Preview Book Chapter<\/p>\n
River Shows, Blues, Ragtime, Jazz and Country Music<\/em><\/p>\n It All Equals Rockabilly, Part One<\/em><\/p>\n For release in July 2023<\/p>\n By Matt Chaney, chaneysblog.com<\/p>\n Excerpt posted Wednesday, February 8, 2023<\/p>\n Copyright 2023 for historical arrangement and original content by Matt Chaney, FourWallsPublishing<\/p>\n Throughout the 1890s, experts groped to identify an \u201cAmerican music.\u201d Some claimed white minstrelsy was the genuine brand while others anointed black spirituals. Some declared Protestant hymnology as native music; others argued\u00a0for massive choral singings in the Northeast, thousands of voices together, multi-ethnic, singing to heaven, but rather contrived for originality. American symphony and opera were hyped as pure pedigrees, but composers and players copied the Europeans in perpetual default.<\/p>\n Meantime, \u201crag\u201d and blues music broke out along the midland rivers, and jazz method gelled in the Mississippi Valley delta. Ragtime enthusiasts proclaimed birth of an American music<\/em>, and much of the world agreed. Ragtime music and piano rolls were printed to document a style and ignite a dance revolution. Around 1900 a syncopated masterpiece in publication fairly settled the debate over a native sound, the \u201cMaple Leaf Rag\u201d by Scott Joplin, Afro-American composer in Sedalia, Mo.<\/p>\n \u201cNow you may go anywhere along the Mississippi River from St. Louis to New Orleans\u2014at Cairo, Memphis, Natchez\u2014anywhere that negroes congregate among the cotton bales or drone away the summertime among the grain wharves, and you will hear the rag,\u201d observed Charles E. Trevathan, white composer and music critic, reared in the upper delta. \u201cSometimes it is slow, mournful, wailing; sometimes it swings sensuously; sometimes, when the gin is in, it is wild, half barbaric; sometimes it takes on that shu-sha of the buck and wing, quick, sharp, staccato and dangerous to the Christian heel which deems dancing a sin.\u201d<\/p>\n \u201cThe rag is by no means a musical clown. Its peculiar rhythm fits the wail and the sob of melody quite as well as the sugar heel shakes; it all depends upon the manner of expression. Rag is rhythm. It has nothing to do with the melody. It is simply a time beat, which is not march, schottische, waltz or anything but rag. But it makes some homely tunes delightful. You might call it broken time; time with joints in it; but time which is perfect in that the beats are true to the measure. Artists say one may put two colors close together and between them produce the effect of a third. The dropped note isn\u2019t lost.\u201d<\/p>\n \u201cRag goes on doing that for you,\u201d Trevathan stated. \u201cGiving you cues and suggestions until the melody is done. You think you never heard \u2018Suwanee River\u2019 quite like that before.\u201d<\/p>\n *******<\/p>\n John Streckfus, Sr., died at St. Louis in 1925, age 69, at zenith of his excursion boat empire on the rivers. Streckfus had extended the steamboat business with his pleasure crafts, modified \u201cgingerbread\u201d packets and ferries of the Victorian Era, during the early 20th<\/sup> Century. Moreover, the Streckfus boats constituted \u201ca floating conservatory\u201d of dance music, spanning decades, to influence entertainment worldwide.<\/p>\n Streckfus excursion boats brought waves of music stars, Louis Armstrong among them, along with untold talents lesser known. A legend followed that Streckfus \u201cbrought jazz upriver\u201d with black musicians from New Orleans, a misnomer, because his company found cutting-edge, multi-ethnic artists ranging from Iowa to Louisiana. Additionally, musical improvisation was scarce on the boats; some said it was nonexistent. John Streckfus and sons mandated set numbers from pop to swing, for every band.<\/p>\n Ragtime syncopation carried hot dance numbers on Streckfus boats from 1899 to 1916, played largely by whites of the North. Many musicians hailed from Rock Island, Ill, Moline, Ill., and Davenport, Ia., or the \u201cTri-Cities\u201d\u2014later designated the Quad Cities with Bettendorf, Ia.\u2014native region of the Streckfus clan in America.<\/p>\n John Streckfus was born on a farm of upland prairie near Edgington in Rock Island County, a few miles off the Mississippi, in 1856. His parents were German immigrants, Balthazar and Anna Streckfus, and Johnny was their blonde son, bright and chafing at farm life. He heard steamboat whistles over the hills, and calliope music. He spied the smoke from boats and longed for the river, even so young. Balthazar drove wagonloads of wood to steamer landings, and Johnny happily went along. Their drop sites included Drury\u2019s Coal and Wood Yard in the bottoms off Illinois bluffs, across from Muscatine, Ia.<\/p>\n Johnny\u2019s favorite place was Rock Island, an industrious town with Moline adjoined, and Davenport across the river. The Tri-Cities comprised a unique culture settled by \u00e9migr\u00e9 Germans, Belgians and Swedes. Quality workmanship was the hallmark of local products from manufacturing to milling.<\/p>\n John Deere\u2019s Moline Plow Factory was pride of all, famed riverfront complex of stone and brick, employing 120 craftsmen in iron, steel and wood works. \u201cMr. John Deere is the first man who succeeded in making a steel plow which would scour and keep uniformly bright in the light rich soil of the prairie and bottomlands of the West,\u201d noted the Des Moines Statesman<\/em>. \u201cThe large factory is so perfectly arranged, and the different parts so systematically constructed, that it is almost impossible for an imperfect one to leave the shop.\u201d The Rock Island Argus<\/em> stated western farmers \u201cowe a debt of gratitude to Mr. John Deere.\u201d In 1865 the factory produced 15,000 plows and 2,000 cultivators that sold out, for appreciation repaid by tillers of the land.<\/p>\n Rock Island had foundries, machines shops, wagon factories, furniture makers, boat builders, printers and mercantile stores. Brick groceries towered above streets, two and three stories high. Trains clattered in and out for the Chicago & Rock Island Railroad yard and transfer barges. Timber industry fueled commerce on the Upper Mississippi, Northern pine felled by lumberjacks, sending down massive log rafts rom Minnesota and Wisconsin. Sawmills cranked into the nights along lowlands of Rock Island Township. The Weyerhaeuser and Denkmann mill cut a million logs annually, with peak turnout of 150,000 board feet and 110,000 shingles per week, among products.<\/p>\n Papa Streckfus preferred Rock Island for milling his grain as well as jobs in wagon-making. Balthazar was known as \u201cMister S,\u201d a likeable, honest man, religious, dedicated to task. Balthazar Streckfus was a skilled woodworker and smithy who crafted wagons, carriages and sleighs. He was increasingly in demand at Rock Island, where Johnny\u2019s river obsession came to a head between father and son. Johnny stowed away on a departing steamer one afternoon, but Balthazar caught up at the next landing, racing to with his wagon team. Johnny was punished, and he cried, \u201cI will have a steamboat of my own someday!\u201d<\/p>\n Balthazar and Anna disapproved. They kept Johnny focused on a \u201cland occupation,\u201d farm work, and he was accepting, respectful of their wishes. Johnny valued discipline and grasped the bravery of his parents for once fleeing a torn homeland, toting two small girls with Anna pregnant, boarding a boat to sail across the Atlantic to the Gulf of Mexico. Their first son, Michael, was born at sea and baptized Catholic upon arrival in New Orleans.