Belmont chronicle. [volume] (St. Clairsville, Ohio) 1855-1973, 1870-12-08
and had YOU space with nothiDr els

The most elevated officer on boat, is
the pilot His position is ar important
one, but sometimes not more so than
himself. l know of nothing, in the rural
district that will compare with ii, un-
less it ae feeding" a tire shing-ma-
chine, OF keeping up the power. -
When l first went up into the pilot
house I found a ereenhorn there who
appeared 10 be taking lessons; as the
regular pilot always told him how to
turn the wheel. I asked him if he were
learning to be pilot; to which be re-
piled very Indignantly Pm a pilot
NOW, sir!" 1 felt sorry that I had hurt
his feelings so, as nothing was farther
from my intention. His professional
pride was sever ly stung, however, and
he soon piloted himself ashore, leaving
ne alone with the regular one. The
latter a pilot, was required to be civil
TO passengers, and generally succeeded
toerab y ell; but it was painfully evil
dent that the task was fast weighing
him down. rs that Buffington's Is
land?' No" "Where is it," do Sn
the river" 'How far is it to Parkers-
burg?" "Thirty miles" "Have We
passed Biannerbassett's ISland?' No."
&c, &c. l didn't get any gratuitous
information from old reticeut, but had
"ze grand satisfaction" of bothering
him not little. Perhaps, however, he
was not to be blamed; it is part Of
pilots duty to swear at all the snags, and
watch closely to keep the machine in
the river, or from running up tna of the
tributaries. He is bound to be Il tooter.
bat not tutor The ciief attractions
or beard, between meals, were card
p'oyil.g and storytelling. We had
with us New York publisher of dime
joke books. vino like his books, was
more ireXhaustibIe than funny. The
best story WIS of :, negro who ha,I
trained goat. One OF tie wonderful
things it would do, was to run at him
violently and then spring over his head.
He took q gentleman to see the perform-
ance and told him to "tojest watcn."-
Sam then beckoned TO the goat, and il
made for him. He tried to throw down
his head, but was prevented by weed;
goat popped Eira between the eyes and
revolved him down declivity. He
then gathered himself up, remarking.
Dat amt de way usually does it,"
The bar was poorly patronized; Ger
tainly didn't pay for the trouble of at-
tending TO it. There is. however, as
everybody knows, a class of professional
travellers who are always conscientiously
balancing against the effects of external
change, by internal regulation-admin-
istered with a glass; and we'had 6 few
of them. 0le New Yorker was firmly
convinced that the ,only way to keep
alive in, the fog, was upon its approach,
to get dead drunk; which he could do
in his m;she said, without it's being
known. ...
Allow me merely to make mention
Of the government dams for throwing
the water on the shallow portions of Ehc-i
channel; of the equality OF big beats
aud little boats before the law; ol their
feminine gender with machine voices
and all sorts of names; and OF the pig
iron along the river, waiting to be driven
TO market.
Two days and nights from Wheeling
10 Cincinnati; and the time was up
Before daylight l was startled out Of a
deep slumber by the raising,of a pande-
i'll the cabin. My route is tie |
best! MIine-is the shortest! Iouie a |
liar, sil! I'm a gentleman! Three !
Two miles between the depots! |
Pat up your money, sir! Never paid Il
bet in your life! &C., &c" The railroad |
men had taken possession. They had
hold OF Il poor KentUckian who was
going to Kansas. Heard him telling
them that he was getting more informa-
ton than he wanted; his head was full |
Of railroads. and he mad more circulars
than he could read in a month. The
last saw Of him, he was asking the
Captain for confidential advice.
was surprised to hear two or three
persons address me by name; they
would be glad TO take me up to the city.
I accepted the kind invitation of ont of
them; another informed me that that
feller world charge me dollar, and
he'd take me for fifty cents. l lodged
them till all left but enc; gave him my
baggage check, and told him where he
would find he. ..
Nothing more pleasant than riding on
a geut!emanly oliicered steamboat, like
The one which has brought ME to the
Queen City.
But the Queen City-I go up that
aline eyes may possess it.
... s......r. NoRVAL.