The Savannah morning news. (Savannah, Ga.) 1900-current, 1904-08-05
LIFE AMONG RIVER GYPSIES.
Don't know Cnre-TvO Years to
Float From st. Louis to New Or.


Don't Know Cnre-TwO Years to
Float From st. Louis to New Or.
leans.
From the New Orleans Picayune.
River gypsies; why not?
We have river steamers, river cat
fish, river shrimp-then why not river
gypsies? And what else would you
call the jewellers of those simple
houseboats which drift down the Mis-
sissippi from no one knows where, and
dot the river banks from Southport to
Canal street?
They are not oppressed by poverty,
for the wolf, not being an amphibious
animal, cannot get to their door. They
are not stiffed by convention, for such
as they have rs of home manufac-
ture; they are law unto themselves
and chiefest of all, they are not un-
happy, for their life is utterly without
responsibility, and the wander-lust
is in their blood.
walk along the levee any day
reveals untold possibilities in the way
of learning their life and likings, and
both are freely exposed, for the river
gypsies, the men and women of the
"shanty boats" as they call their
homes, are friendly to the last degree.
This social instinct shows itself in
the little settlements they form along
the bank. Rarely does a "shanty boat"
tie up alone. Groups OF two or three
are the common rule, anything larger
or smaller the exception. Sometimes
the owner of the boat lis not
stranger. One small square edifice
erected on a scow, and resting in the
shade of a larger boat, is thus ex-
planned by the lean, brown-faced work.
man on the front OF the latter.
THE Teller who lives on that shanty
boat" he says in a drawl that echoes
the lazy tapping of the water, "wuz
bred and bawn in Carlton. Never
been away from here in his life; ne
JUS took a notion to live out here
him this boat Him aud his wife an
two kids been Twin on IL for nigh
onto three years now. Bred and bawn
right here, but he jes liked il on the
water, and this here's his home"
The lean. brown workman is inclined
to be friendly and discursive on the
subject of shanty boats.
"They drift down mostly in January"
he says. with a noticeable contempt for
those who have not been bred and
bawn" in the vicinity.
Some of 'em are big efough-three
or four rooms and a kitchen, but them's
mostly owned by Yankees, that come
down on huntin' and ishin' trips-not
regular shantyboat people. And some's
right nice little boats. People find
they can live cheaper herein on land.
and some"-he scowls virtuously--
"some's nuthin' but loafers and vaga-
bonds. They drift down the river
stealin' a bit here and another bit
there"
But the middle class of "shanty-boat-
ers," those who were not bred an
bawn" here. neither do they steal, is
less picturesque IL no less interesting.
They have the gypsy blood without
the gypsy morals The Joy Of vagrancy
is on them. but the habits of everyday
ness have their hold as well, and the
blend Is quaint IL illogical.
AS fair a specimen as heart could
want OF this genus is the squaretop-
ped, red-painted shanty boat with a
squarer. larger one Just astern. that
floats in q curve of the river just where
the bank IL muddiest. the willows
droopiest and the view prettiest.
The plank walk that leads from the
levee TO the boat Is narrow and shalxy,
the mud on either side deep and
treacherous. but the old negro woman
who directs the wayfarer on the path
he should go is encouraglngly careless.
and the CHEEKY call with which she
summons the inmates of the boat 70
view-"Eh bien. comment ca va?"-is
a stimulant TO timid nerves.
The shanty boat itself is not large.
II Is partitloned off into two rooms