Jasper County Democrat, Volume 6, Number 16, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 25 July 1903 — The Canine Flood-Gage. [ARTICLE]

The Canine Flood-Gage.

Floods on the Mississippi river are usually marked by tragic features, but occasionally the humorous element predominates. As a refuge in time of need, says the New York Mail and Express, balconies are built on the roofs of houses and cabins adjacent to the fiver, and there prisoners of the flood gather when the water gets inside the levee and takes possession of the lower floors of their dwellings. They take things calmly, especially If they are negroes, waiting contentedly for the waters to subside. On one of these balconies on a negro cabin near Natchez an old colored man watched the recent rise and fall of the river. His wife, nine children, his children’s goat, his hound and his wife's chickens kept him company. “You'd better come off your perch, uncle!” called one of a relief party from a skiff. “We’ll take you where you’ll be easer. The water will soon be up to your feet.** “No, it won't," said the old man, calmly. “I’s lib here thirty-six year, an’ et never come hlgher’n this, an’ et won't come now, ’case this dog ain't a-whioin’. Dogs has got more sense ’n folks, an’ es the flood had a mind to come higher, this dog ’d be a-cryin’ like a chile.” The old man stayed on his balcony, and his faith in the hound was otrengthened by a fall in the height of the water.

First born children exceed later born in stature and weight.