AND DIGNITY OF PILOTING. 139
but play gentleman up town, and receive the same wages for it as if
they had been on duty. The moment the boat touched the wharf at
either city, they were ashore; and they were not likely to be seen
again till the last bell was ringing and everything in readiness for
another voyage.
When a captain got hold of a pilot of particularly high reputation,
he took pains to keep him. When wages were four hundred dollars
a month on the Upper Mississippi, I have known a captain to keep
such a pilot in idleness, under full pay, three months at a time, while
the liver was frozen up. And one must remember that in those
cheap times four hundred dollars was a salary of almost inconceivable
splendour. Few men on shore got such pay as that, and when they
did they were mightily looked up to. When pilots from either end
of the river wandered into our small Missouri village, they were
sought by the best and the fairest, and treated with exalted respect.
Lying in port under wages was a thing which many pilots greatly
enjoyed and appreciated; especially if they belonged in the Missouri
River in the heyday of that trade (Kansas times), and got nine
hundred dollars a trip, which was equivalent to about eighteen
hundred dollars a month. Here is a conversation of that day. A
chap out of the Illinois River, with a little stern-wheel tub, accosts
a couple of ornate and gilded Missouri River pilots—
* Gentlemen, IVe got a pretty good trip for the up-country, and
shall want you about a month. How much will it be ?'
* Eighteen hundred dollars apiece.'
* Heavens and earth 1 You take my boat, let me have your
wages, and 111 divide !f
I will remark, in passing, that Mississippi steamboatmen were
important in landsmen's eyes (and in their own, too, in a degree)
according to the dignity of the boat they were on. For instance, it
was a proud thing to be of the crew of such stately craft as the
«Aleck Scott ' or the * Grand Turk/ Negro firemen, deck hands,
and barbers belonging to those boats were distinguished personages
in their grade of life, and they were well aware of that fact too. A
stalwart darkey once gave offence at a negro ball in ITew Orleans by
putting on a good many airs. Finally one of the managers bustled
up to hrm and said—