Morning journal and courier., 1891-07-20
FOUND A MILLION ADRIFT.
Joe Marshall's Story of an Old-tfmt
Mississippi Flood and Levee Fire.

Mississippi Flood and Levee Fire.
lFrom the st. Louis Republic.l
In the south end of the city, commonly
called Carondelet, but which at one time
bore the very significant name of Vide
Poche (empty pocket, there resides one of
the early French settlers, Joe Marshall by
name ''Old Joe," as he is called by every
one, is one of those unfortunate French
men who settled in Carondelet while it
was yet burg of six or seven houses. He
acquired great deal of property, as did
all the old ereoles and when a more active
civilization encroached upon the district
and all the property began to be worth
something he lost it all through careless
ness and bad management. 1t may not
be generally known that Joe was million
aire for two whole hours at one time, and
the circumstances of his rise and fall are
best told in his own words:
'1t was in the summer of 1S49-I was on
the river then. The river was booming
and it was unsafe to go out on it in small
boat. That was in the early steamboat
days when every one travelled by river,
and the wharf in st. Louis was lined with
boats which stuck their bows SO close togeth-
er, in order to get to the wharf at all, that
they formed wall along the river front,
and when a fire broke out on one boat the
others were so tightly wedged in that es-
cape was impossible. 1t had been storming
ali day, and in the evening the river was a
raging torrent, ready to tear away its banks
or to dash the huge trees that had been up
rooted by it in its mad course through the
hull of the steamer that ventured from the
bank out into midstream.
"About 9 o'clock that evening a fire
broke out on the levee among the boats.
There was panic. Some of the passen-
gers who were spending the night on the
boats in order to make sure of their state
rooms lost their lives in the panic which
followed, and others left their valuables.
The loss was immense both of life and of
property The red glare of the fire was
distinctly visible in Vide Poche, and and
my partner sat up and kept watch on the
river expecting to see some of the passen-
gers of the burning boats drift by, and to
rescue them if possible. We waited long,
| but no victims of the fire came. At last,
| as we were about to give up the watch, we
saw out in the current dark object that
| appeared to be a raft. 1t shot swiftly into
| view and as it passed us we could see the
white face of man holding on to raft
| which he had constructed of four life pre-
| servers, and on which he hoated a large
| chest which, from the care he had taken t.
| place it on safely at the risk of his OWL
| life, we judged to be very valuable. We
resolved to save him, if possible, and
| jumping into our skiff, we pulled toward
| him. At that moment the raft was caugh
| in one of the whirlpools below the Ellwooo
| street dixie and was broken to pieces. Th'
man lost his hold and was swallowed IL
the vortex, while the chest, too, wen
down. We rowed about the spot to picl
up the life preservers, which had been sep
arated, and in picking up the second ont
found rope attached to it, My partner
wanted to cut it, but I stopped him ant
| told him to save the rope, as it might b.
useful He commenced pulling it in, bu
before he had gotten much of it in the boa
he called me to his assistance, and We
worked away pulling in the dead weight q
the other end of the rope.
"Finally the task was finished, and, as
reward instead of the body of the mai
whom we had just seen drown before otl
eyes, we fonnd we had the chest which ht
valued more than his life. We hauled i
ashore with many misgivings, and die
not open it, but put it carelessly before m!
| shanty.
"The next day I had plenty to do pick
ing up wreckage and watching for tn,
bodies of those who had perished on tn
boats. About 5 O'Clock in the evening
gentleman drove down to the shanty. HI
seemed greatly excited. He was accom-
panied by constable. They asked me i
I had seen q chest floating down the river
Well, to make long story short, the mai
was the owner of the chest which contained
his whole fortune-more than million
The man who was drowned was his brother
who had locked him in his stateroom h
perish and tried to make off with the treas
ure in the way described.
81 told him of his brothers death, ant
he remarked: Poor fellow, forgive hin
and shall not tell father of his attemptet
crime He was a member of one of tn
best families of the city at the time an,
after taking me to the nearest saloon
where we had the best in the house, h
gave me 5000 to keep the whole affsi
quiet and not let his name be known
What did do with the S5,000i / live
like a gentleman on it for year.
ibid 1 ever see the gentleman again
Yes, quite often; he is one of the lesdin
men Of st. Louis to-day"