The Washburn leader. [volume] (Washburn, McLean County, N.D.) 1890-1986, 1891-09-19
The Floods in Spain.

The Floods in Spain.
MADRID, Sept. 15.-The OVERLOOKING
of the. Oonsuegra threatens to cause
further damage. Two-thirds of the
houses practically destroyed are still
standing, but their foundations are
shaky and they threaten to fall at any
moment. The families saved from
drowning are. camped near the dwell.
ings formerly occupied by them, and
are in the greatest distress from want OF
food. An estimate classed as a moderate
one, and which is within rather than
over the actual number, places the total
of the death list at 1000. A large mum.
Der of corpses still rest where they were
found, and unless they r 0 o inferred
an epidemic of fever is feared. The
municipal and government authorities
are exerting themselves to the utmost
in order to relieve the extreme distress
existing. So far as possible the bodies
of the drowned are being gathered from
the streams, mud banks and ruins and
are being buried in trenches dug for
their reception. Many of the bodies
found are entirely nude, showing that
they must have been washed
from their beds, or else in the
hurry to escape were drowned.
the people must have jumped in night
dress from the windows Of the houses
cnly to meet death in the swollen waters
surging around them. Sorrow and
% ivation, mourning and dissolution are
to be met with everywhere through the
Inundated provinces and from one end
OF Spain to the other prayers are ut
tered for the dead and collections are
being taken up for the living. Already
tie river banks near the 9 of the
most severely visited districts heart.
rending occurrences are witnessed
hourly as survivors of the almost exter-
minated families recognize their dead
and try to save them from consignment
to the common death trench. The ut.
most praise is due to troops, physicians
and clergy. and to the Sisters of Charity
who, in this emergency have shown
themselves to be almost s%uperhuman.
ROP ARE GONE, s.
cattle swept away, houses and house.
hold furniture burned, and all that
would enable them to earn their bread
has vanished. Extreme distress and
positively ravenous feeling of starvation
prevailing in many sections Of the food
devastated country has another aud if
possible a blacker side. The gripings
Of hunger, the wailing of starving
women and children have, in several
instances, driven men to desperation
and they have been goaded to pillage
their luckier or more wealthy com.
panions. Bands of desperate men de-
terminpd to obtain Dread at any cost for
their destitute, hungry frmilies have
been driven to make raids upon and
pillage buildings where they expected
to find food. In some cases the rioters
were successful in obtaining a limited
supply of -four, wheat and corn. In
most cases they found that they had had
their troubles for nothing and that all
the food had long ago been removed to
Q place of safety or else distributed or
3 Id to the starving peasantry of the
neighborhood. The troops have been
instructed to take the most severe meas
ures to protect property. Two thousand
b )xes of army Dread have already ar
rived in the flooded district and the
commisarat corps of all the military
divisions are working might and day to
supply provisions to the starving people.
When the government delegate in
charge of the first consignment of bread
from the army bakers arrived in the
flooded country he. witnessed q SO n
which would have impaired to q heart If
stone q feeling of sympathy. On all
sides he was beset by Vanishing in
habitants. young and old. male and
female, q majority half naked OF clad in
rags, and most Of them on their knees
with hands uplifted, praying
for succor. The feverish clamor
of these poor people made the work
of distribution slow and painful, and
when all the bread was gone there still
remained many mouths untitled. Many
sufferers had not been able to obtain
even the smallest portion of this limited
relief. At Atmeria, the capital of the
province OF that name, the number of
dead. as in many other places. il still
unknown, but it is admitted 500 houses
have been destroyed and that q large
number of people have perished. OF
course, it ID impossible at present to get
the full details of the food disaster, but
in addition ,tothe places already referred
Ia. at Andraise, the stream has over
flowed and is running the grape o
The villages of Puro, Lapishe and Villa
France, in the province Of Oindad Reat
have been severely rsvaged by the food.
Accounts from Consuegra are appall-
ing in the extreme. The town lie 9 heap
Of ruins. surrounded by q vast expanse
of water. leaving here and there tree.
tops. ohimneys, and floating wreckage
Of all kinds. The police have suppressed
the pi1laging. Food is arriving Tor the
suffarera The burial Of the victims
proceeds, and with the constant disooy.
cry Of fresh corpses it will be long be-
fore the mournful task is ended. IL is
estimated that so, 600 head Of horses and
stock have been drowned.
The Gilliland brothers were arrested
at Somerset, Ky, charged with the NM.