OUR GREAT WATERWAYS
Importance of Rivers to Commerce a Generation Ago--The Ideal River
Man--The Great Mississippi River and Its Importance to Our Native
Land--The Treacherous Missouri--A First Mate Who Found a Cook's Disguise
Very Convenient--How a Second Mate Got Over the Inconvenience of
Temporary Financial Embarrassment.
During the last quarter of the century in which we write the figures "1"
and "8" in every date line, the steam railroad has, to a very large
extent, put out of joint the nose of the steamboat, just as, at the
present time, we are threatened with so complete a revolution in travel
and motive power as to warrant a prediction that, long before another
quarter of a century has passed, electricity will take the place of
steam almost entirely. But even if this is so, old acquaintance should
not be forgot, and every citizen of the United States should feel that
the prosperity of the country is due, in very large measure, to the
country's magnificent waterways, and to the enterprise of the men who
equipped river fleets and operated them, with varying degrees of profit.
The true river man is not so conspicuous as he was in the days when St.
Louis, Cincinnati, Memphis and other important railroad centers of
to-day were exclusively river towns. The river man was a king in those
days. The captain walked the streets with as much dignity as he walked
his own deck, and he was pointed to by landsmen as a person of dignity
and repute. The mate was a great man in the estimation of all who knew
him, and of a good many who did not know him. Ruling his crew with a rod
of iron, and accustomed to be obeyed with considerable and commendable
promptness, he adopted a tone of voice in general conversation
considerably louder than the average, and every one acquired a habit of
making way for him.
The levee in a river town, before the railroads came snorting and
puffing across country and interfering with the monopoly so long enjoyed
by the steamboat, was a scene of continuous turmoil and activity.
Sometimes, now, one sees on a levee a great deal of hurrying and noise.
But the busiest scenes of to-day sink into insignificance compared with
those which are rapidly becoming little more than an indistinct memory.
The immense cargoes of freight of every description would be ranged
along the river front, and little flags could be seen in every
direction.
These flags were not, perhaps, exactly evidence of the activity of the
schoolmaster, or of the prevalence of superior education. They were,
rather, reminders of the fact that a great majority of the rank and file
of river workers could read little, and write less. To tell a colored
roustabout twenty or thirty years ago to fetch a certain cargo, labeled
with the name of a particular boat or consignee, would have been to draw
from the individual addressed a genuine old-time plantation grin, with
some caustic observation about lack of school facilities in the days
when the roustabout ought to have been studying the "three Rs," but was
not. It was, however, comparatively easy to locate a cargo by means of a
flag, and identification seldom failed, as the flags could be varied in
color, shape and size, so as to provide distinction as well as
difference.
Those who remember the busy levee scene, with the flag adornment
referred to, will agree that there was something picturesque as well as
noisy about the old river days, and will be inclined to regret, and
almost deplore, the fact that things are not, from a river man's
standpoint, what they were.
In no country in the world has railroad building been carried on with so
much enterprise as in our native land. Prior to the enormous expenditure
on track building and railroad equipment, advantage had to be taken of
the extraordinary opportunities for navigation and transportation
afforded by the great waterways of the country. As railroads were
naturally built in the East before the West, the value of our Middle and
Western waterways is naturally best understood by the average reader,
because they continued to play an indispensable part in the transaction
of business of every character until quite a recent period.
The Eastern rivers are less magnificent in extent and volume than those
of the West, though many of them are picturesque and attractive in the
extreme. The Hudson has often been spoken of as the "Thames of America,"
not because there is any resemblance between the length of the two
rivers upon which are situated the two greatest cities of modern times.
The simile is the result rather of the immense number of costly family
residences and summer resorts built along the banks of both rivers.
In another chapter we say something of a trip down the picturesque
Hudson, whose banks are lined with historic landmarks and points of
pressing interest. We give an illustration of a pleasure boat on the
Hudson, which reminds one of many delightful river trips taken at
various periods, and also of the events of national importance which
centered around the river that is crowded, year after year, with
pleasure-seekers from the overcrowded metropolis at its mouth.
The Mississippi River is the largest and grandest in North America. A
few miles above St. Louis it is joined by the Missouri River, and if the
distance from the source of the latter to the Gulf of Mexico be
calculated, the longest river in the world is found. At a considerable
distance from the source of the Father of Waters are the Falls of St.
