ONE day,on board the 'Aleck Scott,'my chief,Mr.Bixby,was crawling carefully through a close place at Cat Island,both leads going,and everybody holding his breath.The captain,a nervous,apprehensive man,kept still as long as he could,but finally broke down and shouted from the hurricane deck--'For gracious'sake,give her steam,Mr.Bixby!give her steam!
She'll never raise the reef on this headway!'
For all the effect that was produced upon Mr.Bixby,one would have supposed that no remark had been made.But five minutes later,when the danger was past and the leads laid in,he burst instantly into a consuming fury,and gave the captain the most admirable cursing I ever listened to.
No bloodshed ensued;but that was because the captain's cause was weak;for ordinarily he was not a man to take correction quietly.
Having now set forth in detail the nature of the science of piloting,and likewise described the rank which the pilot held among the fraternity of steamboatmen,this seems a fitting place to say a few words about an organization which the pilots once formed for the protection of their guild.
It was curious and noteworthy in this,that it was perhaps the compactest,the completest,and the strongest commercial organization ever formed among men.
For a long time wages had been two hundred and fifty dollars a month;but curiously enough,as steamboats multiplied and business increased,the wages began to fall little by little.It was easy to discover the reason of this.Too many pilots were being 'made.'It was nice to have a 'cub,'a steersman,to do all the hard work for a couple of years,gratis,while his master sat on a high bench and smoked;all pilots and captains had sons or nephews who wanted to be pilots.By and by it came to pass that nearly every pilot on the river had a steersman.
When a steersman had made an amount of progress that was satisfactory to any two pilots in the trade,they could get a pilot's license for him by signing an application directed to the United States Inspector.
Nothing further was needed;usually no questions were asked,no proofs of capacity required.
Very well,this growing swarm of new pilots presently began to undermine the wages,in order to get berths.
Too late--apparently--the knights of the tiller perceived their mistake.Plainly,something had to be done,and quickly;but what was to be the needful thing.A close organization.
Nothing else would answer.To compass this seemed an impossibility;so it was talked,and talked,and then dropped.
It was too likely to ruin whoever ventured to move in the matter.But at last about a dozen of the boldest--and some of them the best--pilots on the river launched themselves into the enterprise and took all the chances.
They got a special charter from the legislature,with large powers,under the name of the Pilots'Benevolent Association;elected their officers,completed their organization,contributed capital,put 'association'wages up to two hundred and fifty dollars at once--and then retired to their homes,for they were promptly discharged from employment.
But there were two or three unnoticed trifles in their by-laws which had the seeds of propagation in them.For instance,all idle members of the association,in good standing,were entitled to a pension of twenty-five dollars per month.
This began to bring in one straggler after another from the ranks of the new-fledged pilots,in the dull (summer)season.
Better have twenty-five dollars than starve;the initiation fee was only twelve dollars,and no dues required from the unemployed.
Also,the widows of deceased members in good standing could draw twenty-five dollars per month,and a certain sum for each of their children.Also,the said deceased would be buried at the association's expense.These things resurrected all the superannuated and forgotten pilots in the Mississippi Valley.
They came from farms,they came from interior villages,they came from everywhere.They came on crutches,on drays,in ambulances,--any way,so they got there.They paid in their twelve dollars,and straightway began to draw out twenty-five dollars a month,and calculate their burial bills.
By and by,all the useless,helpless pilots,and a dozen first-class ones,were in the association,and nine-tenths of the best pilots out of it and laughing at it.It was the laughing-stock of the whole river.
Everybody joked about the by-law requiring members to pay ten per cent.of their wages,every month,into the treasury for the support of the association,whereas all the members were outcast and tabooed,and no one would employ them.Everybody was derisively grateful to the association for taking all the worthless pilots out of the way and leaving the whole field to the excellent and the deserving;and everybody was not only jocularly grateful for that,but for a result which naturally followed,namely,the gradual advance of wages as the busy season approached.Wages had gone up from the low figure of one hundred dollars a month to one hundred and twenty-five,and in some cases to one hundred and fifty;and it was great fun to enlarge upon the fact that this charming thing had been accomplished by a body of men not one of whom received a particle of benefit from it.