The daily morning journal and courier., 1903-10-24
OLD DAYS ON THE RIVER.
WHEN THE FINE STEAMB0ATS
 USED
To "chaw'' Lsghtwood and Race for
 Fait.

Fait.
 The individual who hasa recollection of the palmy days of steamboating on the western rivers based upon actual experience, has at least something that will remain with him until his soul takes it's flight across that last dark, mythical river from whence there is no return; and even then, if the spirit re- tains a sense of the delightful things en- joyed In this world, among them will be the remembrance of a trip taken on a western steamer at some date between teh early '40s and the beginning of the
 eos.
 The luxurious days of steamboating on the Missouri river had their incep- tion in 184S, when Captain Jewett- Dandy Jewett, so called from his exqui- site style of dressing and his unexcep- tionable manners-brought out the Ro- wena, at that time possibly the most perfect example of steamboat structure upon the western waters; though as early as 1s40 the James Archer the John Ewing, the Robert Aul and nu- U1GTOuS U1lGT SlduCLls dilu steamers navigated the Missouri river, and it was in 1s44 that the Wapello, a very powerful single engine, high pres- sure steamer, was utilized in rescuing the citizens of old Franklin from the flood, traversing the streets in success sion and taking the people from second story windows and housetops. Old. Franklin, at the commencement of the period, was the second city in the state in the matter of population and at it's subsistence not single house was left standing, the site of the once beautiful city remaining only as barren, sandy waste, in which condition 1t remains to- day. .... .. -.- In 1845, the race between the Lewis F. Linn, called after the senator of that name from Missouri, and the Algoma, from St. Louis to Glasgow, occurred; and possibly nothing more exciting was ever witnessed upon any of the western rivers, or, for that matter, upon the wa ters of the world. The Linn was a long, slim, greyhound looking boat, built for speed; and the fact that she showed her heels to everything on the river justi- fled the efforts of her builders. .. During the second season of the Linn the Algona, boat of which 1t was said, "She is as graceful as beautiful wo- man." was brought out for the purpose of contesting the Glasgow trade with the former, and it was believed that she could ontspeed her; and, being sup piled with two engines, while the Linn had only one, the belief was accepted among all classes. -r The result was challenge from the owners of the Algoma to the Linn, which the owners of the latter were not backward in accepting. The match was arranged and the boats advertised to leave St. Louis at a given hour on certain day, so that residents along the river, from start to finish, could figure tolerably close to the hour at which the boats would make their appearance;, and, to judge from the crowds that lined the banks at Boonville when the boats passed that point, the entire population on each side of the Missouri, for miles back in the interior, must have found it's way to eligible viewpoints on the river.
 The boats rounded the bluffs below Boonville about twelve o'clock at night. The moon was obseured by heavy clouds and almost pitchy darkness cov- cred the turbulent stream, lighted only by the fitful flashes from their furnaces and the lamps from their cabins and lanterns hung upon their decks. Their smokestacks appeared to be at a dull red heat, from the hurricane decks to. their very topmost tips, and the steam came from their escape pipes with a; hissing that indicated that every drop of water in their boilers had been re- duced to the highest pressure of steam, while the figures of the negro firemen, as they danced around the furnace doors, piling cottonwood, pine knots, lard, rosin, bacon sides and almost eve- " other kind of combustible into the hollow depths of the flames, presented picture that might have been, without any stretch of imagination, taken for true representation of the devil and his imps stoking up the fires of the infer nal regions.
 It is a terrible and fearful picture, but one calculated to inspire the widest en- thusiasm. Strange to say, not single exclamation was indulged in by any in- dividual among all the thousands of people lining the banks, beyond the words spoken by an old, gray-haired negro slave who said, as the boats came in sight HDar dew isi'' and as they