Anthony, discovered more than two hundred years ago by enterprising
pioneers, who thought they had discovered the headwaters of the great
river. The scenery of the river at the falls and beyond them is very
attractive, and in many cases so beautiful as to be beyond verbal
description. In many other parts of the river the scenery is grand,
though occasionally there are long stretches of flat country which are
inclined to become monotonous and barren of poetic thought.
Of the entire river, Mr. L. U. Reavis writes enthusiastically:
"The more we consider the subject," says this author, "the more we are
compelled to admit that the Mississippi is a wonderful river, and that
no man can compute its importance to the American people. What the Nile
is to Egypt, what the great Euphrates was to ancient Assyria, what the
Danube is to Europe, what the Ganges is to India, what the Amazon is to
Brazil--all this, and even more than this, the Mississippi River is to
the North American Continent. In an earlier age men would have worshiped
the Mississippi, but in this age we can do better, we can improve it. To
this all our efforts should be directed, and we should continually bear
in mind that no other improvement, ancient or modern, relating to the
interests of commerce has ever commanded the attention of men equal in
importance to that of the Mississippi River, so as to control its waters
and afford ample and free navigation from St. Paul to the Gulf of
Mexico."
During the last few years, the agitation in favor of river improvement
has assumed very definite shape, and from time to time large
appropriations have been made by Congress for the purpose of keeping the
river navigable at all periods of the year. As long ago as 1873, the
Chairman of the Senate Committee on Transportation Routes censured the
Government for neglecting to thoroughly improve the big rivers. A
quarter of a century has nearly elapsed since then, and, in the opinion
of many competent river men, there is still room for much improvement,
not only in the river, but in the method of arrangements for designing
and carrying out the improvements.
The Missouri River, the great tributary to the Mississippi, has often
been described as one of the most treacherous and aggressive rivers in
the universe. It seems to be actuated by a spirit of unrest and a desire
for change, so much so that the center of the river bed frequently moves
to the right or left so rapidly as to wipe out of existence prosperous
farms and homes. Sometimes this erratic procedure threatens the very
existence of cities and bridges, and tens of thousands of dollars have
been spent from time to time in day and night work to check the
aggression of the stream and to compel it to confine itself to its
proper limits.
The Mississippi proper brings down from the lakes to its junction with
the Missouri River clear water, in which the reflection is so vivid,
that the verdure on the banks gives it quite a green appearance. The
Missouri, on the other hand, is muddy and turbulent, bringing with it
even at low water a large quantity of sand and sediment. At high water
it brings with it trees and anything else that happens to come within
its reach, but at all periods of the year its water is more or less
muddy. At the junction of the two rivers the difference in color of the
water is very apparent, and, strange to say, there is not a complete
intermingling until several miles have been covered by the current.
Under ordinary conditions, the western portion of the current is very
much darker in shade than the eastern, even twenty miles from what is
generally spoken of as the mouth of the Missouri.
The Muddy Missouri rises in the Rocky Mountains. It is really formed by
the junction of three rivers--the Jefferson, the Gallatin and the
Madison. By a strange incongruity, the headwaters of the Missouri are
within a mile of those of the Columbia, although the two rivers run in
opposite directions, the Columbia entering the Pacific Ocean and the
Missouri finding an inlet to the Gulf of Mexico via the Mississippi. At
a distance of 441 miles from the extreme point of the navigation of the
head branches of the Missouri, are what are denominated as the "Gates of
the Rocky Mountains," which present an exceedingly grand and picturesque
appearance. For a distance of about six miles the rocks rise
perpendicularly from the margin of the river to the height of 1,200
feet. The river itself is compressed to the breadth of 150 yards, and
for the first three miles there is but one spot, and that only of a few
yards, on which a man can stand between the water and the perpendicular
ascent of the mountain.
At a distance of 110 miles below this point, and 551 miles from the
source, are the "Great Falls," nearly 2,600 miles from the egress of the
Missouri into the Mississippi River. At this place the river descends by
a succession of rapids, and falls a distance of 351 feet in sixteen and
one-half miles. The lower and greater fall has a perpendicular pitch of
98 feet, the second of 19, the third of 47 and the fourth of 26 feet.
