Pine Bluff daily graphic., 1897-02-28
SLAVES OF THE DECKS.
A Bill for Their Protection Has
 Been Introduced in Congress
The Life of a DecIhand on an Inland River Boat-many HardshiDs to lie Endured-R emarkable
 Devotion.
IConEright 1S47l

| in congress for the protection of the deckhands and roustabouts on the in- land rivers. The hardship that these people have suffered for years simply beggars description. No shelter is pro- yided for them on the boats, and in bad weather they keep about their work as long as possible, sometimes with hands and feet frozen. In a cold spell the hospitals along the Ohio and Missis- sppi rivers are filled with these men, who have stood on the decks unshel- tered until they have pneumonia or frozen =eXtremities.
 They are mostly colored men, and because of their color are treated like cattle. If such thing had existed be- fore the war it would have gone down i'll history as one of the horrible results of human slavery. In spite of their hardships they sticlSto the boats, and captain might as well try to get rid of his rats as of these men who live on the decks.
 '.It is wonderful how they cling to their calling" said prominent official of the hospital service the other day If they fall sick on the boat their only comfort is the warm side of the engine room where they may lie against the wall in the cold wind, and sometimes they die on deck. Did you ever observe how men get welded to the sea? Well, the river life has a still greater fasei- nation for the men who engage in it. Land and water are mixed in about the right proportion to satisfy these men.
 T remember taking part in the exam nation of lot of shaggy old river pilots to see if they could distinguish coIors. They were as scared as a lot of school i boys who had come to be licked. Itwas l pathetic to see their hands tremble as they came in to stand the test. We tried them with steins of yarn of Yn- rious coIors, which lay in a heap on the floor. The surgeon would pick up a I green sI1ein, for instance, and throw it on the white cover of the table; then he would ask the pilot to pick one out of the heap and match it. It was a great study to see some of those grizzled veterans pick up the skeins and cock their eyes at them and hold them up to the light Sometimes they would show their color blindness at once by going to the pile and picking up dark gray sl1ein and tossing ii down beside the green one. The pilots waited in an auteroom ilntil each had had his turn with me inside Every man sat in si- i lence with a long face until his turn i came. You see, every one of them felt that his living was at stake, and that l he might never tal5e another watch at the wheel. Those who came out az i gravated the fears of those who had i yet to pass the ordeal with tales of the terrible trial they had been put to. I remember one of them who came in trembling and said, in shaly voice:
 Sorry sir; but I ain't no horse t give ye'
 I've got horses enough said the surgeon; what do you mean?'
 The feller at jus come out said you wouldn't pass i'm till he'd gin ye a horse,' the man remarked.
 "He could read the lights all right enough, and wouldn't have needed a horse, anyhow.
 sOne day a captain came in with a pilot who had been rejected.
 :" Do you mean 10 say, said he that this man don't know colors? Why, sir he's been my first mate fer a dozen years, an know he can read the lights. He's got family that needs his wages, an l need his help, am wish you'd give him another show
 Certainly said the surgeon, who threw d red skein on the table and asked the man to match it. In jiffy he had picked up a dark green skein and threw it beside the other.
 'Hell!' roared the captain, as he dropped into a chair. He couldn't tell port from starboard, could hep
 It looks that way said the sur- geon.
 But I tell ye kin read lights. [ dunno how l do it, but kin read 'eni somehow. l know I kin said the man.
 Twon't do, said the captain. Ye'll have to give up yer wheel
 Can't, was the reply Hands has growed to it, an' l can't give up my wheel. l dunno nothin' about living ashore. It's Gods truth, cap'n. I'd ruther die an give up my wheel
 He seemed to regard it as a sort of divorce from the life he loved, and when he went out he looked as if he were marching in his own funeral pros cession.
 Its the same way with the rousta- bouts," the surgeon continued, but their devotion is more wonderful be- cause of their hardships. I suppose the craps and poker and other forms of gambling in which they indulge have a good deal to do with the fascination they feel for the steamboat. Every night when the wind is not too lively for comfort some sort of game is on. Of a cold night you may sometimes see them sleeping back to back on deck l between stations. and sharing coats ln