The Pacific commercial advertiser. [volume] (Honolulu, Hawaiian Islands) 1885-1921, 1892-04-30
GREAT FIRE IN TOXIC.
Six Thousand Houses in Ashes

Six Thousand Houses in Ashes.
LONDON, April 12-Advices from
Japan state that Toxic, the capital
of the japanese empire, was visited
on Sunday by disastrous confa-
grafton involving great loss of life.
The origin of the fire is not stated,
but it appears to have spread very
rapidly in the older and more
poorly built section of the city, and
did not cease until about 5000
houses had been destroyed, making
many thousand people homeless.
The Police and Fire Department
of Toxic did excellent work and
succeeded in preventing extended
damage to the new and better-built
portion of the capital. The loss of
life was chiefly due to the efforts of
the natives to save their effects.
Many people remained in the dwell
lings till the last moment gathering
their belongings for flight, and were
caught by the flames, which licked
up the unsubstantial structures like
paper. The firemen found great
difficulty in fighting the flames
owing to the half-crazed behavior
of the populace.
1t is probable that at least hun
dred persons persisted in the flames.
So far fifty are known positively to
have lost their lives.
Horrors of the Southern Flood.
COLUMBIA, (Miss.), April ia
belt of country from five to fifteen
miles wide through the country is
one mass of ruined houses, fences
and carcasses of stock, and it is
doubtful if a dozen houses are left
standing in the district. From
1000 to 1900 negroes will be left in
this place when the water subsidies
without one cent and with no
credit and the places that were
formerly their homes nothing but
mud holes.
The impoverished condition of
the whites prevents them from
maintaining the colored people for
long and great suffering will doubt
less follow. A mass meeting OF
citizens was held this afternoon to
devise means to assist the poor
The Mayor was authorized to ask
the Federal Government to lend a
thousand tents for the shelter OF
the homeless.
The food was caused by the
sudden rising of sixteen rivers,
which form a network over north
Mississippi. Rescuers have start
ed out to carry aid to the sufferers.
One raftsman rowed thirty-three
miles last night with twenty-six
bodies piled upon his raft, and
with no light but an oil lantern to
guide him.
The number of the drowned has
reached 1875. When the waters
subside entirely it is thought that
other bodies will be discovered.
1t will be several days yet before
the river gets inside its banks. In
many places it was more than ten
miles wide. Mounds that have
never before been overfowed were
under six and eight feet Of
water. Houses in numbers were
swept away. The water is falling
in the Big Black river.
All the work put on the crops
will be lost. In the overlooked
districts many farmers had almost
finished planting both corn and
cotton.
Fear of Big Floods.
MEMPHIS, (Tenn.), April 49,
The Mississippi river is within one
and a half feet of the danger line
The rise is coming from Cincinnati
and Cairo. The st. Francis basin
is rapidly filing up, and grave
fears are entertained that there
will be a series of disastrous floods
Reports from the waters feeding
the river strengthen this appre.
hension. The levees from Mem.
phis to Vicksburg are in a fairly
good condition, yet they are not
able to stand a great rise. The
plantations below here on the Ark.
ansas side are submerged and the
planted crops of corn are ruined.
Deeming was in Canada.
HALIFAX, April 12.-Deeming
the Australian murderer, was in
Halifax a few years ago on an
alleged gold-mining business. He
showedsa gentleman whom he met
here a letter from Kate O'Dowes
one of the women subsequently
murdered in Whitechapel. The
letter revealed no motive for the
murder of the girl. Deeming went
under two or more aliases in