A steamboat burns to the waterline on the Mississippi but all aboard have a lucky escape.

In Grand View Reach on the Mississippi River, at around three in the morning, fire broke out on the steamboat Alabama making its way from Shreveport to New Orleans, Louisiana.  The supposed cause was several of the hundred passengers aboard smoking amongst the 1,200 bales of cotton aboard.  The blaze total complete control of the vessel but the crew were able to steer her to shore and all passengers and crew escaped with thier lives.  The Alabama and her cargo, worth $100,000, were both lost in the flames, however. (By John Osborne)