The morning news. [volume] (Savannah, Ga.) 1887-1900, 1892-04-13
HAVOC OF THE FLOOD.


Not over Estimated.
| BIRMINGHAM, ALA, April 12.-The Age
| Herald staff representative sent to Column
bus, Miss, confirms the worst stories that
have been told about the food. Miles of
railroad track have been swept bodily away.
No losses of life beyond those reported have
been ascertained, but the search has been very
limited, covering only small radius around
the city. Planters have lost heavily, while
hundreds of colored tenant farmers have
lost everything. On DR.. Hutchinsons
place fifty families lost everything and two
people were drowned. Merchants had all
been advancing the tenant population and
the advances already made are gone with
| the stock on which their mortgages rested
| The decrease on the cotton crop in the val
| ley OF the Bigbee, it is estimated, will be at
least 80 per cent. High waters are now
raging along the rivers in Lower Alabama,
and the Alabama Great Southern track Is
under water below Akron, causing q wide
detoureof trains by the way Of the East
Tennessee, Virginia and Georgia lines.
NO DANGER AT CHATTANOOGA.
CHATTANOOGA, TENN, April IA
special to the Times from Birmingham re-
ports continued rising Of the T6mbigbee
river. Hundreds of acres Of lowlands In
| Green, Pickens and Sumter counties, Ala
| bama, are inundated and the damage will
be heavy. The reports of high water In
| Chattanoogas immediate section have been
grossly exaggerated. The recent freshet,
which Is dignifed even by that NAME did
no damage here and railway traffic was
but little delayed.
BUSINESS AT A STANDsrILL.
New ORLEANS, April l2.-A special to
the Times Democrat from Colum bus, Miss,
| says; THE death and dissolution caused by
the flood has 30 demoralized the people that
the days are as quiet and business as idle as
on the Sabbath. While intercourse is re-
spmed with the northwestern part of
| the country the city is water-bound
from every other direction. Later
reports rather enlarge than diminish the
| previens estimates Of the loss Of life and the
destruction Of property. A general idea of
the effects OF the food can be stated in this
way: A belt of country ranging from five
TO fifteen miles wide, running north and
south, is q stretch of debris made up of
the ruins of houses, fences and the
carcasses Of STOCK and ie is doubtful
whether there is left standing in that belt
a dozen houses. The pitiful scenes of the
last few days have opened the houses of all,
and public and private charity prevents
cruel suffering Of those who were rescued.
But the most distress will come when the
water subsidies, and there will be left in
this place from 900 to 1900 negroes who
have not one cent and no credit,
and the places that were their
homes will be nothing but mud
holes. The landlords of the tenants
are In no condition to replace these de-
stroyed farms and this is the future OF the
negro subsisting now on public charity. II
tn re was ever an occasion when a people
had right to call upon their government
for help, that time is now for these poor
freed men aud 1t would be but common
humanity for the congress now in session
to help them. These are facts. The i'm
poverishe4 condition Of the white people
prevents them from maintaining the colored
people long by charity and it is too late in
the season to give them work. At a called
session the board OF supervisors of the
county are celebrating whether to put into
operation the stock law in the flooded dis
trict without which it is impossible to
make any crops whatever, as in the entire
district there Is not a vestige Of fence and
in many places the land is so badly washed
that 1t will be impossible to locate the fence
line.
TEE DEATH LIST.
: Any estimate OF the loss of life is purely
guess work. but the death list is a long one.
There is not yet any death reported among
the whites, as these low-lying lands are 10
habited almost exclusively by negroes, and
such whites as lived there we're always kept
we'll protected by keeping good boats. The
old mound builders built wiser than they
, | hueWs a. toeso OlQ 1uQlau relics
saved the lives of hundreds Of negroes
besides countless numbers of stock
"a mass meeting of citizens was held in
the city hall this afternoon to devise the
ways and means to keep the poor in this
hour of their need. The mayor was author
ICED to ask of the federal government the
loan of l 600 tents to give them shell
1 ter. Amid the distress of the past
> week it is hard for these people
. to find anything to laugh at,
, but one OF these incidents was furnished by
Capt. Leigh. leading commission mer-
chant of this city. In company with his
t l0-year-old sou, he was engaged in protect
/ ing his stock on his Jersey farm in the
suburbs, aud while 30 engaged lost his
balance and fell out of his boat.
The boy seized him by the feet
as he was going under the water and held
, him like a hero to keep him from sinking.
: This, of course, kept his head under, and be
r was only saved by the failing strength OF
3 the child, which compelled him to let go the
J feet
THE students Of the State Industrial In.
r stltute at this place. true to their woman's
nature, gladly Joined the citizens in making
{ such contributions as they could. By COM
mon consent they agreed to go without Their
usual Sunday dinner that it might be given
the sufferers.
The Georgia Pacific railroad is running
I. trains from here to Birmingham.
The water is falling slowly, having
fallen only about feet in the last -four
! days"
8 SIR JULIAN PAUNoEFoTE and Lady Pauncefot,
a talk Of trip abroad next month with theil
family; and il is probably that they will not re