Connecticut western news., 1882-04-26
LOUISIANA'S DESOLATION.
A Woman's Dreary Description of the Watery Wastes-Grcat De- struction of Crops and Loss of Live Stock,

A woman's Dreary Description of
 the Watery Wastes-Grcat De
 struction of Crops and Loss of
 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 know that the water from all the ore vases on the west slde of the Mississippi must unite and pour down upon them, but they dld not dream that if the bed of the Mississippi were "dusty" such a vol ume of water could find it's way over them.
 Most of the large plantations on the bayous 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 abeyance long enough to exhaust the poor people in the desperate struggle for life and property and to gather strength for it's victorious march to the Gulf. I venture to affirm that all of the floods combined that have ever del uged the sugar-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 can retreat, immense quantities will be lost. It is piteous to see the droves of cattle and horses swimming around in the vain search for land. They are talk 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 cazeaus are perhaps the greatest suffer. CTS, as they lose their all-crops oi harvested rice, potatoes and corn, theil gardens and fruit trees and their stock. Ths 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 we'll, fore God, its gwine ter turn to sea agin and stay sea, an l wants to git out ob it."
 From one plantation to another there is but little communication, and there are no mails, so that we have not yei heard whether Congress has made any appropriation for the improvement oi the Mississippi River. If it fails to dc something that will guarantee protec. tion to the people from these devasta. ting floods, the sugar interests oi Louisiana may be considered to have received their death-blow. With every flood 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 or the destruction of the other-the people of the Mississippi Valley. May the wisdom, justice, self-interest and sym pathy of the men into whose charge oul destinies are committed save our people and country from the ruin that is cer' tain if considered beyond the pale oi | their protection