The Republican., 1891-11-13
A vILLAINoUS TRAFFIC.


from henJuckV, 1cnnSylVdnld, NeSI
Virginia and Ohio there comes class
of people, men and women, who pass
the greater portion of their lives upon
the bosom of that muddy and turgid
stream. They live in species of water
craft, the exact counterpart of which is
unknown in marine architecture from
the days of Noah's ark down to the
period of the Monitor and her success
ors, the cruisers of to-day.
In the center of q narrow, fiat bot
toned uncouth affair is built small
shanty, composed of the debris of old
river tubs that have gone to wreck, or
dropped to pieces from time and hard
usage This primitive cabin is usually
painted by an unskilled hand, and
shows in glaring hues all the colors of
the rainbow, though it often happens
that this artistic part of the work is al
together omitted The interior, so far
as space allows, is divided into com
partmcnts for cooking, eating sleep
ing, and, last, but most important
feature OF the whole. is the saloon.
This is simplicity itself, being formed
of few rough shelves, sufficient to
hold dozen or so of black bottles and
glasses.
With the coming of the spring. from
Pittsburgh down to the mouth of the
Ohio, the river is dotted all along with
this fleet and its crews of tradesmen,
and the traffic is kept up continuously,
save when the river is frozen solid,
which happens not infrequently, or
when the droughts of the summer
cause such q scarcity of water that not
even toy boat could float. However,
it is during the summer and fall that
this kind Of traffic reaches its greatest
proportions.
The people who follow this mode of
life are toughs of the hardest kind; the
most unmitigated scamps that ever
stole purse or scuttled ship. They
avoid with great care and ingenuity
coming in contact with minions of the
law. When the season opens these
river pirates lay in a cargo composed
chiefly of tobacco and whisky, the lat
ter being the most villainous com
pound imaginable. One drink OF it
would set an ordinary Christian crazy;
two drinks would make a man murder
his sweetheart, or elope with a half
dozen women.
A choice stock in trade having been
safely put aboard, the proprietor of
this floating palace shoves his craft
! out in midstrcam and drifts with the
current until he reaches some point
where brisk trade is to be expected.
Desirieg to communicate with friends
on shore. he poles his boat up to with
in few lengths of land and comes to
anchor. Then the natives put out in
slliffs, board the stranger ard business
begins. The proceedings are formally
opened with drinks all round, in which
| the ladies take conspicuous part.
This puts every one in good humor and
serves to give an impetus to CONNER
cial reciprocity. They trade everything
-poclletknivcs, old hats, coats, coon
skins, etc.
At nightfall these honest merchants
having finished in manner more or
less satisfactory the work of the day,
pleasure rcigns supreme. Blue light
ming is consumed in liberal quantities
and the dawn of the following day is
apt to witness broken skulls, if not
more serious results.
The field of profit being exhausted,
the boat is pushed out again into the
current and drifts down stream until
another landing place is reached, where
! the former scenes are repeated. When
| these rowing traders have reached the
mouth of the river they rctrace their
f,n,.l.S and br-,. fincr Two 20
steamer northward, manage to get
back to the point from which they en-
barked, These people are possibly de-
scendants of the old traders who fol-
| lowed the same line of traffic in the
/ days when Louisiana was Spanish
| possession, and when those old pirates
used to fight their way down the Ohio
into the Mississippi and the nee to New
Orleans.
These chevaliers of to-day manage
to avoid all legal complications. as a
rule, by keeping in the middle of the
river, so as to be beyond the jurisdic-
tion of any state whose laws they may
violate. The approach of winter. of
course, stops this river traffic, and
these nomads of the water anchor
their craft in some creek or in some of
the hooks around the wharves in Pitts
burgh. Then these freSh-water sail
ors melt away into the interior and re-
main in the woods, hunting or hiber-
mating, until the coming of another
season brings them all to life again
n. Y. Advertiser.
A VERY curious remedy for drunken
ness was accidentally discovered in st.
Petersburg A laborer on II prolonged,
spree,and stupidity drunk, stumbled into
a grocery, and, not knowing where he
was or what he was doing, drank IL
large quantity of petroleum from an
open cask. With difficulty he was
dragged away and when the proprietor
expected him to die he arose perfectly
sober and walked off quite free from
all his previous symptoms.
MENDoN CENTER, N. Y, small vii.
lage near Rochester, has marble mon
ument at its four corners which tells
the passer-by that no liquor has been
sold therein since 1915.