The Washington herald. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1906-1939, 1910-04-03


couple of the Mississippi Valley States
are again agitating the question Of tax
ing the houseboats found in their waters.
Every once in a while the question is
brought up in some state. but It always
ends IN the houseboat man winning. for
when one State gets too hot for him all
he has to do is TO slip his cable and float
away TO a shore where the authorities
do not bother to collect taxes from
man whose hlme is upon the waters. says
the New York Sun.
About 1901 Kentucky imposed a license
fee of $3.50 on all houseboats. with the
requirement that the name and address
OF the owner and the date the license eX-
pired be exposed on the boat in a con-
spicuous place. This measure was in-
tended more as a police regulation than
anything else, as the more lawless of the
river gypsies had become bold in their
depredations upon other peoples prop
erty. The houseboat men fought the law
on the ground that the Ohio being
navigable stream the commerce upon Il
cannot be hanpered by State taxes. The
law was very laxly enforced. however.
final decision.
The households are usually seows or
fiatboats about twenty feet long by ten
or twelve feet wide, roughly constructed
of two-inch planks spiked together and
csulked with oakum and rags and the
seams made Water-tight with pitch or tar.
A small. low house is built upon the boat
! and covers about two-thirds or more of
! II. leaving cockpit or else raised plat
/ form at each end from which the crew
work the sweeps or oars when they are
the means of propulsion used.
The mouse is divided OF into from one
to FIVE rooms depending upon the size OF
| the family and the size Of the boat.
| While many are cheaply constructed,
others are equal 10 a we'll appointed land
cottage, In many instances rough bVnks
/ or berths are constructed on the sides
| for sleeping quarters. cooking stove
1 is set up in the house and its sheet iron
| pipe projecting through the roof takes
the place of a chimney. Some Of the
boats are operated by power.
The better class are we'll equipped with
furniture. a few even having organs and
other musical instruments. but Of recent
years the graphophone and photograph
have been the most popular OF musical
/ instruments. and when two or three are
moored together the crews usually en-
/ terrain each other in the evenings by
| each in turn placing the instruments on
| the roof Of the boat and playing their en-
/ tire repertoire.
The crews OF these shanty boats, as
! they are locally called, are we'll named
river gypsies. as they are water no
MAIDS. To-day they may be found tied
up at Wheeling. ". Va. a couple of
weeks later they may be at Portsmouth
Ohio, a little later at Louisville Ky,
/ then at Cairo. H., whence they float out
/ INTO and down the Mississippi. stopping
on the way at New Madrid. Mo; Mem
/ phis, Tenn. Natchez. and Vicksburg
Miss, and Baton Rouge and Bayou Sara
La, winding up finally at New Orleans
There the boat is sold and the owner and
| his family return to the Ohio by steamer
/ to repeat the trip again the next year
There is a fascination about the life
which cannot be appreciated unless you
have experienced it. The houseboat
dwelIers are not sti1ed by convention. for
such conventions as they have are Of
home manufacture They are a law unto
themselves; they pay no rent or taxes,
and above al their life is utterly with
out respons ibility.
The shanty boat folks come from all
stages OF society. Many are young mar
ried couples just starting out in life
and hoping in a few years 10 acquire
enough Of this worlds goods 10 enable
them to settle down on land Workmen
IN manufacturing establishments located
in the river towns live on the water in
order 10 save taxes and rent. A few
l
ion, and there are some plain tramps who
have no higher ambition in life than TO
get through 1t with the least possible ex-
ertion.
Among the tramps are found the riff
ran Of the river. whose lawless practices
have caused them 10 be dreaded BY
I shore people and the better class OF
/ shanty boatmen. Most Of their time
when they are not stealing. eating. drink
ing. or sleeping. is spent in playing cut
throat euchre, Of which they are in
ordinately fond. Quarrels are Of frequent
occurrence during these games and some
times a murder is hidden by the waters
of the muddy rivers.
Many Of The tramps' boats are run
down by steamers in the night. owing 10
all the crew being drunk or asleep and
no light being shown. Many are wrecked
on snags or the sharp top Of a bob saw
yer. The latter is tree with its roots
held in The river bottom by the sand and
mud, and its broken top bobbing I'D and
down with the fluctuations OF the cur
rent II gets its name from the bobbing
and saving motions impaired to it by
the water
Most of the shanty boats are afoat in
the rivers, being moored TO the bank with
a gangplank running TO shore. Others
generally the older boats and those not
in good condition. are beached in a fav-
orable spot during high water, and after
the waters recede are propped level with
timbers and driftwood
Sometimes they ara moored a few rods
up the mouths of small streams. beine
half hidden by willows and overhangins
sycamores. The greater part or them
are gathered rear the towns and cities
On the Ohio River the favorite spots are
at Wheeling, W. Va. near Cincinnati. al
Louisville, and Paducah, Ky, and
Cairo. Ill
On the Mississippi River they congre.
gate opposite St Louis at Cape Girar.
deau. and in Missouri opposite where the
Ohio enters the Mississippi: Hickman
Ky; New Madrid. Mo; Memphis. Tenn.
and Natchez. and Vicksburg, Miss II
has been estimated that on the Ohio
and Mississippi rivers and their trlbu-
taries, exclusive Of the Missouri, the mum.
Der of shanty boats is IN excess of 1900
Estimating three persons to a boat. this
would make total of over 1900 persons
living in such craft.
It is as a fisherman that the shanty
boat man shines and many of them moi
only catch enough fish to furnish sub.
sistence for themselves, but also have g
surplus TO barter with the shore dweller.