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4 NEWS AROUND THE LAKES. ———— TS O—————— CLEVELAND. Tue OTIS ELEVATOR PROPERTY LEASED BY THE CLEVELAND COMMERCIAL CO.— CONTROVERSY OVER RIVER IMPROVEMENTS. : CLEVELAND, June 25. The Cleveland Commercial Co. which has for some time operated the Big Four dock, has closed a lease of the Otis Elevator, near the foot of River street, and will at once renovate it and prepare it for use.. This is a direct outgrowth of the Cleveland Canal Boat Co.’s en- terprise. Although the Cleveland Commercial Co: has only lately erected a large freight house at the Big Four dock, with 150 feet front on'the river, the trausfer busi- ness between rail and water has grown to such an ex- tent that the company were obliged to look out for the future and to take care of the present overflow. To this end the Otis property was leased. A spur of the Big Four tracks now runs into this elevator, aud it will be used only for warehouse purposes at present; but arrangements are being made to use this as a transfer point for certain grain which comes in from the south- west, and to load it directly on the canal boat here for transportation to New York. This is a trade which it will require some time to get in shape, and arrange- ments have to be made with the railroads, new tariffs issued, and a great deal of detail work acccomplished; but the trade is in sight, although the first use of the elevator may prove to be the transfer of flaxseed and other grains coming from Duluth into cars to be for- warded to Pittsburg, Philadelptia, andelsewhere. The capacity of the elevator is about 150,000 bushels. The Cleveland Commercial Co. also has arrangements with the Cleveland & Buffalo Transit Co., whereby a good deal of the incoming rail freight is transferred to that lines ; Those in charge of the expenditure of municipal funds for marine improvements are showing too much of their old-time disposition to talk instead of going to work. This criticism does not apply to those of the commis- sion’ who are in the marine business, for they have. too vivid a sense of the need for haste to allow of any lapse of time that:isnot absolutely necessary. But the time has come when a hint to hasten had to be given by the fed- eral government, a hint that means that if the ar- rangements long ago agreed upon are not carried ont by the city, the U. S. government will rebuild the old west pier upon its present site, declining to run any risks of getting into legal controversies over land titles, which are to be guaranteed by the city. A great deal of wind is being wasted over the proposition to put a draw in the Lake Shore tracks at the head of the old river bed, a scheme of very questionable benefit at best, and one which will beresisted by the Lake Shore Railroad Co. till the bitter end, and with good reason, too. Ina few days the federal appropriation will be available, and Col. Smith and his superiors are anxious to know, just as soon as possible, how the money is to be expended. It is to be hoped that sufficient pressure will be brought in this way to secure some promptness of action on the part of the city. The workings of the new coal car dumping plant on the Pennsylvania dock operated by the Cuddy-Mullen coal Co., were inspected by President Roberts of the Pennsylvania, together with James McCrea, of Pitts- burg, Mr. Loree, Chief Engineer Thomas Rodd and others. ‘The Colonial was being loaded at the time. The dredge Hercules, of the Cleveland Dredging Co.’s outfit, is at work improving the channel there, although no trouble has yet been experienced. q The auxiliary steamyacht LibertyWare is ona cruise to Georgian Bay. On board are Capt. John W. Moore, one of her owners, and Capt. C. G. Ennis, who has been appointed to one of the Rockefeller steamers, and is off for a vacation before she comes out. Claude Ennis and Mrs. Ennis are also on board, with three young ladies, Misses Leick, Winslow, and Greischer. The Ware has a steel boiler house on deck, which gives her much the same appearance as the Walk-in-the-Water. She has a new type of reversible propeller, which is being givena thorough trial. Capt. Frank Hendrich, of the steamer Waverly, was hurt a couple of weeks ago by the falling of a piece of iron, which struck him a glancing blow on the head after falling forty feet. Capt. Hendrick had a narrow escape, and was so badly hurt that he was somewhat flighty, and at the end of the trip was taken to his home in Detroit. Heis all right again now, and writes Mr. J. C. Gilchrist that he able to resume command, The Waverly has in the interim been in charge of the mate. : BUFFALO. Evervsopy WAITING To SER A RACE BETWEEN CrTy OF BUFFALO AND THE NortH West or NortH Lanp —GETTING AFTER THE VIGILANT. Special Correspondence to The Marine Record. BUFFALO, June 23. Oats and ore appear to be most in evidence in last week’s receipts, though lumber jumped up considerably. But oats received by lake amounted to considerably THE MarinE RECORD. more than 2,000,000 bushels, and ore exceeded 20,000 tons. There has been good dispatch all round except that some of the ore boats were bunched for the Buffalo furnace, a failing that we shall promptly