Ottumwa semi-weekly courier. [volume] (Ottumwa, Iowa) 1899-1903, 1903-09-03
RIVER NAVIGATION.
THE GENERAL MEADE AND, ITS
TRIPS ON THE MIS-.
8ouRI.

Does Not Now Serve AS Wharf Boat
at the Levee in ST. Louis AS Re-
ported AS 1t Went to the Bottom
Ten Years Ago.
Although Ottumwa is not on nav.
igable stream there are many people
here who have at some time been in
terested in river shipping and several
who have spent days, weeks perhaps
years on the Missouri.
An anonymous contributor to the
September number of the Atlantic
Monthly presents an interesting and
in most respects truthful picture of
old times on the Missouri river, on
which unstable stream he has evident
~ seen years of active service. The
central figure of his sketch is the Gen.
Meade, steamboat familiar to every
one who knows the Missouri of the
past forty years, which boat, the
writer says, is still in the harness,
having been shorn of her locks like
modern Delilah, and reduced to the
humiliating capacity of wharfboat at
the ST. Louis levee. This would add
tunately this pathetic picture has no
basis in fact, the Meade having gone
to the bottom of the Missouri ten
years ago. full of years and honor. and
like the lamented McGinty, she hasn't
speaking, with her boots on, but lives
as a conspicuous memory to every old
river man.
hi fhn &c.
cence Is delightfully."- entertaining and
as reproduced for the benefit of the
friends and admirers of the late Ia
Enented The writer says:
A Dissatisfied River.
sEyhe Missouri river as you see 1t on
the map IS the picture of stream that
has been forever dissatisfied with its
c,annel and, like man who chafes
under the conditions of his lot, it has
q crooked career 1t is always travel
ing sideways by the operation OF eating
away one of its banks and thus on
one shore it has leveled the landscape
as far as eye can see. There is not a
season in which it does not succeed in
calling the map liar and teaching the
pilot to swear 1t takes away mans
farm, and adds what it pleases to the
man on the opposite shore and in a
general way does as it pleases that is,
until it comes TO one of Missouri's
rock-ribbed hills in its sideward journ-
ey. Il hares the hill to the bone
and when it can go no farther it impa-
tiently doubles its speed and hurries
along to the end of the obstruction
Then it strikes off and builds prairie
until it comes 70 range OF rock on the
other side. ] cleans the rocky wall
as bare as a Thanksgiving turkey and
leaves it as dat as the side of sky
scraper, but often much taller. Thus
the lower river is shored with toppling
walls and ailuvial prairie facing one an
other the scene alternating to opposite
shores many times in days journey.
And every foot OF this prairie has at
some time been in succession shore
and channel of the river. On the down
trip the steamer hugs the hills and
makes good time as it shoots along in
dangerous proximity to the rocky wall
where the channel is deep as we'll as
swift, and where there are no sand
bars. But what with crossing and re-
crossing to hug the hills alternately
the pilot has 10 know much of the
shifty bottom. On the up trip it does
mo- p3y &c face the swift current next
to the ROCKY wall, SO you keep nearer
the middle and trust to Providence for
channel. Sometimes you will strike
sandbar and stop with swash and
grind on the bottom like "a rusty nail
IN monumental mockery." The black
\ roustabcuts put out the spar in front
with rope and tackle and start UP the
doctor engine in the bows and you
crawl back foot by foot and work the
boat sideways after the manner OF
pulling the same rusty nail For half
a day the boat is loaded to the hog
way witt, impatience and profanity. |
nave bEsaed in my day to know that
country preacher was passenger on
the General Meade
The General Meade.
Few crcft row navigate this mud
dy drain e9ce-t for short trips be-
tween the small towns When the Pa
chic railways were built, the long eli.
gar-shaped craft that used to make the
l,20O-mlle trip were thrown out of
employment, and sank one by one in
the service on the lower river. In 1886
the General Meade had long been the
last OF the race, and the only true
missouri boat atioat, plying from St
Louis In vast superiority to the little
boats OF the river towns, and SO old
that she had become burlesque on
Fate and insurance companies, for the
companies have refused to talks risks
IN tnoso waters. Few passengers now
know the lower Missouri. In 1886 the
stewart q occasion to make a few
{ extra ks in the long line of I'm
used rooms, and at the old bal
over boilers the captain kept one
jug leach brandy which could be
partaken of without cost. II you ha,
taken this route out of st. Louis,
could have assured you of being a dis
tingnished guest. While you were
aboard the steward and Aunt Mar,
would have pie-prune pie and mock
apple pie, of dry bread and vinegar
a marvellous imitation. Thus you
would have an insight of the old day.
OF Indians, and risky wood piles, AM
the long Fort Benton trip, of which