The Kenosha telegraph. [volume] (Kenosha, Wis.) 1860-1888, 1882-03-24
MISSISSIPPI FLOODS.

IMAM ever before known by the Oldest inhabit-
AMI. The people were living in gin-lofts. on
housetops, and the water IN many instances
was fully up to the caves of the
houses. At Greenwood, Miss, the peopls
OF the whole village were living in the Coue
House, snd were supplied by means of fat
Doats. Nearly every town along the river, from
memphis to New Orleans, was Venice. whose
streets are padded by datboats and skiffs. In
some OF the towns the water was fifteen feet
aeep, Ind many houses had been undermined
thousands o. cattle have been drowned
and RATS and flats were employed
10 save mules and horses The water swept
across the country with the rapidity of q cata-
ract. People would retire at night in fancied
Fecurlty, and find themselves before morning
n water two or three feet deep. Every house
= Eoseoale, MISS, except one-that of Col.
aerger-Was swept away. The floor of
1erger's house was three feet under
9ater, and the catfish were PLAYING
sportlVe freaks In his parlors. Three coIored
men were drowned at Marion. Miss, and a COL
cred man and woman were overwhelmed by the
rising waters at Rosedale
Many stories are told illustrating the perils
OF the flood. One is to the effect that colored
man and his child were in a boat coming
down the river, when the former lost h{s
footlng and fell overheard, swimming how
ever, to tree. The boat containing the child
dr1fted down and lodged in some driftwood,
Inc nttle one being rescued after four days.
another Is to the effect that a man and his
wife, on whom the water gained SO rapidly
that they were compelled to take refuge
on the roof of the house, were
rescued by g man in dugout after
instances families took their horses into one
room and lived in another, letting the other
stock work out their own salvation, the ankle
ty as to the former being due to the fact that
they looked to them as means of planting an
other crop.
Gen. Beckwith, of the Commissary Depart
ment. has ordered the steamer Gen. Barnard
and the tcw-boat Coal Cliff, with her
barges, to be sent from Keokuk, Iowa,
to st. Louis. where they will be loaded with
rations and sent down the Mississippi to dis
tribute relief. Secretary Lincoln ordered
large steamer at Little Rock to report at Mem
phis for special service. Capt. Lee will take
the steamer Anita and pick up destitute people
III the flooded districts of the YaZoo. Ali sup
plies for Arkansas are to be sent to Helena.
Death and DesOIatiOn Prevalent
Throughout the Vast Flooded Dis
trict---A Narrowing Story.
Telegram to Chicago Times.l
The half has not been told about the inunda-
ton of the Mississippi valley. For a distance
of 1000 miles it is under water to width of
from ten to 100 miles. No such flood has oc-
CURED IN history, according to the accounts of
old river men. The Times correspondent has
talked with several old pilots and Captains,
and with one accord all unite in saying that
the overfows of 1862, 1867 and 1874 did not
noro nor with tho AooIc
waste hundreds of thousands of acres of the
most fertile land the sun ever shone on. In
1917 there was great overflow of the Mlssis-
sippl, but less damage resulted than has al
ready occurred this spring. The freshet has
been gathering in force for two months. The
Illinois, Wabash, Ohio, Tennessee, Cumberland,
on the east, and the St Francis, White. Arkan-
sas and Red rivers on the west, together with
scores and hundreds of lesser streams, have
been emptying torrents into the Father of
Waters for long time. Since the LIST of Janu-
airy the fall of rain has been continuous
throughout the whole region west of the Allie
ghenles and the southern extension of that
range and south of line running east and
and west through Central Illinois. The deluge
has averaged from ten to twenty-five inches on
a dead level. Insignificant creeks have swollen
to the proportions of raging rivers. Through
Southern Missouri and Illinois 1t has not been
so bad, but in Kentucky, Tennessee, Arkansas,
mississippi and Louisiana the destruction of
bridges and roads, to say nothing Of buildings
aid other property, has been enormous and be-
yond computation. The flood has been little
less disastrous in many sections than the war.
The greatest suffering on account of the
flood is found between Memphis and Vicks-
burg. The section of river country IN Ken
lucky and Tennessee is overlooked and the in :.
habitants are living on rations contributed by
the Government, and by benevolent societies.
AS far south as the Mississippi line, the bluffs,
or highlands, as general thing, are not further
back than mile or two, and oftentimes above
the main channel of the river After passing
Memphis, on the way south, the face of the
country changes, and only patches of high land
are to be seen. There is not an inch of bluff
on the west side of the Mississippi, from
point above Cairo to the gulf. Excepting at
the town of Helena, there is low, flat land
on either side of the river, extending back
from twenty to seventy-ive and one hundred
miles. This immense country is under water,
and almost isolated from the rest of the world,
and but for the forests it would be simply
great lake. The Arkansas has been boiling
Like mountain torrent, washing away ragroad
tracks, telegraph lines, ana cutting a
swath of destruction through the State from
one remote corner to the other. The sufferings
of the population of the Mississippi and Arkan-
rated nor adequately described /; they have only
been guessed at. Thousands OF families living
few miles back from the river in little settle
ments for twenty, thirty, forty and even fifty
miles in the interior, have been cut Off from
succor for the reason that they have no means
of letting the world know their situation,
and because those who are safe can not
reach them with provisions. The loss of life
is already known to have been large, and the
lowest estimate places the number at 100. The
Government relief boats cannot reach the
places where the suffering is greatest. They
can only touch at few of the landings.
Thousands of human beings are left like drown
ing rats to perish. The picture is not over
drawn. The victims deferred fleeing to the
highlands until it was too late trusting that
every inch of rise in the inland sea would mark
flood tide. The cruel waters kept creeping up
and up, and encroaching upon territory that
had been considered safe, and finally cutting
off means of escape and surrounding them with
dead waste off back-water. The ground,
saturated to its full limit, held the water like
cement floor. 1t can only get out the way it
came-by flowing back again into the Missis-
sippi.
Capt. Corvilie, of the steamer Dick Jones, has
just arrived from st. Francis and the sunk
lands, and tells tale of woe almost incredible.
There il very little communication between
has reached the people from without. The peo-
pie of these districts are chiefly white. They
cultivate good grade of cotton and were well
off. Now they are drifting about on RATS with
no subsistence whatever, actually starving, and
even devouIing dead beasts that have been
floating in the water for several days. As
their carcasses pass them, they are eagerly
sought after and devoured. The bodies. Of the
dead animals nave large slices cut from
them where the starving have been butchering
them. For 300 miles there is not Wis
IDLE spot of land, except four Indian
mounds, which rise SO high that their tops are
out of water. The Tyronga is tributary to the
st. Francis, and is settled by families from Ken
lucky and other Southern States. Above this
small tributary is Little river and Buffalo island
where here aud there settlements are to be
found. These. of course, are like the
others. They cry piteously for help and food,
but it is heart-rending to see strong men SO
give way under their affections. They have
literally nothing of their former homes left,
and they are now roaming about in the water,
exposed to the fury Of the wind and weather,
and with no food. The rations sent from here
q ew days since to their relief did not reach so
far, so many hundreds between here and there
meeting and looking for the supplies, and they
were wholly insufficient to fill the demand.
When supplies reach them they will have to be
placed on the tops of the Indian mounds, as
fhaan ara tho only r1Osaihla landings