Newport weekly independent., 1902-05-02

AS Ol SpeCldl value because or the faCt that GoV. Van Sant, who wrote it, is an old river captain and steamboat owner The saturday Evening Post has been devoting considerable space to western subjects by western writer's
 COON splendid exposition, costing O millions of dollars, will celebrate
 the centennial of the Louisiana purchase, and grateful nation will recall the benefcent statesmanship which added magnificent empire to the union. But the full import Of this, the wisest act of Thomas Jetferson's public life, will lose it's due emphasis to the present generation, and to those yet to come, if we fail to realize that this master stroke of his political genius was not so much in the mere acquisition of vast territory thus peacefully annexed as in the fact that 1t gave to this nation both shores of the greatest waterway of the west ern continent
 What would have been the effect on the history of this nation had the western shore of the Father of Wa ters remained in the hands of an old world power? Imagination pauses at the question, and the liveliest specula- ton can scarce hope to supply this torestalled page of history. That a ~ constant menace to the peace of the republic was wiped out by the state craft of this far-seeing patriot is cer- tain; that wars and rumors of wars were expunged from the records of our national pvnnrionoo ic ,1xyr l,I Io
 But this larger phase of the lesson of the coming centennial may be mere ly suggested, rather than amplified, Tor the purpose of paying tribute to the character-one might almost say to the personality-of the most indi- vidual of American waterways.
 No stream in the world is richer in associations, in picturesqueness, in all that is dear, familiar and beloved to those who have been as it's children, than the mighty Mississippi; and as one of those who have followed it faithfully for almost half a century, count myself happy to be assigned the task of recalling something of the "old river days"
 It is impossible to review the life of the river, when it's traffic was at the height of it's prosperity, without touch of sentiment; and as one who came of a nation and long family line of boat-builders and navigators, who was born on the shore of the Mis- sissippi, and, in the language of it's people, was marked for the river" I cannot pretend to speak of this majes- tic stream and the stirring and pictur- esque life which it supported without an attachment which is one of the strongest sentiments of my being. And 1 am sure that thousands who nave been and are now associated with It's shifting fortunes have not escaped similar feeling. Especially must this be strong in all whose childhood asso- citations are linked with the ever changing drama of adventure, com- merce. war, prosperity and misfortune which has ebbed and flowed in cease less and ever-shifting variety in the process of it's industrial evolution.
 Never can I forget the impressions of my first trip on the mighty bosom of the Mississippi; how the famous Dan Wright, an ideal pilot of the old days, called me into the wheelhouse of the James Lyon, allowed me to grasp the smooth handles of the wheel, and to pull the cords that released the melodious below ot the great whistle and sounded the chimes of the signal bells. Only the man who has had kindred experience can understand what is implied by the term life on the river" On this same initial trip l was introduced to another and a rougher phase of boating on the Mis- slsslppi-One which will be recalled by all who took passage in the days be- fore the railroads had diminished the volume of it's traffic. Suddenly, as I hung about my hero of the pilot-house, shout went up, and the burly mate struck out with his fists and felled common hand to the deck. Instantly there was gleam of knives, flourish of clubs and the deck was dashed with blood. But, as was usually the case, the big mate came off victorious and the mutinous hands were put ashore at the first woodward at which the boat stopped for fuel
 What the Mississippi has done for the development of the northwest is pointedly suggested by another recor- lection of that trip in 1857. The car go of the James Lyon wa shelled corn in sacks, not for seeding, but for con- sumption by the pioneer settlers. Then there was scarcely an acre of corn grown in the territory which is now the state of Minnesota. Shortly