BOAT LIFE AFLOAT AND AGROUND.
The day after the race our trio exhausted all usual resources of boat
life. We lounged in the saloon and saw the young ladies manage their
beaux and the old ones their children; dropped into the card-rooms and
watched the innocent games--some heavy ones of "draw poker" with a
"bale better;" some light ones of "all fours," with only an occasional
old sinner deep in chess, or solitaire. For cards, conversation,
tobacco, yarns and the bar make up boat life; it being rare, indeed,
that the _ennui_ is attacked from the barricade of a book. Then we
roamed below and saw the negroes--our demons of the night before, much
modified by sunlight--tend the fires and load cotton. A splendidly
developed race are those Africans of the river boats, with shiny, black
skins, through which the corded and tense muscles seem to be bursting,
even in repose. Their only dress, as a general thing, is a pair of
loose pantaloons, to which the more elegant add a fancy colored
bandanna knotted about the head, with its wing-like ends flying in the
wind; but shirts are a rarity in working hours and their absence shows
a breadth of shoulder and depth of chest remarkable, when contrasted
with the length and lank power in the nether limbs. They are a
perfectly careless and jovial race, with wants confined to the only
luxuries they know--plenty to eat, a short pipe and a plug of
"nigger-head," with occasional drinks, of any kind and quantity that
fall to their lot. Given these, they are as contented as princes; and
their great eyes roll like white saucers and their splendid teeth flash
in constant merriment.
As we got further down the river, the flats became less frequent and
high, steep bluffs took their place; and at every landing along these
we laid-by for cotton and took in considerable quantities of "the
king."
Some of the bluffs were from sixty to eighty feet in height; and down
these, the cotton came on slides. These, in most cases, were at an
angle of forty-five degrees, or less; strongly constructed of heavy
beams, cross-tied together and firmly pegged into the hard bluff-clay.
A small, solid platform at the bottom completed the slide.
Scarcely would the plank be run out when the heavy bales came bounding
down the slide, gaining momentum at every yard of descent, till at the
bottom they had the velocity of a cannon-ball. The dexterity and
strength of the negroes were here wonderfully displayed.
Standing at the edge of the boat--or at the foot of the slide, as the
conformation of the landing indicated--heavy cotton-hook in hand, they
watch the descending bale, as it bounds fiercely toward them; and just
at the right moment two men, with infinite dexterity of hand and
certainty of eye, strike their hooks firmly into the bagging--holding
on to the plunging mass and going with it halfway across the boat. Full
in front of it a third stands, like a _matador_ ready for the blow; and
striking his hook deep in the end, by a sudden and simultaneous twist
the three stand the bale upon end. Once stopped, two or three more
jerks of the hooks and it is neatly stowed away alongside, or on top
of, its fellows.
One constantly sees huge bales of from five to six hundred pounds bound
down a slide eighty feet high--scarcely touching the rail more than
three times in their steep descent--looking almost round from the
rapidity of their motion. Yet two negroes drive their hooks into, and
spin along with them; visibly checking their speed, till the third one
"heads up" and stops them still, in half a boat's width.
Sometimes a hook slips, the bagging gives, or the footing yields, when
the mixed mass of man and bale rolls across the boat and goes under
together. But frightful as it looks to unaccustomed eyes, a more
serious accident than a ducking seldom occurs; and at that, the banks
resound with the yells of laughter Sambo sends after his
brother-in-water.
"We've pretty thoroughly done the boat," said Styles, about midday.
"Let's go up to the professor's den and see if his head aches from 'ze
Van Dorn.'"
So up we mounted, passing on the way the faro bank, that advertises its
neighborhood by most musical jingling of chips and half dollars.
"Hello, Spring Chicken," cried Styles, to a youth in a blue sack with
shoulder straps, who sat at the door of a state-room near by. "Look out
for the tiger! I hear him about."
"No danger, me boy," responded the youth. "I'm too old a stager for
that."
"Aye, aye! we seen that before," put in his companion, a buttoned
middie of eighteen, innocent of beard. "A confounded pigeon came by
here just now, jingling his halves and pretending he'd won 'em. Wasting
time! Wasn't he, Styles? _We're_ too old birds to be caught with
chaff."
"Look alive, my hearty," answered Staple, "You're pretty near the
beast, and mamma doesn't know you're out." With which paternal
admonition we ascended.
