The Redwood gazette. [volume] (Redwood Falls, Minn.) 1873-1940, 1879-04-24
The Szegedin Flood.

Tle SZeged1n Flood.
A Vienna correspondent of the New
York World gives the following partic-
ulars OF the terrible destruction to life
and property, caused by the late flood
in the River Thesis, in Hungary:
Only a few towns of the Thesis plain
succeeded in preventing the waves
from flooding them, by working day
and night at their dykes. There are
beside New Szegedin, Szentes, Czon-
grad and Vasarhily. The first city
flooded was Orashaka, where 400
houses fell. In the night between the
18th and 18th of March the floods
burst in upon Szegedin, so that within
a few hours the roofs of most of the
houses and the tops of the lamp-posts
were all that could be seen. The mis-
fortune there, as everywhere in the
Hungarian plain, is that few houses
are built of real bricks, the greater
part being built of bricks made of lime
and water and dried in the sun like
Mexican adobes, which of course dis
solve in water. Therefore the only
houses which still stand in Szegedin
are built of real bricks, and these are
scarcely twentieth part of the town,
in fact little more than 200. Every
thing else disappeared in the flood.
Szegedin numbered $4,000 inhabi-
tants, according to the last census, and
$500 buildings, of which about 5000
were dwelling-houses. The work of
destruction was as sudden as terrible.
All was over in a few hours, therefore
it is no wonder that great loss of life
was incurred. The number of the dead
is put at $4,000. One hundred labor
ers are busy from morning to night
burying the dead in the neighboring
Village of Szoregh. At first, the num-
Der of boats was quite insufficient to
save the frightened inhabitants, many
of whom the danger-bell tolled out of
their sleep. When boats enough came
the soldiers had hard work to row
through all the lumber tossing about
on the waters, and to induce the fright
ened people to let themselves be saved,
as the greater part of them refused to
get off their housetops into the boats
without their poor property, which
could not be saved under such circum-
stances. "Better die all of us than live
without our beds and our coffee-potsr'
was what they all said. A very happy
circumstance was that the embank-
ments of the Southern Railw az re-
NAMED intact, so that help could
be continually got from Temes-
var, and the rescued could be sent
away in that direction. In the
first hours this could not be thought Of
The desperate people chung to the
dykes, climbed up trees, filled the few
stone houses to Overlooking. Many
were frozen to death in the first nights,
the wind blowing mercilessly through
their scanty clothing: Twenty were
found frozen to death, and twenty
three went mad from terror, and have
been sent to the mad-house in Pesth.
The brave men who risked their liv es
a thousand times to bring help were
witnesses of the most heartrending
scenes. Sometimes as they approached
q housetop or q tree to which drowning
people chung these could hold on no
longer, and, dropping in the water,
were drowned before the boats could
reach them. An old man in the center
of a mound of piled-up rubbish was
heard calling desperately for help, but
he persisted. A white-haircd grand
mother was seen diving for some
thing. She found it at last-her
drowned grandchild, which she held
up toward Heaven, laughing hoarsely,
a mad woman's laugh. An expedition
from Pesth, headed by a Member of
Parliament, arrived three days after
the catastrophe, and he tells us that
even then he was q witness of the most
dreadful scenes. A small rafter was
floating by them, when one man espied
a small baby on it, tied to a divan.
The expedition was quick enough to
bring the poor little one into safety.
but its parents have not been found,
and are most likely drowned.
Thousands of people found shelter in
railway cars which came from all parts,
but the greater part remained in the
open air, where the cold and the wet
has made many of them very i'll, espe-
cially, of course, the women and chill
dren. At first among the other evils
that tormented the poor, stricken in
habitants of Szegedin was hunger, for
of course with 50 many lives to save,
victuals could not be thought of. But
very soon whole trains full of bread,
cheese, meat and wine came from
Temesvar and Pesth and brought re-
lief. The railway companies send ev-
erything gratis, and now large quaint.
ties of clothes are daily being carried
to the Southern station. Subscriptions
were opened the very next day, and
have had fine results.
The member for Szegedin informed
the Hungarian National Assembly that
the damage done in Szegedin amounts
to about Is, 600, 600 forms, not much,
if the extent of the misfortune be con-
sidered. He believes that loan of
5000, 900 forms, to be repaid in twenty
years, will build the city up again.
When q man commits crime, it
is usual to say that he belongs to one of
the best families. If the same man runs
for office, it will be found on the oppo-
site stump that he belongs to one of the