Between and below these falls there are continuous rapids of from 3 to
18 feet descent. The falls, next to those of Niagara, are the grandest
on the continent.
Below the "Great Falls" there is no substantial obstruction to
navigation, except that during the midsummer and fall months, after the
July rise, there is frequently insufficient water for steamboating. This
results from the fact that, although the Missouri River drains a large
area of country and receives many tributaries, some of which are
navigable for many hundreds of miles, it passes for a great portion of
its course through a dry and open country, where the process of
evaporation is very rapid. The channel is rendered intricate by the
great number of islands and sandbars, and in many cases it is made
exceptionally hazardous by reason of countless snags.
Volumes have been written concerning the adventures of pioneers and gold
hunters, who went up the Missouri in advance of railroads and even
civilization, in order to trade with the Indians or to search for yellow
metal in the great hills in the unexplored country, where so much in the
way of easily acquired wealth is looked for. Some of the wealthiest men
in the West to-day have a vivid recollection of the dangers they
encountered on the voyage up this river, and of the enemies they had to
either meet or avoid. Sometimes hostile Indians would attack a boat
amid-stream from both sides of the river, and when an attempt was made
to bring gold or costly merchandise down the river, daring attacks were
often made by white robbers, whose ferocity and murderous designs were
quite as conspicuous as those of the aboriginal tribes. Many a murder
was committed, and the seeds were sown for countless mysteries and
unexplained disappearances.
The Ohio River is another of the great tributaries of the Mississippi.
In years gone by the importance of this waterway was enormous. The
Mississippi itself runs through Minnesota, Wisconsin, Illinois, Iowa,
Missouri, Arkansas, Kentucky, Tennessee, Mississippi and Louisiana. The
Ohio taps and drains a much older country than many of these States, and
hence its importance in the days when Cincinnati was the great gateway
of the West and a manufacturing city of first importance.
The Ohio is a great river for more than a thousand miles, and connects
Pittsburg with Cairo, running through such important towns as Louisville
and Cincinnati. On this river some of the most interesting events in
river history have been enacted in the past. Many a tragedy and many a
comedy are included in its annals, and even to-day, although paralleled,
crossed and recrossed by railroads, it is a most important highway of
commerce.
The Tennessee River is a tributary of the Ohio, which it enters so near
the Mississippi as to have a very close connection with that great
river. Entering the Ohio at Paducah, Kentucky, the Tennessee is one of
the largest and most important rivers east of the Mississippi. It is
formed by the union of two rivers which rise in the Allegheny Mountains
and unite at Kingston, Tennessee. The river then runs southwest through
Alabama, and turning northward, passes through portions of Tennessee and
Kentucky. In length the Tennessee exceeds 1,200 miles, and, with the
exception of very dangerous places here and there, it is strictly a
navigable river.
Running as it does, through a country not yet thoroughly supplied with
railroad accommodation, the Tennessee forms an important connection
between a number of small shipping points, which would otherwise be cut
off from commercial intercourse with large centers. Hence the
transportation facilities are good, and in many respects remind one of
old days when river traffic was general. Boats run almost all the year
around up this river as far as Alabama points, and not only is a large
and lucrative freight business transacted, but pleasure and
health-seekers are also carried in large numbers.
Everything was not prosaic in river life in the old days. All of us have
heard of the great races on the Mississippi River between magnificent
steamers, and of the excitement on deck as first one and then the other
gained a slight advantage. Stories, more or less reliable, have been
told again and again of the immense sums of money made and lost by
speculators who backed their own boats against all comers. Tricks and
jokes also prevailed and continue up to the present time. The passenger
on a Tennessee River boat is almost sure to be told how a very popular
first mate escaped arrest by disguising himself as a cook. The story is
amusing enough to bear repetition, and bereft of corroborative detail,
evidently designed to lend artistic verisimilitude to the narrative, it
is as follows:
The boat was detained at a landing at a small Kentucky town where the
laws against gambling were supposed to be very strict. Some of the
officers of the boat were determined to kill time by staking a few
dollars at poker, faro or something worse, and inquiries were made in
consequence as to where a game could be found. These resulted
satisfactorily from the gamblers' standpoint, and the crowd took
themselves to the appointed spot, taking with them the very stout,
good-natured, but not very speculative first mate. The game was played
in a small room at the rear of an almost equally small restaurant.
