Delaware gazette. [volume] (Delaware, Ohio) 1855-1886, 1869-04-16

I UeTI q 0Taa IILIE- UIIUD5
| took a deep, long breath, and just as
/ the stSeuafor'' makes our wheel, we
| dash ahead again, with every stroke of
/ the piston threatening to rack our Irs11
fabric into shreds.
\ The river here is pretty wide, and
/ the channel deep and clear. The Sen
ators' pulls ahead in gallant style, now
| gaining our quarters, now boat 8
/ length asteru-bOth engines roaring
and sporting like angry hlppopotanlls
and both vessels rocking and stralnlng
| till they SCENT paw their way through
cling and rouge ct 1sOiT. But except the
/ wild de1erium of a cavalry charge-as
] described by those who have been IN
| one-there is no excitement can ap-
proach boat-racing on Southern T1V-
/ er One by one the people pop up the
/ ladder and thrOng the rails. First, the
unemployed deck hands, then a
| strange gentleman or two, and finally
the ladies and children, till the rail is
| full and every eye IS anxlOusly
1 strained to the opposite boat.
| She holds her own wonderfully wen,
/ considering the reputation OF ours
| and at each burst, when she seems TO
4 gain on US, the whole crowd hold their
| breath and as she drops OF again,
there is a deep-drawn, grasping sign OF
relief, like wind in the pines. Even
/ the Colonel has reused himself from
dreams of turtle at theSt. Charles, and
! red fish at Pensacola, and has come on
! deck in shooting jacket and glengafy
| cap, that makes him look like Jaunty
Fosco. He leans over the stern
| rail. putting his cabana in long, easy
whiffs as we gaina a length, or sending
/ out short, angry puffs at the senator
/ as she creeps upon US.
/ Foot by foot we gain steadily until
the gap is widened to three or four
| bOaf-lengths, though the senator
/ piles her fires until the shores behind
/ her, on each side, glow from their re-
/ Election and her decks-now black
with anxious lockers on-send up cheer
after cheer, as she snorts deiantly al
suddenly the bank seems to loom up
right under our larboard bow
We hare cat 1t too close.
Two sharp, vicious clicks OF the Dell.
Our helm goes hard down, and the en-
gines stop with sullen jar, as eaten
a kissing curse break through the set
teeth of the pilot
a veil of wild triumph rises from the
! Senator's deckl On she comes in gal
liant stvIe. shutting the gap and pass
ing us like a race-horse before we can
swing into the channel and recover
headWay. 1t is a splendid sight as the
noble boat passes us, her black hulk
standing out in the clear moonlight,
against the dim, gray bank, like llV-
ing monster, and great chimneys snort
inc ont volumes of massive, black
smoke, that trails out fiat behind her
from the great speed. Her side to-
ward us is crowded with men, women
and children and hats, handkerchiets
and hands are swung madly ABOUT TO
aid the effort of the hundred voices.
Suddenly it lights up with lurid
) flash, as the furnace doors are thrown
open, and in the hot glare the negro
stokers-their sta1wart forms Jetty
black, naked to the waist and stream
ing with the exertion that makes the
muscles strain out like chOrus-shoW
) like the distorted imps OfsOme pictured
inferno. They, too, have imbibed the
! excitement, and with every gesture of
anxious haste and eyebalis starting
from their duslzy heads some plunge
the long rakes into the red mouths OF
the furnace, twisting and turning the
cracking mass with the terrific strength
while others hurl in the huge logs OF
, resinous pine, already heated by con-
tact, till they burn like pitch. Then
the great doors bang too, the 70 ,yo,
of the negroes die away, and the whole
| hull is blacker from the contrast ;
while the SENATOR" putting denser
clouds than ever, swings round, the
point a hundred yards ahead.
J There is a dead silence on our boat,
so deep that the rough whisper of the
pilot to the knot around him is heard
the whole length of the deck Dam
nation, but I'll overtake her yit or
bust ~
'eIet her out, and I'll stand the wine" p"
, 'sThen the cold Colonel'' walks to
the wheel, with his face purple, his
: glengary pushed far back on his head,
| and his cigar glowing like the cred eye
< of battle" as he puts angry l19 Wheezes
of smoke through his nostrils. "Dam-
, nation hard sir-hardi Egad I'd
t burn the last ham in the locker to over
: take her," and The whirled the glow
/ ing stump after the Senator as the
: Spartan Youth hurled their shields into
e reclaim them. On we speed until the
a trees on the bank seem to fly back past
us, and round the point to see the Sena-
= tor turning another curve.
o On still, faster than ever, with every
4 glass on board jinglngin its frame, and
: every timber trembling, as with a con.
o gestive chill.
# Still the black, demons below, ply
g their fires with the fattest lOgs-anC
e even a few barrels of pitch are slyly
Y slipped in-the smoke behind us
stretching straight and fiat from The
|, smoke stack.
# We now enter straight, narrow
l. reach, with the Senator just before us
a Faster and faster we go, until the boa
- fairly rocks and swings from side II
V side, half lifted with every thrOb o
IS the engine. Closer and closer we creel
T harder and harder thump the cylin
:, ders-until at last we close, our bow
t.. just tapping her stern.
l. So We run a few yards-little by lit
d tIe-sO little that we test it by count
? ing her windows-we reach her whee
h pass it-lock her bow and run necI
> and neck for hundred feet.
s. The stiffness of death is upon boil
Le boats-not a sound but the creak ant
7, shudder as they struggle on. Sudden
d ly the harsh voice of our old pho
l. rushes through it like broadaXe.
IL ''GOod bye, Sen'tor! I'll send yer
,e tug :" and he gives his bell a merr,
- click.
st throb that racks her from end to end
s. a plunge. and then she settles into
4 steady rush, and forges rapidly an
e, evenly ahead. Wider and wider grow
the gap and we wind out of sight wit
m the beaten boat five hundred yards be
If hind us.
ye The cigar [ take from my month /
at make way for the deep, long sigh,
le chewed to pulp. a wild, pent-u
a veil of half savage triumph goes u
ne from the crowded deck, such as
I : heard nowhere else but where the caI
ne tured work rewards the bloody an
e. oft-repeated charge. Cheer after chet
follows and as we approach the TN
H. column of smoke, curling over til
IN trees between US, styles bestrldes u
id | form of the still sleeping PrOtesso
1g and makes the calliope yell and shrle
III that classic ditty -AOId Gray hOrs
u come out of the Wilderness !" at IL
invisible rivil.
ed 1 doubt if heartier toast was ev,
by drank than the Colonel gave tt
ed group around the wheel-house, vine
an Styles stood the wine and pighted Il
i, , pilot, The Colonel was beamin
he the glengary set jauntily on one sid
-ty and his voice actually gurgled as
,es ssE19ad I'd miss my dinner for
Ib- week for this Gentlemen, toas
of Here's to the old boat God bless h
en- soul -
)re ---
he
il A SCHOOL GIRLS COMPOSITIO
he Spring.
a
ia This is spring. The grass is green
by what there is of it-but its kind
he ;,,yyisibIo Cr1nau inst now the snO