Perth Amboy evening news., 1904-07-08

thing like it We watched her as. sh,
ran her bow ashore opposite a little
~storehouse. She had { wo long gang
planks projecting about twenty feel
ahead Of her bow and one Of them wal
run into tho door Of the storehouss
and a lot Of freight put ashore with.
ont putting out a line as she kept one
Of her ..paddle wheels slowly moving
ahead all the time. 1t was so different
from the landings of boats as we had
seen it. Whom all the freight was
ashore her big bell rang land she
slowly backed out and was soon on
her way up the moonlit river. the
sound of her engines exllausting into
the still night growing fainter and
fainter. Then she passed around a
bend in the river and all was still
once more.
Sunday, June 26-Wo lay at anchor
in the Illinois river near Hardin all
day and had a very quiet and restful
day cleaning up and writing home
letters.
Monday, June 27:&At 8 a. m. We
started to finish the last run to st.
Louis. some sixty-two miles away.
The town of Grafton, Ill, which is
at the mouth of the Illinois river
where it empties into the Mississippi
river forty miles north of st. Louis,
was 0 ON reached and while the Miss
issippi is o i,alf of a mile wide at
that point it is not very deep as we
soon found that we were getting into
shoal water, but by carefully sound
ing with the lend linc and watching
the water for rips we managed to get
past oil of the many sand bars ana
make our way to st. Louis without
getting aground. We arrived at st.
Louis at 4 p. m. and after running
past tile city to have a look at it, ran
to a coal barge and put on twenty
nine bushels of.soft coal, which filed
our bhnkers about as full as they
were when we left Chicago. We paid
nine cents q bushel for the coal and
the cost of fuel for the run from
Chicago to st. Louis. 403 miles, was
the sum of 50. 81. Found q fine place
to tie up on the leves at foot of Elm
street, and were soon safely tied up
after our eventual trip Of nearly 1900
miles.
The Mississippi river from the I'LL
nois liver for many miles down is
very beautiful as the shore ON the
Illinois side OF the river is a high
rocky bluff resembling the palisades
OF the Hudson river in many respects
and had not been kept busy trying
to keep off tho sand bars it would
ha We been q very pleasant sail. We
were much disappointed passing the
Missouri river as we had expected to
see O wide and mighty stream of
water flowing into the Mississippi,
but found it to be anything but what
we had imagined it to be. The Miss
ouri. at its mouth, is about q half q
mile wide and passes into the Missis-
sippi between two low marshy banks
which were, covered with snags in the
shape of decaying trees sticking up
out of the muddy water or rather thin
mud MS it should be called. We could
not see any place whore there was
signs of q channel through the snags
at the mouth of the Missouri, but
there must be rs there are several
streams running up it from st. Louis.
A glass ofiMissouri river water which
we drew up was left to stand quiet
over night showed about half an
inch of solid mud in the bottom of
the glass in the morning.
The city Of st. Louis does not look
very inviting 10 the eye from the liver
front as there is an elevated railroad
at the top of the levee or bank of the
river in front of the city. There are
no docks whatever and the steamboats,
land their passengers and freight on
large scows moored.s to the levee and
which are moved out or in as the
river rises or falls. The buildings
facing the levee are nearly all unused
and show that the trade Of the steam
boats on the river IS fast becoming q
thing of the past and the railroads are
getting about all there is of the trade.
There is nothing like the number OF
steamers that we expected to see here
and it seems as if the days of the old
Mississippi river boats are about over
rs nowadays it takes too long a time
to get around with them. The city
proper is q busy place and the GRO wds
of people on the main streets makes
one feel as if it were New YORK,
Tuesday, June 28:-We took the
trolley cars to the Worlds Fa ir
grounds which are several miles