The Wichita daily eagle. [volume] (Wichita, Kan.) 1890-1906, 1893-04-05
A MISSISSIPPI BOAT.
Description of One of the Great RIv.
Packets.

l - "iSSIo0IFFB OOAts
Description of One of the Great River
| Packets
| The City Of Providence was one of
| long line of Mississippi boats edging
the broad, clean, sloping levee that
/ fronts busy St Louis She was by far
| the largest and handsomest of the pack
cts: but all are of one type. and that is
worth describing. They are, so far as
l remember, all painted white, and are
very broad and low. Each carries two
tall black tunnels, capped with a bulg-
| ing ornamental top and carrying on
rods swung between the tunnels the
| trade mark of the company cut out of
| sheet iron; an anchor or an initial let
| ter, fox or a swan, or whatever.
| There are three or four stories to these
boats: first the open main-decl for
| freight, and for the boilers and engines;
| then the walled-in saloon-deck, with
row of windows and doors cut alter
nately close beside one another, and
with profuse ornamentation by means
of jig-saw work wherever it can be put;
| and, last Of all, the texas or officers
quarters, and the bureau or negro
passengers cabin forming the third
story. Most of the large boats have
the big square pilot house on
top of the texas but others carry
it as part of the third story in
front of the texas The pilothouse is
always made to look graceful by means
of an upper fringe OF jig-saw ornament
and usually carries a deerb head or
s IL - " i
call it enormous; a great square room
with space in it for a stove, chairs, the
wheel, the pilots. and. in more than one
boat that ! saw, a sofa or cushion laid
over the roof of the gangway from be-
low. The sides and back of the house
are made principally of sliding window
sashes The front of the house, through
which the pilots see their course, is
closa bic by means of a door hinged into
sections and capable of being partially
or fully opened as the state of the
weather permits The wheel Of one of
these great packets is very large, and
yet light 1t is made as if an ordinary
eastern or northern wheel had been put
in place and then its spol1es had grown
two feet beyond its rim, and had had
another rim and handles added. There
are many sharp bends in the river and
/ afterward often saw the pilots using
both hands and one foot to spin the big
circle. like a pin-wheel, until the rud-
der was hard over on whichever side
they wanted it.
These Mississippi packets OF the first
and second class are very large boats,
and roominess is the most striking
characteristic of every part of them
They look light, frail. and inhamma-
BILE, and so they are The upright posts
that rise from the deck of such boat,
to support the saloon Heck, are mere lit
tie sticks, and everything above them,
except the tunnels, is equally slender
and thin. These boats are not like
ours at any point of their makeup.
They would seem to a man from the
coast not to be the handiworlx of ship
builders; indeed, there has been no ap-
parent effort to initiate the massive
beams, the peculiar knees the freely
distributed 'bright-work' of polished
brass, the neat, solid homework, or
the thousand and one tricks of con-
struction and ornament which distin-
guish the work of our coast boat build
ers. These river boats-and include
all the packets that come upon the
Mississippi from its tribu taries-are
more like the work of carpenters and
house builders. 1t is as if their model
had been slowly developed from that
of a barge to that of a house boat,
or barge with roof over it; then,
as if a house for passengers had been
built on top of the first roof, and the
texas and bureau had followed on
the second roof. Pictures of the pack
cts scarcely show how unlike our boats
these are; the difference being in the
methods of workmanship. Each story
is built merely of sheathing, and in the
best boats the doors and fanlights are
hung on without frames around them;
all loose and thin, as if they never en-
countered cold weather or bad storms
All the boats that | saw are as nearly |
alike, In all respects, as if one man had |
built them. | was told that the great |
packets cost only seventy thousand to /
one hundred thousand dollars, SO that |
the mere engine in a first-class Atlantic |
coast river or sound boat is seen to be |
of more value than one of these huge !
packets, and prime reason for the |
difference in construction suggests it.
self But do not mean to criticise, for |
these great, comfor ia bic vessels serve |
their purpose where ours could not be |
used at all, and are altogether SO use
full and appropriate, as well as pictur-
esque and attractive TO an eastern man.
that there is not room in my MIND for |
aught but praise of them. y ulian
Ralph, in Harpefs Magazine.
EIDE EMEkAX