Democratic Sentinel, Volume 15, Number 18, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 15 May 1891 — Page 6

AWFUL OVERFLOWS.

TERRIBLE DEVASTATION BY RIVER FLOODS. Ohio and Mississippi Mis'llty Monsters of Destruction —Periodical Overflows Inevitable— Engineering Skill of No Avail— A Short History of Past Floods.

and did immense damage to the White House Plantation. The detailed history of the Ohio and Mississippi River floods is one of the most thrilling chapters in the annals of the country, and the problem of preventing these disastrous overflows is perhaps the severest problem in engineering that confronts the skiil and wisdom of engineers and statesmen of to-day. The Ohio floods are characterized by height, power and suddenness; those of the Mississippi by length of duration. The highest, largest, and most powerful tidal waves of the ocean fail short. In those particulars, of the great flood waves of the Ohio. The highest point yet registered by an Ohio flood, within the limits of actual •record, was made by the flood of 1884, which registered 71 feet 1 inch at the Cincinnati gauge. The Indians, however, have a tradition that there was a flood in 1787 which reached the tremendous height of 100 feet: also, that there were high floods in 1774, 1789, and 1792, the latter reaching 00 feet. Statistics go to show that floods of excessive height arc not to be expected oftener than once in about twenty-five years The unprecedented flood of 1834 following, just one year and one day, that of 1883—the highest in half a century—presented a strange exception to -the rule. The detailed information concerning "the flood of 1832 is very meager. Cincinnati at that time contained about 28,000 inhabitants. As the river rose steadily for ten days, beginning Feb. 18. the Inhabitants had time to flee to the hills which surrounded that city, thus renderdag the loss of 'life very small. The few remaining pioneers of the Queen City who participated in that flight and assisted in rescuing the.ncrsons and property of their fellow-citizens give graphic pictures of the exciting scenes and hair-breadth escapes which then took place. Tnere was scarcely a house in the city which escaped a deep baptism in the turbid current. The terrible flood of 1883 was caused 'by two severe tain storms, which felt •upon the hard frozen ground about its ‘-headquarters in Pennsylvania, West Virginia and Ohio. Much of this territory ts mountainous. The heityy rainfall, which wou’d have naturally beCh much absorbed by the soil, all rushed down the steep, frozen mountain sides as from off a roof, and emptied itself into the Ohio, with scarcely any hindrance or loss by absorption. The storm began with the month and continued for practically two weeks. The river reached its maximum height on the 13th of tiie month. The first cities to feei the devastating power of tin floods were Titusville, Oil City and Pittsburg. There were several ■lives lost at Titusvillo. Not only did ■every city on the Ohio and its tributaries suffer more or less, but also almost every city in the Ohio Valley. The overflow of the Cuyahoga River despoiled nearly two million dollars’ worth of property in Cleveland,, which is located at its mouth. At Cincinnati the water covered tlireo whole squares in the heart of the city, disabling the engines at the water works, and submerging the gas works. Not less than thirty thousand laborers were thrown out of einplo> rnent by the flooding of some two hundred and fifty wholesale and commission houses and other Industries lying nearest the river front. One of the tragedies of the •flood was the falling of the Cin"Cinnatl and Southern depot. Its foundations became undermined and its •walls fell, burying a number of people t beneath them, in a depth of about forty sfeet of water. The military barracks at Newport, >Ky., opposite Cincinnati, were flooded, and also about thirty square miles of •country about tnem were submerged. A recent and reliable writer estimates the -damage wrought by this flood at s6y,- • 000,090, and states that 1,500 business ' bouses ana 3,700 residences were flooded; ■that 1,910 families wore given bedding and 647 families furnished witli coal; that 24,111 people received charity of --some kind, and that 3,991 pairs of boots

NEGRO FAMILIES IN THE CHEAT OHIO FLOOD.