<\/p>\n Steamboats lined the New Orleans wharf, but Balthazar and Anna could afford none, so they cobbled together a flatboat from scrap for cordelling up the Mississippi, towing it by line from riverside. The process was called \u201cbushwhacking\u201d and most appropriately, as the young parents discovered. They plodded upstream along the bending river, tugging rope against current and obstructions, negotiating paths and brush.<\/p>\n The couple pulled their flatboat upriver during summer 1850, with toddlers, infant and goods, crawling past Cairo, St. Louis and Keokuk, to reach Drury\u2019s Landing at tip of Rock Island County. Winter was coming and the family had few possessions, scant money, but within the decade Balthazar and Anna owned a tidy farm and home near Edgington. The farm was the secure setting of earliest memories for Johnny. He trusted and obeyed his parents, if grudgingly at times. Their actions spoke of high standards, working full days and evenings, sacrificing and succeeding for six children, all to reach adulthood.<\/p>\n In 1867 Balthazar Streckfus made a move to Rock Island, purchasing a wagon works with living quarters near the Mississippi waterfront. Johnny was thrilled. Now he visited the river daily, counting the steamers, surveying freight and passengers, meeting roustabouts, deckhands and pilots. Stories were swapped, data exchanged, and the kid impressed people with his river facts and trivia.<\/p>\n Johnny Streckfus \u201cwas able to distinguish every boat on the river by its whistle,\u201d read an account. \u201cHis knowledge of the river and boats while yet a mere lad\u2026 was so phenomenal that he gained the sobriquet of The Boy Wonder among rivermen. He knew the location of every sandbar, every twist of the channel, the names of all the boats, their owners and captains.\u201d<\/p>\n Obviously, the boy scoured news and maps of the Mississippi while retaining observations and conversational bits. At night he watched gaslights twinkle from Davenport, across the water, and wondered of that place.<\/p>\n \u201cDavenport goes in heavily on metropolitan affairs,\u201d remarked the Rock Island newspaper, criticizing social agenda across the river. \u201cA grand citizens ball is be given at the [Davenport] Opera House, with \u2018full promenade band and dancing orchestra\u2019\u2014what that is we don\u2019t know,\u201d cracked The<\/em> Argus<\/em>.<\/p>\n But Rock Island editors could only feign disgust because their community had plenty entertainment, starting with full orchestras for waltzing promenades at masked balls. Quadrille bands held square dances, their fiddlers lording over jigs and breakdowns. Ethnic musicians played polkas, schottisches and mazurkas. Brass bands and concert ensembles rendered the classics of symphony and opera. Every local musician of dance bands knew popular tunes.<\/p>\n Rock Island was home of bandleader Jacob Strasser, dean of Tri-City musicians, \u201cPaganini of The Northwest\u201d on violin. Strasser turned fiddler for Turkey In The Straw<\/em>, a preference of dancers. Flashy cornetist August Storm led his band on Steamer Kate Cassel<\/em>, for local excursions and weekend trips to St. Louis. \u201cThey are all Germans and know how to talk music through their instruments,\u201d The<\/em> Argus<\/em> reviewed.<\/p>\n Steamer excursions grabbed Johnny\u2019s attention, the mirthful parties on cleared decks, folks sharing food, dancing, cruising along. Decorated pleasure boats were novel and colorful in contrast to steam packets of mere freight and travelers. \u201cMoonlight Excursion\u201d trips were booked by fraternal organizations and women\u2019s societies; by companies, labor groups, clubs and schools; and by churches such as St. Mary\u2019s Catholic of Rock Island, where the Streckfus family worshipped. The steamers Duke<\/em>, Phil Sheridan<\/em>, Ben Campbell<\/em>, Charley Cheever<\/em>, Mary Morgan<\/em>, Jennie Brown<\/em> and Fanny Harris<\/em> were packets for Tri-City pleasure trips of the latter 19th<\/sup> Century.<\/p>\n Touring productions and entertainers appeared regularly during the 1860s and \u201970s, as John Streckfus finished school and entered the family business. Troupes and performers arrived by river, railroad and trail, showing primarily in big tents and local venues. Rock Island showplaces were Dart\u2019s Hall and Harper\u2019s Theatre, hosting many of the same acts as Cairo venues on the Lower Mississippi. Circuses and menageries included shows of Spalding and Rogers, Dan Rice, Isaac Van Amburgh, Dan Castello, George DeHaven, Bill and Agnes Lake, Seth B. Howes, Adam Forepaugh, John Robinson, and Fayette \u201cYankee\u201d Robinson.<\/p>\n Rock Island sold out for Jacob \u201cHerr\u201d Driesbach and his menagerie, accompanying Mabie\u2019s Circus from Delavan, Wis. Driesbach was legendary trainer of big cats, one of the greats alongside \u201cLion King\u201d Van Amburgh. Al Ringling was a circus strongman for Yankee Robinson prior to the launch of the Ringling brothers\u2019 wagon show from Baraboo, Wis., in 1884.<\/p>\n Minstrelsy stars played Rock Island such as Tony Pastor, Ben Cotton, Sam Sharpley, Frank Dumont, Billy Birch, Edwin French, E.M. Hall, George Wilson, David Wambold, Billy Emerson, Billy Manning, E.N. Slocum and Cal Edwards. Afro-American groups brought Billy Kersands, Tom McIntosh, Dick Little, Jimmy Bland, Sam Lucas, the Bohee brothers, and the Hyer Sisters. Black pianist Blind Tom Wiggins wowed his participatory audience, naturally, replaying contributed snatches precisely, down to errors, for feats of memory and imitation. Norwegian violinist Ole Bull packed Dart\u2019s Hall, and Buffalo Bill\u2019s Wild West troupe rattled Harper\u2019s Theatre, thrilling the house with song, dance and gunshots. There were headliner vocalists, bell ringers and comedians with The Alleghanians, Hutchinson Family, and Peak Family. Tony Denier\u2019s pantomime clowns were encored for comedy dance, acrobatics and trapeze. Burlesque drew heavy in Rock Island, especially the Wallace Sisters and Madame Rentz\u2019s troupe.<\/p>\n Entrepreneur John Streckfus savored music and theatre, played some violin, but he was usually busy as others indulged entertainment. Streckfus did not make society pages except for news of his marriage to Theresa Bartemeier, of Davenport. Streckfus advertised his enterprises in grocery, milling, storage and rentals. He did operate Streckfus Hall one winter, hosting parties and hiring bands along with a dance instructor\u2014his idea of fun, business-connected.<\/p>\n Streckfus hung out at Kahlke marine ways in a harbor near town, a wondrous place where steamers were overhauled, and boats built. John and his brothers constructed their own business buildings and family homes, impeccably maintained. John Streckfus was foreman of the Wide-Awake Boys, volunteer firemen of Rock Island, and he boosted brick-paved roads and more civic improvements. Streckfus attended St. Mary\u2019s Church, serving as pallbearer for a priest\u2019s funeral. He and Theresa gave church offerings and underwrote parish fundraising while starting their brood, eventually nine children.<\/p>\n Family patriarch Balthazar Streckfus died in 1881, and John assumed control of enterprises in Rock Island. His brothers Michael and Henry were agrarians at heart, working on their county farmland, and each would relocate to Kansas.<\/p>\n John Streckfus prospered and expanded interests, taking a partner for the grocery and mill in Joseph Schaab, a cousin who managed the stores. Streckfus was publicized occasionally in business, typically for upkeep of property and implements. His Rock Island buildings were always painted shiny with clean awnings, as The<\/em> Argus<\/em> chronicled, and his wagons were strongest, regularly overhauled then replaced with new models. Streckfus bred horses, showcasing fine-blooded teams for his wagons, carriages and racing buggies.