Morris tribune., 1901-03-09
{ WRECK OF THE
! ALONZO CHILDS
A Story Of Steamboat Life
on the Mississippi.
800 oC0o oC0o COCO oCOooCc

-
"Never."
:'What, not of dead man?"
"NO; never"
"Wait till pass this bar. I'll sur
prise you with fact about a ghost
Yes; the ghost of steamboat, too, by
the great low water bayou"
Kinney turned his wheel with a spas.
modic violence and rang the engineers
bells to ''slow port" to "fast starboard''
and reversed his orders with such ra-
pidity that the mechanic below wanted
to know what he meant Presently we
rounded the bend.
''See that corner of the island there p
asked Kinney.
Eyes"
there's where the bones Of old Alon-
20 Childs are laid"
"Well?"
can old chap owned a plantation
just around Bayou Sara, below here.
He had land boiler and engine and
used it for boiling sugar and pressing
cane. Colonel Hubbard burned the
sugar house as he passed with a de-
tachment of soldiers, but the boiler
and engine were saved in a somewhat
disturbed condition. The old fellows
name was De Soto.
"De Soto put his old engine and
boiler on the hull of the Alonzo Childs,
and she was made to travel up and
down, inside the Confederate lines of
course. She went between Port Hud-
son and Vicksburg. At that time 1
was cub pilot on big steamer, and
used to see her. One day heard
she exploded or snagged, and every
body on board was lost. The circum-
stances of the disaster no one ever
knew. A few bloated bodies and some
charred pieces of the old crafts tim
bers foating down the river indicated
the extent Of the horror and suggested
it's terrible details.
"After the war went west to San
Francisco, but three years ago came
back and took up my old business.
1.-TWO years ago l was standing
watch alone in the pilothouse. The
river was up, and we were pushing the
gray, mudd- waters aside under the
full head of steam. l had just pulled
the wheel over to make the bend when
l saw a steamer heading straight for
us. 1t appeared to me that she came
out of the bank rather than up the
river and / noticed at the moment
that she was strange craft to me.
Well. blowed once to pass to port
and steered off to the west shore. Civ
ing her the advantage of the back wa
fer, watched her, and presently saw
from her whistle two escapes of steam.
By that I saw that she had blown
twice. although l had not heard the
blasts. So blew twice and reversed
my helm.
'Still she came on. There was no
noise of escaping steam, no beat of
paddle wheels l heard the piano down
n the mair SALOON. Somebody was
playing Natalie, the Maid Of the Mill
heard the discord which knew must
AVE been occasioned by the. first alarm
# danger-the sweep of the hand over
he keys as the player turned suddenly
rom the piano. l seemed to see the
piano cover swept from it's place, the
pen doors of the staterooms and some |
hairs thrown aside. So vivid was the i
'icture to my senses that saw for
he moment which of the chairs were
'roken. In second l grew old and |
wed 20 years. I never thought Of es-
ape. ] could not have escaped had
o chosen. My senses were so alert
s to give me physical pain.
81 opened my eyes second after
yard, and there was no boat-nothing
q sight. Only bland spread Of wa
ar, fast flowing current and our own
oat backing at full speed, while Cap
ain Bixby was yelling from the hurri-
ane deck:
What in blazes is the matterP
81 don't know how l recovered my
elf, but / did tell him some way or
Their that the bell ropes had got tan
led. started her ahead then. Now,
lat was in the afternoon at O'clock
and tell me there amt no ghosts!''
"That was a mere hallucination," /
entured.
"Was it? Not much. Such things
ont happen twice or three times any
ore than lightning strikes twice in
lie same place."
"Then you saw her AGAIN."
Eyes; three times afterward and
ave never failed to see her when |
lssed here within two hours of the
our Of 4 O'Clock, morning or evening.
ere comes my relief for dinner. Had
ours? No. Sit at my table. It's
Early 4 o'clock, and as we are about
stop to wood up before we round
e bend maybe you will see the ghost
a steamer yourself. Seeing's be- |
wing"
Later ! was sleeping, oblivious Of !!