Everything went well for awhile, and those who were winning thought they
had everything the heart could possibly desire. All at once one of the
colored help came rushing in with a notification that the place was
being raided.
It was a case of every man for himself. As is usual in cases of this
kind, one or two got under the table, where of course they were promptly
found and arrested. Two others jumped out of the window, into the arms
of two deputies, who were standing there to receive them. The mate,
caught for the first time in his life in a gambling resort, thought of a
very good plan of escape. Snatching up his hat and coat he walked into
the kitchen, where he found a good-natured colored lady hard at work
stirring batter in anticipation of some table luxury for a coming meal.
With admirable presence of mind the mate picked up an apron, tied it
around him and telling "mammy" to take a few minutes' rest as she was
evidently overtired, he seized her wooden spoon and went on stirring the
batter as though he had never done anything else in his life.
In the meantime every other member of the party had been caught and
taken to the little frame building which answered the purpose of jail
and police-court combined. Various conjectures were exchanged as to the
fate of the mate, whose ignorance of the events incidental to gambling
raids was expected to prove very inconvenient to him in a variety of
ways. All anxiety on this score was, however, thrown away. The old man
acted his part so well that when the raiders saw him laboriously at work
with the wooden spoon they concluded that he was a member of the
establishment. In consequence of this they let him alone, and when the
raid was over he replaced his hat and coat, with the indifference and
nonchalance of an experienced actor, and went quietly back to the boat.
Here he informed friends of the incarcerated individuals of the fix they
were in, and advised them to go to their release, preferring himself to
keep as far as possible from the representatives of the law. Liberty was
obtained by the payment of considerable sums in the way of fines and
costs, and although the event took place some years ago, the way in
which the inexperienced gambler escaped, while his more hardened and
experienced friends were caught, is still a constant source of merriment
among officers and passengers.
It was while enjoying a delightful and distinctly sensational trip on
the Columbia River that the passengers were enlightened as to a
comparatively old trick, which was executed with the utmost promptness
and despatch by a young second mate. This young man was never known to
have any money. Generous in the extreme, and heartily full of fun, he
managed to get rid of his salary as promptly as it was paid him, and his
impecuniosity was a standing joke among members of the crew and regular
passengers. On one occasion the boat met with an accident, and was tied
up at a small town for four or five days. The hero of the story, with a
number of other light-hearted individuals, naturally went ashore on
pleasure bent. They had what is generally called a good time, but what
little funds they had when they started were soon exhausted.
Two or three councils of war were held as to how a supply of liquid
refreshments, of a character not included in the temperance man's bill
of fare, could be obtained. Finally, the second mate undertook to secure
the needful without the expenditure of any money. He borrowed a heavy
overcoat belonging to one of the party, and then hunted up two large
wine bottles. One of these he filled with water and securely corked. The
other he took empty, and with these in his pockets entered the saloon.
Producing the empty bottle he asked the bar-keeper how much he would
charge for filling it, and on hearing the amount told him to go ahead.
As soon as the bottle was filled and returned to the second mate, he
slipped it in his pocket, and in a very matter-of-fact manner began to
make arrangements for the liquidation of the debt, at a convenient
period. The saloon-man naturally resented any discussion of this
character, and told his customer to either pay for the liquor or return
it right away. Assuming an air of injured innocence, our friend took out
the bottle of water, handed it to the barkeeper and said he "guessed
he'd have to take it back." The unsuspecting purveyor of liquor that
both cheers and inebriates, grumbled considerably, emptied the bottle of
water into the demijohn of whisky, handed back the bottle to the
apparently disconsolate seeker after credit, and told him to "get out."
Naturally, no second order was necessary. Five minutes later, the entire
party could have been seen sharing the contents of the bottle which had
not been emptied, but which they lost no time in emptying. The trick
answered its purpose admirably. When, about two weeks later, the man who
had played it was again in the town, he called at the saloon to pay for
the whisky. He was treated very kindly, but hints were freely given as
to the necessity of a keeper accompanying him on his travels. In other
words, the bar-keeper declined distinctly to believe that he had been
hoodwinked as stated. This feature of the joke was, in the opinion of
its perpetrators, the most amusing feature of all, and it need hardly be
said that very little effort was made to disabuse the unbelieving but
somewhat over-credulous bar-keeper.
