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Show iOLD STEAMBOAT DAYS. Great Speed and Kecord Voyages Made by the Packets. i New York Sun.) Till: whr.Miorsc of the Spread Kagie : sc.rching li.rt. Cap'n Ltj Grim-w Grim-w bad built a fire in the old-H old-H t..ve placed precisely in us ',! " . :ci the heat of the thing iuitc :V,,n... '., ;.,.! the cooling north breeze '''-' .-w ft over the breast board of the !;-!:.. ;,s.- straight into Pilot Jim M;,,,.:, ,,. s face. K'..:v ,;,,. .jot jim ,,ut -he wheel over ' : walk. .1 across the broad l'ilot house :; 'oiim. lie s-cowled fiercely, cussfd "1 i ,s , ath at Cap'n Lije and spat ""n stoy... '1'heii lie would again "i. face j- the Mississippi intently first if the Ktigle would P"b M. bonis on time, and then why the j "tr.at;:t,.:er ,,; the craft didn't leave the J ;""M,iias below to themselves "'."J '"nic m.-stairs. mass we'll make Saint Lew'e on ' .e.re ntiff." said lie. "Wv? got the ';.. laar live feet in the main . '"'I air -i ottght to bump her nose i'?;!!',1 I' v. e by 3 o'clock tomorrow . I;':n the tall chimneys of the S:read cam,, a slow asthmatic cough and iwi.ts of tumblmc yellow-black a''' 'I." that finally ioined and sprea.l l '' buck r the' Texas and down the ilx,'r n:ile as rar as the cc might see. i '-lr soimd save that cough, rougn. I Ji r ' ."" other thing in view save the I g nS,:ssl1'"'- '"'"irf nd flat, its waters 1 im c1"'1'"1 vellow chocolate tint; I tlistaut banks., also broad and Oat. J Mm l,v senibbv willow and bearing I ni,,r' '''"'""e.' back low prowths of syca-! syca-! a !,i "IV1 "ak- Tll foliage was the rej 1 "f Indian summer and was ' ..'.n' Uv mirmred jn the indolent stream, i Mr,;!"1 'beni liRht spots?" said Jim I hkt ! 'K','n,or-v- " has a thick mustache j iu s brush, and under it Ills vo.i.e 1 1 an'"nre TJV d Hml inlnet. -Those -vh J ?v'n away from them all." man drawing?" asked the Sun ;;PrPUy near thirty-six inches." And We re nia!cinK?" bout sev.n mile an hour." lio.e,LMJ0.Gl'i.rcshaw entered the wheel-h wheel-h " Vd 31 lh0 loft of th wheel. siKiketT To f'i'2ers barely touching iis he-r . v,'.uteered the remara: ..r,.e.1!r a ii" ty trick, she is." inswi!-PV,t hr behind that island, close we've ,U, ?!lot w :it '"'"I then 1K 8ot a clean berth for near three miles. After that HV ct(Ss ov,.r ,!o(lgt, ' rmn"111,11'1 h the . west bank tor me m es. U we were comin down from i riVer , we.d -stkk l" tll? mio of the the7o,thC ' all that of?i.?tlllis river. h re. At the time Z-yXl a-r thf'rf wap a railro-il yard itisl ih.,elrefWrc-F0,n now and th- river' lay 1 back four miles to the east, awav behind .that last line, of timber von see He's never content, an' ho s. eating' his wav iross. here tin lhre tili no one can Keep i a tell n;in. j '.'Alons ln-;.-,7 the Missouri came into this rtrtiim jitnt a peeking: bit below Al-lu1'. Al-lu1'. ,n yars" later something changed. : ?.hi',V V?unnel ''bed up and : new one cut I itself three miles down-sti earn. "Now that's dry land and thev join away below Mobile island. That's tea i miles it s shifted and now It'll stay for a ' ; time, for the Missouri will have to do i lock-cutting- before he sets any further." 1 . Been pretty well seasoned on the rivtr ' ain t you. Jim?" offered Cap'n Lije bv way of encouragement. "Fifty years last Mav 2;!. I've steered i tin tn . all packet boats, excursion boats i and tows. I've taken them from St. Paul to NPW Orleans, that's 2.100 miles, from I ntsburg to Caiio, that's l.oaO more. ani . from St. Louis 'way tip the Missouri' with ! a stern-wheeler, and that's 3.000 more each , way. I "I've taken that Missouri trip when I wc l start out front St. Iottis in th- spring, reach Port Bemon.-Mo., bv Au?. j 1, turn about and come up to the St Louis levee by the middle of Oc tober "If we run up in three months and co-ne back in two months and a half, that wa I good traveling, when you take timr to think of all the stops for freight and all the limes you were bound to get stuck in the mud. "I come on the river that summer of 'o2 and let me tell you. young man. ihinjis were a-hummiiiK then. There were boats all up and down the river, brimrintj tons and tor.s ot freight and lots of cattle and folks and 'niggers, and all that. "The St. Louis b vee was so crowded all the time that the packets had to put their noses in again' the shore and stood there close together like a lot of cattle in a stable. "I paid $1,000 to learn the river, and that was a bargain at thai, for a good . pilot was getting $S.hi a mouth. $1.iVx