The daily morning journal and courier., 1906-09-22

The houses dlUnS LIlo South "HA VI the cAy by which the big river flows, were under water to their caves, many of the less solid ones being either gut ted or destroyed. Where the strong current was abetted by small angles, even substantial buildings gave way and solid masonry was badly wrenched. It is here that the greatest damage was done, both to life and to property. Here families were drowned in their own garrets, and many bodies were lost beneath the mud and wreck age.
 Here, too, are the largest warehouses. Suifu being the natural river port for a large part of the Province of Yunan, lying to the south, although 1t is not situated in that province, constantly has large quantities of merchandise Of one sort and another awaiting ship Iment. The street outside the wall and on the river front is composed almost entirely of buildings in which this bus mess is done and these goods are stored. Large values were thus entire- ly swept away It is said that of opi- um alone enough was lost to buy out
 over half the city-a city of forty thou
 sand families.
 But the damage did not end outside the city, The water entered the high south gate, perhaps twenty feet above winter level, and at distance over six hundred yards from the wall the pe-
 destrian had to wade in several inches of water. At one place during the
 worst of the storm coollie, losing his l footing, fell, was held down by his
 load, got into a culvert and was
 drawned-this on a street of the city
 inside the wall! After the water rece-
 ded the floors of many houses at con-
 siderable distance from the river looked more like mud gutters than anything else. And from the amount
 of herbs, cotton, bedding, clothing and
 other articles placed in the streets to
 dry after the catastrophe, one is con
 vinced that large part of the city
 must have been drenched,
 When the extent of the danger was lrealized the officials of the city, coming
 in solemn procession to the waters
 edge and kneeling With their heads
 touching tho ground besought the riy-
 CT to desist. They even threw in their buttons, the emblems of literary de-
 grees and ranks of office. But it was
 all to no effect; the flood was still
 greedy for its prey.
 A high piece of ground on the Min
 river, eight or ten miles above the city, must have been the scene of cruel
 tragedy. Being above village that
 was low, 1t became the refuge of the
 families as they were driven from their ! homes. Gradually it became surround
 ed, the people on it being slowly
 crowded together at its center, which
 was the highest, At last that was
 covered, and the poor unfortunates cut
 off from all escape, perished to the
 number of more than hundred.
 But the practical minded Chinaman
 lost no time in turning disaster into
 profit wherever possible. Men along
 the shore pulled in whatever they could reach. Where eddies favored 1t boats were used to collect the debris, , Ithe reckless boatmen often getting caught in swirls that spun their small 1 craft around like tops. Many families ) lin this way laid in enough firewood to , fcarry them well into the coming win ter. Doors and windows ready made were seized by others to improve the , equipment of their houses. At one
 one place on the shore two coolies [ pulled in an unused coffin, always a valuable asset in China, and at once | began to calculate their profits from Eits sale. Not a minute of opportunity l was lost by those who had it, in spite 1 Iof the fact that whole houses were 1 coming down stream and barn-yard stock as well as few people were : ahoat on wreckage. These latter il 7 was quite impossible to attempt to res l cut, for by strange fatality they
 seemed always to miss the eddies an( F keep in mid-stream, the wreckag' f eventually going to pieces in bad Wa :, ter.
 { It is hard to get satisfactory gaug' . of the proportions of the flood fol P American readers but a few thing n may help to indicate them. The rail a stopped about four o'clock on Wednes day afternoon, and by ten o'clock th S next morning the water had fallel q lmore than ten feet. But at this time 4 ferryman, who usually charges fiv V leash a passenger, collected two hun
 dred cash. Since a cash has about tn .- same purchasing power as a cent il " the United States, it is fair to say tha . conditions were the same as would b h necessary to raise street-car fare t 6 1.-two dollars in Chicago or New York The unusualness of a flood of this sig " is shown by the fact that the loca h prefectural records, which are com " plete for five hundred years, record bu "a one similar to this, one which occurre ' forty-one or forty-two years ago, an 10 fell short of the point reached this yea - by thirteen feet.
 a But the most accurate measurement = is that given by the British warshi ,- Widgeon, lying at this time in the Mil ,o just off the east gate of Suifu. Car ,s tain Simpson says that when he firs 'd arrived about three weeks before tt ,a flood. he anchored beside sand-banl ,o the river then being high, yet belo n, high level.
 70 After the flood and when the watt i,s had gone down about eight feet he ca '' culated that he was directly over tn ,o bank, his soundings showing depth ~ ten fathoms He believes it no exal . geration to say that there was ri lin the river after he arrived of eight! ~ seven feet. Recollecting that when ~. arrived the water was onescore or twt ls score feet above the low water of vii 9c for ona Is brought to realize somethir