Evening star., 1927-06-17
BY HARRIS DICKSON.

Boeuf River Basin, are shouting,
Boats! For Gods sake, boats"'
Listen! The levee breaks at Cabni
Teele. That's on the Mississippi River
itself. Those limitless waters add their
flow. East Carroll Is calling, and Mad.
ison. The ". S. & P. r. r. is cut.
Tallulah goes under. Southwark
southwark. A new crevasse at Win
ter Quarters! Another cataract from
the exhaustless Father of Waters
The lovely little town of st. Joseph is
submerged.
Boats! For Gods sake, boatsv'
Far-away New Jersey hears the
cry. A trainload of surf boats is
rushed from the Atlantic Coast.
way across half a continent. Never
stops. With gallant crews to man
them. AT Natchez. Quickly! Quickly:
Lift the boats from train to river. Go.
Go.
Waters Are Irresistible.
Southwark. Nothing can now i'm.
pede that flood until it be swallowed
in the Gulf of Mexico.
For love of le bon Dieu, bateaux!
Bateaux.'
Another language, Acadian French,
the imploring of peaceful folk so long
ago driven from their own land to
seek refuge in ours. An American
overflow surges through the forest
Eyangeline, people are appealing for
'BateauX m'sieu. Bateaux."
Farther northward-we passed 1t as
we went-that same mad cry had
leaped the Mississippi River, to spread
terror on its eastern banks. The
levee had broken in Washington
County, Mississippi, just below the
Beulah Crevasse OF evil memory in
1912.
Boats. boss. Fo' Gods sake can't
you lemme have a boat?" They are
mostly negroes now, helpless colored
folk.
4Swarms OF Boats.
Vicksburg heard their call for help,
Vicksburg perched safe and dry upon
her battle crest.
"Boatsi We must send boats"
When the call reached Vicksburg.
Rev. Gordon Reese, rector Of Holy
Trinity Church, rang up Norman
Schlemmer who had a boat used for
towing logs. It was then IL am.
"Schlemmer, when can you go?"
"I'll steam up and leave at II
o'clock"
Fine"
With them went DIR. Francis 8.
Weille. And Charles Colhoun, young
cotton man.
At 1 o'clock Norman Schlemmer's
boat pulled out from Vicksburg, with
provisions, and towing a barge.
Rescuing settled down to a single
method: Light craft, skiffs, some with
Outboard motors. SKINNED across the
submerged fields, or threaded their
perilous way through flood forests,
picking up stranded inhabitants-out
Of trees, cabins. bridges. Swarms of
little boats secuted everywhere, loaded
far beyond their limit, and brought
draggled passengers to some point
where the bigger boats could get them.
Fight In Dark.
When steamer and barge were bur-
dened to the brim, they carried the
refugees to Vicksburg and hurried
back for more. Night didn't stop
them. Rescuers must also fight in the
dark. Dangerous work. Even had
there been no stress, navigation itself
4 Is prohibitively difficult when food
Z rises In flood boats are lifted to the
! treetops.
That grim-lipped pilot, Capt. Degruy,
who rarely speaks a word, feels his;
solemn responsibility. A canvas cap
pulled over his eyes. A dumpy fellow,
his resolute chin fiinches at nothing.
The Miller family, white people, hus-
band, wife and eight children crowded
h into two small rooms. Oldest girl i'll
4 with pneumonia. No treatment. AL
most impossible to convince them that
u the overflow will rise much higher,
4 and they must get out. In dozens of
i such cases rescuers resorted to some.
4 thing nearly resembling force. How.
ever, the younger girls dressed in their
q best, as IL for a party, powdered
4 their freckled noses, and got on the
I boat.
Driven to Vicksburg.
4 From across the waters they hear
& music. The cabin is almost totally
e submerged. By lying down in the
s skfff they get through it's door,
{ There's the phonograph playing mer-
a rily. Jazz tunes. On a scaffolding
built up into the roof a dozen men and
women sit around it. Colored people
with very white teeth. And happy.
E Having a good time, eating out of
pans and listening to Broadway.
mo, sub, boss, thankee, suh," one
\ or the colored men called down. "Us
gdont want to go no place, but I'd be
Epowerful glad to git some rations."
Many families, white and colored.
9showed the same attitude. Refused
to leave their scant belongings, their
cattle and poultry to drown. If they
remained, it might be possible to save
them. But Z feet more Of water
drove them all to Vicksburg.
At Murphy Landing, on Big Sun
flower. Mr.. Oates kept his store-a
country store. whose chief merit lay
in the fact that it stood a few feet
higher than most.
This store became the base from
which a volunteer fleet of small boats
deployed. Somewhere there must be
a recording angel to credit the brave,
,say-nothing fellows who padded those
boats.
Hungry Are Fed.
All comers were fed at Oates store.
Mr.. Oates had built up a scaffold and
moved provisions above the flood
Upon that scaffold the competent Mrs
Oates. a girl of 21 with her younger
sister, cooked night and day.
Friends and strangers alike, she red
the hungry. Through her alone the
rescuers were able to carry on. Such
We're some Of the folk whom the rector
OF Trinity went out TO help.
On bridge which crosses Gunfiower
River at Hollands Landing. both ends
cut off by water. were at least 50C
people with a great many cattle. Al
that time the water had risen within
G fprhco of ifa fjoor A little, later