Perth Amboy evening news., 1904-07-08

" offer lf1d al 4 p. N. atartod down
the river The trip was q delight and
will DO remembered az long "a menu
ory lasts The Chester was q fair
example Of . Mississippi stern wheel
steambont and in many respects a
wonder to an old steamboat man as
she was q r0omy. comfortable boat
carrying a large amount freight and
passengers. The over deck was for
freight only and the upper deck for
passengers only and carried q crew Of
about sixty, including t~hirty-ive
negro deck hands or roustabouts as
they are called; was driven by two
engines of the old fashioned type with
cylinders inches diameter
and seven feet stroke. which were
supplied with steam by three boilers
three and a half feet in diameter by
eighteen feet long, carrying 1870
pounds OF steam set on the deck for
ward in hrickwork. The engines ex-
hausted into tile tall smoke stacks Of
the boilers and were seemingly driven
to the utmost limit of thsir capacity.
There were four iremen (negroes
who were continually providing the
furnaces with the soft coal that sent
forth volumes of black smoke and on
the run of about forty hours burned
over eighty tons of coal. There was q
band of music on the upper deck and
dancing commenced. as. soon Is we left
the levee. Boat supper was served
In the saloon IN great style and as the
people were very sociable everybody
seemed TO be having a good time.
The steamer made many landings
along the shore, some of them at
places where there we're no signs of
people and left freight during the
night.
Their landing of the boat vas al
never ending source of interest to me
as it wal 80 different from anything
| had ave- seen before. They would
run the bow of the boat hard ashore
ON the bank and drop o large gang
plank some forty feet long aud six feet
wide that hung from the end of al
boom suspen ded over the bow some
twenty five feet and operated by
steam, Hpon tile shofs and q string of
darkies carrying the freight would
swarm over tho big gangplank under
the watchful eye of the mate Of the
boat who was in charge. | did not see
any trucking done, everything carried
on and,off the boat. It was a special
sight to see the loading Of live stock.
A crowd of darkies would swarm
around the first of the cattle and al
most lift it or its feet and by pulling
and pushing the poor beast would
slide down the big gang plank onto
the boat. AS a general thing the rest
Of the cattle would come on alright
after the first of them was on board.
Between the landings the passengers
would watch from the upper deck and
v iIsu the darkio rJhsfEb0uts were NE
would drop a nickel or dime on the
deck to $50 the fun. It was q
most comical sight to see
them all on the desk In a heap in a wild
scramble for the coin. The U. S. Govern
ment here and is spending a large amount
Of money trying to improve the river and
render the navigation safe, but the river
seems to be the master as it continually
breaks through the banks and overflows
the country. At one place, about 100
miles below St. Louis, there Is an Inn
mense tract of level land that has been
deposited there by the action Of the river
ages ago. The and is extremely fertile
and rich and is covered with fine farms
and Is almost entirely devoted to the
raising of potatoes. But the river seems to
resent more possessions Of this beautiful
land and is washing 1t away all the time
and depositing 1t in other places farther
down the river. The bank at this point
is so steep from the undercut of the
strong current that they ran the steam
boat up to it and you could step ashore
direct from the boat large masses of the
rich earth, was continually falling In to
the river and being carried away, Oh one
knows where. IL is a place that will
impress one with the insignificance of
man and his work when opposed by the
mighty force Of the Mississippi.
We reached Cape . Gaurdayear which
was the end of the route at s a. m. Fri
day, July list unloaded our freight,
loaded a lot of return freight and at
q. 80 a. IN. was on our way back up the
river against the strong current which
runs about five miles an hour. All day
the steamer ran against the current and
just as it was getting dark we stopped
at a little village on the Missouri side
of the river to unload a lot of freight.
No sooner was the gang planks down
than ON rushed about thirty young girls
and little children and seated themselves
In a row of chairs on the upper deck to