The Indianapolis journal., 1895-12-08
ON THE BIG SANDY.
Queer But Profitable Boating When
There In Any Water.

Cincinnati Tribune.
The Big Sandy is the most ludicrous river
on earth. Not even the Missouri i'm high
water moods and tantrums equals this
four-hundred-m d-mile-long stream. whose ut
near the North Carolina line 1t is saucy,
inSolent little stream down TO Pineville,
vocherous when the rains I'LL its narrow
banks and digging great holes in its muddy
bottom. But at Pineville IL changes. The
bed grows wider and is sand-plagued. The
banks are low and crumble easily. From
Pineville TO Catlettsburg the river twists
about and sports with the sand that keeps
continually piing up in all sorts of unde-
out OF sight to puzzle the pilot at a critical
point. The channel is never In the same
place two days I'm succession and some
times IL changes mornin0 noon and night.
But there has never been serious disaster
to a steamboat on that stream, which plays
clown with its sand and is always muddy
faced; and even in flood time proves q
The Big Sandy is the highway to all the
far-back counties in northeastern Ken
lucky. 1t carries what little produce the
farmers up that way have and returns
very dearly every dollars worth OF grocer
les. dry goods and all the other commodi-
ties that population of 10000 needs.
Steamer navigation covers about five
months in the year. Good rates are mafn-
tained,, and five good months on Sandy
means big money TO boat owners. who, in
the other months, rent their boats TO Ohio
river companies when that stream gets too
A Big Sandy boat is differently built from
other steamboats,. and, like the river. is q
subject for jokes in other waters. But In
the stream Iof whhcn !, Is oulit @ II JUST nts, :,
trade on the Big Sandy must not draw
over eight inches. The steamer must also
be very squat The berths are usually on
the same deck as the boiler, but there are
floating palaces on the Sandy that have
two decks and texas on top. The most
frequent steamer however + the little tie
creek 1t is flat-bottomed boat, sixteen
feet long, the sides built straight up from
The The wsIit Width o is 'as eight feet and bit Of
wheel about two feet in diameter is the
pusher. The boiler is a two or four-horse
power upright affair; the cabin contains
no staterooms and no meals are served.
The smokestack reminds one OF the play
tile hats clowns wear sometimes, and the
orator. There is one window about sxi2
inches on each side OF the cabin, and II
carries only way passengers. light pack
ages, and often ferries people from one
| side of the river to the other.
But the king of all the boats on the SAM
| dy, the fayorite of the plebefan, the delight
of those With means. is the pushboat. II
| came on the river when the Indians were
yet here, and until this fall has ruled the
sand. A f1rst-class .pushboat is 1o feet
long, eight feet wide. and draws, when
loaded with from 250 to 800 tons. about
| eight inches. 1t is fiat-bottomed, and both
bows turn up sometimes like gondola,
water. runs a plank seven inches wide the
entire length OF the boat.
The crew of such boat consists of the
captain. an extra man. and eight stalwart
pushers. When the boat is ready TO start
| the captain takes his place at the rudder.
stand snI I Close s together. At the signal to go
| the pushers put their metal-toed poles, fif-
| teen feet long, to the bottom of the stream
| still pushing lift their feet as II walking
| until the rear end Of the boat comes along.
Then they hurry to the front and again
push, the other three copules going
| through the same labor. Eighteen miles in
| twelve hours is what a good crew will take
a boat There is very little current In h the
water runs in circles not strong enough to
act whirlpools. so that pushboats go up
| stream very nearly as rapidly as down. AT
one. time there were over one hundred
| pushboats on the Sandy. of which nearly
| all were the property OF hve companies,
the others being 'independents There
boats, the most costly of which cost less
| than $3.50, earned over 100000 each season.
valley ale and the stream sank into the earth
| and was the victim of the sun until now
| Ii has become a mere rivulet. and the
| ing but a memory. At the present time
| the absence of the pushboat Is causing
much suffering. and unless there is, is rain a
| fiict many hundreds of families.
The principal export besides lumber Il
| sorghum molasses. Last year the push.
| boats and steamboats, carried forty-eight
| thousand barrels of sorghum out of the
| valley. The producers were paid 2S cents
| per gallon, delivered at the river banks
| Each barrel contains forty-two gallons,
| and is worth 81 -76. This year not one
thousand barrels have gone out, and the
price has fallen to IA cents gallon. Sew
eral spectators at Catlettsburg are buying
| considerable of producers, who must have
money, but there Is no telling when the
| boats can run. The necessity for trans
| fer of some kind to take a lot Of grocer
| les to some up-river points induced tw'
| wholesale grocers TO load two pushboati
| which are being drawn up Sandy by -four
| yoke of oxen, two to each vessel The YES
| sci will require ten or fifteen days TO reach
| Pineville. The boats are sent to relieve q
coffee and meat shortage, rather than te
| make money