The daily Cairo bulletin. (Cairo, Ill.) 1878-1???, 1882-11-25
CAREER OF A ROUSTAB0UT
A CAIRO SKETCH
BY WILHELM MEIsTER

| Privately, hate fnrmalties--we have 50
much red tape in the army. When tell
you belong u the U. S. Corps Of Eugin-
GERS, bave done my part IN the matter OF
introduction.
had the luck, by some called ability
! but am no stickler in such matters III
CARY off the honors Mt West Pint and took
the rank ment oued on The spot, being the
only second lieutenant appointed. | WAS
assigned Ia the department OF one Of the
Brevrt NJ ir Generals in the Engineer
Corps, and could have given him "threr
and a tiger" wnen he said; "Well, think
Place, your place will be down on the Mis-
sisslpp ong with First Lieutenant Grant
! The old fellow chuckled ut his own alleged
wit and also from entirely different mo-
| tives.
BY this order | became second in com
mnnd of II large party OF individuals, some
forty in number, Only eight of the party
! we're engineers or Officers As for the
rest, they were, as usual in snch cascI,
dubbed "boatsmen," "oirsmen,' "deck-
hands, "rOustabouts" any thing in fact to
| distinguish them as the common herd"
Poor ielowsl They may have had souls,
or even manhood, but our great govern
ment only recOgniz d it on election times.
They had all the IabOrious toll to perform
at the muniticeut stipend OF thirty dollars
per month and their board, while slipped
len dollars per day into my pocket, tor de-
inc less than two hours work out of twenty.
four
There were but two army officers, Grant
and myself, the remaining engineers be-
longing to the civil corps. The latter
made maps Of the land and water and we
took observations on u great scale as a cor
receive. 1t was the official duty of the
army corps to "cuss" the civil and of the
civil corps to "cuss' each other according
to rank and 10 especially belabor the
"IouslabOuts,' Promptly ut noon each day
Lieutenant Grant would take his cigar from
his mouth and officially say to me in his
| dignibed way: "GIve EN- h, Place,
give 'em h----," and often that comprised
my entire duty for a week.
Our party came together at Cairo, the
junction Of the Mississippi and Ohio rivers.
Such u portyl see before me those "rous.
tab ats most Of them protane fellows,
ready to grasp an axe, oar, stadia- board, Or
chain or drink lass Of whskey accord.
ing to the dictates or measures of his
mi4huness the Officer"
Some were decent fellows. Several were
out of college earning little toward the
completion of their course. These latter
were selected as "chansmen" and paid
higher wa9o than the "roustabouts,'
Such ia Orei was the party that assem-.
| bled on board the "ARKANsAw" in the
winter of 1879 n, a large roomy barge,
| fitted up into compartments Tor the army
corps, the civil corps and the herd" Our
apartments, Of course, were the best and
contained large cabin where we sat in
| state each evening and Inspected the work
OF the civil corps, After half hour of this
few sympathetic bottles of extra dry
champagne, choice imported cigars and
games occupied our attention.
The chief leveler, justin Temple, was the
most independent fellow OF our party, and
80 Tar as his work WAS concerned, deserved
higher rank than he cuud ever attain as q
civilian. However, he rank with the chlei
OF The civil cops aud had juneu the party
ny special order ul the III IT general. DE
VAS not one to receive slice II the cusslnI
Personally ne was great stalwart fellow
with broad shoulders, blonde hair ana
moustache aud deep blue eyes. He dressed
10 a nlcclty on all uccasious and Was the
subject Of the ladies' attention every where.
He went into the DIS IN the same way.
When coming 10 his held of operation by
boat, be never entered 1t until the foreman
had seen to it that 40 fly specks or dirt re-
manned in the cutter. Ii 1t ralned he stirred
not out. II the distance was far he de.
manded the use of the steam launch. When
the sun was hot he required man to shade
him with an umbrella continually. The
waiter kept his leather shining like mir
ror and the steward looked after broadcloth
and linen similarly. Such was the giant
tue major general had planted IN our midst
10 90 as he pleased; and touch, modest or
interfere with him who dare,
When Young fellow ~ Just out Of West
Point no wonder he bates the only man in
The patty he cannot boss. will not say
that hated the ievelcr, but did make up
my mlnd to ala, for him.
| i ever bad any desire to give HIM
h---l, gave up that little matter shortly
Gler boarding the "Arl>4 saw The ma
jor general came down the first week to fo,-
uu!ate pmn Of operations. The army
and civil corpse met in stare around the
cablu table, the general presiding The
army corpse sat IN either side OF him, the
Iegter next TO meuuj opposite of the first
leuteuant. The latter determined to test
before The general whether Temple WAS one
| OF his party ur not, ~ To speak
IL think, general saii he, that | Will
start the egelng operations about here
p"in ing On an old chart TO tie spot indi
clted.
Leyeler Temple leaned back bit, took n
VII 4 OF his cigar and remarked; "Ha,e
no soIcltude for the levchug operations,
SIR Lieutenant, they wont harm you il yu
cave hem alone
Lieutenant GRAFT arose in yath, glazed at
the -peSker and looked interrogatvely at
tie general
The bitter WAS awaiting the conflict and