The daily morning journal and courier. [volume] (New Haven, Conn.) 1894-1907, 1906-05-19


Have Grown Old in the River Ser.
vice.
Among the pilots operating on the
Mississippi River out of st. Louis
there are four who have long since
passed three score and ten. The young
est of this remarkable quartet is rs
yet so efficient are all these men that
their services are in steady demand
though the life of Mississippi pilot In
these days of river trade decadence is
precarious enough, indeed.
The dean Of the four ancient marin
ers of the Mississippi is Capt. Johr
Mcbride, who was born in North Caro-
Una in 1928, and has served as a pilot
on the river since 1S43.
Sixty-three years he has pursued one
occupation, but, there is not man en-
gagged in the river trade who will moi
admit that Capt. Mcbride, despite his
SO years, is more efficient than the ma
jority of pilots who only boast of hall
his years. His eye is as clear to-day
as 1t was away back in the '40s, his
hearning as keen and his touch as firm
Out in the West End the captain
lives, says the St. Louis Globe-Demo-
crat, but every morning when he is in
port he walks from his residence tc
the quarters of the pilots society, or
Fourth street, distance Of two and
one-half miles, and in the afternoon
walks out again. "The exercise does
me good and I like it," he declares
Fatigue me! No. 1t simply makes me
sleep better at night; that's all. I've
always been fond Of walking, and until
! grow old 1 hope to continue the in
diligence" Until he grows old One
is almost apt to smile at hearing such
an expression fall from Capt. Mcbride S
lips. but, though patriarchal in appear
ance, his bearing is vigorous, his
strength still largely unimpaired, and
1t doesn't take more than half min
ute of observation to see that the cap
tain doesn't feel his years by at least
a dozen.
A writer who had been through the
mill once said that single trip on a
Mississippi Valley river was as much
to pilot as a year Of ordinary mans
life, yet Capt Mcbride disavows that
there is anything remarkable in his
long service, and points to the age of
his confreres three and that retired We
teran Capt. Henry Elton, who is IS
years old, in substantiation of his state
aR,t Tn t1,ho ~ yxrith
anything like the stress and wear of
plotting on the Mississippi and its tri-
butaries attending it lives there man
still in active service at the age of SO
years still capable of walking five miles
a day to and from home in fair or foul
weather?
VI can't say that have ever taken
any particular car Of myself" says the
captain. "A pilot cannot be dissipated,
or he wouldn't be fit for work long,
even though he were only 20 years old,
and as a pilot breaths fresh, pure and
invigorating air practically all the time
when on duty, these things may
account for the fact that / am still hard
at work. l earn my own living to-day
about as well as / ever did, considering
the changed conditions of the time, and
I suppose I'll continue to do so while
/ live. 1 don't wear glasses and never
have known the need of any such aids
to eyesight.
My first billet, oddly enough, was
on the first iron steamboat that ever
sailed the Mississippi, the Valley Forge,
a boat brought around here from the
Pittsburg trade and which / took to
Alton in 1S4S. / followed steamboating
at intervals for about five years, but
1t was not until 1S48 that / plunged in
to it exclusively. I was unusually fami-
liar with the Illinois River, and In that
year was employed to take the Balloon
up that stream and continued in the
trade from that time on. Several years
later / became identified with the
Koonz line on the Mississippi, but re-
tired from the passenger service when
Congress passed the law in 1858 COM
polling pilots on passenger vessels to
take out licenses 1 could have readily
secured license, but l was opposed to
that sort of thing, and still maintain
my opposition to this day, though, of
course, we all must bow to the newt
able. went over to the freight
boast, the pilots Of which were not In
cluded in the enactment of Congress.
For ten years I remained In the freight
carrying trade, and doubtless would
have bkeen there yet had 1t not been
that Congress passed another license
law in 1868 compelling all pilots to take
out licenses. I had no recourse then
but to comply or quit the river, and as
/ had no desire to do the latter I ap-
piled for and got my license.
1.-THE Government at once employed
me to take the Thomas E. Tuck up the
Cumberland River with tons of forage
for Union cavalry, and this trip ter
minated in about the only genuine ex-
citing experience I've ever had during
my entire career as a pilot. Just below
Cumberland City we ran into a detach-
ment of Gen. Forests brigade of the
Confederate army and all hands were
made captives, while the detachment
employed the boat as ferry across the
river. When they had completed this
they destroyed the cargo and sank the
boat. We were compelled to sign par
oles and then released. Three days
later, after some wanderings and hard
ships, we. encountered the Union army
and were sent back to st. Louis.
'In 1865 / took the first tow of
freight that ever went from st. Louis
to New Orleans with the towboat Die
tator, but soon after entered the pas
cao1a, Saruioa q Uoip and SarVed IN the