Pine Bluff daily graphic., 1915-05-29
Weakness Discovered AL most Immediately, and Re
 pairs Are Under Way.
ONLY WEAK PLACE
 IN BEREAVEMENT
Jesse Core Says Plum Bayou Leyee Can Stand Six Feet More Water. FrencltOwn Lcyee StrOng-ROdy
 of White Man Floats in River.

The Arkansas river at ' o'clock yesterday registered stage of 23.5 feet on the government gauge here.
 At ii o'clock yesterday morning, it registered "A feet, "a rise of half fCot in four hours, showing that the river was rising at the rate of one and one-half inches per hour. If it continues to rise at that rate, at z o'clock this morning it will register more than 26 feet
 The forecast issued by the weather bureau is that stage of 2S feet will be registered here Monday night or Tuesday, the crest of the flood reach ing Pine Bluff at that time. Continu- GUS heavy rains in the upper reaches Of the Arkansas river, however, may cause high water stages to remain longer than is now anticipated.
 Body Floating in River.
 The watchman at the new free bridge telephoned into town yester- day that he had seen the body of a white man floating down the river. Men in boats watched the current here during the day, but the body was not located. It is believed to have lodged among rush or willows, or to have been drawn under in an eddy somewhere.
 A woman living in East Pine Bluff near the river telephoned the central police headquarters later in the fore noon that she had seen body flotins toward the courthouse, near the bank of the river but although search was made, no body was found up to last night, when darkness pre- vented search.
 Cav!ng Near Rob Roy.
 Tom Collier, l.. M. Quattlebaum John M. Oracle, J. A. Altheimer, and others of the largest plantation owners in Jefferson county, have centered their efforts and the labors of all their available workmen, in endeavored to build run-around at a caving place at the extreme end of the Plum Bayou levee, about a mile, below the Cotton Belts bridge al Rob Roy
 The weakness in the levee at that point was discovered yesterday and the work of strengthening 1t was started at once. Late in the after noon engineers of the Cotton Belt discovered that the levee was caving badly, and that it had already lost about half it's thickness, on the river sida
 Superintendent Elmer Richards of the Cotton Belt immediately com municated with John M. Oracle. on whose plantation the weak spot is located, and with other planters, and within a few hours all the planters had rallied to the work, with all the men it was possibI1 to gather, on their plantations as we'll as at New Gascony. Altheimer, Rob Roy and other settlements in that section of the county A force of workmen and 10000 bags of sand were rushed to the scene from Pine Bluff by the Cotton Belt, under instructions of Superintendent Richards, who kept in touch with the situation all night.
 Search for Weak Spots.
 Employes of the Cotton Belt hunted for weak spots in and along the levees yesterday, and wherever such were found, work was started at once to make the levee sound.
 lAIt the packing plant, the gate to the sewer system was found open and considerable water had gone through the sewer into the land back of the levee. Cotton Belt employees closed the gate and banked sandbags around it, eliminating cause of worry there.
 An open gate was also found in the Frenchtown levee by Cotton Belt investigators. and this also was closed. The gate was found to be somie.what weak. and it was strength ened by the used of sandbags. H E
 If the levee on the Oracle planta- ton near Rob Roy, at what is known as Ash Flats, should cave into the river or give way under the pres sure of the. water: the flood waters would find an outlet through the Oracle and Hayward plantations, through Altheimer and Wabbaseka.
 tContinued on Page 2.)