The Bossier banner., 1893-05-25
cusSIN' ON THE OHIO.
The Robust Quality OF Old-TIme River Pro
family.


1t has long been favorite expression
along the Ohio river, in describing a
mans moral recklessness in language,
to say: 'He Is as profane as a steam
boat mate" Steamboat life on the Ohio
river is as different from boating ON the
finland seas as driving oxen is from
running electric cars. An exaggerated
description of the Ohio river declared
it was dry six months in the year and
frozen up the other six" This may give
pome idea of the picnic of the boatman.
The life has always been hard brutally
hard, from the days of the traditional
exploits of Mike Fink and Press Devol
OF down to the present luxurious boats.
For a man to have been a deck hand or
rousta bout on the Ohio river was to
stamp him as being tough far beyond
| any powers of description or any sensi-
bility to fear.
The great source of difficulty and an
noyance to steamboatmen 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 a bar an in
vestigation by soundings is made to
| determine the easiest way to pull off.
The spars are then gotten out and
| planted, snatchblocks are rugged, and a
small engine in the fore part of the
boat, called ''nigger," is set at work.
If the vessel be pulled off readily
there is little disturbance, but If 1t
sticks, one of the mates there are al
ways two and sometimes three) turns
himself loose. He curses the spars, the
man that made them and the trees from
which they were taken; he howls anath-
emas and threats of murder and gen.
eral destruction at the rousta bouts, who
move on singing and laughing as
though his hoarse voice was the sweet
est lullaby: he orders them to start
the nigger," then to ''stop the nig-
GER" then howls to know why in
the blank, blank, blankety, blank
nation the "nigger" has been stopped?
He fuaFs and curses and bellows, howls
and chokes and shrieks until at last
the boat glides off the bar and is free.
He is firmly convinced, of course, that
the profanity was what did it all, and
was just as necessary as the spars OF
the engine.
The other mates and captain remain
in the background and reserve their
fund of profanity for the next bar
and succeeding bars, with slight at
tention to the bar in the cabin.
The Ohio river steamboat captain OF
thifty-fve years ago has never been
equaled in point of assumed dignity by
anything except the modern post Office
clerk and the officers of the mosquito
fleet" 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 eeulC
imagine that about all that was ad
mirable in the universe was about t.
move out. And it was quaint pic
ture with merry and homelike features
The old timer along the banks of tn,
Ohio loves to talk Of the good old days
only to bewai1 the degeneracy of th
times. He never tires of telling of tn
exploits Of the Boston. RosteRa, Wil'
Wagner, Lady Franklin, Alice Pike
and a score of other familiar names
What if the old timers were profane
The natives along the shores expecte
it. When the steamer of thirty year
ago rounded to for the purpose of TAX
ing on wood, the poor devil who saves
the wood just as firmly expected a ours
ing as he did a salutation. The WOO
was too blank long, too blank short
and too blank green. Everything wa
wrong. in fact. the stamp of brutalit
; pervaded every transaction and all il
= tercourse. But it was not a spirit @
= brutality. 1t was their way, the wa
of the times. It was as natural for a
Ohio river steamboat officer to swear a
was for him to hit deck-hand with
board, or as it is for dude to look silly
. Cleveland Plain Dealer.