<\/p>\n A gregarious man, big and handsome, Streckfus charmed most people he met, especially those involving trade. He advertised weekly in the papers, hand-delivering copy to newsrooms, schmoozing with editors and typesetters. Streckfus was a \u201cthrifty, money-making, honest German, and a Democrat,\u201d commented a scribe.<\/p>\n As a flour distributor, Streckfus rode packets on the river, stoking his desire to own a steamboat, and 1889 brought change. A possible factor was a confrontation between Streckfus and two butchers who mistreated his daughter Lilly. Reportedly the fight was brief, two-on-one, and Streckfus emerged victorious if angry. An announcement soon followed: John Streckfus was in the packet business, having acquired the steamer Verne Swain<\/em>.<\/p>\n \u201cThe boat will be run just as she always has been, only that her purchaser, who is now a grocer in Rock Island, will go aboard and take command,\u201d reported the Davenport Democrat<\/em>. \u201cJohn Streckfus\u2026 is of the opinion that sailing the river over is better than selling groceries.\u201d Friends and acquaintances were startled, seeing this merchant pursue the riverboat fantasy. He was not the first man to do so. Streckfus heard laughter, ridicule, prediction of failure. Skeptics called him \u201cCaptain Farmer\u201d and the cornfield pilot.<\/p>\n But Theresa Streckfus backed her husband, as did editors of the Rock Island Argus<\/em>. The man was driven, productive, and river commerce could not get any worse itself, what with railroads\u2019 taking over freight and passenger traffic. \u201cMr. Streckfus is a thorough businessman, making a success of everything he goes into, and will doubtless prove as accomplished and energetic a skipper as he has a merchant,\u201d The<\/em> Argus<\/em> editorialized. \u201cWe wish him abundant success.\u201d<\/p>\n Streckfus hustled through the final months of packet season, winning customers and positive press for his steamer, cutting time on the daily run, ending by 9 at night instead of 11. \u201cCapt. Streckfus is acknowledged to have the fastest boat on this part of the river,\u201d The<\/em> Argus<\/em> declared. Davenport Democrat<\/em> editors were impressed: \u201cJohn Streckfus of Rock Island is making lots of friends. He spares no pains to accommodate his patrons, and his management is becoming decidedly popular along the river.\u201d<\/p>\n Streckfus moved forward in steam-boating, selling his grocery and mill shares to Schaab. He overhauled the Verne Swain<\/em> at Kahlke boatyard. \u201cIt is the theory and practice of Capt. John Streckfus to keep his craft in the best possible condition,\u201d The<\/em> Argu<\/em>s reported. \u201cHe puts on repairs before they are fairly needed, on the principle of taking a stitch in time to save many more.\u201d<\/p>\n \u201cThe Vernie\u201d steamer, as affectionately referred by Streckfus children, was fitted with an iron hull and wider guards. The remodeled cabin was a clear signal of John\u2019s emphasis on pleasure trips. Stained glass was installed for windows. The wood floor was cleared for gatherings and dancing. A grand piano and easy chairs were placed about.<\/p>\n Streckfus designed and built a party barge, Little Verne<\/em>, for attachment on excursions. Food and beverage were available along with beach items like folding chairs, dishes, cups and utensils. Excursionists brought picnic baskets and potluck meals. Cleanliness was premium, maintained by Streckfus, and news writers lauded the concept. \u201cThere is not a prettier little craft on the inland seas today than the Verne Swain, and Captain Streckfus may feel pride in her.\u201d<\/p>\n Streckfus made steamboat rides fashionable again from Keokuk north to Clinton. Many commuters forsook trains for Verne<\/em> service, pleasant and prompt. \u201cThe Verne Swain is the best-paying and altogether the most satisfactory little packet on the upper river in the short trade,\u201d observed The<\/em> Argus<\/em> on a summer weekday. \u201cShe has a good passenger list all the time she runs, and nowadays it is more than merely good. This morning her deck was crowded.\u201d<\/p>\n During the 1890s, Streckfus expanded his market and flotilla. He added the fast Steamer Freddie<\/em>, built by the Kahlke brothers, and City of Winona<\/em>, a sizeable packet.\u00a0 Barge Acme<\/em> enhanced the line, a double-deck party raft with electric lights, named for Streckfus\u2019 Acme Packet Company. Excursions offered amusements such as sightseeing, shopping, Kodak picture-taking, fishing, berry-picking, picnicking, singing and dancing. Around the Tri-Cities, boat music was furnished by choirs, quartets, soloists, instrumentalists, brass bands, string bands and full orchestras.<\/p>\n Ragtime tunes were standard along the Mississippi and Ohio rivers, and Streckfus artists rendered syncopation in the Tri-Cities. Lee Grabbe, boat pianist and songsmith, composed ragtime covered by the Haverly\u2019s Minstrels and Mahara\u2019s Minstrels. Iowan Jack Mahara brought minstrel bandleader W.C. Handy to Rock Island, Moline and Davenport during 1896-97. Handy ragged his cornet flurries of Grabbe melodies at the Tri-Cities. The local Ernst Otto Band presented raggy compositions on Streckfus boats, and Charles Ogden\u2019s group specialized in \u201cragtime two-step.\u201d<\/p>\n Streckfus hosted an excursion for a group of Iowa news editors, who had a grand time. \u201cJohn and the Verne<\/em> are a pair of great entertainers,\u201d attributed the Davenport Democrat<\/em>. \u201cCaptain Streckfus knows his business, and he has demonstrated to others that he knows it.\u201d<\/p>\n \u201cHe, himself, proved to be one of the best skippers on the river and with his iron will and determination made every port on schedule,\u201d remarked the Muscatine News-Tribune<\/em>. \u201cThe residents along the river soon commenced to set their clocks by the Verne Swain; they fixed their lunchtime by it.\u201d<\/p>\n \u201cBy her whistle the chickens timed their laying, the pigs their swilling, and the cows their milking.\u201d<\/p>\n At winter\u2019s onset, Streckfus steamed south to Cairo with the Verne<\/em> and Little Verne<\/em>, working the Lower Mississippi and up the Ohio to Evansville. He contracted freight loads and sold pleasure trips, making money in the supposed down season for river business\u2014and making news on the cold Upper Mississippi. \u201cToo Much Money Afloat In The South,\u201d headlined the La Crosse Tribune<\/em>. \u201cStreckfus Won\u2019t Tie Up His Boats.\u201d<\/p>\n \u201cArrangements have been made by Captain John to operate his boats all during the winter in Southern waters.\u201d<\/p>\n John Streckfus, cornfield boat pilot, eyed a new market: New Orleans.<\/p>\n *******<\/p>\n In summer 1896, river travelers heard ragtime on the Mississippi, North and South. \u201cSome night when the boat is slipping along between the narrow and overhanging banks, when the moon is playing coy with you through the shifting trees, when sleep is not for you, and the day is immeasurable distances away, you may hear the rag,\u201d reported Charles E. Trevathan, a native of Union City in western Tennessee, on his return to the delta.<\/p>\n \u201cDown on the lower deck, sitting on a cotton bale, a negro begins a low croon, and the guitar whispers. Then low, rich, soft voices fall in with alto and tenor and bass. Then you hear minor harmonies, exquisite, tender, emotional. The guitar swings into the melody with a rhythm you have not known, the whole sense of the song changes, growing sadder or gladder, as the mood of the time may please; you drift off into the paradise whence music knew its being, swaying your body to the movement of the guitar, and shifting your emotions to the mood of the melody.\u201d<\/p>\n \u201cThat is the witchery of the rag.