The Caucasian. (Clinton, N.C.) 188?-1913, 1897-04-22

Ylo0Sis Of tho Mississippi.

And the good that can do.
Yios<is of tho Mississippi. |
Few persona outside of the coun
try aimed BY the Mi.sissippi hav
any adequate idea Of the horrors OF
q d lod in that region. TO produc
it, there must be frat heavy and
prolonged rains in the leading trib-
utaries IF the great river. These
are fort aDately 80 wide apart, stretch
ing ss they do from the Ohio on tht
east to the Nilsson in the far West,
that usually not oftener than twic,
in q generator does the disaster oc
cur. Conditions leading up to broken
levees in the Mississippi are as fol.
lows: First, there come generally
Tremendous rains in the Ohio valley.
Creks and rivers fl wing into the
Ohio river from Pittsburg to its
mouth are swollen and hurry their
COR tents into the usually sluggish,
yellow stream. 1t bee 'mes u swift,
devouring torrent. 1t rises and
lasbes its banks in fury. 1t over
flows and its muddy current eat,
into riverside homes, whose inhab,.
tants fl .e for their lives to the hills.
Barns, sometimes with bleat ng
c,lves aud sheep inside and chickens
growing upon their ridgepoles, are
whirled down stream. Frame houses
with the furniture still within them
70 by, hay stacks and natboata, cribs
with corn cleaning yellow inside,
strings of fence paling and saw logs
flash past upon the angry s'ream, TO
lie towed in by wreckers below or to
20 on out into the unknown upon
the Gulf Of Mexico.
Meantime another deluge of rain
has come and soaked and gorged al
the earth in the Illinois, upper Mis-
siss'ppi and Missouri valleys. These
rivers carry the great waite south.
ward. They meet and mingle at
Cairo. Just at this point the awful
rams set in again, this time in the
lower NJ ssissippi region. From
western Texas, from Missouri, from
louisiana, from the regions draint d
by the SUI IL ,wer ard Iaz)O the
swollen creeks and rivers pour their
contents into the channel of the
maddened Father Of Waters. The
inhabitants Of owns along the MIS-
sissippi he gin to be anxious.
Along the Mississippi are 1900
miles of entertainments, built to keep
the river out of peoples homes and
off their plantations. The embark.
ments run southwark from Cairo
They are in many places II feet
hign, the peoples houses being at
binary high water below the sur.
face of the river. As a stateme n
of cold fact it may be observed tina,
there will be no absolute safety fol
our population in living along the
lower Mississippi till these fri htfu1
foundations shall have scattered
sand. ealth and sediment over thu
lowlands sufficient to raise then
above the danger line. How Ions
that will require, geologist, perhap:
can calculate.
But what would you? The lands
behind the Missis irpi danger lin,
are as fertile as a'y this earth IF
fords. Here are the great cotton
sugar and rice plantations. In tn,
value of it's farm products to tn,
acre Louisiana is richer than an,
other State in the Union. And mer
must live az d support their famil e
and toll, re- nee d suffer, and worl
out their destipies
A leyes, all hearts are fixed alter
nately on the pouring skies and tn
Mississippi embank ments. Altnl
the shore towns relays of men begil
to work night and day to strengthen
the l.eees. Timbers, loads of earth
stones AID sand bags ave hespe,
against one anoth,r to keep the wal
of water out. Soil i, raj 8, end tn
danger grows. Then no man leave
the levee. All who can dig an,
shovel work franticslIy, with pal
face and set lips aud few words
During the present fl ,od season me,
at Greenville wor ked without foo,
or sleep for more than "a hours.
Only those who have Sc n the re
suit of crevasse know the desola
ton 1t leaves in its track. Like
cloudourst the waters pour owe
homes and fertile fields. Thousaa d
of domestic animals are drowned
millions of dollars worth of crop
are destroyed. The river in tn
neighborhood of these breaks
sometimes 60 miles wide. Wher
iolsld villages are upon elevate
ground wild game loses its fear O
nan and deer and other animal,
driven by hunger ard terror of th
unknown, flee to the habitations @
man for refuge, instead of ava
from them.
Ia times like this men are some
tunes crazed and lose their human {
in their awful brad of what ma
happen. The darkest chapter in tn
history of these NJ ssissippioverfl, "
records that men have travelled
distance of so to 100 miles nortt
ward from their own homes an
with Asndish calculation deliberate
~ cot thu levees, that the rive
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