Carolina watchman. [volume] (Salisbury, N.C.) 1871-1937, 1912-05-08
DESPERATE EFFORT TO SAVE LEvEEs.
Situation has Become so Critical, College
Stpden S Have Answered The Gail for Help.

OVueu uUI6 hu0W0SVW lu0 V0Iu W. u0IP
Baton Rouge, La, May g.
Hundreds of citizens, rich ano
poor, worked all day and are
working tonight side by side
with three hundred convicts ana
negroes in a desperate effort tc
bold the levees against the tor.
rental floods in the Mississippi
creeping hourly towards the crest
of the protective earth works
about this city.
When the situation became &C
! critical this afternoon, every able
bodied man and boy joined the
working force. Five hundred
cadets Of the Louisiana State
University responded to the call
and joined with school boys, boy
scouts and soldiers working eager.
ly to do their part in saving the
levees.
There are fivs points of fever
ish activity. An especial effort
is being made to save the city
pumping station and water works
plant and about thousand per-
sons of every calling are assisting
in building large mud boxes
about this property.
Gov. Jared Y. Sanders spent
all day experimenting the work
ers. Simon Leblanc of the Pom
chartrain levee board arrived here
on special train with $50 ne
groes this afternoon. Hunter c..
Leake, president of the board,
came in shortly afterward with a
hundred or more men.
Large gangs are building levees
in different parts of the city.
Mayor Roux has ordered every
negro in Baton Rouge, unem-
ployed, arrested and put to work
on the levee, but they are few and
extremely hard to find.
With this desperate battle
against the waters going, the
refugees are not neglected and
those coming here are receiving
every attention. Two hundred
arrived today at Port Hudson,
where a concentration camp has
been established.
The waters from the Torras
break are slowly spreading over
the open country, taking in town
after town, becoming deeper every
hour. The situation in this dis.
trict was made more critical here
today by the break in the Moreau-
Vile levee of on the Bayou Des
Glaizes.
The Teche country is being
flooded by the Atchafalaya
waters, which today had almost
reached Breaux bridge junction,
on the Southern Pacific.
Bayou Sara tonight is under
from ten to fifteen feet of water
and it had the appearance of she
entire Mississippi river flowing
through the town. The water
has rea ched the second floor of
many houses and ten large houses
were today seen floating
away. Only tbs town of Bayou
Sara and environs are flooded by
this break.
Considerable excitement was
caused today by the receipt at
the Governors office of message
telling of loss of life from q
break at Mo1ganza This, how.
ever, proved TO be erroneous.
New Orleans, May S.-Panicky
conditions prevailed today
throughout the food-threatened
territory along the Mississippi
river from the Red river and Bay
ou Des Glaizes south to the gull
and in the territory already
stricken conditions grow worse
The river continued to rise rap
idly at all points south of tht
Red river and throughout the day
telegraph and telephone wire
throughout the vast section west
of the Mississippi river from the
Red river and Bayou Des Glaizs'
to the Gulf of Mexico were load
ed with thousands of messageI
telling of threatened breaks ii
the levees and giving warning t.
the people to make preparation
for any emergeucy..
This Marganza levee was still
holding tonight. A.. telephon
message tonight from Highland
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