Sacramento daily record-union., 1890-04-02
stock and supplies they had saved from the

stock and supplies they had saved from the
water.
All Of last night beating rain came down
upon them, and as they are in many instances
even without tents TO protect them they must
have suffered greatly. They are appealing to
every passenger boat for help
The Government boats are rendering all the
assistance possible, but there are only two of
them and they cannot relieve all the distress
that exists.
What is needed is a relief boat to take the
people and what little they have succeeded in
saving to places Of safety The loss sustained
by the people in Mississippi cannot be easily
estimated. steamboat men say it will be fully
week before the crevasse 45 miles below Mem
phis can affect the Tallahatchie or Yazoo rivers,
and that the planters will be able to save their
stock with little trouble or expense. having had
timely warning. Vicksburg and vicinity is full
of sock fIom the overfowed regions.
DEVASTATION AND sTARvATIoS.
MEMPHIS, April lst.-The Government steamer
Titan, Captain Smith S. Leach in command is
at work in relief of the devastated districts
Down lhe MISSISSIPPI the actual suffering, want
ana distress which confronts the hapless water
bound natives is appalling. The havoc of the
furious waters is almost complete Deyssta-
ton, annihilation and starvation expresses the
situation.
Demand for assistance and for succor is i'm
peratlye, ana every hour it is withheld adds
intensely TO the horrors which these brave
people nave 70 lace and are herocally battling
against
The whole country is covered with water from
ten TO twenty feet deep, rushing relentlessly on
to the sea,
CARRYING LIFE AND PROPERTY,
Mhirling and crashing through the mad torrent.
The boat towed four barges capable of holding
one hundred stock and any amount of storage
each, two flats for ferrying purposes, and FIVE
substantial skitts, on which to send out into the
country the relief stores.
The boat also carried a fair supply of proyi-
sions, consisting of crackers biscuit and corned
beef
All along down on the Mississippi side where
the levee could be seen by the aid of glasses, it
was discernible that it was holding its own
agsiost the heavy pressure, with from foot to
Two feet of good, broad sodded crown TO spare
Here and there could be seen where the
costly barriers had been sloughed off At
Andersob's Landing the levee is strong, and can
apparently Withstand two feet more of water
TERRIBLE DISTRACTION
MEMPHIS (Tenn), April 1st.-Push Matahn
levee still holds out, but the few houses in front
OF the levee are submerged and deserted.
Across from Push Matahn. below Ludlow Ark.
everything is overfowed and the people are up
in the second stories of their houses, and horses
mules and COWS are on ily-constructed
''stomps," over which the water is running a
foot or more deep.
At Australia all the town lying between the
river ana the levee Is under water, and many
of the houses are deserted.
At st. Louis and below Eleven Points, on the
Arkansas side. at the head of Island P. P, but
little was to be seen except the roofs of the
hOuocs- udlOuts lS dlLlOsl WdSUSu away. 60 is
Wild Wood, and Robertsville is just above water
Beath place is large one and the destruction
on it seems 20 be about complete The people,
those who remain, have been forced almost to
the roofs OF the houses. and the stock, of which
there is large number, are on "stomps that
are well under water.
The "stomps," wherever they are to be seen,
though filled with stock. seem to be poorly i'm
provised. They have slender foundations, be-
ing stilted upon any kind of posts that were
convenient to be had in the moment of danger.
AT Laconia Circle the annihilation may well
be added to the picture. The houses are all
submerged and many of them have gone drift.
ing.
The main business house stands on an i'm
mense gin and mill structure, on high stout
posts, and the water nearly reaches to the floor
This big house is filed with colored people, l5O
or more, all crowded and huddled together
A broad scaffold work is constructed in front
nj it, and on this when the Titan came up these
darkies, all looking smiling enough, were out
summing.
In front Of stores on similarly constructed
high scaffolds were numbers of other
people. Whites and blacks mingled to-
gether There were cows, big and little mules
and horses, most of them knee-deep in water
and impatient to get away, but in
stinct told them that they could
Tot swim the sea, and they then ran
aoout and dared not venture beyond the
little land that held them temporarily.
stretching far down over the watery waste
was settlement resembling a small village,
the Colored Baptist Church, large and
spacious, where 25O people had been driven by
the Hood and for miles about them the water
was from ten to twenty feet deep. These people,
too, were in sore need of food and anxious to
get away from the church.