The Forrest City times., 1902-05-02

Is or special value because Of the fact that Gov. Van SaEt. who wrote it. is an old river captain ard steamboat owner. The Saturday Evening Post has been devoting considerable space to western subjects by western writers.
 COON a splendid exposition, costing O millions of dollars, will celebrate
 tho centennial of the Louisiana purchase, and a grateful nation will recall the beBeficent craftsmanship which added q magnificent empire to the union. But the full import of this, the wisest act of Thomas Jefferson $ public life, will lose its due emphasis 10 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 a 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- tion can scarce hope to supply this forestalled 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 eNpunged from the records of our national experience is highly probable.
 But this larger phase of the lesson of the coming centennial may be mere ly suggested, rather than amplified. for the purpose of paying a tribute to the character-one might almost say to the personality-of the most indi- ydual 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, l 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 nation and long family line of boat-builders and navipators who was born on the shore of the Mis- slssippi, and, in the language of it's people, was marked for the river" cannot pretend to speak of this ma ies- tic stream and the stirring and pictur- esque life which 1t supported without an attachment which is one of the strongest sentiments of my being. And l am sure that thousands who have been and are now associated with its 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 meree, war. prosperity and misfortune which has ebbed and flowed in cease less and ever-shifting variety in the process of its industrial evolution.
 Never can l 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 of 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 bv all who took passage in the days be- fore the railroads had diminished the volume of its traffic. Suddenly. as I hung about my hero of the pilot house. shout went mp, and the burly mate struck out with his fists and felled common hand to the deck. Instantly there was gleam of knives. a flourish of clubs and the deck was dashed with blood. But, as was usually the ease 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 was 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 before, Gov Ramsey had had the hardi- hood to contend that the climate of his commonwealth was not too SC we're for the successful cultivation of corn; later, boats brought cargoes for seeding; and to-day Minnesota is the greatest "bread-and- butter state- of the union, for it is sometimes said that we raise the wheat to feed the world. and when made into bread we can fur niSh the hest bO+tar ap1 ar.,,z-l .