Bryan daily eagle and pilot. [volume] (Bryan, Tex.) 1909-1918, 1913-12-06

The flood situation grows
brighter with fair weather and
slowly receding waters. Brighter
so far as the loss of life, and the
danger of further life loss are
concerned, but not SO with prop
erty loss. With time to look
about, the enormity of the prop
erty loss-houses, horses, mules,
cattle, hogs, corn, cottonseed,
alfalfa, wood, household goods,
etc.-is slowly being unfolded.
1t is enormous. and at present
utterly impossible to estimate.
Nothing but the flood has
been discussed today and the
crowds on the streets have
eagerly listened to every scrap
of news that has come in from
the stricken district.
The motor boats arrived from Hous-
ton at 10 O'Clock last night. Two were
unloaded at Wellborn as the train
passed there and placed in service in
the lower. bottom. Five were unloaded
here with several skiffs. These were
taken on the International and Great
Northern TO the Little Brazos bridge
and placed in service in the Mudville,
Stone City and Mumford districts.
They are doing fine service and it is
believed all will be rescued.
The United States go, ernment has /.
loaned one hundred tents for relief !
work. These were stored at A. and NJ |
College. Three relief camps are being |
established. One is at Hoppe bridge, :
twelve miles down the river; a second /
at Jones bridge. nine miles down, and
a third at point nearly opposite
Bryan.
Starvation IS the greatest danger.
but the relief committee has estab-
lished distribution bureaus and has
run relief trains to points wherever
rails meet the water throughout this
territory. Where no trains go, supplies
are being sent out by wagon. The
people of Bryan will be able to care
for their own and help others.
Heroes are being made in the foam
ng floods. Frank Lee, 1t is said, went
)ut yesterday and singlehanded, in a
skin, saved the lives of twenty-four
italians, carrying them to safety. A
party composed of Fred Cavitt of the
City National Bank, o. Z. Saunders,
}. s. johnson, Tom Evans, Lamar
3ethea, and a negro called "Cal' took
,ff as many more.
Some were merely removed from .
shacks to two-story houses and left out
n the flood. This because to try to
AXE them ashore, from two to five
niles, meant the desertion of others I
o sure death.
The rescuers in one place found
even men, women and children hud-
lied on one bobbing roof. In some
wo-story houses the rescuers say that
oday there are still from fifty to
twenty-five whites and negroes, prac-
ically without food, huddled together
tut temporarily safe. II
There Is sort OF dark humor in II
al. Houses are swapping places"
'aid one man, y. S. Mooring told me
hat this morning there were dozen
on his place that weren't
here yesterday"
4. II. Astin tells that fourteen hous-
IS on his plantation washed away
like chips" when the Wilson levee,
lear Mumford. broke. All of his cat
lie, perhaps hundred head. stamped
ID and ran to their death before the
lood. r. Q. Astin, his brother, lost :
wenty houses.
Great plantations, tracts of thous-
nd and two thousand acres. that two
weeks abo were typical of the "old
SOUTH" with their hundreds of negro
ands and commissaries. are today in
he bottom of vast lake. The lake is
90 miles long
Joe Bonano owns fine place and a
ig two-story house near Steele's
tore. 1t is reported that seventy-five
Ihites have found refuge in the upper
art Of the building. Except for food
nd hunger no fear is felt for them.
lough 1t has been impossible to take
lem Off
w. o. Holmes found fourteen ne
roes on housetop three miles from
nore yesterday. He took off three,
II his boat would hold. No word has