Littell's Living Age/Volume 115/Issue 1489/Flooding of the Po

Despatches from the inundated districts of Italy give a melancholy picture of their present condition. Trees lie flat on the ground, rooted up by the force of the floods. The meadows and fields are strewn with sand and stones. One-third of the houses facing the river at Casalmaggiore are entirely covered by the water. Those which are not destroyed are abandoned. The wealthy have fled the neighbourhood; the poor wander about, trusting to charity for their subsistence. No such inundation of the Po, a correspondent of the Daily News says, has been seen during the present century. The full extent of the waste and ruin caused by the inundation, the same writer says, cannot yet be estimated, but the work of restoring the banks of the Po will probably cost the Government £200,000. The Italian soldiers are said to have behaved with great courage and energy. The King leaves Rome for Naples on Saturday, and returns on the 20th inst.