412 LIFE Off THE MISSISSIPPI.
And that is all that the editor of the * Times-Democrat* would have
got out of it, There was nothing in the thing but statistics, and ha
would have got nothing else out of it. He would probably have
even tabulated them, partly to secure perfect clearness of statement,
and partly to save space. But Ms special correspondent knows other
methods of Tia.-nd.1ing statistics. He just throws off all restraint and
wallows in them—
* On Saturday, early in the morning, the beauty of the place graced QET
cabin, and proud of her fair freight the gallant little boat glided up the
bayou.7
Twenty-two words to say the ladies came aboard and the boat
shoved out up the creek, is a dean waste of ten good words, and is
also destructive of compactness of statement.
The trouble with, the Southern reporter is—Women. They
unsettle Mm; they throw him off his balance. He is plain, and
sensible, and satisfactory, until a woman heaves in sight. Then he
goes all to pieces; his mind totters, he becomes flowery and idiotic.
From reading the above extract, you would imagine that this student
of Sir Walter Scott is an apprentice, and knows next to nothing about
handling a pen. On the contrary, he furnishes plenty of proofs, in
his long letter, that he knows well enough how to handle it when the
women are not around to give him the artificial-flower complaint.
For instance—
* At 4 o'clock ominous clouds began to gather in the south-east, and pre-
sently from the Gulf there came a blow which increased in severity every
moment. It was not safe to leave the landing then, and there was a delay.
The oaks shook off long tresses of their mossy beards to the tugging of the
wind, and the bayoa in its ambition put on miniature waves in mocking of
much larger bodies of water. A lull permitted a start, and homewards we
steamed, an inky sky overhead and a heavy wind blowing. As darkness
crept on, there were few on board who did not wish themselves nearer home.*
There is nothing the matter with that. It is good description,
compactly put. Yet there was great temptation, there, to drop into
lurid writing.
But let us return to the mule. Since I lefb him, I have rum-
maged around and found a full report of the race. In it I find con-