Butler citizen. [volume] (Butler, Pa.) 1877-1922, 1884-03-26
Mississippi LeveeS.

rocky anu WOOu-clau ruggeuueSS Guar
acterizing the shores of the lower Hud.
son Highlands and most of our North
ern rivers, the contrast is indeed sur
prising upon first viewing that stretch
of scenery, Of low-lying but highly
cultivated land on either side of the
Mississippi near New Orleans, called
the Lower Coast The pictures present
ed are charming enough in themselves,
but so strangely inverted does every
thing appear that sense ofintense weird
ness and unreality preVades the most
commonplace objects to one in whose
mind the word coast brings up a men,
ory of lofty headlands, rocky promon-
tories, and rolling vessels
To the traveller on shipboard the
horizon on either side is apparently
girded by thread, on which is strung
in almost endless succession the forms
of low-roofed planters residences, num-
berless orange gro yes, moss-draped
cypress trees, with here and there the
bulky shape of plantation chimney
trailing its smoke to the horizon across
the sunset sky. Everything stands
up tall, distinct; there appear to be no
backgrounds All objects are sill
houettes. The great artist Turner is
said to have experienced during his
later years an alteration of sight
which elongated entirely out of proper
tion all perpendicular objects in his
paintings. What delight would he
not have experienced in overcoming
with his altered vision these endless
lines of levees, these slender threads of
tremendous converging perspectives.
At high water periods, when your
steamer is floating on leyel ten feet
higher than the land on either side,
the fields beyond, instead of sloping
up, are in reality lower still, you get
somewhat of an impression that the
world must somehow be rounding off
suddenly in that neighborhood.
When landing is required, your
river steamer, however large or stately,
needs no dock. She glides gracefully
to the levee, until her forward guards
brush the grassy top, then lowers her
great gang-plank, and the landing is
made. This levee on which you have
landed is great bulwark of earth,
grass-covered, solid, and compact, a
barrier in food times to the rivers as
saults, protecting the rich plantations
on either side for 1900 miles, the build
ing of which has cost over $40, 900, 900.
On one side of you is the great
broad 70 e.
current, its wavelets breaking within
foot OF the levee top; on the other
ere spread beautiful plantations, with
their clustering laborers' quarters and
busy mills and hundreds of workers
afield. 1t is too charming a picture of
thrift and industry to be lying at the
mercy of that mighty flood already
fecking the bank with it's foam.
Notwithstanding the apparent Sc
curity of those afeld, they keep a
sharp eye on the treacherous river, and
guards are vigilantly patrolling it for
miles. If a leak is found on the inside
of the levee near the base, it is craw-
fish or land-crab hole If it runs clear
water, the danger is not immediate. If
1t is muddy, the earth inside is crumb-
bling; the hole in the river must be
felt for, and stopped with a sand-bag,
or cup-shaped earth barrier built up
on the land side as high as the river
without.
Should the break be too large for
the watcher to close alone, or the levee
show signs of caving, the alarm is in
stantly given. Whistles are blown,
the bells ring out wild alarm, all
work on the plantation is stopped and
from every direction the hands come
running to the threatened spot, bring
ing whatever implements they have
with them to meet the common foe.
Stakes are driven in the crumbling
earth, willow branches, boards, drift
wood, packed with earth-any thing is
used that will hold back the water for
q short space, until the more perma-
nent earth-flled gunny- bags can be
brought and packed in layers against
the tide. The danger at that one
spot is then over, unless the river is
still rising, when, if the whole line OF
levee in the threatened district can not
be carefully watched and re-enforced
one of those great crevasses is formed
which inundate for miles these beauti.
full, carrying distress or ruin through
hundreds of plantations, and filling our
journals with tales Of misery and pri.
walton.
Some of the larger levees have all
the lines, angles, and strength of yer.
liable Notifications. Convict labor
frequently renders the State good ser.
vice in building these works, their en-.
campments and those engaged on the
work, as at the great Scott Levee, pre-.
senting very animated scenes. Armed
guards keep a vigilant watch on the
workers, and generally have one OF
more dogs beside them should q man
break for the woods, and a boat al
hand should he take to the water
while attempting an escape. The con
victs are not always aware of the loca
tion of these guards, as they are gen
orally concealed in shallow rif1e-pit
commanding the most likely points o
escape
A health writer says: "Sleeplesl
people should court the sun" Thos,
who don't care much about sleep gener
ally court the daughter
"A French dramatist makes one o
his characters in recent play declare
that he is holding up the trowsers O
despair with the braces of hope"
WHAT will stick to a man close
than good true wife" askes CORE
spondent. A porous plaster viii
crowd her for the honors, young mar
Why is it, that, when church i
burned, nothing is SO difficult to saw
as the organ Because the fire -engin