2iO LIFE ON THE MISSISSIPPI.
along with all the officers of the line—and then he will be a totally
different style of scenery from what he is now.
Uniforms on the Mississippi! It beats all the other changes put
together, for surprise. Still, there is another surprise—that it was
not made fifty years ago. It is so manifestly sensible, that it might
have been thought of earlier, one would suppose. During fifty years,
out there, the innocent passenger in need of help and information,
has been mistaking the mate for the cook, and the captain for the
barber—and being roughly entertained for it, too. But his troubles
are ended now. And the greatly improved aspect of the boat's staff
is another advantage achieved by the dress-reform period.
Steered down the bend below Gape Girardeau. They used to call
it * Steersman's Bend;f plain sailing and plenty of water in it, always;
about the only place in the Upper River that a new cub was allowed
to take a boat through, in low water.
Thebes, at the head of the Grand Chain, and Commerce at the
foot of it, were towns easily rememberable, as they had not undergone
conspicuous alteration. Nor the Chain, either—in the nature of
things; for it is a chain of sunken rocks admirably arranged to
capture and kill steamboats on bad nights. A good many steamboat
corpses lie buried there, out of sight; among the rest my first friend
the *Paul Jones;' she knocked her bottom out, and went down
like a pot, so the historian told me—Uncle Mumford. He said
she had a grey mare aboard, and a preacher. To me, this sufficiently
accounted for the disaster; as it did, of course, to Mumford, who
added—
6 But there are many ignorant people who would scoff at such a
matter, and call it superstition. But you will always notice that
they are people who have never travelled with, a grey mare and a
preacher. I weaat down the river once in such company, We
grounded at Bloody Island; we grounded at Hanging Dog; we
grounded jtisfc below this same Commerce; we jolted Beaver Dam
Bock; we hit one of tbe worst breaks in the * Graveyard' behind
Goose Island; we had a roustabout killed in a fight; we burnt a
boiler; broke a shaft; collapsed a fiue; and went into Cairo with
niae feet of water in the hold—may have been more, may have been
I remember it as if it were yesterday. The men lost their