Show The romance of travel and traffic on the Mississippi and Ohio rivers I is very largely a thing of the past But there is still great commerce carried on over their broad sweep of waters greater than is sometimes thought The Louisville CourierJournal tells of the biggest tow of coal that ever went from Louisville to New Orleans I describes it a follows Many years ago Pits burg coal was floated to New Orleans in flatboats and barges in pairs known in those days as broadhorns the propelling power consisting of side oars and worked by crews of men all under the direction of a pilot who steered the tow to New Orleans assisted by the side oars and carried by the strong current in the Ohio and Mississippi rivers When towboats tow-boats were introduced to handle these tows it was thought impracticable and believed by many that the tows would run awav with the steamboats But the boats soon caught on and the days of floating brcdhorns soon passed away and they became a thing of the past Towboats commenced taking tak-ing two four six and eight barges of coal south and as time progressed larger boats were built and heavier tows hitched to them until ten or 15 years ago when a boat that took 20 barges south in safety was called a record breaker Nowadays a tow of from 20 to 30 pieces hitched to a towboat tow-boat and taken south in safetyvis considered con-sidered at common occurrence Two years ago the big Joe B Williams took the biggest tow of coal on record from this city to New Orleans I consisted of 46 coalboats The river then was about in the same condition it Is now and the same towboat proposes to wipe out her own record by leaving here for New Orleans with 5 coal boatsten more boats than she took before when she broke all records The tow covers 16 acres in the river and comprises 1500000 bushels of coal I would take 2000 cars to hold it and divided into 20 trains It would take 100 locomotives to pull it The tow must have been a grand sight if not a very pretty one River commerce is 1 still an Immense thin It is not so prominent as It once was simply because of the wonderful development devel-opment of the commerce by rail So great Is our whole country that individually indi-vidually great things seem small and insignificant in comparison |