New Orleans Republican. [volume] (New Orleans, La) 1867-1878, 1875-05-02

and by the time he has become pilot b.
can not be unnamed by any danger
steamboat can get into; but one can no
quite say the same for Judgment. Judg
nent is matter of brains, and man mus
start with good stock of that article or hi
will never succeed as pilot.
The growth of courage in the pilOthouse
is steady all the time, but it does not reacf
a high and satisfactory condition unit
some time after the young pilot ha!
been standing his own WATCH alone
and under the staggering weight O.
all the responsibilities connected will
the position. When an apprentice has be
the river, he goes Gathering along so fear
lessly with his steamboat, night or day
that he presently begins to imagine that il
Is his courage that animates him; but the
first time the pilot steps out and leaves hin
to his own devices he finds out it was the
other mans. He discovers that the article
has been left out of his own cargo altogether
The whole river is bristling with exigencies
| IN moment he is not prepared for them
he does not know how to meet them; all
his knowledge forsakes him, and within
fifteen minutes he is as white as a sheet and
| scared almost to death. Therefore pilots
wisely train these cubs by strategic tricks
to look danger in the face little more
calmly. A favOrite way OF theirs is to play
a friendly swindle upon the candidate.
| Mr.. B served me in this fashion
once, and for years afterward | used to
blush even in my sleep when l thought OF
it. l had become a good steersman; SO
| good, indeed, that l had all the work to
do on our watch, night and day; Mr..
| B. seldom made suggestion to me-;
| all he ever did was to take the wheel on
particularly bad nights or particularly bad
i crossings, land the boat when she needed
to be landed, play gentleman of leisure
niDe-tenths of the watch, and collect the
wages The lower river was about bank
full, and if anybody had questioned my
ability to run any crossing between Cairo
and New Orleans without help or instruc-
ion, l should have felt irreparably hurt.
The idea of being afraid OF any crossing in
the lot, in the day time, was thing too pre-
pOsterous for contemplation. Well, one
matchless summers day l was bowling
selfcOnceit, and carrying my nose as high
as a giratfe's, when Mr.. b said:
II am going below while. | suppose
You know the next crossings"
This was almost an atfrOnt. TWAS about
the plainest and simplest crossing in the
whole river. One couldn't come to any
harm, whether he ran it right or not; and
as for depth. there never had been any bot
tom there. knew ali this perfectly well.
huUW uOW W run IL! w uy, i CdU run IL
with my eyes shut"
allow much water is there in it!'
"Well, that is an odd question. l couldn't
get bottom there with church steeple"
You think SO, do yOu!"
The very tone of the question shook nv
confidence. That was what Mr.. b was
expecting. He left, without saying any
thing more. began to imagine all sorts of
things. Mr. B., unknown to me, of
cnmahndy IN ho
castle with some mysterious instructions to
the leadsmen, another messenger was sent
to whisper among the officers, and then Mr..
b went into hiding behind smoke
stack where he could observe results. Pres
entity the captain stepped out on the hurri-
cane deck; next the chief mate appeared:
then clerk. Every moment or two
stragger was added to my audience; and
before got to the head Of the island / had
fifteen or twenty people assembled down
there under my nose. l began to wonder
what the trouble was. AS l started across.
the captain glanced at me and said, with a
sham uneasiness in his voice
where lie Mr.. B -''
"Gone below, sir"
But that did the business for me. NV
Imagination began to construct dangers
out of nothing. and they multiplied faster
than could keep the run of them. All at
once l imagined l saw shoal water ahead.
The wave of coward agony that surged
through me then came near dislocating
every Joint in me. All my confidence in
that crossing vanished. | seized the bell
rope; dropped it, ashamed seized it again;
dropped it once more; clutched it trem-
blingly once again, and pulled it so eebly
that could hardly hear the stroke myself.
Captain and mate sang out instantly, and
both together:
''Starboard lead there, and quick about
it,
This was another shock. / began to
climb the wheel like squirrel; but |
would hardly get the boat started to
port before l would see new dangers on
that eide, and away | would spin to the
other; only to find perils accommodating to
starboard, and be crazy to get to port
again. Then came the leadsman's Sc
pulchral cry:
deep four"
Deep four in bottomless crossing. The
terror of it took my breath away.
"M-a r-k three! Mark three! Quarter
less three! Half twain
This was frightful. seized the bell ropes
and stopped the engines.
Quarter twain! Quarter twain. Marx
twain.'
l was helpless. 1 did not know what in
the world to do. Twas quaking from head
to foot, and l could have hung my hat on
my eyes, they stuck out so far.
"Quarter less twain, Nine and halfr'
We were drawing Rine. My hands were
in a nerveless futter. ! could not ring
bell intelligibly with them. / flew to the |
speaking tube and shouted to the engineer.
"Oh, Ben, il you love me, back her.
Quick, Ben. Oh, back the immortal soul
out of herr
| heard the door close gently. | looked
around, and there stood Mr.. B, smiling |
a bland, sweet smile. Then the audience !
Oh the hurricane deck sent up shout of |
huuiliatng laughter l saw it all, now,
and l felt meaner than the meanest man in |
human history. l laid in the lead, set the |
boat in her marks, came ahead on the en-
ylnes, and said:
1T was a fine trick to play on an orphan. |
wasn't it! | suppose Ill never hear the |
asst OF how | was ass enough to heave the |
cad at the head of &C."
well, no, you won't may be. In fact | |
nope you won't; for ] want you to learn
by that experience. Didn't You
Know there was no bottom in that crossing!"
.'Yes, sir, did"
allowed me or any one else to shake your
confidence in that knowledge Try to re-
member that. And another thing; when
'ou get into dangerous place, don't turn
coward. That isn't going to help matters
any,"
1t was good enough lesson, but pretty
hardly learned. Yet about the hardest part |
# it was that for months | SO often had to
rear a phrase which / had conceived
particular distaste for. 1t was, "Oh. Ben,
f you love me, back her,
The British Polar ExpeditfOu