Pittsburg dispatch. [volume] (Pittsburg [Pa.]) 1880-1923, 1892-05-15
CRUISING IN SPRING,
Adventures of Three Gentle
men Who Made 200 Miles
Down the Allegheny
IN A LIGHT CEDAR BOAT.
Shooting a High Dam on a Swollen
River in the Darkness.
SAD DISASTER AT FRANKLIN.
The Craft Twice Escapes From the Crew,
but Is Recovered.
INA LIGHT CEDAR BOAT.
SAD DISASTER AT FRANKLIN.
The Craft Twice Escapes From the Crew
but Is Recovered.
TROUBLE FOR AN AMATEUR ACTOR

At lU o CLOCK last SATURDAY n1gnt tnret
gentlemen in white boating iannels boarded
the express train which leaves the Unior
Depot at hat hour over the Allegheny
Valley Railroad. They were Messrs. Ed
ward H. Norris the well-known iron man,
Robert a. Franks, of Carnegie, Phipps &
Co., and DR.. l. Litchfeld, of this city.
They thought they would not be recognized
on night train, but, as usually happens,
the sleeping car seemed to be just packed
with their friends and the secret of their
rather unreasonable raiment leaked out
1t wasn't very terrible secret either.
When they returned from their expedi-
tion, with sun-burnt faces and callous hands,
as they did three or four days later, every
body who met them knew that they had
been rowing a tidy bit, and battling with
sunshine, wind and weather. But not
everybody knows that they rowed in a
double working boat, of the lightest possible
description, good 200 miles down the Allie
gheny river, which, swollen by the
recent rains, was not in its most amisble
mood last week That's what they did, and
they started for jamestown, where the boat
had been built to their order on Saturday
last at the 10ur aDOVe n3me1.
Launched Upon the Conawango.
They arrived at jamestown in due time,
or as near due time as is possible when a
change Of cars punctuates the journey. 1t
was noon, Sunday, when they reached the
banks of the classic Conawango, and
launched upon its bosom the fragile craft
that they had carried overland from its
jamestown. The bost is 3315 feet long,
built of cedar principally, rigged for two
pairs of sculls, and weighing no more than
10 pounds. The launching Of the boat oc-
CURED at Frewsburg, five miles from James
town.
Dr. Litchfeld and Mr.. Morris bent to
the.- oars, and Mr.. Franks took the tiller
lines and away they went down stream.
The sky was cloudy, but the weather not
unpleasant. The dams on the Conawango
were the only drawbacks to the first stage
of the journey. They had to carry the boat
around three of the dams, and shot the other
two. In the latter proceeding they mar
rowly escaped disaster, for they came upon
one of the disused dams in the dusk OF the
evening, and by good luck more than any,
:lSnC else slipped over an ugly chasm that
suddenly yawned before them without
realizing what the danger was until it was
past. r..
Travelling Through the Night.
The crew changed around every two
hours so as to give each man fair share of
the pulling. In this way they reached
Warren, where the Conawango is lost in the
shorter and sweeter Allegheny, at o'clock,
and attacked supper ferociously. Half an
hour later they were slipping down the AL
Iegheny again at a good steady stroke,
which brought them to Tidioute by mid
n light. 1t sounds like rather ticklish ven-
ture for three men in a she'll to tackle a
strange river at almost food stage by night,
but no harm came Oft, and they slept safe
" and soundly in Tidioute the rest of the
night.
Next morning they sped on to Tionesta,
where they lunched. and enjoying the river
scenery and exercise immensely in the
warmth and odorous freshness of an ideal
spring day slid through oil City, and tied
up to the bank at nightfall, when they
reached Franklin. At Franklin they slept
little sounder than the night before.
Franklin struck them as the prettiest town
upon the river they had seen, an impression
that later experience did not alter. They
LETT more than their hearts in Franklin, for
after they had gone a parasang or
two, As Nenophon would saw, they found
the common flask was not with them. Their
supply OF tobacco had also tarried behind in
Franklin. The worst of it was that the
rain fell incesSantly. Still thev kept on,
and bv and by made a landing at Emlenton,
where a little station house on the Allie
ghenv Valley Railroad seemed to offer them
a chance to enjoy the luxury of dry inter-
val. There was nobody in the waiting
room, but there was a stove st which they
dried their dripping clothes.
The Little Craft Got Away.
The boat in the meantime was supposed
10 be securely moored. When the oarsmen
came out to re-embark. however, they
found the boat had gone off on voyage on
its own account. How long a start it had
none Of them knew, but they raced down
the bank, and halt mile away came upon a
ferry. The Charon of the locality was in
specting the boat as Its owners came up,
and explained to them that he had seen it
drifting by and contrived to catch it from
his dock.
1t was P NJ. Tuesday when they reached
EmlenUon, and they were so wet and for
lorn by this time that they sent their clothes
to the laundry to be dried, while they re-
perative that Mr.. Franks must leave the
party in order to attend the final rehearsal
Of "In Honor Bound" which the Sewick-
lav Valley Club was to give on Thursday,
and in which Mr. Franks took the leading
role. So Mr.. Franks took the train home
and Miss Morris, a sister of the oarsman, in |
answer to a telegraphic summons, came up
from Hutton in time to act as co1swain
when the boat shot out into the stream the
next, Wednesday, morning. The journey
from Emlenton to Brady, "a miles, was ac-
in three hours-the speed of |
eight miles an hour was the general average |
of the trip-and after lunchng at the latter
place, they rowed on 81 miles further to
where they put up for the |
night. Before they got their well-earned |
sleep they had the second adventure of the
voyage and again narrowly escaped losing
their craft. The boat had been tied, when
.hev landed 70 reconnoiter, to a raft, or
rather hoisted upon the raft itself, which
appeared TO be made fast to the shore.
The Boat Gets Away Again.
When they came back from the hotel to
make all snug for the night neither raft nor
ooat was in sight They started in pursuit
With small hope of success, but presently
Tere relieved to see the boat creeping up
tream propelled by the lusty but awk-
ward efforts Of a gigantic countryman. In
.nswer to their hail he put ashore, and fhey
we're afraid he would stove in the boats
ides as he scrambled out, remarking: 'That
-Ou could make mighty fast time in such a
,oat, but you were likely enough to be up
ct and drowned before you went far" The
aft in the meanwhile was out of sight.
The last DAYS voyage took them from
to Freeport, 16 miles, and thence
0 Hutton, where they made final landing,