Mineral Point tribune. (Mineral Point, Wis.) 1869-1938, 1889-06-20


On the 26th of November, 1882, most
enormous food gave birth to zuider sea
and put the DOllart into its present shape,
by which mighty revolution of nature
10000 TO 100000 human lives were lost
aud pGuy towns were wiped out forever.
The second so-called "Marcellus" Il nod
in 1900 destroyed twenty eight towns in
Sleswiek alone, and with them 1900
human beings. 1t also swept away anoth
er half of what had bee Il ief, of Heligo
land, 80 that only about forth of the
original island remained. The year 1917
was the most remarkable one in France,
Germany, and Austria. All the rivers u
these countries overlooked their bank,
and the water even spurted forth from
the depths of the earth. 10 1887 large
portion of the province of iceland, con
tanning seven dtoceses and fourteen viii
lsges,w as buried beneath the waters. The
year 1912 saw the most disastrous of
p Jods which ever visited Germany. On
the S5h OF December the German ocean
leapeo, a. 1t were, upon North FfisIs and
swallowed up more than 100000 men,
women, and children, together with all
their habilations scattered through
thirty lioceses. Again from the 18Th TO
the goth of November, 1921, 100000 peo
pie were destroyed by food near Dor
treoet and Rotterdam, together with
severty-oDe villages, of which twenty two
have never since been seen.
Similar calamities happend in those re-
gious in the years 1926, l44S, l475, 1897,
1900. 1911, 1880, 154I, 1913. 1925, 1884,
17l7, 1884, 1903, 1909, 1925, and other
years, destroying human lives by the
hundreds, thousands, and tens of thou
sands. In August, 1866, there were
general foundations in Switzerland, &C.
casiOning loss of 100000 forms. The
year 1870 was the most disastrous for
Holland. Large tracks of valuable lands
were flooded aud 400 COO people drowned.
In l471 part of the beautiful city OF
Lyons was torn away by the rifer Rhone.
The ear 1888 saw the destruction of the
proud Armada, entailing the loss of
10000 men. Ia 1896, June 4, an inunda-
ton in Switzerland, caused by the out
break of glacier. swep. away 500 houses
and l45 human beings.
On the 18th aud 18th of October the
Ganges suddenly overfowed all the ad-
joining country, taking the lives of 8O0,-
600 people in one single night. The
food rose 70 a height of forty feet. In
1914, Oct. 29 Nov l, great floods along
the entire range of of the Alps did great
damage. Agremsrbable Il Jod occurred
IN the valley Of the Euphrates in 1881.
In single night 1000 houses and more
than $1,000 lives were destroyed. The
great food in CHINA of the year 1856 is
still remembered by many. 1t took
place in the province of Honsn and cost
100000 lives. Stanley reports gigantic
floods to have taken place in 1871 and
| 1872 in the valley of the Makata river,
! Central Africa. Great damage was done
/ in loss of life and property. most
violent food visited Rengal, in East
India, on Oct. 80, 1876. The water was
driven mp to a height of forty -tive feet,
covering al geographical square miles;
| l45 900 human lives were lost on the oc-
casion. In 1873 during October, the
| Nile swallowed up forty five villages and
| 500 people. The financial loss amounted
to over 100000 francs. The dreadful
inundation of Szegdln, Hungary, in 1870
is fresh in the memory OF all. The loss
was 5000 buildings ard 1900 lives. In
the fall of the same year Spain
was flooded and 1900 souls we're drowned.
| In 1881 the Chinese cities Hoifung and
Tallee well simulated and their
inhabitants found death in the
waters The year 1882 was an tx
traordinsry year for floods. There were
great and disastrous ones in Spain, Italy,
| France, and Tyrol, Germany, and Hun
gary, causing a fearful loss in life and
! property, amounting in one locality of
! Germany alone 70 fully 3, 100000 marks,
nearly S1,000,000.
The floods in our own country in 1883
are still remembered. II was Pennsyl-
vania at that time, too, which suffered
most. The same year witnessed another
great food in India, demanding many
thousand victims. In the following year
il was again our own country which suf-
fered most from the destructive element.
Each of the years since then had one or
more disastrous Fl pods here or there, but
the most dire calamity of this kind in ate
years WAS the inuudation caused by the
overflow OF the Yellow river IN China, by
which over 100000 of people were
drowned and 100000 lost their shelter.
A small inundstion took place there in
1888, which year has charged against it a
number Of floods in several parts of the
world.
But while floods are a common OCCUR
rence'iu all theirfrightful destructiveness
aud frequently mach more fearful in
magnitude than the one We bewail at
present, there is something about the
Johnstown catastrophe which makes it
peculiar peculiarly horrible. Ii Is the
fact that human carelessness, or rather
human reoklessness, seems TO be respousi-
bic for it.
DEATH ON THE TRACK.