[Judy Patsch]

Here's a brochure by Lauders's Tours of Chicago advertising a rail trip from Chicago to St. Louis and then a round trip on the "flagship of the Mississippi, the bearutiful new steel-hull steamer CAPE GIRARDEAU" from St. Louis to Helena and back. The trip concludes with a train ride from St. Louis back to Chicago's Dearborn Station. Cost is $65 for this weeklong trip. No date, but since the steamer is new, it must be around 1924. That would cost $784.18 in today's dollars!
Part of the trip blurb: "The great bell on the hurricane deck booms its warning; the pilot jangles a signal to the engineer; in a moment the whole steamer pulses with awakened energy. The first mate, alert on the bow of the boat, cries: Cast off! to the waiting roustabouts upon the shore. The rousters cast off with a will and scramble to regain the boat...."