News and citizen. [volume] (Morrisville, Vt. ;) 1881-current, 1882-05-11
LOUIsIANA,S DEsoLATION.
A Wonan's Dreary Description of
the Watery Wastes-Grcat De-
struction of Crops and Loss of
Live Stock.

Live Stock.
A lady writing from Louisiana says :
After weeks of the most intense anxiety
and apprehension the people of the
lowlands of Louisiana have met their
doom, manfully and heroically, but
none the less surely. They knew that
the water from all the crevasses on the
west side of the Mississippi must unite
and pour down upon them, but they
did not dream that if the bed of the
Mississippi were "dusty" such a vol
ume of water could find its way over
them.
Most of the large plantations on the
Dayous that network the lowlands have
levees which have protected them from
the overfows of the last sixteen years.
These were put in thorough repair,
and in many instances were raised from
six inches to one foot--all to no pur-
pose, however, as the merciless flood
has swept over them, only being held in
allegiance long enough to exhaust the
for life and property and to gather
strength for its victorious march to the
Gulf. 1 venture to affirm that all OF
the floods combined that have ever del.
uged the producing section of
country have not caused such utter and
hopeless ruin as this. From the Teche
to the Lafourche is one surging sea of
water. Two or three private levees in
Lafourche and about the same number
In Terrebonne still remain intact but
If the water continues to rise for few
days longer, or there should be storm
OF wind and rain, they must go under.
Not only are the crops of the present
year destroyed, but there will be no
seed cane to start with another year.
Many of the public roads and cane
fields could be navigated by steamboats,,
being from three to nine feet deep in
water. There being no hills or high
lands in this section to which the stock
ea-a *etreat, i4L4Ll0Aloe u quantICIes VIII be
lost. 1t is piteous to see the droves of
the vain search for land. They are tax
ing refuge on the galleries of deserted
houses and crowding on the crests of
levees still not entirely submerged. All
the people who are able have removed
their families to New Orleans, and the
negroes on the plantations are crowded
into the engine and boiling room of the
sugar houses. The poor creoles and
are perhaps the greatest suffer
ers, as they lose their all-crops of
harvested rice, potatoes and corn, their
gardens and fruit trees and their stock.
The water kills the orange, fig, mes
piles, banana, pomegranate and peach
trees as effectually as it does the sugar
cane. Houses and fences are floating,
the crash of falling chimneys is heard
on every side and the cry for bread will
soon be heard from the destitute. There
is universal desire and determination
to leave the sugar region. The negroes
say, ''De white folks tells us dis wus de
sea once well, fore God, its gwine ter
turn to sea agin and stay sea, an I
wants to git out OBJ it,
From one plantation to another there
is but little communication, and there
are no mails, SO that we have not yet
heard whether Congress has made any
for the improvement of
the Mississippi River. If it fails to do
that will guarantee protec-
ton to the people from these devasta-
ting floods, the sugar interests of
Louisiana may be considered to have
received their death blow. With every
food the people become more impover.
ished and less able to control the waters
of the Mississippi, and more disheart-
ened by the utter apathy with which
the greater part of the nation looks on
the destruction of the other-the people
of the Mississippi Valley. May the
justice, self-interest and SYM
pathy of the men into whose charge our
destinies are committed save our people
and country from the ruin that is GER
tain if considered beyond the pale of
their protection.