Watertown republican. [volume] (Watertown, Wis.) 1860-1906, 1875-07-28
isdar June 81, night Correspondence of London


DEVASTATION IN LANGUEDOC AND MENACE
IN GASCONY.
Paris thinks of nothing but the
floods, which are devastating Laneuedoc
and menacing Gascony. To say the
accounts which reach us from the scene
OF the iaundation are narrowing, would
seem weak. We are appalled, at the
spectacle of human helplessness to fight
against the watery invasion. Rain of
three weeks duration has half drowned
the ancient, populous and highly civil
lied Toulouse.
The Faubourg of St. Cyprien, an Off
clal telegram this evening states with
graphic brevity, no longer exists. It
will take long years to reconstruct the
houses torn down by the rising and eb-
bing floods. The hig h street of st. Cy.
prien, which had grown under the fore
ing influence of the railway to be an i'm
portant quarter of Toulouse, has best
resisted the inundation. It still holds
its head erect, but is badly damaged
and soaked from almost the third floor
to the basement story. Many of it's
houses are marked for blasting. There
is not single house standing round the
Place du Charedon.
The streets converging on it are
blocked up with fallen dwellings.
Those who lived in them few days ago
are bewildered, when they come back by
the ruin which has been suddenly effect
ed. It is found that far greater num-
Der of persons than was supposed took
refuge in the upper stories, and were
killed when the houses fell. The dead
bodies of whole family, consisting of
husband, wife, grandmother, and two
children, have been found in the ruins
of the Place du Clarendon, locked in
each others arms. The iron rail gate of
the Avenue de Bayonne, and it's ponder
Gus cut stone pillars, which were held
together with molten lead, lie fiat on the
ground.
The trees, which were old and shady
In some places, are torn up by their
roots, and in others broken. For the
distance of kilometre there is scarcely
a house standing. The head of the
medical school reported this morning
that, accompanied by a staff of assist
ants, he went through the quarters
from which the water had retired in
search of wounded people. He did not
find one. Everything he met in human
shape was corpse. The slaughterers
attached to the abattoir were every one
drowned. In the streets branching off
the Rue de Bayonne, the proportion of
houses demolished is about one in every
four. But wherever the water has
passed dynamite, it is said, must be
used Moreover, there is not, it is sur
missed, single ruin that is not tomb.
In the church of st. Nicholas the
water covers the tablet of the altar,
carrying away the sacred vessels and
hostio.
The four great foundries of NM.
Delpie, Messonnie, Lamoureux and
Bourge no longer exist. The dancing
rooms of the Grand Orient, the ware
houses of NM Olivier, Estrade an
Croc, and the old Hotel Massabian, have
been also swept away. Great has also
been the destruction of mills. Those of
marked for dynamite.
The whole of the Rues de Novars,
Villeceuville and des Cannettes are un-
iphabitable. Eleven bodies were taken
this morning out of fallen house in
the Rue ST. Nicholas, which is also
severely damaged. The garden of the
Feuillants was strewn with the bodies
of man and boys who had climbed into
the trees, some of which were uprooted,
and from others of which the refugees
fell, overcome probably by fear and ex-
haustion. Dead men and dead horses
drift through the low streets or
rather where low streets were. The
cemetery being under water, funeral
ornaments float on the yellow tide.
Capsized boats speak of crews engulfed
by the violence of the currents, which
rushed and eddied in all directions.
AS [ write fresh and terrible details
arrive. The paper mill of the Avenue
Maret, which was insured against fire
fol 800, O00f., but not against water, is
total wreck The deaths are far more
numerous than has been feared.
The victims of the three weeks rain
are in many cases almost naked. They
were surprised in their beds by the
water, and in making way for their
lives had not time to dress themselves.
Among the properties devastated is
one of the De Remusat family.
Accounts from the Garonne become
still more terrible. At Moissac the
river has definitely forsaken its former
bed, and flows four kilometres away in
an ancient channel. The loss of property
in the Department Of the Lot-et-Ga
rome is as great as in the Haute- Ga
rome. The number of houses destroy
ed at Moissac is ITO, and at Magistree
fifty. Enormous damage has also been
caused at Bagneres and Bigorre.
1t Muret, in the Haute Garonne, the
bridge has been destroyed,
and many houses wrecked. Roques and
Pinsaguel, two villages near, are masses
of ruins. In the Arriege, at st. Lizier,
three parts of the town have been food
ed. At Moulls, in the Tarn and Ga
rome, the church has fallen. AZ Col
lech only four houses and the church
are standing. At Lamagistere many
houses have fallen, and the bridge has
been carried away. In the Hautes Py-
renees, at Tarbes and other places on
the Amour, houses have fallen, and the
crops are destroyed. At Sarginnet all
the houses were inundated, several fields
and the bridge demolished.