"It has been so wet for the last three or four years," remarked Truthful
James, "that a good many people have forgot how dry it used to be.
"I remember one year when the Missouri River was dusty all the way down
from Kansas City to the Mississippi. Of course the river was running all
the while, but the water in it got so dry that it turned to dust and blew
away. I took a boat down the river at that time, but it was so dusty on
the boat that you couldn't see the hind end of it when you was standing on
the front end. It was a little the worst I ever see. My mouth got so much
grit and dust in it that I could strike a match on the roof of it any
time.
"One day the boat got stuck in fifteen feet of Missouri River water. It
was so dry and dusty that the wheel couldn't turn. What did we do? Well,
sir, we went out and hired a farmer to haul fresh well water for fifteen
miles to mix with the river water until it was thin enough to run the boat
through."--_Kansas City Journal._