The Portland daily press., 1875-02-20
"J-J-notbino for certain"

vous man, and he shuf1ed from one slde OF
his wheel to the other, as ii the floor was hot.
He would boil awhile to himself, and then
overflow and scald me again.
sI,ook-a-here! What do you suppose l
told Won the names of those points for@'
| tremblingly considered a moment, and
then the devil of temptation provoked me to
.sWell-to-to-to be entertaining,
thought" L
This was red rag to the bull. He ragged
and st6fmed so The was crossing the river
at the time) that l judge it made him blind,
because he ran over the steering oar OF a
trading scow, OF course thatraders sent up
voey of red hot profanity. Never was
man so grateful as Mr.. B-was, because he
was brim full, and here were subjects VINO
would talk back. He threw open window
thrust his head out, and such an lrruptlon
followed as Ineyer heard before. The falnt-
or and further away the scOwmen'S curses
drifted. the higher Mr.. B--lifted his voice
and the weightier his adjectives grew When
he closed the window he was empty. You
could have drawn seine through bis system
and not caught curses enough to disturb your
mother with. Presently ne salo W ue Ill the
gentlest way: i"
"My boy, you must get little memoran-
dunn book, and every time l tell you thing,
nut it down right away, There's only one
way to be pilot, and that is to get this en-
tire river by heart. You have 10 know it
lust like A B c."
: That was dismal revelation to me; for
nv memory was never loaded with anything
but blank cartridges. However l did not
feel discouraged long. 1 judged that it was
best to make some allowances, for doubtless
Mr.. sB--wasl stretching" Presently he
pulled a rope and struck few strokes on the
big bell. The stars were all gone now, and
the night was as black as ink. ! could hear
the wheels churn along the bank, but was
not entirely certain that Icould see the shore.
The voice of the invisible Waterman called
up from the hurricane deck:
"Whats this, sir?" t..sg 70
"Jones' plantation"
said to myself, I wish I fl light venture to
offer bet that it isn't. But did not chirp.
/ only waited TO see. Mr.. P--handled the
engine bells, and in due time the boats nose
| came to the land, torch glowed from the
| fol ecastle, a man skipped ashore, a darky's
voice on the bank said, ''Gimme de carpet
bag, Mars JONES'" and the next moment we
were starting up the river again, all serene.
I reflected deeply awhile, and then said, but
! not aloud, well, the finding of that plantation
was the luckiest accident that ever happened,
Int II couldn't happen again in hundred
| wears. And fully believe it was an acct
| dent, too. FL II 4 4 L.s 49,.
| By the time we had gone seven or eight
| hundred miles up the river, had learned
| to be a tolerably plucky up stream steers
man, in daylight, and before we reached St.
| Louis had made trife OF progress in night
work, but only a trife. l had notebook
| that fairly bristled with the names of towns,
| 'spoints," bars, islands, bends, reaches, &C.,
| but the information was to be found only in
4 the note-bOok-none of it was in my head.
| 1t made my heart ache to think had only
| got half of the river set down; for as our
watch was four hours off and four hours on,
| day and night, there was a long four gap in
my book for every time had slept since the
voyage began.
| NV chief was presently hired to 60 on a
big New Orleans boat, and packed my
| satchel and went with him. She was grand
| affair. When stood in her pilot-house was
so far above the water that seemed perched
| on mountain; and her decks stretched so
| far away, fore and aft, below me, that won
pered how could have considered the little
| Paul Jones large craft. There were other
| differences, too. The Paul Jones's pilot-house
was cheap, dingy, battered rattle-trap,
cramped tor room; but here was sumptu-
Gus glass temple; room enough TO have a
dance in; snowy red and gold window cur
tains; an imposing sofa; leather cushions
and back to the high bench where visiting
er;;' bright, fanclful "cuspidors" instead of
| a broad, wooden box filed with saw-dust !;
| nice new oil-cloth on the floor; a hospitable
bic stove for winter; wheel as high as my
| head, costly with inlaid work; wire tiller-
| rope: bright brass knobs for the bells; and
| a tidy, white aproned, black ''texas TENDER"
| to bring up tarts, ices and coffee during mid
watch, day and night. Now this was ''some-
| thing like" and SO l began to take heart
IL. Ial.a lot l4f no
mantle sort of occupation after all. The
moment we were under way began to
| prowl about the great steamer and fill myself
| with Joy. She was as clean and dainty as a
| drawing-room; when l looked down the
| long, gilded saloon it was like gazing through
| a splendid tunnel; she had an oil picture by
| some gifted sign-painter, on every state room
door; she glittered with no end OF prism
| frineed chandeliers; the clerks office was
| elegant, the bar was marvellous, and the bar
| keeper had been barbered and upholstered to
| incredible cost The boiler deck Ii. E., the
| second story of the boat, so to speak, was
| as spacious as church, it seemed to me; SO
| with the forecastle, and there was no pitiful
! handful CT deck hands, fremen and rousta-
| bouts down there, but whole battalion of
men. The fires were fiercely glazing from a
long row of furnaces, and over them were
eight huge boilers This was unutterable
pomp. The mighty engines-but enough of
| this. 1 had never felt so fine before. And
when found that the regiment of natty ser
wants respectfully "Sir'd' me my satisfaction
was complete. : ID ~
When l returned to the pilot house st.
Louis was gone and l was lost. Here was a
piece of river which was all down in my
book, but could make neither head nor tail
of it; you understand, it was turned around.
had seen it when coming up stream, but
Ihad never faced about to see how it looked
when it was behind me. My heart broke
again, for it was plair that I had got to learn
| this troublesome river both acdys
| The pilot house was full of pilots going
down to "look at the river" What is called
the supper river" (the two hundred miles
between ST. Louis and Cairo, where the Ohio
comes in,) was low; and the Mississippi
/ changes its channel so constantly that the
pilots used to always find it necessary to run
down to Cairo to take fresh look, when
their boats were to lie in port week, that is,
when the water was at low state. A deal
or this ''looking at the river" was done by
poor fellows who seldom had a berth, and
whose only hope of getting one lay in their
being always freshly posted and therefore
ready to drop into the shoes of some reputa-
table pilot, for single trip, on account of
/ such pilots illness, or some other necessity
And good many of them constantly ran up
and down inspecting the river, not because
they ever really hoped to get berth, but be-
cause (they being guests OF the boat it was
cheaper to ''look at the river than stay
ashore and pay board. In time these fellows
grew dainty in their tastes, and only infested
boats that had AZ established reputation for
setting good tables. All visiting pilots were
useful, for they were always ready, winter
4 and summer, night or day, to go out into the
yawl and help buoy the channel or assist the
boats pilots in any way they could. They
were likewise welcome because all pilots
were tireless takers when gathered together,
and as they talk only about the river they
are always understood and are always inter-
esting. Your trueIpilot cares nothing about
anything on earth but the river, and his pride
in his occupation surpasses the pride of kings.
We had fine company of these river in
spectors along this trip. There were eight or
ten, and there was abundance of room for
them in our great pilot-house. Two or three
of them wore polished silk hats, elaborate
shirt-fronts, diamond breast-pins, kid gloves,
and patent-eather boots. They were choice
in their English, and bore themselves with
dignity proper to men of solid means and rep
utation as pilots. The others were more or
Jess loosely clad, and wore upon their heads
tall felt cones that were suggestive OF the
days of the Commonwealth.
Iwas cipher in this august company, and
fell subdued, not to say torpid. was not
even of sufficient consequence to assist at the