New Orleans Republican. [volume] (New Orleans, La) 1867-1878, 1876-04-29
'AL JOURNAL or TnE STATE OF LOUISIANA.


OF your correspondent, unless it be to create
delays, which only cost the country $l9 81
. second, in order that Tom Scott nnay
complete his railway system across thl
continent, Ito whose genius" New Yorl
paper says, "is due the building of the St
Louis bridge, which will enable hin
to load cars in Kansas and unload
them in New York." thus cuttin1
tbe Mississippi river in two and throwing
l the lower halt away, as they have no mort
use for it since the war. Then it.was Of
great Importance to the Northwest. MOI
90 now, for, from . look at their railroad
maps. it will be difficult to find the Missis
| sippi river, or that there is such place a
| New Orleans.
A correspondent of the Times, in reply.
ing to your fer0ci0us correspondent "Alli
gator" who writes as fierce as q meat az,
appears to be laboring under misappre.
hensiOn Of facts when he denies ''Ailiga-
| tor" statement as to the regular army en-.
gineers being opposed to the jettiee, as he
| only speaks Of the advisory board ap
pointed by the President Now, the facts
are these: In 1874 4,-by vote of seven to
one, and that one being General Barnard,
the # gular board did report against, and,
for the time being, did kill the jetty scheme,
board of which he speaks, and, strange to
say, although meme the less true, not one Of
the old board was retained in this new
board except General Barnard; and, lest
the friends of the jetties, the next time
they write, should fail to tell US how this
famous board of engineers were appointed,
will let Captain Eads speak, who, on page
forty of his pamphlet, says:
"The creation of this board was vigor-
ouely opposed by the friends of the St.
Philip canal" and well they might be, for
they OR anyone else with particle of sense
knew before, a. we'll as after, what they
would do. Now, this is TIE second time the
jetty people have tried to mislead the pub
lie on this point. Will they do it sgainl
This same writer, IN speaking of littoral
currents, says that Captain Eads declared
once and again that the success or the per-
manency Of his improvements will not be
affected by the existence or non-existence
of such currents. This may be true for all
that l know, but from the tenor of one of
Captain Eads' recent letters to St. Louis
certainly thought he did tach some
importance to ~their existence when
he said, "Tbe increased current from
within the jetties is washing and
carrying the mud out, while the
littoral current of the Gulf sweeps it
Off" This looks as if some Importance was
attached to their existence, but may be
they are now of no use since Captain Cow.
den, although he does not pre- tend to be an
old sea salt, went down there, and not only
made some important revelations as to the
fill out side. but gave The best of reasons
to show that there were eddy but not lit
toral currents all about the rivers ever
changing mouth.
If not trespassing too much on your
valuable space, l would cali your attention
to a statement made by another "jettyist"
in the Picayune of the same date, when he
says OF Major Howell, who has SO spitefully
opposed the jetties at South Pass, after the
failure of his pet scheme, the St. Philip
canal, ipdorees the theory at Galveston,
and attributes his opposition at South Pass
to spite. Now if that writer does
not understand why the same system
will not do when applied at places
60 different, his ignorance is to be pitied;
for at Galveston, as at the Suez canal,
where there is no mud, the jetties, so.
called. as there applied, only act as guard
walls extending from the land out into deep
and beyond the shoal water, and are
simply to prevent filling from the sides.
There being no sediment constantly sweep
ing through, they require no extension;
whereas, at the mouth of the Mississippi,
the case is different, as the sediment con-
stantly sweeps through and deposits at the
outer end, where it comes in conflict with
natures great battering ram, the waves of
the sea. The jetties will, therefore, require
constant extension, and hence their failure;
and those who believe in them, as applied
at the mouth of the Mississippi, nust ac-
cord wisdom to the original Mrs. Parting.
ton, the wife of the fisherman who lived on
the coast of Scotland: and he, ON coming
homo one day on the waves of q raging
storm. found the old dame showing back
the rising tide and squeezing her mop in q
bucket. 'Tis strange how history repeats
itself, but yet it's SO with the great.
MUD TURTLE.