Rensselaer Semi-Weekly Republican, Volume 19, Number 6, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 24 September 1897 — SOUTHERN. [ARTICLE]

SOUTHERN.

A hurricane and tidal wave did immense damage to property and killed many persons at Port Arthur arid Sabine Pass, Texas. The assassination of Isaac H. Loftin, the colored postmaster of Hogansville, Ga., is said to be the first move of an organization formed to kill all the colored officeholders. The farmers along Taylor'sßayou in Jefferson County, Texas, are the heaviest losers from the terrible storm of Sunday evening. The rice crop was the largest in years and was ready for harvesting, but hundreds of acres were totally destroyed, the loss ’being estimated at $150,000. Eight United States marshals had an encounter with striking miners in the Jellico district in Tennessee. Nonunion miners were put to work, and a mob came marching toward the company’s store. The marshals took refuge in a blacksmith shop and fired upon the mob. The miners retreated, but returned the fire with their NVinchesters. The Great Dismal Swamp of Virginia and North Carolina, covering an area of perhaps 400 square miles, is afire from one end to the other, the result of an unprecedented drought and excessively hot weather. No one inhabits the . swamp but wild animals, therefore no attempt was made to check the flames. Bear, wildcats, deer and reptiles fled before the flames, and their cries as they were cremated filled the hearts of railroad passengers with terror. The smoke is so dense that the crew and passengers on a train were nearly stifled. Columns of flame from thirty to fifty feet in height extend for miles. NVhen the great swamps get afire, which is about once in every seven years, the fire generally burns itself out. Forest 'fires are also raging in adjoining counties\ and unless rain comes soon crops wilixbe burned up, the loss and suffering great, and perhaps may result in the death of many rural inhabitants.