The Indiana State sentinel., 1874-05-05

nefe Is declining slowly. Reports from ALI
points above show that the Yazoe. TsIIe-
natche and Tailabusha are falling Green.
wood, on the Tallehatche. is entirely sup-
merged. the water being deeper than in 1867.
No serious damage resulted from Hush
puckans crevasse. Fears of q general
overflow are subsiding. A few more dsvs of
clear weather with the tremendous current
now In the river will suffice to carry off
nearly all the water covering the tillable
| lands. Only little over one-third of the
isnos are now under. The merchants and
planters are qHite hopeful, and the indica.
| lions are that the crops in the Yozoo valley
VIII not be SO alsrmingly short after all.
l.eil WHAT Is 10 BE SEEN.
ACCOUNT OF A CHICAGO MAN-THE GENERAL.
DIsTREss-THE REPORTS NOT ExAGGHRA-
TED. M tn t1f =.
Chicago gentleman, who had Just come
up the river from New Orleans, has been in
terviewed by reporter Of the Tribune, and
gives graphic picture OF the condition of
things along the river: left New Orleans
on Saturday the 18th, on the John A. Scud-
der, FOR st. Louis. The impression up here
about the overflow is not exactly correct.
1t was aggravated by the terrible rains all
over the south for two months past. At
New Orleans, five inches of water fell In "a
hours. was there about ffty days. and L
am confident 1t rained IS. The Red riy-
or was swollen very much and the water has
wrought terrible destruction. From New
Orleans up to Bonnet Care 1t is not very
bad, for the reason that the water runs
through immense crevasse there into Lake
Ponchartrian. That is on the east side of the
river. On the west side further up is Mo-
ganzis crevasse,-an immense one, and the
water was running over everything. In the
the majority Of places along the river, from
Bonnet Carre north, the levee cannot be
seen at all, the water going over the top Of it,
and in many canes the water is from three to
six feet deep for fifty miles back on either side
OF the river. 1 will give you one instance of
something that was very common. The
houses had been thrown over by the force:of
the water, and were floating about. Others
were intact, but had been deserted; and, in
many instances, the mules, and cattle, and
shsep were standing on the porches, waiting
to be drowned or starved to death. We left a
French woman at landing above Natchez.
Her husband owned an elegant plantation,
and she told me they had large quantity OF
stock. When we got to the landing, we saw
there was place about three feet wide and
two hundred feet long on the top of
the levee, and it was literally covered
with chickens, and guinea hens, and mules,
and all sorts of stock. All the rest of the
animals had been swept away. We saw
the people there pushing around on RATS
and in skifts, and great many on the tops
of houses. The lower floors of the dwellings
were full of water. When we got to Chicot,
a new town with quite a number of houses
and railroad, We saw that il was flooded.
There was no way to get around except
IN RATS OR IN BOATS.
We landed some passengers there, and among
them were two men who had brought
boat with them, and they rowed away from
the steamer in it. There were some freight
cars standing on a level place, and the water
was up to within a third of the top; and
there was an old wagon, and 1 could just |
see the tire of the hind wheel We then
came on to Napoleon, which is in a very bad
state indeed. 1t is about half way
between New Orleans and Cairo. |
Everything is flooded, the railroads were !
stopped, an0 the Lord only knows where the |
people are. think they have gone off on
RATS to the woods to find higher ground, but |
do not know where they are to find it in |
that country, as the land seems to slope
back from the river. The accounts that |
have been in the newspapers have read
them a.l-are not exaggerated a particle.
was seven days on the river, and saw the
extent of the inundation, and learn
that the river has risen since.
There is not much flood north of Memphis
very little overflow in fact. except in the
bottoms, which are full. The rains filled
up everything. The river at New Orleans |
is the highest ever known; il flowed over |
the levees at the French Market and other
places as you know. The poor stock are
terribly of. The people down there do not
stack up hay as we do north. The cattle feed
in the fields all winter and there Is no food |
for them now, and we saw in some places
men cutting down trees and giving the
leaves to the animals. We passed through |
a great many chutes that boats seldom at
tempt to navigate. The steamer is a large |
one. and we had heavy freight line; but we
passed along all right, always finding eight, |
ten, and twelve feet OF water in the chutes. |
THE SOUTHERN DELUGE.
THE FATHER OF WATERS STILL RIsING-RAIL-
ROADS sUBNERGED-THR MISSISSIPPI FORTY |
MILES WIDE AT MEMBERSHIPS INHABI-
TANTs sUFFERING-THE RISE IN THE ALA |
BAMA AND GEORGIA RIVERS.
A special correspondent of the Cincinnati |
Gazette writing from Memphis under date
of the 26th instant, says:
Your correspondent has endeavored, ever since |
the high water set in along the Lower Missis- |
sipp and even south of the Ohio, to give your |
readers some idea of the vast injury that has |
Deen uone. anu even anticipated "a month or
more ago that the present flood would devastats
millions of of rich cotton lands. But little
did hethink that there would be the intense
suffering and even starvation of hundreds OF the
poorer Glasses which now is threatened, and /
threatened even at our own doors. And yet /
there is no helping hand extended except to |
those who are located below Vicksburs |
and in the overhowed country be- /
tween there and New Orleans. The poor, half |
starved, creatures living above there and south
OF this city are entirely forgotten. There Is I
hardly one settlement or town above Cairo on
either bank of the river that is not more or less
covered by water, which varies in depth from
two to ten feet. Osceola and Mound City above
here and on the left bank of the river are partly
and the little town OF Hopeield,oppo-
steis SO full that the only means of getting from
house to house is by skfs. There the track OF the
Little Rock Railroad is from three inches to four
feet under water, which is coming down through
the woods from points fu' ther up, aod has now |
washed away portion of the track a few miles
out. That Is not strange, however, consider
ing the fact that all trains have