The herald-advance. (Milbank, S.D.) 1890-1922, 1910-02-04
DRIVING RAIN SINKS HOPE IN
HEARTS OF SUFFERERS or
BELEAGUERED CAPITAL.
CITY Is A MASS OF Ruins
Army Of Masons at Work Building
Wall to Divert Waters.-J. p.
Morgan Offers $4,000 to
Be Used in Relief.

Paris, France.-When the day broke
over Paris anu the submerged prov
inces surrounding, the prospect was a
cherries me. A heavy rain had set in
and a gale of wind out of the north
served to drive the flood to points
which heretofore had escaped it's in
vasion.
Wire Communication Difficult.
Telegraph communication with the
outside world is extremely defective,
and at times wholly interrupted.
There is no direct communication be-
tween this city and England. and mes
sages for central Europe were divert
ed through indirect routes.
A great force of masons are still
at work in the erection of a wall,
which it was hoped would divert the
flood from the historic Hotel Lam
bert and the famous Hotel lAuzum adj
joining. Both of these houses were
built in the seventeenth century, the
Hotel IAuzun having been purchased
by the city ten years ago and made
owe as a museum of art.
shNS W. .0LoIS tuOII0dkSOs
The Rue st. LaZare was inundated
throughout its extent, the water hay
ing found its way up through the sub
way. The roof of the subway under
the Place de rOpera fell in during the
night.
The River Seine continues to rise
early and lacked only a few inches
of attaining the greatest flood max
imum on record. This was in 1915,
and when the country was without
the modern barriers which are de-
signed to protect Paris and nearby
points in such emergencies.
At the Place Pereire the main drain
exploded, flooding the subway and the
workmen inside narrowly escaped
with their lives. Another main broke
emptying it's contents into the base
ment of the principal market and de-
stroying the entire reserve stock Of
provisions.
Penetrates Heart Of City.
The devastation has now penetrat-
ed he very heart of Paris, the gorg-
ing rivers and sewers underneath lit
orally blowing up the streets, while
the area of the surface overlooked by
the waters of the Seine had been
doubled. Twelve of the % bridges
over the river have been closed and
the quays on either side from one end
OF the city to the other are either in
undated or have been roped off as I'M
safe.
The Esplanade des Invalides is a
sheet of water. The turgid flood crept
back almost to the Jardin du Luxem-
bourg, on the left bank, and invaded
the Place de la Concorde, which was
closed and guarded by soldiers, and
the lower Champs Elysee, on the right
bank. The Palai de Glace and other
pleasure resorts and restaurants are
surrounded, even the Place de IOpera
at the core of the city threatening
to sink to the subway beneath.
Taft Offers Sympathy.
Washington, d. c. - President
Taft has sent a telegram to President
Fallieries, of France, expressing the
sympathy Of the American people for
the flood sufferers of Paris, and has
rendered him needed relief through
the National Red Cross. The state de-
partment has also sent a telegram to
Ambassador Bacon, asking whether
Red Cross contributions for the relief
o the flood sufferers in Paris and in
the French provinces were needed and
would be acceptable to the nation and
people. President Taft's telegram to
President Fallieries is as follows:
us there any IN which,
through the national Red Cross or
otherwise, appropriate expression
could be made of the sympathetic dis
tress with which the people and gov
eminent of the United States learn of
the reported calamities that floods are
causing your beautiful and historic
capital, as we'll as in the provinces of
France? Meanwhile l offer you the
sincerest sympathy and the most ar
dent wishes that the cause of these
disasters may soon abate."