The Cairo bulletin. [volume] (Cairo, Ill.) 1872-1878, 1875-03-24

your banks and marks to tea moral
certainty. and never gri them ulXed for
when you start through one OF those
cracks. there's no backing gu, again. as
there Is In the big river; you've got to
go through, or stay there SIX months II
you get caught on a falling river. There
are about fifty Of these cracks which you
can't run ut all except when the river Is
brim iull and over the banks"
This new lesson is II cheerful pros
ppct."
Cheerful enough. And mind just
what I've told you; when '.r s'l"' into
one OF those places you've got 70 go
through. They are too narrow TO turn
around in. too crooked to back out of.
and the shoal water Is always up at the
head never elsewhere. Aud the head of
them Is always likely to be filling up. lit
tie by little. so that the marks you reckon
their depth by. this season, may not an
swer for next"
Learn new set, then, every yearw
Exactly. Cramp her up to the bar!
What are yon standing up through the
middle of the river tor2'
4 RISE IN THE RIVER.
The next few months showed me
strange things. On the same day that we
held the conversation above narrated, we
met II great rise in coming down the riv-
er. The whole vast face of the stream
was black with drifting dead logs. broken
boughs, and great trees that had cayed
III aud been washed away. 1t required
he incest steering To pick ones way
through ic rushing raft, even in the day
time. when crossing from point to point;
and at night the difficulty was mi Chilly
Il.
log, lying deep in the water. would sud-
denly appear right under our bows. COM
ing head-On; no Use to try to avoid 1t
then, we could only stop the engines.
and one wheel would walk over the log
from one end 10 the other, keeping up u
laundering racket and cilreening the boat
IN way that was very uncomfortable to
passengers. Now and then we would
INT one OF these sunken logs u rafting
bang. dead in the centre, with full head
of steam. and it would stun the boat rs
II she had hit a continent. Sometimes
this log would lodge and stay right across
our nose, and back the Mississippi M be-
fore IT; we would have to do a little craw-
fishing, then. To get away from the OBJ
Striciion. We often hit iDhite logs, in
the dark, for we could not see them till
we were right on them; but a black log
is Il pretty distinct object at night. A
white snag Is an ugly customer when the
daylight is gone.
FLAT-BoATs AND PROFANITY.
OF course, on the great rise down came
Il swarm of pre- digous timbcr-r;lits from
the head waters OF the Mississippi, coal
bargcs from Pittsburgh, little trading
Scows from everywhere. and broad-hOrIis
from ''Poscy cJlIn'y." Indiana, ircig htrd
with "fruit and furniture. the usual
term for describing it, though in English
the freigll thus aggrandized was hoop
poles and pumpkins. Pilots bore NOR
tai hatred 10 these crafts; and it was re-
turned with usury. The law required all
such helpless traders to keep II light burn
ing,butit was a law that was often broken.
All of a sudden, on murky night, u
light would hop up, right under our
bows. almost, and an agOnizcd voice with
the baciwooS "whang" to it, would
wall ont:
"Whar'n the you goin' to! Can't
yon SEE nothin'. you dash-dashed aig-
suckin'. Sheep-siealin', one-eyed son OF II
stuffed monkey"
Then for an instant, as we whistled by.
the red glare from our furnaces would
reveal the scow and the form OF the ges-
a.
flash. aud in that instant our iircmen and
dcck-lands would send and receive Il
tempest of missiles and profanity. one OF
our wheels would walk oil with the
crashin fragmrn Oft stcaring-oar, and
down le dead bl c lncss would shut out
again. And that ilat-boatman would | e
surc 10 20 TO New Orleans and sue our
boat, swearing stoutly that he had iigl
burning all the time. when in truth h 8
= Ing had the lantern clown below. 10
sing and lie and drink and gam
bic by, and no watch on deck. Once,
AT night, in one of those forest
border'd crevices %, hind an island),
which Steambuatmen intensely describe
with hc phrase, las dark a. the inside OF
"A cow we should have eaten up Posey
county family. fruit. furniture, and all.
but that they happened to be iiddling
down below, and wejust caught the sou
of the music in time TO sheer oil, doing no
serious damage, fortunately. but comi
so near it that we had good hopes for Il
moment. These people brought M the r
lantern. then, OF course; and q, We b lrl, 4
ana iilleu 10 get away, the prcc Gu,
family stood in the light of it.-bOlh sen
Is. and various ages, and cursed us til
everything turned blue. Once COAL
boatman sent bullet through our pilot
house when we borrowed stcering-oar
Of him. in very narrow place.
During this big rise these small-fry
crafts were an intolerable nuisance. We
are running chute after chute--a new
world to me-and il there was q parlicu-
lar crampcd place in Il chute. we would
be pretty sure to meet Il broad-horn there;
and II he tailed to be there. we won Il
find him in still worse locality, name
~. the head of the chntc. on the shOal
water. And then there would De
no end of profanc cOrtliaities exchanged.
Sometimes, in the big river, when We
would be feeling our way cautiously
along through fog. the deep hush
would suddenly be broken by yells and Il
clamor of tin pans. and all in an instant n
log craft would appear vaguely through
the webby veil, close upon us; and then
we did not wait 10 swap knives, but
snatchcd our engine bells out by the
roots and piled on all the steam we had.
To scramble out of the way. One doesn't
hita rock or solid log raft with a steam