Jasper County Democrat, Volume 11, Number 75, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 20 February 1909 — Canalboats In Francs. [ARTICLE]

Canalboats In Francs.

Comparatively little of the traffic in the longer French canals is moved otherwise than by horses. There are a few steam freighters, which carry half a million tons a year, most of it between Paris and Rouen, and one some canals are regularly organized towing systems. But the great part of the haulIng is done by houses and with so much economy on the part of the barge owners that the government has had to provide -by regulation that every barge must have "power” enough not unnecessarily to block traffic. Every barge also must have a crew of two, “one of whom must be a man.” So runs the regulation. So nearly every French barge is the home of a more or less happy couple, whose charcoal fire pot scents up the air along the waterways with the preparation of the endless meals.— Boston Transcript.