San Antonio daily light. [volume] (San Antonio, Tex.) 1886-1907, 1890-04-19
RUNNING THE BOAT.


The Big Sandy raftsmen became known
throughout the country as the widest, most
dangerous class of men on the Ohio river
Their carouSes, their love of fighting or any
thing which partook of desperation and devil
try is still familiar theme from Pittsburg
to Cincinnati. Hundreds of stories of their
dare devil scrapeS are still told along the
river, and it was not an uncommon thing
when several hundred of them had sold their
timber, which they had loated down to Gin
cinnati in immense RATS and fleets, for them
to get on board one of the largest boats which
at that day piled the river on their up trip
and take the captain, pilots, engineers and
other officers prisoners and run the boat to
suit themselves. On such occasions a steam
boat would become a pandemOnium, with
several hundred gigantic devils whOoping
yelling, splitting tobacco juice against the
bukheal,, mirrors or furniture while others
disported themselves with cards and played
''Old sledge" or stud horse poker until one
or other participant got up dead broke or the
affair ended in a general fight.
Upon the hurricane deck some leading
spirit would stand in command of the vessel
while another covered the pilot with pistol
or rife and compelled him to steer the craft
subject to the whm of the biggest devil, who
was in command. Below one or two sat
around i'll the engine room and 'perSuadedi
the engineer and stOkerS into submission. On
these occasions the amount of steam was most
frequently controlled only by the capacity Of
the boilers, aS the boat fairly flew through
the water. Every other craft in the legiti
mate trade gave the ''pIrate' as wide berth
as possible, running into the bank ii ncCes-
Sary to get out Of the way. When Il town or
landing was approached the bell was kept
changing as fast stalwart arms could pull
the rope, while the whistle was blown loud
and long enough to awaken the seven sleep
erS.
The citizens of the towns seemed TO know
by intuition that the raftSmen had taken pos
session of boat long before She came in
sight and crowds Of them would comgregate
along the bank to witness the strange scene.
There was 10 Use to resist, as steamDOatmcn
soon learned, and the only way to save the
boat and property was to effect some sort of
compromises, which generally ended in the
daredcvilS running the steamer half a day or
such matter, when they turned her over to
tho proper owners
Although these men were known TO be dare
devils and fond of a fight or anything which
partooi Of excitement, they were not all bad
by any means. Still as the Big Sandy couu-
try was known t. be the hiding place of hum
dredS of desperad0eS it got a widespread no
tOrlcty
THE BIG SANDY DOLLAR"
Along in the HOS and sos the country for
hundreds of miles above and below was filled
with counterteIts, principally silver dollars
The government of the United States sent
out a number of its best detectives, and after
a long time they located their manufacture
at Sandy, but the manufacture was not sup
pressed until "A long time after everybody
knew as we'll as the officers themselves that
the counterfeit was manufactured somewhere
up the stream. The Big Sandy dollar as
the counterfeit was denominated was as
common as it, more legitimate brother from
the mint at Washington or New Orleans
along the Ohio valley, and it was claimed
openly, and, | believe, frequently admitted
to this day by the older people, that the Big
Sandy dollar" contained as much silver and
and was As handsome piece of money as the
genuine.
Even long after the discovery of the conf
ackcrs den in the mountain the bogu, dollar
remained in circulation. To account for this
the writer has been often told that the coun-
terfritcrs had discovered a vein or mine Of
silver in the mountain and that they were
'using pure silver and more of it" than was
contained in the genuine Be that as it may,
the tradition sthI exists that a silver mine
existed and was long worked at some point
on the Sandy.
| believe none of the counterfeiterS were
ever arrested, and the reason given is that