Md shees were distributed. The city the Ohio whose loss came next to Ctacinaati is Jeffersonville, Ind, which Matained damages amounting to nearly OfU? million dplk tjje ruin.majority of her busipess , men, and pUctng over five thousand of her people • New.Albany’s> loss is stated at •730,000; Madison, <200,000; Aurora, ‘•150,000; Lawrenceburg, $435,000. The Intervening hamlets-and country lost <300,000, making a totaj of ♦he places just named- In this stretch of river country 24,000 people were rendered homeless and dependent upon

VERY year that passes, as this year has so far done, without b r i n ur i ng wholesale devastation along the entire course of the Mississippi, from Cairo to New Orleans, is cause ior universal thanksgiving. This season the only important break, some t!00 feet in width, was in the levee opposite New Cr'eans,

public charity.. The Legislatures of Ohio and Indiana appropriated 8100,000 for the relief of the sufferers,, and a steamer was provided to dispense necessaries to the various towns.

The most tragic scenes of this flood happened at Louisville, where the river embankment broke at midnight and deluged the sleeping city. Most of the people aroused in time to flee to high ground; but about fifty of these 5,000

SEEKING SAFETY.

midnight fugitives were swallowed up by the fierce flood. Those who were too late to wade made their escape in boats, or on rafts, housetops, and floating debris of every kind. Little children were found, in their night clothes, hugging favorite pets or playthings in their tiny arms, while clinging in terror to their

parents or rescuers. There was no group or boat that did not show a scene of touching pathos. But not all the scenes of even that terriblo night were pathetic. There were many incidents which, at least now, seem wonderfully ludicrous. Harper’s Weekly is authority j for the statement that ono old darky 1 woman was found hugging a pet rabbit to her bosom. The old saying that “It never rains but it pours” was never more strikingly and literally verified than when this flood was followed, a year later, by a still greater one. Pittsburg lost three million dollars’ worth of property by this flood, and Portsmouth Marietta, Gallipolis, Pomeroy, Hamer, Lawrenceburg, Cincinnati, and other towns, suffered in proportion. At Portsmouth 12,000 people were driven from their homes to camp upon the hills. A most striking scene at this place was the burning, to the water’s edge, of six buildings. To record the deeds of heroism performed by the men who risked their lives again and again to save helpless men women and children, and to picture the divine fortitude and endurance of mothers in caring for their children and inspiring the hearts of both helpers and helpless with courage and hope, is beyond the, limits of this brief sketch, but would constitute a most thrilling and patoetic chapter in the hisiory of our national disasters. But these floods brought to light the despicable as well as die heroic elements of human nature. The cruel and villainous depredations of the “river pirates,” preying, like vultures, on the helpless and ruined, would put to shame an aueient buccaneer. Many of the most exciting scenes in the floods were the chases after these desperate marauders. When the river police were once sore that they were in the wake of river pirates they did hesitate to fire, with surest aim, the moment they came within range. One of the most serious losses to the country along the line of the Ohio floods is the loss of the “cream” of its rich, fertile soil which is carried to the Mississippi at each overflow. The two great floods of 1883 and ’B4 ! resulted in the practical prostration of j business throughout the States touched by them, k» well as in the general de-

ARRIVAL OF THE RELIEF STEAMER.

BREAKING OF THE LEVEE AT BOLIVAR, MISS.

prosslon of manufacture and trade In such States as supplied that territory. The floods of the Mississippi are characterized by the length of and the extent of territory covered by

them rather than by their force and height. They usually begin early in tipspring and continue until the latter part of July. It is a quite general impression that the portion of. the Mississippi subject to Hoods is protected by a uniform and almost impregnable system of dikes or levees. That is far from the actual fact. The “system” of dikes is anything but uniform and anything but impregnable. In fact, the various levees do not constitute a system at all, but a series of separate attempts by the National Government, the several States and private Individuals to keep back the mighty waters in times of ordinary overflow. Comparatively few of these dikes, according to experience and the statements of the best engineering authorities, are adequate protection against extraordinarily high water. During the terrible overflow of 1882— the greatest since the floods of 1864 and 1874—the valley, from the mouth of the Ohio Itiver to Vicksburg, was an immense inland sea, dotted here and there by small points of land, the highest, of course, in the country, on which tho strong cotton “gin” houses were generally located, with a view to serving as places of refuge in times of extreme high water. |ln these “gin” houses would be hud: died together the woa,thy planters, their families, their negro servants and tho poor whites of the community, living in simplicity and fraternity, waiting for the arrival of the steamer that should respond to their beacon-fire and come to relieve their distress. The loss of Jifeaud

property occasioned by such a far reaching overflow of the Mississippi is almost beyond computation,because the sufferers are so isolated from each otliiy, scattered through tho depthis of the great forests that line the valley, that they are out of reach of the rescuing parties and die unknown. It is said that the relief steamers which went up the principal tributaries of the Mississippi during the flood of 1882 would each return

