Mexico weekly ledger. (Mexico, Mo.) 1855-1956, 1878-08-01
AN OLD TIME STEAMBOAT
RACE ON THE MISSISSIPPI.
BY MARK TWAIN.

"By George, yonder comes the
Amaranth!" A spark appeared,
close to the water, several miles down
the river. The pilot took his glass
and looked at it steadily for moment
and said, chiefly to himself:
sit can't be the Blue Wing. She
couldn't pick US up this way. It's
the Amaranth, sure.''
He bent over speaking tube and
said:
"Who's ON watchdown there?"
A hollow, unhui Roice rumbled
up through the tube answer:
81 am. Second engineer"
"Good! You waut to stir your
stumps now, Harry. The Amaranth's
| just turned the point -and she's just
humping herself, too!"
The pilot took hold Of rope that
stretched out toward, jerked it twice,
and two mellow strokes on the big
bell responded. A voice out of the
deck shouted:
''Stand by, down there, with that
labored lead!"
s'No, 1 don't want the lead" said
the pilot, II want you. Roust out
the old man-tell him the Amaranth's
coming. And go and call Jim-tell
him.
"Ay-ay, STRIP
The "old man" was the captain
he is always called so on steamboats,
and ships s'Jim" was the other pilot.
Within two minutes both these men
were flying up the pilot-house stair
way, three steps at jump. Jim wac
in his shirt sleeves, with his coat and
vest on his arm. He said:
81 was just turning in. Where
the glass?"
He took it and looked.
"Don't appear to be any night
hawk on the jackstaff-it's the Anna
ranth, dead sure!"
, The captai, took long, Gloss
look, and only said:
ssDamnation!"
! George Davis, the pilot on watch
! shouted to the night watchman Of
f deck:
t ''How's she loaded?'
''Two inches by the head, sir"
Tain't enough!"
e The captain shouted now:
: "Call the mate. Tell him to cal
all hands and get a lot of that suga
! fcrward-put her ten inches by tn
4 iI...a- Lily. -nwi''
"Ay-ay, sir!"
: A riot of shouting and tramplin
foated up from below presently, an
= the uneasy steering of the boat 500
h showed that she was getting ''dow
d by the head"
The three men in the pilot-hous
began to talk in short, sharp ser
e tences, low and earnestly. As thei
excitement rose, their voices wei
" down. AS fast as one of them pr
= down the spy-glass another took
{ up-but always with a studied air {
calmness. Each time the verde
# was:
e "She's a gaining!"
The captain spoke through til
tube:
"What steam are you carrying !?
It "A hundred and forty-two, sir
: But she's getting hotter and hottt
= all the time
o The boat was straining and groal
n ing and quivering like monster
/, pain.
|, "What is she carrying now?"
8 "a hundred and sixty-five, SIR"
"How's your wood?'
l. "Pine all out-cypress half gone
lie eating up cottonwood like pie"
IL "Break into that rosin on the ma
d deck-pile it in-the boat can pay Il
: it,
10 Soon the boat was plunging al
quivering and screaming more mad
" than ever. But the Amaranth's lig
s. was growing brighter.
y y "How's your steam now, Harry
10 10 "Hundred and eighty-two, sir"
:. "Break up the casks of bacon
the forward hold! Pile it in! Lev
on that turpentine in the fantail-
n; drench every stick of wood with it
tie The boat was moving earthqual
os by this time.
"How is she now?'
"a hundred and ninty-six, al
an still a swcllingl-water below t
middle gauge cocks!-carrying eve
o pound she can stand niger roostil
oa ON the safety-valve!"
q "Good! How's your draft?"
,o "Bully? Every time a nigg
- heayes stick of wood into the fl
,s- mace he goes out the chimney wi
no it,"
no Both pilots were at work now-o
no on each side of the wheel, with tn
N. coats and vests off, their bosoms a
m. collars wide open, and the prespil
ton flowing down their faces. Th
were holding the boat SO close
TO- shore that the willows swept [
Oh guards, almost from stem to stern.
ne "Stand by!" whispered George.
oi "All ready!" said jim, under
III breath.
me 'Let her cemel"