Edgefield Advertiser

PITTSBURG'S FERRY MAID.

How a Girl of Sixteen Supports Her Mother, Sister and Brother.

Young in years, but full of vigor and buoyancy of youth, pretty Bertha Walz, a girl of 16, has a career as a ferry maid on the Ohio river that for the novelty of its features is rarely surpassed. For months the young girl has been the sole support of her mother, younger sister and brother. Week in and week out, unaided and alone, she has plied her big ferry skiff back and forth across the Ohio to secure means for providing for her helpless mother and sister. Bertha lives with her mother in an old, but neat-appearing houseboat, on the banks of the Ohio river, near the Pressed Steel Car Company's works, in lower Allegheny. This boat has been her home for the past six years. The idea of running a regular ferry came to her through the suggestions of mill men who cross the river at this point to the McKea's Rocks side to and from their work in the big mills. Partly through the efforts of generous contributors a skiff was procured and the girl entered upon a new career. She found her task rather arduous at first, and her fair young hands were covered with many a blister at the end of a day's toil. But soon the muscles of her arms bade fair to rival those of the crack oarsmen of a 'varsity crew. Now she thinks nothing of rowing six or eight stalwart men over the river on a single trip. Some days she makes as many as forty trips, and has been known to take in as much as $3 a day as a result of her toil. The widespread popularity of her ferry, however, aroused the ire of less favored ferrymen living in shanty boats near by. First, her best skiff was stolen, and later a new one was turned loose on the river. Finally, she was not permitted to land her skiff on the McKee's Rocks shore at the large landing, but was made to run her boat in at some obscure point. Considerable trouble arose over the ownership and use of a pair of wooden steps leading down the river embankment to the shore. The climax was reached one night last week. Richard Griffiths, a ferryman, tried to lay violent hands on her. Only the timely appearance of a mill man and the presence of her faithful dog, which usually accompanies her for protection, saved her from serious injury at his hands. As a result, suit was promptly entered against Griffiths on a charge of disorderly conduct before Alderman Lynch. At the hearing Griffiths was fined $10 and costs, or 20 days in jail. The steps claimed by Griffiths as personal property were declared to be government property, and it was directed that the fair prosecutor was fully entitled to their use. - Pittsburg Chronicle-Telegraph.