TO THE RESCUE OF A NEIGHBOR.

as night to a point of snfetv, with a load of from three hundred to four hundred negroes or poor whites gathered during ♦ho day. The scenes of joy which took p ace at these points of refuge as some j oor woodchopper’s wife found the husband, whom she supposed dead, waiting for her in safety, are as impossible to adequately picture as were the scenes of grief and despair when the last ho*pe of finding wife, husband, parent, or child was finally swept from one and another of the destitute and heartbroken companies of the rescued. What must have been the loss of lifo and property in the awful flood of 1882, when that ol the preceding year left

7,000 In Kansas alone destitute and homeless. From the meager statistics of 1882 I find that the overflow brought 20,000 people of Arkansas into pitiable destitution. Whole communities camped in the rudest fashion The scantiest shelter was welcome, and the families fortunate enough to crowd into idle freight cars were considered uncommonly fortunate. The breaking of the immense levee at Bolivar, Miss., was, perhaps, the most striking single episode in the flood, as the break was the largest that has ever been made in the levee. The spectacle of its “going out” was grand and terrific beyond description. As scarcely a year has passed without one or more disastrous overflows oi the Great Father of Waters, it is obviously impossible to even a.lude to them in this short article. fe’o far as devising a remedy against those terrible, inevitable and frequent disasters, the engineering science of today confesses itself unable to even suggest anything Worthy of confidence within the limits of practicable cost. The best authorities seem to regard tlie building of storage reservoirs along the Upper Ohio, to catch the surplus waters and hold them in reserve until the dry season, when needed to swell the river to navigable depth, as the on y practicable thing. N. S. Shaler estimates that l,ooi* reservoirs, covering a surface of lifty acres, capable of holding an average depth of ten feet of water, would cost §10,000,000. He seems to be of the opinion that that is the least outlay that would be of any practicable service. Fokkjcst Ckissev. Geneva, 111.

SMALLEST NEWSPAPER OFFICE.

Perhaps the smallest newspaper office in the world, says a writer in the New York World, is that of the New Era, situated up in Minnesota. The house is in the midst of woods. Birds come in springtime and build nests about it, and their matins are

THE SMALLEST NEWSPAPER OFFICE.

sung to the editor’s corps as they set up the loud-sounding circus “ad” and the list of delinquent taxpayers, while he dashes off a stirring editorial on the Farmers’Alliance. All day long, as the devil rests himself about the office, lie can hear the robins calling to each other, the wild dove’s plaintive cooing and the wren’s fitful complaining. At regular intervals come the “Bob White! Bob White!” of the quail in the fields afar off, and the lowing of cows over by the river, where the devil wishes he were in swimming. Little children on the way to school peep in and see the great Washington hand-press and the office towel, and gaze in awe at the editor, whose genial face is hidden behind one of his exchanges. He is business manager, publisher, editor-in-chief, managing and news editor, city editor, sporting and dramatic editor, religions and financial editor, reporter and collector rolled into one alert and able body, and, to judge from his photograph, he is getting fat at it, too. Out there in the woods, in this little white house, running a paper means just as much as it does in the metropolis. Step indoors and look around. The managing editor’s department is divided off from the business office by an imaginary line running due north. Here Mr. Deacon meets the advance agent arid the drummer for the paper and ink house, and then stepping over to the editorial rooms he confers with the local candidate and the Secretary of the State Fair, and then he retires to his sanctum, and, baring his arms to the elbows, molds public opinion into an aesthetic thingof beauty and a joy forever. The woods are convenient! too. Mr. Deacon from the front window of the cashier’s room can see “Fiat Justitia,” “Old Sfibscriber,” “Pro Bono Publico” and “Constaut Header” approaching, and takmg his gun he goes out of the rear door of the mailing department and has a few- hours hunting ground-hog, and varies the sport by calling upon some tardy subscribers and touching them for their last three years’ subscriptions, perhaps gathering some important news items at the same time, i

Authors Who Write Too Much.

