Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1920-07-18

beth. Gisborough, or Giesborough, and
Blue Plains, or Belle Plains. The
town of Benning stands on Fife, Ana
costa stands on Chichester. the Gov
eminent Hospital for the Insane and
a number of settlements stand on
ST. Elizabeth. the Firth-Sterling steel
works are on Gisborough and the
almshouse and institutions for the
help of men, women and children. 20
whom fate has been ungentle, stand
on Blue Plains.
Prom the land of Hugh West to
Fraziers Point, or Addisons Land
ing: Shepherds Point. where the
long, broken and dilapidated trestle
and pier jut out into the Potomac, Is
on the north side. of the mouth OF
Oxon run. On the south side or that
picturesque. creek is an old ferry
will recollect when the Rambler
writes it down as Foxs ferry. 1t is OPP
posite Alexandria, due east and nearly
in and east and west line from the foot
of King street. Where the rum OF foAs
ferry is was Addisons Landing.
+ + x *
Several wears ago the Rambler sat
on a wharf at Alexandria and wrote
a ramble- about four columns long on
what you night see by looking across
the river He told story about MS
old friend, Capt. W. H. Wheatley, who
since has passed over 70 so, .ne ~ T US
captain's memories of Foxs ferry.
That story was printed so long ago
that it has been forgotten, even II
anybody had the goodness and the
patience to read it, and this Is con.
yenient place to insert that part OF
It which told some facts about Foxs
ferry:
river the idea may come to you that IT might
he pleasant and profitable to examine the other
river 1t is natural. or at least, it is common.
for him to fall into speculation as to how
things look and what they are on the other
side Distance smooths out the details Of q
landscape and sets ones fancy rowing, but
after you have examined the matter II GENES
to you that one side of river is very much
like the other side. 1t is the things that are
far of. blurred in haze and which seem DIFF
ncult to get that are insistentiy calling to one;
be long. Neither will it be costly. Navigat-
ing the river between a slip adjoining that Of
the other shore at Fo1s ferry is a small dat
bottom boat with q centerboard. triangular
sail and pair Of oars. The name Of this boat
painted, but it was not the work Of a skilled
hand. The letters are all there. but they lean
against each other or lean away from each
other in a way that well done letters never do.
They are painted in scarlet and they stare at
you in a defiant way. The name Of the little
boat told in those irresui.r red letters Is i'm T.
lizard Times And II the little boat could
talk it would say II deserve the name The
master Of the boat told the Rambler that he
had christened it Hard Times. not in any
spirit Of gloom or DOWN. eartedness. but with
the sincere desire to give his boat appro-
pirate and descriptive name. II the ferry
business didn't pick up he was going to change
the name of the boat to Harder Times and
paint it in deep blue letters. There was to him
Just one consoling feature in the ferry bust
ness. 1t was that everybody from Alexandria
who went over to Foxs ferry wanted to get
back. and everybody who went from Foxs
ferry to Alexandria. also wanted to get back.
and sometimes urged him to put more sail
than the boat could safely carry.
The captain. owner. agent and manager Of
this ferry line is a waterman of many, years
on the river His name is W. H. Wbeatley.
OF course, the reader ought not to be told that
he is a captain. Army officers and the Navy
have no monopoly On this esteemed title. Any
man who holds the hller or drives the mules
Of q canal boat is a captain. The owner of an
oyster. fish or watermelon sloop or a gasoline
launch is 4 captain just as surely as the man
who served>a day in the militia. And living in
Alexandra and running a boat Capt. Wheatley
is necessarily a captain. II he did not run a
boat and merely lived in Alexandra he would
probably be a colonel. or certainly major.