davidaulloa/AmericanStories huggingface dataset:
San Antonio daily light. [volume] (San Antonio, Tex.) 1886-1907, 1894-12-15
A MARINE GRAVEYARD.
Where Many Mississippi River
Steamboats, Lie Buried.
The Fatal Locality In Which Many Paia.
tial steamers Went Down-Same. of
Some of the Well Remem-
bered Boats.

The recent discovery of a Sunken raft
by Mayor Walbridge in the channel of
the river above the Chain of Rocks,
says the st. Louis Globe Democrat,
will bring to the minds of many of our
old steamboat men the disasters that
befell the marine craft of this city in
that portion of the river now included
in the harbor of st. Louis. The char
ter harbor of the city includes that
stretch of the Mississippi river no
tween the mouth of the Missouri and
the mouth of the Merrimac. That por-
ton of the harbor under the care and
control of the wharf and harbor COM
missioner lies between the Chain Of
Rocks and the RiveS dcS PcreS. From
the upper mouth of the Missouri to the
foot of North Market street there are
now lying under the silt and sands the
wrecks of over sixty boats and barges,
Many of these steamboats, We're the
largest, best equipped and speediest
that ever walked the navigable water
ways of the country. They We're in
reality marine palaces, such as this
generation has not seen.
Savers bend was the fatal locality
where nearly all these splendid craft
foundered and settled under the shift
ing sands of the trcachurouS channel.
Among the boats that We're lost matIy
now living will recall the following:
York State, Southcrner, Mary Blain,
Highland Mary, Grace Darling, Ale
gheny, Federal Arch, c. BUN, lu3a.
Baltimore, John Il. Carson, PhilItel-
phia, Edinburg, Challenge, Moderator,
Nebraska, Sioux City. White Cloud,
Omaha, New Admiral. Geneva, Warsaw.
Empire City, Gov. Sharkey, Submarine
No. -, Saranac No. >, War Eagle, Ben
johnson, Gerard Il. Allen. Fanny scott,
Henry Adkins. Columbia, Silver Bow,
Il. j. Lockwood, Wild Duck. Nile, Vic
toria, Champion, Blue Lodge, Calhoun,
Alma, Central City, Raven, Salvor, J. W.
Garrett, Hudson. Beaver. John l..
Keiser, Pacific, Lulu Worth, Cornelia
and Badger State.
The above were sunk between the
years 1855 and 1883. In addition to
these there were twenty barges lost
north of Bissell's point within the same
year. No record was kept of the saw
YER or cut lumber RATS that were lost
south of Alton, but it has been esti-
mated that the aggregate value WIS
over a million dollars. Only two of
the above named boats, the Calhoun
San Antonio daily light. [volume] (San Antonio, Tex.) 1886-1907, 1894-12-15

cattle to Il less valuable pasture, and
the plating of Il town site on eighty
acres of the pasture. That sold off like
hot cakes, and the town of Cripple
Creek was born.
The man who discovered gold was
drunken blacksmith of \ Colorado
Springs, of the name of Dick Wooten,
who had been hanging around the
ranch for months at n time, and of
course found it by accident. He at
once advertised the fact among all the
prospectors and mining men in that
part of the country. and they came up
in swarms to Scrape over the beds of
the streams and rake out the grass
roots. A man by the name of Frisbee
was the first to discover gold quartz
few weeks after Wooten's find. In less
than six months there were a thousand
prospectors at work in the valley, and
now more than 1000 miners are en-
ployed in the hundreds of mines that
lie on that ranch alone. They have
taken out more than s., 900, 900 or S.
100000 in gold. The yield for the first
year was about 100000. In 1892 it
reached $500, 900, and in 1898 S., 400
900. The miners strike last spring put
things back enormously, but, notwith-
standing between four and five months
that were actually wasted, the yield
this year will average 500, 900 month,
or d total of SO, 500, 900. During this
month they expect to reach the 81 ,OOO.-
900 mark, and next year the output will
be doubled.
Until recently very few of the miners
had been working with improved
machinery. Cripple Creek has been
emphatically poor mans camp; that
is, the owners of most of the mines
were men without capital to develop
them. and they were compelled to put
ter along with the most primitive
apparatus until they had made enough
to buy modern machinery.
The Independence mine. which is re-
garded as the most valuable in the
Cripple Creek district. is q good illus
tration. 1t was discovered and is owned
by man named W. :. or Bill" STRAIT
ton, a carpenter at Colorado Springs,
Fourth of July in lSga Wandering
over what is known as Battle noun
tain, near the site of the present town
Of Victor, he said in a jocular way to
his companion that he was going to
throw his hat down the hill and locate
claim where it fell. He drove his
stake, tiled his papers, and worked
his assessment" according to law, and
after awhile he struck vein of gold
that is said to be richer than any other
that has been discovered here He
had no money and was very shy of
partners. 4 Denver syndicate offered
him ~ 100000 for the property, and at
first he thought they were joking.
Little by little, as he got out the ore,
lac was able to make improvements,
San Antonio daily light. [volume] (San Antonio, Tex.) 1886-1907, 1894-12-15
SATURDAY.
DEC. 18th, 1894.
CRIPPLE CREEK.
How the Famous Mining Town
Sprang Into Existence.
Fer Many Years the Rich Gold Fields
Were Used as n Cattle Ranch-Ths
Discovery of a Drunken
Blacksmith.

