Connecticut western news., 1875-08-13
RAGING ON THE MISSISSIPPI.
A Sketch the Olden Time on the River--
 A Real Excitement.

A sketch or the Olden Time on the River-- A Real Excitement.
 Mark Twain, in one of his sketches,
 says: In the q; flush times 7" of steam
 boating on the Mississippi river, race
 between two notoriously fleet steamers
 was an event of vast importance. The
 date was set for it several weeks in ad-
 vance, and from that time forward, the whole Mississippi valley was in state of
 consuming excitement. Politics and the weather were dropped, and people talked only of the coming race. As the time approached, thetwo steamers 'sstripped" and got ready. Every incumbrance that added weight, or exposed resisting surface to wind or water, was removed, if the boat could possibly do without it.
 The "spars," and sometimes even their supporting derricks, were sent ashore, and no means left to set the boat afoat in case she got aground. '.." IL. ...a
 If the boat was known to make her best speed when drawing five and half feet forward and five feet aft, she was carefully loaded to that exact figure she wouldn't enter dose of homoeo- pathic pills on her manifest after that. Hardly any passengers were taken, be- cause they not only added weight but they never will "trim boat. They al- ways run to the side when there is any thing to see, whereas conscientious and experienced steamboatman would stick to the center of the boat and part his hair in the middle with spirit level.
 g No way freights and no way passengers were allowed, for the racers would stop only at the largest towns, and then it would be only "touch and go. "'7o Coal flats and wood flats were contracted for beforehand, and these wereskept ready to hitch on to the flying steamers at a moments warning. Double crews were carried, So that all work could be quick fly done. od 24i ,y'a f1@A Il -s'l saa i3gi ,I The chosen date being come, and all things in, readiness, the two great steam CTS back into the stream, and lie there ,jockeying a moment, and apparently watching each others slightest move ment, likesentient creatures; flags droop- ing, the pent steam shrieking through safetyryalves, the black smoke rolling and tunbling from the chimneys and darken- ing all the. air. People, people every where; the shores, the house-tops, the steamboats, the ship ps are packed with them, and you know that the borders of the broad Mississippi are going to be, fringed with humanity thence northward twelve hundred miles, to welcome these racers. - tp9
 Presently tall columns of steam burst from the 'scape pipes of both steamers, two guns boom a goodbye, two: red shirted heroes mounted on rcapstans wave their small flags above the massed crews on the forecastles, two plaintive solos finger on the air flow. waiting sec onds, two mighty choruses burst forth and here they come Brass bands bray Hail Colambia, huzza after huzza thun- ders from the shores, and the stately creatures go whistling by, like the wind!
 These boats will never halt moment between New Orleans and St. Louis, ex- cept for second or two at large towns, or to hitch thirty wood-boats along side. You should be on board when they take a couple of those iwood-boats in tow and turn stream of men into each; by the time you have wiped your glasses and put them on, you will be W ordering what has become of all that wood. .r,..,.l nr / sj 7 N Y
 Two nicely matched steamers will stay in sight of each other day after day. They might even stay side by side, but for the fact that pilots are not all alike.s and the smartest pilot will win the race. If one of the boats has O sslightning pilot, whose "partner 'ais tiife his in ferior, you can tell which one is on watch by noting whether that boat has gained ground or lost some during each four hour stretch. The shrewdest pilot can delay boat if he has not a fine genius for steering. Steering is very high art. One must not keep g rudder drag ging across boats stern if he wants to get up the river fast. 'D" 70, ,' ',''..... ''