The daily morning journal and courier., 1895-04-29
RATS STERN wHEEn rACnr.
Designed for Luxurious Outings on the
 shoaI Rivers of the West.
[From tho Chicago Dhily Tlbune.l

Chicago club man who has jus
 succeeded in getting that dream
 on paper to his own satisfaction
 and has set experts to work to bring i
 to realization. The paper on whicl
 the thing is printed shows the plan of :
 boat. In general the craft looks lik'
 the kind that pies the western rivers
 A denizen from the banks of the lower Illinois would recognize it in a minute
 as "stern wheeler" If he ever gets
 aboard the boat, which is built just as
 this club man thinks boat should be
 built for outing in western waters, he
 will not recognize it at all.
 It will be the only boat of the kind on
 earth or on the waters of the earth
 bles containing horses, a four-in-hand
 and blackboard. The boat will carry
 an electrical launch and a life boat
 It will have spacious halls, magnificent
 drawing rooms, and bedrooms large
 enough to avoid the semblance of or
 dinary statesrooms. It will be lighted
 by electricity and provided with a pow
 erful search light. The upper works
 will be finished in mahogany and hard
 woods. With all these luxurious ap-
 pointments it will sail in seventeen
 inches Qf water, and will have a speed of fifteen miles an hour.
 The man who Is to have this boat built is Frank IT. Ray, resident partner
 ,f Tho T cioy.nr 1ct,o mo ,,Ny rNba hOof fE to be used to navigate the western riv- CTS and bayous. Its shallow draught will permit it to go up to the head waters, where shooting Is best because it Is hard to get at, and where fish abound and fishermen are scarce. MT. Ray is millionaire with a passion for fish ing and nursing. With such a craft he can indulge these fancies without half the inconvenience there would be In walking from the Chicago club across the Lake Front and the vladuct to Lake Michigan, and at the same time get more fish and game and sport, with landscapes, waterscapes, and sylvan scenes and an ozone atmosphere. There are accommodation on the boat for twenty-five persons, besides the crew, WHICH IS to COuBlSL OI LW6lVG.
 The boat is to be built of steel. Its dimensions are to be: Length, 12b feet; beam, 20 feet; depth of hold, feet, It will draw seventeen Inches laden, and the bids received for it's construction contain the guarantee that it will have speed of fifteen miles an hour. The hull will be divided into four bulkheads dividing the boat into five water tight compartments. There will be two fore and aft bulkheads, and there will be floor plates for reenforce- ment to give the boat the greatest pos sible strength.
 The cabins will be on the promenade deck. Forward there will be a hall or smoking room, and next to 1t a big din> ing room. Back of this are bath and toilet rooms, stores and laundry. The pilot house is above on the hurricane deck. Forward on the deck a powerful will be placed, This will be an important feature, as 1t will enable the pilot to see snags and bars which abound in the streams to be navigated.
 The stable will be on the main deck. On this deck, too, will be the cook house, store-roons, crew quarters, coal bunkers, and the boilers and the ma It will be provided with two balance poppet valve engines, with 12- inch cylinders, and a 7S-inch stroke The propelllng wheel will be of the or dinary stern wheel design, sixteen feet in diameter and twenty-two feet across. wilIbe two boilers thirty-four inch as in diameter and twenty feet long, with five 7-inch flues in each, and pro- vided with steam and mud drums. It will have one plunger pump and one fire pump and all the pipes and fittings by the United States regula- lions. There will be hot and cold wa ter in every bedroom. The boat will nave dynamos to supply currents to Inc electric lights. The cost of the boat IS 1t leaves the steel works, will be a title more than $50,000. The horses md carriages and other extraordinary .hings are of course extras.
 Three years ago MT. Ray became the owner of a. house boat which was con siderable of an innovation and g. con- Jenient thing. It was built so that a iteam launch could be taken inside of it, where 1t fitted into a harness and show d the house boat up and down stream. The house boat was all right as far as t went, but it did not venture out of he Illinois river. This new boat will ,rave the Mississippi, and the treacher- JUS, tortuous ways of the Missouri. It I will be finished in July and will imme- iiately start on a six months cruise, which will take Mr. Ray and his friends 1 o the source of the Yellowstone, the Raw, the Red river, and any other treams with seventeen inches of wa CT. The plan to be pursued to get the most sport out of the six months is to team up to the vicinity of good game ands. l
 If the game cannot be winged from | he promenade deck the electric launch ! an be lowered, All that is necessary l 5 to touch the button and skim away. | f the game cannot be reached by wa- CT there is the carriage, the four-in- and, and the blackboard. If it is ike or a swamp lying off from the riv- r the electric launch can be hauled to on the blackboard. With all these everything is practically l rought within range.
 The construction of the boat is under ne supervision of Captain Charles c. -eener, who will command the boat. aptain Keener is an old river captain. [e is the last of that class of mariners
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