West Virginia freeman. (Parkersburg, W. Va.) 1881-1886, 1882-03-22
FREEMAN.


The reports from the flooded dis
tricts on the lower Mississippi, are
most distressing the damage and
suffering being unprecedented in
the history of the country.
To give our readers general
idea Of the great, food, we chip the
following extracts from the st.
L puts Post DisEAtcA. so atnt Jas
The floods on the Lower Miss
issippi have passed the memorable
high water n1ark of 1915, and the
suffering and restitution is worse
than anythingof the kind in the
history Of America. The situation
is not difficult one to understand,
if the reader viii recall the fact that
the whole immense watershed of
the country between the Rocky
Mountains and the Alleghanies
must drain QUITO the sea through
a. river not more than a mile wide.
after the Mississippi and Missouri
have collected the tremendous rain
fall and snow-melt of the north and
west, bringing the latter stream
almost to flood level at st. Louis !;
the tides roll on to meet the over
burdened Ohio ut Cairo. Through
the East the rainfall has been ire
mendous, and the eastern floods
have come to meet the western and
rend their way through the alluvi-
al bottom lands down to the ocean.
AT Cairo the labor of the whole
town is concentrated upon an effort
to save some of the levees, and yet
the greater part of the town is I'M
der water. The southeastern cor
ner of Missouri is country of
swamps, marshes and bayous at its
best long lagoons are to be found
in every county, but these are all
one broad expanse Of water now ;
the fourishing lawns of New Mad
rid, Birdville and Gayoso are now
full of hungry women and children.
The people have been forced to fly
to the highlands for safety, leaving
their stock to take care of itself,
and consequently much of the cat
tie and nearly all of the swine have
been drowned. The granaries have
been washed away, and there is
no wheat nor corn left in the coun-
try in fact, what was a month ago
thriving and even a wealthy peo-
pie are now asking bread of the
Government. The distress in Mis-
souri,, great as it is, does not COM
pare with the restitution further
down the river Everywhere there
has been loss and danger, but after
the Arkansas adds its turbid vol
ume to the swollen Mississippi, the
destruction knows no bounds.
There are reaches below Helena
where the river is more than fifty
miles wide. Of course beneath
this muddy stretch lie the farms
and agricultural wealth of the
richest part of the valley. Full
corn-bins, houses, stables, stock and
growing crops have been swept away
to rot and enrich the new alluvial
lands below. Thousands of PEG
pie on both sides of the river have
gone to bed in Independent cir
cumstances to arise in the night
and fly for their Ewes from the
floods. AS yet it is almost impos-
sible to give the figures of the loss.
We only know that from Cairo to
Port Eads the people have been ru-
med, and will have to begin life
afresh with what they can save
from the wreck. The Mississippi
bottom lands make the garden of
the United States, but we will get
neither grain, tobacco, cotton nor
sugar from that garden this year.
Among the more recent accounts,
the following dispatches serve to
give an idea Of the widespread
calamity:
HELENA ARK.-Destitution is
now prevailing in the sunk lands
of the Upper st. Francis never
equaled In the annals of distress
which has been visited upon man.
These people, all whites, have re-
ceived no help of any kind. Hun
dreds of families are living upon
RATS, eating dead animals. Float