The Saint Paul globe., 1903-07-26

1T you get off of the Merriam Park
car at Iglehart street and Prior avenue
and walk along the side path of a dusty
road that leads first past neat, SUBJ
urban homes, and then takes dip and
coaxes the pedestrian past what looks
to be a railroad station converted into
a dwelling house, the windows of
v hich are filled with gay flowers and
the yard with noisy chickens, you will
find, after you have left behind a strip
of deep woods, that you have arrived,
by the shortest walking route, at gov
eminent dam No. 2, or the work that
represents it. When Uncle Sam de-
cided that the upper Mississippi should
be made navigable above Fort Smelling,
his decision disturbed the beauty Of
one Of the most picturesque strips of
scenery along the upper river. Half a
hundred workmen swooped down on
the banks where foliage had formerly
grown rank; the whirr of wheel, the
shouts of men, the sound of hammer
and file and saw drowned the song of
the birds. The disturbance, of course,
is but temporary, but when Dam No. 2
is completed a neat beauty will have
replaced the wild picturesquness of the
scene and a few more miles of the
Mississippi will have been forced to
submit to the fret of upper river COM
merce. srf
Dam Means Competition.
Now that the dam is nearing COM
pletion, it is proving wonderfully al
luring both to the dwellers in the Twin
Cities and the tourists. They come out
and sit on the river bank and ask what
the busy foreman impolftely terms
fool questions;;" or watch with puz-
zled eyes the slow progress of the cable
carrier which is suspended from the
cables that stretch across the river and
which are in their turn fastened to
what look like the towers the Romans
used to build to scale the enemies
walls. In order to move the cable car
rier those towers must themselves
move so they are built on wheels which
are placed on tracks laid along either
river bank for the space of half a block,
perhaps. When the cable carrier is
filed with stones or tools or whatever
else must be carried to another part
of the works, the man down on the
dam waves handkerchief, the tower
on one bank whistles shrilly that it is
ready, the tower on the opposite bank
whistles a response and the two begin
to move cautiously up or down the
track, moving the cables, and, of course,
the cable carrier with them.
Indians Personify Rivers.
To them the Father of Waters was a
venerable parsonage to be revered,
spirit who could punish disrespeet or
negligence. 1t is curious fact that
the men who work on or near river
are imbued with something Of this
same superstition. Old river men in
their conversation unconseiously per-
nifty the river, referring to it as
sentient being, capable of. being re-
venged or rewarding those who ven-
ture to work on its shores or float on
it's bosom. The men who are working
on Dam No. 2 are for the most part
sturdy, self-respecting American work.
men. There are experts among them,
too men who have had special training
for such a difficult task as the building
Of timber dam. But after the o'clock
whistle sounds shrilly from one Of the
little towers and the men have collect
ed their hats and coats and dinner
pals they do not linger about the dam.
OF course, they do not believe what
old Pierre, the small and withered
French Canadian, says, that, the river
will one day be revenged on those who
are now trying to dam his waters, they
know better than that, but Well,
when the shadows begin to gather in
the deep gorge, when the little towers
cease their journeying back and forth
on the half block track, when the
soft gurgle Of the water replaces the
whirr of wheels, the shouts of men, the
sound of hammer and file and saw, it
seems a little bit eerie about the dam.
Lonesome like" and Irishman, one of
the signal men, terms it.
Find Many Dead Bodies.
CIV coorse, don't behave tn domed
stuff that Pierre is foriver stringin'
off," he said the other day, as he stop
ped a minute to fill and light an old
clay pipe which he is allowed to smoke,
for his work consists merely in keep
ing an eye on the men working on the
other side of the river and in passing
their signals on to the men in the tow
er behind him, dye see that bit O.
dead water over beyant on tn other
side? Well, now, 1 wouldn't like to
name tn number O. dead bodies as
have come creepin' into that same dead
water since we've been wurrikin' here
on tn dom, for ye wouldn't behave it.
But there's scarcely a wake passes,
hut one o. thin foaters comes sailin,