The Iola register. [volume] (Iola, Allen County, Kansas) 1875-1902, 1891-08-14
UP THE BIG RIVER.


= An airship might be better but of al
transporting conyeyances i'm presen
use, "a i;ssissippi river steamboat il
the i:l,.il.
1t is big and white and clean.
i The dizziest head could not find al
excuse for one qualm of seasickness
although know a man who had made
up his mind positively to be seasick
He went on the boat at midnight and
Immediately to bed, besoming most
uncomfortably sick and dizzy, suffered
two or three hours acutely. then got
up and found that the boat had not
yet left the wharf. He recovered in
stantly and suffered no more.
All day long you can sit in a rocking
chair watching a panorama of earth,
sky and river, fair fields, frowning
cliffs and billowing hills. Above Du-
buque they almost attain the dignity
of baby mountains. On their tops and
sides the gray rocks show through the
green, looking like ruined castles,
abandoned forts and homes of cave
dwellcrs.
"Tha Pittsburg," the boat we came
down on, was go feet long. Meals
were served to one hundred and twen-
ty-five passengers, besides about fifty
who were taking transportation only.
If you wanted to talk there were
plenty of opportunities, and if you
wanted to keep still the chances were
equally good.
Everybody was Off OH a vacation, for
the only one the trip does not recon-
mend itself to is the man who is i'm a
hurry. SO the crowd wore general
gala aspect and "summer-girl' have
a-good-time-air.
Along the river are odd little towns
nestled at the foot of inaccessable-loOk-
ing hills. Barely room for two streets
and about mile of river front. Most
uncomfortable towns for booms one
would think.
Two of the prettiest and oldest
sights OH the upper Mississippi are the
locks at Keokuk and the mouth of the
Missouri. You are under the impress
sion that the Mississippi is dirty until
you see the Missouri; then it looks like
limpid spring water. Big chunks of
the Missouri two or three yards in d.
ameter break off and float out into the
clear water.
The great resistless volume of mud
pouring in, finally has its way with
the big river and the thick brown flood
goes down to water the thirsty St
Louisans.
find that am at the wrong end of
the river, so will go back to the Twin
Cities, or rather Lake MinnetOnka,
about twelve miles from Minneapolis,
with its borders so ruffied, fiuted and
convoluted, that although it is only
seventeen miles long by eight wide, it
has nearly three hundred miles of
shore line, and all the lakeshore Gov
cred and island filled with hotels, big
and little, and boarding houses and
cottages-a good many of them big
enough and pretty enough for winter
houses. On the lake is one big steam
boat, one middle-sized steamboat, a
score of little wee steamboats,, row
boats galore, and squadron of tiny
yachts. There is not prettier sight
against blue sky and on blue water
thar fleet of those dainty boats with
their stately, glistening, dipping sails.
They have trick of dipping until
they spill you out too, but as one gen.
tleman told me at does not matter in
the least unless you mind wetting be-
cause all the boats have tin air cans to
prevent sinking so all you have to do
is to hold OH until someone takes you
Off" 1 did not try it.
The summer tourist pervades every
where. Yachting caps, tennis shoes
and flannel shirts are a feature of the
At the Lake Park Hotel one Sunday
a brass band was playing at one end
of the grounds; the Spiritualists were
holding camp meeting at the other; a
little band of Presbyterians were hav-
ing quiet afternoon services in the big
parlors and several groups oflnen were
playing cards on the broad piazzas
The kinds of people it takes to make
the world were certainly all there.
From Minnetonka we went into
for weeks sight seeing
"a city boasting of the biggest flour
ing mills in the world; three of the
incest little lakes in the United States
inside her city limits and boulevard
irive around them the prettiest you
AN find in a wrecks travel; one
building twelve stories high and
Ill the floors made of glass; a fine res
aurant on the Twelfth floor and flow
r garden on top; street after street
# substantial houses shaded by
inc trees, and only thirty-five
-ears old L felt like making
little bow and saying "How ex-
eedingly old you look for your age
But it was risky thing to
ay to anything in the feminine gen.
Ter 80 / forebore.
Being tourists of course We heard
Minnehaha calling, calling" and
We went to see it. 1t is a