The daily Cairo bulletin. (Cairo, Ill.) 1878-1???, 1884-02-26

: the habit Of making his bed and cleaning
house for him. Coroner Fitzgerald sum
moned a jury to investigate the case ant
after some inquiry the jury adjourned uuti
this morning. 1t is the opinion of thos,
who have taken look at tho circumstances
that the old man burned to death.
AT Birds Point everything il under wa
ter. The railroad inclines are out of sigh
entirely and the several railroad buildingl
are almost afoat. Where ordinarily there
is great hustle of cars, engines, men, ant
a network of tracks and switches, there
is now one sheet of water, broker
only by tree or tumble-down house
Out of twenty or twenty-five houses, Mr.
Birds house is the only residence there now
1t stands on good brick foundation, on
the highest ground in the place, but it Is
also surrounded by water and no exit from
the premises is possible except in q skiff
Mr.. Bird still occupies the house with his
family, feeling secure under circumstance,
which would have driven almost any one
else away long ago. But for the present
there is really no danger to Mr.. Birds
premises. l, is when the water goes down
within lis banks that the river cuts away
the land there, taking away great slices dur.
ing q night, and rapidly encroaches on the
Bird premises.
The virture of Bermuda grass as q
protector of embankments against tho &C.
ton OF water is very generally acknewled-
gei, but perhaps few people have correct
conception OF its full value. An item in
the New Orleans Times Democrat of the
22d instant, being special dispatch from
Kansas City, Mo-, says, "the river is RUN
MING OVER the levee between here and
Chicot City, three miles above, in AT LEAST
twenty places, but SO far HAS DONE NO DAM
AGE to il, as i, is an old levee and we'll sod
ded with Bermuda grass."-Thus it will
be seen that, even under the severest test,
the grass preserves the levee intact, and, i,
does this by forming a compact network
Of roots in the ground, from
the surface to probably six
inches down, holding the earth together as
etfectually as though it were enclosed in
sacks, or even more so. The street COM
mittee of our city council have already
agreed upon giving the outer slope of the
city's lsvee an srmor Of this character, the
work to begin next spring. The grass will
be Sc, out in spots aud will spread rapidly
over the ground, so that by mex. fall or
winter there will be 70 need of bag revet.
ments on the leyes.
About noon yesterday the work of re.
moving Whist little buIsheading had been
put up on Ohio levee from Twelfth stree,
down, was begun, and by evening the Ohio
river front showed very little eviisnc. Of
the preparations that had been made for a
fight that was never fought. The street had
been previously cleaned up the sccunu-
lated dirt scraped from the gravel road bed,
and presented the appearance of house
floor that had just been thoroughly
beabored by q knight Of the broom whose
uniform peace of mind and love of tidlness
had not been disturbed by any threats of
danger from without. AS stated before,
the bulkhsading was not really needed, and
it was never entirely finished, though the
openings left could have been closed and
additional dirt thrown against it all along,
in very brief time. The portion of the
levee taken charge of by the Illinois Cen
trail railroad company was not bulkhesded
at all, and it did not need to be, for it stood
eighteen inches or two feet above the v,tsr
line all along, and was dry as q cork and As
solid as safe from the first to last. But
the Illinois Central company rendered ma.
terlal aid to the authorities in what work
they had to do here, besides watching their
tracks above and below here and doing con.
siderable work on them to keep the road
open. The city's new evee is left in ins
condition by the food and would have
shown little or no effect of it, but for the
severe wind storm of some nights ago.
From twenty-five to fifty men were kept on
watch all along the bank every night of
last week, and considerable work was done
just before, during and after the wind storm
of Tuesday. Abbut three thousand sacks
were used in the work and Alderman Blake
furnished several thousand rations in all.
The barges SO kindly stationed along the
levee. by order Of Capt. Knight, obviated
the necessity of much work on that portion
of the new levee. Altogether, Cairo came
out of this siege in splendid trim un.
touched, we may say, for tho little
werk necessary to repair the abrasons
by the waves. on the new levee will
not amount to anything, comparatively.