Fayetteville observer. [volume] (Fayetteville, Tenn.) 1850-1966, 1879-07-03
STOLEN BY A RIVER
Hundreds of Fertile Acres Swept
Away ina Twinkling BY the Mud,
DIV Misaouri. s'fag f1ti5


saw. To be appreciated it mus
.lbe seen and heard during th'
j April or June rise, when its wa
ters are red and thick with th,
powdered soil they have brough
/ from the mountains and stolel
from the farms in the valleys
Then it pours and swiris and ed
dies along with a treacherOul
sound between a chuckle and ;
half-suppressed whisper, which
repels while it fasciAates the lis
tener. 1t has made millions of
acres of rich black deposits, OF
which it still holds a mortgage
the foreclosure Of which any mar
can foresee. Some of these fer
tile acres may sustain forests
that have been growing hundreds
of years, but not a rod Of tho
vast level bottom lands which
lie on either side Of the muddy
monster, varying in width from
two to twenty miles, stretching
all the way from Yankton to st.
Louis, and covered with the rich
est farm produce and the finest
woods that land could bear up
under, is exempt from the posi-
bility of some day being deyour-
ed by its hungry and tickle moth
er. Hundreds of farmers, after
clearing away the heavy timber
and raising fine crops year after
year on their eighty or more
acres Of deep, inexhaustible riy-
er bottoms have seen their entire
possessions swept away in a few
days by a sudden and umexpect-
ed "change of channel" during
an April or june "rise."
These changes of channel have
different causes. Sometimes a
giant cottonwood tree that has
been uprooted where the river
has raised upon the forest above
is borne down by the current and
lodged in the mud, where it will
gradually become imbeddcd in
the yielding bottom, and,perhaps,
lie in waiting for months, or even
years, without giving any par
ticular sign of existence. AT
last an unusual rise takes place,
and this hidden "snag" creates
"a diversion in the strong current,
which begins to circle round the
spot, and which terminates in a
boiling eddy increasing in depth
and force, gradually diyerting
the water from its former course
until a new pathway is formed
in the river bed. If the eddy is
located near the shore at the up
per edge of a promontory, and
the water is sufficiently high to
overflow the flats, a new cham
mel is sometimes carved straight
across some valuable farm or
timber strip, and a river town,
where steamboats, took. freight
and passengers last year, may be
from two TO six miles distant
from nayigable water next year.
4 few years ago, Forest City,
Mo-, was kissed day and night
by the dirty lips of this Western
fiirt. To-day the river sports
miles away, out Of sight Of the
old cave, and is whispering soft
things TO White Cloud, on the
Kansas side, which has gained a
river, while the State has lost
several thousand acres of pro-
ductive bottom land that now
support cattle and hogs in Mis-
souri,.
When the Missouri river be-
gins to indulge in its semi-annu-
al free lunch it frequently de-
YOURS strips of bottom land sew
eral rods in width in twenty-four
hours. AT such times it is dan
gerous TO drop to sleep near the,
waters edge. There lives IN
Rulo, lf1er town in South-eas-I
tern Nebraska, n venerable ply
sician named Thompson. One
warm June day the Doctor cast
his fish-lines into the river near
the timber, and, lying down in
the shade to watch for catfish,
dropped off to sleep and to pleas
ant dreams. He was awakened
quite abruptly by a neighbor,
who told him he was sleeping on
the wrong side ofa long, narrow
crevice that had formed about a
rod from the rivers brink. He
did not wait to save his lines,
but instantly "got up and got"
The next instant a strip of cot
tonwood land parted company
with the main land forever and
with its freight of trees dissoly-|
cd like SO much sugar in a coffee
cup, leaving the Doctor to thank,
the river for stealing his flsh-lines'
and the land, and his neighbour
for saving his life. Missouri riv-
er towns are never safe except
whenalocated on bluffs or table
lands, like Omaha, White Cloud,
ST. Joseph and Kansas City.
The woman who put her
tongue 10 hot flat-iron TO see
.;c - ,,oa hot Gnntv SITS caimlv