Year: 1875

During this big rise these small fry
! were running chute after chute-a new
| world To me-and If there was partic-
ularIy cramped place in chnte, we
would be pretty sure to meet Il broad
horn there; and if lie failed to be there,
We would find him in a still worse local
| ity. namely, the head Of the chute, on
tI,. ShoaI water And then there would
be- no end Of profaue corGii,liiies ex-
! changed.


Sometimes in the big river, when We
would be feeling cur way cautiously
along through fog, the deep hush
would suddenly be broken by yells and
Il clamor OF tin pans, and all in an in
staEt a log raft would appear vaguely
through the weedy veil, close upon us;
and then we did not wait to swap knives
but siIatchrd our engine bell out by the
roots and piled on AL the steam we had,
to scramble out of the way. One does
not hit a rock or solid log raft with n
steamboat when he can get excused.


You will hardly believe it, but many
steamboat clerks always carried a large
assortment OF religious tracts with them
in those old departed steambOating days
Indeed they did. Twenty times a day
we would be cramping up around a bar,
while string of those small fry riIscaIS
were drifting down into the head of the
bend away above and beyond us couple
Of miles. Now n skiiT would start away
from one of them and come fighting its
laborious way across the desert of water.
1t would lease all' in the shadow o. our
forec;ss.tIe, and the painting oarsman
would shout, "Gimme pa-a per-" as
the skifT drifted swiftly astern. The
clerk would throw over Il file of New
Orleans journals. If these were picked
up without comment, you might notice
that now Il dozen other skifTs had been
drifting down upon us without saying
anything. You understand they had
been waiting to see how Number One
was going to fare. No. l making no
comments, all the rest would bend to
their oars and come on now; and as fast
as they came the clerk would hrave over
neat bundles of religious tracts tied to
shingIes. The amount of hard swear
ing which twelve packages of religious
literature will command. when impair
TALLY divided up among twelve RATS
mems crews, who have pulled heavy
skilT two miles on a hot day to get them,
is simply Incredible.


As l have said, the big rise brought
new world under my vision. BY the
time the river was over its banks we had
forsaken our paths and We're hourly
climbing over bars that stood ten feet
out of water before; we were shaving
stumpy shores, like that at the foot of
Madrid Bend, which / had always seen
avoided before; we weTa gathering
through chutes, like that Of 81, where
the opening at the foot was an unbroken
wall of timber till our nose was almost





at the very spot. Some of these chutes
were utter solitude. The dense, un-
touched forest overhung both banks of
the crooked little creek, and one could
believe that human creatures had never
imtruded there before, The swinging
grape vines, the grassy nooks glimpsed as
we swept by, the towering creepers wav
ing their red blossoms from the tops Of
dead trunks, and all the spendthrift rich
ness of the forest foliage, were wasted
and thrown away there. The chutes
were lovely places to steer IN; they were
deep, except the head; the current was
gentle; under the points" the water was
absolutely dead, and the invisible banks
so bluff that where the tender willow
thickets projected you could bury your
boats brOadside in them as you tore
along, and then you seemed fairly TO fly.


Behind either Island we found wretch
ed little farms, and wretchcd little log
cabins; there were crazy rail fences stick
ing n foot or two above the water, with
one or two jeans-clad, ehills- racked, yel-
low faced male miserabIes ro0sting on the
top rail, elbows on knees, jaws i'll bands,
grinding tobacco and discharging the re-
suits at floating chips through the crew.
ces left by lost milk teeth; while the rest
OF the family and the few farm animals
were huddled together in AN empty
wood flat riding at her moorings close at
hand. In this flatboat the family would
have to cook and eat and sleep for a less
er or greater number of days Tor possibly
weeks, until the river should fall two or
three feet and let them get back to their
log cabin and their chills again-clills
being n merciful provision Of an allwise
| Providence to enable them to take
exercise without exertion. And this sort
| of watery camping out was a thing which
| these people We're rather liable to be
treated to couple of times Il year, by
the December rise out of the Ohio, and
the June rise out of the Mississippi
And yet these were kindly dispensations,
for they at least enabled the poor things
| to rise from the dead now and then. and
look upon life when a steamboat went
10y. They appreciated the blessing, too,
for they spread their mouths and eyes
wide opeu, and made the most of these
! occasions. Now what could these ban
! ished creatures find to do to keep from
dying of the blues dnring the low water
season2


Once. in one of these lovely island
chutes, we found our course completely
bridged by a great fallen tree. This will
serve to show how narrow some of the
ehutes were. The passengers had an
hours recreation in a virgin wilderness,
while the boat hands chopped the bridge
away; for there was no such thing a.
turning back, you comprehend.


From Cairo to Baton Rouge, when the
river is over its banks, you have no par,
ticular trouble in the night, for the
thousand-mile wall of dense forest that
| SudTus Tue lNO oi1hS OIL 'AiC ""S - Oi4'-
capped with farm or woodward open
ing at intervals, and so you can't get out
of the river much easier than you could
get out of a fenced lane; but from Ba
ton Rouge to New Orleans it is a differ
ent matter The river is more than q
mile wide and very deep-as much a:
two hundred feet, in places. Both bank.
for n good deal over q hundred miles