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26 mos Ro 4 UN a -----~---- THE EVOLUTION OF LAKE TRADE Buffalo, March 28.--This is a fast and furious age and the history of the lake trade throughout and of the lake steamer especially is as much in proof of the statement as any other industry. I have been an even quarter of a century in pretty close observation of the lake business and if I had set up at the start as a prophet and shown the half that has been ac- complished in the lake traffic I would have been regarded as something of a lunatic and entirely devoid of business saga- city. At the same time I am not sure that we are.at all near the end of the development. In fact it has increased of late rather than fallen off and there is nothing that looks like a checking of it anywhere in sight. I went into a vessel owner's office the other day and he began to speak. of these things in a sort of uneasy way. It was all well enough in the case of a wooden vessel for these new things to make their appearance in such a hand-over- hand fashion, for the first life of such a craft goes with its first ten years and by the time it is twenty it is mostly a soft-hulled affair that has difficulty about its insurance rat- ing--that is, it did before the days of steel hulls, which have left all wooden craft yet in existence quite out of the water, so to speak. But it was the steel bottom that the vessel owner was troubled about. He had long ago given up any speculation over wooden vessels. "I tell you,' said he, "that we had better hurry up and get our new boat out as soon as possible er she will be out of date before she has carried a cargo." And then he went on to say that he was informed that the latest frills in 500-ft. steamers were in the line of elegant out- side accommodation for the captain and his favored half- dozen passengers. The telescope hatch cover that shuts up like a book, the electric light at every turn, the jack-knife bridge, are all old now. What the vessel owner had in mind was an outfit of glass that he had heard was, to be thrown about the captain as he stood watching the course of the vessel and another glass apartment for the guests, so that they could all see everywhere about them and not be ex- posed to any of the approaches of the scythe-edged zephyrs that abound on the water. The days when the steamer comes in with the captain in oil skins just able to see above an im- provised canvas wind break that is fringed with ice are also over, then. . He is a bit of canned fruit now. It is well. But jests and fads and frills aside, this search for novelty is what has made the lake trade what it is. There may have been some extravagances, but in the main the progress has been made not only along utilitarian lines, but it has been compelled by the demands of the traffic. It. has been made necessary if any money was to be made in the business. Let us suppose that we were today handling ore as we were twenty-five years ago in vessels carrying not more than 2,500 tons, many of them still under sail. Who would consider it worth the while to fit out this spring with chances thus afforded before him? That is, if the margins of profit had been drawn down as close as they generally have been and the railroads had been as aggressive? Better make bonfires of the fleet. And so it has come about that the inventor with anything on his list that promises to do this or avoid doing that at a smaller cost or a greater speed than anything going has only to make his device known and he is wanted. 'The busi- ness cannot afford to get along without him. They say in Europe that next to our fast rate of speed the next thing that aids us in taking the industrial and business lead in so many things is that we know the value of the scrap heap. This is one reason why a vessel owner is today putting his money into 500-ft. steel vessels when he has on his list per- haps a half dozen wooden ones that will find it just so much harder to make expenses. They say that half the vessels coming in here are still wood, but that is not saying, of KR & . VY 42.8 course, that they represent half the tonnage. 