The Birmingham age-herald., 1909-04-24
Edgar White in the Kansas City Star.

Edgar White in the Kansas City Star.
 ONE of the northern line steam NN boat companies operating on the N Mississippi river are going to substitute Italians and Greeks for their negro roustabouts, this season. The Morn- ing Journal of Hannibal Mo, gives as a reason that "the rousters of color are not to be had at reasonable wages. Most of them. at best, are shiftless and willing to work only when they feel like it. There are plenty of them. goodness knows, but they won't enter the service unless paid an exorbitant wage"
 With the passing of the negro rousta- bout or deck hand will go a picturesque feature of the old days of river naviga- tion The first was the long feathered stacks of the big liners, which were suc- ceeded by squat affairs resembling stove pipe that would go under the bridges. Then came the lighthouses at bad cross ings, the elimination of jutting snags and the electric searchlight. With the advent of these safeguards to navigation the glory of the kidgloved, lynx-eyed steers man vanished, and he became common river man.
 Anybody can steer boat when he has the marks to go by and a headlight shoot ing a mile down the river," said an old pilot, 'disconsolately. ''It's like driving nag along a hedge lane. Time was when a pilot had to know the river himself, and he got paid for knowing it.
 The aids to navigation have made the nil which is against the traditions of the river.
 Then, too the iconoclasts have dumped the broad hated, oily gambler into the river for the catfish, and placed such small limit on the lawful ante that 1t was more fun to play checkers and domi- noes. To follow these distressing things by the punishment of the negro roustabout and his soulful song is almost enough to turn "The Father of Waters" into a cem- etery You can't write river stories or make songs about people whose lingo you don't understand. The man who never made a trip down the Mississippi river in the old steamboat days lost page of life that would have contributed to his love of country. Close ly woven with the poetry of the voyage
 was the brawny negro deckhand, and right behind him the masterful mate, with his hair trigger profanity dynamo. The big Anchor line steamers for | Grand Tower, Cairo, Memphis and Vicks- burg were scheduled to leave the St. Louis wharf at D. m, but they rarely got under way before g or 10. The rule seemed to be to hold the boat as long as there were offerings of freight. and 1t looked like the shipping clerks in the | big wholesale houses on Second and Main streets didn't begin to get busy until late | In the afternoon. Then wide, two-
 wheeled drays and trucks would chatter | down the long rock levee like an army of invasion. It was lively sight Officers would dart heltereskelter, directing team sters where to go, and saying things anent their tardiness; the teamsters would swear at their mules, and the mates would | cuss the roustabouts. Everybody seemed | to have a safe target for his wrath, and nobody took offense.
 Long after supper the last dray of freight would roar across the wharf
 
 seize the stuff almost before the team stopped, the mud valves would growl out | great clouds of steam forward Of the
 paddle wheels and some one aloft-gen-
 erally the captain-would pull the great bell for the third time. That was the
 signal to cast off the hawsers and run in
 the gangplank. Then the big craft,
 loaded nearly to the waters edge. amid
 ship. would slowly drift out into the river,
 stern foremost When the line of boats
 was cleared, seeming haphazard concert 1 of small bells and baby whistles below | was responded to by long, fierce exhausts, shouting geyser-like from the steam pipes | just forward of the wheelhouses The | din of the bells and whistles, which mo- body on earth but the engineers could
 have ,deciphered, was kept up until the boat slowly turned around and headed south. The voyage had begun. Then the ! regro roustabouts. scattere4 around cn