Staunton spectator. [volume] (Staunton, Va.) 1849-1896, 1889-09-11
THE OLD WORLDS FLOODS

THE OLD WORLDS FLOODS
About the year 130 B. G. the powerful
alton of the Celts, after having suffered
for long time great losses in possessions
and lives we're forced by continued destruc
tive floods to forsake their abodes along the
shores of the western ocean and emigrate
to Italy, the upper Rhire and the Danube
Likewise about the year 113 B. G. severa
Teutonic tribes were driven further south
from the northern settlements by like
causes. Among the older towns Of the
world the eternal city, Rome, suffered fire.
the Tiber, which to fill the cup of the suf
ferings of the people were generally ac
companied by dearth and pestilence. Nota.
BILE among these floods at Rome are those
of the years A. 81, 90, % and 13 B. c., and
5, IS, SO, 81, SO and 70 A. D. In the year
the city was navigated by boats for over
a week and large number of buildings
were destroyed by the flood, as were also
hundreds of lives.
GERMANY INUNDATED.
A. D. ITO the fertile table land of March
in Arabia was turned into permanent de,
sert by the breaking of dam aud the in.
habitsnts were forced to emigrate. In 174
large tracts of Italy and adjoining countries
were under water. Tho year 366 saw the
greater portion of Germany inundated. In
444 the city of Is, on the bank of the bay
of Douarney, France, formerly quite fam
Gus, was swallowed by the floods. In 587
and 500 Germany suffered immense losses
by water. The Rhine, having always been
a source of great and frequent disaster,
again did enormous damage in 694. Nine
ty years after even Charlemagne was stop
ped on one of his victorious marches by the
waters filling the lowlands everywhere. In
1893 the sea flooded the whole of East
Frista. The year 800 witnessed the swal-
lowing up of a very large part of Helgoland
by the Unsuitable element. In SIS the
Rhine by another overflow did more dam
age than ever before, and in SS6 its waters
devastated all the adjoining regions along
its entire course. During the Ninth GEN.
tury the English coasts suffered terribly
from floods, and in 906 al the rivers of
central Europe overfowed their banks and
caused great loss.
The Eleventh century had no less than
forty.seven great floods. At one time fully
1875 geographical square miles of the Meth.
erlands were laid waste. At this time
there also disappeared a number of the lar
ger islands near the southwest coast of the
Baltic, making the entire number swallow
ed up by floods on the same coast from the
time of the Roman occupation to the close
of the Eleventh century, tifteeu-all large
islands.
The loss in human lives through floods
during that century alone was over 1,OOO,
Sc ,11E J.,
during that period were that of 1915, put
ting a large part of Holland under water
and taking more than three years until it's
last traces had finally disappeared; then the
overflow Of the Elbe and Weser, destroying
entire towns along their banks; further, the
inundation of the Pomeraniau coasts in
1914, reaching in places as much as twelve
miles into the country, and
then the fearful floods in the Alpine regions
and Germany in 1860.
In 1106 the old and important town Of
Malamoccas, near Venice, was deVoured by
the Adriatic sea. Other great floods through
overfows of the Rhine and Danube occur
red in 1924, 1850 and 1852, when large
tracts of fruitful lands were devastated and
buildings and numerous lives were destroy
ed in the towns. The year 1862 was anoth-
er sad one for the north of Europe through
lis repeated disastrous floods, taking the
ives of thousands of hnman beings and cat
tie. Again, between the years 1919 and
1924 there were hundreds of towns and vii
lagos destroyed by floods in that part of the
world, and in 1918 single catastrophe of
this kind killed 10000 human beings at
Nordstlaud alone About. Christmas, 1877,
the city of forum and fifty smaller towns
around the mouth of the Ems sank into the
sen.
IN LATER YEARS.
On the 26th of November, 1899, most
enormous flood gave birth to the Zuider sea
and put the Dollart into its press sent shape,
by which mighty revolution Of ature 80,-
900 to 100000 human lives were lost and
many towns were wiped out forever. The
second so called "Marcellus" flood in 1900
twenty eight towns in Sleswick
alone. and with them 1000 human beings.
1t also swept away another half of what
had been left of Helgoland, so that only
about one-fourth of the original island re-
mained. The year 1917 was most re.
markable one in France, Germany and
Austria. All the rivers in these countries
oyerhowed their banks, and the water even
spurted forth from the depths of the earth.
In 1887 large portion of the province of
Iceland, containing seven dioceses and
fourteen villages, were burted beneath the
waters, The year 1342 saw the most dis
astrous of floods which ever visited Ger
many. On the 8th of December the Ger
man ocean leaped, as it were, upon North
Frisia and swallowed up more than 100, 900
men, women and children, together with
all their habitations, scattered through
h,rt1 AiOaooaG from tho 1Sft to
the Goth of November, 1921, 100, 900 people
and Rotterdam, together with seventy-one
villages, of which twenty-five have never
since been seen.
Other calamities happened in those re-
gions in the years 1425, 1449, 1475, 1897,
1900, 1511, 1880, 154I, 1913, 1926, 1884,
1717, 1884, 1903, 1909, 1895 and other years,
destroyed human lives by the hundreds,
thousands and tens of thousands. In Au-
gust, 1866, there were general inundations
in Switzerland, occasioning loss of 200,.
900 forms. The year 1870 was the most
disastrous for Holland. Large tracts of
valuable land were flooded and 400, 600 peo-
pie drowned. In 1911 part of the beauti-
full city of Lyons was torn away by the riv-
er Rhine. The year 1888 saw the destruc-
tion of the proud Armada, 'entailing for the
loss of 10000 men. In 1895, June 4, an
iDundation in Switzerland, caused by the
outbreak of glacier, swept away 500
houses and 145 human beings. Chicago
Times.
The Brightest Jewels
in woman's diadem are her fair, healthy
childan-tha nrida and ornamantg of her