The professor was still in a deep sleep; having been transferred by the
aid of a deck hand, or two, to his bower. This was a box of a
state-room six feet by nine, in which was a most dilapidated
double-bass, a violin case and a French horn. Over the berth, a cracked
guitar hung by a greasy blue ribbon. Staple waked him without
ceremony--ordered Congress water, pulled out the instruments; and soon
we were in "a concord of sweet sounds," the like of which the mermaids
of the Alabama had not heard before.
Suddenly, in the midst of a roaring chorus, there was a short, heavy
jar that sent us pellmell across the state-room; then a series of
grinding jolts; and, amid the yelling of orders, jangling of bells and
backing of the wheels, the boat swung slowly round by the bows. We were
hard and fast aground!
Of all the unpleasant episodes of river travel, the worst by far is to
be grounded in the daytime. The dreary monotony of bank and stream as
you glide by increases ten-fold when lying, hour after hour, with
nothing to do but gaze at it. Under this trial the jolliest faces grow
long and dismal; quiet men become dreadfully blue and the saturnine
look actually suicidal. Even the negro hands talk under their breath,
and the broad _Yah! Yah!_ comes less frequently from below decks.
Here we lay, two miles above Selma--hard and fast, with engines and
anchors equally useless to move us a foot--until midnight. About
sundown an up-boat passed just across our bows. Little is the sympathy
a grounded boat gets unless actually in danger. Every soul aboard of
her, from captain to cook's boy, seemed to think us fair game, and
chaff of all kinds was hailed from her decks. But she threw us a Selma
paper of that evening, and a hundred eager hands were stretched over
the side to catch it.
It fell at the feet of a slight, wiry man of about fifty, with
twinkling gray eyes, prominent features and fierce gray moustache.
There was something in his manner that kept the more ardent ones from
plucking it out of his fingers, as he stooped quietly to pick it up;
but few on board ever knew that their quiet fellow-passenger was the
most widely known "rebel of them all."
Many a man has read, with quickening breath, of the bold deeds of
Admiral Raphael Semmes; and some have traced his blazing track to the,
perhaps, Quixotic joust that ended his wild sea-kingship, never
recalling that impassive fellow-passenger. Yet it was he who, seated on
the rail of the "Southern Republic," read to the crowd that evening.
"What's the Washington news?"--"Anything more from Virginia!"--"What
about Tennessee convention?"--"Has Bragg commenced business?"--and a
thousand equally eager questions popped from the impatient crowd.
"There _is_ news, indeed!" answered Captain Semmes. "Listen, my
friends, for the war has commenced in earnest."
And here, on the quiet southern river, we first heard how Baltimore had
risen to drive out the troops; how there had been wild work made in
spite of the police, and how hot blood of her citizens had stained the
streets of the town. The account ended with the city still in frightful
commotion, the people arming and companies assembling at their
armories; and without even hinting the number of those hurt in the
fight.
No more _ennui_ on board now. All was as much excitement as if we
were racing along again; and, through the buzz and angry exclamations
of the knots collected on all hands, we could catch the most varied
predictions of the result, and speculations as to President Lincoln's
real policy.
"Maryland must act at once. Egad, sir, _at once_, if she wants to come
to us, sir," said the colonel, haranguing his group. "If she doesn't,
egad! she'll be tied hand and foot in a week! _Facilis descensus_, you
know!"
"Pshaw, Baltimore's noted for mobs," said an Alabamian. "This is only a
little more than usual. In a week she'll forget all about it."
"This is more than a mob," answered a Virginian quietly. "Blood must
come out of it; for the people will all go one way now, or make two
strong and bitter parties. For my part, I believe Maryland will be with
us before the boat gets off."
Late at night we swung loose and rushed past Selma, with the calliope
screaming "Dixie" and "ze Van Dorn;" for the professor was himself
again and waxed irate and red-patriotic over the news. We could get no
more papers, however; so suspense and speculation continued until we
reached Mobile.
There we heard of the quelling of the riot; of the course of the
citizens; of Mr. Lincoln's pledges to the Baltimore committee, that no
more troops should pass through the town; of his statement that those
already passed were only intended for the defense of the Capital.
"Pretty fair pledges, Colonel," said Styles, when we got this last
news.
"Fair pledges!" responded the colonel, with serious emphasis, "Egad,
sir!--_we've lost a State!_"