The Wheeling daily intelligencer. [volume] (Wheeling, W. Va.) 1865-1903, 1880-09-08
THE BAYS OF PLATBoATING.
pioueeer Experiences In the Epoch OF
EARLY western Navigation.

PIoueeer Experiences in the Epoch OF
Early western Navigation.
The brave old warrior General William
O. Butler, who recently died at the adj
yanced age o. eighty.seven, was something
more than a colder. He was a poet, and
had at times given undoubted evidence Of
possessing the divine atElatus. His poem
commencing:
Oboaiman, wind that horn again.
Far never did the listening sir
INN Il. Iaubent bosom bear
So Wild 50 soft, y sweet hra'p,
will long hold n place among the gems
" American poetry. Bot the days when
the oply meana,di tssnsportation on our
GREAT western rivers wss the fatboat have
Dsssed away. 1t may almost be said to be
q hing OF the past, and hence the fine fla.
~or Of & eneral Buffers poem is lost in q
great degree to q generation WHO only
know Of It by tradition.
A voyage from Pittsburgh 10 New
Orleans by aAtboat was an enterprise once
Of greater peril than tour around the
world Is now. It was certain TO be full Of
adventure. It required months for Its &C
eompIishment. A shot from the shore by
some Indian or reckless desperate might
terminate abruptly the voyage and the
lives OF the navigators in blood. A
moments neglect OF steersman might
week the uDshapcly craft and all the
hopes OF its owners hundreds OF miles
away from home and in an inhospitabIe
wilderness. There was danger every
wherein the current, eddies, whirlpools,
bayous and snags OF the tortuous Father
If Waters; but there was no less
danger from the hali-Civilized jewellers
m the banks. The outlawed climi'
33Hals and the desperate adyen.
iurers from civilization skulked about
| The shores or prowled with light
canoes among the bayous and creeks,
watching for chances OF plumber, even II
murder was necessary to aid them. In
those DAYS the Government had not
thought OF snag. boats, and the Mississippi
was iull OF half.hidden dangers. The cur
rent was constantly changing. It was
EASY 10 be deceived into an old channel
from which there was no return. Bayous
were often traps-watery culs de sdc-lead,
inc nowhere but to ruin. The organized
river pirates and wreckers were always Oh
the lookout for unwary voyagers, go thata
slight mishap generally ended in com
plete disaster. II, under such circum'
stances, the halboatman reached his dis
tant home, iootsore and weary, but pen
niless, months alter leaving it, he wa
lucky.
In the early days Of fatboating, a sale
return, even when the venture had mo-
proved financially profitable, was granC
event, and the occasion OF tumultuous JOY
| The business bred a special class, who
sought 1t for It's adventures and danger'
as much as for its profits. The river pi
rates met in the fatboatmen OF that earl!
day class ready, eager and willing TO
he fray-a class which, like the ranchero
Of the plains, accounted q trip tame ant
4 spiritless if unattended with danger
they were rough ard ready, careless ant
care free. Dreamily floating down tn
Ohio, they whiled away with song an!
dance the lazy hours. The boatman,
Lorn walked the echoes from distant hill
more musical than steamboat whistles Q
that .distrscting horror, the calliope.
WAS romantic life behtting the grand see
nerv aud rude time. Ninety days Oh
slowly moving flatboat, the scenery, cor
SANITY changing, but ever wild and beau
tiiul, was thing never to be forgotten
The spice OF danger in it only gave 1t zesl
, An occasional adventure with river shark
only relieved the monotony and added IN
terest.- Indianapolis Journal.