The herald and mail. [volume] (Columbia, Tenn.) 1873-188?, 1874-05-15
THE WASTE OF WATER.
People Living ON Rats Twenty Miles
from Land-WhOIe Towns Submerged.

| uO pt1ObS Ol TIC S1bJ OA
report the country back of Australia IL
undated, probably from Hushpuckan
crevasse. DR.. Tibbetts' plantation, jus
below Lake Providence, and Vester'
and fuckers plantations, just above
are overfowed. It is also stated tina
back of Burch's lake there is much sui
fering and destit1tion not heretofor
reported. Throughout the inundate,
region stock is huddled together on tn
tops of levees or narrow strips of land
and those not starving are gradual
killed by the buffalo gnats.
The pilots of the John Kilgour repOr
water falling along the coast beloI
tNatcheZ, but it should be borne in min'
that the sufferings of the people vii
noEend with the decline of the winter
as very many of them have lost every
thing and>are without food.
mssIssffRI AND ARKANSAS.
Advices from Hantiss, Miss, stat
the levee broke Saturs1 s1ay night one an
half miles below there; also at Glen
coe sixty miles below, tpIf1e >anothe
crevasse is hourly expected at Prides
The water is pouring througlas, the cre
vase at Catfish point, which is nov .
hundred and fifty yards wide. The pri
yate levee at Walnut Bend, Ark, is also
broken inuudating Falls, Fargason's an6
other rich plantations, the two named
having over eleven hundred acres oI
cotton planted. Appeals come from be-
low Napoleon for more supplies fol
sufferers.
LOUISIANA.
The relief committee report officially
to the governor that up to date they
have been distributing 10000 rations a
day, and that in their Judgment $4,000
rations daily for sixty days will be re-
quired to- relieve their pressing wants.
Government clothing has arrived and
was stored in the United States ware
house subject to the order of the gov
ernor. There is no abatement of the
crevasse overflow. The following ex-
tracts from letters to the governor show
the condition of those living in the
overfowed districts
Edgar Fazend, manager Belle river
plantation, Assumption Parish, says
In this section of the parish there is
a population of about 1000 whites and
blacks destitute of the first necessaries
of life, living on RATS and house tops
with no transportation of any kind and
the nearest land twenty miles. All their
cattle and horses are drowned and the
water still rising about six inches in
twenty-four hours.
Mrs. o. A. Briggs, writing from Hes
peria plantation, Madison Parish, says
" Permit me to call your attention to
the sufferings of the freedmen on my
plantation, ITO in number We are
submerged. Merchants are not extend
accommodations credit is exhausted,
stock is destroyed. Women and chill
dren come to me and I am withoI t
means to help them or myself"
The Brashear News says Brashears
has an average of three feet water near
five feet in front of the town. Only
three acres of dry ground in the place
Goods stored in the railroad depot.
Space not so occupied is used for a
public market. Averca plantation on
Bayou Boef has 600 acres of cane and
corn under water, On the Bayou Boef
from Brashears to the railroad fifteen
plantations are under water. In Chene,
five plantations are under water, with a
number of small plats of dry ground
occupied by swampers. Shooters, three
plantations and twenty families in dis
tress, asking assistance to transport
them to the highlands. They are now
living on RATS on Sweet Bay Lake.
Fifteen families are flooded out on
Black Lake, and sixteen families on
Laurs.
The following is regarding the towns:
Charenton-All the front and portion
of the business part of the town is I'M
der water. Franklin Market-house,
jail, ship yards, cooper-shop, ware
houses and wharves are submerged, and
water extending to the base of one of
it's ooff3t9is. of Centreville, Pattersonville,
aprront of the latter and the business
tortion of the former are under water.
On Bayou Teche are forty plantations,
Il, 900 acres of cane and corn, entirely
destroyed and 35, 900 acres submerged.
From the Teche down, upon fifteen
1000 acres of cane and corn
are destroyed"
OF the fifty-three parishes of Louis
lana, thirty one are partially or entirely
entirely covered by the inundation.
These parishes contain about 375, 900
half of the whole popula-
ton, and seven-twelfths of the agricul-
tural, laboring or producing population
Of the state-upon whom not only New
Orleans is dependent, and also the
North and Europe itself for clothing
and supplies.
The lands overfowed are calculated
1t about 2 800, 900 acres, about one
fourth of which was under cultivation
N corn, cotton, and sugar when the
food began.
Looking at the various sections thus
we find first the Yazoo Valley.
Here the Mississippi has broken through
1t Hushpakana and Bolivar, and traus-
'ormed the whole Yazoo Valley into an
inland lake.
Along the Amite, from its source in
to Lake Pontchartrain, the |
owlands are all under water, washing |
)ut poor but industrious class of peo- |
Die, almost all white.
The Pearl river overflow is more of |
! freshet than flood the rains alone |
ire answerable for it. The bridges be- !
ween New Orleans and the north have |
been washed away, and the saw mills |
long that stream, that supplied New |
Orleans and the southwest with lum- |
Der, have suffered great deal.
To sum up the flood from Memphis |
% the Passes, the crevasses are over |
fifty miles in width. Through them
low streams greater and more powerful
han the mighty Mississippi itself, and
which pour out of this devoted country /
!, 900, 900, 900 cable feet of water every |
,our. Not only is this water thrown ON
he land, but it must find its way to the
ea through six hundred miles of low
4lluvial lands. 1t is not hyperbole,
hen, to say that the Mississippi is
vider now than the far famed Amazon,
whose mouth is two hundred and fifty |
niles in width.
The loss to the crops has been calcu-
ated as follows Cotton 800, 900 bales;
ugar, 40, 900 hogsheads, and almost
otal destruction of the tobacco and |
ice crops, the last, one of the most |
and ever increasing industries |
# Louisiana.
Origin of Alcohol.
The ancients did not know how to |
4 Il 4l1,I