The Columbian. [volume] (Bloomsburg, Pa.) 1866-1910, 1903-12-10
OLD R|PLEYS LONG Vigil
A River Man Waiting and Hop
ing to be Drowned.
RIVER FRONT STORIES
Only One Of This Family left-All
Loved the Water-Cannot Leave
the Loneshoreman's life-one
with Bank Account but Persists
In Working as a Longshoreman.


the Loneshoreman's Llfe-one
with a Bank Account, but Persists
In Working as longshoreman.
"Old Ripley" was another Staten
Island waterfront man with history
md a fortune. He had blue blood, he
sides. for he was descended from one
T the old Huguenot families that set
led on the island in the young years
Of America--a family of noble lineage.
He was the last of his family. be-
cause, he said "loye of the water
keeps me from all other loves" But
II Is told on the island by those who
knew "Old Ripley" that his love OF
the water was inspired by an uncon-
0uerable desire to be near the place
where the betrothed of his young man
hood lost her life while attempting to
cross the Arthur Kill during a squall.
From that day "Old Ripley neg.
lected his business in New York and
took to hanging around the wharf OF
the little suburb where his fancee had
embarked 10 her death. His friends,
unable to make him forget. deSis ed
after awhile, and then "Old Ripley
swiftly sank to the level in which he
stayed for nearly thirty years.
He did odd jobs to keep body and
soul together but always near the
water. lie slept. summer and winter,
as close 10 the water as he could get.
And when he was neither working
nor sleeping he could be found gaz-
ing out over the XIV "Nero the girl
and her brother had drowned.
The only pleasure that "Old Ripley
ever permitted himself he indulged in
whenever he was able to scTape up
enough money to hire a boat for an
hour or two, or was successful in
pleading with some of his acquaint-
ances for the loan of one.
Then he would pull out into the kill
and furiouSly row up and down until
worn out. when he would leisurely
mote the land and stink off, his uncut
hair and lOnG bristling beard Garing
out in all directions.
"Old Rip'eys" end was in keeping
with his life. He rolled off the wharf
on which he was sleeping one sum
mers night. They picked up his
body several days later over on the
opposite shore, and the old mans
riverfront acQuaintances. who were
conversant with his romance, vowed
that the body went ashore at the place
where his sweetheart was making for
r-hon her boat caDsiZed
There is a river man in Pittsburc
rho has been waiting for half OF
lan's allotted span of years to be
drowned in the Ohio He believes i'm
plicitly that he will not. cannot, die
any other way. His reason for his
belief he states in a matter of fact
way:
THE men Of my family have been
river men ever since they settled
here in the latter part of the eigh
teenth century. They've all loved the
water they've all lived by it, and
they've all died in It.
"My great grandfather and one Of
his sons sank with raft off Cincin
natl. My grandfather was drowned
along with his wife and two daugh
ters, in an explosion on the Monon
gahela, as the boat was about enter
ing the Ohio
81 saw my father knocked senseles'
off coal barge during fight, and he
never rose above the Ohio's surface
Three years ago my brother and g
cousin were capsized during a storm
piece down the river and their bodie:
were found a week later
''Now, I'm the only one OF my fam
lily left, and the Ohio is waiting 70,
me- 1t will get me some day Just n:
sure as I'm talking to you and then
maybe, it'll be contented.
why don't | leave the river?
can't It's got its hold on me. Ant
what good would it do If I did tr!
something else? I'd come back to the
river some day, because | couldn'
stay away, and then I'd be no better
off
The average longshoreman is not re