\u201d<\/p>\n Ragtime\u2019s precise origin was unknown, but the music belonged to Afro-Americans, declared practitioners such as Trevathan, a white composer and musician of note. Slaves had played \u201craggy\u201d banjo melodies by accenting the thumb string. \u201cThey didn\u2019t pick it like a guitar, or tinkle it like a mandolin,\u201d Trevathan stated. \u201cThey beat it, striking the strings with a whole arm movement, catching the short string with the thumb after the chord had been struck. Playing an accompaniment, the thumb string made an extra and unnecessary beat, but it gave character to the music.\u201d<\/p>\n \u201cThen the rag was a simple beat, but practice brought it to the dignity of a rhythm, weird, in no degree like any other musical expression, and intensely characteristic of the people who gave it birth.\u201d<\/p>\n A white piano player was popularizing ragtime, Ben R. Harney from Louisville, through his printed music and New York performances in blackface. In 1897 the Kansas City Star<\/em> endorsed ragtime but panned \u201cHarvey,\u201d misspelling the performer\u2019s name. \u201cMr. Harvey is a slim, dreadfully bored-looking young man who hasn\u2019t much of a voice. Mr. Harvey, dazzlingly New York in his figure and weary attitude, sings against a black South Carolina negro [backdrop] and explains, in a sort of lecture, the characteristics of \u2018rag-time\u2019 and the negro melody in general.\u201d<\/p>\n Ben R. Harney appeared in Sedalia, Mo., where he possibly crossed paths with Scott Joplin, an Afro-American pianist and Texas native. Joplin was master of ragtime syncopation at the Maple Leaf Club, incorporated by blacks on East Main in Sedalia. Local music store owner John Stark, a white piano teacher, published Joplin\u2019s composition \u201cMaple Leaf Rag\u201d in late 1899. Stark soon relocated to St. Louis, followed by Joplin, who joined rag piano greats Louis Chauvin and Tom Turpin in the city.<\/p>\n Scott Joplin\u2019s Maple Leaf Rag flew along the Mississippi River with \u201ca terrific wallop\u201d during 1901, \u201ca little number which went on to revolutionize popular piano playing,\u201d recalled Harry L. Thomas, reared in Quincy, Ill. \u201cBroadway between Second and Third streets was lined, both sides, with nightclubs. Each was complete with a piano-playing \u2018professor.\u2019 To get to the riverfront, you had to walk down Broadway. At about 11 p.m., when a half dozen cut loose with \u2018Maple Leaf\u2019 simultaneously\u2014oh, boy!\u201d<\/p>\n Ragtime piano players made news in city and hinterland, including St. Louis, Ste. Genevieve, Cairo and Bird\u2019s Point. In Washington, D.C., Theodore Roosevelt danced to ragtime in the White House. The orchestra struck up \u201cA Hot Time in the Old Town Tonight,\u201d drawing the president to the dance floor with his daughter, Miss Alice Roosevelt, for her coming out party.<\/p>\n The Maple Leaf Rag would top a million sales in sheet music and rolls. \u201cI accord to \u2018ragtime\u2019 all honor,\u201d saluted Roberta Seawell, Nashville pianist. \u201cI believe in it is found the true basis of an American national music. Syncopation, the foundation on which all \u2018ragtime\u2019 is built, bears the same relation to the folk song of the negro.\u201d Seawell, a teacher of classical piano, attested that \u201cone cannot listen to a \u2018rag\u2019 melody and not have all one\u2019s rhythmic senses set going, and this, after all, is the very elemental principle of music.\u201d<\/p>\n \u201cSousa is not so popular now,\u201d proclaimed the New Orleans Times-Democrat<\/em> for a feature on ragtime, describing \u201cjerky, zigzag melodies, these catchy syncopations, these welded musical fragments which have gained such a popular hold on the general public.”<\/p>\n \u00a0\u201cMusic dealers in New Orleans are still surfeited with productions of the \u2018ragtime\u2019 variety, and from present indications there is not likely to be an early decadence of this popular musical eccentricity\u2026 there is not a music dealer who would not say that \u2018raggy\u2019 music is more frequently called for than any other kind.\u201d<\/p>\n \u201cThe public is demanding the frolicsome in music. The gay and giddy air is the thing that catches the public taste,\u201d stated the newspaper. \u201cThey will listen with profound indifference to the sweeter symphonies of Mozart and Gounod, and all the rest, but they will sway and swoon in a perfect spasm of ecstasy over a clever hit in ragtime.\u201d<\/p>\n Modern analysts concurred, a century after the creation. \u201cMost ragtime is robust and cheerful. You can\u2019t listen to it or play it and stay downcast for very long,\u201d said John E. Hasse in 1984, a Kentucky pianist and historian who would become curator of American music for the Smithsonian Institution in Washington. Ragtime \u201chas a motor effect and kind of gets into your body,\u201d Hasse said. \u201cThat driving, propelling rhythm gets to you.\u201d<\/p>\n \u201cThe beauty of ragtime lies in its metrical cadence,\u201d observed Robert W. Tabscott, expert on black history, for the St. Louis Post-Dispatch<\/em> in 2000. \u201cThat syncopation started music to swing and gave rise to a tradition so happy, so tuneful and so authentic that in its youth it seemed as if America was singing to itself. The London Times<\/em>, way back then, called ragtime \u2018the seed of a national art.\u2019 \u201d<\/p>\n \u201cPiano rag was created by southern blacks out of folk melodies and the syncopation of plantation banjos. Those rhythmic skills, coupled with other cultural and artistic styles, produced a music that is truly American.\u201d<\/p>\n St. Louis had its golden age of song at turn of the 20th<\/sup> Century, with Scott Joplin among the influx of contributors. Joplin composed classics in the city, including \u201cThe Entertainer: A Rag Time Two Step,\u201d epitomizing piano syncopation between left hand and right. \u201cThe Entertainer\u201d became famed for the movie The Sting<\/em>. \u201cAlong the docks and up and down St. Louis\u2019 Walnut and Chestnut streets were saloons, sporting houses and pubs,\u201d Tabscott wrote. \u201cThe better-known piano players could be heard at Honest John Turpin\u2019s Silver Dollar Saloon or at his brother Tom\u2019s Rose Bud Caf\u00e9.\u201d<\/p>\n \u201cInto this gaudy setting came swarms of artists, musicians and dancers, many from downriver out of the Mississippi delta. They brought with them field songs, spirituals, cakewalk, ragtime, jazz, blues and gospel\u2014the seeds of our contemporary music traditions.\u201d<\/p>\n \u201cSome of those itinerant musicians were immortalized: Scott Joplin, Tom Turpin, W.C. Handy, and Blind Boone, whose renditions literally set America to dancing.\u201d<\/p>\n *******<\/p>\n Fewer steamboats were built anymore, at the turn of the century. Costs for boat construction skyrocketed while the railroads dominated freight and travel. Yet John Streckfus gambled as a boatman, once again, building his $30,000 steam design at the Howard Shipyard in Jeffersonville, Ind., along the Ohio River, during winter 1900-01.<\/p>\n \u201cIt is an oft-repeated assertion that \u2018the river business is not what it was in olden days,\u2019 \u201d remarked the Caruthersville Democrat<\/em> in Bootheel Missouri, adding \u201cour honored, gray-haired citizens point with glowing pride to the good old antebellum times when the steamboat was the only means of travel, and over that such times are past, never to return. Aye! Glorious days that they were.\u201d<\/p>\n \u201cIt is true that railroads have sprung up and become, in a sense, a formidable competitor of the steamboat.\u201d<\/p>\n The riverport editorial argued nothing ranked with the steamboat for travel. \u201cShe runs easy and smoothly and the noise is reduced to a minimum, while the dust is eliminated altogether. One feels that he is at home, or at any rate in a comfortable place, where enjoyment and pleasure can be had.