Hand County Press

HIGH WATER IN THE MISSISSIPPI RIVER.

MEMPHIS, March 1.

It would require an artist's pen to picture the grandeur of the Mississippi as at its present flood-tide it sweeps with a mighty power down to the Gulf, while its endless current everywhere carries upon its bosom the evidence of its destructive powers. From Cairo to Vicksburg, Miss., there is scarcely anything to be seen but a dreary water waste, extending in many localities fifteen miles into the interior or from either bank.

The damage that has been done to farming interests by the great overflow cannot be estimated. Thousands of cattle and other stock have been drowned, and hundreds are now daily dying of starvation. The inhabitants of the bottom lands have been driven from their homes and are now existing the best they may on ridges where hastily-built huts afford their shelter, and where they would soon starve were not food provided. Never before within the history of the country was there so much suffering experienced by the people of the Mississippi valley as now, and, what with the rising waters and the incessant rains, the disasters of the future cannot be foretold.

MEMPHIS, March 3.

News reaches here of terrible destruction of property by the breaking of the levee at Carson's Landing, La. A gap of seventy-five feet was first made by the rushing water, and 100 yards of the levee were soon swept away. The noise of the roaring flood awoke the sleeping citizens, who, looking out of their homes, saw the river rapidly spreading over the country.

Without taking time to clothe themselves, the people fled for their lives. Four persons were overwhelmed by the rushing waters and drowned. Their cries for help were heart-rending. Many people had narrow escapes.

By the breaking of the levee a few miles above Greenville, Miss., the whole of Bolivar county, Miss., is inundated. Great loss of property, and, worse still, loss of life has resulted.

Rosedale, the county seat of Bolivar county, is more than six feet under water. Advices from Riverton, Miss., 150 miles south of here, report a fearful destruction of property and some loss of life. The stock is all drowned, and there are no provisions for poor people to subsist on.

The village of Riverton has been entirely swept away, and the inhabitants are homeless and penniless. Steamboats now run through the streets at Indian Bay, Arkansas. The water at New Orleans is greatly higher than the "average level of the city."

Arkansas City, Ark., is from six inches to four feet under water. The poor inhabitants depend on Government rations. The damage to the Memphis and Little Rock road by floods is estimated at $500,000. Refugees are flocking to Memphis by hundreds. The Commissioners to distribute rations for Arkansas and Mississippi are on hand, and supplies have already gone forward to Riverton, Concordia and Belzoni.