Public ledger. [volume] (Memphis, Tenn.) 1865-1893, 1882-02-20
40 mAMi0s.
All the Way by water.

NAlAAGuHa AnlAu0Ah6
from the Northern lakes, and over q
dozen pretty young married ladies,
formerly belles-not ofthe Kitchen"
but polite society, went to Marion
Yesterday afternoon on the steamer
Overton. The young matrons, with
an exception or so, were accompanied
BY a little fodder or two to keep their
attention we'll employed and render
the excursion interesting. The YES
sci left her dock, foot of eferson
street, shortly after 2 o'clock in the
afternoon, and struck square across to
the Arkansaw shore, nearly three
quarters of a mile from this side. The
strong current caused her to drift
down stream a little, so that when the
slack water near the other side was
reached, the boat was almost opposite
the foot of Court street. From there
the boat skirted along close enough to
land, or where the land ought to be,
for those on board to cast newspapers
out to aquatic habitants. They are
called AQUATIC because they all live in
the water just now, and from appear
anoes they, every mothers SOL and
daughter, too, as for that,
ought to be web footed.
The scenic picture over there is not
brilliantly picturesque, but it is novel
though, the same precisely as is to be
seen all the way from Cairo to the
Gulf. The water has risen over the
lower floors Of the habitations. To
keep out of the wet one man has built
a temporary te~nt-covered story on the
roof of his cabin. Hsre he sleeps and
dries his fishing nets, while his chick
ems roost near the head Of his bed,
and his calves wade around in water
up to their TANKS. Another man has
a tent Put up on a little patch Of levee
six or eight feet wide and thirty or
forty long. Here he quietly smokes
his pipe, cooks his corn cakes, and lets
his stock roam at will about his minia-
ture island, or go in swimming if they
want to. Still another heal by has a
duck pond around his premises so deep
that a wagon in his yard is covered
with water, all except a single segment
or felloe of the hind wheels.
The incidentals noted answer for all
tie whole population living on the
opposite side Of the river, and many on
this. Indeed, the whole course Of
over a thousand miles Of river is in the
same fix. And yet there is a fascina-
ton about this watery waste that those
who live in it cannot resist or 60
away from. Folks living in this am
phibious fashion cannot be ceaxed
into going anywhere else to live. They
have a taste for water, and even use it
to drink when whisky is scarce.
The town of Hopefeld is all under
water, and people there go to church
in dug-outs or small boats. The women
visit each other to gossip over pass
ing events in the same way, while
half starved COWS stand in tho mud on
little mounds of earth, which were
once protective levees, but have long
since crumbled off to be washed away
by the angry river except in the little
spots as mentioned. The railroad
ticket Office is in the middle of a
lake and has been abandoned.
A locomotive stands idle on a bit Of
dry track half a hundred yards long,
but the approaches tl the river over
which it moves to and from the trans
fer steamer when the road is in work
ing order, is now all submerged. Fol
many miles to the west the line of
track is under water and no trains
run this side of Madison on the st
Francis river, forty miles distant freu
here. No such water has been known
in the swamps Of Arkansaw for many
many years, though the residents ovel
there say the rise Of 1862 was 9 niche,
above the present one, and they veriy
it by marks made on solid objecti
which cannot tell a lie, or rise above
the earth higher than when the marks
were made, twenty years ago.
After touching at the railroad wharf
boat near the upper part of HopefelC
the Overton crossed to the Tennessee,
side, ran close along the willows OF
one of Paddy's Hen and Chicken
islands, recrossed to the Arkansav
side again a few miles higher up, ant
passed the town Of Mound City. Jus
below the latter place the water pour
in heavy volume across the land, ant
looks very much like a crevasse SINH
lar to those which sometimes breaI
through the levGes in the Louisian
sugar region, and devastate large area
of sugar lands. In the present cas-
the body of water sweeps through tn
timber by way of Four-mile Bayou
and enters the Mississippi 81 mile
distant, opposite Presidents Island
This water, which takes a near cut
less than four miles to flow back int
the main river, would have to go fuI
eight miles to gel there if it wen
around by the main river the usua
way. There are people who believ
the whole river will take this nea
course after awhile, and leave thi
city sitting on its bluff by the margil
of an inland lake.
The town of Mound City has a
ancient look and would deligh
aesthetics Of the Bunthornian type
1t isn't over forty years old, but look
a thousand. There are perhaps
dozen houses, all Of frame or log
and the mound part of the place i
perhaps a foot or so above the waite
level. Some of the buildings are j
the water, and all are dingy. Whe
the main river channel run past tn
town twenty.o odd years ago and fnt
freshly painted steamers padded BY
the residents were prouder than the
are now, and they used to scru
up their front porches once or twice
season. 1t don't look as if they hay
done much in that direction for til
last dozen years however. Its beautie