The Milan exchange. (Milan, Gibson County, Tenn.) 1874-1978, 1882-04-08
Some Incidents Of the Great Flood.

correspondence March ~ of the St Louis
GlObe-fDcmO rat:
At Esperanza, 100 miles below Vicksburg. a
young creole planter boarded the boat on his
way TO find transportation for the removal of
his horses and mules. Pointing out a dreary,
watery waste he said to your correspondent;
That is my uncle's place"
at is in very bad condition"
Oh, no." he replied 1--WE went over 1t in
a skif last Sunday and the water Is only few
inches deep. lie is doing very we'll"
And tho negroes, are they still in those cab
ins2 How do they liver
Oh, they are all right. They float around
In skiffs or on logs and gig fish. They are all
provided with rations. You see on every we'll
organized plantation, in event of an overflow,
each house or family is provided with bat
teau. When we can't get the timber to make
them we tear up the planks in the galleries for
the purpose, and in these and the horse-troughs
they can paddle around and take care of them
selves very nicely, catching drift logs and
whatever else they can find floating around.
But they become greatly demoralized If that
sort of thing lasts too long"
Green levee was built by the State in 1878,
and forms the upper end of the system of
levees designed by the State Board to protect
the Red River region. Although erected eight
elm inches higher than the point reached by
the great flood of 1874, the water could be seen
running over its top. On long strip of the
old levee just above about two hundred head
of live stock, among them several horses and
mules, could be seen slowly starving. These
pitiable sights have been Of late of such fire.
quent occurrence as to scarcely attract notice,
let alone inviting comment.
planter who came on board lower down. on
his way in search of hatboatS to bring out
stock, stated that the people were sticking to
their homes throughout the back country, and
that the waters were full of dead CATTLE upon
which the buzzards were banqueting.
At the mouth of Red River the swollen cur
rent was pouring with great velocity into the
Father of Waters, and the scene was such a one
as might have greeted Noah when he opened
the window on Mount Ararat. Just below
and within sight freshly-broken levee was
passed, over a gradually widening part of
which the water was pouring with considera-
Die fall and volume On the deserted portion
yet intact could be seen about twenty wheel
barrows and long parapet of sandbags, which
told the story of the desperate but unequal
battle which had been waged and lost The
planters family, with number of hastily-im-
provsed bundles, were brought on board in
skf. The entire plantation was already under
water, but as yet to nothing like the depth
threatened by the crevasse in front At this
point the Chickasaw Bluffs come within two or
three miles of the river on the Mississippi
shore, and consequently limit the flood to that
extent. Upon the Louisiana shore it is dead
level to the Gulf of Mexico, through the minor
rivers and bayous of which the deluge will
eventually drain away.
The country in this neighborhood is thicky
settled, covered with fine stock and sugar
plantations, and marks the commencement of
the far-famed sugar-raising district of Louis
lana. which pXtan1s naarlV N nj n
Gulf of Mexico. Heretofore this vicinity has
been under water in many places, but not en-
drely, the land being comparatively high and
well-leveed Yesterday morning it was first
threatened by the water rising to within two
inches of the top of the levee. A force of 200
men were at once set to work, who continued
their labors until four o'clock in the morning,
when it at last gave way.
Mr.. Eugene Oubre, a large planter and stock
raiser, a creole, came on board the boat at New
Texas Landing, and gave a graphic account of
the prevailing panic that ensued. In three
hours the whole country was submerged, the
people flying from house to house calling for
skiffs to come and take them of. When he left,
at four p. m, the water was rising at the rate
of an inch an hour at a point two miles in
the rear of the crevasse, and he would be sur
prised if some women and children were not
drowned during the night by their cabins be
ing carried away beyond assistance. He had
an elegant truck garden planted with about
fifty barrels of potatoes and one hundred bar
rels of onions. He called the people in to helE
themselves and carry them off for food before
the water became too deep. In a narrow sliI
of levee about ten feet wide, and over which
the water was flowing, all of his live stool
saved were now gathered, and he was on his
way for boats to take them Off. He calculated
his loss on stock alone at over 81 900. "Of fifty
head of splendid ponies see but one-all the
rest are in the water" he said. 81 do no
know how the people, of which there are 81
many, will manage. AS l came through they
were calling:
80 The water is over my ho'; the water Il
over my flo. Come save mel"
1.-The breaking of this levee and those a
Marganza and Atchafalaya," continued Mr.
Oubre, "wll put 10000 people under water"
At this point, both shores of the river beinI
IN Louisiana, it is at present forty miles wide
extending from the Opelousas hills upon ont
side TO the hills at Feliciana upon the other.
The stories related about the effect Of tn
food upon wild animals border upon the In
credible, but are probably warranted by facts
A merchant living at New Texas Landing toll
your corresp ondenr that he had purchase,
nearly 1000 coon-pets within the past thre
weeks at ten cents each. They were all kille
upon an island opposite MS residence, upo
which the water is only few inches deer
and every morning the air is still musica
with the echo of the hunters gun,
Driven out of the swamps, where the COON
usual food is berries grapes, ETC., they com
there at night to fish for crayhsh, which are 4
plentiful in that locality as to form stapl
article of food with tho people. From th
stunted trees and willows they put their paw
into the water, which are ut once seized b
the crayish, who catch a Tartar every tim
Your correspondent dared not doubt the ST
ry, as it was told by an old veteran of sixt
fye, who stood high In the community, an