\u201d<\/p>\n \u201cIt may be somewhat slow and with an uncertain schedule, but the public will always like the steamboat for traveling.\u201d<\/p>\n Streckfus believed Americans would continue to patronize steamboats, but not for freight and traditional passenger service. Rather, in his business model, passenger pleasure was the selling point, specifically excursion trips for fun and leisure. So, Streckfus sold the Verne Swain<\/em> for $7,000, his freight packet that was functional for excursions, to build a boat dedicated to pleasure tripping, from the hull up. Streckfus operated from Rock Island, Ill., of the riverine Tri-Cities with Moline and Davenport, Ia.<\/p>\n \u201cCaptain John Streckfus, the well-known Mississippi River man, has let the contract for the building of what will be the finest steamer upon the inland waters of the United States,\u201d reported the Cassville Index<\/em> in Wisconsin. \u201cIt is being built on an entirely new plan, the object being to attract passengers to the novel craft.\u201d<\/p>\n The Davenport Democrat<\/em> expressed skepticism. Editors had seen Streckfus emphasize excursions for his little steamer fleet, without sharing his enthusiasm. \u201cIf the rumors descriptive of the new passenger packet that Captain John Streckfus is building are correct, he is going to start a new deal in the architecture of boats of that kind on the Upper Mississippi. For years he has had an idea of building at boat much on the principle of the observation cars that run on some of the railroads of this country\u2014glass on all sides, and nothing to obstruct the view.\u201d<\/p>\n \u201cCaptain Streckfus has at last made all that he legitimately could make out of the scenic beauties of the Rock Island rapids,\u201d cracked the Davenport paper. \u201cHe has advertised them as though they surpassed the palisades of the Hudson, the Dalles of the Columbia, or the castled promontories of the Rhine.”<\/p>\n \u201cThe new boat is to be built, according to all reports, to make the most of it for the passenger. It remains to be seen what this care for the comfort and entertainment of his patrons will have to do in the way of increasing their number.\u201d<\/p>\n Streckfus arrived home for Christmas and met with newsmen of the Tri-Cities, explaining his steamer under construction, displaying blueprints\u2014and promising a concentrated advertising campaign. Instantly, the editorial tone switched for the Davenport Democrat<\/em>, from a few weeks prior, reporting:<\/p>\n \u201cMention has been made of this boat several times, but this is the first time she has really begun to take shape as a tangible and actual creation. The great Howard ways, at Jeffersonville, is building her, the largest steamboat yard in the country. Hegewald, of New Albany, Ind., is making her machinery, which is saying the utmost for its perfection and efficiency.\u201d<\/p>\n \u201cIn this boat\u2026 Captain Streckfus is putting the result of his experience and observation as a steamboat owner, master and pilot\u2026 He has gathered some original ideas, and he is working them out.\u201d<\/p>\n \u201cShe is high enough not to look squat and will have plenty of height between decks. Her proportions will give her beauty in every way. Her hull is modeled for the fastest running that any steamer is capable of making. She will have the best engines that Hegewald can build, with cylinders 16-inches by seven-feet stroke.\u201d<\/p>\n \u201cIt will be her accommodations for passengers that will specially mark the new steamer as a great institution, next to her speed. She will be rated for 1,800 people and then room to spare. She will have a [main deck] cabin 100-feet long by 35-feet wide, on the salon plan. She will have no staterooms. Being only a day or at best an evening boat, there will be need for quarters for none but the crew, and they will occupy rooms in the Texas [deck], overhead. A guard wide enough to serve as a veritable verandah will surround the cabin on all sides, affording ample room for people to line the railing, and yet allow promenaders to pass.\u201d<\/p>\n In Rock Island, The Argus<\/em> praised favorite son John Streckfus for \u201cmodern steamboat ideas.\u201d His pending craft had a name, \u201csecret for the present.\u201d<\/p>\n In late June of 1901, John Streckfus launched his new Steamer J.S.<\/em>\u2014initialed for the owner and captain\u2014and headed down the Ohio River, bound for the Upper Mississippi. The sternwheeler was 175-feet long by 43-feet wide with Victorian woodwork, ornate gingerbread, white as snow. Guard walkways were seven feet wide. An electric generator powered bright lights that draped the three decks. The glass-enclosed dance cabin was trimmed in chestnut, to the window frames. Up top, the hurricane deck had steamer chairs, picnic tables, card tables and arcade games.<\/p>\n Streckfus had designed his excursion boat with a model in mind, the massive Island Queen<\/em>, 281-foot pleasure craft of Cincinnati. For Streckfus\u2019 patriotism, the J.S.<\/em> bore pennants of all nations and flew large American flags, the Stars and Stripes, sailing at front and sides. Cabin lights twinkled in red, white and blue.<\/p>\n Thousands turned out along the riverbanks, town and countryside, for \u201cthe magnificent steamer.\u201d It passed Owensboro, stopped at Evansville, and turned into Paducah harbor at night, dazzling folks already accustomed to the Island Queen<\/em>. At Paducah, \u201cWhen [the J.S.] rounded the foot of the island, her electric power was put in full operation, making fantastic flashlights all over the boat, and the lights were reflected strongly on the pagoda-built pilothouse, showing her name in burning letters of electricity.\u201d<\/p>\n The J.S.<\/em> headed up the Mississippi from Cairo, wowing Cape Girardeau, Chester, Ste Genevieve and Crystal City. Factory whistles blew, steamers and towboats blasted salutes. The Streckfus steamer was publicized little outside the Tri-Cities, but word of mouth was huge for its coming.<\/p>\n In St. Louis, \u201cThe new excursion steamer \u2018J.S.\u2019 was at the wharf\u2026 visited by a number of steamboat men, who were very much pleased with her arrangements,\u201d reported the Globe-Democrat<\/em>. \u201cShe left later in the day for Rock Island, Ill., the scene of her future operations.\u201d<\/p>\n Above Keokuk, shoreline crowds intensified through the Iowa-Illinois corridor. The J.S.<\/em> passed Nauvoo, Fort Madison, Burlington and Muscatine. It chugged through the complex of Davenport, Moline and Rock Island, and farther up to Clinton. \u201cIt was an interesting sight to see the demonstrations at various hamlets along the river when the big boat passed by,\u201d remarked the Davenport Republican<\/em>.<\/p>\n \u201cBoys and men stood ready with cannon, large firecrackers and other explosives, and when the J.S. paralleled them, the echo of the admiring populace was heard on the waters.\u201d<\/p>\n Ragtime piano entertained guests aboard the boat, of course, provided by Lee Grabbe, songsmith for famous minstrels. \u201cGrabbe\u2019s orchestra of Davenport furnished music during the trip, and those inclined to dance were accommodated in the magnificently appointed room for this specific purpose on the hurricane deck.\u201d<\/p>\n \u201cOn the return of the boat in the evening, the landing points in Rock Island and Davenport were a sea of anxious persons to see the big J.S. Judging from the spirit and appreciation expressed by the crowds wherever the boat went, the J.S. has been elected the pride and idol on this upper section of the Mississippi.\u201d<\/p>\n \u201cCaptain Streckfus deserves all the credit and success that he is receiving,\u201d declared the Waterways Journal<\/em>, which endorsed excursion vessels, later known as \u201cdance boats.\u201d The St. Louis journal applauded Streckfus for \u201cgreat energy and enterprise in building this floating palace, in face of the fact that he is hemmed in by railroads on both sides of the river.