The herald., 1897-03-24
all Of which were picked up by one Of
the tugs and carried to Dyersburg.
The crevasse inst below the toWn Is

water Is pouring in over the country.
Contrary to expectations this water Is
now driving families out In the upper
end Of the city.
The Vernon is now near Tyler and is
expected here this morning with barge
load of people apd stock. No lives are
| reported lost. A guard shot man on
the Arkansas levee last night, who was
| in the act Of cutting the levee, and thNw
| his body into the river. No one knew
his name and no one cared.
If the river rises six inches more 1t will
sweep over the top Of three miles Of
| levee north of here like a cataract, un-
less the people are able to keep ahead of
the rise, which they hope to do. The
water Is now eighteen inches above the
| crown of the old levee. Every square
| inch Of available room Is occupied by
| refugees from the flooded districts
Three families are occupying two de-
serted school houses, and one family
is in the new Jail. The Methodist church
is full, and refugees are occupying the
two gin and grist mills.
There are six inches of water in the
| Gayoso county court house. Only tw }
houses are above the water there, and
all the rest of that town is covered with
| from four inches to six feet of water.
IN NEBRASKA.
OMAHA, Neb., March 23.-The river
| at this point shows rise of but six
| inches for the day. 1t was stationary at
| 146 feet from noon till night A special
from Sioux City this afternoon says the
| riUar fhara chntyc q fall n ftpn he
| lieved to be on account of gorges formed
| above. The Big Sioux river is rising
| again.
Mrs. Maxsey, who lived a short dis
tance above Sioux City, was drowned
today. The Big Sioux river had sur
rounded her house, and she attempted
| to escape.
| A special to the Bee from Sioux Falls.
| S. D., says: The Big Sioux at p. m. was
| 16 inches lower than at the same hour
yesterday, which was high-water mark
since 1881. but seven feet below the mark
of that year.
Milwaukee railroad officials arrived at
noon with dynamite to blow out the big
gorge which holds fast above the town.
| Two men started in a boat across the
bottoms to fix a telephone wire, an ice
| foe crushed the boat like an egg shell
and the men drifted 600 feet They fas-
| tened themselves to a telephone pole
with climbers and were rescued two
] hours later nearly frozen.
Water on the bottoms is fifteen feet
in places. Much unthreshed grain on
| the Bottoms is ruined.
NEAR THE DELTA.
ROSEDALE, March 23.-The river has
risen along the extreme lower levee dis
| trict at Australia, Miss, twenty miles
north of here and the situation is criti-
cal in the extreme. A large stream of
water is coming in under the levee and
| has increased to such an alarming ex-
tent that Major Sterling, the chief engi-
neer, was sent for by wire.
Later another call was made for 10000
| sacks and 700 shovels. all the hands that
could WELD shovel to come quick or the
line would give way. A special train
has left Greenviile with the material and
| Is picking up all the hands between
Beulah, Miss, and Round Lake, the lat
ter being opposite the threatened point.
Should this levee give way it would
flood many of the finest plantations in
| the state and a stubborn fight is being
made to hold it.
CREEPING UP.
KANSAS, CITY, March 23-The Mis-
souri, river rose rapidly here today and
is still coming up at the rate of nearly
two inches an hour. At $50 this morn
ing the gauge showed 14.7 feet, rise of
2s feet since yesterday morning, and by
noon it was about foot higher.
TENTS COMING.
ST. LOUIS. Mo-. March 2.3-Tele-
graphic instructions have been received
by the quartermaster at Jefferson bar
| racks from the war department at Wash
ingtop to pack all tents that can be
spared from the post and ship them to
Memphis at the earliest possible mo-
ment for the use of the flood sufferers.
COLUMBUS, O.. March Ex-Governor
Bushnell has. rendered the mayor of
| Memphis, Tenn, tents If needed for
flood sufferers.
ST. LOUIS, March 2s-Capt. w. r..
Mccoy of the Anchor line steamship
Bluff City, returned today from a trip
through the entire overflowed valley
south of Carlo. When asked concerning
the damage and loss of life, Capt. Nc
Coy said:
$50 far the damage I'M the flooded dis
trict around Memphis has not been as
great as the general public supposes.
In the district around Memphis there
has been heavy loss from the drowning
Of hogs and cattle, but as general rule
there have been very few horses lost.
In front of Memphis the river is forty
miles wide, having broken through the
levees and spread out into a vast lake,
| reaching clear across to Madison, in an
unbroken stretch. The town Of Marion,
Ark. is under water and the only rail-
road that Is running is the Iron Mount
ain The overfowed district extends
| from eighty miles below Memphis to
Point Pleasant, $50 miles above the
BLUM city. The average width is proba-
bly, eighty miles and the average depth.
| except in the bed Of the river, is from
| three to seven feet. There will be no
early crop from that region this year
This will constitute the heaviest part
| of the flood losses, think.
| "As we came up noticed breaks in
! the levee at Sans Souci, Nodena, Buffers
| and Drivers, while the water is sweeping
over at Modoc. This caused a slight de-
crease in the rise at Memphis, in spite
| Of the fact that fhe river Is rising at