Omaha daily bee., 1899-10-15
SIGHTS ON THE RIVER FRONT
Pen Pictures Of an Interesting Side Of Life
in Omaha.
sQUATTERS WHO LIVE IN BOARD sHACKS
Careless, Contented People with No
business Burdens or Ambitions TO
Worry Them - Women Saw
wood and Garry water.


The Omaha water front is a queer little
world OF it's own, inhabited by care-free
ucople who live contentedly with no axes
to grind. no ambitions 70 satisfy, and with
no particular mission on earth except to eat
drink, sleep, fish, hunt and have an easy
time generally,
The water front is the cosmopolitan end of
Omaha 1t is to this city what the Poplar
street Klondkc with its Scrap Iron Nell"
is to St Louis down on the big Mississippi
In a way, it compares with the Bowery in
New York for Bowery language prevails.
This little world is in evidence more or
less all the way from several blocks below
tho Union Pacific bridge north to the East
Omaha bridge and beyond. These people,
as a rule do not live in house boats but
their pne-board shanties of one or two
rooms are so near the waters edge that
spring frcshet would almost send driftwood
through their doors But they don't seem
to have any apprehension of floods or other
disaster, and a thousand miles of travel
would not reveal happier lot.
Women Saw the Wood.
Upon the women of this cosmopolitan col
ony devolves the greater part of the home
work. such as saving wood, carrying water,
and so on. The writer, in the course of a
stroll along the river front. observed a mid
dle-aged woman saving driftwood. She had
gathered it along the river and carried it into
the back yard of her little board shack
and the back yard consisted of an almost
perpendicular bluff-where she was cutting it
down TO fit her cooking stove. The saw she
used was a rickety old blade, squeaking
If it had never tasted oil. She puffed and
bowed like steam engine for the labor of
dragging the wood up the hill had shortened
her breath. In her mouth was an old clay
pipe, such as may be had two for a nickel
she Chcwed the stem she puffcd away at
her work These people are socable, and
the woman woOd-sawyer stopped work long
enough to talk about the river and things in
general. She "reCkoned" the June rise"
would send the water up to her cabin door,
but she wasn't going to bother her head"
about it till it happened. She said most
all the "neighbors had 'passel O. monty
bad young'uns," and nearly all of them had
more dogs than necessary she allowed"
She said she had lived in her present abode
two years. Prior to that she had lived in
house boat on the Iowa side OF the river
When asked If she preferred a shanty to a
house boat, she replied that she wouldn't
like to live in house boat because sit has
got that trashy trifin folks take to the
boats" Respectable people can no longer
afford these floating domiciles, she declared
and as for her, she expected to always live
in shanty.
Two arm loads of wood were sawed and
pitched into the kitchen-not carried in, but
pitChed-and then the woman was ready
for another task. She brought from the
house two gallon tin bucket She de-
scended the hill leading down to the river
as nimbly as a mountain climbing goat, and
walked out on a big log projecting into the
water. The wind blew her unkempt hair
nondescript as to Color-in every direction
but she didn't seem to mind it. After she
had filled her bucket she tossed it up to
her lips and took drink with as much
relish, apparently as though she were
drinking Manitou or other high-priced
water. She climbed the hill as easily as
she had descended and her household had
water for cooking and drinking purposes
in quantity sufficient to last until after sub.
per, she said.
Horror of the Courts.
When questioned as to her name she re-
piled: AK me no questions, an I'll tell
ye no lies; hain't nuver been in court till
yit an l don't want to git thar now"
she apparently has horror of courts, and
the query as to her name created suspicion
that she might be wanted as a witness In
some case.
Under a big bluff further down the river
a group OF men and boys sat idly casting
pebbles into the stream. They were prob-
aDly waiting away from home until after
the women had gathered the daily drift
wood and carried the water
The woman who sawed the wood and
smoked her clay pipe is typical of the river
ffoht colony Picture her and you have a
IaIr portrayal OF the average dweIIer there
Df hn
nut many of them do not work except parr
OF the year. There are saloons in the vi
clnity and more or less beer is drank over
the par and out OF cans, but as n rule these
people are not vicious. They NAV oCc,
slonally indulge in fight but in the aggre
sate they are as peaceable as though thev
hved amid more elevating environments.
Last summer when the weather was hot
me river dwellers solved the problem of
slecplhg' They built scaflolds in their back
yards and covered them overhead either with
boards or canvas. This gave protection
from the dew. Underneath this covering
they placed their beds. Some of these
scaholds yet remain, although the advent of
cool weather has done away with the ont
door sleeping. A multiplicity OF dogs and
chickens and children is character
istic OF the queer territory. al
though not all the inhabitants have
0N'"vu tne ulsully ana importance of keep
ing chickens The family so elevated as
to keep COW and chickens" ranks as no
bllity.
The fsYorite way for measuring time and
computing dates is by reference to the river
Hoods. For instance, the typical denizen
would say that John Jones has lived In
Omaha since the high water backed un
into Bill Smiths cabin" 1t doesn't matter
about tho year or the month in which Bill
smith suffered surfeit of water. for every
pody Is supposed to know all about it.
simple as Ia Dress
While there are no Worth gowns or bird
hedecked hats or diamond necklaces worn
by the water front women, they are more