This idea of “keeping before the public” is a good one. in the mam* writes Edward W. Bok in the Ladies' Home Journal, but it must be done judiciously and by good work. Just here is where nine authors in every teD fail. They think their quality is good, but unconsciously it has become quantity instead. Unwittingly, they are training their public, whose eye* they caught with some early or striking piece of work, to be perfectly ready tc drop them the moment a new star appears upon the literary horizon. Few authors of recent date made so pronounced and instantaneous success as Budyard Kipling, but the public hardly had time to catch its breath after his first story, than along came a second story, a third, and so it has gone on until six of his books are now on the market, and a series of injurious newspaper articles in addition—all within one year. The result is that the best judges agree that Kipling is overdoing it. “Oh, we are having too much of Kipling,” is the general opinion. In consequence, the sales of his books are dropping off, and the name of Budyard Kipling is losing its magic. The simple fact is, that the great gospel of moderation applies to literature as it does to everything else. And, looking at it from a financial standpoint, this moderation pays. A good author who writes only one story in a year, ofttimes receives more for that Bingle piece of work than does he who ■writes five or six novels during the same period. No matter how clever an author may be, how well he writes, he cannot afford to overfeed his public. The literary public like 3 its daintiest desserts in small doses, and then, as in everything else, there is created aq appetite for more.

FROM A BILLIARD BALL INTO A BUTTON.

Th# Shining Ivories Have a Brief bu* Active Existence. How many persons who wield a billiard cue are aware of the time, trouble and expiense of making th« iyory spheres ? The billiard ball, iij its natural state, is the principal means of defense for an elephant. In time the elephant falls a victim to the venturesome hunter, and he parts with his tusks, which are the most valuable of all his possessions to commerce. Most of the tusks find their way to London, which is the great sales mart for ivory! There, twice a year—spring and fall—the buyers of ivory gather. There are different grades of ivory, and only the finer kinds are suitable for making billiard balls. The best comes from the small tusks, which are from four to six inches in diameter at the thickest end. These are sawed into blocks, each section being large enough to allow the turning of a single ball. The factories devoted to the billiard ball iudustry in this country usually receive the ivory in this shape, the sections being marked so that the turners know from what part of the tusk each piece comes from, and in this way can calculate as to its grain and quality. It takes a long time to produce a perfect ball, and only skilled labor is employed.

Th.e exact center of the ball is first discovered by means of measurement. The block is then placed in a socket, and one-half of the ball is turned by an instrument made of the finest and sharpest edged steel. The half-turned ball is then hung up in a net for a short while, then the second half is turned, and the ball hung up as before iu a room the temperature of which is kept at from <SO to 70 degrees. The roughly turned ball is kept in this position for about a year. Then comes the polishing, whitening, etc. A great deal ol hard rubbing is also necessary, as the ball before being used should be near a certain w eight as possible, and measure 2f inches in diameter. It has been found impossible to get two balls exactly the same weight. Yery often they will be heavier on one side than on the other, and frequently they split right through the center. This is due to decay.

In the window of one of the large manufactories of billiard balls in this city lies a tusk about two feet long. It was purchased some years ago, and while being sawed in two the saw came in contact with an obstruction. It proved to be a rifle bullet, which had penetrated the elephant when quite young, for the whole inside of the tusk had a decayed appearance. The price of ivory for making billiard balls has greatly increased within the past few years, and the demand exceeds the supply. The Brunswick - Balke Billiard Company have offered SIO,OOO for a perfect substitute for ivory, but nothing thus far has been invented that combines the elasticity and durability of the ivory ball. Not until after it is placed on the table is the real life of the billiard ball shown. The pores in the ivory may close, and then if the ball is kept in a hot room it is likely to crack, or it mav crack by reason of concussion with other balls. This is one of the great difficulties to contend against. To overcome this the balls should be kept at as even a temperature as possible. When a billiard ball is first used it occupies the first rank. A crack may soon be exposed and then it is returned to the factory. The nick is’ shaved off, and it comes back slightly smaller in size. It may then' find its way into some second-rate billiardroom. After some more hard usage it is again returned to the factory and comes forth again much reduced in size and probably becomes a cue ball in pool. After it is found to be practically useless for the purposes for which it was originally made, it is bought bydealers in bone and ivory, and the balls are then turned into buttons or they are burned and used iu the making of ivory black.— New York Hun.

WHICH IS THE LARGER?

