The Marion daily mirror. (Marion, Ohio) 1892-1912, 1910-01-29
ONE-FOURTH or
PARIS FLOODED
Weather Clears and End Is
Now In Sight.
CITIZENS IN DISTRESS

Seine They Are Without Shelter or
Clothing = Temperature Falls and
Adds to Their Discomfiture-Food
Prices Soar Skyward and Many Go
Hungry-Red Cross Society Appeals
To Americans For Assistance.
Paris, Jan. 29-Early this morning
1t was officially announced that the
river Seine here is stationary and
that its tributaries continue to fall
The situation continues to improve
hourly, the change in the weather.
which suddenly cleared, being credit
ed with the decided change for the
better.
The temperature also dropped and
the wind veered to the eastward. The
Improvement, from appearances, will
not be merely temporary. The anx.
ious OFFICIALS are convinced that the
end Is m sight and that the waters
will begin to recede today. Late last
night crowd attacked two stores In
the temple district, the owners of
which were demanding high prices
for food
After a slow, but steady rise of the
flood waters, the fluvial department
could issue only a statement saying
that 1t was probable the crest of the
turbulent flood would be reached to-
day. 1he water has begun to fall in
all of the afiluents of the Seine above
Paris, but the passage through the
city Is clogged by bridges and an i'm
mense accumulation of drift, and the
seething waters hourly are spreading
over new areas. Choked underground
rivers and sewers are bursting their
confines and playing havoc with the
streets, swamping more cellars and
threatening foundations of buildings.
A story of the details of the great
est flood that has swept Paris in
years would simply be repetition of
what has gone before. Last night the
city presented weird spectacle, the
soldiers, sailors, firemen and police
hastily constructing temporary walls
by the light of camp fires and torches
in an endeavor to keep out the invad.
ing floods, while pickets patrolled the
sections of the city which are plunged
in darkness by the bursting OF the
gas mains and the stopage of the
electric lighting plants.
The situation in the Place de POp-
era is grave. The entire territory
has been roped off, being unsafe. It
is stated also that the new Equitable
Life Assurance Society building is in
danger of collapse.
Charitable organizations are coop
Grating with the authorities in throw
ing open their buildings and succoT.
ing refugees. Several converts and
a number of public buildings have
been equipped with military cots and
bedding and transformed into hospit-
ais. The Red Cross is performing
splendid service in distributing food
and clothing.
Nevertheless numerous pitful In
stances are cited of women and chill
dren, who had refused to leave their
homes in the submerged districts,
shrieking from their windows for
bread
It is difficult to present a mental
picture of the geographical limits of
the submerged area of Paris. but
roughly speaking, it is estimated that
the surface inundated from the Seine,
which must not be confounded with
the overflow in the back streets from
burst sewers and subterranean rivers,
covers about nine square miles, or
one-quarter of the city.
The fear that pestilence will stalk
in the wake of the food is great and
arrangements are being perfected to
insure the prompt disinfection and
cleaning of the city as soon as the
waters subside.
A touching evidence of the condi-
tions above the city came in the
shape of an urgent appeal from Char
enton for food and fresh clothing for
1000 babies rescued at Alfortyille and
IvTy, and who have been without
clothing for four days. The prices
of necessaries are advancing by leaps
and bounds, as the paralysis of trans
poration facilities entering the city
extends.