a ! month; almost any figure he wanted the i Pilots' association helped him to get. j Those were the golden days of suamboat-ing." suamboat-ing." j The Spread Eagle was rounding a bend. Quite hidden around the turn was a tiny unwashed and unpainted Missouri village. vil-lage. The mud bank was caving slowly into the stream from undfr- the very, foundations of some of the houses, and swirling their feet in the muddy water was a line of future 'font Sawyers and Huckleberry Finns, who watched the steamboat with a languid intrrest. In the center of the village stood a big brick structure, evidently a town bail or court house, and on the sandy levee below be-low it there was a little group of passengers, passen-gers, who waited with their baggage tor the Spread Eagle. The steamboat blew her great whistle several times and sounded her big bell many, many times more, which hurriedlv broucht all the Toms and Huckleberries to th" scene of excitement. She put her prow up in the mud. dropped a stage plank upon the levee and ' an . all-important clerk hurried ashore. He and a mate bossed the roustabouts who brought ashore the baggage, extended extend-ed a helping hand to the women and settled a conflict between a Tom and a Huckleberry. Then the Spread Eagle rang her bell some more, followed that with a piercing pierc-ing blast from her whistle, backed out from the mud and headed up stream again. j "It kept busy like that." said l'ilot Montgomery, resuming his narrative, "right up to war time and some folks think after that, but hardly I. We got it hot and heavy in here for five or six rears, and I was Hist the right age to get my full part of it all. "Vhn they took Camp Jackson that summer of '60 1 was a-running the City of Alton and bringing military stores, eargo after cargo, from the arsenal in South Si. Louis. I think we smuggled out some 51.000 stacks of guns. "You see the southerners at Washington Washing-ton ran things and filled up the arsenals arsen-als every place where they thought the rebs could easv take them. So we sumg- j gled out those' guns, hustled them up to Alton and sent them on the railroad i from there to Springfield, where they were more use to Abe Lincoln's side, and I 1 might add. my side, too. "Then Captain Lyon not only held the I arsenal, but took Camp Jackson and I saved St. Louis for the north. If you ve i read that hook that young Winston i Churchill of St.. Louis wrote you've read I about all of that. I "When I come to think of these book writers I alwavs take a fresh think at Mark Twain. lie's done more for the Mississippi river than any other dozen men ever can do. And to think that I stood In a wheel-bouse with him when be wa'n't more than a kid and he s helped me bring her up." Cap'n Lije was skeptical at this. "j nere ain t a pnoi on m:s - 1 won't tell you that he and Sam ( lemens learned the profession together, said ne. "I knew the whole Clemens family, cortinued Jim. ignoring the interruption. "My folks knew them all up at Hanni- , b-'Sam learned the river from the best pilot on the river in those days. Horace Kixbv He never made a good -pilot, though, 'cause be lacked nerve. I S'less perhaps be done better to go into book ! "He'I' told some thing of the story of I those old days and of the craft they had then when he told of the Aleck SeoU. Then Ijiere was the James City, the Richmond, Rich-mond, the K. E. Lee. and perhaps the seaboard folks after they had ndoen UP the little Hudson on the Daniel Hrew and thought Hiemselves near 'leaven oidn't open their eyes when they saw the "There was several of that na me com-t com-t big right down to far this side of war times and nothing ever equalled them til e Great Republic was built. She burned and was followed by the Grand Republic and he was the most beautiful steamboat steam-boat that ever ran there waters. "She cost Ji'SO.i.-ii to build and was all (a-ved work and fancy paintings, pianos n her ca.in and a big enough crew to m-iti a ship across the ocean. She was TltJk and white in her cabins and fanc-y iolors everywhere else, with an oil n-iinting on her wheel box. 1 The Grand Republic burned a few vears o-p down at Paducth. ?.nd that t sTUom closed the bit,, fine days ot steamboat ing on the Miss ss,PH - Ml I the tin nasceiiEcr f c ran. into - m "Vie i" the eehin m , tate rooms, nothing except ime 'eaeket business here and there that makes one sick to think of when be re-ami re-ami Captain high $ttfr&Aett the SWVWontoe her slow progress prog-ress up the river by night. |