lay to Cleveland, as the furnace is managed there. The jam is about over and appears to have happened merely because the boats came in faster than was expected. All talk of the Buffalo ‘‘strike’’ appears to have been dropped. It is hoped that the other ports will learn to depend on the regular correspondents in these matter and not on someone who may happen to be working some private end, as appears to have been the case this time. We are in the service of the whole marine of the lakes in that capacity, and are, or ought to be, known to a great share of the peopie who are in the marine busi- ness, which is quite different from those who are not regularly in the service and who are in no special way accountable for their utterances. : It is hard to say what there is in racing that. will stir up a marine man in the way it will. It must be that he takes his share of the natural fighting qualities the race possesses in that way. Ever since the new City of Buffalo came out there has been a constant pricking up of ears all along the docks.if anyone mentioned her in connection with the Northern passenger liners. A race was in the air in spite of everything, but it camnie to nothing. ‘The Buffalo leaves here an hour ahead of of the Northern boats and some of the eager people were so sure of a race, even on these conditions, that that they imagined that one came off the first night the two liners came over the route the same night and were ready next morning to say how they came out. But now an actual challenge has been given by Superintendent Brown, of the Northern liners, and eagerly accepted by Capt. Edwards, of the City of Buffalo. It is rather in- formal, but is at least plain enough. When the side- wheeler wants to try titles she is to wait till the sailing time of the Northern boat, and there will be a race. This appears to give Capt. Edwards the choice of adver- saries, and so far as the public knows there is as much speed in one of the Northern liners as the other. And now someone is holding a chip on the shoulder of the Christopher Columbus and claiming that she can run twenty-one miles an hour, between Milwaukee and Chicago. Though it is claimed that she did once lay out one of the Northern boats, she will need to look to her laurels right away, in spite of her twenty-one miles, for if the two boats for Cleveland get to racing this sum- mer, as is now expected they will, there will be better time made than that. I would advise the steamer Vigilant, of raft-tow- ing and buoy-moving fame, to watch out a trifle or she will get into trouble. The lake service generally is getting very hot over her exploits, especially when her captain, after carrying off every channel marker he comes up to, is saucy and unapproachable whenever anyone tries to reason with him. I saw someone look- ing for her owner to-day that looked very much like Secretary Keep, of the Lake Carriers’ Association, who said that he had stood the thing about as long as he thought it proper and he was preparing for summary measures. Some head-line writer takes the dispatch from here, stating that the: inside harbor course between Buffalo and lower Black Rock was opened again, to mean that Niagara River has been closed ever since the barge Galatea knocked the bridge into the water at Ferry street. There is a mile of the river as open as it ever was, the inner course being a mere still-water affair for towing barges up stream, and not very much used. One of the stories of the late H. M. Peck that his friends like to tell, is of his way of making long trips to far-away lands and coming back full of the new things he had seen. He would never enter into the matter of the cost of his journeys. If anyone asked him how much he was out for the jaunt he would say that it was nothing worth talking about. ‘I am just spending some of the of my heirs. It doesn’t belong to me,’ he would say. The biggest story that has gone afloat of late is from the canal-boat service. The canal steamer Marion took three loaded grain boats out ofhere for New York and increased the tow to five on reaching the Hudson. At Tarrytown she dropped them and ran in for supplies. A storm came up and they were soon in great danger of being lost. When the river tug Stevens came along she found them tossing about in Tappan Zee and not a man on board one of them. Theyhad got tired of waiting for the steamer and gone ashore to kill time. The tug brought them all to dock and has now libeled them for salvage. The New York paper which first told the story, says the whole tow and cargoes are worth $50,000 and there is a good chance of someone standing a quar- ter of the amount for salvage. Though the steamer is primarily to blame there is evidence of contributory negligence on the part of the captains. JOHN CHAMBERLIN. DULUTH AND SUPERIOR. OPINION SOMEWHAT DIVIDED ON THE PROPOSED NEw MINNESOTA POINT CANAL—BIDS OPENED FOR DREDG- ING OUT THE DYKE. DuLutH, June 21. Special Correspondence to The Marine Record, Major C. B. Sears has been addressing letters to the commercial bodies of Duluth and Superior with a view to enabling the business interests of the two cities to get together and agree upon what they want in