The Rutland daily globe. [volume] (Rutland, Vt.) 1873-1877, 1874-04-29
THE SOUTHERN FLOOD.
EXTENT Or TEE DISASTER.
Nearly 100000 sufferers.

Nearly 100000 sufferers
AN EDITORS ACCOUNT OF THE FLOOD.
a telegraph from Monroe Louisiana I'M
der date of April "a says: 1t is impossible
to give an idea of the extent of the overflow
here. The water is higher than was ever
Known before. The town is an island two
an onehalf miles long by half mile
wide. from which there is 10 exit. except
by boats or swimming from the crossing of
the railroad and Desard street Back is one
wide sea. People living in the rear have
been driven in. All the vacant houses
living in the Court house. Bushes. is al
most suspended, hut the houses are open
Fully 1000 people have had no ratioiis for
three days nor money to buy. Stock of
every description are starving.
On Desard island almost ali the planta-
lions are under water. OF 1000 acres be.
longing to Capt Phillips only about 100 re-
main uncovered. What has transpired be-
lew we know nothing about. At Pargond's
llomeplacc the water is two feet deep in
the yard. and there is no passing below
there. Trenton is under water beyond the
business houses of the town. Cotton is
brought in and goods are sent ont to Clar-
bourne, Il half mile distant On the flats
al Heads and Standcfer's the water is two
feet deep in the yards On the river banks
the front fences are nearly all washed down.
A steamboat could be run down Cotton
street.
The river rose one inch last night 1t
has rained slowly since daylight and is still
raining. There are no crops to speak of
and not five days work has been done along
the river for four weeks. Ilillstand is
washed badly and what has been done to-
ward making crop has been labor thrown
away. What the people are to do God
alone knows.
GEORGE w. McCRAME.
Editor of the Ouachita Telegraph
AN ESTIMATE OF THE NUMBER IN ACTUAL
WANT.
dispatch to the Governor and commits
sion on distribution appointed by the May or
represents the number of destitute to be rs
follows: " "
Lower Black river, 500; Mordon, ex-
Guiding that part of Concordia parish on
Black river, 400; Trinity, excluding Tonsas
bayou and Little river, 1905 Harrisburg,
including Bayou Louis, 1000; Stark's Land
ing, including Brainc Landing, 300; Car
ter's Landing, 400; Bunker Hill, between
Onachita and Bayou Bouef, 1900; Column
bia, including Franklin and Ouachita on
the Bonef, or between Ouachita and Bouef
river, 1000; st Adams. including the bot
tom on both sides, 1900; Hopewell and
Waco, including the back swamp up to the
Ouachita line, 1000; Number is 1900; total,
1880. At the lowest estimate this num-
her may be said to be in actual want, and
many have been so for days, as they have
now been under water for some two or three
weeks. They have lost all their hogs and
nearly all the cattle are lost or starving
The people themselves have neither money
or credit no place to go to and nothing to
do but this estimate by no means discloses
the number Of those residing on the small
hayous and creeks which have been over
flowed by the back water and floods of rain.
The people generally have been on land,
but have lost much of their stock and i'm
provements, and are
WI VI ihoN lSioNS AND hbNE1.
And the prospect of making crops is so dis
couragng that none are willing or able to
advance them supplies. Those, too, must
suffer or receive assistance if these be added
t. the number needing help. There is not
short of 20 900 people in the district refer
red to"
THE iNrENr on THE CALAMITY NOT YET
REALIZED.
The Times says the extent of damage
which resulted from the great overflow is
inNt beginning to he fully understood
Ihat II was vast was readily conceived hut
mat II Should involve 100000 OF acres
And population Of Us, 600 was apparently
beyond reasonable calculation, but such is
rcallythc case.
In the cotton regions II is now asccraincd
that nine Of The largest and richest parishes
producing cotton have been inundated. The
parishes of Carroll, Morehousc, Richmond,
Madison. Franklin, Texas, Caldwell, Com
eordia and Catalonia are all overilowed,
ana embrace fully two and one-half million
acres. The amount of cotton land in these
parishes in actual cultivation is ascertaincd
10 he quarter of million acres, besides
100000 acres in corn. These estimates in
clude only the large places, leaving ont
hundreds Of small farmers, and all estimates
for cattle, hogs and gardens. The popula--
ton Of these nine parishes is 1854 whites
~, 033 blacks according to their census of
1870.
In the sugar producing parishes, asccr-
tanned facts discover an equal if not n
greater amount Of ruin and suffering
These parishes are Point Coupee, East
Baton Rouge, West Baton Rouge, her
vile, Ascension Assumption, st. John the
Baptist, La Fourchc, Saint James, st.
Charles, Terrebounc and Plaquemne. The
overflow OF these parishes covers nearly
100, 900 acres tilted and untitled, includ-
ing production $4,000 hogsheads of sugar,
besides large product of rice, and the
crops of small farmers, of whom there are
many hundreds, who have lost their stock
and pretty much everything else they pos
scss.
The population of these parishes, ac-
cording to the census of 1870, was 50,3G8
whites and 72,241 blacks, making total of
1879, 600, from which must be deducted the
population of East Baton Rouge, as only a
small portion Of that parish has suffered
from the overflow. That deduction being
made, the parishes named contain popu-
lation OF l03, 600. In all the parishes nam
ed il is believed that more than OK ono neo-