The Brunswick news. [volume] (Brunswick, Ga.) 1906-2016, 1912-04-10
NO IMPROVEMENT
IS YET REPORTED
= HI
THERE HAS BEEN A RISE IN SOME
SECTIONS AND A FALL
In OTHERS.
The Situation, However, is Still Seri-
Gus and Much Suffering is Report
ed-Levee at vicksburg is Said to
Be in Great Danger.

Vicksburg, Miss, April 9.-Dykes
guarding thousands of fertile acres
of Arkansas and Mississippi against
the food tide of the Mississippi river
held firm today Where the tremen,
dous force of the rampaging river
was hurled against the embankments
at the bends of the river, breaches
seemed imminent.
In the long stretches of Yazoo and
Delta territory thousands of work
men labored all night to strengthen
the levees against the oncoming
flood
In villages and on the farms of the
threatened territory in North Missis-
sippi and Arkansas, hundreds of
people are ready for instant flight.
Center of Flood Shifts.
The center of the flood situation has
been shifted from Memphis to the
city Of Vicksburg in the lest twenty
four hours. The crest of the high
water is due here Thursday Chief
anxiety is aimed at points between
here and the Modoc breaks south or
the Tennessee line. Federal Engineer
Woodruff, in charge of the situation.
left here early today for final in
spection of the dykes that must stand
the brunt of the tremendous tide
rushing down from the north. Thou
sands of workmen labored by lanterns
oh h. TON, cd
levee stretches, and this morning the
fight continued.
A levee board official this morning
declared the dykes would hold up to
so feet of water and explained that
if the water went higher an overflow
might be expected at several points,
but that this would amount to grad
ual rise in the loWlands instead of
a tremendous tidal sweep experienced
in some of the flooded districts north
OF Memphis.
The threat of the flood has produced
a strained situation along the river.
While officials of the state and the
levee board on the opposite sides of
S0yJ
property owners are jealous of the
prerogatives handned down by the
customs of years.
Farmers Fire on Boats.
River pilots in charge of steamers
that have resumed operations between
Memphis and points south, say their
jobs are anything but enviable in this
flood period If steamer runs close
to uhe levee on either side of the
river, invariably the boat S pilot house
is riddIed with shot-and it is regard
ed merely as a friendly warning to
shift nearer the center or the other
side of the stream. When the river
rises to point that it laps the levee
tops. a wave from the wake of a
steamer might produce sufficient force
to smash the embankment. Before
the erosion could be checked the
flood might cause a great cash in the
dyke.
The purser of the steamer Kate
told today of an experience
the boat encountered thirty miles
south of Memphis. To avoid treach- |
erous currents the pilot of the Adams
had shifted his course nearer the Ar
kansas shore. Directly party of men
at the top of the levee. They |,
hailed the pilot. The men on the
levee shouted through a megaphone |
The pilot called back that he could !
not understand. In a minute a han |
of bullets from long range rifles crack
ed about the woodwork in the pilot |
house. Then the steamers wheelman !
understood. He shifted his steamer |
back into mid-stream. Il
Going After Kinsfolk.
Night trains from Memphis carried |
many persons who declared they in
tended to force obdurate kinfolk to
move from the flood threatened dis !
tricts. While hundreds of villagers
and farmers in menaced river sweeps |
have taken to the high lands, yet
MANY of the families of the most |
wealthy of the planters along the
great stream have refused to +ieayel
their homes. They say they feel the9
levees will hold The majority of the
flood couriers who came in last night
froc Memphis were young men whose