The Red Cloud chief., 1875-11-11

himself away, and give himself up to
enthusiastic admiration Of hS partner,
or, apparently, of his conversations
ability.
The spring Of 1869 found the Chuu.s
in the crew Of the Bennett, "the peer
less floating palace of the Mississippi
as Che vas caIlsd by those newspapers
whose repnstsss he'd The freedom Of the
Benefits bar; and the same season saw
the Bennett staggering down the Mis-
sissippi with % heavy a load of sacked
corn, that the gunwales amidships were
fairly under water. The river was very
low, SO the Bennett kept carefully in the
channel, but the channel Of the great
muddy ditch which drains half the
Union is as tickle as disappointed lovers
declare women TO he, and it has no
more respect for great steamer loads
of cor than Goliah had for David. A
little Ohio River boat, bound upwards,
had reported the sudden disappearance
of a wood yard a little way above Mil.
liken's Bend, where the channel Rugged
the shore, and with the wood yard there
had disappeared an enormous sycamore
tree, which had for years served as .
tying post for steamers. As live syca-
mores are about az disinclined 10 hoa4
as bars OF lead are, the Captain and
pilot OF the Bennett were somewhat
concerned for the sake of the com
to know the exact location of the tree.
Half a mile from the spot it became
evident, even to the passengers clustered
forward on the cabin deck, that the
sycamore had remained quite near lis
old home, for a long, rough ripple was
seen directly across the line of the chan.
mel. Then arose the question as to how
much water was on top of the tree, and
whether any bar had time to accumu.
late. The steamer was stopped, the en-
gines were reversed and worked by
hand to keep the Bennett from drifting
down stream, a boat was lowered and
manned, the Chums forming part of her
crew, and the Second Officer went down
to take s%oundings, while the passengers,
to whom even SD small a cause for ex-
citemcnt was a god-scnd, crowded the
rail and stared.
The boat shot rapidly down the s~trca,h.
headed for the shore end of the ripple.
She seemed almost into the boiling mud
in front of her when the passengers on
the steamer heard the Mate in the boat
shout:
"Back, all"
The melton of the oars changed IN HI
instant, but q little too late, for, a heavy
root of the fallen giant, just covered by
the water. caught the little craft, aud
caused it to careen so violently that
one man was thrown into the water. As
she righted, another man went in.
"Confound it!' growlcd the Captain,
who was leaning out of the pilot house
window. 81 hope they can swim. Still,
faint as bad as it would be if we had
any more cargo 20 take aboard"
'ft's the Chums.' remarked the pilot,
who had brought a glass to bear upon
the boat.
Thunder, exclaimed the Captain,
striking a bell. "Below there! Lower
away another boat lively" Then,
turning to the passengers, he exclaimed
"Nobody on the river d forgive me if
I lost the Chums. 'Twould be as bad
as Barnum losing his giraffe"
The occupants of the first boat were
evidently of the Captains own mind,
for they were eagerly peering over her
side, and into the water.
suddenly the pilot dropped his glass,
extemporized a trumpet with both hands,
and shouted:
"Forrard -forrard! One of ems up ~
Then he put his mouth to the speaking
tube, and screamed to the engineer
sLet her drop down a little, B,llym
The sounding party headed towards a
black speck, apparently a hundred
yards below them. and the great steam.
er drifted down stream. The speck
moved towards shore, and the boat,
rapidly shortening distance, seemed to
scrape the banks with her port oars.
"Safe enough now. I guess" exclaimed
Judge Turner, of one Of the southern
Illinois circuits. The Judge had been
interrupted in telling a story when the
accident occurred, and was in a hurry to
resume.
"As l was saying" said he, she hardl;
looked like a professional horse thief.
He was little and quiet, and had always
worked away steadily at his trade. 1
believed him when he said twas his first
offense, and that he did it to raise
money to bury his child: and I was 60
ing to give him an easy sentence, and
ask the Governor to pardon him. The
laws have to be executed, you know,
but there's no Law against mercy being
practiced afterwards. Well, the Sheriff
was bringing him from Jail to hear the
verdict and the sentence, when a short
man, with red hair, knocked the Sheriff
down, and of galloped tia. precious
couple for the Wabash. Iyssv the q