The Democratic advocate. [volume] (Westminster, Md.) 1865-1972, 1898-04-02


with their barrows wheeling dirt from the
| field next the levee. have them take it
up onto the crown and tip it over into the
river. 1t is not carried away. 1t seems
to be, but in reality it is plastered onto the
hsneycombed water side of the levee and
acts like so many little shoppers, plugging
up the holes through which the water Is
percolatng. While some Of the men are
doing tins others are digging ditch at the
base Of the levee to ward the fields. This
carries off the water with which the bank
is almost saturated, and gi1eS the leree
the chance it needs to dry out If we can
dry it out, il will contiue to hold back the
water.
This is what | do when | have time.
If haven time for that, then | try to
keep any more of the levee from sloughing.
This cannot very well be done by throwing
earth into the crack already made. although
that is the method of most of the settlers if
left to themselves. The new earth thrown
into the crack is soft. and unless there
is something to weight it down the water
coming through the softened soil of the
leyee, will turn it into slush in short order.
Some weight must be put upoa the slough
in. side of the levee to fasten it down, as
it were, back to its original place. To do
this we take planks or saplings or young
willows and lay them along the weakened
spot, bracing them by plank staked into
the ground at the foot of the slide. Then
we lay bags Of earth on these saplinss or
have loose earth thrown upon them to try
to hold them there while | can repair the
soft spot on the other side.
"One of the most discouraging expert
ences is in constantly racing to keep ahead
of the rising water when the levees are too
'ow. For instance, suppose there are ten
miles where the levee is not of sufficient
height; there was not enough meney to
make it so. The water is rising perhaps
two inches day, for you know the rapid
rise comes only at the beginning Of the flood !;
as you near the high water mark the rate
of rise is much slower The country is
only sparsely settled, and there are not
enough men to do the work needed.
Moreover, there are about four negroes to
one white man, and the negroes, many Of
them, work only under the threat of a
shotgun. Every day these ten miles OF
levee must be raised two inches in erder to
keep ahead of the water. That is kept up
perhaps day and night for two weeks, the
water creeping, slowly, but surely, up the
bank which the men can barely succeed in
raisin. to the necessary height. They are
utterly tagged out. And then some night
the levee is overtopped by the rising waters,
"A weak spot refuses to hold any longer, the
water rushes through. crevasse has oc-
Cured, and the whole territory is flooded
''Or perhaps some night drunken darky
going home on his mule rides up on the
levee to get out of the mud, breaks
through the softened and narrow ridge Of
earth, and the water finds its outlet 1t is
to prevent such accidents that the leeves
are patrolled 1t would be unsafe for any
one to walk along the levees at such times
| have been stopped many time while
driving by in the road They would de-
mand to know who | was When would
reply that had charge of State levees they
would say Prove it.
"Another thing against which we have
to guard is levee cutting. What is one
mans happiness, you know, is another
man misery. Back of the river plan
tations are the swamps where cypress cut
ters live. They cut and deaden the trees
during low water, and then they wait for
high water in the spring, because it is
cheaper to float the logs out than to haul
them by oxen. Formerly when the levee
system was very much inferior to what it
is now, they got the high water they
wanted. and got it pretty regularly. Now
they don have it, and so you, see, it may
be to their interest to have the levees
break There are shiftless darkie., TOO.
to consider When there is food, Uncle
Sam has on several occasions provided IA
tions for time, and | have often heard
the darkies singing and havinga good time
when IA food was threatening the levees.
They had little to lose, and they had Il
few months of free rations to gain We
have to force them to come out and work
Another enemy is the crawtish. He
loves the leyees. He burrows into them
from both sides, and in discouraging num-
bers. After while two or more Of these
burrows chance to meet and then there is
hole clear through the leyee We can t
eynf rid ~ E,,l1
lime, and all sorts of things. but if we do
kill one, eight or ten come in his place.
All we can do is to have the inspectors
watch the holes. So long as the water
coming from them is clear we know it is all
right; it is only the seepage water which
they collect. When its runs murky. we
know that the hole has tapped the river
and must be plugged up. Another pest is
the muskrat He Burrows in from the
water side starting below the surface Of
the water and burrowing upward until he
gets above it. There he sits and waits for
the crawfish, which he likes to eat. Pretty
soon another muskrat comes along. and
they enlarge the hole and the crawfsh
keep coming and then we have trouble. =
Where is the highest levee in this
State p
cit is probably the Morganza levee at
Pointe Coupee. That levee has one of
the most interesting histories of any in the
State. 1t broke in 1874, when such an
immense crevasse occurred that large
share Of the water of the river found its
way out by that opening. OF course, it
dug out an immense channel, and it was
not until 1888 that the levee was rebuilt
1t broke again the very next year. 1t
was rebuilt in 1885. 1t broke again in
1890, and l thought that I'd try to re-
build that levee so that it would stay,
come what might. did rebuild it, at a
cost of S93, 900, and it held all right
through the great floods of 1892, 1898
and 1897 The trouble with it is that
4 i