The daily morning journal and courier., 1903-04-29
CATCHING DRIFTWOoD AS A BUS
 NESS.

peOple WHO i've dtOuS tAAS Ddllh0 oA HA4~ Mississippi and under the Chickasaw bluffs. These are the squatter fisher 1 men and driftwood hunters, whose | shanty boats are so common sight to | all Memphians, or. rather, to those who 1 have a habit of taking a prowl up and | down the banks of the big stream once l in a while. There are scores of men | who. with their families, live along the river, under the bluffs and along the eshores of Wolf river, who earn good living catching driftwood. There are great many persons who have an idea that these shanty boat folk are people who are living always in the lowest
 depths of penury. But it is mistake They often have money to spare for
 rainy day and live fairly we'll
 According to the story told by some of these river dwellers, the ' 'longshore- men" of the Mississippi, there are many worse vacations than that Of capturing driftwood. Down near th.S
 Tennessee end of the big bridge there l is quite a colony of these squatters, and among them is the comfortable greenhouse boat owned by John RoXey. John is a typical specimen of the drift | wood hunter and 'longshore dweller. His houseboat, the Annie N., is com
 fortable weather tight affair, with three
 rooms, and is ''seaworthy" and fit to
 take a lona cruise on the big river. I She is moored to the bank near the foot ! of Tranhor avenue. and there he ana
 his wife, and two dogs live in comfort, | free from the rent collector and the tax
 gatherer, as we'll as the pestering greed 1 of the coal trust This boat has mod el-built hull, and is equipped with sweeps and stil rigging.
 There's more money and comfort in this sort O life," said Roxey when asked about the business, than most folks will agree, and, besides, am
 comfortably fixed. This little sfanty-
 boat cost me only one hundred dollars. 1 I have a 'squatter's lease on four hun dred feet of river front, and that slves me the night to, fish here, tie up my lboats here and catch all the driftwood ithat comes my way. Coal don't cost lme nothin', because I mostly use wood,
 and rent don't worry me nor my wife.
 There is good fishing, and we always make few dollars out O that. Then
 there's the logs. That's the prime
 source of wealth. We really make more money there than could if l was
 living on the hill.'
 What is the law about catching logs?"
 ''Rafts and branded, logs, belong to the owner of the brand. You see, all
 timber men have a way of branding
 timber on the butt of the stick with a
 stamp hammer or a hot iron. For this
 kind of drift the mills the stuff has been
 consigned to are willing to pay three
 dollars and a half thousand for sal
 wage. Of course, we have to pay fol
 | the towing. I often catch parts of rafts ! that have been washed out of Woll river on some rise and make nice stake by having the timber lowed back
 to the mills.
 "The law about unbranded logs ii . that the stick belongs to the man tha | catches it. Often in a run out il Wolf river there are lot of these may : ericks that come aur way, and there Ii where the biggest money is made Th' , last big haul I made got me and m! wife a nice bunch O eoin We caugh } four hundred and ninety logs, ali eln 9 and gum. that belonged to two of tn -' big mills along Wolf. We got line ol 'em one morning early and herded 'en I lin. It cost us ten dollars for hired hell e and sixty dollars for a tug to take 'en I up the river. When we delivered tn e goods the mill men handed us over tW - hundred and fifty dollars, which Wasn' t bad. We worked two days catchin f the timber and two days getting 1t int - shape to toW,'
 r According to Roxey, the outfit or = drift hunter is cheap and simple. AS = rule the shanty boat does not cost owe r one hundred dollars, and he general
 has two sliffs, that are worth abou e twenty-five thousand dollars each, nc d including oars In addition to this, h ;- has several hundred feet of three-qual " ter-inch line and some cant hooks an q nike holes. With this outfit two me I- can catch lot of timber, when It is coming down lively. They work l e front of the land they lease, but ofte tt, there are some lively secrimmages an d talking matches over SUCK or goo l- timber. The possession of a big stlc J. of elm or gum is worth fight at time r. sight, if it looks to be worth it, tf ss The more valuable hardwoods, such n oak and walnut, are rarely caught, d it is too heavy to float far
 1t These men, and often their wives, al er naryelously skilled in the handling l. a skiff. that universal craft of the Mi v. sissippi river. They can make a ski te do anything and go anywhere, and WI f. wonderful celerity. It is nothing to s l. one of these men stand up in the ste' ,r of g skiff, and with one oar dragg1f l. like a tiller, "scuIl'' the light fabric raj " idly across the swirling eddies to u l. object he is after. They never, as
 rule. let a good stick get away fro ,a them. When the floating log heaves is driftwood catcher starts out to me oa the floating timber. I'm it is worth 1t ;s line is made fast and he pulls back r his shanty boat, towing it after him al of adding it to the raft that he is collec ,l ing. Only the big sticks are rafted tf AT way.
 O. During a big rise like this. before wv water subsidies, these men will reap ye harvest. There are always countle he cottonwood logs coming down. T re smallest of these they saw up and S e. by the cord to the factories. Two lc