The record-union., 1896-08-17


swords and fight a melodramatic COM
Dat on the deck. There is no doubt
that at times our barge was taken for
a floating lunatic asylum
THE FIRST STEAMBOATS,.
The f1atboats and barges found a ri
val when the steamboat appeared The
steamers increased rapidly as soon as
their success was assured, more rap
IDLY in fact than on the Atlantic coast,
for by 1920 there had been seventy one
of them built on the western rivers. A
curious result of the introduction of
the steamer was that owners of fiat
boats frequently rigged up crude en-
gines and tried to apply them to their
crafts. New Orleans or bust" was
rarity. 1t was so generally taken for
granted that they would that passen-
gers usually sought the aft state
rooms because, as Charles Dickens
himself noted as late as 1872, the
boat usually blew up forward" Some
of the accidents are the most frightfuI
in the history of our country. Such
was the explosion o: the Moselle near
Cincinnati in 1888. The boat had left
its wharf and gone up stream to take
family on board. AS there was no
running on schedule time in those
days, the steamers accommodated their
passengers by going out of their usual
routes or by stopping wherever and
whenever they were asked. AS the
MoSelle was a new brag boat" while
waiting for his passengers, the Cap
tain held on to all the steam he could
CT cate, with the intention not only of
showing off to the best advantage the
great speed of the boat as it passed
down the river the entire length of the
city, but that he might overtake and
PASS another boat which had left the
wharf for Louisville Lut a short time
previous" Hardly had he parted from
his moorings, however, before the boil
ers burst. Those of the passengers and
crew who We're not killed by the explo-
sion were drowned-Some 200 persons
in ALL The whole performance was a
fair sample of the skill and intelligence
shown in managing the early river
steamers.
THE LIFE OF THE RIVERMEN,
The enormous traffic which grew upon
the rivers gradually developed a pecu-
liar people-'the river boatmen" ;"
Obliged to live in the rudest way on
their RATS and f1atboats, away from
their families, crowded when in towns
into such quarters as the swamp in
New Orleans, having few pleasures but
drinking and gambling, these men be-
came toughs of the most violent type
There are many of them whose deeds
were so dreadful that their names are
still historic in the Mississippi Valley.
One curious feature of their business
was that when they had reached New
Orleans they were obliged to sell their
boats, as they could not be got up
stream, and to come back on foot,
horseback or by steamer More bought
ponies of the Choctaw Indians and
came on horseback in the early days
than in any other way. 1t is fact that
many of the horses used by farmers in
Ohio and Western Pennsylvania at that
GATE were bought from rivermen. The
father of Howells, the novelist, speaks
of owning pony when boy which his
father bought from a returned boatman
for S2S
The roughness of the life had excep-
tlons. Now and then there were boat
men who led very happy, decent lives
on their crafts. This was usually due
to one or more of them bringing their
wives and children. The dirty cabins
soon became homelike then. Flowers
appeared, awnings and hammocks were
put up, rocking chairs came out, chill
dren played up and down the length of
the RATS and the dreary, hopeless place
became a cozy floating home
Very early in the history of the rivers
there appeared all the various institu-
tions incidental to any kind of organ
lied living. Store boats sold the river
men furniture, groceries, clothing, and,
alas! the worst of bad whisky; church
boats offered them services on Sunday;
there were even floating theaters,
though rather for the accommodation
of the towns on the river than for the
sake of the rivermen These floating
theaters had many amusing expert
ences, which made UP in a degree for
the hard financial luck which usually
attended them. Among the theater
managers who took companies down
the river on barge was the entertain
ing Colonel Bateman. Though the trip
was series of financial makeshifts the
Colonel laid in a stock of dinner table
stories there which lasted him all his
life. One of the best was the follow
ing:
One evening when he was PLAYING
King Lear" to an almost empty boat.
Edgar rushed on to the stage in the
middle of the storm scene and ex-
claimed: BY Jove, Colonel, Cordelia
has got bite Cordelia, who was not
wanted from the end of the first to the
fifth act, had been fishing at the stern
of the barge.
INFLUENCE OF RIVER LIFE.
The tremendous part the river life
played in developing the ambitions and
intelligence of the Western settlers can
never be estimated. To them it brought
all they knew of the civilized world. By
it alone they touched men and progress
For many years it was the habit ali
through the West for the small farmer
to carry his poor produce himself to
New Orleans to sell He would build a
rickety fatboat, pack on it his few vege-
tables hay pork and suudries, and off
he would go. In appearance his voyage
was Ia the interests of commerce. but in
fact il was due to his irresistible desire
to see the world. The undertaking was
GENERALLY d liiieiiiCidi lOSS, lOT IL his rlIC
didn't go to pieces and his potatoes to
the bottom, he had to spend all he made
to get back. What matter. He hau
been to ORLEANS" and ever after life
meant a thousand new things.
And if they couldn't go down the river
they could turn out when the steamers
came by. Invariably the whistle of
coming boat brought, men, women and
after the steamers appeared on Western