Rensselaer Republican, Volume 24, Number 33, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 14 April 1892 — FLOODS IN THE SOUTH. [ARTICLE]

FLOODS IN THE SOUTH.

Tombigbee River Overflows and Causes Large Loss of Life and Property. Many Colored People Drowned and Hundreds of Cattle and Mules Swept Away —Farms in the Valley Abandoned. A special from Columbus, Miss., on the ISttr, says: The recent heavy rains have swollen all streams in this section of the country to a point never before known, and as aresult the destruction of life and property is frightful. All farms along the Tombigbee river valley have been abandoned. houses of all kinds washed away, all fencing is gone, and cattle and mules by hundreds have been drowsed. Many floating houses have passed down the river. Eve-y available craft here has been used day and night in relieving the sufferers, carrying out food and bringing in the destitute people. On one small mound there were forty persons, and as many more cattle and mules. On another there were seventy persons, and cattle by the hundreds.—The negroes nn■ pl 1 the low lands have lost everything on earth they had, and there are hundreds of them being fed by the city. The white people have been unable to get a negro to do any kind of work toward rescuing other negroes without payment in advance. Twelve negroes have been drowned within three miles of this city. At points on the river below here the loss of life is very large.

The railroads have abandoned all trains westward and there are many washouts.. Their trestles are swept away and all the railroads have large forces repairing damages, but it will be a week before trains will be running. ■ There has been no communication before to-day wi(h the outside world since last Wednesday. One’rescuing party was upset and three negro boys drowned three miles above town. All the others climbed trees and were found. An - other rescuing party was upset and spent twenty-three hours in the trees. - ‘ Another dispatch says the loss of life may reach one hundred, A spec'll from Mobile, Ala., says; The Tom blgbee river has not since 1347 ha 1 so ludden a gre flood as at present. The farmers on the river were wholly unprepared, and from Columbus, Miss,, to Fulton the loss of hogs, cattle, mules and cotton seed has been unprecedented; much fencing has been swept away and many persons rendered destitute. A great deal of land planted in oom and cotton is un!er water. Mules, horses and cattie are teen daily floating down the river. About Bighteen feet additional rise is expected. Reports of heavy loss of life come from Columbus, Miss,, on the Tombigbee, the number of drowned being placed at from twenty to fifty mostly negroes, The reports are thought to be exaggerated. There is nO doubt that several persons have become victims to the flood.

Studebaker JJros., of South Bend, have leased ground in the heart of San Francisjo, upon which to erect a large warehouse in which to exhibit their product. They tlso have in contemplation the building if a large manufacturing plant at San Francisco. At Wilhite. Ala., Monday, four negroes (n broad daylight attempted to break into a sealed freight car that was in transit in a freight train. The train crew interfered, when the negroes drew revolvers and defied arrest The train then pulled out. A posse of officers was soon formed and pursued the robbers. They were soon so v nd. and a fight occurred in which one of the robbers was killed and the others cap- : Monday John Carmon and Michael Callahan, aged inmates of the Delaware County Infirmary, called on County Judga Lotz and ’Squire John A. Keener for protection. saying that if the present state of affairs was suffered to continue, they feared that they would continue, that theywould be They charge John Watson, son of Superintendent Strahan Watson, with pounding them like brutes, and they assert that Mrs. Watson is no more generofls. They made other serious charges in,’Squire Keener’s court the nature of which has caused, a sensation. It is alleged that *itlie recent death of John Jack, an old blind man, was indiretly caused by the ill-treatment of John Watson.

In. the Senate Monday Mr. Morgan offered a resolution requiring the President to communicate to the Senate the items of taxation upon imports from the United States Im posed by the laws of Hayti, uppon which the President has based his finding proclamation that the tariff laws of Hayti are reciprocally unjust to the United States, as well as the correspondence on the subject. Also requesting the President to send to the Senate any agreement made by him with the imperial Government of Germany and the correspondencerelating to the subject of such agreement, in which it is proposed that sugar or any other German production or export shall be admitted into the United States free of duty, and that he inform the Senate what articles of American products he has proposed or demanded that Germany shall receive free of duty, or upon a sched - ule of reduced duties, as the reciprocal equivalent of permitting the import into the United States of Germrn sugar, hides, tea or coffee, and whether such proposals or demands made by the President have been accepted by the imperial Government of Germany. The resolution, at the suggestion of Mr. Halle, went over. In the trial of the Lavelle arson case at Petersburg, on a change of venue from Daviess countv. a queer point has been raised by the defense. It is alleged that the county has no title to the land in Washington on which the court bouse stands which Lavelle Is accused of trying to burn, and that the people do notown the court house. The records show that a court house was built on the presentsite in 1819. ■ In 1844 a new structure was erected, and in 1878 this was replaced by the building now used for county purposes. Vienna is much alarmed, over frequent incendiary fires.