The Cecil Whig. [volume] (Elkton, Md.) 1841-current, 1883-07-14
LOADING UP,

She is lying at the levee at Memphis,
and | go aboard an hour ahead of time
to see her finish loading. Since early day
she has been receiving and slowing away
freight of every description, and yet on
the bank abreast of her is pile after pile
which must go aboard. A Mississippi
river steamer is a great cavern into which
4 hundred shippers may cast their bales
and boxes and leave room for hundred
more. The Adams is taking on macnin-
cry, tools, feed, dry goods, groceries,
furniture, hard ware, crockery, clothing,
notions, mules, horses, wagons, oil, meat,
flour and what not. Up to this hour the
fourteen colored deck hands have worked
steadily, but after their own fashion
Now lookout, The mate suddenly ap
peared on the scene. Would you believe
it? | expected to see two or three
"h9nds' knocked stiilcr'n bar-iron be-
lore that mate was ready for solid bust
ness, and my surprise and disgust can be
imagined when heard him call out in a
cherry voice:
Now, lads, pick it up lively and away
we go.'
| hunted up the clerk and says, says ]:
Haven't you got Il mate on this
boat -
I'VE have"
"Wherc is he -
Islands there at the gang plank"
And he 5 a mate who doesn't rip. cuss
plunge around and feel on roast roust
about, is he %
Hes mate who can strike like a
Sullivan and swear like a trooper, but he
practices neither. lie is a gentleman.
lie can get more work out of crew than
any other mate on tie big ri ,er. Sit
down and watch him."
How cool and easy lie was, Fourteen
colorcd men, each one on a d0g-trot, were
bringing on board bales, boxes and bum
dies of every description, and as each
man came over the gang plank a word or
a nod directed him where his carry was 10
be slowed.
hose chairs on the hurricane deck
that bacon over there-Gour down there
mule on the other sidc-blows on the
bow-cart right over here, and let's be
lively, lads, for times flying"
Not an oath, nor cuff nor a kick nor
a threat. | wondered if that muddy
stream was really tile Old Mississippi
and il that man could really be mate.
Alas. it was too true. Times chance
often changc-but l supposed that a
steamboat mate on a Western liver had
some life in him.
Work as hard as they will, the crew
can hardly diminish the size of the
freight piles. Carts come rattlnu down
over the cobble stones with boxes ofsoap
and candles and bags of groceries-wag-
ons rush down with tables, chairs and
Observation-Disclosures bring passengers-por
tiers bring trunks-men drive down cat
tie and horses and mules.
The clerk catches everything on the
point of his pencil before it goes up the
gang plank-the mate mancuvers his
forces with the skill of an old soldier.
The beat must take everything, gang
way must be kept clear, goods for the
various landings assorted, and not 4 foot
n = l.
of pork and bacon chinl in here and
and there; boxes are wedged in among
barrels; mules are surrounded with wood
enwarc, cows and oxen arc backed into
pens made OF machinery, and there is
never mistake nor Il misiit.
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 caravan can take more
freight. The docile, patient COW has
scarcely set eyes on her first steamboat
before she can wink twice. The mule is
making up his mind to die in the last
ditch, when hands are laid upon his hal
ter and his ears, third roustabout gives
his tail a persuading twixt, and old oh
stinacy is made fast to the rail on the
port side and left to wonder at mans do
over brute creation.
The second bell clangs ont. In ten
minutes We are oil. | want to bet a plu"
hat against pint OF peanuts that we
can't get away in thirty. There are
enormous piles of freight on the levec,
and can't see where they can store all
other box aboard.
Come, lads, up with you, hcarties,"
calls the mate, and now comes the eli
max. 1t is jump, dodge, twist, skip,
fly. Not a hoop is broken, not box
burstcd. just now, where the mule has
space to hang back, as if about to sit
down, rests half ton of sacks. The
space in the gangway is narrowed a lit
tie more, the oxen driven Il little closer,
and 10. | turn to look upon the levee
and the great pile of frcight has vanish
ed. | have seen fifty tons of freight
brought aboard without an oath or col
IisiOn or a cents worth of damage, and
now comes the last warning. Lines are
cast off at a ned, the gang plank rises
and is swung on board, and the Dean