The Salt Lake herald. [volume] (Salt Lake City [Utah]) 1870-1909, 1896-07-12

were seated sudden rumble and mo-
ton was heard and frightened every
one, who ran on deck. The boat was
headed up stream, and she went, to the
amazement of the critics.
So far the trip had been a joyous
one, but at Louisville came first trial.
The water was 50 low that the boat
could not get over the fails, and was
obliged to lie until November waiting
for a rise. Finally she got over, but
while at anchor the next day there
was felt the first of the terrible series
of earthquake shocks which i'm 1911
followed the comet. The effect on the
occupants of the boat was terrifying,
tbut they proceeded on their journey
only to be rocked again and again.
The dread became something insup-
portable. The men whom they met on
the river all felt it and for days fiat
boat crews passed them without a sa-
lutte, only staring at them with bag
gard, horror-stricken faces. At New
Madrid. which had been almost entirely
engulfed, survivors begged to be taken
from the town. To add to these ter
.rors a body of Indians who called the
steamer a fire canoe" and seemed to
think it connected with the comet,
chased them. Again the boat got on
wildered, so seriously had the channel
been changed by the earthquakes, and
declared himself lost. But at last, in
spite Of water, fire, Indians and nat
ural commissions. the boat neared
Natchez. practically the voyage was
over, and Mr.. Roosevelt had conquer
ed. AS the boat rounded up to the
wharf at Natchez the current of the
river was at first more than she could
overcome. but a bit of extra steam and
a few rapid revolutions of the wheel
sent her ahead and she came up in
fine style. In the crowd who watched
the boats struggle and victory was an
old negro beside himself with excite
ment. When he comprehended that
the boat had already gotten the better
of the river, he slapped his thighs en-
Enthusiastically, exclaiming:
BY golly, sab, old Mississippi got
her massa; hooraw.''
The negro was right; the Mississippi
had found her master.
The steamers increased rapidly as soon
as their success was insured, more
rapidly in fact than on the Atlantic
coast, for by 1920 there had been seventy
one of them built on the western rivers
A curious result of the introduction of
the steamer was that owners of fat
boats frequently rugged up crude engines
and tried to apply them to their crafts.
New Orleans or bust came to mean
more than ever after the steamers came
west Indeed the steamer which didn't
bust" was rarity 1t was so gen
orally taken for granted that they would
that passengers usually sought the att
staterooms because. as Charles Dickens
himself noted as late as 1912, 1.-The boat
usually blew up forward Some of the
accidents are the most frightful in the
history of our country. Such was the
explosion of the Moseile near Cincinnati
IL ! 1l--4
gone up stream to take a family on
board. AS there was no running on
schedule time in those days the steamers
accommodated their passengers by going
wherever and whenever they were
asked. AS the Moselle was a. new brag
boat while waiting for his passengers
the captain held on to all the steam he
of showing of to the best advantage the
great speed as It passed down
the river the entire length of the city,
but that he might oyertake and pass an
other boat which had left the wharf for
Louisville, but a short time previous"
Hardly had he parted from his moor
ings. however, before the boilers burst.
Those of the passengers and crew who
were not killed by the explosion were
drowned-some 200 persons in all. The
whole performance was a fair sample
of the skill and intelligence shown in
managing the early river steamers.
THE LIFE OF TIE RIVER MEN.
The enormous traffic which grew upon
the rivers gradually developed a pc
culiar people-'the river boatmen"
Obliged to live in the rudest way on
their RATS and fiat boats, away from
their families, crowded when lin towns
into such quarters as the swamp" in
New Orleans, having few pleasures but
drinking and gambling, these men be-
came toughs of the most violent type.
There are many of them whose deeds
were so dreadful that their names are
still historic in the Mississippi valley.
One curious feature of their business was
that when they had reached New Or
leans they were obliged 70 sell their
boats as they could not be got up stream
and to come back on foot, horse back
or by steamer. More bought ponies of
the Choctaw Indians and come on
horseback in the early days than in any
other way. 1t is fact that many of the
horses used by. farmers in Ohio and
western Pennsylvania at that date were
bought from rivermen. The father of
the novelist. speaks of owning
a pony when a boy which his father
bought from a returned boatman for SIS.
The roughnesS of the life had excep-
tons. Now and then there were boat j.
men who led very happy, decent lives on
their crafts. This usually was due to
one or more OF them bringing their
wives and children. The dirty cabins
soon became .honlelike then. Flowers
awnings and hammocks were
put up, rocking chairs came out, child
rem played up and down the length of
became a cosy floating home.
Nely early in the history OF the rivers
there appeared all the various institu-