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THREE DAYS ON THE OHIO RIVER.

BY FATHER WILLIAM.

New-York:
PUBLISHED BY CARLTON & PHILLIPS.
SUNDAY-SCHOOL UNION, 200 MULBERRY-STREET.
1854.


Entered according to Act of Congress, in the year 1854, by

CARLTON & PHILLIPS,

in the Clerk's Office of the District Court of the Southern
District of New-York.


[Illustration: A WESTERN STEAMBOAT. See page 9.]




CONTENTS.

CHAPTER                                        PAGE
   I.--PRELIMINARY REMARKS                        7

  II.--THE STEAMBOAT                              9

 III.--BEGINNING THE VOYAGE                      14

  IV.--SAILING UP THE RIVER                      17

   V.--MAYSVILLE                                 19

  VI.--IN THE CABIN                              22

 VII.--THE FOUR INDIANS                          26

VIII.--THE COAL COUNTRY                          30

  IX.--THE VARIETY OF FACES                      38

   X.--BLENNERHASSET'S ISLAND                    43

  XI.--THE ANCIENT MOUNDS                        46

 XII.--A SUSPENSION BRIDGE                       49

XIII.--LOGAN, THE MINGO CHIEF                    52

 XIV.--THIRD NIGHT ON THE RIVER                  54

  XV.--ARRIVAL AT PITTSBURG, WITH REFLECTIONS    56


ILLUSTRATIONS.


A WESTERN STEAMBOAT                               2

POMEROY COAL-MINES                               35




THREE DAYS ON THE OHIO.




CHAPTER I.

PRELIMINARY REMARKS.


I was once in the city of Cincinnati, and wished to go to Pittsburg by
way of the river. Not that this was the nearest way, or the swiftest, or
the cheapest; but I desired very much to see the country through which
the river runs: for, as I had read in the histories of the United
States, and particularly in the accounts of our wars with the Indians,
much about the Ohio River, with many of its towns and villages, my
curiosity was very active; and I was determined to behold it.

It was Monday, the 29th of March, and a most lovely morning, too, when
I went on board the steamboat Pittsburg, bound for the city of the same
name. I was careful to set out early in the week, so as, if possible, to
reach Pittsburg before Sunday.




CHAPTER II.

THE STEAMBOAT.


Were you ever on board a Western river steamboat? As some of you may not
have had the opportunity, I will give you a short account of one.

Some of these boats are very large indeed. They would seem to you like a
little world of themselves.

The Pittsburg is about two hundred and eighty feet in length by sixty in
breadth. This boat, if placed in a field, would cover nearly half an
acre of land.

These boats are high as well as long. Besides the hold, as they call
it--a kind of cellar into which they stow away much of their heavy
freight--they have two or three other stories or decks for freight and
passengers.

The one next above the hold is where they keep their cattle and horses
and hogs, if they have any on board; also their common freight. Here,
too, in some instances, they have at one end a clumsy kind of cabin
called the forecastle, or steerage.

This forecastle is occupied, for the most part, by the poorer
passengers, especially emigrants. They have berths or shelves to recline
on, but no bed-clothing; and their accommodations are generally very
inferior.

On the next floor above are the cabins for the passengers in general.
They are usually in two great--rather long--rooms, one at each end. One
of them is used at meals as the dining-room. The berths or sleeping
places are at their sides. They, too, are mere broad shelves, but they
have bed-clothing and curtains.

On the upper deck the cabins are still more ample, as well as better
furnished. There, instead of shelves at the sides, there are small rooms
connected with the shelves, called state-rooms.

Were it not that the cabins on those upper decks are unusually long in
proportion to their breadth, and did you not feel the motion of the boat
while occupying them, the traveler would hardly know that he was not in
a large and comfortable hotel or dwelling-house.

There is still another deck or promenade above all these, but passengers
are not usually allowed to occupy it. The helmsman of the boat is
stationed here, and a crowd of people around him might obstruct his
view.

I have thus described five stories or rows; but there is a difference in
boats in this particular, even in the large ones. Some have only four
stories--that is, three besides the hold. In the latter case, the lower
or freight deck is at one end of the boat, formed into a cabin which
communicates only by means of a stairway with the next deck above it.

