The Pensacola journal. (Pensacola, Fla.) 1898-1985, 1919-12-29
Changes of Three. Centuries.

Oct. /. 1907.
Dear Kermit:
After speaking at keolSul1 this
morning we got aboard this brand
new stern wheel steamer of the regu-
lar Mississippi type and started down
stream. l went up in the Texas, and,
of course, felt an almost irresistible
desire to ask the pilot about Mark
Twain. 1t is broad. shallow, mud
dy river. at places the channel being
rarely wide enough for the boat to go
through, though to my inexperienced
eyes the whole river looks like a
channel. The bottom lands Illinois on
one side and Missouri on the other,
are sometimes overgrown with for
ests and sometimes great, rich corn
fields, with here and there a house,
here and there villages, and now and
then a little town. At every such
place all the people Of the neighDor-
hood have gathered to greet me. The
water front of the towns would be
filled with a dense packed mass OF
men, women and children, waving
flags. The little villages have not only
their own population but also the
farmers who have driven in in their
wagons with their wives and children
from a dozen miles back-just such
farmers as came to see you and the
l
| last summer.
It is my first trip on the Mississippi
| and / am greatly interested in it.
How wonderfwul in its rapidity OF
movement has been the history Of
our country, compared with the his
tory of the old world. For untold
ages this river had been flowing
through the lonely continent, not very
greatly changed since the close Of the
i ~, oil n
! Of years the prairie and the forest
came down to its banks. The immense
herds of the buffalo and the elk wan
dered along them season after sea-
| son, and the Indian hunters on foot
or in canoes trudged along the banks
| or SKINNED the wator. Probably
| thousand years saw no change that
would have been noticeable to our
eyes. Then three centuries ago be-
gan the work Of change. For a CEN
| tury it's effects were not perceptible.
Just nothing but an occasional French
fleet or wild, half-savage French
Canadian explorer passing up or down
the river or one of it's branches in an
Indian canoe; then the first faint
changes, the building Of one or two
little French fur traders hamlets, the
/ passing of one or two British officers
boats, and the very rare appearance
of the uneouth American backwoodS-
man.
Then the change came with a rush.
! Our settlers reached the head-waters
of the Ohio, and flat-boats and keel
boats began to go down to the mouth
of the Mississippi, and the Indians and
the game they followed began their
last great march to the west. For
i ages they had marched back and
forth, but from this march there was
i never to be a return. Then the day
of steam boat traffic began, and the
growth of the first American cities
| and states along the river with their
/ strength and their saualor and their
raw pride. Then this mighty steam
, boat traffic passed it's zenith and col
: lapsed, and for a generation the river
: towns have dwindled compared with
the towns which took their import
ance from the growth of the railroads
: I think of it all as / pass down the
; river.
October I've are steaming dowr
the river now between Tennessee and
| Arkansas. The forest comes down 9
little denser to the bank, the houses
l do not look quite so well kept; other
, wise there is not much change. There
tare a dozen Stea merS accompanying
1 u.s. filled with delegates from variou:
Il
on the banks to greet us STILL More
ever at night, no matter what tht
/ hour is that we pass a town, it i:
5 generally illuminated, and sometime:
5 whistles and noisy greetings, while oul
< steamboats, whistle in equally nois,
response, so that our sleep is ap
j, ! to be broken. Seventeen governors o
different states are along, in boat b,
S themselves. I have seen a good dea
e of them, however, and it has been o
treal use to me, especially as regards
t two or three problems that are UP
q At st. Louis there was an enormous
n multitude of people out to see us. tn
procession was in a drenching rain
y in which I stood bareheaded, smiling
: affably and waving my drowned ha
| to those hardy members of the crow
who declined to go 10 shelter. a
Cairo I was also greeted with grea
= enthusiasm, and I was interested t
find that there was still extreme bit
iterness felt over Dickens description
E of the town and the people in Mar
L tin Chuzzlewit sixty-five years age
(To be Continued)
0 Copyright 1919 by Charles Scribner'
i Sons)