The site of Cripple Creek was for ten
years a cow pasture of two long-limbed
Old Kentuckians Of the names of Bob"
and Bill WomaX, who took up Sec
ton of land here under the desert land
act about 1876. In the early days of
gold excitement in Colorado, when
people crossed the plains with pixies
Peak or Bust" painted on their wagons,
some little gold was washed ont here,
but not enough to encourage anyone to
stay. So the prospectors passed on
into the mountains and left the land
for the WomaX brothers to feed their
cattle on.
They didn't dream, says the Chicago
Record, that gold was there, and be-
coming tired of the place about seven
years ago sold it to Bennett & Myers, a
firm of real estate agents in Denver
who had loaned them money. There
were 400 or 800 cattle on the place, and
several hundred miles OF fencing,
which incloScd about 10000 acres Of
government land. For all this Bennett
& Myers paid $4,000, and when they
got the title they organized the Pixies
Peak cattle company, with Il capital OF
100000 But before they got things
ready to put the stock on the market
President Cleveland issued his procla-
nation ordering the cattlemen to tear
down all the fences they had erected
upon public land. That practically de-
priveI the new company of $4,000 acres
of paSturage and knocked the profits
out of ranching in Colorado
In February, 1891, Bennett & Myers
got letter from their foreman at the
ranch, saying that gold had been dis
covered there, and the prospectors
were digging holes all over the place,
which made it dangerous for the cat
tie. Several cows had already fallen
into these excavations and broken their
legs, and he asked for instructions.
They wrote back to him to run the
miners off the place, hut he replied that
they We're already several hundred in
number, and it was folly to think Of
disturbing them. He followed his let
ter to Denver few days aftcrand gave
his employers description of affairs.
So they went up to make an inspection,
which resulted in the transfer of the
San Antonio daily light. [volume] (San Antonio, Tex.) 1886-1907, 1894-12-15

and Alma, were raised. The bones OF
all the others lie many feet beneath the
sands, petrifying under the action Of tho
waters. The actual loss in marine
property to the merchants of st. Louis
by the sinking of these boats was over
five million dollars. II is sad com
mentary upon the action of congress IN
its failure to provide adequate means
for the removal of the cause of these
disasters, and the general policy Of
making only dribbling appropriations
for river and harbor improvements
that after 1860 few, if any, Of these
marine palaces were replaced with
others. Many of the owners in the loss
of this property lost not only all they
had, but also lost courage because Of
the increasing dangers to the mariue
commerce of the immediate harbor Of
st. Louis.
To add to the pathetic story of these
disasters, many of them fatll to life, il
might be stated in passing that during
the period named above fifty-tivc splcn-
did steamers We're destroyed by fire
within the charter harbor of the city.
The hulls of many of them lie just ont-
side of the present water line and form
the retaining dixie for the granite
wharf. Many of the grandfathers and
grandmOthers of to-day will remember
with varying emotions their bridal
trips on the James Howard, the Le-
viathan, the Bismarck, the Grand Re-
public, the Carrie V. KOuntz, and others
equally as grand. The upper mouth
of the Missouri within the past forty
years, where it cmpties into the Mis-
sissippi has changed its location four
or five times, and it's present mouth Is
several miles south of the one that ex-
, listed a few years ago. Opposite these
various mouths, and for one mile south
ward, many of the disasters named
above occurred. The outpouring of the
Missouri waters was swift. the eddieS
and currents were treacherouS and the
snagS and other distractions SO numer~
Gus at that point that unusual care was
necessary in order to avoid the fatal
places.
The conditions that existed in Saw
yer otuu loTIy years ago SAlSJ DTdo-
tically to-day, and are still serious
menace to the marine commerce of tRS
city, with the added dangers to tho
important municipal and railroad in
tcrcsts that have grown with the re-
quirements of the water supply and tho
transportation demands of great me-
tropolis
If the waters in Sawyer's bend could
be rolled backward, as the waters of
the Red sea once were, and the sands
cleared away and the skeletons of our
former palatial steamers photographed.
what IA terrible object lesson would he
conveyed from spot that is now the
most thickly settled marine graveyard
in the world. ..., =
San Antonio daily light. [volume] (San Antonio, Tex.) 1886-1907, 1894-12-15
POOR MARKSMANsHIP.
Firing In Both Army and Navy Less Ac-
curato Than Formerly.

