The daily morning journal and courier., 1897-04-16
MANY THOUSANDS DESTITUTE

 Startling Conditions Found in Flooded
 Districts-In Boliver County, Miss,
 Twenty-Two Thousand Persons Are
 at Present Dependent on Charity
 People at Boyles Station in Danger of
 Starving to Death.
 Memphis, Tenn, April 15,-An idea of the work of the flood has been obtained from the investigation of the condition of the people in one county alone. In Boliver county, Mississippi, the United States army officer detailed there has found that there are 22,0O0 persons de- pendent on charity because of the high water. It will be many weeks before these people can go to work on their ago 15,O00 of them were in independent circumstances.
 Relief stations have been established at Rosedale and food is being system atically dealt out. Rosedale has been for four weeks and still is, under wa ter. The people live in the tops and upper floors of their houses. In addi- ton to the 22,000 destitute persons in Boliver, there are $500 head of stock which need attention. The greater part of the farm stock in the county was drowned. The surviving cattle have been kept on scaffolds for weeks and feed on leaves. The water at Rose dale rose yesterday.
 News has been received from Boyles Station, which Is several miles inland and under water, that there is great suffering there. It is reported that un- less relief is sent many persons may starve to death. The water coming through the Davis Island crevasse is devastating a number of fine planta- tions and is sweeping stock and houses away. Extra relief boats have been sent to this point.
 The river at Memphis is forty-five miles wide and is now stationary. New Orleans, April 15.-The storm of | last night on the river had practically subsided by early morning, and the day broke with every levee in the vicinity l of New Orleans still standing. The | government reports show that the gauge recorded 1S.6 feet at o'clock this morning. The record was 1S,5.
 It does not look now as though the Mississippi will stop much short of 20 feet in the next three weeks, when the maximum will probably be reached Large sections of the wharf space which extends eight or ten miles, are under water to-day, and in some cases freight has to be anchored to keep ii from floating away. Commerce in the meantime is beginning to be affected ferry houses generally are in water and the temporary flooring is being built Forty or fifty men armed with shot guns patrolled the right bank levees last night for distance of twenty-five miles with orders to shoot down any would-be levee cutters who might be discovered The cutters, however, took warning and kept off.
 At Gretna the water in Bayou Ia Fourche has reached an alarming height, and it is feared in that sectior that the dykes will break. The Ia Fourche is nearly two feet higher thar in previous years. The remarkable struggle in the Fifth district has not yet shown to have been in vain. UT to this morning every levee was hold ing.
 Washington, April 15.-Sixty thou sand persons in Mississippi need food according to dispatch received at tht war department to-day from one of the army officers at Vicksburg. He says that over nine-tenths of Washington Icsaquena, Sharkey, Sunfiower, YazoC and Warren counties are under water The distress Is becoming acute in the eastern half of this territory.