The true northerner. [volume] (Paw Paw, Mich.) 1855-1920, 1906-05-25
By.
GEORGE
CARY
EGGLESTON


trepot i'm all the Mississippi valley.
The town was small, but its business
was larger than that OF many great
cities. The little city lay at the point
where the Ohio river runs into the Mis-
slssippi. From up and down the Mis-
sissippi, from the Ohio, from the Ten
nessee and the Cumberland and even
from far up the Missouri great fleets
of steamboats, were landing at Cairo
every day to load and unload cargoes
representing a wealth as great as that
of the Indies. A double headed rail-
road from the north carrying the prod
uce OF half a dozen states ana con-
Meeting by other roads with all the
great cities of the land made its termi-
nus at Cairo Two railroads from the
south - traversing five states - ended
their lines at Columbus little farther
down the river, and were connected
with the northern lines by steamboats,
from Cairo.
Cairo was the meeting place OF COM
merce between the north and the south.
Out OF the upper rivers came light
draft steamers. Plying the river below
were steamers of far different con-
struction by reason of the easier con-
ditiOns of navigation. At Cairo every
steamboat, whether from north or
south, unloaded its freight for reship-
ment up or down the river, as the case
might be- upon steamboats, of a differ
ent type or by rail. And all the freight.
brought north or south by rail must
also be transferred at Cairo, either to
river steamers or to railroad cars.
The south was still thronged with
northern troops, numbering hundreds of
thousands. who must be fed and cloth
ed and otherwise supplied, and so the
governments own traffic through the
town was in itself trade of vast pro
portions. But that was the smallest
part Of the matter. Now that the war
was at an end the south was setting
to work to rebuild itself From the
Cumberland and the Tennessee rivers,
from the lower Mississippi, from the
Arkansas, the YaZoO, the Red river,
the White. the St Francis and all the
rest of the waterways of the south en-
ergetic men of broken fortune were
hWrying 10 market all the cotton that
they had managed TO grow and to save
during the war in order that they
might get money with which to buy
the supplies needed for the cultivation
of new crops.
Pretty nearly all this cotton came to
Cairo, either for sale to eager buyers
there or for shipment to the east and
a market.
In return the planters and the south
ern merchants through whom they did
business were clamorOus for such
goods as they needed. Grain, hay,
pork, bacon, agricultural implements,
seed potatoes, lime, plaster, lumber
and everything else necessary to the
rebuilding of southern homes and in
dustres was pouring into Cairo and
out again by train loads and steam
boat cargoes night and day.
AS Guilford Duncan emerged from
the alleyway between the cotton bales
and reached the street at top of the
levee a still burning fragment of the
fireworks fell upon a bale of which the
bagging was badly torn, exposing the
lint cotton in a way very tempting to
fire With the instinct of the soldier
he instantly climbed to the top Of the
pile, tore away the burning punches of
lint cotton and threw them to the
ground, thus preventing further harm.
AS he climbed down again a man
confronted him.
Are you a watchman?" asked the
man.
mo; I'm only a man in search of
work"
"Why did you do that, then?" queried
the stranger, pointing to the still burn
ing cotton scattered on the ground.
ION general principles, | suppose, "
answered Duncan. There would have
been terrible fire If hadn't"
whats your nameT
"Guilford Duncan"
"Want workT'
eyes"
"What sortY
"Any sort-for good wages" That
last phrase was the result of his stoker
experience.
"Well, do you want to watch this
cotton tonight and see that no harm
comes to it, either from fire or-what's
worse-the cotton thieves that go down
the alleys, pulling out all the lint they
can from the torn balesY'
Eyes, if can have fair wages"
evil SO for the night be fair
wages?"
"Yes-ample. How far does your
freight extend up and down the leveeT
'It's pretty nearly all mine, but
have other watchmen on other parts
OF It, This is a new cargo. Your beat
will extend"- And he gave the young
man his boundaries.
you'll be off duty at sunrise. Come
to me at o'clock for your pay. I'm
Captain Will Ha1lam. Anybody In
Cairo will tell you where my Office Is