The Columbia River is one of the most interesting and remarkable on the
continent. Rising, as it does, quite near the source of the Missouri
River, it runs, by a very circuitous route, to the Pacific Ocean, being
in places very narrow, and in others abnormally wide. The Dalles of the
Columbia are known the world over. They are situated some sixty or
seventy miles west of the city of Portland, and are within easy distance
of the American Mount Blanc. They extend from Dalles Station, a small
town on the Union Pacific Railroad, to Celilo, another station about
fifteen miles farther east. Between these two points the bed of the
Columbia is greatly reduced in width, and its boundaries are two huge
walls of rock, which rise almost perpendicularly from the water level.
The width of the chasm, through which the water rushes wildly, varies
considerably, but at no point in the western section does it exceed 130
feet, although on either side of the Dalles the width of the river
itself ranged from about 2,000 to much more than 2,500 feet.
As the volume of water is enormous at this point, especially after rain
and much melting of snow, there is often a rise of fifty feet in a few
hours in the narrow channel of the Dalles. Sometimes the rise exceeds
seventy feet, and an effect most extraordinary in character results.
From many points along the river banks, Mount Hood can be seen towering
away up into the clouds. The bluffs themselves are marvels of formation,
very difficult to explain or account for. When the water is low, there
is an exposure of almost vertical cliffs. The bluffs vary in height to a
remarkable extent, and the lower the water, the more grotesque the
appearance of the figures along them. When the water is very low, there
is a cascade, or waterfall, every few feet, presenting an appearance of
continuous uproar and froth, very attractive to the sightseer, but very
objectionable from the standpoint of navigation.
When the water is high, these cascades are lost sight of, and the rocks
which form them are covered with one raging torrent, which seems
inclined to dash everything to one side in its headlong course towards
the Pacific Ocean. Logging is a most important use to which the Columbia
River is put, and when immense masses of timber come thundering down the
Dalles, at a speed sometimes as great as fifty miles an hour, all
preconceived notions of order and safety are set at naught. There is one
timber shoot, more than 3,000 feet long, down which the logs rush so
rapidly that scarcely twenty seconds is occupied in the entire trip. The
Dalles generally may be described as a marvelous trough, and the name is
a French word, which well signifies this feature.
Farther down the river, and near the city of Portland, there are some
very delightful falls, not exceptionally large or high, but very
delightful in character, and full of contradictions and peculiarities.
Steamboating on the Columbia River, in its navigable sections, is
exceedingly pleasant and instructive. The river is the largest in
America which empties into the Pacific Ocean. For more than 140 miles it
is navigable by steamers of the largest kind, while other vessels can
get up very much higher, and nearer the picturesque source. On some
sections of it, glaciers of great magnitude can be seen, and there are
also many points concerning which legend and tradition have been very
busy. According to one of these traditions, the Indians who formerly
lived on the banks of the river were as brave as the ancient Spartans
and Greeks, though if this is approximately correct, the law and
argument of descent must be entirely erroneous, for the Indians of this
section to-day rank among the meanest and most objectionable of the
entire country.
An artistic illustration is given of the "whaleback" steamer, used
principally on our Northern lakes. The whaleback varies from a somewhat
clumsy looking craft, resembling in appearance very much the back of a
whale, to the much more attractive and navigable craft shown in the
illustration. These whalebacks have a very important part to play in
internal navigation. It seems able to withstand, readily, bad weather
and rough water. Unlike most vessels which are safe under these
conditions, it requires very little water to be safely navigated, and it
can carry heavy loads in six or eight feet of water.
The revival of the steamboat trade on our great rivers, and the
recovering from the railroads of at least a portion of the trade stolen
away, is a pet hobby among river men generally, and especially among
those whose parents taught them from the cradle up the true importance
of the magnificent internal waterways bountifully provided for our
native land by an all-wise Providence. It is seriously proposed to
attempt this revival by aid of whaleback steamers, and if the project is
carried out, the success which will attend the effort is likely to
agreeably surprise even the most enthusiastic among those who are now
advocating it.