Elmore bulletin. [volume] (Rocky Bar, Idaho) 1889-1906, 1892-12-31
RIVER INHABITANTS.
A FLOATING VILLAGE WHERE Peo-
PILE PASS THEIR LIVES.

A Wandering Settlement Of Strange Folk.
who Make Their Homes on on. Of ~.
Tributaries Of the Mississippi They
Pay M Rent and spend Little.
Up where Wolf river, treacherous and \
insatiate as the animal for which il is \
named, empties its yellow waters into 4
the great food of the Mississippi, il a /
cluster of odd looking craft, half house
half boat, that lie moored 10 the bank |
and form part Of great floating sub |
urb OF Memphis, Of whose existence the |
average citizen is totally unaware
| Nevertheless, strange AS il may seem.
the inhabitants of this floating village
are born, live, marry and die in their
movable homes in much the same man
ner rs people in similar walks of life
whose houses have firmer foundation,
and, stranger still, they like their river
life and would he extremely loath TO
give it up.
Who they are and where they came
from. whittier they go and how they
live, were questions that aroused the Gu
riosity of the writer and induced him to
make tour of inquiry among the house
boats, AS they are called.
These are of all shapes and sizes, from
the more pretentious home of the well
To do shipbuilder TO the humble abode
of the itinerant fisherman. Some of
them are named and some are not.
lany are neatly painted and show
slimpses of interiors in which lace cur
tains, carpets and pictures combine to
make not inharmonious settings. Social
linea ARA nnf vary tiohtl,. A~a,,.,, l.. Al.
village of the households. and the homes
Of whites and blacks lie mixed indis-
, criminately, without regard To race. col
or OF previous condition Of servitude.
. Wanderers by nature, the term water
gypsies may be applied not inaptly to
the inhabitants of the village. 1t is not
I 10 he wondered at therefore that the
4 colony is by no means composed Of those
who are TO the manner born. On the
contrary, it IL made up Of representa-
r tives from nearly all of the twenty odd
states that are drained by the Missis-
A sippi or its tributaries. Were a census
Z OF the floating village taken tomorrow
: IL would show some interesting statistics
concerning the birthplaces of its inhab-
n itants. Here one can find man who
$ has drifted down from the Black Hills
q of Montana side by side with a native of
Il Pittsburg or Cincinnati, while their next
q neighbor may he from st. Paul or Knox
!. Vile.
K From far up the Missouri, the Missis.
e sippi, the Ohio ana the Tennessee rivers
they come, resting here like birds OF
passage for a time, till, moving ever
ir southwark with the current. they become
n | mn fha n,
ton Of the Crescent City. hundreds OF
10 miles below, even as the waters of the
Mississippi become lost in the great Gull
a OF Mexico.
A. There is but little doubt that the
E. dweller in the Mississippi houseboat
" has successfully solved the problem oil
Is living on next TO nothing. Believing
70 that the river is free, and that 1t owe.
le him "A living, the waif Of the father oil
"A waters does not find it very difficult tc
collect the debt. just what the ice field,
n are to the Eskimo, the desert to the
II Arab the plains to the Indian, the river
+ IL to him. IL is at once his place Oh
abode and his means Of support. Land
8 lords, or, more properly speaking, water
y lords. are unknown To him, and rent
d day, that nightmare Of the poor, i.
a fraught with no terrors to his mind, be
E, cause he pays no rcnt.
j. The law provides that any one moor
% ing boat to the bank of "a river is sub
10 Ject to a rental at the option of tn,
a owner, but in the case of the household
rs dweller this il rarely enforced. For fue
he catches the driftwood brought down
Ie by the river or gathers that which nc
! cumulates along the bank His princi
10 pal article of food is fish, for which Ia
)" turns once more to the river. and from
its yellow bosom draws the juicy cat
he fish, the buffalo, the perch and innumer
IT able other varieties that abound therein
he Only his clothes and few other bar,
necessaries of life are not supplied bS
"a the river. and the means To obtain thes,
lie is readily secured by the thousand pur
h. suits open to the sturdy longshoreman
Scattered among the honseboat colony
:, are here and there family who hav,
virtually taken to the river out Of neces
IN sity. These are refugees from the fioodeC
districts Of the upper Mississippi, wht
rs have been rendered homeless by freshets
Ruined by the encroachment OF tn,
h river, they have collected such of theil
effects as the waters left and embarke,
* ON hastily constructed craft, built a
Pr likely as not from the debris of theil
he former homes. Memphis Appeal-Ava
lanche