\u201d<\/p>\n \u201cMay further success crown his efforts.\u201d<\/p>\n *******<\/p>\n Memphis was the gambling capital on the Mississippi at turn of the century, a bettor\u2019s destination for horseracing, cockfighting, boxing, billiards, slots, dice, poker, roulette wheels and lotteries. Memphis nightlife complemented the action with saloons, \u201cdives,\u201d \u201cjoints” and riverboats, offering music, alcohol, drugs and sex. The river city of 100,000 was a railroad hub with corrupt politicians and police, beckoning American hustlers and party seekers.<\/p>\n Two gamblers visited regularly from St. Louis, \u201cDangerous Jim\u201d Ray and Ed \u201cFatty\u201d Grimes, black club owners who competed in their home city on friendly terms\u2014until 1904. Trouble brewed as Jim Ray sojourned downriver to Memphis then across to Hot Springs, Ark., gone for a month. Returning home, he discovered his wife had hocked a saloon and diamonds, leaving him for another man. The cheating couple took refuge with Grimes on Chestnut Street, enraging Jim Ray, a killer of record already in St. Louis.<\/p>\n Fatty Grimes owned the Falstaff Club, and Ray sent word he was coming for vengeance. \u201cI will be there,\u201d answered Fatty, proficient himself in cutting and shooting. A battle of guns and knives ensued, and Jim Ray went down in the bloody barroom, dead at age 36. Bystanders stepped over debris to remove gold and diamonds from the corpse. Grimes was jailed but released without prosecution, and he left town, landing on Beale Street in Memphis.<\/p>\n A black saloon man on Beale, Hammitt Ashford, was a \u201cgreat good friend\u201d of the late Jim Ray. Ashford was angry, insulted, seeing Fatty Grimes in the neighborhood, Ray\u2019s killer. Fatty was handsome and bejeweled, attracting females, enflaming Beale Street. The cocky Grimes sported \u201cfine tailored clothes and expensive shoes,\u201d wrote George Washington Lee, author on Beale. \u201cWhen he promenaded down the avenue under the blaze of the streetlights, women crowded close to get a word with him.\u201d<\/p>\n Ashford\u2019s saloon was in the notorious 300 Block of Beale, Number 350 at northwest corner with DeSoto Street [later renamed South Fourth]. One night in wee hour, Fatty Grimes came through Ashford\u2019s front door expecting a woman but meeting gunmen instead. Fatty wheeled and they fired, striking his backside with shots of different calibers. He stumbled outside, drawing his gun late, fumbling, bleeding. Grimes veered a couple doors down to collapse in front the Monarch Saloon, 340 Beale, where he had hustled gamblers and country bumpkins, keeping bar.<\/p>\n Now Fatty was dying. A scavenger snatched up his pistol and strode off. Another thief handled Grimes, removing a huge diamond ring, an encrusted pin, and a gold watch on chain, bling worth $1,500. An undertaker behind the Monarch rushed to the body as it bled out, staking his claim for postmortem business.<\/p>\n Hammitt Ashford was politically wired to the mayor\u2019s office like practically any saloon owner on Beale. A known thug, Ashford assaulted males and females indiscriminately; once, he horse-whipped a black woman for bumping his carriage. Ashford and crew were arrested for the Grimes murder then tried in Memphis mock fashion, being acquitted for a further insult to dead Fatty, killer of Jim Ray.<\/p>\n This was delta reality\u2014inseparable entertainment, alcohol, vice and violence\u2014validated by Beale Street. Many musicians were toughs like R.T. Brown, captain of the Memphis Zouave Guards and brass band, who lost the position for brawling. Pioneer bluesman Charles Bynum won a battle of knives and pistols on Beale, in the 300 Block, vanquishing foes in the melee alongside his brother, John \u201cHardtimes\u201d Bynum. W.C. Handy left Mahara\u2019s Minstrels for fist-fighting a bully performer, and he packed a gun while the troupe fended off racists nationwide.<\/p>\n Handy began directing delta bands from Clarksdale, Miss., in 1903. Soon he commuted by train to Memphis, as weekly instructor of Matthew Thornton\u2019s marching band, the Colored Knights of Pythias. Handy relocated his family to the city in late 1905, renting a house on Ayers Street. He had known Dangerous Jim Ray and would always recall the \u201cpayback trap\u201d for Fatty Grimes on Beale, which inspired songs in \u201cred-light dives.\u201d<\/p>\n Handy administered a network of black music talents in Memphis, receiving messages and booking bands from Pee-Wee\u2019s Saloon, 317 Beale, across from the Monarch and Ashford\u2019s dive. Pee-Wee\u2019s had the only payphone in South Memphis, and musical instruments were stored in a back room, \u201cchecked by freelance musicians who got their calls over phone number 2893,\u201d Handy noted. \u201cSometimes you couldn\u2019t step for the bull fiddles. I\u2019ve seen a dozen or more of them in there at one time.\u201d<\/p>\n The Pee-Wee was owned by Lorenzo Pacini, Italian bookmaker whom Handy met in the 1890s through Jim Turner. The bar and its twin brick building were near the southeast corner of Beale and Hernando, busy site since the Civil War.<\/p>\n The addresses were 117-119 Beale during the 1800s with ground floor businesses and rooms upstairs. Lymus Wallace, the first black alderman of Memphis, closed his saloon at 117 Beale in 1883, and Italian immigrant Virgilio Maffei soon claimed the joint. Maffei was a mini brute nicknamed Pee-Wee, reportedly standing 4 \u00bd-feet tall as Beale\u2019s biggest gambler, betting thousands in a day. The Pee-Wee stories included an arm-wrestling match with boxer Jack Johnson, on a wager, and his swimming across the Mississippi to Arkansas. Lorenzo Pacini married Fortunata Maffei, sister of Pee-Wee. The Pacinis took over the Beale saloon around 1892, eventually adding a poolroom next door.<\/p>\n Pacini and sons operated Pee-Wee\u2019s for a half-century, hosting all types of characters, many dangerous. The craps table at rear was a flashpoint for confrontation, remembered Maurice Hulbert, a musician for Handy. \u201cI was back in there one time when these two guys got into an argument over 15 cents,\u201d Hulbert said. \u201cBoth of them pulled switchblades, and I was stuck between them. Every time I moved they moved too, and I stayed between them. I finally got out of there, and they started cutting each other up like they were hogs.\u201d<\/p>\n The Italians usually prevented serious assaults inside Pee-Wee\u2019s, and racial groups typically got along, whites, mulattos and \u201cblack negroes,\u201d so designated. Bouncers frisked patrons, checking guns and knives at the door. Anyone pulling a weapon risked being shot by management. Moreover, if any Pacini were harmed, the culprit faced a tribe in retaliation by family and associates. Lorenzo Pacini was a friendly man, charitable, helpful to folks, but no one to cross. His son Joseph Pacini was feared. \u201cEach member of the family took a daily turn behind the bar during the four shifts, since the place never closed,\u201d Handy wrote in his autobiography of 1941.<\/p>\n \u201cThrough Pee-Wee\u2019s swinging doors passed the heroic dark-town figures of an age now becoming fabulous. They ranged from cooks and waiters to professional gamblers, jockeys and racetrack men of the period. Glittering young devils in silk toppers and Prince Alberts drifted in and out with insolent self-assurance.\u201d<\/p>\n In The Pee-Wee, Handy watched Dangerous Jim Ray and Fatty Grimes throw dice before their deaths. \u201cA wistful gaiety filled the place in the old days. Mack Harris was often there, one of the great poker players of his time. Gamblers of all complexions came from St. Louis, Chicago, Philadelphia and New York to take a hand with him and find out for themselves whether or not he was as good as his reputation.