The Prince George's enquirer and southern Maryland advertiser. (Upper Marlborough, Md.) 1882-1925, 1895-11-15
DECAY OF THE ERIE CANAL


1t would be difficult to find any
thing anywhere SO compte:l ~ and
strangely changed IN all its activities
and conditions as the Erie canal. Not
a thing is seen us 1t was III former
years and nothing is done Il; /. US, d
to be. Passenger bo4ts have vanish
ed. Freight beats 90 by two inst al
of singly. steering by the rear boat m
stead Of by rudd4r st amboats and
electric launches. No more the helms
man cries Fow bridge, for all bridges
were raised to safe haighs long age,
SO people stand on deck Ill safety.
The long stable and drinking houses
where horses and drivers were chang
ed, and the general merch indise sores
near bv. have tumbled to ruins, where
any vestige of them remains: the boat
men carry their horses, and they get
supplies in the cities and villages they
pess through. | he once familiar sign
IA ong The towpatH, that amused SO
many people, Tow Ropes Milk, and
Horse Sho,lng,' IS not ID be found
anywh re. The locks formerly all
single. are now double. The lock
gate are not now pashed op'n and shut
by man power, bnt by the fill Of
water in the lock. The weight locks
wh,r e the water was | t out, and boat,
cargo and all were # suspended by
mi .hty and gigantic mechanism, are
stripped of their apparatus, and all
boats pas tn IN by. Fol, when tol ;
were no longer cullec'ed i made no
difference to tn. States revtnl VIII t
tonnage was carried. TIE c,nal was
Years ago widened aud deep nd, ana
IN s,me PAGES frightened. Instead
Of bringing revenue to the St,ta, the
canal is now a burden t. it.
Even the tow path is three times
the width it was IN cd times: for the
horses no lDnger 90 IAN lem, The rider
seated on tn rear no. Sc, ciackln ,
his long la>hed Whip at h leader at
the leader, and ''IulI of strange oaths. y
The horses and mules go three abreast
and the path is wide enough for them
20 pass another three a any point. The
driver wa ks seldom carrying whip,
and never lound word is h lard fro n
him. Not enou-h boats are running
to cause such rivalry as in old times
kept the botmen taking unfiir ad-
vantage Of one another in all the
many ways possible, making the whole
length of the canal-as a Methodist
minister once CD led it sd = trough
fare to hell, blazing blue with bias
phemy.'
Mos frequent of all the o'd-time
provocatives to swearing was the cut
ting of the tow ropes. And this re-
minis me That one thing in cana l.
ing" Is still done as it us5d to be yet
even this not exac ly. To explain, the
tow path is on one side of the canal
only; boa gong east or west are drawn
by horses on he same path. When
boats meet, the one going west steers
oul toward the BERNIE bank; the horses
are Stopped, and the tow line drops
to the bottom of the canal; the horses
of the east bound bot com along on
the canal side ef the path, stepping
over the dropped rope, ard the boat
they draw passes over the sunken rope
between the wet-bouni boa aud the
tow path. ? h.n the west bound horses
start up, the line >traightens olt, an
the boat moves on. So far as thuS
d cribed, this trick is done just us II
always was.
But in old times the line that was
dropp d for a boat to pass OYER ltsome-
times failed to 90 10 tha DO tom. II
caught across the bow of the oncom,
ing boat, ran up the bow, and along
the top Of the boa: if it were IA packet
boat, it swept off tie passengers lug
gage. threw the people off their legs
and cleared the deck for action: and
between the crews battle of bias
phemy ensued But after while every
canal boat-for freight or for passen-
gers-had knife fixed upright from
The hcad-post Of The bow, It's blade
at the top curying outward. TINS
caught and severed any rope that got
drawn up across the bow instead Of
falling uuder the vessel. And then
again the blue air qnivered with lurid
profanity; for the density of rlbald
derision hurled at a captain from d
passing boat was in proportion to the
number of splice knots on his tow
rope.
This, too, is now all different, ex-
cept the dropping of the to" line fol
boat to pass over it. A case of a line
failing to drop to the bottom in time
for the oncoming boat to pass over ii
is now never heard of. Probabl y there
never was any need of its so falling.
Not knife has been seen over the bow
Of any canal boat these thirty years.
The man at the wheel does not look
upon the helmsman Of the boat he is
about to meet at his mortal foe. I he
driver is at peace with his mules. The
captain is in tranquility with the uni
verse. His wife and daugh er dress
up, and sit on deck under their avn
ing, smiling as they glide through the
towns. And the Mohawk and Gen see
valleys no longer tremble with the
stentorian echoes of ''God's great
gift Of speech abused '-Boston Trans
cript.