Four Months in a Sneak-Box | Page 7

George Bogart, attentive to the last to his pet craft, affectionately sewed her up in
a covering of burlap, to protect her smooth surface from scratches during the transit over
railroads. The two light oaken strips, which had been screwed to the bottom of the boat,
kept the hull secure from injury by contact with nails, bolt- heads, &c., while she was
being carried in the freight-cars of the Tuckerton, New Jersey, Southern and
Pennsylvania railroads to Philadelphia, where she was delivered to the freight agent of
the Pennsylvania Railroad, to be sent to Pittsburgh, at the head of the Ohio River.
Here I must speak of a subject full of interest to all owners of boats, hoping that when our
large corporations have their attention drawn to the fact they will make some provision
for it. There appears to be no fixed freighting tariff established for boats, and the aquatic
tourist is placed at the mercy of agents who too frequently, in their zeal for the interests
of their employers, heavily tax the owner of the craft. The agent of the Pennsylvania
Railroad in Philadelphia was sorely puzzled to know what to charge for a BOAT. He had
loaded thousands of cars for Pittsburgh, but could find only one precedent to guide him.
"We took a boat once to Pittsburgh," he said, "for twenty-five dollars, and yours should
be charged the same." The shipping-clerk of a mercantile house, who had overheard the
conversation, interrupted the agent with a loud laugh. "A charge of twenty-five dollars
freight on a little thing like that! WHY, MAN, THAT SUM IS NEARLY HALF HER
VALUE! How LARGE was the boat you shipped last fall to Pittsburgh for twenty-five
dollars?" "Oh, about twice the size of this one," answered the agent; "but, size or no size,
a boat's a boat, and we handle so few of them that we have no special tariff on them."
"But," said the clerk, "you can easily and honestly establish a tariff if you will treat a boat
as you do all other freight of the same class. Now, for instance, how do common boats
rank, as first or third class freight?" "Third class, I should think," slowly responded the
agent. "Ease your conscience, my friend," continued the clerk, "by weighing the boat, and
charging the usual tariff rate for third class freight."
The boat, with its cargo still locked up inside, was put upon the scales, and the total
weight was three hundred and ten pounds, for which a charge of seventy-two cents per
one hundred pounds was made, and the boat placed on some barrels in a car. Thus did the
common- sense and business-like arrangement of the friendly clerk secure for me the
freight charge of two dollars and twenty-three cents, instead of twenty-five dollars, on a
little boat for its carriage three hundred and fifty-three miles to Pittsburgh, and saved me
not only from a pecuniary loss, but also from the uncomfortable feeling of being imposed
upon.
In these days of canoe and boat voyages, when portages by rail are a necessary evil, a
fixed tariff for such freight would save dollars and tempers, and some action in the matter
is anxiously looked for by all interested parties.
I gave a parting look at my little craft snugly ensconced upon the top of a pile of barrels,
and smiled as I turned away, thinking how precious she had already become to me, and

philosophizing upon the strange genus, man, who could so readily twine his affections
about an inanimate object. Upon consideration, it did not seem so strange a thing,
however, for did not this boat represent the work of brains and hands for a generation
past? Was it not the result of the study and hard-earned experiences of many men for
many years? Men whose humble lives had been spent along the rough coast in daily
struggles with the storms of ocean and of life? Many of them now slept in obscure graves,
some in the deep sea, others under the tender, green turf; but here was the concentration
of their ideas, the ultimatum of their labors, and I inwardly resolved, that, since to me was
given the enjoyment, to them should be the honor, and that it should be through no fault
of her captain if the Centennial Republic did not before many months reach her
far-distant point of destination, twenty-six hundred miles away, on the white strands of
the Gulf of Mexico.

CHAPTER II.
SOURCES OF THE OHIO RIVER
DESCRIPTION OF THE MONONGAHELA AND ALLEGHANY RIVERS.-- THE
OHIO RIVER.-- EXPLORATION OF CAVELIER DE LA SALLE.-- NAMES GIVEN
BY ANCIENT CARTOGRAPHERS TO THE OHIO.-- ROUTES OF THE
ABORIGINES FROM THE GREAT LAKES TO THE OHIO RIVER.
THE southerly branch of the Ohio River,