The Montgomery advertiser., 1901-08-18

The loss on Sunday night, the 18th inst. at Brunkhorst. H.. of the steam- ship City of Paducah was the only seri- ous disaster of the kind that has oc- cured on the Mississippi river since 1887. October 3 of that year the steam boat Carolina exploded her boiler. caus- ing the burning of the boat and the de- strHtion of P lives. She was not rac- ing when the disaster befell. which fact put 1t in a different case from most or the explosions that in past times have occurred on this river.
 The cause of the disaster to the City of Paducah was the running against snag, cause which boatmen on the Mississippi have always been familiar. Snags are the roots and stumps of trees that have been torn from submerged banks In time of ood and sunk in mld- river. They have in most instances or steamboat loss been run against when the unfortunate boat was making speed either up or down the stream. In the instance of the City of Paducah the fatal snag was projecting from the shore. It was singular accident Tn some respects. Boats had stopped at that point every week for years. but never till the other day did boats stern swing against the shore in a way to strike the snag and tear out its side.
 This latest steamboat disaster on the Mississippi cannot rank among any but the smaller happenings of the kind on the great river. hut 1t will serve to re- call to many people the accounts of ter rible disasters to steamboats and their passengers.
 Hundreds Meet Their Deaths.
 Since and including 1887 there have been forty three terrible disasters or the kind. October 29 of that year the Monmouth exploded it's boiler and De- came a total wreck. It had on board 4SO emigrant Indians. 234 of whom were drowned. Shortly after the Gen. eral Brown ran upon a snag and sank, losing sixty lives. The De Soto. NOV: 15 1S44. collided with the Buckley ana lost 60 lives. In 1S49 the Louisiana. while racing. exploded her boiler and lost by burning or drowning Toe lives. June 13, 1858, the Pennsylvania raced. and exploded, losing 100 lives. Later in the same year the Ben Lewis explod- ed while racing, and lost 35 lives. June "A, 1860, the Miami, just after 1t had left Cairo. exploded its boiler. killing in the fire or water 150 passengers. Near the same place a little below Cairo. Oct. 27. 1869. the Stonewall burned in broad daylight. causing the loss of 200 passengers. The whole nup- Der of lives that were lost in the 4S terrible steamboat disasters is 1,76O. This number does not represent. prob ably. one quarter of the actual losses of human life in the hundreds of minor accidents on the Father of Waters
 in the last 60 years.
 First Boat on the Mississippi.
 The earliest mention of steamboats as being in use on the Mississippi river occurs in "reminiscences that were collected of the Mississippi by T. B.. Thorpe. The first steamboat that ever appeared in this river was built at Pittsburg by Fulton & Livingston. and
 launched in March. 1912. It steamed down the Ohio and Mississippi to Nat chez. where 1t loaded with passengers, After running for sometime in this
 newly established trade. and meeting
 with a variety of misfortunes. it finally
 was sunk. losing fifteen lives. In 1850 the river. from an unusual drouth.
 shrunk within its banks to a compara- lively small stream, and, as conse- quence, under the protection of high bank nearly opposite the town Of Baton Rouge. there was exposed the wreck of
 small boat the timbers of which as far as could be ascertained. were in a IROOu SIdIc OI DItSCINdlIOhs ANO OhO poh ticularly noticed the object. because
 such evidences of destruction form one
 of the most familiar features of the passing scenery. yet there was really an intense interest connected with
 these old timbers. for they were the re- mains of the steamboat that was built
 by Fulton & Livingston in 1872 - the
 first that ever appeared on the Missis-
 sippi.
 and the Enterprise. came down the Ohio river into the Mississippi. The Enterprise proceeded as far as New Orleans. where 1t loaded with sugar
 and cotton and returned up the, river in triumph. It was the first steamboat that ever made the trip from New Or leans to Pittsburg. From New Orleans
 it reached Louisville in twenty-five
 days and was greeted with a public
 demonstration. Triumphal arches were thrown across the streets and every evidence of enthusiasm was manifested Public speeches were made, magnifying the event, which was deemed to be the accomplishment of all that was pos sible in inland navigation. Before that time the ascent of the river in kee
 boats had occupied 100 days.
 Phases or Life Disappear.
 These phases of western life are en- tirely passed away, but they are inter esting i'll the descriptions that are lefl of them. The same letter writer from
 which the above paragI aphs are taken
 encountered on hls boat an original who went by the name of Bob LaWton and who, after he had drank heavily
 one night. delivered the following | speech:
 Gentlemen. what is poetry but the truth exaggerated? Here 1t can never arrive at any perfection. What chance
 is there for exaggeration in the great West. where the reality Is incompre- hensible? A territory ss large, as classic Greece annually caves into the
 Mississippi and who notices It? Things to be poetical must be got up on a small scale. The Fiber, the Sein, the
 Thames appear well in poetry. but sucf streams are overlooked in the West; they don't afford water enough to keeI I'D an expansive duck pond-would be mere drains to a squatter's pre-emp- ton. I have heard of frontiersmer who were poetical. because their minds expanded beyond the surrounding grandeur. Books are not large enough to contain their ideas-steam is moi strong enough to impress them on the
 historic page. These men have no def mite sense of limitation. know of nc locality-they sleep not on couch, but on government lands-they live upon
 the spontaneous production of the earth
 and make drinking cup of the mighty