Daily tobacco leaf-chronicle. (Clarksville, Tenn.) 1890-1895, 1891-06-12
THE FATHER OF WATERS.
Something About the Great River Told
by Correspondent.

fresh from over the waters OF the
great Mississippi, the idea occurs to
me that the people in my native
State would like to know something
of Uncle Sans maneuvers and
efforts, plans, &C., in trying to con-
troll and keep in its bounds the father
of waters. Judging by the many
questions answer when at home in
regard to- the levees, mattresses,
&c on the Mississippi river, take
it for granted that some items in re-
gard to it published in your worthy
columns might interest them.
Most of our people in Tennessee
who have never seen levee have an
idea that it runs along just on the
bank of the river, but instead the
river is seldom seen from the levee,
and then only at distance and in an
open country. Let us hang up large
map of the United States before us on
the wall and see what scope of coun-
try this great old river has to drain
between the Alleghaney and Rocky
Mountains inclusive-and then rea-
son shows us that to attempt to con
fine il to its natural banks would re-
quire levees like mountains. So that
as a natural consequence, when the
Ievee on the Mississippi side is very
near the river it is some distance
away on the Arkansas side, leaving
ample room for all the waters from
the mighty rivers above when swol
len, to flow out in their maddenCd
fury into the Gulf of Mexico and do
no harm to the planters of Mi sis
sippi and Arkansas. Think of q body
of water from to-25 miles wide, and
from to 10 feet higher than the
farming lands behind the levep,
standing and pressing constantly
against the levee Gan embankment
of dirt with a base from 40 to Is feet
wide and running up to 8 feet wide
on top for mouths and gradually
seeping through the craw-tish holes,
etc, until it resembles the little
springs in our country as thousands
of little streams come bubbling out
on the land side of the levee. AT
this stage of water skiffs are seen in
great numbers lying around each
mans house ready for use in case of a
break in the levee. 1t is a terrible feel
ing for a man to lie down to sleep at
night expecting that at any moment
he may be called from his comfort
able couch TO swim for his life.
Naturally the bed of the Mississippi
river is filling up each year from the
continuous washing away of the
soil in the upper countries, and as a
consequence the levees have to be
built higher each year. Uncle Sam
is not in the habit of spending his
money to build levees, as it is mostly
done by taxing each bale, or rather
every 500 pounds of cotton $3.50, but
after the overflow of last year the
levee board found itself minus funds
sufficient on account of their being
very few bales of cotton to tax,
This fact was clearly stated to Uncle
Sam and he generously appropriated
sufficient to their needs, and through
his benevoence there has been more
work done in this section On
levees during the past winter
than for many years. Most
Of it is done with white labor,
which comes with frost each
fall from the North to spend the
winter. During my stay here l have
settled (being pay-master for CON
siderable outfit with a dozen nation
alities. Among all these the Swed, S
are generally the best workers and
most reliable, the Italians the "cus-
sedest" and trickiest; language is
inadequate to denounce them duly, as
labOrers. They all carry dirks, and
man takes his life in his hands
when he comes in contact with them,
| if he ever turns his back.
AS rule levee labOrers save very
little money, for out of ten nine will
leave IA job on first pay day to elbow
himself in" and few there are out of
the thousands that come down from
st. Louis and Chicago-these being
their principal headquarters-who
save enough to pay their way back
on "St. Patrick's Day." when most
of them start back. When a man
picks up one of these "Old terriers"
for fool he puts him down very
soon, for they are we'll posted on al
most any subject. l would like to
tell something of how the banks of
the Mississippi are protected from
caving, but will defer that until an
other time.
Long live the TOBACCO LEAF
CHRONICLE and her subscribers.