Public ledger. [volume] (Memphis, Tenn.) 1865-1893, 1882-10-10
DIAMOND JOS VIEWS.
He Knows More About the River
Than About Railroads.

Dazzled by a fash lrom a FIVE carat
gem a reporter turned quickly yrster
day and saw Diamond 10 Reg nolds
leaning against a pillar in the Mer
chants Office, and straightway aceosted
him in regard to sawdust: It's an
unqualified nuisance, aud the talk
about wing dams aud all that sort OF
nonsense is as harmful as it is untrue.
| have had mean experiences with The
internal stuff for years Why, back in
York State, on the DclAware river, il
used to choke up in sluces, We had
to dig it out OF the W. by m in force
Give sand halt a show aud il will scour
out a course for its,l II. but move saw
dust, water-logged a.. il is, and it
moves a few feet ahi hen sinks again
on the bed Of tn river. phe slab,
and slivers are bad "a ugh, but they
are not one tithc as / 4 the sawdust
While they were max a distinction
at Minneapolis, if they had to throw
some refuse into a navigable stream
they had better have thrown the slabs,
etc., and burned the sawdust. | know
what am talking about, aud what | say
will be borne out by every river man of
sense and experience who will speak
honestly. | know something about
wing dams, too. aud | first named
them boat killers. | haven't any rea-
son to vary from my text either. |
don't say they are all frauds The
dam at Pigs Eye, and the one below
Hastings, and probably some others.
have done good, though if the channel
should change, as i is likely to do any
high water time. these may be in the
road badly. Where a dam is built
across the mouth Of a slough it is apt
to be a good thing as it throws the
body of water out into the channel. 1t
is also a good thing to rip rap the
banks in the big bends when the river
Is cutting in, but this thing Of putting
up a dam on the nose of a bar is not a
good thing in any sense, High water
comes along and changes the channel
so. that the heft of the water comes
right against the dam. 1t cuts off an
end and a mill tail Of a current runs
along the sheer edge so that pilots
fear such places worse than any
others We cant tow anything like
what we once could. In many
places the channel is too
narrow. There's another thing want
to tell you. On the river are two corps
-one is called the dam corps you can
call 1t the damnation corps if you want
to, | shan't object-and the other the
lighthouse corps, the two being sepa-
rate and distinct, instead of one and
the same IS they should be. The light.
house corps come along and puts up
lights at the crossings. This is all
right AMI where we want them, but
they don't put any lights on the end of
these boat killers, and they are badly
needed, as all pilots will tell you. II
the same men who built the dams had
the putting up of the lights they could
have sense enough to remedy this
evil. What we want is a lot of dredge
and snagbOats. You cam take out too
many snags and a little dredging costs
astoBishingly little, and does a mighty
deal Of good. Do all the dredging and
sqag pulling possible, riprap at the biz
bends, and build dams across the
mouths Of the unused sloughs-n6i
trying to make the water run in a diff
rent direction from that God made il
desire-and then you will be doing
things Of real service to the stream and
those who run on it. There, you have
my views and III stick to em."