St. Paul daily globe. [volume] (Saint Paul, Minn.) 1884-1896, 1889-06-09
TOPICAL TALK.

TOPICAL TALK.
This country has never had such calam-
ity as the COnemaugh flood, and yet during
the Christian era there have been full 100
foundations in the countries of the old world
that will compare with the COnemaugh dis
aster. While the Conemaugh calamity is
still so fresh in mind it becomes matter OF
interest to recall some of the foundations
and floods that became memorable In the
history of the old world. OF such as are
fully authenticated in history, England,
France, Holland, Germany, Austria and
China have been the scenes. The first re-
corded instance is of an invasion of the sea,
A. D. 352, when the town of Cheshire, Eng
land, was inundated. and 5000 persons per-
ished. On the 18th of April, 1921, the sea
broke through the bikes at Dart submerging
seventy-two towns and cities and drowning
100000 people. A similar disaster occurred
again in Holland in 1880, when the number
of the drowned is said to have reached 400
900. In 1917 Catalonia, in Spain, was in
undated, and $4,000 people found watery
graves. Cloudbursts and heavy rains have
been more destructive to property than in
undalions by sea, but the loss of life is
not usually so great. The great floods
of the present century have been as follows:
In 1902 Lorca, Spain, was destroyed by the
giving way of a reservoir, and 1000 per-
sons were drowned. In 1911 an overflow OF
the Danube swept away "a villages in Hull
gary. In 1913 an overflow of the Danube
swept away a Turkish corps of 1000 men
who were quartered on an island near Widln,
and during the same storm 5000 1nhab-
itants of Silesia were drowned; in Poland,
also. 1000 lives were lost, and the ruin Of
the French army under MACDONALD accel-
Grated by the floods. In 1888 Canton,
China, was inundated. 10000 houses were
swept away, and many persons drowned. In
1910 the cities of Lyons, Avignon and Mar
settles, in France, were submerged, and
great destruction of property without great
loss of life. In 1916 about $50 persons lost
their lives by the bursting Of reservoir at
Bradford. England. In l849 New Orleans
was submerged by rise in the Mississippi,
causing great privation and considerable
loss of life. The memorable Mill River dis
aster. near Northampton, Mass. occurred
May 16, 1874 when several villages were
destroyed and $50 persons drowned, from
, the bursting of dam. 1t resembled closely
Z the Johnstown calamity in all save
the loss OF life. In July of the same
year Eureka, New, was swept by water
spout and thirty persons drowned. A flood
.at Pittsburg the same year swept down 20
persons to their death. In 1878 floods in
France destroyed large part of Toulouse.
and nearly ZOO persons persisted. In 1879
Spain. Hungary and Northern Italy were
again swept by floods. causing great destruc-
ton to property and the loss of 1000 lives.
In 1882 the lower Mississippi valley was in
undated, when the mighty river burst all
bonds and spread over the country on both
sides, from st. Louis to the Gulf of Mexico,
making in some places an inland sea over
100 miles wide. But the greatest flood of
history was the overflow of the Yellow river
in China two years ago. when 100000
persisted in the waters, and over 3.OO0, OOO
more were driven from their ruined homes.
H1H
Providence protects the officeseeker.
Among the passengers who escaped from the
train that was swept away in the Johnstown
flood was Mrs. NJ. j. BLAIDsELL, better
known in these parts as "The Minnesota
Blizzard'' Mrs. BLAIDsELL was on her way
to Washington. in hunt of government
Office, and now it will be worth an hour of
anybodys time to hear her tell her flood ex-
periences.
A new possibility opens up for the girl of
the period. During the recent wars in Chill,
when the men were all in the army, all
classes of work were performed by the
women 1t is said they were especially sue
cessful in the management of the street car
service, and. when the wars were over the
female conductors were retained on the
ground that they were more efficient than
men, The st. Paul Street Railway company
might risk the experiment of employing fe-
male conductors on the horse lines in this
city.
H1H
One terribly stormy night in July. 1881,
passenger train was saved from destruction
at wrecked railway bridge over the Des
Moines river by the heroism Of KATE Shell
LEY, a fifteen-year-old girl. am reminded
of the incident by seeing paragraph in
newspaper that Miss SHELLEY is featuring in
Iowa towns, giving a history Of her ex-
periences that night and that her reason for
taking the lecture field is that she is trying to
raise money to pay off mortgage on her
mothers farm 1t occurs to me that each
one of the passengers who were saved that
night ought to buy ticket to her lecture, and
that the railroad company could afford to
take whole row of seats.
f1f
The council hall in the new court house is
magnificent apartment, but as l satthere
the other night during council meeting, and
looked around upon the superb ornamental
ton. wondered if we Americans would ever
learn to blend utility with beauty. The
acoustics of the hall are so faulty that man
can't hear himself talk. 1t was the first time
lever saw Tom PRENDERGRAsTp aralyZed. He
commenced to cali the roll In his usual facile
style. but before he got half through he
stopped in amazement and was peeping
around tie room to see what had become Of
his voice. The trouble is that the ceiling is
too high for the size Of the room. If stretch
ing wires across midway between the floor
and ceiling will not help the acoustics then
the only remedy I can suggest would be to
put bellows under the presidents desk and