The citizen. (Frederick City, Md.) 1895-1923, 1896-08-14

boundary between Lake Superior anj
E0k4 Huron. The picfuresquencs
f<8II< Begins ~ The rapids Of St. Nary
<'E<t. which have been called the Sol
z'nts The times 0f the French occupa
[ion old Fort Brady. with It's drill
ground facing the river and some Oh
'1i|ap'dated cabins Of the half-breeds
en6 their forsaken burying ground arr
The only reminders Of the modern
prosperous town Of the olden tim,
when Jesuit priests said mass in til,
mission chapel, and the hardy voy
|ageurs traded on the river.
Two or three miles below the 500 til,
river divides around Sugar island; one
arm making bend to the east, and ths
other continuing nearly straight dowE
for some miles through Hay lake. The
two branches unite at the Neebish.
up to within year or so the longer and
more crooked channel on the east side
has been the only navigable one; bud
years of dredging and blasting and
iscraping have opened the more direct
course, and now vessels usually pass by
the new channel
One cold May day a strange flotilla
might have been seen leaving the 500.
1T was the tug Tam O'Shanter, NOV.
ing Dredge No. and her two dump
ing scows down below Little rapids in
the new channel, where some dredging
was to begin. Such scenes were COM
mon enough to people on the river, and
mo one thought of looking twice at the
lunwieldy procession, unless to remark
casually that "the Tammany was hevin
Ia pretty easy time of it chased down
stream by them big tows.''
Along in the middle of the summer
the Tam O'Shanter was transferred to
la dredge at Nine Mile point, and an.
other tug, the w. II. Maxwell, took her
place with No 4. The new tug did not
bring very agreeable crew to the
river gods on Grams dredge. The new
captain was an old man who minded his
business and regarded his pilot house
as his castle. The engineer was a
slow, phlegmatic German, whose long
and, to the tongue of the river, un-
pronouncable name, Jacob Zinzendorf,
was speedily changed into "Jakey."
This was firstly, for unitarian reasons,
and secondly, because the commune of
the river lost every mans identity in
the vagueness of nickname as soon
las possible. There never was any reg
ular fireman on the w. H. Maxwell.
''The old man." as the men called the
lcaptain, but not on account of his age,
was too irascible to live with, and
!!Jakey too taciturn. The latter's most
leNtended effort at conversation never
exceeded this one phrase with which he
fused to admonish his nondescript fire.
man: "Say, poy, Wy you no foire upf
Does you thinks I no need hot wasse1
any more?"
From some reason or other Jal1ey was
regarded as a man without spirit, per-
sonification of German simplicity. He
never talked with anybody but himself,
and the men reasoned that his inner ma
ture must actually be in need of invigor-
ntion and excitement, ard so they pro-
Ceeded to league together for Jakey's
mutual good. Jakey himself never said
whether he liked this mutual benefit as
ISOLATION or not, at any rate not till
come time after this.
Meals on No. were served in good
hized room in the rear of the dredge.
The Mushroom was down below by the
ride of the boiler and aus soon as noon
or six o'clock came, the men made pre-
cipitate rush for the wash trough.
Sometimes the tug was out to the dump
Ing grounds with scow, and got back
few minutes late. AS soon as Jakey
appeared in the Mushroom he was hus-
tied about, and was usually the last one
to get to the wash trough. Of course he
found the water soapy and greasy, but
he said nothing-at least nothing audi
bly,. No sooner would he bend over and
begin washing, too fastidiously, the
men thought, than some fellow would
throw piece of soap and hit him in the
ear, or crowd him along under the big
spout and turn the faucet on him. But
iJakey evidently regarded all this as a
manifestation of some evil spirit of
chance, for he said nothing-not till
later. The benighted understanding of
the river did not know anything about
the German speculative mind, and the
great comfort it derives from abstruse
and silent meditation. So Jakey's 81
Ilence passed for meekness.
However, it was at mealtime that
Jakey's philosophy was put to the test.
1T needed only wink to give Jakey's
coffee, which came travelling from hand
10 hand along the side of the table, AZ
salty flavor. When pudding was served,
pork gravy was usually passed to him
as sauce for 1t, but not word said
Jakey. He helped himself to what he
could reach, and met all designs upon
him with this remark: "Poys, Wy will
you forever sholxe?"
Jalxey took great pride in his engine,
which he was always repairing, and oil
H.O and rubbing. He used to hum some
German song 10 himself as ne worked
some song that carried him back to
little Wills re in the Rheingau, where his
mother lived; but how could the dredge
men know that his eyes grew misty at
I1ecollections of home, or that the
strange words of his song had mourn
full strain in them? So his martyrdom
went on. Wrenches began to disappear
from the engine-room, and his tobacco
never lasted long.
I Late one afternoon the w. III. Maxwell
was dispatched to the 500 for some re-
pairs. In place Of tile regular fireman
Df the tug--if the fireman who had only
been on for the last two weeks and had