Certain of the streets are already swamps, and the river has risen within
a foot and a half of the top of the levees.
The convicts have been sent out from the prisons to help pile the sacks of
earth on the levees, and companies of engineers are stationed at all the
weak spots along them, to guard against the banks giving way.
All along the river people are sending petitions to the various mayors
and governors, begging them to forbid the river steamers travelling during
the night, and to have them move as slowly as possible during the day. The
wash from the paddle-wheels after they pass has done a great deal of
damage, and in many places has helped to break the levees.
[Illustration: _The Mississippi flood. A Typical scene._]
In several of the river towns all business has been forbidden, and all the
men ordered to go to the levees and help to shore them up.
The slightest extra ripple of the waters at New Orleans brings them over
the banks and floods the streets, but the banks are still safe.
* * * * *
England has just presented a very valuable manuscript to us, that has long
been kept in the Bishop of London's palace at Fulham.
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