438

LIFM ON THE MISSISSIPPI.

remained at the wheel until he got her safe to land. Then he went
out over the breast-board with his clothing in flames, and was the
last person to get ashore. He died from his injuries in the course of
two or three hours, and his was the only life lost.

The history of Mississippi piloting affords six or seven instances of
this sort of martyrdom, and half a hundred instances of escapes from

a like fate which came
within a second or two of
being fatally too late; but
there is no instance of a
pilot deserting his post to
save his life while by re-
maining and sacrificing it
he might secure oilier lives
from destruction. It is
well worth while to set
down this noble fact, and
well worth while to put
it in italics, too.

The £ cub' pilot is early
admonished to despise all
perils connected with a
pilot's calling, and to pre-
fer any sort of death to
the deep dishonour of
deserting his post while
there is any possibility of
his being useful in it.
And so effectively are
these admonitions incul-
cated, that even young

and but half-tried pilots can be depended upon to stick to the wheel,
and die there when occasion requires. In a Memphis graveyard
is buried a young fellow who perished at the wheel a great many
years ago, in "White Biver, to save the lives of other men. He
said to the captain that if the fire would give him time to reach
a sand bar, some distance away, all could be saved, but that to

OVBB THE BBEAST-
BOABD.