The Anderson intelligencer. [volume] (Anderson Court House, S.C.) 1860-1914, 1897-05-05
SAM JONES'.
ueIist has been on a Tour In.
the Water Swept Mississippi
atlanta Journal.

atlanta Journal.
I have just returned from a tour
through a dozen States on 4 weeks
lecture trip, beginning in Kentucky,
on through Indiana and Missouri,
then south through the Indian Terri
tory and Texas, and via Shreveport
into Louisiana and Mississippi. 1t
has been a trip of great interest to me
personally, because I have seen many
things Of interest, and some that sad
dened me profoundly.
lectured two nights in the Indian
Territory, at Muscogee and South Nc
Allister. Twas charmed with the Ter
ritory. Though I had passed through
it before, this is the first time I ever
made a stop there. Muscogee is a
beautiful town Of perhaps 3,000inhab-
itants. There are many charming
people there, including a number of
Georgians. South McAllister is a
railroad center and a town Of much
pluck and enterprise with perhaps
10000 or $4,000 people in a radius of
a very few miles.
There + saw something of the "Big
Injun." I saw many mixed bloods.
I SAW some very fine people among the
mixed bloods, and they were very
proud to tell that they had Indian
blood in them of the Chocktaw, Chica-
saw and Cherokee brands. Indian
blood, whatever else it does, gives a
fellow a home in the Indian Territory,
and as much land as he can fence. |
suppose that is one of the reasons why
they are proud of their Indian blood.
I met some nice, well-educated young
men, and also some charming young
ladies', who told me they had Chero-
kee blood in them.
But J. was told by my old Georgia
friends that the Indians back in the
reservations were very primitive in
their life. and not advanced much in
civilization to what they were when
they ~emigrated West a half century
ago. The full bloods wont last anoth-
er hundred years. They are being
absorbed. found the people of the
Indian Territory very much stirred up
we the commission appointed lately
by the President to adjust all ques-
tions between the whites and Indians.
There is no government in the In
dian Territory but the United States
government no municipal govern
ment, no State o county government,
and no taxes to pay. And no whiskey
can be sold in the Territory without
committing a felony, I believe. But
they tell me they get along as smooth
ly as any town in the whole country.
With no whiskey and no taxes I felt
like moving out there myself, for l
despise whiskey and taxes are get
ting to where they bleed a fellow to
death in the States.
But I wish to write more particu-
larly of the high waters along the way
of my trip. I first struck them at the
Missouri River at St. Louis. From
thence on to Kansas City the river was
high. Thence on down Shreveport
the Red River was not so high: but
when I struck the Mississippi River
below Shreveport on the Texas and
Pacific railroad she certainly was on a
rampage. The levees held intact the
high waters up to the 18th. They had
a break at Briggs just below Vicks-
burg on the other side Of the Missis-
sippi River from US which will, of
course, food a vast amount Of the
richest country in the world. Cotton
plantations abound in that territory.
There was another break in the levees
just below New Orleans which flooded
some corn plantations.
But theHinteresting part Of it was
between Baton Rouge and New Or
leans. The levees are thrown up on
either side of the river almost to the
gulf below New Orleans. The bayous
have been closed up by these lsvees
along the river, and they are natures
outlet for these foods of water which
come down the Mississippi River,
and having shut out natures outlets
it is a fight for life when the water is
high to keep the leyees intact. These
levees are ruiz along one hundred feet,
we will say, rom the banks of the
river-sometimesf arther off and some
times closer 81 to the river. 1t seems
To a casual observer that if these
levees were out a half mile from the
river on either side the security Of the
people would be much more assured.
On the Mississippi Valley railroad
below Vicksburg-for it has been
drowned out above V~icksburg almost
to Memphis-the train on which l
rode ran through five miles Of water
and in some places it was twenty
inches deep, putting out the fire in
the engine. Thousands of people are
at work upon these levees patching
them, building them up higher and
placing a bulwark in the way of a
planked-up abuttment for the waves
of the river to wash against, thereby
taking some Of the pressure off Of the
levees:
Inese s5csapa,built Of the richest
a~lluvial soil along the tanks of the
river thrown up from ten to thirty
feet high. The base Of the levee when
it is ten feet high is perhaps nearly
thirty feet wide, and the base broad
ems proportionately as the levee is
built higher. These levees are all
sodded with either white clover or