he Ohio is a great river for more than a thousand miles, and connects
Pittsburg with Cairo, running through such important towns as Louisville
and Cincinnati. On this river some of the most interesting events in
river history have been enacted in the past. Many a tragedy and many a
comedy are included in its annals, and even to-day, although paralleled,
crossed and recrossed by railroads, it is a most important highway of
commerce.

The Tennessee River is a tributary of the Ohio, which it enters so near
the Mississippi as to have a very close connection with that great
river. Entering the Ohio at Paducah, Kentucky, the Tennessee is one of
the largest and most important rivers east of the Mississippi. It is
formed by the union of two rivers which rise in the Allegheny Mountains
and unite at Kingston, Tennessee. The river then runs southwest through
Alabama, and turning northward, passes through portions of Tennessee and
Kentucky. In length the Tennessee exceeds 1,200 miles, and, with the
exception of very dangerous places here and there, it is strictly a
navigable river.

Running as it does, through a country not yet thoroughly supplied with
railroad accommodation, the Tennessee forms an important connection
between a number of small shipping points, which would otherwise be cut
off from commercial intercourse with large centers. Hence the
transportation facilities are good, and in many respects remind one of
old days when river traffic was general. Boats run almost all the year
around up this river as far as Alabama points, and not only is a large
and lucrative freight business transacted, but pleasure and
health-seekers are also carried in large numbers.

Everything was not prosaic in river life in the old days. All of us have
heard of the great races on the Mississippi River between magnificent
steamers, and of the excitement on deck as first one and then the other
gained a slight advantage. Stories, more or less reliable, have been
told again and again of the immense sums of money made and lost by
speculators who backed their own boats against all comers. Tricks and
jokes also prevailed and continue up to the present time. The passenger
on a Tennessee River boat is almost sure to be told how a very popular
first mate escaped arrest by disguising himself as a cook. The story is
amusing enough to bear repetition, and bereft of corroborative detail,
evidently designed to lend artistic verisimilitude to the narrative,