The Ottawa free trader. [volume] (Ottawa, Ill.) 1843-1916, 1883-02-24

PEORIA
OHIO RIVER AND STATE.
We gave in our last pretty full account
of the flood along the Ohio river. The
chief sufiererers thus far have been Gin
cinnati Lawrenceburg New Albany and
Louisville. AZ Cincinnati by Wednesday
the waters had fallen seven feet and were
still subsiding, Notwithstanding heavy
rams on Monday had raised the river al
Wheeling and above. On Tuesday III was
estimated that 250 900 people at Cincinnati
were in want, and though relief Is coming
in literally from all quarters andlthere ID
plenty to eat, the people are huddied by
the hundreds in churches and school
house, and some OF them are sick from
their long exposure. Women are giving
birth to children in these public rooms. A
case Is reported Of birth and death oc'
curing IN the same schoo!.room at the
same hour, and these scenes are repeated
in all the fifteen now occupied by ia"
homeless people, and in the churches
which have been put to the same use.
In reference to Lawrenceburg a cores
pondent of the n. Y, Heroid says:
grant you that Jacksonville presents a
picture OF painful distress, hut it is not a
shadow of the terrible and tragic horror
that greeted my eyes at Lawrenceburg.
Why, in the court house there, in the court
room and five antech8mbers there are 33l
souls in the last stages of starvation, mis-
cry, filth, disease and sickness. They,
with but few exceptions, sleep upon the
bare floor, are poorly fed and scantly
clothed. The atmosphere that they breathe
| is so foul that it stitled and sickened me IN
two minutes. Already several deaths have
resulted, and now there are twenty-five
cases Of pneumonia and scarlet fever
Five women have given premature birth
to children.
AT Louisville the river began On Mon
day to recede and by Wednesday had fall
EN- feet A general feeling of relief is
felt, and the sufferers are mainly relieved
by home contributions.
At Shawneetown the river on Wednes-
day was 2 feet inches above any previous
record, and still rising, on account of the
continued rise in the Wabash,
The greatest destruction seems TO have
been at and around New Albany Not on.
ly was the whole town flooded and por-
ton Of it washed away, but the rich bot
toms above and below town were occupied
by hundreds Of well.todo farmers, oil Of
whom have lost their stock, crops, build.
ings, &c, and are without homes and de.
pendent upon public charity.
At Cairo there is hard and continuous
struggle to keep above water. The city Is
now the center of circle of water 80
miles in diameter. The Ohio on Wednes.
day had reached the level of the levees,
and l 900 men were at work day and night
raising the levees by bulkheads to keep
out the water. The latest dispatches are
to the effect that the city has escaped inun.
datlon, the river on Wednesday night hav-
Ing L~o--- ~,O''iy &c -noOav. Tnc MleSlS-
sippi, however, IS rapidly rising, and the
danger is hourly increasing of a destruc-
tive overflow from Cairo to New Orleans.
The situation throughout interior Ohio
and Indiana was about the same as in in.
terror Illinois, Michigan, SC. All the
smaller streams and brooks were turned
into raging floods, followed by general
destruction Of wagon and railroad bridges.
In Ohio the most serious disasters away
from the Ohio river occurred along the
Maume e,culmlna,ing at Toledo, where all
the bridges but one were swept away,
much shipping was destroyed or damaged,
and the Union Depot, for the first time in
is history was three feet under water and
lad to be abandoned. The Ice gorge be.
ow the city, which caused the inundation,
broke on Tuesday night, and on Wednes.
lay the river fell feet and the strain was
,ver. The loss Is placed at $1,0000O0.
The Mississippi is rapidly rising, being
already on Wednesday two inches above
he danger line al Helena, which Is a
month earlier than usual. No doubt is felt
It Memphis that the rise within week or
wo will equal the great inundation of last
prng