Five Mile Beach weekly journal., 1907-01-30
THE PILOTS
.....~TORy
loriginal.l

Il was in the late onpleasantness,"
said the Mississippi pilot, "and it's my
opinion that all this thing called hero.
Ism depends on circumstances When
brave mans cornered he amt any
better N a coward. I've butted up
ag'in fortyfications, and I've legged. il
to get out O. the way o. shot and she'll"
The boat was moving swiftly down
with the stream, and the pilot was now
pulling the wheel with all his strength,
then letting it fly around like a Fourth
OF July pinwheel
But | don't have to draw on myself
for an argument. was a stars and
bars boy myself. I'll take one o. your
fellers, as brave man as ever fought
under the stars and stripes. Dye see
that bank over thar? | remember
day when there was a good deal doin'
on that bank. 1t was about fou' years
after the close of the war. and the car
petbag business was humpin'. The
gineral idee of a carpetbagger, both
north and south, was low down cuss
without any decency whatever. Some
of 'em was. But Major Machinery was
a different sort. He had risen from the
ranks in the Union army, and when the
war was over, bein' only twenty seven
years old, he concluded to settle in the
south and grow up with the country
after its new birth. There was a dot of
nothen officers TUX that fever, and
reckon they all come to grief.
"The major bought plantation over
thar. He didn't pay much fo' 1t, fo' it
wasn't wo'th much. His neighbors
tried to drive him out in var'us ways,
but he was good pluck and refused to
be driv. One day when | was pilot o.
the Talladega we come fioatin down
yere just as we're doin' now. and.
roundin to, putin her nose upstream.
we tied up at a WHAT boat over thar
TO deliver the mail | wanted to git
some tobaccer, so | tole the cap'n I'd
take the mail bag up. He tole me to go
ahead. and. rollin' it under my arm
TO thar wasn't much in It'll struck
out. | found Il big crowd on the bluff,
and they follered me to the postoffice.
l handed in the mail bag and Just then
In walked Major Machinery. There was
one letter in the bag, and that had the
majors name on it. The postmaster
handed it out to him.
THAT made the crowd mad. One
man said that yo' couldn't expect moth
In better from Yankee gov'ment than
TO deliver only letters fo' Yankees. The
major, who had seen all the fightin' he
wanted in the late war, TUX his letter
and went out, or ruther he was goin,
out when one of the crowd put out his
foot and trlpped him. The major
stumbled. but didn't say nothin'. He
knewed 1t was Intentional, bat If he
said anything there he'd have to fight
for his life. There was a man he hGd
olrilfs pI;su,ation in tlis'%'s'. I'D Mgu
or three southn Unionfsts that had set
tied thar to be under the majors wing
When the man that had tripped the
major saw it didn't move him to give
'em chance to kill him he roared out.
"'Yo' Yankee carpetbagger, what d.
yo' mean by carryin' off the mail with
yo'? We don't want no hogs down
yerev
"The major whipped out revolver
and stuck 1t under the mans nose so
quick that the feller fell back, and the
major went out. He hadn't been gone
more'n few minutes when they jam
med the man that woked on his planta-
tion agin the wall, and he hit one of
'em on the head. The Union men tried
to get at him to get him out O. their
way, and pretty soon it was stand off
between the two factions. | got out
o. the way O. the fyin' bullets. As l
was maxim off heavy man that had
been shot fell on me and knocked me
down. 1t occurred to me that it would
be well fo' me to lay whar | fell
leastaways there's no use to kill
dead man, an | concluded I'd be dead
fo' awhile, till the shootin' was over.
II didn't see nothin' more-I didn't
want to-but the major, hearin the
fracas, went back, and he and his little
gang KEEP the fire eaters at bay fo'
some time. Then most of the majors
hackers was killed. AS | was tellinT
yo', l didn't see nothin that was goin'
on till there was nothin' but a few
stray shots left near me; then got up
and made tracks fo' the boat.
Everybody on board had left the
WHAT boat and some of 'em had lock-
ed themselves in staterooms. The
deck hands had all tumbled into the
hold, and the cap'n had hid in the pilot
house l run aboard and, seein' no
one, run out to the WHAT boat ag'in
and unloosed the cables. We drifted
off, and, yankin' the engineer out of
his hidin place behind the engine, /
tole him to be ready for signals as soon
as l got to the pilot house. In half a
minute l was at the wheel. Her stern
was just touchin' the shore when l
rung to go ahead, and we steamed out
into deep water.
Putin her nose downstream,
looked back at the scene of the fight