Daily Kennebec journal. [microfilm reel] (Augusta, Me.) 1870-1975, 1904-07-27

uSlu WdT councils the
settler has built his tidy home: where
the block house once stood. that grim
sentinel of the prairie, the modern
school building now stands. Fort
Wayne's well-kept streets and sub
stlntial buildings are but a prototyp..
of hundreds of similar towns and cities
along the line of the railroads through
out the great West. Beyond Fort
Wayne, the Wabash Diner was at
tached to our train and We had break
fast eli route. No better service no
better menu. 1t was simply perfect,
From Fort Wayne to the Mississippi
across Indiana and illinois. we Travelled
through the corn belt. the bread basket
of the nation. Through miles and
miles of corn and barley, north. east,
south and west, as far as the eve can
see and across the trackless prairie
through the fields which form a large
part of the prosperity of the great
West. Here and there to break up the
monotOny were small growth of trees.
Some had come up naturally, others
had been planted by the government
and were az symmetrical as the SQUARES
on a checker board. No underbrush
same as in our eastern forests, but
smooth and clear under the trees as a
lawn. Stacks take the places of barns
and outbuildings. in fact the stack is
the prevailing idea of the West. Once
in while as the vista changes you
would catch sight Of farm or ranch
with large outbuildings upon it. Then
we were positive we had found an east
ern man who had been transplanted to
the West and had chung to the eastern
ideas and taken them with him. The
same tracliIcss prairie was noted in
Illinois, as in Indiana and unlike our
bills the scenery lacks variety. After
travcrSing the two states we entered
Missouri at noon time and at . p. NJ,
crossed the famous Fades bridge that
connects East st. Louis with st. Louis
and ran into the Union station, the
largest in the world. Here we took
electrics across the city to the Fair
grounds. the city of palaces, some four
miles out. where we landed at ; p. NJ,
Thursday.
Our eight and a-half days stay at the
Fair | family outlined in previous let
ltTS. % 40 Tie ran Justice WOulu re-
quire months and would fill volumes.
then the half would never be told. We
did it specifically but when we turned
our faces from the city of palaces. We
felt that we had seen more of the world
than falls to TIE average lot of man.
Our one Sabbath ill St Louis, as the
fair is kept rigidly barred and bolted.
we spent on the mississippi. After
lunchnS on the Lords day, we took
clcctrics across the city to the Olive
street dock whore we boarded the
capacious steamer Corwin III. Spencer,
a huge thrce-deckcr, "a typical Missis-
sippi floating ark. The Spencer is
some three hundred and fifty feet long
by sc foot beam, with license to carry
$500 passengers. On our trip she had
a tritlc over half her complement or
1000 passengers, cosmopolitan crowd,
principally shopping district employees
out for the day. Down the Mississippi
on an old time boat, as fiat on the bot
tom as she was on deck, her tall, black
chimney bclching forth cindcrs and
smoke, we went 81 miles below st.
Louis into Dixie. 1t vas the acme of
the weeks pleasure. with but one re-
greet that there could not be: "A mig
ger squat on the safety valve. her fur
mace stuffed with rosin and pine" But
we got everything else of Jim Bludsoe' s
time, from roustabouts to the veritable
tin horned gambler of the genuine
scoop varicty-rouicttc going fast and
furious abaft the paddle boxcs-and
nobody got anything back, but the
croupicr raked in the shekels mcrrily
while the cappcrs kept watch of the
snare for the victims.
1t was stiff game at the wheel. but
nothing to the way the red and black
up forward pulled in the coin. One
western gentleman who dropped 5000,
on the rouge ct noir begged the captain
to ntcrccde. but all he got was the "ha
ha" and an intimation that If he
wanted to keep his roll he had better
avoid the game. while if any victim got
too fresh he was quietly escorted up
forward and told to git by the gen.
tlcnrnly copper who stood in with the
game apparently, since he was deaf to
all attempts to'explain.
AS tttC itcti tIllilEs ii IOuio ouiiNuy
down the Mississippi 1t was highly en-
joycd, especially by the ladies. who
never in their lives had seen such do
ings It home. To the male members it
was educational. "a little expensive to
those who vcnturcd up against that
fascinating whirling pointer, but then
first lessons are apt to come high.
The Mississippi has been the theatre of
more steamboat disasters in the history
of the country than all other inland wa
tiers combined even today tho Father of
waters is s,rcwn with wrecks and the
river bars are honeycombcd with hulks
that were wrecked In the ante bellum
days. There are practically no docks or
wharves on the Mississippi to land at.
long gang plank some 80 feet long is
suspended high in the air out over the
bow held in place by the uprights pretty
well forward. The steamer runs up the
levee until she strikes the mud. the long
plank is lowered, the rO,istabouts go
ashore and make the hawser fast to a
tree or any stationary object, and the
la nding is made The river water in color
is sort of a Vandyke brown, and when n
man falls in and disappears. the coroner
never knows whether to bring in the YER
dict of buried alive or drowned to death.
AT O'Clock we returned to the city. we'll
satisfied with our one day spent on the
Mississippi
We fingered at the Worlds Fair until
- II yhapN IL tr.a