Evening star., 1927-06-18
DREAMER IS HERO
OF FLOOD RELIEF
Map-Making Visionary Gets
RationS to CastaWays
Along Mississippi.
BY HARRIS DICKSON.

A few far-Sighted men deal with the
future, anticipate the rise of cotton,
the fall of empires and get rich in the
stock market. Others seem to have no
eye for finance and fail to visualize
paying Job, even if they wear leather
specs.
Dreamers are supposed to be no
good. The world jibed at Homer, at
Calico and Columbus, then built mon
uments to their memories.
A certain man I'm thinking about
lives in Ficksburk, visionary by pref
erence, trading in logs to pay his
board and keep. Maps are his hobby.
He dotes on geography, wallows in to-
Biography for pastime. He can shut
both his studious blue eyes and follow
every cowpath in Central Asia, al
though he has lived no farther east
than Baltimore.
photographic mind he had.
Which pondered day by day:
Always took a map along
Whene er he went to pray.
Here's the point w. A. Morgan
knows northern Louisiana. In his
practical capacity as a log buyer he
has tramped every foot of 1t, is IA
miliar with its water courses ridges
and depressions. Besides, many of his
friends live there. Which explains
what happened.
Foresaw Course of Flood.
Our first levees broke on the Arkan.
sas River before that stream enters
the Mississippi. The crevasses oc-
CURED perhaps 100 miles north of the
V. s. & p. r. r., which runs due west
from Nicksburg across Louisiana.
Naturally. this Arkansas disaster sent
Morgan to his maps.
Rainp visionary, Morcap forasor
that the flood waters must split at
Eudora, Ark, when the overflow
struck Masons Ridge. And right here
let no highlander imagine an Allie
ghany or Rocky Mountain ridge, but
an almost imperceptible elevation, not
above II feet high. Sufficient, how
ever, to divide the waters into Tensas
Basin on the east and Boeuf River
Basin on the west of Delhi. Delhi,
La, is ", S. & p. r. r. station, near
the southern end of the ridge. From
the course that the inundation must
inevitably take, it would require possi-
bly, week or 10 days to cut this rail.
road on both sides of Delhi.
Neighboring farmers regard "the
ridge" as their Rock of Ages, an ever
present help in times of flood. When
water rises they flock there in droveS
along with snakes and bear and deer.
Beasts can pick up rations, but civil
liZed men cannot live without cooks
and canned goods. After they should
have lost the railroad, their sole means
of communication, it would become i'm
possible for these refugees to get food
except by airplane.
Right and left of them the south
bound waters would flow. seeking nat
ural depressions, filling everything,
then pouring over the next ridge to
fill the next low spot. This would
create cross-currents SO powerful that
only the Stanchest craft could navi-
gate them.
Gets Food to Refugees.
Swirling, yellow, treacherous, deep
in places, shallow in places. a boat
strong enough to fight it's current
could not pass the ridges. Lighter
skiffs would capsize. No truck could
travel because of the depths, nor tugs
navigate because of the shadows.
The railroad gone. the highways
gone. Masons Ridge would find itself
isolated from mankind, not even a
telephone to make known it's desper-
ate needs.
It might appear that folks who ex-
pected to be sloShing in water for p
month would consider the possibility
of getting hungry. Seemingly they
did not. 1t was visionary who
thought of that, comfortable at his
Vicksburg home. high. and most de-
plorably dry.
At dawn next day. Morgan, having
no authority of his own, delegated
part Of that to L. o. Jones a Boy
Scout executive, who promptly crossed
into Louisiana on a accommodating ex-
pedition. He went to find out how
many refugees We're then at Eudora
How many more were expected. Pre-.
cisely what their food supply was.
Get the best local Information regard
ing the number of people who will
congregate on Masons Ridge.
After two days Of wading and pad
ding and swimming, the volunteer
Scout rang up his volunteer boss with
accurate data: Sixteen thousand
mouths to be fed on the ridge, In
cluding those now at Eudora. Four
weeks supply must be sent at once
to that point, sent while the sending
is good.
Told to Go Ahead
In this first stewing pot of confusion,
Mr.. Hendricks represented the Red
Cross at Vicksburg. Morgan grabbed
him and exhibited a map; of course
he exhibited map. Then elucidated
the conundrum, geometrlcally and
nautically. BY the way, Morgan is
now called 1.-THE Admiral" command
ing a fleet Of rescue boats.
"Mr. Hendricks" he asked, who'll
take care of north Louisiana?
No mortal man, however, competent
and loving his fellows, could make a
stagger at that question unless he
understood the tangled topography
of bayous, lakes and woodlands
Therefore Mr.. Hendricks answered
frankly that he did not know, but