A Terrible Flood

Details ot toe üestruction In (Janton, Clima, and vieinity by a reeent great rain storm there, have been recelved in Washington. The flood was the most serious whieh has visited Cantón in thirty years. More than 10,C03 persons lost their lïves, and a far greater number are lef t in a starving condition. Entire villages were engulfed and the rice and silk crops in the vieinity were almost ruined. The price oí rice has been raised eighteen per cent. in eonsequenee oí the loss of the erop. The rain feil tne latter part of June, fllling and overilowing all the rivers. Many of the streets of Cantón were fiooded for over a week. At Sezni City the water broke through the city wall. It is reported that severa! thousand people were drowned in that place. Embankments of rivers were broken in numerous places, and the water sweot across the surrounding country, carrying eTerything before it. A forelgner, who was an eye-witness of the scènes of devastation, reports one night the boat he occupied anehored near a bamboo grove. By morning tbe water had risen to thé tops of the bambaoa. At other points it rose as high us 40 feet during the night time. The inhabitants fied from the villages and camped on hillsides. At Kun In, a market place, situated near an embankmeni of one of the streams connected with the rivei which brings water from the North and AVest rivers, the majority of the inliabitants were drowned by water breaklag through the erabankment. Some eseaped lo a pitee of rising ground in the neighbornood, but the water con tinued to rise and gradually overlapped the ele vation, drowning thos3 w:ho stood upon it. Seventeen Chinese graduates in Cantón, hearing of the distress and suffering prevalènt in their native villages, took ]. assage on a boat with a view to proceeding home to render what assistance the could. On the way the boat was eapsized and ali wbo were in it were drowned. Insomo places parents tied their eh l.iren on high braches of trees whilst thev in4ituted measures for their areneral safetv. The trees wera washed up by the roots and the heart-rendering cries oí cnildren were süenced in the Borging water. The body of a bride dressed in her bridal robes was found float:n"; in the river at Cantón. A large tub was also seen. It was picked up and found to contain a boy and a girl. With them was found a paper stating their names, day and hour of their birth. The parents had instituted this means to save the lives of their offspring. The wr.ter adds that suffering which thóusanrls are enduring ia heart-rendering, parents replyin'i with tears in their eyès to their ch'ldren s requegt for food that they had none. The people are obligedta use the fllthiest water, and this, ;d led to the diseases which will ensue npon the subsidenct of the waters, will gTeatly aggravate the horrors of the situation. Meanthne all that is be ing done by the inhabitan's to abate their misery is the beating of gongs, burningof in eense and howling of prayers to iüols. '