270 ZJTJRtf ON TH£ MISSISSIPPI.
I mean. 3Tor you will have come to know, with a deep and restful cer-
tainty, that you are not going to meet two people sick of the same
theory, one right after the other. !No, there will always he one or
two with the other diseases along between. And as you proceed, yon
will JEind out one or two other things. You will find out that there is
no distemper of the lot but is contagious; and you cannot go where
it is without catching it. You may vaccinate yourself with deterrent
facts as much as you please—it will do no good; it will seem to
* take/ but it doesn't; the moment you rub against any one of those
theorists, make up your mind that it is time to hang out your yellow
flag.
Yes, you are his sure victim: yet his work is not all to your hurt
—only part of it; for he is like your family physician, who comes
and cures the mumps, and leaves the scarlet-fever behind. If your
man is a Lake-Borgne-rellef theorist, for instance, he will exhale
a cloud of deadly facts and statistics which will lay you out with
that disease, sure; but at the same time he will cure you of any
other of the five theories that may have previously got into your
system.
I have had all the five; and had them 'bad ;' but ask me not,
in mournful numbers, which one racked me hardest, or which one
numbered the biggest sick list, for I do not know. In truth, no
one can answer the latter question. Mississippi Improvement is a
mighty topic, down yonder. Every man on the river banks, south
of Cairo, talks about it every day, during such moments as he is
able to spare from talking about the war ; and each of the several
chief theories has its host of zealous partisans; but, as I have
said, it Is not possible to determine which cause numbers the most
recrtxxts.
All were agreed upon one point, however: if Congress would
a sufficient appropriation, a colossal benefit would result. Very
; since then the appropriation has been made—possibly a suffi-
OM, certainly not too large a one. Let us hope that the pro-
pfeeey Trill be amply fulfilled.
One thing will be easily granted by the reader; that an opinion
Mr. Edward Atkinson, upon any vast national commercial
r, comes as near ranking as authority, as can the opinion of any