\u201d<\/p>\n \u201cMack entertained them all, even when the bets went into the thousands.\u201d<\/p>\n *******<\/p>\n A swarm of Baptists gathered at the river wharf in Muscatine, Ia., August 1903, \u201ccoming via rail in 15 coaches from Galesburg and other Illinois and Missouri points,\u201d reported the local News-Tribune<\/em>. The congregation was novel for Muscatine, and folks \u201cmarveled at the big crowd,\u201d some 25 miles downriver from Davenport and Rock Island.<\/p>\n The morning was a Friday, and 2,000 Baptists had not convened for an old-time baptismal at river\u2019s edge. They came for a modern boat ride, excursion style, on Steamboat J.S.<\/em> of operator John Streckfus, who grew up on a hill farm across the Mississippi.<\/p>\n Steam calliope music sounded, and long whistle blasts, from the bend northeast of town. Dark smoke billowed over the trees then the J.S.<\/em> appeared, a spectacle at Muscatine. \u201cThe stream of humanity that crosses the staging from the landing to the boat, whenever she has a large party, is something astounding to the onlooker,\u201d remarked The News-Tribune<\/em>. \u201cIt is no wonder that many are erroneously impressed with the idea that the boat is overloaded.\u201d<\/p>\n At the Keokuk locks, officials suspected violations on approach of the J.S.<\/em> approached with the Baptists. \u201cShe was detained and the human cargo counted. As only 2,194 people were on board, and as Captain Streckfus convinced the marshal that his license permitted the carrying of 3,000, the craft was allowed to proceed unmolested.\u201d<\/p>\n Such was business for Streckfus, guiding his \u201ctramp boat\u201d on the rivers. The J.S.<\/em> covered from Memphis north to St. Paul on the Mississippi, from Louisville on the Ohio west to Kansas City on the Missouri, and to Peoria on the Illinois. Steamer J.S.<\/em> had logged 28,000 miles in the past year.<\/p>\n \u201cA \u2018tramp\u2019 steamer is one not in the regular trade between fixed ports,\u201d observed the Davenport Democrat<\/em>. \u201cThe \u2018tramp\u2019 vessel goes anywhere there is prospect of a paying cargo. Some of the largest boats afloat are in the \u2018tramp\u2019 business, and there are more of them in American waters just now than ever before.\u201d<\/p>\n \u201cThe \u2018tramp\u2019 boats are the kind that travel to and from, from place to place, making long jumps generally and picking up the cream as they go along,\u201d stated the Alton Telegraph<\/em>. \u201cYears ago G.M. Sively started in this [excursion] line and was followed by J.S. Streckfus.\u201d<\/p>\n The ranging excursion business appealed to John Streckfus, 47, especially as a boat operator in Rock Island, where the Upper Mississippi froze over in winter, often till spring. Streckfus had reached far ports on midland rivers in two years with the J.S.<\/em>, and now he aimed for the Deep South. His Acme Packet Company sought to add market from Vicksburg to New Orleans, storied river stretch that Streckfus boats had not explored.<\/p>\n Industry experts said an excursion boat would not profit in New Orleans without tandem freight routes. Operators of the Island Queen<\/em> had talked of New Orleans since unveiling the great pleasure craft at Cincinnati in 1896. Colonel Lee H. Brooks frequented the South, investigating possibilities for The Queen in the Crescent City. \u201cWhile [Brooks] said he had received much encouragement from the people and had been offered extra inducements by the wharf company, he had some doubts in his own mind as to a strictly excursion boat doing a paying business,\u201d reported the New Orleans Picayune<\/em>.<\/p>\n Brooks waffled for years on New Orleans until finally bringing the Island Queen<\/em> for Mardi Gras in 1902. Success was limited, given news evidence, and the boat left after eight weeks. A Mardi Gras run was publicized for The Queen in February 1903, but the steamer only brought Ohio River patrons for an overnight in New Orleans.<\/p>\n Hustling John Streckfus monitored the Island Queen<\/em> and business of its owner Coney Island Company, contemplating a competition at New Orleans. Streckfus believed his Steamer J.S.<\/em> had \u201ca field for her\u201d in southern Louisiana. In early September 1903, a Kentucky paper reported the Island Queen<\/em> would \u201cspend the winter in the excursion business at New Orleans.\u201d<\/p>\n Streckfus was undeterred, speaking with the Muscatine Journal<\/em>, which announced the operator \u201cWill Go South.\u201d The dispatch stated: \u201cThe Steamer J.S. of Rock Island will not be seen on the upper river anymore this season\u2026 Captain Streckfus has already made arrangements for 35 excursions to be run out of New Orleans the coming winter. He will also work the ports along the Ohio River. Mr. Streckfus expects to start back [north] about March of 1904 and will work all the cities along the [Mississippi].\u201d Streckfus designated the Acme Packet boat Winona<\/em> for winter freight routes in the South.<\/p>\n Streckfus retained his teen calliope player of Muscatine, talented Charles H. Little, and the crew readied for downriver. At departure, the idling J.S.<\/em> \u201cgot up steam\u201d at Rock Island while the \u201csteam piano\u201d entertained and touched hearts, featuring Little on the brass keys. \u201cThat piano played ragtime and it played selections from comic opera. It warbled grand opera airs and it crooned Chopin melodies,\u201d related an account. The J.S. <\/em>left the dock on whistle bursts. Charlie Little softened well-wishers at the wharf with \u201cAuld Lang Syne.\u201d The crew would not forget old acquaintances and loved ones, but the boat would not return for a long while.<\/p>\n Boat members were tested in their visit to Caruthersville, Mo., where drunks brawled on the J.S.<\/em> Burly John Streckfus and his bouncers fought back, ejecting offenders at a riverbank. Farther down, the boat won accolades at Vicksburg, Miss., \u201csounding her tuneful and well-manipulated calliope on the way, the best ever heard in these parts,\u201d observed the local Herald<\/em>. \u201cShe soon had a crowd aboard of her, which included all classes and kinds of humanity, lost in admiration of the handsome craft.\u201d The Vicksburg paper saluted the J.S.<\/em> dance band, a youthful three-piece with Little on piano, James Graham, cornet, and Carl Herzog, violin.<\/p>\n Praise was quick in New Orleans, where the J.S.<\/em> debuted with excursions on November 1, a Sunday. \u201cThe steamer is a four-deck affair and will easily accommodate 2,000 passengers,\u201d reported the New Orleans Times-Democrat<\/em>. \u201cHer main or lower deck is a handsome glass-enclosed [cabin] that is not only a fine observatory, but with its hardwood polished floor is a splendid dancing hall. The boat carries its own orchestra, which furnishes music for the dancers. The two upper decks are promenade decks fitted with steamer chairs. There are lunch and coffee counters on the lower deck.\u201d<\/p>\n \u201cThe increase in the number of passengers on each trip gives evidence of the increasing popularity of the J.S.,\u201d the paper observed. \u201cRecognizing the difference between this boat and the excursion boats formerly operated out of New Orleans, and the fact that the difference is in this boat\u2019s favor, the better class of New Orleans have come to patronize her. Captain John Streckfus, an experienced steamboat man and a thorough gentleman, has made it a point to thoroughly advertise the fact that there are no barrooms, slot machines or gambling devices on board his boat.\u201d<\/p>\n Alcohol was barred on the J.S<\/em>. with passenger weapons checked at the gate. Abusive language and loud profanity were policed by the captain and security men. Mistreatment of anyone was not tolerated. Offenders were locked in a hold or let off at riverside, with some tossed overboard, splashing below. \u201cThis has served to increase the number of ladies on each trip.