ON THE UPPER
rocks, which are exquisitely rich and mellow in colour—mainly dark
browns and dull greens, but splashed with other tints. And then
you have the shining river, winding here and there and yonder, its
sweep interrupted at intervals by clusters of wooded islands threaded
by silver channels; and you have glimpses of distant villages, asleep
upon capes; and of stealthy rafts slipping along in the shade of the
forest walls; and of white steamers vanishing around remote
points. And it is all as tranquil and reposeful as dreamland, and has
nothing this-worldly about it—nothing to hang a fret or a worry
upon.
Until the unholy train comes tearing along—which it presently
does, ripping the sacred solitude to rags and tatters with its deviTs
warwhoop and the roar and thunder of its rushing wheels—and
straightway you are back in this world, and with one of its frets
ready to hand for your entertainment: for you remember that this IB
the very road whose stock always goes down after you buy it, and
always goes up again as soon as you sell it. It makes me shudder to
this day, to remember that I once came near not getting rid of mv
stock at all. It must be an awful thing to have a railroad left on
your hands.
The locomotive is in sight from the deck of the steamboat almost
the whole way fi^m St. Louis to St. Paul—eight hundred miles.
These railroads have made havoc with the steamboat commerce. The
clerk of our boat was a steamboat clerk before these roads were built.
In that day the influx of population was so great, and the freight
business so heavy, that the boats were not able to keep up with the
demands made upon their carrying capacity; consequently the captains
were very independent and airy—pretty * biggity/ as Uncle Remus
would say. The clerk nut-shelled the contrast between the fonder
time and the present, thus—
* Boat used to land—captain on hurricane itiof—mighty staff and
straight—iron ramrod for a spine—kid gloves, plug tile, hair parted
behind—man on shore takes off hat and says—
* " Got twenty-eight tons of wheat, cap'n—be great favour if jw
can take them."
* Captain says—
* ** Tl take two of them "—and don't even condescend to look as fern*