The Bossier banner., 1892-09-22
A MYSTERY OF THE FLOOD.
The Tragic Fate of an Old Gentleman ant
His Young Companion.

1
The Tragic Fate of an Old Gentleman ant
His Young Companion.
During the late floods of the Missis
sippi and Missouri rivers and their trib
utaries, the daily papers have chron
icled hundreds of cases, humorous
tragic and pathetic, which have occurred
along the banks of these streams from
the junction of the two great bodies oi
water to points below st. Louis. But
while hundreds of cases have been de-
scribed, there have been also hundreds !,
of cases that have not been mentioned.
Homes have been swept away, pros
porous men made pxupers within few
hours, and poor dumb brutes drowned |
while pleading in their pitiful way for |
aid. Among the incidents of the flood |
too, have been few instances of gen |
uine heroism which stand out as well |
come relief to the usual somber hues of
life
Among the strangers recently located
in the locality just above st. Louis was
a man from Iowa. He had settled in
little cabin near the river, and knowing
no one, was unaware of his danger till
he found himself in the center of a
sheet of water five miles wide and
rapidly rising. Unable to escape, he
was step by step driven with his few
| effects to the fat roof of his cabin, ard
| prepared his frugal meals there for two
| days Two men saw him, finally risked
| their own lives to save him, and sue
ceeded In bringing him safe to dry land.
| Other similar cases have occurred, in
striking contrast with those numerous
instances where the possessors OF small
boats and sl1iffs have compelled un
happy wretches to give them almost
their entire possessions for merely pas
sage to land.
A pathetic and mysterious incident
occurred in southern suburb of st.
Louis, known as Happy Hollow"
where poverty and squalor usually
reign, which embodied in itself very
evidently the elements of an interesting
romance. Happy Hollow on one side OF
the street or alley or creek (river Du
Peres), doesn't know Happy Hollow on
the other side, and doesn't desire to.
The poverty and misery, and usually
the crime, of each individual, is surly
and desires no companionship. Hence
when gray-haired gentleman and
young girl moved into the neighbor-
hood and took little sf1anty down on
the levee, no one asked any questions
, for no one cared anything about them.
They attracted no attention except for
, their neat appearance. Their clothes
, were clean, in spite of their manifest
. poverty, as were also their hands and
!, faces. After Happy Hollow recovered
, from it's shock of surprise at this phe-
nomenal cleanliness, it went its way
, without another thought of the stran-
| gers.
). The new residents of Happy Hollow
had not been there long when the food
came. BY the end of a second day they
are cut off from escape and on the thirc
their little shanty was swaying to ant
= fro. The few rough spectators wht
cared enough tonote their distress were
. Indifferent One or two who had boat.
: called over and asked how much money
= he had, and when the old man shool
! his head sadly, they turned off with {
a laugh and went to the nearest saloon.
= One man, less brutal than the others
:, sprang into sxiff and started over, bu
he was drunk and, capsizing the littl'
boat, he went to the bottom like luml
= Of lead. The skiff righted itself ant
doated along on the water, and the oil
man saw the only chance for escap
:, drifting away. Springing into tn
:. muddy, seething waters he succeeds
by almost superhuman efforts in reach
- ing the little boat only to find that tn
oars had been lost out Just as he be
:. came aware of this fact, he turned an
saw the little shanty, washed from 1t
foundations, come drifting down the RI
sistless stream, while the young gin
: stood in the doorway.
10 10 Casting look of regret behind hin
- - he sprang from his boat, which was
a. haven of safety, into the water ono
o. more, and caught the edge OF his shant
US as it came past. Climbing into til
is rickety doorway, he had just claspe
or his companion in his arms, when a pill
no of driftwood struck the little building
or tore it to pieces like child's playhous'
-, and the muddy, roaring waters swa
" lowed up forever two human lives.
u A reporter for morning paper foun
RI among the debris washed ashore ne1
he dav several books with other thine
as from the little shanty. Among the
in were ssHistoire de la Poesie Provel
he cale,'' by Fauriel; Kant's 'Kritik d.
Keinen Vernunft," and well-thumbt
copies of Homer and Shakespeare. Eat
work was in its original tongue, al
ar had evidently been read before. II
.re name of the owner on the fy-leaves
ho inner cover had been carefully cut on
~ ~ and the secret of their lives, if there w
ie,a one. was buried with the owners in t
1ll. muddy and turbulent waters OF the gre
'ut Observation-Disclosures Free Press
nd - c-
,he THINKS women oaf'o ),