'Tonawanda gets little yet: but wooden service, but that is on account of the shallow Niagara channel and the size of its lumber trade. There seems to be a race on now between wooden vessels and the lake lumber trade as to which shall give out first. It is a sad condition of things, though if we could make the shift from lumber as readily as we have from wooden vessels there would be no distress. They are saying these days more and more that wars are _ the inevitable compellers of advancement and must go on and it seems that degeneration and destruction are the chief spurs to business. Seize upon new things that make for prog- ress and turn your back upon everything in the way, no matter how much it has cost you, or you are out of the race. JOHN CHAMBERLIN. APPOINTMENTS OF MASTERS AND ENGINEERS Western Transtt Co, Buffalo, N: Y.< Steamers--Boston, Capt. H. L. Dennis, Engineer Patrick Welch; Buffalo, Capt. John Fisher, Engineer James Sangers; Chicago, Capt. Thomas Slattery, Engineer John W. Rainey; Commodore, Capt. M. Folan, Engineer John Metke; Duluth, Capt. E. R. Jones, En- gineer F. A. Miller; Milwaukee, Capt. F. D. Osborne, Engineer J. W. Mark; Mohawk, Capt. Henry Murphy, Engineer C. L. Murray; Superior, Capt. Donald Gillies, Engineer ; Syracuse, Capt. John Kennedy, Engineer Dan Donahue; Troy, Capt. Robert Murray, Engineer Fred W. Hale; Utica, Capt. John Davis, Engineer Henry Hess. Barges--Ben Brink, Capt. Axel Ruske; Grey Oak, Capt. Roderick Almy. Goodrich Transportation Co.,. Chicago, Ill.: Seamers-- Christopher Columbus, Capt. Charles E. Moody, Engineer G. McLaughlin; Virginia, Capt. E. E. Redner, Engineer G. P. Roth; Indiana, Capt. E. Taylor, Engineer, Wm. Nicholas; City of Racine, Capt. J. A. Wilson, Engineer Felix Neider; Iowa, Capt. John Raleigh, Engineer Julius Bushmann; Atlanta, Capt. C. McCauley, Engineer Joseph Peroutka; Georgia, Capt. Charles Bronson, Engineer C. H. Bon; Sheboygan, Capt. A. E. Johnson, Engineer A. Galbraith; Chicago, Capt. , En- ginecr Thomas Dorey,.Tug: Arctic, Capt. B. Sniffen, En- gineer C. Germanson. Hall Coal Cp.; George, Ogdensburg, N. Y.: Steamers-- John C. Howard, Capt. D. Hourigan, Engineer D. M. Doyle; John Pugee, Capt. R. Fitzgerald, Engineer A. E. Cline; Hecla, Capt. W. A. Russell, Engineer R. -G. Jardin. Tue Wm. L: Proctor, Capt. Joseph Richard, Engineer Joseph W. Estes. Schooner--W. A. Sherman, Capt. M. Hourigan. Barge ;-- Bolivia, Capt. Ed. W. Maloney; Mary Lyon, Capt. S. La Flam; Jennie Mathews, Capt. F. D. Lurn; Black Diamond, Capt. John Gokey; Mohawk, Capt. Alfred H. Michael; Onon- daga, Capt. Alfred de Repentiguey; E. B. Beals. Bradwell, Thomas, Chicago, Ill.: Schooners--J. B?! Wilbor, Capt. Frank McGregor; A. Bradley, Capt. John Hodell; Nor- man, Capt. Robert McGregor. Tugs--V. Gray, Capt. Wm. Brown, Engineer Thomas Corrigan; Leslie, Capt. C. Chapman, Engineer D, Fritz; J. B. Bradwell, Capt. George McDonald, Engineer Robert Ragan. Scow--Buble Creek, Capt. John May, Engineer James Wilton. Pauly, H. J., Milwaukee, Wis.: son, Capt. H. Oertling, Jr., Engineer Thomas Martin; John Duncan, Capt. Wm. McLean, Engineer B. Aldrich; Walter Vail, Capt. John McAvoy, Engineer ; Harlem, Capt: Edward Hendricks, Engineer Schooners--Aberdeen, Capt. Thomas Leisk; Baltic, Capt. Andrew Peterson. Smith Co., L. P. & J. A., Cleveland, O.: Steamer--Rhoda Stewart, Capt. G. W. Ferguson, Engineer L. Gelimas. Barges --Wm. Grandy, Capt. David Gleason; Constitution, Capt. A. McWillis; N. P. Baldwin, Capt. Wm. Kelley; Mikado, Capt. I', Jennings; Agnes L. Potter, Capt. John Nelson. Teagan Bros., Detroit, Mich.: Steamers--Sancoa, Capt. J. Steamers--Thomas David-