The Wadsworth dispatch. [volume] (Wadsworth, Nev.) 1892-1899, 1896-05-30
WEDNESDAY. 30, 1896
NoMAos OF THE OHIO RIVER.


to the Law of Nc State.
A tenement at 32 Goodloe street, Gin
sinnati. emptied itself out the other day.
and 80 families who had dwelt in it
during the winter returned with much
rejoicing to their summer homes in
shantyboats at Maysville, KY. They
had lived in the tenement since the cold
weather began, picking up u living in
precarious ways and only existing un-
til they, typical river folk. could return
TO their native element.
write. Most Of the children of the 80
families were born on the shantyboats.
These people are but types of a class
which grows larger every year and
which may be justly styled the Ohio
river nolnads
The water wanderer was originally
made, not born-made years ago when
the country was new and the state Of
Ohio was not. He must have had a Pc
culiar turn Of mind. Somewhat adven-
turous and restless, as befitted any one
who pushes out from tho place where
he was born. yet lacking in sturdy en-
durance, he would accept conditions
easily. In those early days those who
pushed forward out of western Pennsyl-
vania and West Virginia and western
New York took to the kindly bosom Of
the bread Ohio us "a meaIs of transpor-
tntion and en- flatboats and in rough
dugouts and NOES were borne south
ward and westward with the current
Not u hard life was this when compared
with the toillng existence Of pioneer
farm life and the necessity Of hewing
down a forest to make u field. Floating
down the beautiful river in pleasant
weather, fishing, foraging up and down
the banks, having ut command the re-
sources CT the land and water, living in
such a manner that u change could be
made every hour if it was desired-this
was u free existence. with less care than
any life i'll tho tracklcss wilderness
could be.
What wonder it is that the weakest
and NEST case loving Of the wanderers
from home should keep to the river.
love it, real their families on it and to-
day furnish u people who are really
Arabs? They are growing in numbers
and drawing recruits from the "degen-
crates Of cities and towns" at all times,
until now this river population num-
bers, as near az any estimate can DO
made. over 10, 900 people. They are not
easy to count, these river dcnizens-
They are here today and gone tomorrow.
They know hiding places up the mouths
ct creeks where it would be hard to find
them and are as elusive as fleas in
every particular.
The overplus Of population in the
three Neutrality-suspicious., West Vir-
ginia and southwestern New York
tumbles into the Ohio river as easily as
do the creeks, rivulets and rills. From
far up the Allegheny river they come,
from Tionesta creek, from Broken Straw
and Caldwell. from Oil creek and Cher
ry run, out from Big Hickory, Hem
lock, Halls run and Slippery Rock
creek; from the Irish Ripple and the
Breakneck, from up Cowanshannock
creek and the Big Pucketta, from Pit
hole Businesses and the Big Mahoning
ways-a slouching. Ignorant procession
Of young people who have no ambition,
no education, but who know that the
Ohio river mean an easy life, easier
than telling logs in the mountains or
working i'll the coal mines or on the
shoots. Cincinnati Tribune.