Firing In Both Army and Navy Less Ac-
curato Than Formerly.
The training of naval artillerists has,
in recent years, been given a good deal
of attention, and no end of powder and
shot has been expended in target prac-
tice designed to serve a more telling
purpose in actual warfare, should the
occasion present itself. Itwould seem,
therefore, says Casters Magazine, that
the floating equipments of naval powers
of to-day ought to give good accounts
themselves in point of craftsmanship if
called into action, though it would be
presumptuous to undertake to fore
shadow possible results. If, on the
other hand past experience counts for
anything, there would seem to have
been a notable decline in accuracy in
naval gunnery, growing with success
sive improvements in naval architec-
ture and naval armament. 1t was eSti-
mated some years ago, from data fur
niShed by target practice at sea that a
heavy gun must be discharged fifty
zines to make one effective hit. The
old smoOth-boreS were credited with
killing a man by the discharge of the
guns weight in shot: in other words
three tons of hirty-two-pounder shot
were required for the purpose. Actual
service test with modern high-power
guns, however-guns weighing twelve
tOns-has, within the past ten or twelve
years, shown that it took about sixteen
tons of projectiles to accomplish the
same thing. 1t is interesting to note
from what statistics are available that
the introduction of rified muskets into
the armies has had a somewhat similar
result. The old-time muskets, it is
said, killed a man by firing at him his
own weight in lead bullets, but the
modern rifle, in the hands of the aver
age soldier, so has been figured out,
does not effect fatality until it has
discharged twice the mans weight in
lead. Both here, as we'll as in naval
shooting, therefore, there has been
shown to be an important demand for
greater skill and care. Whether this
has been met in any measure, future
hoStilitieS only will tell.
You can keep posted by read
ing the columns Of the Daily LIGHT
San Antonio daily light. [volume] (San Antonio, Tex.) 1886-1907, 1894-12-15

and upon the reputation OF MS mine ne
succeeded in persuading Chicago firm
to furnish him a $4,000 plant that runs
by electricity, and is said to be the best
in the Cripple Creek camps. lie gave
notes in payment, and within twenty
day after his machinery started was
able to take them up with his profits.
The mine is now paying $4,000
month net, the bankers here say. and
there are millions of dollars in the ore
in sight.
They call Bill Stratton the king of
Battle mountain"
The evening world., 1894-10-09
ed Street
'LGBOutilliCr Bros
Beg to announce that they
have just opened their Fall
and Winter line of the FA-
NOUS
Stuttgarter Normal Sanitary
Wooden
Underwear
for Men, Women, and Chill
dren, which they offer at very

for Men, Women, and Chill
dren, which they offer at very
moderate prices.
The uniform perfection and
general excellence Of this
brand of Underwear is uni
verSally acknowledged
Descriptive Catalogue and
Price-list mailed on applica-
ton,
The evening world., 1894-10-09
HAD LOTS OF WOOL.
Hut Eben Had No Time for HON.
or Wife

