Nashville union and American. [volume] (Nashville, Tenn.) 1868-1875, 1871-01-31

of the rolling waves. The call for tshelp''
doubtless came from some unfortunate
passenger who was the first to float away
from the Inflated steamer.
ANOTHER VICTIM
was taken from the wreck by the officers
of the Cheek, they found the body
wedged between the timbers on the for
ward deck. Alongside of the dead man
lay a pair of pants supposed to be bis,
the pockets were examined and found to
contain letter addressed to @. w. Miller,
steamer W. R. Arthur, New Orleans,
stating that a suit brought by Miller We.
Russell, would come up in the Circuit
Court, In st. Louis, on the 18th of jan
uary, 1871, signed SlsybrOok & Ha-
enssler, Attorneys" There were a lot
of keys in the pocket and some sleeve
buttons, and gold ring, besides these
was pawnbroker's ticket all of which
is in possession of Coroner Moffatt, who
will hold tie inquest this morning, st
Holst's, where the body now lies.
STEAMER W. q. ARTHUR,
was about six years old; she was built at
New Albany, but since launching-some
three years ago-she was taken out and
heightened, and several feet added to her
beam. She stood A with the insurance
companies, and has always been paving
boat for her owners. Her first accident
was her last; she was what steamboat
men call '1ucky boat" 1t is thought
by some that the increase made in her
size, without corresponding increase in
propelling power, may have had some
thing to do with the accident which ter
minated her career, which may or may not
be true. Her cargo consisted of 40
hhds. sugar, 600 bbls. molasses, 1900
bales cotton, and large amount of mis-
cellaneous freight. The amount of in
surance on the boat and cargo could not
be definitely sscertained, but it is known
that the sugar and molasses were under
written for in New Orleans, and 800 bales
of the cotton is covered in the Planters
Insurance Company, of this city.
DAN STARK.
AL hands concur in saying that Dan
STARK is lost. He was an old river man,
known to almost every levee man in Mem
phis and along the river. He had been
down to Orleans with fatboat, and did
well on the trip; he left Evansville with
it, and said he made just 81, 040 and some
cents; he was at Madame Vincent's the
previous night with some friends taking
oysters, and was quite merry. From
there he went to the levee with his old
acquaintance, and he looked at the cot
ton rolling on board some time before he
went himself. In the course of CONVEX
sation he remarked, as is quite common
among river men, ''WeL, don't care if
she does blow up; I've got my life insured,
anyhow" A firm here in town wanted
him to go down the river with a 'ttiat;"
they have, he remarked to his friends
here in town, 81 have not been home
since September; want to go home, and
here is Joyner wants me to go down the
river again; l don't want to see Joyner
this time; l want to go home" His
family are at Aurora, Ill, and he was as
sisting as pilot on the Arthur on the way
up.
HOW THEY DIKD.
Geo. W. Miller, t'outsider, " was also
lost. His pants were picked up on the
hurricane roof of the wreck Che being |
asleep in the texas at the time of the ex-
plosion) by one of the officers of the |
Cheek; in one of the pockets was found |
$40. 05 in money, and the store-room keys.
The body was discovered by the officers |
of the Cheek-one foot protruding |
through the debris attracting the atten- |
ton of Mr.. Jackson, second clerk of the |
Cheek. 1t was hoped, as the foot was yet |
warm, that the man might be alive, and |
the Cheeks folks, assisted by a small par
ty from the steamer Lockwood, worked |
as for their own lives in extricating the
poor fellow, bat 30 entangled was the |
body in the wreck that 1t required nearly |
an hours labor to extricate it, and no |
signs of life appeared. Grsney, Miller,
Harper and Allen, all belonging to the |
cabin crew, occupied one room in the |
texas. Grsney and Miller, who slept in
the forward berths, were lost, while Har-
per and Allen, in the after berths, escaped |
without scratch. The two latter named, |
with whom this reporter had converse
ton, say that the first intimstion they |
had of anything being wrong was in being
hurled out upon deck.
( SAD INCIDENT.
Mrs. Paxton and her son and daughter,
of Philadelphia, were on board. The |
mother and son were saved and the dsugh- |
ter lost. All three got overheard after |
the fire broke out, and the young lady, |
who was quite handsome and intelligent,
and only seventeen, foated down the cur
rent with life-preserver around her per-
son, perfectly confident and self-pos-
sessed. She felt certain of getting ashore |
in safety. The mother and son fosted |
about in the water for while, and when /
the fire was extinguished, climbed back
on board again. They were brought to
the city on one of the tugs and sent to the
Overton Hotel, where they were properly
cared for. The young lady is still miss
ing, and it is feared she is among the
lost.
FROM THE WRECK TO THE CITY
was a hard road to the Appeal reporter;
steam could not be called into requisition, |
and the only resource left was manual
labor, and good deal of it. Mr.. Charley
jackson, the sffable clerk of the Cheek, |
ever on hand when one is in pinch, sug-
gested that if the reporter could row q
skif the watery way might be gone over;
of course, the reporter could 'tpull" skiff
and staightway Charley" negotiated |
with Mr. Smith (there's always a Smith
about, no matter what occurs) for the use
of his skiff; an oar was borrowed from the
mate of the steamer, and at 7:20 P. NJ,
showed off for his lonely night ride on the
Mississippi. Two or three parties want
ed to return to the city, but the skiff:
that sickened them; and the reporter
event it alone" Abreast of the head of
the island, while putting in his best ticks,
snspl went his starboard oar, and there
he was, adrift like bear at sea in tub,
twelve miles from town and no whisky
aboard. He buckled to and padded with
the stump of the broken oar until he
reached midway the chute, where hu-
name Gait. Kidd, picking up cotton as he
sailed, hove in sight, in the person of Mr..
P. F. Helby, who kindly abandoned his
search for the staple and took in tow the
disabled craft bearing the reporter and his
notes. That he landed US in safety, this
will testify. Any pilot desiring chart
of the river between here and Redman's
Point, can be accommodated by calling at
this Office, for we ''know it ALL"