The Breckenridge news. (Cloverport, Ky.) 1876-1955, 1917-10-03
BUSY DAYS
ON THE RIVER.
Passing Of the Old Louisville
and Evansville Mail Line A
Story Of Steamboat ing in Days
Of Long Ago.
ny Edward Gregory.
Continued from last week.

captains place on his favorite boat, the
Tarascon. But way back yonder in the
e rly days he mad ricked up Fred Il ILL.,,
n German by birth, with grim determi-
nation to go up the rungs of the steam
boat ladder. He started in as a mer c
laborer on one of Capt, Penny's boats,
the Guthrie. and no matter what boat
Penny was on Fred Zoll went, and
Capt Penny retired he made Zoll cap.
tain OF the Tarascon.
OF all the above mentioned captains,
they have answered their last hail and
crossed the river of the great divide.
The boom under Geo. Wilson's man
cement was short-lived. The railroads
h ID Slapped their strength; the mail
contracts had been lost. All the boats
in the lower river had gone to the
banks. Capt Crammond had gone out
o. the business, and soon the Morning
Star was sold, thus leaving only two
boats, the Tarascon and Tell City, but
the advent of the gasoline steamers
soon drove them also to the bank. They
| were advertised for sale for debt ana
went under the hammer TO company
| organized out OF Evansville with Capt.
Tom Williams as superinten dent. The
Two roatS we're again placed back In
| H- Louisville and Evansville trade,
md after q few years of business the
Tell City was sold to parties in the ur-
per Ohio and recently sank, aud the
selling of the Tarascon has practically
ended the long service of names of
popular boats once near and dear to
the hearts of all the people along the
Ohio, where for years the whistles of
these boats was so familiar to older
generations as we'll as the new. 1t is
practically the ending of once pros
p.rCts business that has passed after
o.er half a century.
The golden sun has sunk in the West
aud the mantle of night is clothing the
distant hills down in the bend in dark
mss. as the moon rising in the East
Is Iaintly clsting its shimering light
nS er Il { waters, stroll down to the old
upper wharf-Unce The scene of so many
activities now grown up in a wilder
ness Of willows. Seating myself on an
old drii; log and filing my pipe for d
fresh smoke, | <; re down on the olu
wharf long ago abandoned. Great holes
all along he Old levCe has been washed
odt, and a, the deep gloom Of Light
settles Gown over the nearby hills, all is
III and quiet save the squaCk of a ishr
@.rI ding over the water in search q
it, food, or the occasional splash Of the
/ - OK rs he comes to the surface
Add IS 1T there dreaming Of the past.
'Le r,Lt ct gloom is liireG and see IT,,
shade, # the past in memory once dear
go M.
Through the lifting Of the darkness
see the old James Guthrie and K .itbUw
t!rug al the WHAT, and by their side
he big sidewheel steamer Andy Baum,
of the Cincinnati and Memphis line, and
st coming in The big Thomas Shei-
iocS, of the Southern Transportation
line, while in mid-stream there goes
the sternwheel Dakota passing on her
| trip to St. Louis loaded to her guards
and roof piled high with light freight.
| once more hear singing of the darkies
aud the 'cussing" of the mates in their
endeavor to get away. Every body's
either laughing, singing or joking one
another, and then we see the old wharf
again being piled with freight. There
| they go, both the wharfmaster directing
where to stack the freight, and there
goes Phil Gregory with his short bow
legs, checking the freight, and the
teamsters are there waiting for their
turn at the freight pile. Big Tom
Adams, who could hanGle barrel of
coal oil as easily as a key Of nails; Wes-
ley Steele with Jack and Kate; Elisha
Collins smoking his stone pipe; Charles
Morris with his wooden leg and yoke OF
oxen, aud Dick May, who never was
known to get Zig enough load to suit
him. Then there stood at the upper
end of the car John b lbbage's old mule,
Kate, who never missed boat no mat
ter whether she had Il driver or not. She
went in a trot at the frs, blast of the
boats whistle, but all the whips in
Cloverport could not get her out Of
walk on her trip back from the boat.
hear the old Guthrie's bell tap as of
old, the chug, chug of the capStan
drawing up the stage, the merry shouts
OF the passengers and crew as she
draws out into the stream. The crowd
on shore are waving their hats and !,