The record-union., 1893-07-04
LUCID TALK ON RIVER BOATS.
In Old Days the Mate Had n Nocabu.
larry Unfit for Publication.

In Old Days the Mate Had n Vocal bu-
larry Unfit for Publication.
It has long been a favorite expression
along the Ohio River in describing a
mans moral recklessness in language to
say: "He is as profane as a steamboat
mate" Steamboat life on the Ohio River
is as different from boating on the Sin
land seas' as driving oxen is from run
ming electric cars. An exaggerated de-
scription of the Ohio River declared it
twas dry six months in the year, and
frozen up the other six" This may give
some idea of the picnic of the boatmen.
The life, says the Cleveland PLdiudedyeT
has always been hard, brutally hard,
from the days of the traditional exploits
of Mike Fink and Press Devol on down
to the present luxurious boats. For a
man to have been deck-hand or roust-
about on the Ohio River was to stamp
him as being tough far beyond any
power of description or any sensibllity to
fear.
The great source of difficulty and an
noyance to the steamboat men on the
Ohio is getting stuck" The sand bars
and mud always loom UP at the wrong
time. and when the boat is stopped the
mates mouth is always opened. When
the Ohio River boat strikes bar an in
vestigation by sounding is made to de-
termine the easiest way to pull of. The
snatch blocks are rigged, and small en-
gine in the fore part OF the boat called a
"nigger," is set at work. If the vessel
be pulled off readily there is little dis
turbance, but if it sticks one OF the mates
there are always two and sometimes
threel turns himself loose. He curses
the spars the man that made them and
the trees from which they were taken;
he howls anathemas and threats of muir
der and general destruction at the rousta-
bouts, who move on singing and laugh
ing as though his hoarSe voice was the
sweetest lullaby; he orders them to start
tine nigger,' then to ''stop the nigger,"
then howls to know why in the blank,
blank, blanketv, blanknation the mig
ger' has been stopped. He roars and
curses and bellows, howls and chOkes
and shrieks until at last the boat glides
off the bar and is free. He is firmly con
vinced, of course, that the profanity is
what did it all, and was just as necessary
as the spars or the engine. The other
mates and Captain remain in the back
ground and reserve their fund of profan-
ity for the next bar and succeeding bars,
with a slight attention to the bar in the
cabin.
The Ohio River steamboat Captain of
thirty-tive years ago has never been
equaled in point of assumed dignity by
anything except the modern postofiice
CitIh, anu LH0 OjnCDTS Oh Lll6 uIoStluILO
heet' during the war. When he came on
board and the mate took his place at the
bell with the roustabouts ready to haul in
the gang-plank one could imagine that
about all that was admirable in the uni
verse was about to move out And it was
a quaint picture with merry and home
like features. The old-timer along the
banks of the Ohio loves to talk OF the
good old days, only to bewail the degen-
eracy of the times. He never tires of
telling of the exploits of the Boston, Bos-
tona, Wild Wagoner, Lady Franklin,
Alice Pike and a score of other familiar
names. What if the,old-timers were pro-
fame? The native along the shores ex-
pected it. When the steamer of thirty
years ago rounded to for the purpose of
taking on wood, the poor devil who
sawed the wood just as firmly expected
cursing as he did salutation. The wood
was too blank long, to blank short and
too blank green! Everything was wrong.
In fact, the stamp of brutality pervaded
every transaction and all intercourse.
But it was not spirit of brutality. 1t was