The Democratic advocate. [volume] (Westminster, Md.) 1865-1972, 1899-09-02
The Texas Floods.


From Philadelphia ga Ledger, July :.
The fact that Governor Savers, Of Texas.
has asked she Federal Government to assist
IN saving life on the flooded lands Of the
Lower Brazos, and 10 send ratious for the
victims of the disaster. Is sufficient evidence
Of It's serious. il not appalling. character 1t
viii take some time 20 gather all the grim
atistIcs OF the visitation. The area covered
by the floods Is so vast that 1t Is probable that
fh. early REPORTS OF the calamity meagrey
u5rtrav the situation. There will be thous-
nutls OF isolated cases of loss, suffering, dis
tress aud death Of which the world will learn
nothing The alarming statement Of the
Tuesday dispatches that strip of farm land
500 miles long and 80 miles wide in the val
lev of the Brazos has been inundated carries
With il the suggestion Of vast destructiou of
property and The loss ofmany lives. Ills 70 be
baped that later intelligence will present the
occurrence IN more favorable aspect. The
disaster will revive the memory OF the Johns
town horror, with It's resultant loss OF over
5000 lives.
Owing 10 the difficulty of escape, the loss
Of ile from floods has been enormous ia his
t0ric tunes IA the aggregate. The story OF
Solne Of these disasters seems beyond belief.
Thus we are told by the thrush Of the sea IN
the Netherlands, on April II, 1921. seventy
tive villages were submerged and l0O, 600
people lost their lives In $780, by another
incursipn of the sea through the dlkeS IN
Holland, It Is said that 100000 persons were
drowned Other notable ealamIties showing
that water has been more destructive to hu-
man life than fire was the devastation in Cata-
lonia. Spain, in l6lT, when $4,000 people
we're drowned; the food in Zealand, in l7l7,
when the fatalities we're 1900; in Navarro, in
l7s7. when 20O0 perisbed; at Lorca, SPaia, IN
Is5l2. when 1000 persons were killed; in Silesia,
in 1918, wecu COCO persisted. and IN Poland, IN
the same year, when 1000 lost their lives.
Ia Mureia. Spain, in 1879. the death record
from this cause reached 1000. Many thous
auds Of lives have been lost in this way in
China aud other countries, where no attempt
VS. made to secure accurate figures.
Il i, of course. impossible 20 fix approx
mately the aggregate property loss from inun-
daiiouS. II IS roughly estimated that the
value of the property destroyed al Johnstown
was more than SlO,OO0,0 600. Galveston sut-
lered u loss in excess of $1,000, 600 by the
storm Of August 20. 1856. Probably the most
remarkable destruction OF houses by food in
Europe was that wrought at Szegedin, Hun
gary March II and -, 1879 when $500
dwellings were swept away. Thousands be-
came homeless, but only seventy seven were
drowned. The destruction of numerous VII
lages in Mill River Valley, Massachusetts, in
1874, remained, until the Johnstown horror,
the most serious catastrophe arising from the
bursting ola reservoir.
According to the record OF disasters in the
United States kept by the Chicago Tribune,
tue loss Of life in the country from fires IN
1898 was 1870, while the fatalities from
drowning were BIG.
The suffering occasioned by storm and flood
can scarcely be guarded against by human
provision. 1t, therefore, appeals strongly to
public sympathy. Towns have been destroyed
by fire for the reason that they were not pro
vided with efficient fire apparatus or an ade-
quate water supply, but nothing will stay the
iuroads of the water in the lowlandS in GER
tain parts of the country.