The Wisconsin tobacco reporter. (Edgerton, Wis.) 1877-1950, 1914-02-13
A Flatboatman S
Honor
By THOMAS r. DUNN

northern cities and New Orleans was
by f1atboat on the Mississippi river.
The fiatbOat was a lumber yard loose
Iy put together and derived its name
instead of being the usual shape of 4
boat. These boats were supposed tie
drift with the current of the big riy-
er. though their momentum was oc-
casionally added to by enormous
sweeps worked by men on the roof or
deck and were always steered by
sweep. On reaching New Orleans
they were broken up and sold for the
lumber there was in them.
The fiatbOatman was crude being
not unlike the plainsman of some for
ty or fifty years later. A crude code
of honor existed in both. There were
a great many things that they would
not scruple to do that we in more
civilized community would consider
very wrong, but when their sense of
honor was at stake they would fight
hard to do what they felt was right.
Roger Dixon was a f1atboatman i'll
the early thirties. The boat he was
on having tied up in a creek on the
Louisiana shore, he went up on to the
bank. where he found a gambling den,
and there he proceeded to lose all the
money he had, but, being convinced
that he had been cheated, used long
knife he carried hung between his
shoulder blades on the manipulation or
the gambling outfit, leaving consid-
cradle wound. Dixon was arrested
and put in jail The datboat went on
south with the current, leaving him
devoid of funds and without even his
liberty.
The arrest and Imprisonment of the
culprit occurred just as the court was
adiourning for the season and would
not be held again for several months.
Dixon. having no money, was unable
to get bail, which was allowed III MS
case since the wound he had inflicted
was not mortal. He therefore had the
prospect of languishing in jail during
a hot summer. with the further pros
pect of being sent to state prison for
felOniOus assault for two or three
years longer when the court came to-
gether.
The prisoner, being remanded to jail
in default of bail, stood before the
Judge melancholy sight. He was
about to be led away when a planter
dressed in the costume of the time
tight trousers strapped over his boots,
coat with a fiaring skirt, a ruffied
shirt and a bell crowned beaver hat
said to the court:
"Yo' hohnah, what's the amount of
the bail in this case?'
Five thousand dollars, colonel"
III go it f0' this man, sub"
''Yo bettah not, sub. You'll lose yo
money
The colonel asked the prisoner if he
would come back certain sho' if lie
furnished the ball. and, though the re-
ply was simply Reckon" Colonel
Armstrong was convinced, the bond
was executed and Dixon went free.
The trial was fixed for the 4th of No
vember four months later.
Dixon was TennesSeean, whose
donficile. where lived his wife and
children. was on the banks of the Ten
nessee river, near the site of the pres
ent city of Chattanooga. There was
no means of getting there by the way
he had come, for boats in those days
never went upstream, so Dixon cut
across country OH foot. AS he left the
place of his misfortune one of knot
of men who stood looking after him
said, There goes your $4,000. colonel"
When the 1st of November came
round Colonel Armstrong had not
heard word from the man he had
befriended The kind hearted colonel
was an object of sympathy on the part
of the inhabitants of the locality, for
no one expected that a man was COM
ing away from Tennessee for the pur
pose of being sent to state prison
when he could get off by staying at
home The second and third days Of
the month passed. and on the morning
of the fourth the court came together
for the purpose of trying Dixon. but
there was no Dixon present. Out OF
sympathy for Colonel Armstrong the
Judge delayed matters as long as pos
Sible
Suddenly there was a sound of heavy
boots on the courthouse steps, and the
culprit rushed wildly into court and
said
"Reckon 1 amt too late. judge, am T.
The bail furnisher embraced the newt
conner while those present cheered.
Then Dixon was asked to tell how
he had come. He had made his way
down the Tennessee river in Il dugout
TO its mouth. where he expected to he
picked up by a f1atboat on which he
might work his way down the Mis-
sissippi river Having waited several
days in vain for one, he continued on
in his dugout. over the rest of the way
from Cairo, distance of many huC-