with refugees from
all directions. Belmont and Crosno, on the Mississippi River, south of
Charleston, were submerged, and the residents fleeing to places of
safety.

East Prairie, Anniston and Wyatt, on the Cotton Belt Railroad, were shut
off from the world and obliged to receive mail through the Charleston
post-office.

SOUTHEASTERN MISSOURI THREATENED

The St. Louis and San Francisco embankment between Kilbourne and
Kewanee, in the extreme southeastern part of Missouri, was cut early on
April 5th at the direction of the railway officials to prevent the
flooding of a large section of the track if the levee should break at a
weak spot. The gap permitted the drainage of a large volume of overflow.

One of the most thrilling of the stories was brought by Captain S. A.
Martin and Captain H. A. Jamieson, of the Sixth Missouri National Guard.
They were rescued in a launch from a section of levee which broke away
at Bird Point, Missouri.

Thirty-six of their men, they said, were on the levee section, which was
two hundred yards long and ten feet wide, and was floating down the
Mississippi.

Commander McMunn, of the Naval Reserves, at once arranged for a steam
launch and started out to rescue the Missouri soldiers. There was a
swift current in the river, and the safety of the men caused their
commanding officer much anxiety.

BAD BREAK IN LEVEE AT HICKMAN

The levee at Hickman, Kentucky, broke shortly after midday on April 4th,
after a night of continuous rain, followed by a driving up-stream wind,
flooding the factory district but causing no loss of life.

The break, however, did not relieve the river situation at other points,
because the water running through the break there was turned back to the
main stream by the Government or Reelfoot levee, two miles below the
town. The section flooded was occupied by several factories and the
homes of hundreds of workmen.

STRENGTHENING THE LEVEES

All along the Mississippi men were at work strengthening the levees. The
Government on March 29th prepared to rush 20,000 empty sacks to Modoc
and other weak points in the St. Francis levee district. They were
loaded on barges belonging to the Tennessee Construction Company of
Memphis. The boats, which were from one hundred and forty to one hundred
and sixty feet in length, were used to house Arkansas convicts sent from
Little Rock to do levee work.

This trouble was felt in many places when the rising tide threatened