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AMERICA ON AUSTRALIA
'EXCURSIONS AND
ALARMS.'
HEART-RENDING CALAMI
TIES.
One always has to go abroad to
hear the truth about oneself — at
least, generally (remarks a Sydney
contemporary). There is the
Boston Post of April 4 to bear the
adage out. Unless the Boston Post
had told us so, who would have
known that we had been visited
by calamities and afflictions un
precedented in the history of the
world almost? But you can't
detect these things on the spot;
yon have to' go a little way off to
get at the truth. Listen to the
Post : — ' The inexorable forces of
nature seem to have placed almost
the entire continent of Australia
under a scourge. . . . Eecent
reports tell of a widespread epi
demic of typhoid fever. Almost
all the wells in many districts were
dried, and creeks and rivers ceased
to flow. Awaterfaminezesulted,and
the inhabitants werecompelled to use
impure water. . . After the heat
and storm came earthquakes. . In
Bourke 35 people died in one
week of heat apoplexy. People fellin
the streets and died, without regain
ing consciousness. (Note — People
also fell in the streets and regained
^iWUB^iv^inin him, iixvuvuu J L, I
Many people were found after the
heat was over, dead in the country
roads and in the fields. The residents
of the plains fled to the mountains
panic-stricken. . . . Millions
of fish perished ' in the lakes
throughout the country because of
the water drying up. The pelican
profited rather than suffered by
the heat (noble touch). . . *.
The wax cells of beehives melted,
«nd imprisoned large numbers of
? bees which were then smothered in
their own sweetness (playful). .
. . . At Paynehan (where is
it?) the English Church one of
the finest structures in the
colony, was levelled to the ground
by the cyclonic gale and the
succeeding floods. .... It will
doubtless be many weeks before
the complete story of Australia's
extraordinary climatic scourge is
learned,' concludes the Post.' But
why ? One would think 'that a
really earnest employe of the Post,
determined to give his paper value
for money, would be able to do the
thing in an hour or bo. Why
should America wait ?
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