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

middle of an iDky black night, you will the
have tOlerable notion of the amount ant
the exactness of a pilots knowledge VIII
carries the Mississippi river in his head
And then if you will 60 on until you know
every street crossing, the character, siz
and position of the crossing stones, and tn
varying depth of mud in each Of thos
numberless places, you will have some ide
Of what the pilot must know in order t
keep Mississippi steamer out OF trouble
Next, if you will take half Of the signs il
that long street, and change their place
once month, and still manage to know
their new positions accurately on darl
nights, and keep up with these repeated
changes without making any mistakes, 20,
will understand what is required of pilot
peerless memory by the tickle Mississippi.
think pilots memory is about the mos
wonderful thing in the world. To know
the Old and New Testaments by heart, AM
be able to recite them glibly, forward O
backward, or begin at random anywhere i,
the book and recite both ways an(
never trip or make mistake, il
no extravagant mass of knowledge
and no marvellous facility, compared
to a pilots massed knowledge o
the Mississippi and his marvellous facility
in the handling of it. ! make this com
parison deliberately, and believe l am MOI
expanding the truth when do it. Many
will think my figure too strong, but pilots
will not.
And how easily and comfortably the
pilots memory does its work; how placidly
etfortless is it's way; how unconsciously il
lays up it's vast stores, hour by hour, day
by day. and never loses or mislays single
valuable package of them all. Take an
instance. Let leadsman cry Halt
fua no If tuoip half fu half uaip
half twain !" until it becomes as monoto
nous as the ticking of clock; let CONVEX
sation be going on all the time, and the
pilot be doing his share of the talking. and
in the midst Of this endless string of halt
twains let single "quarter twain be in
terjected, without emphasis, and then the
half twain cry go on again, just as
before; two or three weeks later that
pilot can describe with precision the
boats position in the river when that
quarter twain was uttered, and give you
such lot of head marks, stern marks, and
side marks to guide you, that you ought to
be able to take the boat there and put her in
that same spot again yourself! The cry of
quarter twain did not really take his mind
from his talk, but his trained faculties in
stantly photographed the bearings, noted
the change Of depth, and laid up the i'm
pOrtant details for future reference without
requiring any assistance from him in the
matter. If you were walking and talking
with friend, and another friend at your
side kept up mOnOtonOus repetition of the
vowel sound A, for couple of blocks, and
then in the midst INTERCEPTED an r, thus: A,
A, A, A, A, X, A, A, A, ETC., and gave the
no emphasis, you would not be able to
state, two or three weeks afterward, that
The K had been put in, nor be able to tell
what objects you were passing at the mo
nent it was done. But you could if your
memory had been patiently and laboriOusly
;rained to do that sort of thing mechan-
cally.
Give man tolerably fair memory to start
With, and plotting will develop it into very
colossus of capability. But only in the mat
ers it is daily drilled in. A time would come
when the mans faculties could not help no.
icing landmarks and soupdings, and his
memory could not help holding on to them
With the grip of vice; but if you asked
hat same man at noon what he had had for
it would be ten chances to one
hat he could not tell you. Astonishing things
an be done with the human memory if you
will devote it faithfully to one particular line
f business.
At the time that wages scared so high on
he Missouri river, my chief, MIR. B,
vent up there and learned more than thou
and miles OF that stream with an ease and
apdity that were astonishing. When he
ad seen each division once in the daytime
nd once at night, his education was SO
early complete that he took out clay
ght" license; few trips later he took out
full license, and went to plotting day and
light, and he ranked Al, too.
Mr.. B placed me as steersman for a
'hile under pilot whose feats Of memory
Tere constant marvel to me. However,
is memory was born in him, l think, not
ullt For instance, some body would men
lon a name. Instantly Mr.. J. would
reak in:
ooh. / knew him. Sallow-faced, red
eaded fellow, with little scar on the side
his throat like splinter under the flesh.
Ie was only in the Southern trade six
lonths. That was thirteen tyears ago. l
lade trip with him. There was FIVE feet
/ the upper river then; the Henry Blake
at the foot of Tower Island,
rawing four and half; the George Ell
Oft unshipped her rudder on the wreck of
re SuntiOwer."
"Why. the Sunhower didn't sink until
81 know when she sunk; it was three
aars before that, on the second OF De-
,mber; Asa Hardy was captain of her,
nd his brother John was first clerk;
I'D it was his first trip on her, too; Tom
ones told me these things a week after
ard in New Orleans: he was first mate
the Sunhower. Captain Hardy stuck
all in his foot on the sixth of July of the
axt year, and died of the lock Jaw on the
fteenth. His brother John died two years
ter-third of Neutrality-suspicious.. never
wv either of the Hardys-they were Allie
lany river men-but people who knew
em told me all these things. And they |
nd Captain Hardy wore yarn socks winter !
I'd summer just the same, and his first |
lies name was Jane Shook-she was from
ew England-and his second one died in a |
matte asylum. 1t was in the blood. She |
as from Lexington, Kentucky. Name was |
Orton before she was married."
And so on, by the hour, the mans tongue |
ould go. He could not forget any thing. |
was simply impossible. The most trivial |
.talis remained as distinct and luminous in |
5 head, after they had lain there for years, |
! the most memorable events. His was not |
IMPLY pilots memory; its grasp was uni |
,rsal. If he were talking about t1ifling
tier he had received seven years before,
} was pretty sure to deliver you the entire
reed from memory. And then, without
serving that he was departing from the
ue line OF his talk, he was more than like
to hurl in a long drawn parenthetical
ography OF the writer of that letter; and
~ were lucky indeed if he did not take
} that writer's relatives, enc by one, and
We you their biography, 700.
Such memory as that is great misfor-
ne. To 1t, all occurrences are OF the same
ze. Its possessor can not distinguish an
teresting circumstance from an uninter-
tisg one. AS talker he is bound to clog
; narrative with tiresome details and
AXE himself an insufferable bore. More.
er, he can not stick to his subject. He
cks us every little grain of memory he
'cerrs in his way, and SO is led aside Mr..
- would start out with the honest in
ntion of telling you vastly funny anec-
tie about dog. He would be 80 full of
lgh' that he could hardly begin: then his
emory would start with the dogs breed
d personal appearance; drift into history
his owner, of his owners family, with
scIiptions OF Weddings and hlrials that |