The Grit-advocate., 1902-07-25
MISSISSIPPI FLOOD
LOSS is OVER SIX MILLIONS.
Greatest Crops Ever Known Covered
With Water Deep Enough to Float
Steamboat-Immense Flooded
District From keokuk South.

VI any Dut people OF long experience
| with the Father of Matters in It's most
! destructive mouI.
| The situation is growing worse hour
| ly. There is absolutely moi the slight
| est chance Of stopping the Hood which
| is Il dozen times the most costly of
f, any in The history of the great river
| above st. Louis. \ correspondent OF
| the Associated Press went all over the
worst damaged area to-day in the
steamer Silver Crescent and found ev
erywhere the greatest crops ever known
under water deep enough to float
steamboat. People ut the river cities
| give an immense mass of details, all 10
| be generalized in losses agSregating
many millions of dollars; hundreds of
farmers rich ten days ago are penniless
and homeless, and hundreds are watch
ing and praying that the great levees,
which are now their bulwark against
additional loss and. in many cases, of
| penury, will hold
J Careful estimates indicate the loss up
to today at about S6,OoOOOo, with ev-
cry prospect that it will be increased
by two or three millions by the rise
above. which has not Yet reached the
lower stretches of the river. Most of
! this loss is Oh the Missouri side of the
river between keokuk and Hannibal.
Passing the water-lapped lumber
yards of keokuk the mouth of the DeS
Moincs river is seen to be nearly two
miles wide. Normally there are two
mouths and an island delta covered
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 four feet of water
all over the town. Gregory is sub
merged, except the White church. in
which service was held to-day, the
congregation from the country reach
| ing the house of worship by the rail
| road track. which is still above the
| flood in a waste of waters miles wide.
Other towns and cities on the islands
are beyond the danger line.
Immense fields are seen in Il great
lake with the shore line visible only
with a glass, where the high bluffs
hound the bottoms. Islands dotting
the river at its normal stage have dis
appeared except for the tops of trees
or fringe of high shore willows pro-
truding slightly like a circular green
coral reef. Occasionally house on
piles or stills is seen, but generally only
roofs protrude to mark the center of
the farms of corn. On the edge Of the
i flood river corn gradually rises on Il
slope, tassels, tops, ears and stalks ap-
pearing in order. In few half-sub-
merged fields is shocked wheat in the
background. the remnants of more
washed to the Gulf of Mexico
In the middle of the present river the
tracks of the st. Louis, Keokuk Il
Northwestern railroad, normally the
| Missouri shore, are now Il few inches
above the water and under it in some
stretches. Shore lights for pilots are
| standing in the midst of n waste of
! waters where steamboats, can run over
them. The river is five to ten miles
wide and seventy miles long and an
other great lake is added to the geog-
raphy
All this territory was practically COW
| cred with corn n fortnight ago esti-
mated to make 70 to 100 bushels to the
acre. Previous estimates of the loss
have been greatly increased by the
| prospective yield being found much
| greater than ever before. experts tell
ing of many farms that We're good for
| 100 bushels to the acre. The loss is to-
tai. Experience is that If water stays
! forty-eight hours. even four inches
over the surface it kills corn and ev-
cry stalk wet by waves perishcs from
| rOtting roots Much of that back from
the channel looks to the casual observ-
er as if it would recover when the
flood subsidies but Il month will see it
all brown and scar.
Date Of Coron nation