The daily Cairo bulletin. (Cairo, Ill.) 1878-1???, 1883-01-07
CAlRO'S WALL OF EARTH.

The new evec, the city's own cvee, upon
which, for several months past, large
force Of men and teams with scrapers and
wagons have been at work under Street
Commissioner Baird. is now about finished.
1t is a fine embankment-one Of the finest
on the Mississippi rlver-and citizens Of
Cairo ought to feel proud OF it,
1t is nearly mile in length, or just
$3.50 feet, only 100 feet less than mile 1t
is twelve feet wide at the top and, on an
average, about one hundred feet wide at
the base Its top is tifty-four feet above
low water mark its outer slope has fall
of one foot in 6ve;its inner slope, one foot
in two and half. Its slopes are as smooth
and regular as though they had been care
fully rolled aud the whole is almost AZ sol
id as the natural earth. The original cost
of this embankment can only be approx.
mately estimated, and will not fall
short of twenty-five thousand dollars.
The work done within the last few months
in which from thirty to six,y-fve teams
and the requisite number Of men and
scrapers aud wagons were employed almost
steadily for two months, has cost the city
just about $l0,475. The work done in
1882, that memorable spring, can only be
Appropriated; but it is safe to say that
the total cost Of the city's lcvee will not
fall short of forty thousand dollars and
that means only the embankment; for the
ground upon which it is built, ms all here
know, was donated to the city as street
by Col. Taylor for the Trust Property
Company,
The incidents attending the construction
of this embankment are, and will ever be,
of startling interest TO the citizens Of Cairo
who witnessed them. How it was built
originally in 1875 under the pressure Of
threatened danger and amid great con.
fusion caused by fear; how it was put to its
first severe test in February of 1881, and
how it was maintained then by many brave
men against the power which brought
desolation to many Of our sister cities
the remembrance of these things, and the
strongest interest in all their fearful details,
will be co-extensive with the lives of those
who were resident Calroites when the in
cidents occurred, and will be transmitted
to generations after. But those who fought
the DAGGER of 1885, who stood upon the
embankmet against and over which the
windlashed, foamipg water dashed in
great waves, drenching them to the waists
and causing tho ground to crumblc away
from under their feet; but who, unmindful
of all this, with shovels in their hands and
dirt-sacks on their backs, fought the
elements through several Wild
black nights, during which
the danger reigned those men, men of
every station, the wealthy and the poor,
the intellectual and the otherwise, physic.
cial giants and physical pigmies, friends
and enemies, but for the time being, all
friends aud all equals, these men will
always look upon this noble embaukmcnt
with especia pride, for they furnished tho
muscle aud the courage to maintain il
against the most fearful and powerful de-
stroyer by which this country is threaten.
cd ;--they arc the heroes Of hard.faught
battle in which this destroyer met with
most inelorious defeat.
In this connection, (Which may BE- the