• Choose a category
• All
• Classic-Fiction

By Root 611 0

stations in the invisible world. Only Mudjikewis’s place was, however, named. He was to direct the west wind, hence generally called Kebeyun, there to remain forever. They were commanded, as they had it in their power, to do good to the inhabitants of the earth, and, forgetting their sufferings in procuring the wampum, to give all things with a liberal hand. And they were also commanded that it should also be held by them sacred; those grains or shells of the pale hue to be emblematic of peace, while those of the darker hue would lead to evil and war.

The spirits then, amid songs and shouts, took their flight to their respective abodes on high; while Iamo, with his sister Iamoqua, descended into the depths below.

1

See page 240.

2

Hannibal, Missouri.

3

“Deck” passage—i.e., steerage passage.

4

It may not be necessary, but still it can do no harm to explain that “inside” means between the snag and the shore.—M. T.

5

Two fathoms. Quarter twain is 2¼ fathoms, 13½ feet. Mark three is three fathoms.

6

“Partner” is technical for “the other pilot.”

7

“Teach” is not in the river vocabulary.

8

True at the time referred to; not true now (1882).

9

The term “larboard” is never used at sea, now, to signify the left hand; but was always used on the river in my time.

10

Door.

11

Considering a captain’s ostentatious but hollow chieftainship, and a pilot’s real authority, there was something impudently apt and happy about that way of phrasing it.

12

Time disputed. Some authorities add 1 hour and 16 minutes to this.

13

Capt. Marryat, writing forty-five years ago, says: “St. Louis has 20,000 inhabitants. The river abreast of the town is crowded with steamboats, lying in two or three tiers.”

14

For a detailed and interesting description of the great flood, written onboard of the New Orleans Times-Democrat’s relief boat, see Appendix A.

15

There was a foolish superstition of some little prevalence in that day, that the Mississippi would neither buoy up a swimmer, nor permit a drowned person’s body to rise to the surface.

16

See Appendix B.

17

“But what can the State do where the people are under subjection to rates of interest ranging from 18 to 30 per cent, and are also under the necessity of purchasing their crops in advance even of planting, at these rates, for the privilege of purchasing all their supplies at 100 percent profit?”—Edward Atkinson.

18

New Orleans Times-Democrat, Aug. 26, 1882.

19

Illustrations of it thoughtlessly omitted by the advertiser:

KNOXVILLE, Tenn., October 19.—This morning a few minutes after ten o’clock, General Joseph A. Mabry, Thomas O’Connor, and Joseph A. Mabry, Jr., were killed in a shooting affray. The difficulty began yesterday afternoon by General Mabry attacking Major O’Connor and threatening to kill him. This was at the fair grounds, and O’Connor told Mabry that it was not the place to settle their difficulties. Mabry then told O’Connor he should not live. It seems that Mabry was armed and O’Connor was not. The cause of the difficulty was an old feud about the transfer of some property from Mabry to O’Connor. Later in the afternoon Mabry sent word to O’Connor that he would kill him on sight. This morning Major O’Connor was standing in the door of the Mechanics’ National Bank, of which he was president. General Mabry and another gentleman walked down Gay Street on the opposite side from the bank. O’Connor stepped into the bank, got a shot gun, took deliberate aim at General Mabry and fired. Mabry fell dead, being shot in the left side. As he fell O’Connor fired again, the shot taking effect in Mabry’s thigh. O’Connor then reached into the bank and got another shot gun. About this time Joseph A. Mabry, Jr., son of General Mabry, came rushing down the street, unseen by O’Connor until within forty feet, when the young man fired a pistol, the shot taking effect in O’Connor’s right breast, passing through the body near the heart. The instant Mabry shot, O’Connor turned and fired, the load taking effect in young Mabry’s right breast and side. Mabry fell pierced with twenty