Alpena weekly argus. [volume] (Alpena, Mich.) 1871-1893, 1883-05-02

can be imagined when l heard him
call out in CHEEKY voice:
"Now, lads, pick it up lively and
away we gop
| hunted up the clerk and says l !:
Haven't you got mate on this
boat?"
1--WE have"
"Where is he?"
Stands there at the gang plack."
"And he's a mate who doesn't rip.
cuss, plunge around and feed on roast
niger, is he ?"
He's q mate who can strike like a
Sullivan and swear like trooper, but
he practices neither. He's q gentle
man. He can get more work out of
crew than any other mate on the big
river. Sit down and watch him."
| felt disappointed, for it has always
been source of pleasure with me to
see steamboat mates kill two or three
men an hour, and to hear them begin
with "a" and swear the alphabet clear
through, but | watched. How cool
and easy he was Fourteen darkies,
each one on dog trot, were bringing
aboard bales, boxes and bundles of
every description, and as each man
came over the gang-plank, a word or
a nod directed him where his carry
was to be slowed.
"Those chairs on the hurricane deck
that bacon over here-four down
there-mule on the other side-plows
on the bow-cart right over here, and
let's be lively, lads, for times flying y
Not an oath-not cuff nor kick
nor q threat. | wondered if that
muddy stream really was the old Mis-.
sissippi, and if that man really could
be mate. Alas it was too true.
Times change-men change-but !
supposed that steamboat mate on q
Western river had some life in him.
THE BUsTLE INCREASES.
Work as hard as they will the crew
can scarcely diminish the size of the
freight-piles. Carts come rafting
down over the cobble-stones with
boxes of soap and candles and bags
of groceries-wagons rush down with
tables, chairs and bedsteads--hacks
bring passengers-porters bring trunks
men drive down cattle and horses
and mules.
The clerk catches everything on the
point of his pencil before it goes up
the gang-plank-the mate maneuvers
his force with the skill Of an old
soldier. The boat must take every
thing, gangways must be kept clear,
goods for the various landing assort-
ed, and not a foot of room can be lost.
Great side pieces of pork and bacon
chink in here and there; boxes are
wedged in among barrels; mules are
surrounded with wooden ware; COWS
and oxen are backed into pens made
of machinery, and there is never a
mistake nor a misfit.
THE FIRST BELL.
The bell clangs loudly as a signal
that time is almost up, and now the
mate speaks quicker, the men move
faster, and there is growing OF
steam from the engine-room. Carts
are still coming, scores of negroes are
streaming abroad, and yet the great
cavern can take more freight. The
docile, patient COW has scarcely set
eyes OH her first steamboat before
three or four hands whisk her along
so fast that she is aboard before she
can wink twice. The mule is making
up his mind to die in the last ditch,
when hands are laid upon his halter
and his ears, a third roustabout gives
his tail a persuading twist, and old
obstinacy is made fast to the rail on
the port side and left to wonder at
mans dominion, over brute creation.
THE SECOND BELL
Clangs out. In ten minutes we are
off. want to bet plug hat against
a pint of peanuts that we cant get
away in thirty. There is an enor-
nous pile of freight on the levee, and
| cant sec where they can stow an
other box aboard.
"Come, lads, up with you, heart
les !" calls the mate, and now comes
the climax. 1t is jump-dodge-twist
-skip-fy. Not a hoop is broken
nor box busted. Just now, where
the mule had space to hang back, as
if about to sit down, rests half ton
of sacks. The space in the gang.way
is narrowed little more, the oxen
driven little closer, and 10! | turn
to look upon the levee and the great
pile of freight has vanished / have
seen fifty tons of freight brought
aboard without an oath or collision
or a cents worth of damage and
now comes
THE LAST WARNING.
Lines are cast off at nod, the gang
plank rises and is swung in aboard,
and the Dean Adams steams away up
the mighty river, which is now BOOM
ing with great flood.
"All hands |" sings the mate, and
the fourteen blacks gather around
him on the bow.
divide up"
Seven step to the right and seven to
the left.
"That's all, my lads-all here and
all right"
And as the twilight gathers around
us and the lights of the city twinkle
afar off the larboard watch raise the
song:
81 went courtin 'toder night,
Golly golly golly!
] went courtin 'toder night