Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1930-01-26

"S pUChetS are tHe mO0eTn OHtO0GtI
sPeedcrGft, ,Ohich are so small that they
can race in stOimming pools.
chopped up. Pine chairs from the cabins
went, too.
Captain" yelled some one at the height of
the steam-raising proceedings there is a lot
of side meat in the hole. Why not burn it
meat burns fercely and hotly?"
The captain welcomed the suggestion and
ordered all available hands to fall to and carry
the meat to the engine room. Probably for the
first time in the history of steamboating the
persons aboard the Natchez and those who
lined the boat landings up the river beheld
the spectacle Of steamboat belching a Pc
culiar blush smoke that smelled strongly OF
combination Of varniSh, resin wood and an
added Odor reminiscent Of q meathouse
But the Natchez went along just the same
on her unfamiliar diet
Just before leaving New Orleans Cant Can
non of the Robert e. Lee telegraphed ahead tn
Memphis and ordered two barges of coal to be
ready for him to take on the fly. Capt Leath-
ers did not know, it is said, that his rival had
put one over on him this way
Hours before the Lee hove in sight around
the bend, the two loaded barges were awaiting
her arrival When her lights shone around
= the bend the barges were towed out to midriver
The Lee fastened the barges to her side and
too coal on the rum losing little time or sneed.
N
the upstream grind.
But Capt feathers Of the Natchez pulled into
Memphis Is minutes behind his rival where To
make matters worse, he was forced to pull I'M
to the wharf and wait 80 minutes while coal
was brought and put aboard He pulled out Of
Memphis about IS minutes behind the Lee
A LTHOUGH he struggled on gamely the Lee
beat Capt. feathers craft to st. Louis by
two hours. When the Natchez finally reached
st. Louis, she was accorded a welcome almost
as noisy as that which had greeted the victor.
for those were the easy-going days of good
craftsmanship along the length of the mighty
Mississippi, an era when time meant nothing
in the lives of most Southerners, an epoch long
gone IN which romance played an important
part. At the time of the great race there were
hundreds of plantations along the Mississippi
and Arkansas shores between Memphis and
New Orleans. On each plantation there lived
In princely style the planters with sometimes
as many as 200 Negro families It was a sort
OF feudal lord regime, the 200 families of Ne.
groes playing the role Of serfs to the number
OF about thousand souls, each Negro family
averaging at least I'VE.
Down in the ofIice of the Delta Line Steam
ers hang pictures Of the Robert E. Lee ami
the Natchez, together with pictures of q "a
famous old floating palaces, such as the Grand
Republic, the j. p. White the original Kate
Adams and others equally well known These
boats long since have gone to that /ValhaIla
where all good steamboats, CO. and only their
hkenesseS and the memory of their respective
merits remain to remind the present genera
ton of the time when ''steamboatn was steam
boatin'"
The SON of Capt. Meme c. Dukes. Can't. VIII
liam Dukes is office superintendent of the Delta
Line. But the elder Dukes serves as his sons
very active assistant these days and NAV be
found somewhere around the Office on the big
wharfboat any day.
(Copyright lssoj