Los Angeles herald. [microfilm reel] (Los Angeles [Calif.]) 1900-1911, 1910-01-28

| (Speclal TO
II ARTS, Jan. 27.-Not since the rev.
/, olution has Paris presented such
L. a scene of horror and devasta-
ton as it does tonight, with the ap-
palling deluge of the Seine pouring
through its avenues and labyrinths.
Reports from Marne, Roane, Cha
| Ions and other cities indicate the most
incredible havoc and desolation.
In Paris tonight over 100000 persons
are without shelter and thousands are
being cared for by the municipal au-
| thorities in public parks and buildings.
| Every moment sees the collapse of
some costly structure. Men and women,
watching their life's accumulations
swept away by the torrents, plod
through the mud and wreckage as if
| insane. Many are wringing their
hands and crying pitifully to the gen.
darmes or soldiers to save some per-
son or thing dear to them. But even
| the gendarmes and soldiers, equipped
as they are with boats, rope and life
| preservers, are able to do but little.
| The flood has reached a proportion
| tinvincible to human resistance.
The waters of the Seine creep slowly
higher each inch widely extending the
area of destruction, desolation and
ruin.
Although the barometer is rising
rapidly and bright sunshine today sue
ceeded the raging storms, feeling of
CONSERVATION bordering on panic pre-
vailed tonight when the authorities,
who yesterday said the maximum of
the flood would come today, announced
this would not be reached until to-
morrow morning.
ConceaIs Gravity
r
are difficult to obatin and the city
council at a stormy session tonight
charged NJ. Lepine, prefect of Paris,
with concealing the gravity of the sit
uation. The prefect defended his atti-
tude by saying he was governed by
the necessity of not alarming the pep
pie ,unduly.
In the meantime, what is happening
is enough to strike terror to the hearts
of ALL The crust of the city seems
ready to sink into the flooded subter-
ranean labyrinth beneath.
Every hour drains are bursting in
new localities, causing subsistence of
the streets or bulging them up several
feet, while the overflow of surface
water from the river is Transforming
the inundated districts into formidable
lakes and the streets into canals.
In the Bercy quarter the water is
six feet deep in the streets and the
entire left bank of the Seine from
above the islands to Auteuil, COM
prising the law court institute, the
fashionable st. Germain district, the
foreign office, the chamber of deupties
and the Champs de Mars is submerged
in from one to ten feet of water.
Some deputies left the Palais Bour-
bon tonight, in rowboats, others on the
backs of attendants.
Walls CrumbIed
Walls of the Invalides station are
crumbled. and that structure, and the
wing of the foreign Office opposite, are
in danger of collapse.
Nevertheless Nine. Pichon, wife of
the foreign minister. held her regular
reception tonight, oil lamps and CRATE
fires being employed in the absence
of steam heat and electricity.
Streets surrounding the st. Lazare
station have sunk three feet and the
situation there is regarder as des-
perate.
1t is also feared that the foundations
of the two big neighboring department
stores are being undermined.
The overflow of the broken sewers
into the flooded Easements menaces the
health of the occupants and the smell
of sewage is already permeating the
buildings.
notwithstanding this. the police to-
night notified househouders, especially
those of the weather. class, who are
usng automobile engines for pumping
purposes, that they must exercise the