The mirror. (Stillwater, Minn.) 1894-1925, 1904-09-15

TEoAAo.j S1.OOp0r year, In ADVANCE
Six Months 30 cents.
bear the following inscription: "The
finder of this will confer favor on the
st. Paul Hummer, by returning same;
giving date and locality; together with
any notes of interest attending its dis
covery. By so doing, the finder will
receive, gratis, a six months subscrip-
to the above named paper" The Hum
mer went further than this; it printed
a glowing announcement in rubric,
promising transportation and ten days
expenses to the St. Louis fair, to the
party or parties fortunate enough to
find the message which had travelled
farthest on its voyage to the Gulf. Lo-
cally, this loudly-heralded agreement
gave rise to all manner of discussion
(which was just what was intended)
some said that four-fifths of the mes
sages would never get across Lake
Pepin. Others said few might reach
the Iowa or Illinois shore, but as for
New Orleans, "they'd all be sloughed
up on mud bank long before that"
Among the betting fraternity. wagers
were freely offered, ten to one, that a
bottled message would never pass st.
Louis. Following this, the paper
blaZoned forth the fact that on the
morning of the message launching, a
staff correspondent of the Hummer's
would start on record breaking, long
distance run in twelve-foot canoe
designed and built by himself. Two
stops and five hours sleep per day.
The eventful morning came at last,
and as Tom sat awaiting the start in the
cockpit of his white canvas canoe, look
ing up at the big crowd around him, he
felt more than satisfied with the work
laid out on his little craft: watertight
ompartm n S, fore-and-att, pedal
steering gear with folding fan center
board, triangular lug forward, with a
diminutive "jigger" we'll aft, while
white silk pennant at the bow fut-
tered his papers name to the assem-
bled throng. A gun was fired, the first
batch of messages swirled away from
the float in mid stream, the crowd
cheered, and Tom was off.
Nothing was heard of him for few
days; then short sketches accompanied
by hasty snap shots of points along the
upper river, came in and were built up
for the Sunday edition. Answers to
messages came in daily and were print
cd in full, causing no end of merriment,
as each writer seemed to vie with the
other in giving minutia Of detail and
analysis that would have ratified even
the great Darwin himself. But what
puzzled the sporting element was that
answers commenced coming in from
Dubuque, Rock Island, Davenport and
Quincy. The whole river seemed alive
with messages. It was: for Tom had
found large consignments of bottled
goods awaiting him en- route; the which
he had unceremoniously sent humming
down stream after curfew.
Gust at this time long teiegraphic
message came in, telling of midnight
T adventure, an overturned canoe and a
rescue. Just above st. Louis and dur
r ing a severe storm the Hummer's rep
{ resentative had been pulled from un-
der the guards of down river packet,
more dead than alive, minus hat, coat,
canoe and any quantity of breath. The
! steamers captain had worked his
7 searchlight with success, and eventu-
ally picked up Stanley's canoe, lodged
) above "towhead." AS matter of
) fact, Tom had voluntarily straddled
! snag, cut his boat adrift, awaited
) the coming of the steamer, and mad
plunged into the tawny flood of rising
: waters; but the roar of the storm
{ drowned his hail and he nearly
r wrenched both arms from their sockets
I as he boarded under the guards-for
twas there they found him, jammed in
, between the braces. He felt we'll repaid,
: however for he knew 1T would read
+ we'll in the st. Louis papers next morn
q ing And it did.
: But the end came at last. One hot
' July morning he padded up to the
: long levee of the Crescent City, hailed
. cab, and was driven direct to the Of
t fees of the New Orleans Paw-Paw.
> From there he directed the de-
f tails which closed his affairs with
: the st. Paul paper. His canoe
D Concluded on page three.)