Memphis daily appeal. [volume] (Memphis, Tenn.) 1847-1886, 1883-01-04
COwDoN AND THE IErTIEs.

achieved y Dftiliant SUCCESS IN IurnlenlDg /
an outlet TO his passions. Nobody has
assailed the integrity OF John Cowdon, but
neither a newspaper nor an individual can
honestly differ with him without being
stigmatized either as a%"lisr" or sob organ"
The APPzAL has expressed the belief that
the i%etties we're q success, and this belief has
been inspired by the concurrent testimony Of
a cloud Of honest, disinterested witnesses.
Every new development confirms previous
reports as to the success OF the jetties. Ii
the almost united testimony Of the people Of
New Orleans, who are 30 deeply interested,
be worth anything, the success Of the jetties
10 securing the required depth of water at
the mouth of the Mississippi river is estab-
lished beyond all question. At a banquet
given Capt. Eads a few days since by the
mercantile and commercial men of that
city, there was entire unanimity in the
expression Of the opinion that the jetties
we're a success. One of the speakers at that
banquet uses the following language: "To all
the opposers, calumniators and doubters Of
Capt. Eads's enterprise 1 say, go to the
wharyes of our city and there look upon the
large ships and steamers departing daily and
carrying, as they do, the products OF the
Mississippi valley, the millions Of bushels
Of grain, bales OF cotton, bags Of oil-cake,
bearing away through the highway his ge-
Mus has built oHt into the gall, thence to the
broad A.isntie, and fading the world. In
this they will find, far beyond what Language
can express, an answer to their doubts and
fears." The New Orleans Tines Democrat
indorses this and says: "The banquet
meant a hearty approval of his ~jetties,
a vote Of confidence in them, as it were,
en- the part of New Orleans, as repre-
| scented by lis leading citizens, who took this
occasion and this form Of expressing their
confidence and belief in them now and for
ever. There were ship captains and owners
| present, who had taken their vessels deep:
laden through the %ietties; merchants who
had sent to sea in a single vessel cargoes OF
| 5000 bales or more Of cotton, and all these
bore testimony to Capt. Eads's success.D We
have before US a pamphlet containing the
| proceedings OF the Eads banquet, and in
the appendix is given an interview with
| Capt. Heuer, United States engineer, which
is most satisfactory as to the depth OF water.
| Capt. Heuer states that there is q depth Of
| % 90 feet in the shoalest part Of the chan
| mel in South Pass; that there is between the
| j~etties a channel 200 feet broad, with adepth
of twenty.six feet; that there is a channel of
less width with a depth of thirty feet be-
tween the j%etties; that it is true there are
mud lumps' beyond the i%etties in which the
depth is but twenty-five feet, though the
| depth in the channel between these
Jumps (which is 800 feet wide) is thirty
feet. In fine, according 10 the United States
engineer, "the j%etties are a wonderful sue
cess. Where they now stand was once a bar,
With only an eight-foot channel through it"
In response TO his health Capt. Eads made a
speech, in which he discussed the plan Of
the Mississippi River Commission for the
| improvement Of the navigation Of the Father
OF Waters. The plan, he states, is based upon
the same general principles that have been
applied in the improvement Of the mouth Of
the river, with the object in view of lowering
u the Deu u IL 0uibsAooippA ~ no " SicobC q
low-waler channel at least twenty feet deep"
from Cairo to the South Pass, a distance of
HOO miles. The commission, by Capt. Eads's
advice, proposes to bring the food channel of
the river to a comparative uniformity of
width or paralIelism BY the encouragement
of deposits in the wide places and By closing
the outlets through which food waters es-
cape" so as TO compel the stream TO scour
out its bottom to the required depth. The
New Orleans Pieoyune, OF Sunday last, COM
mentiug on the success Of the %ietties, closes
itl article as follows:
1t Is a queer reflection on humanity, but we
suppose that the fight against accomplished facts
is destined to go on forever. So long as there are
viii kick against the gods. plenty TO whom facts
signify nothing but q gage Of battle, feraaaRs
which is always SUFFICIENT 10 keep the facts from
going to rust. In the case Of the ietiies, the oppo,
channel open 70 the eyes Of all the world, and aid
in its being fully utilized BY 3 vast on
which St Louis VIII fatterf ss we'll as New Or
leans.
Facts like these, coming from different
sources and all corroborative, are surely
sufficient to create the general belief that the
j%etties are a success. The people of New
Orleans are most Interested in this matter
+ and if the j~etiies were a failure they would
I be the fret to detect and expose Eads as :
fraud and humbug, instead Of banqueiins
D him. The APPEAL has no war with Capt
John Cowdon, and therefore cares not how
r tendeFly he nurses his sickly little monosyl
: liable, %"Iisr." He is a man o. rugged abili
: ties and iniexib)r honesty. But he is al
enthusiast, wild and impracticable. He ha
long been a citizen OF Memphis, respecte'
for his native powers of intellect, and every
d body sympathized with him ia his struggle
e to benefit himself and the whole countr.
by making successful a project which HI
has defended with an energy and abilit
y which has commanded the admiration of th
whole country. But his assailment of al
d who disagree with him, and his irascibl
b temper has injured only himself. Combat
. t~iveness excites combativeness in others, an
n he has, no doubt, lived long enough to lear
is that the most feasible enterprise cannot b
N populsrizsd by traducing those who entertain
honest convictions OF their own.