Shepherdstown register. [volume] (Shepherdstown, Va. [W. Va.]) 1849-1955, 1897-07-22
IN THE FLOOD.

Those who have not seen the bayous OF
Louisiana, west of the Mississippi, can
not be said to have thorough knowl-
edge of America, even if they have
visited every other State and territory,
1t is country level as prairie, yet
covered with mighty forests, whose In
terlocking live oaks and Expresses
make grand arcades of eternal solitude
and silence.
The roads in this land are few and
short-the only means Of communica-
ton being the deep, canal-like bayous
that are usually currentless and stag
nate in the shadows of the bordering
trees.
The plantations along these bayous
are famed for their sugar and cotton,
and they would be the most valuable
in the world were it not for the great
sums of money expended by the plant
ers in building levees, or heavy arti-
fetal banks, to keep the bayous from
overfowing in time of high water,
which usually comes when the ice is
melting in the upper valleys Of the
Missouri and Mississippi.
But, though the precaution taken to
shut out the floods is great, it is not
always effective. Heavy falls of snow
in the winter to the North means heavy
floods when spring comes to the plains
of the South.
The floods in the spring Of 1888 will
be long remembered as the most Sc
we're that ever swept over the planta-
tions bordering the bayous. Rich
plantations were ruined, forests lev
eled, embankments swept away, homes
borne off to the sea, herds drowned
and scores Of human beings perlshed in
the food or Of hunger.
The plantations of Judge Riel and
Mr.. Gordon were on opposite sides of
the Bayou Rouge, about 60 miles south
of the point where the Red river enters
the Mississippi.
These gentlemen, though neighbors,
were not neighborly. They had had
a quarrel when young men at college
"a foolish, causeless quarrel, and,
though twenty-five years had passed
since, they had never spoken. Both
had married in the meantime, but their
families held no intercourse.
Judge Riel had two sons, one twen-
ty-three and the other year or two
younger; and Mr.. Gordon had two
daughters, aged respectively nineteen
and seventeen.
Florence and Jennie Gordon were
pretty, accomplished girls, and, though
they loved their parents and their
quaint, solitary home, it was but nat
ural that they should now and then
yearn to know something Of the great
world outside the water-girdled plan.
tation.
They often saw the sons,of their
neighbor-of their fathers "enemy,
as they thought Judge Riel, rowing
past in their graceful boat, and they
always acknowledged the salute of the
handsome young men, but beyond this
no courtesy was interchanged.
"What news, John?" asked Mrs.
Gordon, as her husband came into the
house about midnight with dim lamp
in his hand and his rubber garments
shining with water like recently
polished stove.
at is still raining as if it had not
been at it aweek," replied Mr.. Cor
don, with something like sigh.
"And the levee2" asked Florence,
who, with her sister Jennie, had been
waiting up for the report on which
home and perhaps life depended.
Every man on the place is patrol
ling and watching to prevent a break,
said Mr.. Gordon, throwing off his coat
and running his fingers nervously