The Montgomery advertiser., 1903-04-01
NEW PRINCIPLES ARE USED
The Scarcity of Labor the
 Real Drawback.
At Angola, La, the Leves Has Given Way and the State Farm is Fiooded-Outlook Much
 Improved.

sew Orleans, March I.-With a net fail of two-tenths of a foot in the past twenty-four hours and encouraging news from the scene Of the struggle at hyme- La, river conditions were considerably improved today. The only disQuietihg news of the day was the reported break at Angola, but the importance of this breaK was minimized to some extent by the news that the damage resulting would be largely confined to the State farm located there. The eleven miles of levees mately $lo0.O00.
 A desperate struggle mas been in pro- gress there for for the last week to hold the embankment but water has been steadily seeping through it and the con ditions had grown so critical by the end of the week that President Parker of the Board of Control had ordered the re- moval of the stock and the bulk of the convicts into the Tunica Hills as matter of precaution and steps taken to protect the camps. The plantation is one of the best in the State and the cotton grown upon it has been a large source of reve- nue. The levee is located nearly oppos- lte the mouth of Red River and the wa- ter win ultimately find its way back into the Mississippi, increasing the flood wave south of Baton Rouge.
 Good results attended the work at Fly melia daring the day and the answer to the appeal of the board for additional men and money has been answered Large quantities of material went for rd crihbjnR the upper end of the broken levee had reached the willows on the batture and extended out a thousand feet on the lower end. The real test will come when 1t Is attempted to join the ends and begin of the work of sacSing. A hopeful feeling prevails at the scene and the chance of closing the break is fair. The extent of inundated land is gradually in- creasing, and the situation will be des- perate one for the sugar planters and the truck farmers If disaster comes now. The morning reading of the river was 2O2 a de-line of a tenth from yesterday. There was a further fall of tenth dur Ing the day.
 May Close the Crevasse.
 The work of closing the Hymelia cre- vase bids fair to ucceed. Both ends or the 600 feet of crevasse are being held and a wing of cribwork filled with sacks now reaches from the broken banks 10 thicket of willows in front. The thick st itself acts as a breaKwater, and the plan to build cribbing 800 feet long through the willows will be easier to &C., romplish than the construction of the DO feet in the raging current against the rrumbling banks. All accepted theories of closing crevasses have been thrown aside in the work done. but 1t is hold Ing fast If the crevasse is closed 1t will be the largest in the history of the river that has been conquered The drawback today was the shortage of labor. Plant CTS despaired of checking the break and put their hands to work on their back ievees. The new hope will change affairs rapidly and an army will be put to work tomorrow, Governor Heard adding 2O( convicts and the Southern Pacific send Ing a hundred bridge builders.
 The river at New Orleans at midnight shows a slight fall and all the rest of the Louisiana line is still holding.
 One of the peculiarities of the Hyme- ua crevasse is that the volume of water Is not so great as figures would show. The backwater has fallen and the Texas and Pacific expects to raise and arrange tracks so that in two days traffic will be resumed.