\u201d<\/p>\n \u201cMany sightseers took in the river excursions yesterday on the excursion steamer J.S.,\u201d The<\/em> Times-Democrat<\/em> updated on December 7. \u201cAll who made the excursions seemed to thoroughly enjoy them and were loud in their expressions of praise for the boat and the trip.\u201d<\/p>\n \u201cThe excursion steamer J.S. has become quite a popular institution of the city,\u201d remarked the Vicksburg American<\/em>, from New Orleans. No excursion competition was forthcoming from the Island Queen<\/em>, which cancelled on New Orleans, as usual.<\/p>\n The J.S. <\/em>capitalized on prime dock position at Canal Street, sucking in customers for harbor trips. \u201cHer promenade decks and glass-enclosed cabin afford excellent viewpoints.\u201d The boat moved alongside the levee for a unique overlook into New Orleans, a sunken, fascinating city within dikes. Other excursions went beyond, like a hundred miles south to jetties at the Gulf. A Sunday Mass was celebrated on board so the priest and picnickers could have lunch at their destination. The J.S.<\/em> was magnet for power brokers and everyday folks, hosting entities public and private, entreating news writers, following the Streckfus marketing template.<\/p>\n The boat carried large crowds during Mardi Gras of 1904, reported The Times-Democrat<\/em>, with the publication\u2019s editors won over by Streckfus. The J.S.<\/em> figured prominently in the water parade for the arrival of King Rex at Canal Street. \u201cCaptain Streckfus proposes to keep his boat down here until after Mardi Gras, and an extension of his stay depends almost entirely upon the patronage of his boat.\u201d<\/p>\n The J.S.<\/em> continued a \u201crushing business\u201d while the staff saw changes in New Orleans. Musicians Charles Little and Carl Herzog left for a vaudeville troupe in St. Paul. Little\u2019s replacement would be Charles Mills on calliope and piano, a young Afro-American of Quincy, Ill., who likely joined the crew in New Orleans, given available news evidence.<\/p>\n The Streckfus steamboat left New Orleans as an American headliner in early April, heading up the Mississippi to fanfare at Plaquemine, La., and at Natchez, Vicksburg and Memphis. The J.S.<\/em> reached Osceola, Ark., on a chilly spring evening, with a quality stock troupe appearing in the opera house. But \u201cnotwithstanding the fact\u2026 several hundred people braved the bleak north wind to the landing and took in the excursion and listened to the dulcet tones of the steam calliope,\u201d related the Osceola Times<\/em>.<\/p>\n John Streckfus was well-received in familiar stops at Memphis, Hickman, Ky., Cairo, Ill., and at Paducah, Ky., on the Ohio. The riverboat tramped along rivers into May, wending up the Tennessee and Cumberland.<\/p>\n \u201cThe \u2018J.S.\u2019 will next week go as far south as Alabama, and will then go up the Ohio River to Evansville,\u201d reported the Davenport Democrat<\/em>. \u201cLater in the season it will make a trip north on the Mississippi to St. Paul. Streckfus is finding the excursion business very profitable in the South, and his boat is proving to be one of the most profitable crafts.\u201d<\/p>\n \u201cThe J.S. made a profitable season out of what usually is a dead loss,\u201d commented a river analyst. \u201cThe companies operating steamers from these Southern cities had their eyes opened by the example set by Captain Streckfus.\u201d<\/p>\n \u201cThe J.S. is the pride of the steamboat world,\u201d proclaimed the Davenport Times<\/em> on May 3, 1904. \u201cShe is as well known in the vicinity of Red Wing, and in the vicinity of the Gulf of Mexico, as she is to those who have seen her so often here in her home port.\u201d<\/p>\n \u201cThe boat has steamed on every navigable tributary of the big river from the headwater to the outlet.\u201d<\/p>\n John Streckfus excelled among contemporaries in the steamboat industry. Moreover, he set the stage for music history.<\/p>\n Matt Chaney’s new book releases this summer,<\/em> It All Equals Rockabilly: River Shows, Jazz, Blues and Country Music. For more information visit<\/em> www.fourwallspublishing.com. Email:<\/em> mattchaney@fourwallspublishing.com.<\/p>\n Chapter References<\/strong><\/p>\n 2\u2014Excursions\u20142. (1903, Dec. 5). New Orleans Times-Democrat<\/em> LA, p. 8.<\/p>\n 39 Fined $10 Each. (1940, Oct. 8). Memphis Commercial Appeal<\/em> TN, p. 14.<\/p>\n A Ball And Banquet. (1898, Nov. 18). Sedalia Democrat<\/em> MO, p. 1.<\/p>\n A Beale Street Blaze. (1891, Dec. 29). Memphis Appeal-Avalanche<\/em> TN, p. 5.<\/p>\n A Difficulty On Beale Street. (1866, Jan. 16). Memphis Commercial<\/em> TN, p. 3.<\/p>\n A Feed Mill For Grinding All Kinds Of Feed. (1885, July 10). [Advertisement.] Rock Island Argus<\/em> IL, p. 4.<\/p>\n A Fine New Packet. (1900, Dec. 24). Rock Island Argus<\/em>, IL, p. 3.<\/p>\n A Great Cargo Of Grain. (1897, Aug. 24). Davenport Democrat<\/em> IA, p. 2.<\/p>\n A Morning Wedding. (1888, Feb. 14). Davenport Times<\/em> IA, p. 4.<\/p>\n A New Cake Walk. (1899, May 25). Davenport Times<\/em> IA, p. 2.<\/p>\n A Reception To Remenyi. (1892, April 2). Nebraska State Journal<\/em>, Lincoln NE, p. 6.<\/p>\n A Resident Of Bird\u2019s Point. (1900, March 17). Cape Girardeau Democrat<\/em> MO, p. 4.<\/p>\n African Brothers Minstrels. (1877, Aug. 17). Memphis Public Ledger<\/em> TN, p. 3.<\/p>\n Again In The Trade. (1894, Aug. 27). Davenport Times<\/em> IA, p. 4.<\/p>\n Alton Evening Telegraph. (1896, July 29). Alton Telegraph<\/em> IL, p. 3.<\/p>\n American Musical Works. (1889, July 28). Chicago Tribune<\/em> IL, p. 28.<\/p>\n Americans Good Musicians. (1897, Jan. 9). St. Louis Post-Dispatch<\/em> MO, p. 3.<\/p>\n Amusement Notes. (1901, Aug. 31). Cincinnati Enquirer<\/em> OH, p. 3.<\/p>\n Amusements. (1891, Feb. 24). Brooklyn Eagle<\/em> NY, p. 4.<\/p>\n Amusements. (1896, Dec. 16). Wood\u2019s Opera House, one night only [Advertisement]. Sedalia Democrat<\/em> MO, p. 2.<\/p>\n Amusements. (1896, Dec. 17). Bloomington Pantagraph<\/em> IL, p. 8.<\/p>\n Amusements. (1897, Jan. 10). St. Louis Globe-Democrat<\/em> MO, p. 36.<\/p>\n Amusements. (1898, July 11). New Orleans Times-Democrat<\/em> LA, p. 3.<\/p>\n Amusements. (1902, Feb. 3). New Orleans Times-Democrat<\/em> LA, p. 8.<\/p>\n Amusements. (1906, Dec. 7). Davenport Democrat<\/em> IA, p. 8.<\/p>\n Amusements. (1908, Sept. 22). Cairo Bulletin<\/em> IL, p. 6.<\/p>\n An Actor Wounded. (1902, July 25). Memphis Commercial Appeal<\/em> TN, p. 7.<\/p>\n An Extraordinary Voyage. (1870, July 20). New Orleans Picayune<\/em> LA, p. 7.<\/p>\n An American School Of Music. (1889, Aug. 18). Chicago Tribune<\/em> IL, p. 28.<\/p>\n Another Barnum Raid. (1897, July 30). Memphis Commercial Appeal<\/em> TN, p. 5.<\/p>\n Are Proud Of Steamer. (1903, Dec. 10). Davenport Morning Star<\/em> IA, p. 8.<\/p>\n Armstrong, Mrs. M.F., & Ludlow, H.W. (1874). Hampton and its students, with fifty cabin and plantation songs<\/em> [Fenner, Thomas P., Arr.]. G.P. Putnam\u2019s Sons: New York NY.<\/p>\n Ashford Is A Victim. (1898, March 29). Memphis Commercial Appeal<\/em> TN, p. 8.<\/p>\n Ashford Released. (1903, Aug. 29). Memphis Commercial Appeal<\/em> TN, p. 6.<\/p>\n At Rock Island 1 Day Only! (1870, May 14). [Advertisement.] Rock Island Argus<\/em> IL, p. 4.<\/p>\n At The Arcade. (1904, April 3). Oregon Daily Journal<\/em>, Portland OR, p. 17.<\/p>\n At The Boat Yards. (1890, March 15). Rock Island Argus<\/em> IL, p. 3.<\/p>\n At The Boat Yards. (1891, Feb. 13). Rock Island Argus<\/em> IL, p. 6.<\/p>\n At The Burtis Tonight. (1897, Aug. 22). Davenport Democrat<\/em> IA, p. 5.<\/p>\n At The Theaters. (1896, Dec. 21). Kansas City Star<\/em> MO, p. 2.<\/p>\n Attractions At The Theaters. (1897, Oct. 31).