The Kenosha telegraph. [volume] (Kenosha, Wis.) 1860-1888, 1882-03-03
The Flood in the Lower Mississippi.
MEMPHIS Tam Fob 02


A deplorable condition of affairs exists
throughout the Lower Mississippi valley Thou
sands of men are, on constant guard along the
levees between here and Yicksburg. using every
possible means to strengthen their power of
resistance and elevate their cress. to prevent
the water from itundating the whole country.
Washington, Issaqueta, Bolivar, Coahoma and
Tunica coi1nties, Miss, and, in fact, the whole
shore line between Memphis and Vicksburg
on the Mississippi side, and the whole
eastern shore of Arkansas, are either
under water or threatened with inundation.
The inhabitants of vast area of country
are in great distress. Many have been
forced from their houses, and are subsist-
ing the best they may on RATS, and some on
knobs or parts of the old leyees The destruc-
ton of live stock is beyond calculation. The
waste of property by the great submerson
is outside the limit of present computation.
Navigation Of the river itself is regarded by
steamboatn1en as dangerous at its present stage
on account of the great expanse of water in
many localities and the billowy character of
the waves when the surface is swept by heavy
gusts of wind. Between Cairo and Memphis
the following points of land are only visible
above surging flood: the bluffs at Columbus,
the bills back of Hickman land on the Ten
nessee side opposite Island 10, New Madrid,
Point Pleasant, Tiptonville, Fulton bluffs Ran
Deans island above the head of the Centen-
NAL cutoff, forty miles above Memphis.
Gov. Lowry, of Mississippi, has appealed to
the people of Memphis and other cities for aid.
A sad accident occurred on the Tyronza,
small bayou, which empties into the st. Francis
river about twenty miles above Madison, Ark.
The high water had overf1owed lands belong
Ing to a Mr.. Jamison, and, while en-
gagged in removing his wife and six
children to place of safety on the high lands
the dugout which contained them capsized
drowning all the children, two of whom were
grown young ladies, the remaining four being
aged from 6 to IA years. Jamison saved his
wife, but could render no assistance to the
drowning children.
MEMPHIS, March l.
1t would require an artists pen to picture the
grandeur of the Mississippi as at it's present
flood-tide it sweeps with mighty power down to
the Gulf, while It's endless current everywhere
carries upon its bosom the evidence of ITS de-
structIve powers. From Cairo to Vlcksburg,
Miss, there is scarcely anything to be set n hut a
dreary water waste, extending in MANY localities
fifteen miles into the in erjor from either bank.
The damage that has been done to farming
interests by the great overflow cannot be esti-
mated. Thousands Of cattle and other stock
have been drowned, and hundreds are now daily.
dying of starvation The inhabitants of the
bottom lands have been driven from their homes
and are now existing the best they may on
ridges where hastily built huts afford them
shelter, and where they would soon starve
were not food provided. Never before within
the history of the country was there SO much
suffering experienced by the people of the
Mississippi valley as now, and, what with the
rising waters and the incessant rains, the dis
asters of the future cannot be foretold