Wilmington journal. [volume] (Wilmington, N.C.) 1844-1895, 1874-05-01
THE MISSISSIPPI, FLOOD.

The Distribution Committee meets
daily at the Office of the Levee Com
panv, on CarOndelet street, New Or
leans, and is in session daily from 10
A. NJ. to p. Nj. This committee has
forwarded to various points in the
overfiowed d.str cts ratlons for one
week for ten thousand persons. From
the demands which reach the commit
tee from every quar- er, this is a mere
drop in the bucket.
The committee needs further con-
tributions 10 increase their resources
to meet the urgent drafts on them for
the necessar:es of life. No magma
ton can picture the horrors aud suffer
ings of the people in many parts of the
overfowed region. The relief required
is most pressing. We can recall, says
the New Orleans Picayune, no incl
dent in the history of the country of
such DIES olation and impoverishment
of so great number OF our people
Proportional to total population the
misery equals that of the recent famine
in India, which has excited so large a
sympathy and attracted such splendid
evidences of the benevoience and gen
crosby of tie British Government and
people
The New Orleans Times says
The extent of the damage which has
resulted from the great overflow is inst
f,,II
That it was vast was readily conceived,
but that it should involve five millions
Of acres, and population OF l78, 900
was apparently beyond reasonable cal
culation, but such IS really the case
In the cotton regions it Is now ascer-
tanned that rine OF the largest and rich
est parishes producing cotton have
been inundated. The parishes of
Carroll, Morehousc, Richmond. Madi
SOL, Franklin. Tens;.s, Cornwell, Con-
cordia and Catahoula are all over
flowed, and embrace fully two and a
| half million acres. The amount OF
cotton land in these parishes in actual
| cultivation Is ascer aimed to be n quar-
| ter Of a million acres, beSidea 100, %
acres in corn. These estimates include
only the large places, leaving out hum
|
for cattle, hogs and gardens. The pop
uation of these nine parishes is &c, 1874
whites and 54033 blacks, according to the
census of 1870. In the sugar-produc
ing parishes, asceItained facts discover
an equal, if not greater, amount of
ruin and suffering. These parishes are
Pointe Coupee, East Baton Rouge,
West Baton Rouge. Iberville, Ascen-
| sion, Assumption, ST. joint the Baptist,
La Pourche, Saint James, st. Charles,
Terrebonne and Plaquemmes. The
overflow in these parishes covers nearly
two and half million acres, titled and
thirty thousand hogsheads OF sugar,
besides large product of rice, and the
crops of small farmers, of whom many
hundreds, have lost their stock and pretty
much everything else they possess.
The population of these parishes, ac-
cording to the census of 1870, was
50,36S whites and y, 241 blacks, max
ing a total of 22,609, from which
must be deducted the population OF
East Baton Rouge, as only small
portion OF that parish has suffered
from the overflow. That deduction
being made, the parishes contain a
parishes named it is believed that more
than %, 900 persons are now in actual
suffering for necessary supplies OF
life, and in less than sixty days, the
number of those whose circumstances
will require alienation will increase to
more than $1,000 persons.