The Cambria freeman. [volume] (Ebensburg, Pa.) 1867-1938, 1874-03-06
Jed Storer's Famous Cut or.

We had been Willing away the best part
Of the day in the pilot house of the Charm
er, watching the monotonous scenery of
the Ohio. and listening to the tales of jed
Stover, the Pilot. Jed, according to his
own account, was truthful man, but
somehow the mos: wonderful things were
continually happening to him.
DO you feel that bar that's grazing rs
now," he said that's made down three
hundred yards since I took them shingles
out Of the bend, and that just reminds me
of that affair at Poker Point. Twas just
as the rise of g. was going ont of the Ohio.
was screwing the Flambeau down stream
then; no light job, tell you, for we had =
green mate aboard that slowed his freight
SO she'd rise ON the head and shake her
self. Talking done no good. At last
/ got mad and come down Crowly's chute,
I barking the saplings and taking on :
tun of clay az every rub. Duke Shorty
was holding her down on the hurricane,
and sung up 20 me a couple of times to
/ keep in the channel. I don't let no can
tain tell me how to use the spOkes so when
he turned in on the dog watch l thought
I'd get even With him. We sighted Poker
Point jus: as day was about breaking, and
the water was just leaving the corn-field
on the Kentucky side, so you could see tho
top of the furrors. Twas just 800 yards
across the field; l knew twas soft, so [
run her snoot straight for it, determined
to give old Shorty one good shaking As
luck would have it, she gave one of her
hen-wallows just Is she struck dirt and
| stopped right ashore. If the old gal hadn't
been well glued she d be fencing that old
plantation now, for she had the trimblrs
worse than a dog swallowing peach
stone.
Gentlemen I've been hearing cussinG
all my life, but what heard this morning
as that old craft was making her grasshof,-
per lcks across the point finished my edu-
cation in that line. I heard one string
coming ont Of transom in the texas and
turned around to see if it wasn't Duke,
when l heard soraping on the larboard
side, and there was the old heifer striking
/ fire out ofthe stable Of old Simmons ranch-.
/ didn't have time to get good sight be-
! fore she struck the channel again, a little
/ shaken bat gamer of about four miles,
In a few minutes up comes the ''old man.
wanting to know where I'd been with the
boat and how came old Simmons kitchen,
stove, cook, and all aboard. 1 told him
I'd been ringing f,.r the lead for fifteen
minutes, and, thinking, perhaps, they was
/ all asleep | waltzed across the point, as
we was drawing so light
Lead, be damned" says he who
ever heard Of Il pilot ringing for lead aud
the stream out of its banks
When I asked FOR lead. says I, lead 1
must have that's my riparian right and
mnst be respected; if not the crafts got
to stand the consequences, by the living
But he never waited to hear it the
Latin filed him he never said another
word, but went below and took it out on
the deck sweeper.
When we got to Cairo we heard old Sim
mons was going to tie us up unless We
/ brought back his kitchen. Duke was i'll i
! devil of stew. but told him I'd ease his
! pain. So, on the return trip l had two
stagings well creased and rugged derrick
on the starboard spar. Just as we got il
front OF Simmons I sung down to the ell
gIneer to know what lead he had ''210
all right = So I threw myself on tho
wheel. made right for the bank and sung
out, Delay all hands to unload the kitch-
en- -
Excuse me, pilot said I, ''you don't
mean to say that you replaced the kitchen
whole -
Gentlemen" said he, 4 hate to order
you out, but lis agin the rules of the boat
! TO talk to the pilot in low water, and as the
/ dew aint very heavy ahead III need al
the room can get to wrestle through :"
and thus by my impatiencc I missed hear
! ing an account Of probably the most extra
ordinary feat in the annals Of steam boat
( ing. FELIX BELL.
81. Louis Times.