Yes. / suppose you may call Eben a
successful man. He does a good bust.
ness. but In my mind he isn't prosper
GUS" So said Mrs. Tracy to her sister
who had congratulated her on the pur-
chase by her husband of a mill which
he was thought to have bought at a
bargain, says Youths Companion.
We'll" returned her sister. 1T seems
TO me everything he touches comes out
just right. He's the busiest man In
town"
That's just It," retorted Mrs. Tracy
Hes busy. and he succeeds in his do
ings but that isn't prospecting as
understand II. You see" she continued
when We were first married he leased
the little woollen mill down on the
stream and got along first rate. He
around together every afternoon and
have good times,
But he began to make money and buy
more wool, and more mills to take care
OF II, and more storehouses TO put IL in
until II takes about all his time to gel
from one mill to the other. Sometimes
/ see him on Sunday, but he is gen
orally busy resting up to start again
He's about as much slave as II he was
chained In a galley"
Yes, but he does make money" said
one
We'll. perhaps SO, but It all goes &c
buy more wool. III anybody bankers foI
lots OF wool in this world. that's one
thing. Eben has any amount OF wool
solid goodness out OF life and enjoying
IL. he's forgotten how 10 do IL. Really
as i look at IL, Eben Is the most I'M
prosperous man In town."
The evening world., 1894-10-09
THREE THIEVES IN HIS ROOM.
Awakened by Their Movements, lie
Opened Fire from His Bed.

Three burglars were given a warm re-
ception at o'clock this morning by John
Borish, of 3j7 Forty-fifth street, South
Brooklyn. Mr.. Borish was awakened at
that hour and discovered three men in
mis- room. He kept quiet for several
minutes and watched them ransacking
the bureau drawers.
Then he carefully put his hand under
the pillow and grasped a revolver. One
of the men saw him move and gave the
alarm. AS they started to leave the
room Borish sent two bullets whzzing
past the thieves.
They dropped on their knees and
crawled out of the room. Borsh fol-
lowed them and fired several more shots,
but in the darkness his bullets flew wide
of their intended mark.
Several policemen heard the shots and
rushed to the house. They searched
the neighborhood, without finding the
burglars.
Mr.. Borish and the officers found
that the thieves had entered the house
through a dining-room window, which
had been left open. The house had been
ransacked, but, so far as could be
ascertained, the visitors got nothing
except 81 and a pocket-book which had
been left on table in the dining
room.
Borish says he is certain there were
three men in the party, as he distinctly
saw two men and discerned the outlines
of another.
Police Capt. Kenny, of the Fourth ave-
nue. station, detailed several detectives
on the case
The evening world., 1894-10-09
If you want SITUATION adver
tise in The World.
go WORDS 10 CENTS.
A FROZEN SOAP hubble.
Interesting Experiments Witnessed
ut u London Lecture.

Prof. Dewar lectured recently at the
Royal Institute on the solid and Liquid
States of Matter" Ice. he said, was
ordinarily regarded as a viscous sub
stance, inasmuch as we could squeeze
II. When we applied considerable pres
sure to II, we could force II into the
form OF wire. says the London
Standard. But ice was none the less a
brittle substance, and II we cooled 1t.
as the lecturer did by pouring liquid air
the Ice obligingly did. From the ice the
lecturer passed to an investigation
which had been travelled over in a pre-
vious lecture. He spent some time in
explaining his vacuum vessels. Some
times these vessels are made in the
shape OF fiagons, sometimes in the form
of test tubes. For one experiment they
are made In the shape of the &c blets
which we usually associate with the
historic drama.
In the form OF test tubes use is made
OF double set of them, one inside the
other, to make liquid and solid air. In
the outer tube liquid oxygen is placed.
Pressure Is taken off the liquid oxygen
by air pumps until II cools to such an
extent that It liquefies the air in the in
ner tube. which is surrounded by the
liquid oxygen. Pressure Is then taken
of this liquid air by another set of air
pumps until II grows so cold that. as
was shown with the greatest success
yesterday afternoon. the liquid suddenly
solidifes and the wondering spectator
sees the air which ne is breathing
frozen to a solid mass before his eyes.
Prof. Dewar showed that red oxide Of
mercury when subjected to the intense
cold OF liquid oxygen lost its color and
became yellow; that amyl alcohol solidi-
fies to CLASSY mass, and methyl alcohol
to mass of white crystals: that a
hydrocarbon like turpentine freezes to
a clear glass. Blsulphide OF carbon when
colored purple with iodine becomes a
slightly red crystalline solid. The pref
tiest experiment of the afternoon was
the last. Prof. Dewar took one OF his
goblet-shaped vacuum vessels and
poured about a couple of tablesponfuls
OF liquid air into it. The atmosphere of
the goblet then became so cold that
that when its image was projected
upon the screen the spectators could see
n tiny snowstorm going on in the glass:
And now" said the professor, Il Will
see II we can freeze a soap bubble" He
then lowered "A soap bubble into the
frozen atmosphere with an iron wire.
Upon the screen the spectators saw the
image of the bubble becoming darker
and its movements slower suddenly 1t
contracted. 1t has frozen, and two
thirds OF the frozen globule fell away
from the wire and tioated like trans
parent eggshell on the liquid air.
The evening world., 1894-10-09
both WENT INSANE.