A Little Trick That Will Test the Reader’s Eyes. The illustration shows what wonderful tricks can be played upon the

WHICH IS THE LARGER?

human eye by knowing persons. Although the lower of the two segments appears to be much larger than the upper one, it is really not so. Bv cutting out one of the segments and placing it on top of the other the reader may determine which is the larger. This trick is not a test for the eyes. It is as certain to deceive a perfect pair of eyes as it to mislead any other kind. There is, therefore, no reason why the reader should consult a physician after having solved the trick.

Pretty well rattled.— Lift.

What is lacking Is truth and confidence. If there were absolute truth on the one hand and absolute confidence on the other, it wouldn’t be necessary for the makers of Dr. Sage’s Catarrh Remedy to back up a plain statement of fact by a SSOO guarantee. They say cure you (make it personal, please,) of catarrh in the head, in any form or stage, we’ll pay you SSOO for your trouble in making the trial.” “An advertising fake,” you say. Funny, isn’t it, how some people prefer sickness to health when the remedy is positive and the guarantee absolute. Wise men don’t put money back of/* fakes.” And “ faking ” doesn’t pay. Magical little granules those tiny, sugar-coated Pellets of Dr. Pierce—scarcely larger than mustard seeds, yet powerful to cure—active vet mild in operation. The best Liver Pill ever invented. Cure sick headache, dizziness, constipation. One a dose.

At the depot restaurant: Traveler (rushing in)—“Pie!” “What kind’”' “Watcher got?” “Open-faced, kivered and cross-bar—all appiei” “Take pumpkin!” y r

Explaining Why There Is Less Deafness.

A perceptible decrease In deafness has been noticed of late, which is partly uncounted for by those in position to know to the more general use of artificial means now perfected to a degree hitherto considered impossible. A very complete device of this kind was invented in Brldglbort, Conn., a few years ago by H. O. Wales, which, being placed Inside the ear. Is worn with a secret delight by many whose deafness Is thus never suspected. He— l met your father last night for the first time. She—How did he strike you? He—Just like the rest of the boys. He wanted Sa. It Starts Him. —ls anything in this world will put wings on the feet of Indolence, it is * woman with a dipper of hot water starting for a tramp when he is “sassy.” If there is ar.y other remedy in the universe that will cure a cold or cough as quickly and effectually as Dr. White’s Pulmonaria it has not been made known. For croup in children it is a safe and certain specific.

A Bad Omen.

Paul —Why so down-hearted, Edwin? Did the eminent specialist, Dr. Noitawl, give you no hope of recovery? Edwin —None at alj. He assured me that I was perfectly wo!L Don’t you ward to save money, clothes, time, labor, iuel. und healthy All these can be saved if you will try Dobbins’ Electno Soap. We say •‘try," knowing if you try it once, you will always use it. Scyt/la signifies the whirlpool of destruction. The best cough medicine is Plso’s Cure for Consumption. Sold everywhere. 25c. FITS.—AII Fits stopped free by Dr. Kline’s Great Nerve Restorer. No Fits after first day’s use. Marvellous cures. Treatise aud trial bottle free to Fit cases, head to Dr. Kline. 931 Arch St. Fails.. Pa.

rTjAcoss cm TRADE BEmSSaIIJ Cures Promptly and Permanently RHEUMATISM, Lumbago, Headache, Toothache, NEURALGIA, Sore Throat, Swellings, Frost-bites, SCIATICA, Sprains, Bruises, Barns, Scalds. THE CHARLES A. VOGELER CO.. Baltimort, Ud.

SHILOH’S CONSUMPTION CURE. The success of this Great Cough Cure is without a parallel in the history of medicine. All druggists are authorized to sell it on a positive guarantee, a test that no other cure can successfully stand. That it may become known, the Proprietors, at an enormous expense, are placing a Sample Bottle Free into every home in the United States and Canada. If you have a Cough, Sore Throat, or Bronchitis, use it, for it will cure you. If your child has the Croup, or Whooping Cough, use it promptly, and relief is sure. If you dread that insidious disease Consumption, use it. Ask your Druggist for SHILOH’S CURE, Price lo cts., 50 cts. and SI.OO. If your Lungs are sore or Back lame, use Shiloh’s Porous Plaster, Price 25 cts. The Soap that l Cleans Most is Lenox. 1