For instance,as soon as the first crossing,out from St.Louis,was completed,the items would be entered upon the blank,under the appropriate headings,thus--'St.Louis.Nine and a half (feet).Stern on court-house,head on dead cottonwood above wood-yard,until you raise the first reef,then pull up square.'Then under head of Remarks:'Go just outside the wrecks;this is important.New snag just where you straighten down;go above it.'
The pilot who deposited that blank in the Cairo box (after adding to it the details of every crossing all the way down from St.Louis)took out and read half a dozen fresh reports (from upward-bound steamers)concerning the river between Cairo and Memphis,posted himself thoroughly,returned them to the box,and went back aboard his boat again so armed against accident that he could not possibly get his boat into trouble without bringing the most ingenious carelessness to his aid.
Imagine the benefits of so admirable a system in a piece of river twelve or thirteen hundred miles long,whose channel was shifting every day!
The pilot who had formerly been obliged to put up with seeing a shoal place once or possibly twice a month,had a hundred sharp eyes to watch it for him,now,and bushels of intelligent brains to tell him how to run it.
His information about it was seldom twenty-four hours old.If the reports in the last box chanced to leave any misgivings on his mind concerning a treacherous crossing,he had his remedy;he blew his steam-whistle in a peculiar way as soon as he saw a boat approaching;the signal was answered in a peculiar way if that boat's pilots were association men;and then the two steamers ranged alongside and all uncertainties were swept away by fresh information furnished to the inquirer by word of mouth and in minute detail.
The first thing a pilot did when he reached New Orleans or St.Louis was to take his final and elaborate report to the association parlors and hang it up there,--after which he was free to visit his family.
In these parlors a crowd was always gathered together,discussing changes in the channel,and the moment there was a fresh arrival,everybody stopped talking till this witness had told the newest news and settled the latest uncertainty.Other craftsmen can 'sink the shop,'sometimes,and interest themselves in other matters.Not so with a pilot;he must devote himself wholly to his profession and talk of nothing else;for it would be small gain to be perfect one day and imperfect the next.
He has no time or words to waste if he would keep 'posted.'
But the outsiders had a hard time of it.No particular place to meet and exchange information,no wharf-boat reports,none but chance and unsatisfactory ways of getting news.
The consequence was that a man sometimes had to run five hundred miles of river on information that was a week or ten days old.
At a fair stage of the river that might have answered;but when the dead low water came it was destructive.
Now came another perfectly logical result.The outsiders began to ground steamboats,sink them,and get into all sorts of trouble,whereas accidents seemed to keep entirely away from the association men.
Wherefore even the owners and captains of boats furnished exclusively with outsiders,and previously considered to be wholly independent of the association and free to comfort themselves with brag and laughter,began to feel pretty uncomfortable.
Still,they made a show of keeping up the brag,until one black day when every captain of the lot was formally ordered to immediately discharge his outsiders and take association pilots in their stead.
And who was it that had the dashing presumption to do that?Alas,it came from a power behind the throne that was greater than the throne itself.
It was the underwriters!
It was no time to 'swap knives.'Every outsider had to take his trunk ashore at once.Of course it was supposed that there was collusion between the association and the underwriters,but this was not so.
The latter had come to comprehend the excellence of the 'report'system of the association and the safety it secured,and so they had made their decision among themselves and upon plain business principles.
There was weeping and wailing and gnashing of teeth in the camp of the outsiders now.But no matter,there was but one course for them to pursue,and they pursued it.
They came forward in couples and groups,and proffered their twelve dollars and asked for membership.They were surprised to learn that several new by-laws had been long ago added.
For instance,the initiation fee had been raised to fifty dollars;that sum must be tendered,and also ten per cent.of the wages which the applicant had received each and every month since the founding of the association.In many cases this amounted to three or four hundred dollars.Still,the association would not entertain the application until the money was present.
Even then a single adverse vote killed the application.
Every member had to vote 'Yes'or 'No'in person and before witnesses;so it took weeks to decide a candidacy,because many pilots were so long absent on voyages.However,the repentant sinners scraped their savings together,and one by one,by our tedious voting process,they were added to the fold.
A time came,at last,when only about ten remained outside.
They said they would starve before they would apply.
They remained idle a long while,because of course nobody could venture to employ them.
By and by the association published the fact that upon a certain date the wages would be raised to five hundred dollars per month.
All the branch associations had grown strong,now,and the Red River one had advanced wages to seven hundred dollars a month.