the collector. There was to be a patrol boat, "to
see that th' fellers done step to th' cap'n's office an' settle."
But the houseboaters were going to combine and fight the law on
constitutional grounds, for they had been told that it was clearly
an interference with commerce on a national highway. As for the
houseboaters voting--well, some of them did, but the most of them
didn't. The Indiana registry law requires a six months' residence, and
in Kentucky it is a full year, so that a houseboat man who moves about
any, "jes' isn't in it, sir, thet's all." However, our visitor was not
much disturbed over the practical disfranchisement of his class--it
seemed, rather, to amuse him; he was much more concerned in the new
tax, which he thought an outrageous imposition. In bidding us a
cheery good-bye, he noticed my kodak. "Yees be one o' them photygraph
parties, hey?" and laughed knowingly, as though he had caught me in a
familiar trick. No child of nature so simple, in these days, as not to
recognize a kodak.

Warsaw, Ky. (524 miles), just below, has some bankside evidences of
manufacturing, but on the whole is rather down at the heel. A contrast
this, to Vevay (533 miles), on the Indiana shore, which, though a
small town on a low-lying bottom, is neat and apparently prosperous.
Vevay was settled in 1803, by John James Dufour and several
associates, from the District of Vevay, in Switzerland, who purchased
from Congress four square miles hereabout, and, christening it New
Switzerland, sought to establish extensive vineyards in the heart of
this middle West. The Swiss prospered. The colony has had sufficient
vitality to preserve many of its original characteristics unto the
present day. Much of the land in the neighborhood is still owned by
the descendants of Dufour and his fellows, but the vineyards are not
much in evidence. In fact, the grape-growing industry on the banks of
the Ohio, although commenced at different points with great promise,
by French, Swiss, Germans, and Americans alike, has not realized
their expectations. The Ohio has proved to be unlike the Rhine in this
respect. In the long run, the vine in America appears to fare better
in a more northern latitude.

Three miles above Vevay, near Plum Creek, I was interested in the
Indiana farm upon which Heathcoat Picket settled in 1795--some say in
1790. In his day, Picket was a notable flatboat pilot. He was credited
with having conducted more craft down the riv