University Missourian. [volume] (Columbia, Mo.) 1908-1916, 1910-09-20
THE p,LoT-WAs KING
HE Reign In Old MissIeslppl River
Days Are Told by Mark Twain.

His Reign In Old MlssIeelppl hiysr
Days Are Told by Mark Twain.
In my preceding shapeersFI have
tried by going intosths miSutae Of the
science Of plotting. to carry the reader
step by step to . comprehs nsion of
what the science consists of; and Eat
ths same time 7I=hase trtess 70 show
him that It is very curious and won
derful science, too, and very worthy
Of his attention. II have seemed to
love my subject it is no surprising
thing, for loved the profession 1ar
better than any have followed since.
and I tooksa msasurslsssspfide In Il;
The reason is plain; pilot In those
days. was the only unfettered and en-
tirely Independent uman9being that
lived On the EARTH Kings are but the
hampered servants q parliament and
the people; parliaments sit In chains
forged by their constituency; the ed
itor Of a newspaper cannot be indie
pendent, but must work with one
hand tied behind him by party and
patrons, and be content to utter only
one-hah or twothirds OF his mind; no
clergyman is a free man and may
speak the whole truth, regardless OF
his parish's opinions; writer's Of all
kinds are manacled servants of the
public. We write frankly and fear
lessly, but then we modify" before
we print. In truth, every man and
woman and child has a master. and
worries and frets in servitude: but, in
the days / write Of, the Mississippi
| pilot had none.
The captain could stand upon the
hurricane deck, In the pomp Of very
brief authority, and give him five or six
orders while the vessel backed into the
stream, and then the shippers reign
was over. The moment that the boat
was under way in the river she was un-
der the sole and unquestioned control
of the pilot. He could do with her ex.
actly as he pleased, run her when and
whittier he chose and tie her up at the
bank whenever his judgment said that
that course was the best.
| His movements were entirely free;
he consulted no one; he received COM
mands from nobody; he promptly re-
scented even the merest suggestions. In
deed, the laws Of the United States for
babe him to listen to commands or
suggestions. rightly considering that
the pilot necessarily knew better how
to handle the boat than anybody could
tell him. So here was the novelty Of
a king without keeper. an absolute
monarch who was absolute in sober
truth and not by a fiction of words.
l have seen boy of 10 taking a
great steamer serenely into what SEEM
ed almost certain destruction, and the
LACED captain standing mutely by, filed
with apprehension but powerles to in
terfere. His interference IN that par.
ticular instance might have been an
excellent thing, but to permit it would
be to establish a most pernicious pre-
cedent.
1t will easily be guessed, considering
the pilots boundless authority, that
he was great parsonage in the old
steam boating days. He was treated
with marked courtesy by the captain
and with marked Difference by all the
officers and servants, and this defer.
entail spirit was quickly communicated
to the passengers, too. l think pilots
were about the only people ever
knew who failed to show, in some de-
gree, embarrassment in the presence
Of travelling foreign princes. But then
people in ones own grade of life are
not usually embarrassing objects
from Life on the Mississippi by Mark
Twain.