Omaha Daily Bee Newspaper, May 31, 1910, Page 9

EDITORIAL PAGES 9 TO 18 THE OMAHA BEE Is the potter to the most powerfnl In the west homes of business because 1t goes poor and rieh A, TUESDAY OMAH MAY 31, 1910. TWO CENTS We say by all means buy land! Buy it now! The day may come when there will be no bargains 1n land Don't wait. Some tempting offers are made in ffered. the Farm and b e Ranch columns of ead the land ads The Bee. i :" . ¢ in today's Bee. You can acquire it on liberal terms Don't hesitate. Do it Wouldn’t you be rich today if you had bought land ten years ago? Every young ‘man should be a land owner. The Bee can give information about all of the i in i is no possible way for land listed in its columns There is no p y you ever to regret it. & {)\ D3 detect The Bee is the leading real estate paper of the west. Pilots at this time were of special conse- quence. Every courtesy was shown them by captains and crews and extreme defer- ence by the negro barbers, walters and roustabouts - Thelr wages were high. As a general rule the scale was about $400 a month, but during the flush Kansas trade on the Missouri river a good pilot recelved as much as §$00 a trip, which amounted to 31,500 a month; but a pllot only mastered his trade after long experience and close application. He had to be well versed in his vocation, for in those days there were no snag and dredge boats, beacon lamps or powerful searchlights to play ahead of the vessel. The pilot must have a mental map of the river, remembering the location of every snag, sandbar, shallow and other danger, | Bame. Old days on the Mississippt and 0Ot only on clear days and nights, but also m’mm had a picturesqueness which can- |10 the darkness, fog, sleet and snow. nof be duplicated anywhere today. 5 - Recklessness and Disaster. The leves In those times resembled » mod- | No danger must be considered. In fact ern union station in an Important rarway When Business Boomed on Mi: sippi,, Ohio and Missouri. X +PILOTS WERE THE BIG CHIEFS | Recslisstions of Geent Raste Pletureaque Traffic of Malt a Century d the Ago. t Mark Twain s gone there is & Breat’ telling over of old steamboat yarns | Out on the blg river which gave him his many of the steamboat disasters were due center. Dally packets were constantly [to sheer foolhardiness. Up to 180 there | arrlving and departing for all points up | were 576 steamers lost on the two rivers. @od down the river. Fine boats ran be-|In the year 188 there were 179 steambodts tween Cineinnatl and New Orleans, but St. | partially wrecked and 120 wholly lost. The 1‘"{‘»- Was the center of the steamboat|explosion on the Sultana in 1864 killed 164 "'v« soldiers and civillans. wily packets ran to Omaha, Sloux City,| Although at first it may seem an un- N g“mn;u Bluffs, St. Joseph, Kan City. | rellable statement, tho great | Dubuque, Chester, Calro, NeWw |rgces in those days were less dangerous ¢ Orlels, Nashville and all other important | Fiverigwns. 1In 183 there arrived at the |exciting period greater precautions were levee steamboats, In 1841 there was an | taken to avoid an accident, ne 2106, while through the month ot 1846, there was an average of only & certaln number of pounds of steam t oy, and besides | with the public at large, but to the people of the valley skirting the river and th steamboat men themselves it was a great event. The advance advertisement of a race between two popular boats set the entire river country talking. Cotton and the tariff became side issues, betting began on the favorite and the race was anxiously awalited, While discussions and wagers were going on the captains of the rival steamboats made contracts wich wood boats and coal flats, which were to be stationed at various points up the river with the crews ready to lay alongside and transfer the cargo of fuel on the move. Also the steamers must be completely overhauled and all spars re- moved, as well as all dispensable welght and equipment If a boat ran faster at a certain ballast it must be loaded to that depth. The ser- vices of a §0od pilot must be secured, for ment of the vessel meant the gain or loss | of valuable time, and perhaps of the race. | | Few passengers were taken and only short | stops made. A Famous Race. The greatest r the Natches, a boat built in Cincinnati and | commanded by Captain T. P. |and a New Albany boat, the Robert E.| | Lee, under Captain John W. Cannon. | ever run was between | | vessels, and when the Natchez made the | |leans and St. Louls (1,218 miles in three | days twenty-cne hours fifty-eight minutes) Captain Cannon resolved to beat it. He | st. his knowledge of the stream and manage- | | the llon of the hour. various fuel boats and arranged for them to meet him at various points up the river with wood and coal. Then he had his boat cleared of all its upper works likely to cateh the wind and made the heavler, On Thursday, June 20, 1§70, at 4:45 p. m the Robert F. Lee steamed out of New Orleans. The Natches followed five min- utes later. The race had been advertised in advance and was now awaited with gathering Interest at all the river towns. Large crowds were assembled at Natchez, Vicksburg, Helena and other