The daily Cairo bulletin. (Cairo, Ill.) 1878-1???, 1882-05-02

| old lady will not "doctorn her book TIE
BULLETIN is compelled to exercise its
mountain of faith in human nature to an
extraordinary degree. Ittakes up the NIT
ten however and makes this counter propos-
ition. If The BULLETINS income during the
last year from its sub'cription list does not
equal double that of old lady Argus
from the same source, as shown by the
'undoctored" books of each respectively,
then the former will pay the latter an
| amount equal to the formers income as
stated.
old Lady Argus finds fault with
Clutch Gap" because "a good civil engin-
Ger" was not employed to superntend its
construction, which is equal to saying
that it was not properly constructed.
But the old lady does not point out any of
its faults, and'does not venture to suggest
in what way it might have been differently
and better constructed. Besides this, the
gap has proven entirely satisfactory in its
operation. 1t was the means of Kidding
the city of more than one halt the accum-
ulated water in lust one-tEird the time il
would have taken the sewers to do it.
This is capable of mathematical
verihcatiOn. But not only do these results
make the old grandmother's objection
painfully pointless, not to say silly, but
even before il was known that the results
would be what they have been, the plan
bore all the evidences of rcasonableness
and prospective effectiveness. While it
may require a "shoe- maker" to make pair
Of shoes, it does not require "a good civil
engineer "to determine when there is
difference between the levels of two bodies
of water on either side of twelve foot
embankment. While it may be necessary
that man should be good barber in
order to do good job Of hair cutting and
shaving, it does not require man
Of extraordinary common sense and of
years experience in civil engineering to
know thst if the level of the water on the
outer side of the said embankment is be-
tween three and SIX feet below the bottom
Of that on the inner side, then, if the EN-
bankment is cut, all the water in the latter
will rush into the former. While itmay
require an experienced surgeon to properly
set broken limb it does not require a
man OF uncommon sense and judgment to
know that the most direct and
unobstructed way out of a basin
is the quickest way to drain tue
water out of it, Now all these are self
evident propositions and they present the
case Of the Dutch Gap" exactly. The
river was between three and six feet lower
than the bottom of the water within the
water inside the levees, to the depth Of
six feet, DID all pass out and leave the
ground dry; the water inside was not cut
of from the gap by several much used
thoroughiares, nor did it have to pass
through system of half clogged sewers Of
various dimensions and find its way out by
acicuitious route, as would have been the
case had the gap been in Ohio levee.
To have drained the city by
cut through Ohio levee at
Tenth street would have been danger
Gus, more expensive and much less eiTectual
than the Mississippi levee cut has been.
These propositions are also susceptible of
the strongest proof, As THE BULLETIN may
take occasion to show when more time and
space are at command,
- About the yearly interruption Of river
traffic between Cairo aud st. LOUIS the
Chief of the bureau of statistics Of the
United States says in his last report "The
injury as to the extent Of the influence of
the Mississippi over railway freights to the
east involves to some extent the question
of the physical, economic and commercial
conditions which determine the value of the
Mississippi as Commercial highway. This
value has greatly increased by the compile
ton Of the jetties at the mouth of the river
Before their construction it was with great
difficulty that vessels drawing over sixteen
feet Of water could cross the bar. The
depth of water is now twenty.nine feet, and
the largest ocean steamers can reach the
dock at New Orleans. Before the COM
pletion of the jcttes the charges for the
towage Of vessels from the Gulf of Mexico
to New Orleans were from 81 25 to 81 so
per registered ton; these charges are now
from fifty tosixty cents per ton, and ma
| terial reductions have also been made in
| the rise reinsurance on vessels and carges.
Vlnrp 10 gpllnm anv intprruntinn