept in heightened suspense as to
the fate of their friends and relatives,
of which no one lives to tell the tale.
From the account given of the eX-
traor1inary high tide it would al
most seem that there must at one
time have been a tidal wave, and this
would fit in with statements made in
some quarters With reference to the
stoppsge OF clocks, which seemed to
indicate that slight shock of earth
quake occurred while the typhoon was
raging.
THE STEAMER ALASKA.
Steamer Alaska. on the rocks near Aber-
DnN 4 ,r,~n-