Gloucester County Democrat. (Woodbury, N.J.) 1878-1932, 1901-03-21
! WRECK OF THE
} ALONZO CHILDS
A Story of Steamboat Life
on the Mississippi.
30 ocoo occo ocoo occo occo oocS

/ N'vO OGSo osSSO OSS3O QUO QUO O3G
Believe in ghosts?"
"No."
"Never see one?"
| Never"
"What, not of dead manw
"No; never"
wait till 1 pass this bar I'll sur
prise you with fact about a ghost.
Yes; the ghost of a 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.
'sSee that corner of the island there ~
asked Kinney.
"Yes."
There's where the bones of old Alon-
20 Childs are laid"
"Well?"
IAN old chap owned plantation
just around Bayou Sara, below here.
He had a 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 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 I
was cub pilot on a big steamer, and
used to see her. One day l 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 floating down the river indicated
the extent of the horror and suggested
its terrible details.
''After the war I went west to San
Francisco, but three years ago 1 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, muddy 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 I noticed at the moment
that she was a strange craft to me-.
Well, l blowed once to pass to port
and steered off to the west shore. Civ
ing her the advantage of the back wa
ter watched her, and presently saw
from her whistle two escapes of steam.
By that / 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. heard the piano down
in the main saloon. Somebody was
playing Natalie, the Maid of the Mill
L ANol u lAO OlStOld w HILL hACW LII
have been occasioned by the first alarm
Of danger-the sweep of the hand over
the keys as the player turned suddenly
from the piano. I seemed to see the
piano cover swept from it's place, the
open doors of the staterooms and some
chairs thrown aside. So vivid was the
picture to my senses that l saw for
the moment which of the chairs were
broken. In a second / grew old and
lived 20 years. l never thought of es-
cape. I could not have escaped had /
so chosen. My senses were so alert
as to give me a physical pain.
81 opened my eyes a second after
ward, and there was no boat-nothing
in sight. Only bland spread of wa
ter, fast flowing current and our own
boat backing at full speed. while Cap
tain Bixby was yelling from the hurri-
cane deck:
What in blaZes is the matter?
81 don't know how / recovered my
self, but l did tell him some way or
other that the bell ropes had got tan
gled. l started her ahead then. Now,
that was in the afternoon at 4 o'clock
and tell me there amt no ghostsv'
''That was mere hallucination," 1
ventured.
"Was it? Not much. Such things
don't happen twice or three times any
more than lightning strikes twice in
the same place."
''Then you saw her againY'
"Yes; three times afterward and
have never failed to see her when l
passed here within two hours of the
hour Of o'clock, morning or evening.
Here comes my relief for dinner. Had
yours? No. Sit at my table. It's
nearly 4 o'clock, and as we are about
to stop to wood up before we round
the bend maybe you will see the ghost
of steamer yourself. Seeing's be-
lieving"