St. Paul daily globe. [volume] (Saint Paul, Minn.) 1884-1896, 1885-07-12
STEAMBOAT "REMINISCENCES.
An Exciting Race in the Early Days OF
the Mississippi.
An Old Engineer Tells How He
Earned Big Fee.

| along the dock at the loot OF Jackson street
and saw at the end of the Diamond 10 dock
a man sitting on post. He was most
singular looking individual, with fur hat
of coon skin, from underneath which a
growth of long shaggy hair fell in wild
abandon, coat that had seen better times,
no vest, and pair of overalls, the bottoms
of which were neatly packed inside pair of
top boots. As the reporter approached he
found no difficulty in recognizing Whirlpool
Pete, one of the oldest boatmen on the Mis-
sisSippi river. Pete was very cOndescend-
ing ON this evening, and was more socia6i5
than when approached on former occas-
ions.
Il was just thinking of Fourth of July
spent thirteen years ago." said Pete, as h(
pitched a worn-out chew of tabacco into tbs
river, which caused big splash, and placed
another plug between his long and lank,
though powerful, jaws.
Eyes, it was thirteen years ago the
Fourth that had one of the greatest ride2
| and races that was ever known on the Mis-
| sissippi. L was then an engineer on tho
Star of New Orleans, which has long since
| been turned out in ashes from the stove, and
though the boat was a fairly fast
one 1t had never secured any
notable reputation for making
new one, but he was sumner, and when
anyone got the upper hand of him it was
while he was asleep. The SOuthernerS
were coming up to st. Louis in large num-
Ders to spend the summer, and they had any
quantity of tin, and weren't sparing of it,
either.
THE ONLY THING
they did while on the trip was to sit and
| bet on full hands or make q bluff on moth
ing at all, and to lose or win a thousand or
| two was thought nothing of; why the loser
sort % gloried in being able to squander
that much without its seriously affecting
him.
well, it was just such crowd
of people as this that the Star
had for its passenger list to st. Lonis. Ii
was about O'Clock in the morning of the
Fourth that we cleared from New Orleans,
and one of the brightest days you ever seen.
About noon the Sea-Gull, the fastest boat
on the river, caught up to US, and ran
alongside for little ways. A young
man, perhaps not over 20, but with one
of the finest-lOoking faces l ever
saw, was playing at the poker table
with dark chap, who looked like Span
lard or Mexican, and as soon as he no.
ticed the Sea-GuH he ran out of the cabin
with fistfull of money and called out:
L will bet $40, 900 that the Star reaches
st. Louis first The Sea-Gull was quickly
leaving us, and a man called from the deck
of that boat that he would accept the bet,
the settlement to be made on arrival The
! young man then spoke to the captain, and
he come to me and says:
Pete, one of the young blOods on board
has just now made bet that we will beat
the Sea Gull to st. Louis. l know the bet
is foolish one, but just for the fun of it
we will see how the Star can run, and if
she beats the Sea Gull | will give you $780,
The Gull was then several hundred yards
ahead of us, and by the black smoke COM
ing from her smOke-stack it could be seen
that they were firing in the wood to the
fireplace for all they were worth. The
hundred cases struck me pretty hard, and [
said to myself that if there was any go in
the Star it was going to show it that day.
L had the deck-hands bring
THE DRY PINE
slabs to the fireplace, and soon after the
steam was just a-seething l looked at the
register, and the steam had already in
creased ten pounds and was going up like
a race horse. l chucked in more slabs and
| oiled others that were in readiness and
then took time to look after the Gull.
When did see her for an instant my spirits
forsOok me. She was about half a mile
ahead and the flames were squirting
from her smoke-stack, and the people were
| trying to coax us on with their handker-
chiefs. This latter trick made me desper-
ate, and l did not think of any hundred dol
lars then, but my reputation; and the Star
was either going to finish the race first or
! blow up on the way. l again descended
to the tire-rOom and showed in the wood,
which was oiled. 1t had the desired effect.
| The draft was so great that before the slabs
were half burned they would go up the
SmOke-Stack. The register showed seventy
five pounds of steam, where there was a
possible 100, and it was rising quickly.
In five minutes it was eighty, and ten
minutes later eighty-fye. The pressure on
the valves was so great that L was afraid
they would fly Off and | had them braced.
L was flying around all over, and the sweat
was just a-pOuring off ME; my boots were
half full; when l would walk it would
| squirt out. The passengers We're thoroughly
excited, but that young man was Just
as cool and collected as could be, play
ing big game with his Spaniard
friend. Boats never travelled up the Mis-
SiSSippi as those two did. | was ALWAYS
afraid to look ahead for fear of not being
able to see the Sea Gull any more. so /
stuck close to the engine room, and every few
minutes would stir up the fire. Wherever
L walked my trail was destructive, for the
water just rolled off me in big drops it was
so hot down there and to keep up all right
l had to duck my head into a bucket of
water every minute or two. This cOntin-
| ued until the night before we were to ar
rive in st. Louis. I rested very little dur
ing that time, always keeping close to the
| Sea Gull, but never able to overtake her.
We would arrive about 10 o'clock in the
| morning at st. Louis, and if / wanted To
| get there first had to do something pretty
suddenly. The steam had, since 1t reached
eighty-five pounds, never been below that,
and then determined, at no matter what
cost, to put it above that point.
and it happened to be piled up near the
fireplace 1 tumbled several bales forward
and put them in. The result was almost
instantaneous. The suction was
SOMETHING TERRIBLE.
| That fire was so hot that l thought the
whole business would melt and flow around
the boat. 1t made great noise and in a
very short time the steam was up to 100
pounds even. 1 was delighted and pushed
in another bale and left the door open so
the fire would have more draught. You
can imagine how strong the draught was
bales in itself which I had left
about five feet from the door. I
worked it in this way until the morning
and then went on deck, and by the white
whisky of Kentucky and steers of Texas
we were about mile ahead of the
Sea Gull. l did not relax in my
efforts, however, but continued to
fire up as l did previously, and the distance
! between the Star and the Gull got greater