The Canton mail. [volume] (Canton, Miss.) 18??-1882, 1875-01-02

| out one result, and IL speedily fOilOWed.
Boy after boy managed to get on the
river. The minister's son became an
engineer. The doctors and the post
masters sons became "mud clerks the
Wholesale liquor dealers sons became a
barkeeper on boat four sons of the
chief merchant and two sons of the
county judge became pilots. Pilot was
the grsndest position of them all. The
pilot, even in those days of trivial
wages, had q princely salary-from a
hundred and fifty to two hundred and
| fifty dollars a month, and no board to
pay. Two months of his wages would
pay preachers salary for year. Now
some of us were left disconsolate. We
| could not get on the river-at least our
parents would not let us.
So by and by I ran away. I said I
never would come home again till I
was a pilot and could come in glory.
But somehow could not manage it.
I went meekly aboard few of the
boats that lay packed together liz
and very humbly inquired for the pilots.
| but got only q cold shoulder >-1d short
| words from mates and CLERKS. L had TO
| make the best of this set of treatment
| for the time being, b.s 1 had comfort
| inc dav-dreams q future when I
should be a e-eat and honored pilot,
| with plenty OF money, and could kill
some OF these mates and clerks and
could pay for them.
Months afterward the hope within
me struggled to q reluctant death, and
I found myself without an ambition.
But was ashamed to go home. I was in
Cinninnati. and I set to work to map out
new career. had been reading about
the recent exploration of the river Am
AEON by an expedition sent out by our
government. It was said the expedi-
ton, owing to difficulties. had not
thoroughly explored q part of the coun-
try lying about the head-waters, some
four Thousand miles from the mouth of
the river. It was only about fifteen
hundred miles from Cincinnati to New
Orleans, where could doubtless get
ship. had thirty dollars left; would
10 and complete the exploration of the
Amazon. This was all the thought I
gave to the subject. never was great
in matters of detail. 1 packed my va
lise, and took passage on an ancient
tub, called the Paul Jones, for New
Orleans. For the sum of sixteen dol
lars I had the SCARED and tarnished
splendors of "her" main saloon princi-
pally to myself, for sne was not q crea-
tuI0 W 0tbIaOb bu0 Oy0 VI W1cC1 n6vOACAcs
When we presently got under way
became u new being, and the subject
of my own admiration. I was trav-
elerI A word never had tasted SO good
in my mouth before. ] had an exult-
ant sense of being bound for mysteri-
Gus lands and distant chimes which
never have felt in so uplifting degree
since.
I was in such q glorified condition
that all ign0ble feelings departed out
of me, and was able to look down and
pity the untraveled with a compassion
that had hardly trace of contempt in
it. Still, when We stopped at villages
and od-yards, I could not help loll-
ing carelessly upon the ratings of the
boiler deck to enjoy the envy Of the
country boys on the bank. If they did
not seem to discover me, presently
snee zed to attract their attention, or
moved to q position where they could
not help seeing me. And Is soon as I
knew they saw me I gaped and stretched.
and gave other signs of being nightly
bored with travelling.
stayed where the wind and the sun could
strike me because wanted to get the
bronzed and weather-beaten look of an
old traveller. Before the second day
was half gone experienced q Joy which
filed me with the purest gratitude; for
saw that the skin had begun to blister
and peel off my face and neck. I
wished that the boys and girls at home
could see me now.
We reached Louisville in time-at
least the neighborhood of it. We stuck
hard and fast on the rocks in the middle
of the river and lay there four days.
was now beginning to feel strong
n varo- 1uEsvzzzs
and younger brother to the officers.
There is no estimating the pride took
in this grandeur, or the affection that
began to swell and grow in me for those
people. could not know how the lordly
steamboatman scorns that sort of pre-
sumption in . mere landsman. par
ticularly longed to acquire the least
trife of notice from the big, stormy
portunity to do him q service to that
pow-wow of setting spar was going on
down on the forecastle, and I went down
there and stood around in the way-or
mostly skipping out of it'll them {hat(y
suddenly roared a-eeeeneral order for
so1eboayyeo bring him a capstan bar.
sprang to his side and said, "Tell me
where it is I'll fetch it Il
If rag picker had offered to do
diplomatic service for the emperor of
Russia, the monarch could not have
been more astounded than the mate
was. He even stopped swearing. He
stood and stared down at me. It took
him ten seconds to scrape his disjointed
remains together again. Then he said
impressively "Well, if this don't
beat hell I" and turned to his work with
the air of q man who had been con-
| fronted with problem too abstruse for
| solution.
| crept away and courted solitude for
the rest of the day. did not go to
dinner stayed away from supper un-
til every body else had finished. 1 die
| not feel 80 much like q member of the
boats family now as before. However,
nv spirits returned in installments as.
we pursued our way down the river. I
was sorry hated the mate so, because
| to admire him. He was huge and mus
cular; his face WAS bearded and whis-
kered all over he had q red woman and
a blue woman tattooed on his right arm
one on each side of blue anchor
with q red rope to it and in the matter
of profanity he was perfect. When he
was getting out cargo at landing, 1
was al " avs where could see and hear.
He felt all the sublimity of his great
| position, and made the world feel it,
too. When he gave even the simplest
order, he discharged it like blast of
| lightning, and sent long, reverberat-
ing peal Of profanity laundering after
it. I could not help contrasting the
way in which the average landsman
would give an order with the mates
way of doing it. If the landsman
| should wish the gang plank moved a foot
further forward, he would probably say:
James, or William, one of you push
that plank forward, please ;" but put
the mate in his place, and he would
roar out "Here. now, start that gang
plank for'ard Lively, nowi What're