Vernon County censor. [volume] (Viroqua, Wis.) 1865-1955, 1907-06-19

Roosevelt's temperament. Whatever
is LETT on the river from the activitie
of ante~bellum days still possesses tn
picturesque human interests which de-
Lights a President of generous ini'
pulses and liking for men Of the ad-
venturous pioneer type. The fleet o.
river steamers, to be sure, is smaller
now than ii was in the halycon days
of the traffic The advent Of pulling
tug boats capable of pulling a bevy
of barges for thousand miles or more
in reasonably quick time has caused
the gradual disappearance OF most OF
the rnany-decked steamers into whose
holds three thousand IONS or more OF
ca4 90 could be slowed
AS author of the Winning of the
West and the Life of Thomas Fart
Benton, President Roosevelt is or
tain to be particularly interested in
the "reminiscences of pioneer days
along the river-in the grass grown
towns which once aspired to be metro
poiises and in those places which like
Memphis and Vicksburg are really
achieving something of the greatness
that was early predicted
The president may erhaps start
from st. Louis, which from a small
French trading post has become one Of
the largest cities OF the western
hemisphere. Its destiny was cut out
for it long before tie days OF railroad
building for the early settlers discoy-
cred IN it centre from which trade
was possible over more than ten thous-
and miles of navigabla river. Some
of the stretches of uninte E~lpted
eorrse on which ST, Louis has prided
itself ever since the era when canoes
and RATS furnished the only trans
portation facilities of the interior OF
the country were 5000 miles up the
Missouri as far as Fort Benton, 500
miles on the Mississippi TO Minneapo-
Is 1000 miles down stream to Ner'
Orleans. 1000 miles up the Ohio to
Pittsburg, 300 miles on the Tennessee
to Florence. $50 miles on me Cumber-
land to Nashville. 700 miles up the
Arkansas to Fort Gibson. 600 miles on
the White river to Bull river 500
miles on the Onachuta to Camden,
and 700 miles on the Red river into
the interior o. Texas. the total of
navigable waters in the Mississippi
and its triautaries under the present
plan Of Improvement will be about
10000 miles,
Of the Immense commerce before
the civil war along the deepest and
mcst valuable stretch. that between st.
Louis and New Orleans. Mark Twain
has written a quantity picturesque and
sympathetic account. such one a.
night be expected from a man who in
childhood had rs a practical ideal OF
.future greatness the possibility Of be
coming n steamboat pilot. For he
bows in the Missouri river town in
which Mr. Clemens was brought w
an entertained a vague hope that II
Coz was good to them they mighf
become pirates. but next TO that they
wanted to be boatmen. The sight OF
the passing traffic was Of character
to fire the imagination. Some idea OF
the extent OF l. is gained from the
statement that the marine insurance
written in the city Of ST. Louis about
the time Mark Twain was LOOKING
iongingly upon the river craft-specif
oally in 1S42-ar,ounted tc nearly $50.
ana 00e=
The story Of the decline Of com
merce on the Mississippi to posi-
ton which. though stin considerable
II has for many years been distinctly
subordinate to the trailroad interests
IT the Mississippi Valley has beer
graphically and arnusfngly told y