Omaha daily bee., 1888-04-16
Sensational Reports Corrected.

Sioux City Journal.
The Big Muddy is a stream pregnant
with surprises, and the inhabitants of
its valley never know just what to ex
pect. N~avigators have cursed it's tickle
currents from the earliest days, and
land owners in many of It's bends have
groaned in spirit over the knowledge
that it laughed to scorn the claims of
title and possession. 1t cannot even
shed it's coat of ice as do the tanner
rivers elsewhere, but occasionally in
dulges in the unpleasant freak of break
ing up at the wrong end, and when it
does e the process in the
proper order there are its sand-bars
and eddies to catch the broken ice cakes
and form them into gorges that act as
dams. So it is readily understood that
no matter how innocent and quiet the
river may seem to be while submitting
to the dominion of winter, its breaking
UP is always n matter of absorbing in
terest.
The breakup commenced three weeks
ago, and had the fine weather of Sun
day, March 10, held for two or three
days longer it is altogether likely that
the ice would have passed out quietly
and without damage to property, but
weather turned suddenly cold and was
V enough to form new ice that Sc
curely anchored the old and brought
the movement to a complete %standstill.
Meanwhile the upper waters were send
ing down their floods and the increased
pressure only strengthened the gorge
of ice already formed between here and
Elk Point. The damage was foreseen
by the people acquainted with the
stream and precautions for safety taken
In time. And the flood came. For a
week communication has been cut off be
tween this city and Elk Point, and a con
siderable tract of country in the latter's
immediate vicinity has been inundated.
There has been no loss or jeopardy of
human life and no destruction Of cattle
or property, save that in the overlooked
district the operations Of planting and
sowing will be somewhat intcrfered
with.
AS always occurs in case of disaster,
the scene of which is remote or difficult
of access, IN supplants investigation
and the outside world, clamoring for
news, is fed from the fertile brains OF
those accommodating people who fur
nish special correspondence for the
daily press. Thus it happens that the
Journal, bound to present only the facts
based upon reliable reports and the OBJ
s%ervations of the newsgatherers, has
necessarily been confined to accounts
that seem meager in comparison with
the thrilling and graphic novels pro-
duced for the press of other cities.
Comparisons of the situation at Elk
Point with the memorable flood of 1881
further up the river have been made in
a manner that conveyed the idea of
similarity and which Is all togethermis-
leading. 1t is probably true that the
water was as high and perhaps a little
higher at Elk Point this year than it
was in the same locality in 1881, for the
reason that then the principal gorge
was above that town, while this season
it was below. No correct parallel could
be drawn between the Elk Point freshet
of 1887 and the terribly destructive in
undation hat reached from below YER
million to Yankton in 1881. There was
no such sudden and overwhelming rise;
no battering and crushing of trees and
building: no such permanence of flood
heigh, and no such days of cold and
storm to torture the people in their
flooded dwellings. In common parlance
the flood this year did not ''hold a can
die" to that of seven years ago.