Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1895-11-15
GREAT RANGE OF THE DROUGHT
1t Has Caused Great Disaster I'm Many
Parts of tho World.

Parts of tho World.
| From the New York Sun.
| The long drought which has caused so
| much inconvenience and damage this fall
seems to have prevailed all round the
| world. IL not in every part Of it. Europe
has experienced 1t almost equally with this
country. and in Australia it has been, IL
anything, more severe than here. So great
was the distress in New South Wales that
| the government appointed Sunday in
September as a day Of prayer for rain.
| and special services in accord with the
proclamation were held in all the churches
| of every denomination IN Sydney and
| throughout the province.
the drought occurred, of course, in the
| antipodean spring. and greatly retarded
| planting operations, as well as doing great
general damage. In many districts the
| grass was literally burned OFF the baked
earth. and the mortality among stock was
great The railway trains carried supplies
or water from lakes and rivers to all
| stricken points along the lines, selling 1t
at the rate of % cents a thousand gallons.
The water supply of many towns entirely
failed, the Inconvenience experienced was
everywhere acute, and many agriculturfsts
| were ruined. When the last mail left.
| some four weeks ego. the drought was un-
broken in many districts.
All through our own south the drought
has been remarkable in its length, and
some odd situations have occurred In
Kentucky the beds of many streams that
have never before been dry are now full
of dust, the mud having become baked
hard and then broken by the wind. 1t Is
queer sight to clouds of dust blowing
up from the rivers and creeks, or what
used to be rivers and creeks. At Union
town, KY, the Ohio is so low that an cid
coal Vein under the river bed is being
were being taken out daily at last ac-
counts. In many places along the Ohio,
| Mississippi and other streams old wrecks
have been uncovered by the lowering of
| the water. and the residents along the
| banks have recovered lots of more or less
valuable cargo and junk. At Milton. KY.
| there is big sandbar on which many
big barge of coal has struck and foundered.
This bar was entirely uncovered recently,
and the people living nearby went to work
with ordinary field plows and turned up
| tons of coal.
In Maine and other eastern states the
drought has been very severe. Mills of all
kinds have had to shut down. towns have
been left in darkness for many days be-
cause of insufficient water for running the
electric light works, and the agriculturist
and the average citizen have suffered
dreadfully. Wells and creeks that have
never before known to be dry have heen
| dry for weeks now. Among other things
the ice crop promises to be short, because
lots of lakes have gone almost dry, and
| there is no water to freeze.
These general conditions have existed all
| over the continent, and in the northwest
| the situation is as bad as in the east and
south. The Columbia river is lower than
ever before known, and on many smaller
| streams navigation has been suspended be-
| cause of low water Navigation is suffer-
| ing from the drought in two ways in the
Puget Sound region. Not only is the water
so low in the rivers that the steamboats,
| can't get up or down, but the woods, dried
up like finder by the drought, are burning
| in every direction, and the whole sound
| country is covered with dense smoke. The
| steamboats, and other vessels have to keep
| their fog horns and bells going all the time,
| and there are numerous cases of collision
and of boats running aground But one or
| two showers have fallen in that region
since last June. In some parts of tie
| country the drought has been partially
| broken, but in most places the distress is
as severe as ever.
| Alaska seems to have escaped the general
| dryness. According to all accounts Alaska
| is usually one of the wettest regions on
| earth, and the drought has not affected i:
| appreciably. Mr.. Martin w. German, a
wel-kro wn botanist Of Oregon, spent the
| summer travelling over Alaska, and says
! that an average of half dozen fine days
| in month was the usual thing. During
| August and September he only experienced
| five fine days.