ed with excursion boats. A large barge
loaded with people, was driven against a pier and was barely saved from
sinking with all on board. He made a brief stay in Cincinnati, and
continued the voyage accompanied by a boat load of reporters, among whom
was also Oliver Byron, the actor. The ice was then disappearing though
the water was very cold. He averaged about five miles an hour on the
lower river, and the rowing of the newspaper men to keep their boat up
with him, was something beautifully scientific. At Delhi the two
experienced oarsmen, who had been engaged to row a short distance,
went ashore, leaving Creelman, Byron and two Cincinnati newspaper men
to manage the lumbering boat. It was fortunate for their
reputation as oarsmen, that spectators were directing most of their
attention to Boyton, for such pulling was never seen before on the Ohio
and will probably never be seen again. Paul felt like shedding tears
every time he looked around to see how they were getting along. His own
safety had something to do with his watchful care, for they came near
running him down several times. The enthusiastic oarsmen first removed
their overcoats; their undercoats followed and then collars were
unbuttoned. One of them said it wasn't the length of the river that
bothered them so much as the breadth. They worked independently of
each other, and it was pretty hard to tell which was the bow and which
the stern of the boat. A ragged urchin rowed out from shore to see what
they were doing and sarcastically inquired if they were rowing over
stumps. That was an unkind allusion to the extreme height at which
they elevated their oar blades from the water between strokes. There was
no revolver or shot gun in the party, or there would have been a
funeral in that lad's family.

Row boats would pull out from shore all along, and the questions asked
by the parties pulling them were ridiculous, and painfully monotonous. A
sample of some of them: "Have you springs in your arms?" "Blow your
horn. How far can it be heard?" "Are you going to travel all night?"
"Are you going back to Cincinnati to-night?" "Let me sit on you." "Don't
you get tired?" "Are you cold?"

When the press boat was not trying to climb the Kentucky hills, Paul
would cheer himself by running alongside and converse with the boys;
but as a rule he was wary of getting too close to them.

Nearing Louisville, a fleet of excursion steamers ran up to mee