, 1892-06-11
DRIFTW0OD.
Odds and Ends From Here
There and Elsewhere.
The Visit of the War Ships Charles
ton and baltimore The COn-
cords Trip Up the Mississippi.
the o. @. i. Building.

cords Trip Up the Mississippi.
Tine o. @. i. Building.
The coming to Olympia of the great war
ships-the Charleston and Baltimore-will
be the greatest naval event that ever
occurred on Puget Sound. When these
two splendid specimens of naval architec-
ture reach the state capital they will have
penetrated farther inland than they have
ever been since they were launched. From
Cape Flattery to Olympia by the channel
line is about 100 miles. Olympia is as far
inland as these two ships can go in any
portion of the United States, except on the
Mississippi river in time of very high
water. The Portlanders boasted that these
ships had never been so far inland before
when they reached the city on the Villa
mette which was probably true, but they
also said that such large naval vessels had
never penetrated so far inland before in the
history of the navy, which was ridiculous.
The cruiser Concord, one of the large new
steel vessels of the navy, has Just ended
the most novel voyage ever undertaken by
any of Uncle Sans war ships. By her re-
cent trip up the Mississippi river as far as
] OdlIO, bub mas Dl6IGbu Il6 NbIy lltdIb VI Jut
! populOus country and earned the distnc-
| tiOn of being the first man-of-War to &C
cOmplish such a feat. 1t has not been
deemed impracticable that a steel cruiser
should steam so far up the tortuous and
eYer-changing water highway, but navy
officials have pronounced such an under
taking most imprudent and subject to
great dangers.
The pretty white Concord has made the
trip with safety, has suffered no material
damage, and is now showing her heels to
the flood of muddy waters that pours into
the Gulf People who live in the great in
terror valley have had their eyes opened
wide at the sight of trim, three-masted
man-of-war steaming along in paths where
only the broad, comparatively Gght-draft
steamboats, have held sway for so many
years The tars, many of whom had never
been so far inland before, saw sights
stranger to them than glimPses Of foreign
lands.
The opening of the new cantileVer bridge
at Memphis and the attendant celebration
were the occasion of the cruisers appear
ance in Missippi river harbors. Congress
sional influence sent orders to the Concord,
then in the West Indies, to steam to the
mouth Of the Mississippi, and, if practic-
able, proceed at once to Memphis This
vessel was selected on account of her light
draught of fifteen feet and seven inches.
She carries a good armament and has a
complement of 1913 officers, blue jackets and
marines. --..
The presence of the Concord at the Mem
phis celebration was not an assured thing
when the cruiser passed the jetties. but the
extraordinary fall of rain in the upperyal.
lev, with the consequent floods that rolled
down the Mississippi, made the journey a
safe one, as far as the depth of water was
in question. But high water in the river
brings another rdanger-driftWood and huge
! hot oh lilo hottnri1o q
so fercely do the eddies whirl them about.
A cool, skillful pilot was needed. At New
Orleans there was one available man
possessing these requirements. Captain
Henry Partee, and old pilot, born on the
river, was at the wheel of a big st. Louis
boat about to depart. His services were
secured for the nan-of-war, with remu-
neration of $500 for a successful trip. He
promised to bring the boat safely back to
salt water, and did so.
The vessel, carrying the nations guns
even passed over the plantation where
Zachary Taylor had once lived. and almost
grated its nose against the famous old
church on the place. Blue jackets were
astonished at the pilots daring in carrying
their fine ship so near the tree branches
but when he put the ships head toward 9
J bunch of timber and cut across a peninsula
of only a few days before, they were
amazed. Negroes on the levees danced
and shonted. 1t was just like old days
when "Abe Linken's" boats came up the
; mighty stream. Some prophesied that the
| gunbOat came to punish the white folk;
for lynching the darkies.
About twelve knots an hour was the
I, steaming speed of the Concord, although
e she only covered the ground as the nauti
cal expression goes, at the rate of eigh
! knots, the current having force of fOu
] knots. From cities and towns along th'
e river guns doomed out a salute to tn
8 cruiser, and return compliments putfeC
from the ships side. Clouds Of the black
est smoke hanging oyer the tops of forest
around long bends of the river have alWay
I told the natives that steamboats, comm, d
but the war vessel came upon them una
wares, her smokestack emitting only
quivering heat, anthracite coal being used
Occasionally lookouts in some towns o.
a bluff would sight the tall masts over tn
> tree treetops, and when the ship came close
l. tugs would go screaming to welcome hel
1t was strange sight, indeed. Never bC
o fore had a deep-water vessel gone up tn
o river further than Vicksburg, and that wa
# fifteen years before when the slOop Ply
mouth anchored in front of the old city
officers on the Concored had remembers
that there were numerous islands IN tn
, Mississippi, made famous by Grants oper,
tions. All that they could see of thes
10 were massive clumps of trees with WatC
e whirling close under their branches. Th
g. floods had spred everywhere.
a "The man who invents stove pipe length
le which will go together as easily as love-
le lips is certain of fame and fortune" say
the Walla Walla Union. Captain P.
Johnson has evidently been trying to pI
up stove or take one down. Let it /
y known, however, that young man of Ch
st halls county recently invented stove pil
k which fits in lengths like a lid on bo
&C He received a patent on it and it is vel
K naturally called "Tbe Anti-profanity Sto'
ig Pipe. The inventor has grown rich.
ut The center of attention in Olympi
ct during the closing week was the Collegia
t; Institute in which nearly 1000 studen
70, have received an education. Secretal
as Allen Weir, who was an early student, r
called "visions of the past' at the alum
meeting on Thursday evening. Mr.. We
Us in speaking of the building, said: "Il
o. q. 1. building, as l remember it, was
ag 1875 very much the same as 1t is today
he to exterior, except that it was of cour
newer and fresher. 1t had been erected
~ 1871, by few enterprising persons head
p, by Hon. D. r. Bigelow, who, understan
Or contributed the land for the campus, al
to whose liberality and devotion to t
= cause of higher education the peoI
a. of Olympia have been indebted me
than TO any OJner IOr Jne splenu
institution since built up. The schc
Il as at first opened, and duri
Gu the first few years of its existence, "
nd under the name and style of the OlymI
ok Union academy. 1t was Union acader
in 1875 when became one of its studen
Professor NJ. G. Royal, fresh young grS
uate from Willamette university, to
at charge that year as principal Mrs. P.
vas Hale was one of the teachers. Miss CO
Molly now Mrs. A. H. Chambers, h
charge of the primary department. I
M interior of the building was largely uni
sed ished. The front entry and all of the S
, o,a ord otorv oh quad tho rouoh cft1ddinU wi