The best cabins are carpeted as nicely as our best parlors, and the
furniture is often as costly. The state-rooms are also well furnished,
and sometimes well ventilated. The beds are narrow. But the beds on
board the Pittsburg, though narrow, were quite comfortable. The
passenger reclines on a mattress, which rests on coils of elastic wire,
like some of our sofas and carriage seats; and the beds are almost as
soft as feather beds.

The rules and regulations in many steamboats are exceedingly strict. In
some instances they are printed and hung up at the sides of the cabins
and elsewhere, in conspicuous places. They relate to the treatment of
furniture, the hours of rising, meals, retiring to rest, &c.

No person, for example, is allowed to let his chair, while sitting, rest
against the wall, or to put his feet on the cushions of the chairs or
sofas. No lights are permitted in the state-rooms--cases of severe
sickness or other extremity alone excepted.

The female passengers have every reasonable convenience for washing,
dressing, &c., in their state-rooms. For the rest of the passengers
there is a common washroom, with which the barber's room is also
sometimes connected.

Thus you see that the art and ingenuity of man have converted these
great prisons on the water into so many magnificent hotels. Some
inconveniences and even privations there are, and must be. As a general
rule, the traveler may be very comfortable in them, and, if he chooses,
quite self-indulgent.

This word self-indulgent refers to the articles of food on the tables.
These are just what is to be expected when it is considered what the far
greater part of our travelers place their chief happiness in--what they
most think of and talk of, at least when they have little else to do.

In this respect, the steamboat is about on a par with the hotel. If
there be any difference, it seems to me to consist in this: that the
dishes at the table on board the steamboat are more complicated and more
costly, and at the same time more unhealthy, than those of the hotel.

But enough of description, for the present. We will now return to the
narration of my adventures.




CHAPTER III.

BEGINNING THE VOYAGE.


The distance from Cincinnati to Pittsburg, following the course of the
river, is four hundred and seventy-seven miles; the distance by land
being, as I suppose, on the shortest road, about three hundred and
fifty.

The Ohio River is very crooked. It turns to nearly every point of the
compass. In one instance, in going up it, for example, I well remember
that after going for some time in a northerly and then in a
north-westerly direction, we suddenly turned to the west, as if we were
going back again to Cincinnati.

The hour at which the steamer was to sail, according to the
advertisement in the papers, was ten o'clock. Most of the passengers
were on board before this time. There was, however, a large amount of
freight to come on board afterward. There was also delay from another
and very different cause.

Just opposite to Cincinnati, on the Kentucky side, are the villages of
Newport and Covington. In one of the houses, in one of these places, a
thief had entered, during the night, and taken away considerable money
and other property. The officers of justice were in pursuit of him.

They came to the Pittsburg, and asked permission to search that. This
being granted, they went in company with one of the officers, and made
diligent search everywhere, especially among the emigrants. The thief,
however, was not found, and the search was discontinued.

At about twelve o'clock we were under weigh, and slowly proceeding up
the river, which is here, as I judged, about a quarter of a mile wide,
and pretty deep. Every passenger, or nearly every one, was now on deck
enjoying the prospect.

The Pittsburg sailed about eight or ten miles an hour. We were soon out
of sight of Cincinnati. The last portion of it which we saw was
Fulton--which is the name given to a long arm of the city, extending
several miles along in a north-eastern direction.

I was almost sorry to leave Cincinnati, for it is, in many respects, a
beautiful place. The central or business part is not peculiarly
handsome, I admit; but the Walnut Hills, Mount Auburn, and other places,
forming a semicircle, and inclosing it on all sides except on the
south-east and south, are, for the beauties of nature and art, almost
unrivaled.




CHAPTER IV.

SAILING UP THE RIVER.


As you proceed up the river, your attention is arrested, from time to
time, by small villages. These are more numerous on the Ohio side than
on that of Kentucky. Whether this is owing to the effects of slavery, or
to other reasons, I am not informed. One thing is certain--that nature
is not at fault in the construction of the country; for never in my life
have I seen a prettier variety of hills and dales than on the Kentucky
side of the Ohio River.

The water of the river was