es not build any levees whatsoever in
the State of Louisiana, but does all its work with Louisiana money, in
the State of Arkansas, where it has constructed, and maintains,
eighty-two miles of levees, protecting the northeastern corner of
Louisiana from floods which would originate in Arkansas. These same
levees, however, also protect large tracts of land in Arkansas, for
which protection the inhabitants of Arkansas do not pay one cent,
knowing that their Louisiana neighbors are forced, for their own safety,
to do the work.

Cairo, Illinois, is the barometer of the river's rise and fall, the gage
at that point being used as the basis for estimates for the entire river
below Cairo. These estimates are made by computations which are so
accurate that Vicksburg, Baton Rouge, and New Orleans know, days or even
weeks in advance, when to expect high water, and within a few inches of
the precise height the floods will reach.

Some years since, the United States engineer in charge of a river
district embracing a part of Louisiana, notified the local levee boards
that unusually high water might be expected on a certain date and that
several hundred miles of levees would have to be "capped" in order to
prevent overflow. The local boards in turn notified the planters, in
sections where capping was necessary.

One of the planters so notified was an old Cajun--Cajun being a
corruption of the word "Acadian," denoting those persons of French
descent driven from Acadia, in Canada, by the British many years ago.
This old man did not believe that the river would rise as high as
predicted and was not disposed to cap his levee.

"But," said the member of the local levee board, who interviewed him,
"the United States engineer says you will have to put two twelve-inch
planks, one above the other, on top of your levee, and back them with
earth, or else the water will come over."

At last the old fellow consented.

Presently the floods came. The water mounted, mounted, mounted. Soon it
was halfway up the lower plank; then it rose to the upper one. When it
reached the middle of that plank the Cajun became alarmed and called
upon the local levee board for help to raise the capping higher still.

"No," said the local board member who had given him the original
warning, "that will not be necessary. I have just talked to the United
States engineer. He says the water will drop to-morrow."

The old man was skeptical, however, and was not sati