The Yazoo City Whig. [volume] (Yazoo, Miss.) 1844-1851, 1846-09-18

the streams broke over their banks bearing q
houses and calle away on their maddened I
bosoms. Wealth vas destroyed and lives I
lost, till men liked Of ruined fortunes, fam>
inc and general desolation; but still il rained ,
on. Week after week il came pouring from
the clouds, ill il was like one falling sheet
of water, and The inhaFitants could no LONGER
stir from their doors. The rich valleys that
lay along the rivers were flooded, and the
peasants had sought the eminences around
Tor safety. Yet still the water rose ToJnd
! .Ieln. till all through the valley nothing but
little black islands Of human beings were
seen on the suface. Oh. then what fierce
Struggles there were for life among ihcm.
The mother lifted her infant above her head,
while she slrove to maintain her uncertain
footing in the sweeping waters, The. strong
crowded off the weak, as each sought for
the highest point; while the living mass Slows
ly crumbled away till the water swept smooth
and noiselessly above them all. Men were
heard talking Of the number OF lives lost and
the amount of wealth destroyed, and that
such food had not happened in the remeth-
brance Ofthe Oldest man. No one yet dreams
ed Of high grounds being covered, least Of all
the mountains. To drown the world il must
rain ill the ocean itself was filed above lis
level for miles and so men feared it not,
land sought for amusement within doors ill
the storm should abGte: Oh, what scenes OF
vice, and shame, and brutality, and revely,
did that storm witness in the thronged city,
and what unhallOwed songs mingled in.the
pauses Of the blast that swept by.
But at length: another sound was head
that sent paleness 10 every cheek. and chain
ed every tongue in mute terror. Il was
far distant roar, faint hut fearful, yet sound.
, ing more distinct and ominous every moment
till it filed the air. The earth lrembied
and groaned under il as if an earthquake
was on its march, and ever and anon came
4 crash as if the ''ribs ornatnre" were braek
ing. Nearer, and louder, and more terrible
/, il grew, ill men, forgetting alike their pleas
u'e and anger, rushed out in the storm " hrs
q pering, "The food, the aood''-and 10, a
: new sea, the life of which no man had ever
4 seen before, came rolling over the crOuching
n ca til. Stretching from horizon TO horizon,
! as far as the eye could reach, losing itself
), like limitIess wall in the clouds above,
y il came pouring its green and massive waters
!. onward, while the continued and rapid crash
= of falling forests, and crushed and uptOrH
: mountains, that fell one after another in it:
= passage, ard the successive shrieks tha
!. pierced the heavens, rising even above The
! deafening roar of tho Onrushing ocean, q
8 lefty after city, and Kingdom afler kin don
4 disappoAsoa,s1 80 .srene OF IeII0f ana zorro
3 IinconcstvaBlss Ind sscFtbable. Tie feada
;, lions Of tie great deep Dere brokea %.
m But the lasl cry Of human agony was a
), length hushed-~ocean met ocean in its flow
r and the waves swept on without shore
Oh, what wreck was there! tho wreck o
"A two thousand years, with its cities, its cult
: waited fields, and mighty population. No
: shivered masis and broken tmbeFs, The
!. wreck Of some gallant vessel, were seen OF
- that turbulant surface, but the fragment
a Of crushed and broken world! 1t was
- noble wreck-splendid cities and towers
: gorgeous palaces, gay apparel, the .accum
az mula ted wealth aud luxury Of twenty centu
: ries stEeVing the bosom of the deluge, lik
: autumn leaves the surface of some fores
~ stream.
I'd But amid the sudden midnight that ha
n. wrapped the earth, and the frenzy of the ell
er ements and utter overthrow and chaos Of al
he things there vas one heart that beat as calm
ey ~ as in sleep; for in the solitary ark tha
re lifted to the heaving biliow, the aged patri
lV. arch kneli ia prayer. Amid the surging
he the fierce ocean his voice may not have bee
ey heard by mortal ear, but the light faith shon
,et around bis aged form, and the moving /
ish spoke a renose as tranquil as childhoOd's q
mt the bosom of maternal love. The patriarch
ed God ruled that wild scene, and Noah felt b
itg frail vessel culver IN every timber. Wltho'
as one tremoF himself. Upborne on the foo
-
hat cities and mountains, and Hoated away
of the shoreloss deep. Like a single drop
III. dew this round sphere of ours hung al
the tFembled--a globe of water in mid heave
the Ihave often wondered what the conveFsatio
,az. were during the long days and nights tn
esh lonly ark was riding on The deep As
tri~ rose and fell on the long proiracted swe
was massive ruins would 60 numbering bY,whC
sat forests sink and rise with the pillows, wa
J 10 ever and anon an uptOrn hill. as borne ale
rent by the Eeslstless tide il struck . bur-
ger. mountain. would loom Cor . mOment q
and some black monster over the waves Il
In plunge again 20 the fa:homless bottC
med Amid this wreck and these sights the
leeD sailed on In saiegg. How often ID imma
hear nation have pictured il in thesdelage
lows midnight. To aspectatoE what an. object
song interest i would have been. Round the Y
the earth The light rom re solitary windows
past, lhe only Indication OF hte that remained
.hof Dne moment q would be seen Tar Up
! nj, the crest of che blow, a mere speck Of IA
hing amid The iInssless darkness thai envToI
idea Is and then disappear in the guilt below
affair il exiinguished forever. Thus that GEL
] day light would sink aud rise On The breast
gone the delngs, the last, The only hope OF
Segef human race. Helmless, and apparently ca
rcast, less, rs wreck seemed ineyieahies but
b The seasllke beam, that told where the ark
vel. doaled Not even the strong wind
4 HE The Almiphfv sent over the water 10 III