Bismarck daily tribune. [volume] (Bismarck, Dakota [N.D.]) 1881-1916, 1905-10-09
NEW ORLEANS TO
THE ROCKY MOUNTAINS
"reminiscences Of Forty Years Ago Of An Old
Time BiSmafCkcr
{By Jimmy Emmons. ]

Ia .. ID by Jimmy
On February the 10th, 1865, it was
my good fortune to ship as a deck
hand on the good stamer Fife Deans,
lying at New Orleans wharf. Capt.
Joseph Labarge was her commander
and Peter Ray was the mate who took
my name. There was to me strange
but fascinating sign on a large canvas
along her hurricane roof bearing the
inscription For Idaho and the Gold
Mines It did not occur to me that
l was engaging for the longest voyage
of my life. On the 21st ult- we
steamed up, and went out in the. tide
river along side of a magnificent ship
and received a cargo of sugar, Turks
island salt and miscellaneous goods
consigned to government posts far up
the Missouri river-and Virginia City,
and Idaho. On the 22d, Washington's
birthday, which was celebrated by a
parade and firing of great guns on
shore, and the huge iron clad and big
ships floating out on the Mississippi
river. All was hurry and hustle
aboard. Night came on. The moon,
big and bright, appeared to me to
come out of the waters of the ocean
on the east. The big city on the west
We looked down upon from the deck
OF the steamer. ..Let co." came from
the captain on the lroof-and the little
stern wheel steamer started out
against the stream to paddle her way
four thousand five hundred miles to
the head of the Missouri-to leave war
and all its miseries and sorrows-on
which my youthful eyes and heart had
been long sick of,-far behind us, but
OF which We should not be clear OF
until we had passed to a. lonely dis
lance up the stream.
1T SOON became fact to me that
Captain Labarge was a strict de-
c1plinarian. He was of the old French
crews OF voyagers of the Missouri
river Indian trading companies. AT
the beginning of the war he was con-
sldered a very wealthy man of that
time, but he was a sympathiser with
the erring fathers of the south and
made many sacrifices of valuable
steamers, fearing confscatiou or other
troubles, but though strict he was a
most kindly gentleman. The mate
was also man we'll up in river nayi-
CATION from the Baltic to all points
touched by the rivers. It was most
fortunate for me that my lot was cast
With such masters of steamboat nayi-
CATION, for my eyes and ears were
eager to master business or profession.
Along the lower river those strange
French names were familiar to me
Tom the story of Evangeline and the
sorrows Of the Acadians. Slowly
Baton Rouge, Matches, Memphis, and
cairo, were behind the Efie Deans and
st. Louis was reached after eighteen
days had passed. Here we changed
some OF the cargo, made repairs. and
some changes in the crew took Mace
The lower river pilots left US, but on
March the 22d all was ready for de-
parture to that weird, strange far
away country far up among Indians
and Buffalo. Captain Robert Baily
and Robt. Labarge were the new pilots
anu many curious looking old French
men appeared among the crew. I was
'oid that these men were hunters and
Indian traders and that their business
would be to keep the people aboard in
meat. AS the hour hand neared
O'Clock the big whistle sounded. Al
ready aboard there were registered
one hundred and fifty passengers and
only one woman. Learned that all the
men We're going away from the war.
the parting to me seemed the most
sad and pathetic Of my life. And s,,ch
sorrow and flow Of tears, as mothers.
wives and sweethearts bid their fare
Wen to their loved ones-I never had
oeiore seen. It appeared to me that
every person from the stern old can
tam to passengers and crew could
weep and CRY like children. Only o.
one other occasion OF my life has it
been mine to learn Of the pent up
wells of tears in the human heart
and that was at Fort Lincoln after the
Custer defeat at the Little Big Horn.
But the command .tCast or came
and the little steamer with her preci.
Dus cargo of freight at ten cents per
pound and passengers at two hundred
dollars 9 birth teamed out ct 10
o'clock. She entered the mighty and