The Montgomery advertiser., 1909-09-14
STEAMBOAT SCENES ONA
 TRIP UP THE OLD ALABAMA
SCENES PERSONS AND INCIDENTS or MODERN JOURNEY
 UP THE RIvERlT IS STILL DELIGHTFUL JOUR NEY. 7

sand of his men and women in battle
 with the Spaniard.
 heard the teacher sigh as he look. ed through the darkness toward Choc-
 taw Bluff. and asked him if the fate of the poor Indians oppressed him. No he replied, If De Soto hadn't killed them they would have probably died anyhow. of peliagra. as Pickett's History of Alabama says the were liv- Ing principally on corn bread" T was thinking" continued the teacher. "of the un-Comerous condition of Mo- bile. Poor Governory
 There was not drop on the boat with which to assuage his grief, so I
 was forced to stand idly by and see him suffer.
 At the Janetisn. Al nrst. above tbe confluence of the Tombigbee and Alabama rivers, there
 was no sign of industrial activity ex- cept an occasional raft of pine logs l being hoated to the sawmilis above
 Mobile. Later. however. high on one of the bluffs overlooking the, river at
 a landing place could be seen num-
 Der of bales of cotton awaiting ship ment
 How in the world are tthey going to lower that cotton the riverT asked
 the lady from Illinois, who made six I ty-five per cent. of the inquiries. The process does look difficuit until one sees 1t done or alters one has
 tried to do 1t. To roll bale of cot ton weighing 500 pounds down a de- | clivity of forty-five degrees and at the
 same time to keep up with it and di- rect it's course to the gang plank Of a steamboat is very easy for that l modern Sisyphus the Alabama river deck harsa.
 At Claiborne in Monroe county there r. f. tak kA N~ a l feet high, from the water to the ware
 house above. There tramway. op-
 erated by mule power hauls freight and passengers up and down. The mule does not ascend and descend the incline but walks around a windlass to which a cable is attached and raises or lowers the car--or, at least. that
 is what the mud clerk told me. but after heard him tell young lady all about the Cunoe fight at Dale's Ferry when eleven Indians killed six white men and then the six white men got their winchester rifles and killed the eleven Indians. way wonder before General Jackson's time, l began to doubt his accuracy.
 Then, I asked. how does the mule lower the car? Does he have to back up all that distance, hundreds of times around that drum? I never knew but Ou6 luutC tt6t SOuA0 h&N1 0SAS shSs much backing and then lived to tell the tale and he. poor Balaam of my boy hood days, now sleeps beside that river
 miscalled the Pearl, in Mississippi. and
 his backing days are over. One of our great Alabama orators in one of hls great speeches at Washing
 ton referred to 'the limpid waters of
 the Alabamah Still. that orator was
 never renowned for his powers of im-
 imagination.
 Clearer Streams.
 Even the State Game and Fish Com-
 missioner admits that there are cleare' streams than that which flows
 at the feet of Montgomery
 and that if 1t is limpid
 he does not see where the linn comes in.
 At this season of the year. when the
 water is neither high nor low, 1t IS
 of Colorado C1aro hue. though when the Coosa Is on a rampage 1t changes to Colorado madura. Captain G. W. ouarles of the steamer City of Mobile says that at low water 1t Is compara- lively clear. It must have been so when the 'limpid" orator saw 1t. la There is now five feet of water over the sha1lowest bars thetween Mont gomery and Mobile. which makes a very comfortable stage for steamboat
 ing with steamers like the City of
 Mobile and the Nettie Quill which are
 now making the trip for the same company. Every once-in-a-while
 soundings are made and the readings