Butler citizen. [volume] (Butler, Pa.) 1877-1922, 1882-01-18
NO. 8

the cabin of these craft as well as th
levee at Louisville will on such occs
sions be haunted by rueful-visage
men whose boats are far from the hea
of the line, and from whose unwillin
pockets each day of delay to eac
steamer draws two $100 bills, to whic
are added the neat little bills of harbo
tugs for towing. And this is not al
Right at the gateway to the cana
where On the one hand there is tn
crest of foaming, roaring dam, draw
ing all floating things to destruction
and on the other the encroaching shore
there is permitted by the municipality
of Louisville a half-dozen CLUMSY
floats" or coal-landing platforms, thes
also aanked and made more obtrusiv,
by barges and other coal craft in pro
cess of emptying at the wharf. 7,
make use Of simile once more, it is al
if New York city were to allow pea-nu
stands to block the junction of FultoI
Street and broadway. The govern
ment has abolished tolls, and has done
much to improve the Louisville Cana
of late years. 1t can make the worl
complete by condemning and absorbing
that portion of the Louisville wharf
extending from the mouth of the cana
up distance of one-quarter of a mile
Tow-boat life is an odd existence
and in measure soothing to those who
by good fortune are the recipients ot
tow-boat hospitalities. In the pretty
cabin there exists an air Of perpetual
hush, broken only at meal-times-6 A.
NJ, IL NJ, and 6 p. NJ The tow-boat
man takes his slumbers and labors in
equal portions of six hours each, and
between meals (when the watches
change) half the crew sleep the sleep
of the weary, and the other half respect
their rest. Only the pilots enjoy less
than six hour subdivision of the TWEEN.
ty-four. Their day consists of two six
hour watches, FIVE, four, and three
hour watch, so arranged that the
knights of the tiller wheel do day and
night work alternately.
And so the great boat and her crew
of forty men and the mass Of fuel move
on, the river growing wider and the
air milder as the Ohio approaches the
Mississippi The stalactites of ice that
lent the wheel and "fan-tail" novel
beauty fall off or melt away. Snow
appears only here and there in shaded
places among hills that grow less bold
in outline. Then the willows that
make beautiful the waste places on
other hand show deeper and more
definite verdure. And as the low-lying
roofs of Carlo are sighted, the forest
oaks give way to cottonwood, with
buds swollen to bursting. The tow
which at Louisville had grown to a
mass 800 feet long and nearly 200
wide, swings into the Father OF Waters
a fortnight after leaving the landing at
Pittsburgh. There are still thousand
miles of water ahead, with an unknown
Vnantity of fog and wind to be met and
overcome in this distance. Fog proves
a subtle, swift foe. The ice-cold waters
of the Ohio and upper Mississippi and
Missouri are swept by warm, moist
air from the south, and 10! there springs
up on all sides fog-fog everywhere
thick, penetrating, and shutting out
the nearest shores, and even the tow
from view ; an Opaque wall of shifting
mist. The pilot-house seems to its oc-
the car Of cloud-riding balloon
floating miles above anything tangible
Such a visitation, coming when the
tow Is flanking around some grand
bend in the noble river, is fraught with
danger. The floating island of fuel and
boats seems suspended in mid ocean,
with only clouds of whirling vapor for
companionship. and nothing to recall
earth save the fash of unseen water.
The solid vertical bank NAV be five
feet from the head of the feet, or it
may be five hundred-who cau tell !?
Overhead, the vernal sun sheds bright
but Intellectual rays. Underneath, ten
fathoms of turbid water or one ? Not
even the willy pilot can tell. The yawl
must be hastily launched and sent
ahead, the engines stopped, the lead
hecved-eyery precaution taken These
are moments of deep anxiety, subject,
happily, to speedy termination, for
the watery veil lifts or drifts away as
rapidly as it came.
In some cases, however, speedy landing
is the only salvation for boat and tow.
Another terror to the tow-boat man is
a high wind. Such a wind sweeping
over the mile-wide Mississippi converts
its surface into yellow prairie where
on myriads of muddy -wooled sheep
seem disporting themselves. Every
sheep is, however, an angry wave that
seems bent upon lenping the low wood
en- walls hat guard the coal. and send
ing boat and contents TO the bottom.
AT the same time the wind bearing
against the towering form Of the steam
er compicates matters by making it
almost impossible to properly guide
the boat and her charge. Happy is
the pilot, and equally happy the cap
tain, who can, on meeting such an i'm
portant breeze, find the friendly shelter
of an island or calm eddy, there to se-
renely await in the lee of tall cotton
woods the abatement of the storm.
In less exciting hours the boat is
herself the object of the vo, ayers
greatest admiration. She is the en-
bodiment Of prodigious power. Her
steel boilers are seething over roaring
fires that keep the needle of the steam,
gauge to l65 pounds, and the twin
monsters that turn her vast wheel
known no such words as rest The
engine-room is place of polished
steel, cleaning brass, curved pipes
beauty Of a Titanic order At the
throttle, the heart of the engines,
stands q quiet, intelligent fellow, to
whom one shining lever near at hand
means "back her." another "stop her, .
and another, "go ahead" and whose
ear is ready to interpret the tinkle o1
the bells as the pilot intends; and the
engines kno W his touch, and obey it as