Birmingham state herald., 1897-05-23
OUR LETTER BOX.
No communications will be published un- der this head unless signed by the author.- Editor.
THE MISSISSIPPI LEvEEs.
Editor State-Herald.

Editor State-Herald.
 The writer left Arkansas a month ago. crossing the flooded district to Memphis, on the Kansas City, Memphis and Bir- mingham road, which was all above wa ter and in good condition; but the waste and desolation of waters extended for full fifty miles from Crowleys Ridge to Memphis, with towns half submerged ara helds and farms partly dry in a few places.
 Thirty-two years ago the writer was traveling in the interior of China and around the Hoang-ho, or Yellow river, few miles below Kaifung-fu, once the capital Of the empire. We. drove up over two or three levees, commencing a mile or more from the river, which was sixty rect above the plain. A day or two later. We crSssed the same river flowing over the plain without any entertainments. It nad broken over all their levees some distance below where we crossed 1t. changed its course from east to north and ever since has been going out into the Gulf of Pechfli, 200 miles from its former outlet into the Yellow sea.
 me Chinese built @ wall 1,500 feet long to Keep out the Tartars, costing more in its construction, it has been said. than all the railroads of the United States and Tartar dynasty has been upon. the Chinese throne for. generations. and their wall has failed to keep out foreign4 CTS, as their levees failed to keep in that river. -.-z..--s -
 If we are not yet prepared to admit that our levees and. jetttes are failine! to accomplish the purposes for which they nave been built, a few more such Hoods as the. present, and a few more nllliiohS or losses Of property and a few. more thousands of lives may convince us. - .
 year or two later the writer crossed from Suez to Cairo. Egypt, by rail, and as we approached the valley of the Nile the barren sands of the desert were re- lfeved by lire of green like a csrpet extending far beyond the pyramids, pro duceds by the ,oyerflowing of the Nile. Supposa1 they should build Ievees along the Nile; would not Egypt be as desert.
 Suppose we should tear out the -Fads' 1ettles, which are piles driven out into. the Mississippi- at it's mouth to confine the; waters and- deepen the channel andl pun 55hneIm 5n n 95uyE,a St' Itpuis, and every where eise' along the river, and let the river go unvexed to the sea- and SUD- pose the waters did sometimes overflow the bottom lands along the river, would It not be better than our fruitless at, tempts, tQ. canine them, resulting in the present widespread desolation and ruin Does not the river bed rise from year to year as result of these Instructions? Is not the bed of the river at New Or leans now higher than the streets of thas city? Would it not be better to assist the river to strafghten it's channel and to remove all obstrpctions, natural and artificial, and let the river carry off the waters of twenty-seven states to the gulf rather than persist in a policy of obstruction and fail, as the Chinese have failed, and as we arSAnow failing?
 The writer came from Memphis down to Birmingham over the Kansas City. Memphis ard Birmingham road, and re- turned to Memphis; and then went over the Louisville and Nashville road to Bowling Green, Ky, and came from there down here, stopping at all the principal towns along the way The whole coun- try along these lines is like paradise; there is every evidence of plenty on every hand If what you sell is cheap what you buy is cheap also. The Centennial at Nashville is a success. The Louis ville and Nashville road is one of the very best in the south in every respect and Birmingham is one of the most beau tiful and prosperous cities of the coun- try. PAUL BAGLEY. Birmingham, Ala, May 20, 1897.