Fort Worth daily gazette. (Fort Worth, Tex.) 1882-1891, 1884-06-19
WASHINGTON LETTER.
The Mississippi on n Boom emphians
Scared About II.
The Good Children Of tho Great Father
Flock to the National Capital.
They Cry for lIelp-The Character Of
the Impending Calamity.
The River Commission and the Rail
ways Murdered Morse"
special corrcspondcuco oftho oa,c,,o.

WAsHiNGToN, June l5,-'rne peo-
Pile of Memphis are thoroughly
alarmed. The gigantic father of
floods has been resolved, for twenty
years, either to undermine the lofty |
bluff on which the vigorous, grow
ing city stands or to abandon It's pres
ent deep channeland passing across the
"cape,n Hopeiicld, opposite the
city In Arkansas, tind n shorter route
to the sea. A number of Memphis
merchants and land owners are here
begging congress for help. Help,
Cassius, or / sink! J" Memphis ex.
claims. The famed river commits
sion exhausted it's genius In saving
Memphis IL expended great sums
there. 1t provided "mattresses" for
the bed of the river, resting against Its
sides. Against these the current was
to impinge, To be diverted
from the crumbiing shore.
But the willful, hayward river
thrust the bulrushes aside and plowed
its way under the city until no man
can swear that greasy catfish do not
disport themselves beneath the marble
custom-house and beneath the great
palaces OF merchants along Main and
| Second and other streets half II mile
inland. IL Is feared that an earth
quake may come growing along
| through cavernous abysses, rs often
happens, beneath the unsteady,
uuaking lowlands, and while mother
earth Is convulsed with an ayue-tit
the city may sink, as did the country
which once bridged the water-iilled
chasm now known as Reelfoot Lake.
The spot of earth once known as the
navy-ynrd, on which the wisely Zen
gineercdn government once expended
about $1,000 900, containing perhaps
fifty acres, Is already heaped up In the
Gulf of Mexico outside of Eads' jetties,
and the process of abrasion goes on.
Where WILT end? Oil mills, foun-
the shore which Is supposed
to project above and beyond
the turbid, grooming waters OF the
monstrous river. No wonder Mem
phis Ii scared. No wonder it's mer-
chants and mill-owners are here cry
ing, "help me, Hercules!' The river
IL from forty to ninety feet deep In
, front of Memphis and three-fourths of
mile In width. Its velocity IL be-
tween four aud five miles an hour.
What power can restrain or direct tins
mighty moving mass of turbid waters,
While Eads' commission We're sink
A ing "mattressesn John cowdon, watch
, ing the idle process dvised the launch
: ing into the river of boats freighted
A with all the gravel and stones that
D could be gathered within hundred
2 miles. \ series of rip
i reps, he insisted, should y,
: upbuilt along the shore; but mat
tressesn and money were sunk, and
II now Memphis IL ION its head" be.
II cause 1t has no faith in its bottom.
IL The Mississippi, theoretically ant
1t for legislative purposes, is an arm o
VI the sea. Therefore there Is no consti
y tutional inhibition and congress mus
IL either interpose at once or suffer Mem
X phis to be destroyed. Republican leg
~ islation and Republican morals AN,
lie systems have wrecked Wall street an,
at the lack of Democratic Intervention
nj may destroy Memphis. The pres
y, dental campaign Is begun and thi
III congress dares not adjourn without II
lieving city which has surely sui
I'd fered enough from ''providential'
x, causes during the last twenty yean
of The river commission and yellow ievc
u both are supposed To be schemes {
lc- providence designed to work out, b.
ny rplilt ihtCEVtubit pfocSSs, tiit ptllet
IL. bless'dness OF our race. Charity, t
ly the heck of the plague, sent millions
III dollars into the valley; congress, q
en- the beck of the river commission
mn sends millions into fathomless abyss,
Die of the Mississippi.
"a Bnt We have row "a paternal govern
ac- mcnt. With its war tariff to rob tn
ne many, 1t buys the gratitude and adm
he ration of the few. For all that, tn
gs, harbor of Memphis deserves the san
nd guardianship that lavishes millions o
He'll Gate. In illustration OF this IN,
at l find in the office OF Joseph Nimm
are the statistician of the treasury, tab
In lated statement of the number an
ION tonnage OF steam vessels visiting Men
Dr. phis.
The Steamers licensed and enrolled q
ate western waters In 1883, including pa
I'M senger, steamer, tow boats and ferl
boats: