The daily morning journal and courier., 1902-01-02
VALE cnNrINENrA1.


 With her once gleaming gold and
 white paint Weather-b beaten and dirty,
 her graceful hog beams missing, her towering stacks down and a great hole In her side from which grimy workmen have been bearing forth her metal work to be melted in the roaring crucibles of the factories, the old Sound liner Conti- mental lies at her dock in New Haven. "The harpies of the shore" as Oliver Wendell Holmes called those who laid hands upon the eagles of the sea" have been at work on her for nearly a year. They have ripped out all the metal now and the Continental will go away. If she ever returns to her home port it will be as smudgy, clumsy coal barge, numbering along at the end of a tow line with the space once occupied by gilded cabins within which gover- nors of the state of Connecticut, mer- chants on their way to New York and other luxurious souls who placed com fort in travel above speed were wont to make merry while the great paddle wheels churned up the Sound, filled with dusty black diamonds. This is the fate of the Continental. Forty years ago she was the pride of Commodore Dick Peck of the New Haven line, and the favorite boat of all those who trav- eled between the Elm city and the me tropols.
 The Contnentals history has been eventful. She was built under the su- pervisior of Commodore Peck at Green point in 1860 and she was built on hon. or-of the best materials, by the best men. When she came to the New Ha- ven line Connecticut held Up it's hands to marvel at her magnificence The fa- nous palaces" of the Mississippi and Drew's boats on the Hudson were noth-s ing to her. A Waterbury man who went to New York in stateroom AS on the Contnental's second trip says that every time he looked out at the gorgeous saloon he thought of the oriental mag nificence described in the Arabian Nights" All Connecticut talked about the Continental and all Connecticut wanted to ride on her. Waterbury people going to New York abandoned the all rail route in order to spend night on "the New Haven boat" The Continental's officers wore more gold lace and the ContinentaPs crew kept their blue uniforms in heater condition than did any other steamboat men on the Sound.
 When the war came along the Conti- mental and her consort, the Elm City, were pressed into the transport service. It is said that Abraham Lincoln once slept on board of her and that General Mcclellan was photographed on her af- ter deck When hostilities ended she came back to her old run from Belle Dock to Peck Slip.
 It was from the forward gangway of the Continental that Buck Bills, for merly postmaster at Winsted and at one time prominent in state politics, plunged to his death when he found himself bereft of his earthly goods and too old to start all over again. He chose the forward gangway, so he ex plained in a pathetic letter found in his stateroom. because he wanted to be sure the whirling paddles would dash i out his few remaining brains if the re- | volver bullet which he fired before his | cap failed to find its mark. There we're | several other sad happenings on board | the olu poat, put tHe Souiiu iileH never branded her as unlucky.
 The Elm City went long ago. The | Continental follows in her wake and the | graceful c. H. Northam, whose last ex- | ploit was her attempt to cut her way | through Belle Dock with the consequent | terrorizing of a party of Waterbury | people who were on board, cannot long | escape a similar fate,-Waterbury | American