The Wichita daily eagle., 1895-02-20
THEY GO BY WATER
statesmen WHO WORK THE OHIO AND
MISSISSIPPI BOATS.
Continually Going Down the Rivers to New
Orleans Selling Goods on Board and
Ashore-One Man Who Had the Boat
Stop to Let Him Sell . Gun.

Orleans Selling Goods on Board and
Ashore-One Man Who Had the Boat
| Stop to Let Him Sell Gun.
ssSay, what would ycu think Of going
up in one of the big Albany day boats and
| having her stop and set you ashore long
enough to sell a gun to countryman,
| then pick you up again and go on"
Such a question could be asked only by
q commercial traveller. 1t would be un-
| just to him TO say that the little bottle Of
wine with half dollar table d'hote din
ner made him talkative, because he is al
| ways tall,ative, always interesting, too,
and full of good stories.
"Knock you crazy, wouldn't it?'' ha
went on, not expecting any answer be
yond look OF surprise. ''Of course it
would. But I had just that thing happen
to me down en- the Ohio river some weeks
ago. That's my country for business
the Ohio aad the Mississippi basin and all
/ the other basins in that region. It's about
the finest racket that any travelling man
! in this country has too. l take boat at
J Pittsburg, and with two changes l go
right through to New Orleans putting in
little time ut every town on the way. l
reckon four or five weeks for tho trip and
! from eight to ten trips a year.
There arc-well, l can't say just how
many Of US work the river boats. i never
strike boat without meeting two or three
others, and, TO draw it mild, l should say
| there were several hundred. It's just like
! profession, the river business is-takes
/ long time to get into it, but when you
once get there you're solid. It's snap
when you have the right line. You don't
want to go down there selling French
clocks or ball shippers, you know. In
| my line-light hardware, cutlery and fire
arms-it's about as soft a berth as a mar
! could crawl into Come back by the riyerf
/ OF course / don't. 1t would take me, say:
! a month to get from New Orleans to Gin
! cinnati by boat, and that would be q
/ month wasted
Il make up my list and have the goods
boxed and shipped 10 Pittsburg about
! three days before am ready to start My
! business is hot in full swing till I get TO
/ Cincinnati. That's where the big Ohio
river packets start from, and to one OF
them my goods are transferred. l don't
go through to New Orleans on that boat,
! only to Memphis, because the Ohio river
/ boats don't make many stops after they
! get into the Mississippi.
! "No matter what boat I take from Gin
! cinnati, there's sure to be queer lot OF
4 passengers on her. Nobody is supposed
J to travel By the beats nowadays who can
afford to ride in the cars. Last time down
/ was right in the swamper season, and we
/ had about 80 of them on board. You'd
/ think from their appearance that the
swampers were lot of daredevil cowboys
hungry for a fight, but they're not.
/ There's always work to be had in the
swamps of Louisiana, especially along the
/ Red river, cutting lumber for barrel staveS
and shingles and when winter comes on
in the north hundreds of farmer boys in
Ohio and Indiana and Illinois go down in
the boats and put in winters work in
the swamps. They're the swampers.
They're great on guns and pistols and
knives, not for fighting, but to give them
real sporty appearance, suppose, and
work my cards to sell them all l can. It's
very much like peddling to be sure.
! Sometimes sell as much as $500 or $500
worth on the boat between Cincinnati and
Memphis. The swampers haven't got any
! money, but pay with orders on their en-
ployers.
This work on the boat of course is only
side show. Ny main business is in the
towns. How long the boat stops at place
depends entirely upon how much freight
there is to take on. At least it's supposed
TO depend on that, but sometimes it de-
pends more upon the commercial travellers
ON board, as you shall see. We're ap-
proao hing Shawneetown, on the Illinois
shore, let rs say, and when we get up
close enough we see that there's very little
freight for us, not enough to keep US
more than 10 or 10 minutes. There are,
we'll say, four commercial men on board,
and we all want to spend two or three
hours in Shawneetown. We get right
down into our pockets and pull out about
O dollar apiece and put the money where
1t VIII do the most good, no matter where,
but somehow the boat is delayed, and we
do our business on shore. At the next
landing there may be enough freight to
keep us four or FIVE hours, and we don't
have to spend any money there.
II was going to tell you about stopping
the boat and setting me ashore while I
sold gun to a countryman. l don't sup
pose such a thing could happen anywhere
in the world except along the Ohio river.
We were pokirg along one morning pret-
ty close to the Kentucky shore somewhere
between Owensbcro and Evansville. The
rive. is very wide there and in some places
almost six feet deep. was up on the
Texas deck leaning against one of the
pilot house windows talking to tho cap
tain when I happened TO see an old chap
walking along the shore with a gun over
his shoulder. The captain was a great
friend of mine, and just for joke l said
TO him, Say, cap, wish you'd stop the
boat while so ashore and sell that fellow
decent gun.
We'll sir. the words were hardly out
Of my mouth before the captains hand
was on the whistle cord, and the old thing
gave a most unearthly screech. 1t was
ihe big whistle, you understand, that they
blow OILY when they're going TO make
landing. Most of these boats carry two
whistlea-one for ordinary use and dia-
bolical one of about 1000 horsepower TO
let people know they're going 10 make a
landing The old fellow on shore acted
surprised, but he was no more surprised
than vas They set me ashore, and
braced the cid hunter, and in mighty
short orcer I sold him a breechloadipg
shotgun. l had TO wait nearly half an
hour. too, while he went up TO his house
to get the money. When got back 70 the
boat, they started her UP again, and away
we went New York sun.
No s.Old Home