The Salt Lake herald. [volume] (Salt Lake City [Utah]) 1870-1909, 1902-07-21
MisSisSippi's Rampage
Will Cost Millions.
Most Costly Above st. Louis
That Ever Occurred.

4
n of the flooded district of the Mis-
sissippi river from Keokuk south
shows conditions beyond the apprecia-
ton or realization of any but people
of long experience with the Father of
Waters in its most destructive mood.
The situation is growing worse hour
ly- There is absolutely not the slight
est chance of stopping the food. which
is a dozen times the most costly of any
in the history of the great river above
st. Louis. The correspondent of the
Associated Press went all over the
worst damaged area today in the
steamer Silver Crescent and found
everywhere the greatest crops ever
known under water deep enough TO
| float a steamboat People at the river
cities give an immense mass of details,
all TO be generalized in losses aggre-
eating many millions of dollars; hun
dreds Of farmers, rich ten days ago.
( are penniless and homeless, and hun
dreds are watching and praying that
the great levees, which are the only
/ bulwark against millions Of losses and
/ many cases Of penury, viii hold
Losses Reach Millions.
| Careful estimates indicate the loss up
/ to today at about $4,000, 900, with every
! prospect that it viii be increased by
! S2.O00,0 900 or So, 600 by the rise above.
I which has not yet reached the lower
/ stretches of the river Most of this
loss is on the Missouri side of the river
| between KeOkuk and Hannibal.
Passing the water-lapped lumber
yards of Keokuk, the mouth of the Des
Moines river is seen to be nearly two
miles wide. Normally there are two
mouths and an island delta covered
I with farms, which are now under rag
ing torrents. Alexandria was protected
to the last by the Egyptian levee the
breaking OF which would send water
all over the town Gregory is sub
merged except the white church, in
which services were held today. The
I congregation from the country reached
the house OF worship by the railroad,
which is stin above the flood in waste
of waters miles wide Other towns and
cities on the islands are beyond the
danger line.
Immense fields are seen in a great
lake, with the shore line visible only
with 2 glass. where the high bluffs
bound the bottoms Islands doLtinE the
river at its normal stage have disap-
peared, except for the tops Of trees or
fringe Of high shore willows prOtrud-
ing slightly, like green coral reefs.
| Occasionally a house OF piles is seen.
I
mark the center of farms of corn On
the edge of the flood corn gradually
rises on a slope, tasSeled tops, ears
and stalks appearing in order In a
few half submerged fields is shocked
wheat in the background, the remnants
of many more washed TO the Gulf OF
Mexico.
Whole Country Inundated.
In the middle of the present river
the tracks of the ST. Louis, KeOkuk &
Northwestern railroad, normally tbs
Missouri shore. are now a few inche;
above the latter and under il in some
stretches Shore lights for pilots are
standing in the midst OF a waste OF
,, waters, where steamboats, can run OVel
! them The river is five TO ten miles
! wide and seventy miles long, and an
other great lake is added to the ge-
ography. All this territory was prac-
ticaIly covered with corn a fortnight
/ ago. estimated to make seventy-five u
a hundred bushels to the acre Pre-
vious estimates of the loss have beer
{ greatly increased by the prospective
4 ! yield. being found much greater thar
ever before, experts telling Of man.
farms that were good for 100 bushel
TO the acre The loss is total Expert
ence shows that If water stays forty
\ eight hours even four inches under tn
!
s wet by waves perishes from rottnj
a roots. Much of that back from tn
= channel looks to the casual observe
= as If il would recover when the foo
d subsidies. but a month will see il a
! brown and scar
The height of the flood is indicate
8 BY an accident at La Grange tn
II steamboat warehouse was away frof
n the river and high. A strong curren
Il. he q
II imperfect landing, and the cornice Q
the roof Of the warehouse was torn o
n the forward guards Of the Silver Cres
? cent. The river is rising all the tim'
II six inches during the day in the i'm
{. mense area of 200 square miles. an
e the worst to come by the extension
n the flooded area by the water passin
a leVees il is now topping.
% New Danger Threatens.
The chief food thus far is on I'll
j. Missouri side from Keokuk TO Lot
Of isiana. with Canton and West QuinC
J. as centers of the country hurt wors
l. On the Illinois side there are thre
continuous levees for forty miles frOl
T Warsaw to Quincy above the wat'
IS and are thus far safe, but farmers al
afraid of a crevasse from Muskrat hill
le and every rod Of the redoubt is bein
a | watched day and night The breakin
ID of these Ievees would food rs squal
n miles in Illinois and destroy $1,000. o
IL or s.. coo 600 worth Of corn The leye'
s below Quincy are in the same situatio
70 except that they are lower and le
firm
Opposite Quincy, in Missouri, is ST
another center Of special devastatic
p which is appalling North twel'
l. miles TO La Grange and south 10 HOltC
e | large prairies are well under Wate
at reaching from the Illinois bluffs TO u
8 | Missouri bluffs. at least ten mile
J. Levees hastily thrown around farm
OF have disappeared in a fierce currel
1v rushing from above through the dra
Il Of the Burlington route bridge, carr
ye ing everything before IL Lone Tt
r,~-sirfa tan miles souare Is deSerre