SIDEWHEELER SAGA

by Ralph NadingHill '39. Nexo York: Rinehart & Co., 1953.342 pp. $5.

Whereas Lucius Beebe has made himself the master of the railroad and cable car, Ralph Hill, through research and practical operation, has made the sidewheeler his province. From the early boats of Fulton to the still running Ticonderoga on Lake Champlain, kept in running order through the bounty of the dedicatees of his book, J. Watson Webb and Electra H. Webb, and by the persistence of the author, the saga runs.

Who in vented the steamboat? "Poor John" Fitch? Jouffroy, Symington, or Morey? Nobody perhaps can answer for certain, but it is safe to say, as Ralph Hill does, that the steamboat would never stay invented until Robert Fulton entered the lists and the Clermont became the first successful commercial steamboat.

With Chapter 4 the author gets in to less familiar ground and the book begins to pick up steam.

It might be argued that he wanders a bit in his discussion of the strange and eccentric career of that soldier of fortune William Walker who died before a firing squad in 1860, but, like the whole book, it does make most interesting reading.

The most vibrant part of Sidewheeler Saga is the story of how the author through the power of enthusiasm saved the old Ticonderoga on Lake Champlain and kept her sidewheels turning. Here there is humor, drama, and all the ingredients of the American success story. Here Ralph Hill shows all the fine characteristics of the old time Yankee with a love of the past, and a belief in the future.

It is true as the author says that when the Ticonderoga's whistle blows for the last time, the age of the si dewheel steamboat will be gone from America forever. I trust this day is still far off, but you had better hie your self to Burlington one of these summers for a cruise, if you plan to be one of those who have trod the boards of one of the last of the si dewheelers.

There are 28 pages of illustrations, and an index.