New York Daily Tribune US
ARKANSAS ITEMS.
By the recent arrival of two men from Helena, Ark., a point on the Mississippi 90 miles above the mouth of the Arkansas River, we learn that great suffering must soon exist among the people of that part of the State, and that they will require food from the United States authorities, or else many must starve. All the beef cattle have been driven off to the Rebel army, and the water has been so high that it stood 3 feet deep on many of the first floors of the stores and dwellings in Helena. The cotton had all been burned, by order of the rebel authorities at that place, included in which was some $15,000 worth (at Arkansas prices) belonging to a gentleman now in this city. The Conscription act was being rigidly enforced, and our informants left in the night, not daring to let a soul know of their departure. They suffered a great many hardships on their journey here, and are now at work at their trade in this city, shoe-making. They say their former employer had a contract from the Rebels for shoes, common enough, at $3.50 a pair. The water was all over the country for many miles, all the plantations being thoroughly drowned out, with the June rise still to come. The people, many of them, we’re looking for the approach of the union troops with hardly concealed joy.

[St. Louis Democrat, June 4.
DEPLORABLE CONDITION OF ARKANSAS.

Fifteen refugees reached the flotilla yesterday from Crittenden County, Ark., on their way to the North, having left Secessia on account of the conscription act, and the general disorder and distress prevailing in their State. They report the condition of affairs there as deplorable in the extreme. The people, in many parts of Arkansas, are suffering for the common necessaries of life. They are in constant dread of servile insurrection: their cotton has been entirely destroyed in many parts of the State: they fear “invasion” from the North: business is not only stagnant, but without prospect of improvement. They have no confidence in their leaders, and the message of Gov. Rector, advising them to secesh from Secessia, has distracted and bewildered them to an extraordinary degree. They have few soldiers, and in the existing condition of things they know not where to look for aid, or where to turn for comfort.

They have left the United States, and are ordered to withdraw from the Confederacy. They have no protection North or South. They want everything, and have nothing. They are despoiled and desperate in the present, in the future offers no hope of amelioration. Ruin that seems to stare the citizens of Arkansas in the face, and the general feeling of the people, not wedded to the sinful sham of Secession—and even many of them—is to fly to the land of liberty, where they can at least enjoying what they may acquire without fear of robbery or molestation.

Hundreds of persons would abandon Arkansas for ever if they had the means of getting away, say the refugees, and the site of the old flag would be hailed with delight, as the precursor of the establishment of protection, law, and order.