Iron County register. [volume] (Ironton, Iron County, Mo.) 1867-1965, 1888-02-09
BREAKING UP.

I
Ca +Tying Devastation TO Steamboat and
Other River Int rests in It's Track-zi
Grave Charge to the Responsibility
for the Gorge.
ST, LOUIS, Jan. 31.-"Three steamers
have gone down already, and goodness
knows what other damage is likely to be
DONE" said the harbor commissioner this
| morning. ''The ice gorge is breaking up
| and there is likely to be serious results"
The river has risen five feet since Sun
day, and foot and half since yesterday.
1t rose three inches this morning between
nine and ten O'Clock. The rise detached
the ice from the shore The black line
across the gorge caused by the coal
dust from the trains crossing the bridge is
about three hundred yards below the
bridge.
The river men are all at work rearrang-
ing the gangways and dock posts so that
boats can move further up the levee
when high water comes. At the foot OF
Anne street three boats were sunk last
night by the ice forcing them under. They
are the Tamm, the Matte Belle and the
Hayes.
Several barges were also sunk. The loss
can not yet be estimated, but is up in the
hundred thousands. Many valuable steam
ers are in dangerous positions.
At eleven O'Clock there were thousands
along the levee. No gorge in thirty years
has done so great damage or created such
excl temen The full extent is not yet
known.
The Win S. Hayes is a total wreck.
She is probably broken in two and is
stove in. Her upper deck is above water.
She was valued at $780, 900, was a side
wheeler and a beauty.
The wharfboat of the Alton & Grafton
O'Clock and foated down to Anna street.
where she struck the sunken Hayes and
came to a stop.
The Clarksville wharfboat was the first
to go. 1t crashed into the Hayes, stav.
ing her in.
The steamer City of Monroe, at the foot
of Monroe street, snapped her heavy
havsers. Captain Mason and a man
named Seeberger We're badly injured.
Between Plum and Dorcas streets there
are eight steamers Of the Anchor line
There is more than s., 000,009 worth of yes
sci property i'll danger.
The City of Delta, formerly the VIII S.
Hayes, was built at Pittsburgh in 1883 by a
Cincinnati firm, and named in honor of the
river poet of Louisville. She was an ele-
CANT passenger and freight boat and her
first cost was $50 600. Shortly after be-
ing launched she was sold to the Mem
phis 6 Arkansas Packet Company, and
has since been principally engaged
in the lower river trade, between
Memphis and New Orleans. Late
last fall she was sold to the Anchor
line. and has not since made trip. On
the first of January authority
ceived from Washington to change her
name to the City of Delta
The tug DO ats Alice Parker, Kate NJ and
A fnInn ORR fn ffa n sol id atad Goal
Company, were tied up at the foot of
Lynch street, and were carried away by
the ice and sunk. The loss of the COM
pany is estimated at $780, 900.
ST. LOUIS, Feb. lit has been asserted
that the great losses which have been in.
ficte by the gorgipg of the river might
all have been prevented by proper man
agement, and it is also said that If prompt
mea sures were used the Miss ssippi river
might always be kept open and gorge
prevented. The gorge which has just
moved out forms where the gorge always
forms, between the Pacific elevator
and the dixie of the Conlogue
railroad at the foot of Robert
Avenue, opposite Carondelet. Above this
point the river is mile and half wide.
but it narrows down to 900 feet, leaving
a comparatively small outlet for the i'm
mense body of water above the throat.
There is curve just above the throat, and
the current sweeps down the Missour
side under Chouteau's hill, and run
dagonaily across the river ano
straight against the Conlogue
dixie. The ice fills the broader part, and
when it reaches the throat its inclination
is to gorge there. It floats with the cur
rent under the hill and drives against the
dixie on the opposite side. When there is
1 ill.,
against the dixie and on sandbar in the
eastern part of the stream, and narrows
considerably the already small outlet.
Then it begins to clog near the elevator,
and when cold snap continues for some
five six days there remains open
channel not more than fifty yards wide in
the center of the stream. The ice will
flow through that channel, however,
without eorging, and, though the rive
may nearly close, it will remain open
enough to let the greater part of the ice
out. But there is a ferryboat which |
crosses the river half mile below, and
the two transfer boats of the Missouri
Pacific Railroad Company operate al
about the same point, just by the Vulcan
Iron Works. If the channel is permitted |
to remain open, however. the ice fills |
the part of the river in which these |
boats operate and compels them to tie
up.
For several days the river men along |
the city front have been openly charg
ing that the Missouri Paciffc's two trans |
fer boats, the Missouri and the Pacific, |
had gorged the ice at Carondelet in order |
that they might have an open river in
which to con tinue their operations. One |
steamboatmau, in speaking of the mat
ter, said: "They have gone deliberate
ly to work and stopped the ice in |
the throat. That caused a gorge, |
and the heavy ice flowing down has run |
under the gorge until there is an ice dam
from the bottom of the river to the top. |
The dam was so solid that it held all the |
the ice above it, and the result is, that |
from Carondelet on the south to the Union /
stock yards on the north, the river is /
solidly packed with ice. The loss |
that is entaled is enormous. All this |
time our boats have to lie idle. We can |
make no money, but we have to spend a |
good deal to protect ourselves against the |
Ice, and, worse tina tina t, our boats will be |
ground to splinte or sent to the bottom
when the ice goes cut. And all for /
what9 Simply that Jay Gould's tow
boats down there may have an open
rIver.o
Joined the knights of Labor.
BALTIMORE, Md, Feb. 1.-The National |
Convention of Garment Cutters and Trim
mers yesterday formed into trades dis
trict of the Knights of Labor, electing |
fell off (NbarIaS Eatz