Sacramento daily record-union. [volume] (Sacramento [Calif.]) 1875-1891, 1883-02-17
has ever seen the Rhine in such mood be-
OVER A cEyTURY AGO

OVER A CENTURY AGO
He rioted in something the same way. But
if one even knows all the factors, it is in
possible to grasp the extent of the entire
desolation and the misery and unutterable
woe which have been inflicted in the valley
of the Rhine since December began. For
full two weeks the food ragged, and as it
subsidies it leaves spectacle more fright.
full if anything than when at its hight. It
is desolation incarnate. Gravel beds re,
place wheat fields, stone heaps mark
villages and happy homes. Orchards have
given place to heaps of debris. Highways
are indicated by trees with grass. tangled
boughs. The winter seed Is buried too
deep to grow. The winter provision has
become too wet to save CT use. What was
garden has become desert. The villages
snd houses that remain will be untenable
for many days, and Hnwholesome for many
weeks, on account of the long soaking of
the thick stone walls. And what of the
poor people in such numbers unhoused and
uuhomed, thrown with absolutely not hing
but their naked forms and strength upon
the world? And what of the still more
MISERABLE POOR OF THE CITIES,
Who have no farms and but little strength,
whose employment is gone, and whose ten
ements, at best but wreteaed, are uDin-
habitable What of the halt ana the sick,
and the feeble and the old ? Wsat of the
orphans and widows whose means of sup.
port have suddenly been swept away TO
sea The long, cold winter is before
them, and they are very many. These
questions are being brsvely and generously
answered. Money, clashing, food and
shelter are coming in from public and pri-
vate directions. Even from our own ever
generous country is the response already
being made. Tne Cologne Gazette is rails.
ing aud distributing a large fund. TIE
empire and the separate districts are doing
all they can. Bat in spite of all that can
be done many sufferngs will go unrelieved,
many starving child unfed, and many
shiveripg bodies inadequately clad. Apart
from private suffering, the noble public
works along the river, the paved ban ks,
the dykes, the dams and landing places
have been seriously damaged, and in places
wholly destroyed. As stated above, Ger
many is not alone in this suffering. A large
part of Europe has been flooded. The wa
tiers are subsiding, and now must come the
suffering.
FOREST DENUDINC THE PRIME CAUSE.
For more than hundred years Europe
has not seen such winter, and many are
the prayers that she may never see anothef
such. In few short daye-short in hours
but long in suffering-has been undone the
toll OF years, has been wasted the accumu-
lations OF patient industry, and has been
sown the seeds for harvest of trials, yet,
alas unavoidably to be reaped. 1t is sad
TO contemplate this waste and ruin, but
sadder still 80 think, as many wise men DO,
that great share of it all might have
been avoided, had not men in their greed
for gain so ruthlessly destroyed those great
natural guarantors against sudden floods
the forests of the mountains and hills,
which, with their tangled roots, their
spongy soil, their fallen leaves and under
brush, hold back SO admirably the waters
from the clouds and melting SHOWS. Herein
lies the great lesson for America. Would
that our Governments, national and State,
would heed its teachings and take warning
before it is too late, and before similar
scourge is sent along the populous banes
of our own rivers. All who understand
the state of our country are of one mind
on this subject, and cry with one voice,
"Save and extend our forests