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UNEASINESS OF SHANTY-BOAT OWNERS
Where are the fishermen and others who occupied the boat houses in the beach just below the elevator? was a standing question on the Island after the cyclone. It is known that there were twenty or more of these boats on the bank, many of which came in when the river was at, its height. Few were known, as they had come from a distance, and, finding a good harbor south of the elevator, anchored their crafts. On the morning after the storm all of these late arrivals had disappeared, and the denizens of that locality now believe that the boats were swept into the water and the occupants were drowned. These boats were not as high up under the shelter of the elevator as the others, which may explain their loss; while the old-timers weathered the storm without a single fatality, and with little loss. No inquiries have been received at headquarters for lost fishermen or persons who follow the river in boat houses for a living, but the residents of Sandy Hook firmly believe that when these people fail to write from the points along the shore designated by their friends, in the same manner as Gipsey letters are forwarded, a general howl will go up from different ports and a full investigation will be made. Few people can form any estimate of the vast number of persons who are born and reared in these two-room shanty boats. Every great city has its Little Oklahoma, and many smaller ones its Sandy Hooks. All do not fish for a living, Many are first-class mechanics, and go from one town to another in dull seasons. They live cheaply on the water and pay no rents for land. A few are known who make fair livings selling fancy work; while others are gamblers and saloon- keepers. The estimate of the loss of twenty boats, with their inmates, is not considered too large by some persons; but there is no authentic record of the swamping of any of them. All may have silently left the mooring and crept down the stream to a better hiding place, even after the storm, unnoticed by any one.
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