s and housetops till help comes.

Many stories are being told of the way the people are rescued.

In some instances the relief steamers will find a whole family perched on
the cottage roof, the women and children, half-dead with fright, clinging
panic-stricken to the roof, and crying aloud for help. In others the
people will not realize the danger they are in, and refuse to be taken off
their housetops, insisting that the floods will subside in a short while,
and that they need no help.

One party of negroes was found seated on the roof of a cottage. The water
had risen to the eaves, and the house was in danger of collapsing under
the pressure of the angry waters.

The negroes, however, were busily engaged in playing cards, and were
annoyed at being rescued from their perilous position before their game
was finished.

The present flood is the worst ever known in the history of the river.

In 1862, during the war, there was a great rise of the Mississippi, which
destroyed most of the levees along the banks, and from Vicksburg down the
whole country was flooded.

Since that year the river has never risen as high until the present time,
when the high-water mark of 1862 has been reached and passed in both New
Orleans and Vicksburg.

For twenty-five years after, the people of the Mississippi Valley felt the
effects of that great flood, and the worst fears are entertained for the
ruin and desolation that the present one will leave in its path.

Thousands of people have been brought to want, through the sweeping away
of their homes by the waters, and so much misery and poverty have been
reported, that President McKinley sent a message to the Senate, telling
them of the distress caused by the floods, and asking them to take
legislative action for the relief of the sufferers. He stated that he had
been informed that $150,000 to $200,000 would be required to assist the
people.

On receipt of the President's message a joint resolution was offered,
giving $150,000 of the public money for the use of the people in the
flooded districts.

This resolution was passed by a unanimous vote of the Senate, and would
have been sent to the President, but that word came from the House of
Representatives that that body had passed a resolution voting $200,000.

The Senate immediately recalled its resolution, altered it to agree with
that from the House, and passing it promptly, sent it to the President,
who signed it without delay.