148 LIFE ON THE MISSISSIPPI.
Very well, this growing swarm of new pilots presently brgan to
undermine the wages, in order to get berths. Too late—apparently
—the knights of the tiller perceived their mistake. Plainly, something
had to be done, and quickly; but what was to be the needful thing 1
A close organisation. Nothing else would answer. To compass this
seemed an impossibility 5 so it was talked, and talked, and then
dropped- It was too likely to ruin whoever ventured to move in the
matter. But at last about a dozen of the boldest—and some of them
the best—pilots on the river launched themselves into the enterprise
and took all the chances. They got a special charter from the legis-
lature, with large powers, under the name of the Pilots' Benevolent
Association; elected their officers, completed their organisation, con-
tributed capital, put ' association' wages up to two hundred and fifty
dollars at once—and then retired to their homes, for they were
promptly discharged from employment. But there wex'e two or three
unnoticed trifles in their by-laws which had the seeds of propagation
in them. J?or instance, all idle members of the association, in good
standing, were entitled to a pension of twenty-five dollars per month.
This began to bring in one straggler after another from the ranks of
the new-fledged pilots, in the dull (summer) season. Better have
twenty-five dollars than starve j the initiation fee was only twelve
dollars, and no dues required from the unemployed.
Also, the widows of deceased members in good standing could
draw twenty-five dollars per month, and a certain sum for each of
their children. Also, the said deceased would be buried at the asso-
ciation's expense. These things resurrected all the superannuated and
forgotten pilots in the Mississippi Valley. They came from farms,
they came from interior villages, they came from everywhere. They
came on crutches, on drays, in ambulances,—any way, so they got
there. They paid in their twelve dollars, and straightway began to
draw out twenty-five dollars a month, and calculate their burial bills.
By and by, all the useless, helpless pilots, and a dozen first-class
ones, were in the association, and nine-tenths of the best pilots out of
it and laughing at it. It was the laughing-stock of the whole river.
Everybody joked about the by-law requiring members to pay ten per
cent, of their wages, every month, into the treasury for the support of
the association, whereas all the members were outcast and tabooed.