large places. Telegram reports were sent out from va- rious points, some even to Kurope. Between Calro and St. Louls the Natchez afterward claimed to have lost seven hours | and one minute on account of a fog and broken machinery. The Robert B. Lee, however, was not delayed and arrived, in Louis thirty-three minutes ahead of the previous récord established by its com- petitor. Fifty thousand people from the housetops, the levee and the decks of | other steamers welcomed the winner as it steamed Into port. Captain Cannon was The business men {#ave & banquet i his honor. Some steamboats like the John Simonds Leathers, | quring the busy season did a $10,000 busi- | on the Mississippl. When peace was finally ness every round trip. This, however, was exceptional. As & general rule steam- steamboat | There was spirited rivairy between the two | boating was not a paying industry, the most fortunate owners making but & per than during ordinary trips, for during that | fastest time on record between New Or-|cent on the money invested. Many a hungry mouth dia the steamboat business fill in those days. In 1532 the number of men earning thelr living in the Was permitted. Raclng was never popular | enguged the steamer Frank Pargoud and | various departments of ‘the ‘trade: has been | fook place Loday st Chang Chow, rretion vessel | estimated at 90,000; ten years later, count- ing only-the laborers, engineers, pilots, r pairers and others of actual crews, ther were about 180,000 men employed. In 183 there was §3,000000 invested in staam- boats, with a yearly expense of $1,671,540 for wages, $1393200 for wood, $5%,5% for provisions and $743,040 for other expenses. In 1539 almost 32,000,000 was spent for wood alone along the shores of western rivers. The steamboat age began about 1521 and flourished for fifty years. As early as 183 the number of steamboats Is estimated |at 20, and in 142 there were 450 vessels, | with & value of $25,000,00. But the golden |era was from 1848 until the war. Never |@ia the valley and steamboating prosper more than then. Thousands of bales of | | cotton were annually shipped to southern | markets, and the wharves of St Louls |ana Memphis and Vicksburg and other | 1arge ports were stacked with piles of mer- | ohandise and lined with scores of steam- ‘QPL But the war came on, cutting off com- ‘mumrzllun between the north and south and sweeping the trade away. Ironclads }lmm from former packets policed the | mighty river. It was a period of storm and stres that chloroformed prosperity London’s Social Set Gossips Qver Woman to Lord Innesker to Be Announced Soon, LONDON, May %.—Certain eircles of in ternational society are gossiping over the evident attachment of Lord Robert Innesker for Mrs. Miller Graham, & wealthy widow of San Francisco, and it Is sald that an en- gagement may be announced shortly. Mr Graham 1s reported to be worth over $1,000,- 0. Lord Robert is the younger brother the duke of Roxburgh, who was married to Miss May Goelet of New York. Three years ago the duke's other brother, Alastair Robert Innesker, marrled Miss Anne Breze, also of New York. Lord Robert went to America last year and it was treely gossiped that he went in search of a wife, but his quest was fruitless. Mrs. Graham entertains sumptously here. She rents the house of Lord Nunbuknholre on Grosvenor square, not far from the palatial new marsion of Mrs. George Kep- pel. For years she enjoyed the triendship of a number of King Edward's soclal circle. She was presented at {in February two years ago, and declared the survivors of the old steam- boat days were dead or engaged in other industries.—Travel Magazine. Foreigners Cateh 1t. | AMOY, China, May 29.—The price of rice has risen 5 per cent and the poor a: unable to buy food. As a consequence several court the i was ’Frisco Widow Engagement of a Rich American | of | guest of King Edward at Marlenbad lutl a youthful son and daughter. One of the features of a recent dance glven Mrs. Graham was the rolling of a huge watermelon into the ball room, The melon was cut open and a little pick- anniny jumped out, throwing flowers at the dancers. The wmall negro, however, | was white, with a complexion of burnt cork BANK PORTER UNDER ARREST ‘“nn Working at $356 Per 1 Handles Thousands of Dol pme Sticking to Fingers | MEMPHIS, Tenn, May .~ Charles | Bwank, a negro 20 years of age, porter at the Central Bank and Trust com- pany, drawing a mere salary of $35 month, was locked up Saturday morning at Central police station by Detectives Shea and Masoney, on a charge of lar | to which he admitted guilt. In Swank's ar- | rest a systematic theft of money was un- | covered. How much he has stolen is not | known. It is not considered possible that the sum is large. According to the negro's | admission, he had handled as high as $5,00 at one time for the bank people and the | temptation to steal was too great “You know how It Is to be poor and | working for a little money, and seeing all that money every day,"” sald Swank to the police. per A Life Sentence | of suffering with throat and quickly commuted by Dr Discovery. e and 3108 Beaton Drug Co, lung troubie King's New For by - T3 I8 sale ¥