New-York tribune., 1875-07-14
THE RECENT INUNDATIONS.

MORE ABOUT THE GREAT DAMAGE TO PROPERTY
REMARKABLE DISPLAY OF CHARITY IL BEHALF
OF THE SUFFERERS BY PEOPLE THROUGHOUT
THE COUNTRY.
lrROM THE REGULAR CORRESPONDENT OF THE TRIBUNEJ
PARIS. June 3O-The floods that broke ont last
week in the South of France are the foremost topic
of conversation. few days before, the weather
being unusually cold, what would have been rain in
the low lands fell a5 snow the upper slopes of the
Pyrcnecs When the wind changed to the west tie
swift melting of the snow helped to swell the waters
of thc Garonnc the Atour, aud their aliuents with
astonishing rapidity. At Toulouse the first serious
alarm was felt early the morning of the 23d,
week ago to-day. Twenty -four hours later the pop
ulous quarter of st. Cyprien, on the left
bank of the Garonne, was under water,
hundreds of its inhabitants were drowned
or crushed in the ruins of their falling houses and
nearly 20 900 persons became houseless Toulouse,
becanse of its accumulation of people and buildings
and wealth, was n sort of capital of disaster; but
the waste and ruin widespread throughout the
valley. Several villages are mentioned whcrc OF
200 and 300 houses, buildings remain standing but
the church and house or two. Solidly constructed
stone bridges have been swept away like dritwood;
roads have been quilted into impassabiity cattle
and garncred harvests and growing crops, vineyards
and the arabic soil itself, have been swept OH or
overwhelmed with sterile sand and gravel.
The loss of life is greater, / think, than in the
RLonc and Loire floods of 1896. The whole extent
of material destruction is not yet ascertaiIed Esti-
mates las vet only approximate, but that do not
seem 10 be eXtravagant rate it at from 500 OoO0
TO 81 ) 900, OOO That il is enormous, and can DC
only partially made up to the more needy sufferers
is sunouestionablc. That something can be done for
them by the more fortunate is certain, and little
questioned Here is the bright side TO the sad story.
Ncvcr-not when the call was made for the beneht
of the victims of like calamity in 1886; not when
il was made for our soldiers III the Crihleal CAM
paign and not when it was made Tor tie peasants
unhoused or those from Alsace and Lorraine VINO
were exiled by the late war-have | known in
France any movement for charity's sake 50 sponta-
Moons. general and largely generous as the one now
sweeping over the whole country, with something
of the rapity and might of the flood that pr"vokes
IT, All classes and specialties OF institutions and
individuals rush into ii. No sooner had news OF the
calamity reached Versailles than the President Oi
the R.public accompanied by the Minister Of the
Interior STATED for Toulouse, making iirst these
two preparations for his ravel-a pocketiui oil his
own money for immediate use, and advice to Mad
aue Mac Mahon to put herself at the head Of CEN
tral subscription committee. 1t is said that the
President drew Oh his private bankers for more
money the third day after his arrival IN the wasted
valley No one does say or explain how or when the
kind d-hearted man gave his tough GS-year-old SOL
Jer- body enough needfu hours for taking food ana
sleep We know tLat the CO,lmi,tee over " hch
his wife presides sent oil $4,000 the day after It's
organization, and has as much more in hand subse-
quently collected.
Several of the Paris newspapers have opened con-
trbuton- boxes and subscriptOnlss at their Offices
lie Temps after three days, received nearly SG,ooo;
lie Rappel received over 900 The published lists
of other journals show some larger, some smaller re-
ceipts Many of the 40 daily Paris journals do not
receive at their own bureaus, but all solicit and
most of them give. Thus, the Bonapartist EOrdfe
sends It's 500 (Le Temps gave %iOOl to the box OF
its political confrcre lie Ga"ois. 1t is pity that
newspaper editors who are politicians BY trade and
passion could not let the national movement o.
human charity run free and clear of their shallow
partisan perturbations. La Rfpuhliqae Frdnsaise.
,bc ahIest organ Of advanced sircere repuhiican-
lam. having opened o subscription, miserably