Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1905-04-23
rs NOT PROGRESSIVE
LACK OF ENTERPRISE SHOWN By
ITS CITIZENS.
Restoration Of Commerce on the River
First Steamboat Put on Mississippi
by the Presidents Great Uncle.
BY VIM. E. CURTIS.

and cherish VickSburg, but 1t is not an at
tractive town to strangers. The impression
one gets from ramble about the business
section Is that it needs a few first-class flfes.
Perhaps no city of the south has made SO
little progress since the war. 1t Is SO SLOW
and embarrassing that the Mississippi river
would not stay with it and broke open
new channel TO get away, leaving the Town
ashore but the army engineers under an
act of Congress- captured another river ana
brought it down to the levees, SO that H1cks-
burg again has navigation facilities, put IS
on the Yazoo and not on the MISSISSIPPI
now Before 1876, being built upon range
of bluffs forming the southern limit OF the
Yazoo basin, Vicksburg had the most COM
manding site and the finest harbor between
St Paul and the South Pass; there was
twenty-five feet of water along the city
front for miles and the entire width OF the
river was available for a steamboat at an
stages But the lack of enterprise on the
part of the citizens was punished by 'hs
shoaling of the channel the formation o.
a lake. which practically destroyed the hal
Dor. and, except at food time, no steam
boat could get anywhere near the levees.
But it is all right now. Vlcksours Is open
to boats of six feet draught and under at
low water and there has been hftS-hlhe
feet at flood times.
The restoration OF commerce was
plished at a cost of million and nan Oh
dollars. by cutting canal across penin IA
sula which lies between the Mississippi anu
the mouth of the YaZoo II WIS A'ie
piece of engineering.
Notwithstanding the increased railway
facilities there is still good deai ol co l
merce on the Mississippi ana It's tripu-
taries About 10000 bales or cotton die
handled by water here every year Ii Is
the long, staple variety, and sells for cent
a pound more than ordinary cotton. ne
Yazoo with its tributaries, has not less
than 800 miles of navigation through the
richest cotton country in the world, anu
furnishes shipping facilities for important
localities that have not yet oeen Ieacneu
by the railroads. During the last seven
years the commerce of Vicksourg by river
has ranged between 222, I92 and Al 100 tons,
and the value of the river freight handleu
here has ranged from s6.S01,e00 to sl32i2'-
600 per annum. The average TOT me seven
years has been 321 ,594 tons and SS,Io3,6 $50 IN
value.
The boats that ply these waters-and the
same fact is apparent In every other state
are loaded with hay. bacon. corn, meal ana
other plantation supplies imported from
the northern states; and they have to bring
down an equal weight of cotton to pay for
it-a clear waste of money, which should go
into the savings bank instead Mississippi
needs a few schools of political economy
for her planters. They still bring DaIed
hay 500 and 1,5Co miles, even SO far as from
Minnesota, TO feed their stock, when they
at the cost of hauling the northern hay
from the boats to the barns. Their ware
houses and supply stores are filled with
northern bacon piled up like cord wood,
which cost them from 10 to Is cents
pound. when the timbered section of every
plantation furnishes an abundance of food,
acorns, sweet herbs and roots that make
the most delicious pork. Boatloads of corn
meal raised north of the Ohio river are
distributed through this section every sea-
son. when no soil will produce 50 much
corn, and, you know corn makes pork,
and several thrifty northern farmers down
here are making pork for cents a
pound. Even the vegetables consumed on
many of the plantations are imported from
other states.
Planters excuse this prodigaIity on the
ground that they cannot get labor. They
complain that the negroes will not work
and that those who will must be kept in
the cotton fields, because the profits on
cotton are so much greater. They forget
that this practice has been going on for a
century and that it was always so-that
their fathers and grandfathers and great
grandfathers raised nothing but cotton,
and bought their supplies from the north,
with square miles of idle land and plenty
of idle labor around them.
There is not the slightest doubt of a
scarcity of labor the plantations. No
one can deny that the negroes will leave
the plantations and go to the cities, and
get lazy and demoralized, acquire all sorts
of vices and drift into crime. But nothing
CAN prevent Thai Hey are Simply ODey-
ing the laws of nature The same evil
is complained of in every civilized country,
as l told you the other day. The steam
boat men declare that they cannot get
roustabouts; that they often have to lay
up for days a time because they cannot
hire to handle their cargoes, even
when they offer high wages. One hears
the same story from every quarter-that the
negroes will not work as long they have
money in their pockets.
d
Steamboating is very different from what
it used to be. The romance has vanished.
There more big luxurious passenger
packets to ST. Louis and New Orleans. be-
cause the railroads have taken away all
of the passengers. Nowadays people are
always in such a hurry that they cannot
spend the time to make a voyage by water.
The traffic is mostly done on barges lowed
to the interior towns, There is one boat
running regularly to Memphis and during
the cotton season good many go to New
Orleans; but their cargoes are all freight
and the only passengers they carry are
bound for landings that cannot be reached
by railroads. There are a few small boats
on the YaZoo and its tributaries. which do
most of the business, taking supplies into
the interior and bringing down the cotton
to be shipped to Memphis and New Or
leans. and some of that goes by rail- The
river Is, however, regarded as a necessary
protection against the railways, and ship
pers say that it regulates rates by perpet-
ual threats of competition. They say that
railway rates always used to go up as the
water went down. but now that the canal
Is built, which gives facilities for shipping
all the year around, freight charges remain
the same.
Trip Of the First Steamboat.
Perhaps you do not know that the first
steamboat was placed on the Mississippi
river by Nicholas ]. Roosevelt Of New York.
a great-uncle of the President of the United
States-a brother of his paternal grand
father. Robert Fulton of New York fur
nlshed the plans; the famous Chancellor
Livingston provided half the capital; the
boat was built at Pittsburg and was the
home of Mr.. and Mrs. Roosevelt for six
months In 1911. Mrs. Roosevelt was the
daughter of Benjamin Latrobe Of Balti-
more, one of the architects of the Capitol
at Washington and an intimate friend of
President Jefferson.
The New Orleans, as the boat was called
was 116 feet long, 20 feet beam and cost
$3S,O0O. There were two cabins occupied
by Mr. and Mrs. Roosevelt and two sery-
ants. There was a captain named Andrews.
an engineer named Baker, Jack. the pilot
six deck hands. cook a steward and a
Newfoundland dog. The party reached Gin
cinnati the second day after leaving Pitts
burg, and all went we'll; but at Louisville
they had to wait several DAYS for wa for