The Waterbury Democrat., 1933-09-08
? rlkl tI| 1 NEW |
 l YORK
By PAUL HARRISON

. 4 4i
 New York.--They were. prout sailors once--the canal boat cap2 tains and their families, and folk las independent as any millionaire on a trim white yacht. They piled the Erie Canal with their ponder. ous barges, transporting grain a1d ore and machinery between the Great Lakes and New York city. II was a happy, vagabor1d life--and q prosperous one too. But that was prior to 1880
 In November of that year the barges were tied up as usual for the winter ct Pier G.. East River, near the Battery. But when March came. and the canal was clear of ice, the barges stayed where they were. They're there, yet V.
 Some of them haven't had cargo since 1929, and lot one or the 25 has moved iron, .ts moor ings iii three years The Shy houses built or ono cnd O; each barge are no lon2er gay and bright as they used te be. with ffiJwer boxes around tlaem and ar air of contentment and gentility over u-t The captains and their wives and children still live aboard be- ciubS tucys doAt ItbfG tV Poy airy rent. But their savings are gone, soon now one of the romantic phases of waterfront life seems doomed to disappear.
 The boatf are clustered toe
 gethcr at thc. pier so closely that the children on their way
 to school in the mornings skip
 from one to another until
 they <gct on shore. The youngsters all go to Public school No. 2S4, near the rivcrfront. and are envied by
 other kids because they carry z passes from the governors office in Albany allowing them to attend school in any town Y where their fathers barges happen to be tied up ...
 
 A Ciannish Colony
 They're a strangely quiet and clannish colony. With few inti-. mates ashore. they seem even to re- sent the help of social workers, who send them coal and food. The barge people were born to follow | the long canal, for their fathers and their grandfathers were in the business from the time the Erie Canal was opened in 1925. Their daughters usually have married into the canal boats," and their sons have been trained to become "captains" of the massive old barges Times have changed. though, and 1t isn't alone the de- pression that Is responsible for their plight. Motor, trucks have carried off lot of the business. So the boats lie idle. srtaining futilely at their hawsers in the sweep of the restless tide
 Pointing Out "Cclebrities''
 It's a brazen thing to do. and very embarrassing If the deception Is discovered But it makes such an amusing game that lots of New Workers are playing 1t |. The idea is that when an out of flown friend comes to visit, and goes to a night club or hotel roof. he's naturally anxious to see some celebrities. We'll, it's a poor host Indeed who disappoints the friend from back home. because in any crowded room it's a cinch to find people who look like celebrities. whether they happen to be or not. For instance, there is near ly always . paunchy and be- | spectacled gentleman who [ looks like Alexander Wooll- colt, or large and slightly | disheveled one who can be
 mistaken for Haywood Broun.
 Katharine Cornell is not an
 unusual type offstage, and is a pretty safe venture. So arc | Alfred Lunt and Eva Le Gal- | lienne and many others of the theater.
 | Society is easiest of all. Almost any type can be selected to repre-. sent one of the Whitneys, for there are 98 of them in the Social Register. And fifteen vanderbtlts.