The midland journal. (Rising Sun, Md.) 1885-1947, 1900-02-16
ON THE MISSISSIPPI.
taaint Sights nnd Incidents of Travel
and Traffic Along the Great
River.

Passenger service on the Mississippi
liver is in a fairly satisfactory condi-
ton. Between ST. Paul and st. Louis,
pnd from there to New Orleans, there
Ire large and well-built craft, with
comfortable staterooms equipped with
unning water and spring mattresses.
Each steamer has a long cabin extend
ing from stem to stern, where the
tables are set for meals, and where the
passengers dance in the evening. There
Is piano and sundry easy chairs. It
costs about as much on the boat per
day as it does at a good lakeside hotel,
so that a passenger virtually has the
pleasure of travel for nothing. The
chief difference between the life on
boat and that at a summer hotel is that,
instead of viewing the same prospect
day after day from piazza. you have
n new view from the boat every mo-
ment. The boat stops at every town,
70 that the passengers may become
familiar with the urban as well as the
rountry life of the valley. The freight
of the river is always taken to and
from the boat on the backs of negro
roustabouts. There has been no ad-
vancement in the manner of handling
1t since the steamboats, first plowed the
river. AS soon as the boats nose
touches the shore the gangplank is
lowered, and seemingly endless pro-
cession of negroes begins to move back
and forth carrying on board the bags
of -four, which, on the northern portion
of the river, often makes the bulk of
the cargo. Plows, boxes, lumber and
merchandise are the other products.
River lives are much the same every
where. The cargoes, however, are
varied. They all present picture of
hundred years ago. At Memphis, from
the bluffs to the waters edge, is an i'm
mense inclined plane of granite paw
ing stones. In the center, about 200
feet from the bluffs, runs a wide road
the entire length of the levee, and dis
appears among the compress factories
and oil mills, whose great bulk and
tall chimneys appear in the distance.
Between this road and the bluffs the
levee is nearly level; from here to the
river there is steep descent. Above
the road come and go continually a
swift stream of cotton loads and empty
drays, and great piles of small cargoes
to and from local jobbing houses; be-
low it there are, during busy hours,
conglomerate mass of drays, mules,
cotton bales, sacks of cottonseed, dark
les, and all sorts of freight. Beyond is
the long row of steamers that line the
shore, and in the background sweep the
waters of the Mississippi. The center
of activity may be one boat, such as the
Big Sandy, of the Memphis & Cincinnati
line, just arrived, bringing cargo of
1000 cotton bales that have been picked
up along the river mouth. The huge
pile of boxes of furniture, and bags of
cottonseed are being carried, one piece
at time, by long stream of lazy
darkies, over the gangplank into the
bowels of the big boat. There some la
oorers, returning by way of the stage
plank at the PROV, roll out before them
the cotton bales and file them in rows
some distance up the levee. Above the
din of wheels rumbling over the rough
pavement, drivers shout to their stu
pid mules, There are picturesque oaths
and snatches of melody. Escaping
steam, shrill whistles, the crealsing of
loading and unloading freight, and the
believing of overseers, who are, as a
rule, active darkies, with monstrous
lungs and an inexhaustible supply of
big words, mingle in busy confusion
AipSlee'S Ma0ozina