While his steamboat had no rival for speed on the Arkansas River, from its mouth at the Mississippi to Little Rock and Fort Gibson, there were two or three rivals on the Mississippi River, between St. Louis and New Orleans. One of these boats, said to be the fastest on the river, attempted to pass the Lucy Walker one day on the way down.
Vann had a crew of thirty negroes, said to have no superiors on the river. He told the boys that the Lucy Walker must be kept ahead, no matter at what cost. An allowance of grog was given to each, and all promised to stand up to the work.
The rival boat was gaining on them; the usual fuel failed to give sufficient speed. Vann went around and told the hands to gather up everything that would burn. Tar and bacon were thrown into the furnace, and soon the Lucy Walker was forging ahead of her rival.
Timbers of the boat creaked and groaned; the furnace was red hot; the boilers were seething and foaming; the heat was terrific. The passengers, of whom there were about one hundred and fifty, became alarmed; but Vann was cool as a cucumber. He told his negro crew that they would beat the rival boat or all go to Hades together, and they promised to stand by him.
Then came an awful explosion, and nothing remained of the Lucy Walker but scattered fragments. Most of the negro crew were blown to atoms, about forty passengers were killed, and nearly all the rest more or less injured. Vann's body was found, horribly mangled.
YOUTHFUL ROMANCE OF THE QUAKER POET.
WHY WHITTIER NEVER MARRIED.
Story of His Affection for Miss Downing
and the Sudden and Unexplained
Break in Their Relations.
The article on "World-Famous Bachelors," in the April Scrap Book, has led a New Jersey reader to call our attention to the early romance of John G. Whittier's life. Why Whittier remained a bachelor was not generally known until the death, at the age of eighty-five, of the only sweetheart he ever had—Elizabeth Bray Downing, of West Newbury, Massachusetts.
Whittier met Miss Downing at East Haverhill, Massachusetts, when he was twenty years of age. They seem to have fallen in love with each other very quickly, but it was not long before they suddenly parted, for some reason never explained. One rumor had it that the coming poet decided that he could not marry because he had to provide for his mother. However that may be, they rarely met thereafter, and both remained unmarried.