The strange antics of a crazy engineer
at Alton, H., suggest the fact that in
sanity is very frequent among railway
employees. Two dramatic Illustrations
can be mentioned, says the Philadel-
pha Times. There is living in New Jer-
sey, not far from Philadelphia, man
who for many years was the foremost
passenger engineer between New York
and Philadelphia on the Pennsylvania
railroad. He ran all the specials and
pest trains, and In ten years never had
an accident. One night in the CLEAN or
the headlight he saw a woman.
lie had only time to see her hands
raised and to hear her cry and before
ne could put his hand upon the lever
ne felt jerk under the wheels and
Knew that all was over. Since that night
ne has never been on an engine. For
months he did not sleep, and later be-
zane practically insane, but only on the
one point of seeing and hearing the
woman his engine Killed. Now he goes
soout harmlessly. and aimlessly, but he
naS to be kept away from railroads.
a anu In his fretful sleeps he awakes with
cries and paroXysms OF horror
me other case Is that of a man who
was conductor OF a train on the Camden
anu Amboy, whose train had an acci-
SSv,t; He came out all right himself
S oHt II ,preyed so upon his mind that one
nIHht he left his home, and going TO the
RT.nt where the accident occurred, threw
nIiinselt In front OF passing train, re-
eeIVlng injuries from which he died
The evening world., 1894-10-09
NEWJERSEY.
en-. FOWLER LOOKS A WINNER
Successful Anti-Machine Dele.
gates Favor Him for Congress.
Republican Boss Rule Severely Re
buked at Elizabeth Primaries.


ELIZABETH, N. j.. Oct. 9.-Political
surprises were the order of the day at
the Republican primaries held in this
city last night for delegates to the Con-
gressional Convention. and some OF the
hitherto invincible party leaders got
knocked out in their own strongholds,
where they headed the ticket.
The greatest surprise was the defeat
of Mayor Rankin. who three times car
ried this Democrats city by large ma
jorities, but was overthrown last night
in his ward by combination of his
political foes. Surrogate Parrot, who
was the only Republican elected In the
| Democratic tidal wave Of 1892, was beaten
by one vote in his bailiwick Ex-Alder-
man DIR. Mack. the most popular Repub-
| lican leader heretofore at Elizabethport,
was another victim of the revolt against
| the machine.
successful delegates are not opposed to
| the man whom the defeated delegates
| were In favor of for Congress. but the
| fight was simply made against the ma
chine and to rebuke boss dictation. Sc
far as heard from Charles n. Fowler
gates from Elizabeth, with but few
| exceptions. He has also swept Rah
way, Westfield, Crawford, Linden, Plain
field and Bayonne City, and 1t looks a,
though. his nomination, Thursday wa!
| assured on tn" first ballot.
His principal opponent Is Halsey NJ
Barrett, OF Bloomfield, Essex County
who will have the backing OF all the
Essex delegates but with Union County
almost a unit for Fowler, and Bay.
pears to have safe majority in the
| Convention.
The evening world., 1894-10-09
the Russian Emnernr at snnln :

the Russian Emperor at Spala The
Professor. in substance, said:
THE Car has a powerful constitution
and still weighs 200 pounds, though he
has lost much flesh since January, and
he should be able to make a good fight
against the disease. With favorable
climatic influence. as at Corfu. or the
Island of Madeira, IL the weather at
Corfu is not found to be favorable. and
without unforeseen complications. he
may recover.
THE illness OF the Gear is peculiar.
His principal trouble is n graduated
contraction of the kidneys, in which
the kidneys become hard and change
tissue. besides being subject to atrophy.
This Is accompanied by hypertrophy Of
the heart. resulting from enlargement of
Its muscular tissue. This latter leads
to breathing difficulty. and Is often
very painful. the spasms being COM
plicated by fits of unconsclousness. This
Is the case with the Gar There is
no dropsy, however.
Diabetes, in the preliminary stage,
has declared itself. but II is merely
symptomatic and an accompaniment of
the main trouble. When further ad-
vanced this malady frequently results in
partial or entire paralysis. Thus far,
however, there does not appear TO be
any immediate danger of this with the
Gear"