points where difference ‘exists in regard to the plan of the harbor. The idea of abandoning both the Superior and Duluth entrances, and making a new cut through the central portion of Minnesota Point, is agajn being brought to the front, the open lake. Major Sears opened bids last Saturday for the im-— provement of the charnels in St Louis and Stperior bays, and for the remoyal 6f the old dyke. For the latter work the West2*Duluth Land Co. bids 40c .per lineal foot; C. S. Barker, $1.65; Williams, Green & © Williams, $1.45. The-West Duluth Land Co. bids 19c per cubic yard for dredging in the St. Louis River above... Grassy Point, if the dumping is to be done in the lake, _ and 14c, with privilege of dumping -up the fiver; > © Williams, Green & Williams bid.18c.and—1l2c anaes —— OF St... Louis Bay C.S. Barker bids 14%c, Williams, Green & two conditions; C. S. Barker 21c and 15¥%c. Williams 12c, and for Superior bay the former bid11%(c, and the latter 13}4c. : Mr. Noah W. Gray, who has been manager of the Ashland, Wis., Iron & Steel Co., for several years, has resigned. the company, will succeed him as manager. but the people of Duluth will hardly © consent to it, as it will place Superior in just as good a. position as Duluth in the matter of direct access to- W. H. Hinkle, of Minneapolis, secretary of — Lidia $ Capt. D. . Stephens has secured the contract for tak- ing care of the government buoys and ranges in the harbors of Duluth and Superior, with the exception ofa ~ few down near Allouez Bay. The Barnett-Record Co. have completed all the stone. and steel bridges on the D. & R. R. R. between Duluth and Two Harbors, and are now rushing the work on the new ore dock, which will be ready for work about July 1. : A : Wheat in store here is apportioned among the. various ; terminal elevator lines as follows: Belt Line, 963,943 bu; Consolidated, 2,047,668; Globe, 3,266,686; Great Northern, 921,048; Superior Terminal, 1,582,943; ‘Con- solidated B, 114,819; Consolidated H, 44,783. Aggregate, 8,941,890. There is 16,730,094 bushels of wheat in store at Minneapolis. : ‘ DETROIT. THE City Boasts THE FINEST HARBOR MASTER’S OFFICE ON THE GREAT LAKES—GooD BUSINESS OF THE Pas- SENGER LINES. ; 3 Spectal Correspondence to The Marine Record, 4 DETROIT, June 24. Detroit has now one of the finest harbor master’s of- F For some time the accommo-. - dation had been unsatisfactory, and several plans were fices on the Great Lakes. proposed, until finally it was decided to utilize a small part of the open front facing the river in front of the municipal electric lighting plant. The building is built of selected brick, with smooth mortar uséd;.and has boat and office entrances from the river-side. , stories high, the lower floor being composed of concrete, and the upper floor of hardwood, finished, as is the wainscoating, in oil. Everything ‘about the building will be first-class, and the most pleasant spot on the en- tire city river front has been selected. :The rear and right side of the building is fanked with a large lawn back of which is the lighting plant. A derrick is to be used in raising and lowering the harbor master’s: boat and the building will be lighted with electricity. The site is owned by the city, and it is calculated that four. years’ rent, at the old office rate, will pay for the new. building. The entire place is practically fire-proof, and is one the city ay well be proud of. General PassengerAgent Schaantz has again come to the front with an advertising card unique of its:-kind. It represents the four principal boats of their line ac- tively engaged in making good their runs on a base- ball diamond while less successful competitors arefran- On Monday’. tically endeavoring to ‘put them ont.’’ night the City of Alpena went up with every stateroom full, and the City of Cleveland took 300 Mystic Shriners to Cleveland to attend the Imperial Council of the A. A. O. N. M.S. at Cleveland on Tuesday. - The passenger steamer Cambria, of the Windsor and Soo Line, running from Sandusky to the Sault, ran on, a rock in a fog on Georgian Bay last Friday. The af-. fair was kept very quiet, and two or three days passed before the news was known. On Tuesday the vessel was released by the steamer Majestic. he Cambria:is very staunch, and it is understood is little the worse for. her rub with the rocks. It has just been learned that the accident to the Min- eral Rock off Lorain on Sunday last was due to her at: tempting to carry her canvas through the squall in ore der to beat the schooner Reuben Doud, with which she was racing. The annual meeting of the New London Steamboat _ Co, was held at New London, Ct., on the 10th inst. Alexander McVittie, Frank E. Kirby and Gilbert N. McMillan, of Detroit, are the principal stockholders in the line. Mr. McVittie was elected president of the company; J. N. Harris, of New London, vice-president‘ and Robert Coit, of New London, treasurer. New London and. New York in conncction with the Grand Trunk and Central Vermont Railways, and a side-wheel passenger steamer between New Mystic Island, Watch Hill and Block Island. - It; is. two. : The com- pany operates two package freight steamers between ~— London, oe