Life on The Mississippi (58 page)

Capt. Marryat, writing forty-five years ago, says: “St. Louis has 20,000 inhabitants.
The river abreast of the town is crowded with steamboats, lying in two or three tiers
.”

For a detailed and interesting description of the great flood, written onboard of the New Orleans
Times-Democrat
’s relief boat, see Appendix A.

There was a foolish superstition of some little prevalence in that day, that the Mississippi would neither buoy up a swimmer, nor permit a drowned person’s body to rise to the surface.

See Appendix B.

“But what can the State do where the people are under subjection to rates of interest ranging from 18 to 30 per cent, and are also under the necessity of purchasing their crops in advance even of planting, at these rates, for the privilege of purchasing all their supplies at 100 percent profit?”—
Edward Atkinson.

New Orleans
Times-Democrat
, Aug. 26, 1882.

Illustrations of it thoughtlessly omitted by the advertiser:

KNOXVILLE, Tenn., October 19.—This morning a few minutes after ten o’clock, General Joseph A. Mabry, Thomas O’Connor, and Joseph A. Mabry, Jr., were killed in a shooting affray. The difficulty began yesterday afternoon by General Mabry attacking Major O’Connor and threatening to kill him. This was at the fair grounds, and O’Connor told Mabry that it was not the place to settle their difficulties. Mabry then told O’Connor he should not live. It seems that Mabry was armed and O’Connor was not. The cause of the difficulty was an old feud about the transfer of some property from Mabry to O’Connor. Later in the afternoon Mabry sent word to O’Connor that he would kill him on sight. This morning Major O’Connor was standing in the door of the Mechanics’ National Bank, of which he was president. General Mabry and another gentleman walked down Gay Street on the opposite side from the bank. O’Connor stepped into the bank, got a shot gun, took deliberate aim at General Mabry and fired. Mabry fell dead, being shot in the left side. As he fell O’Connor fired again, the shot taking effect in Mabry’s thigh. O’Connor then reached into the bank and got another shot gun. About this time Joseph A. Mabry, Jr., son of General Mabry, came rushing down the street, unseen by O’Connor until within forty feet, when the young man fired a pistol, the shot taking effect in O’Connor’s right breast, passing through the body near the heart. The instant Mabry shot, O’Connor turned and fired, the load taking effect in young Mabry’s right breast and side. Mabry fell pierced with twenty buckshot, and almost instantly O’Connor fell dead without a struggle. Mabry tried to rise, but fell back dead. The whole tragedy occurred within two minutes, and neither of the three spoke after he was shot. General Mabry had about thirty buckshot in his body. A bystander was painfully wounded in the thigh with a buckshot, and another was wounded in the arm. Four other men had their clothing pierced by buckshot. The affair caused great excitement, and Gay Street was thronged with thousands of people. General Mabry and his son Joe were acquitted only a few days ago of the murder of Moses Lusby and Don Lusby, father and son, whom they killed a few weeks ago. Will Mabry was

killed by Don Lusby last Christmas. Major Thomas O’Connor was President of the Mechanics’ National Bank here, and was the wealthiest man in the state.—
Associated Press Telegram.

One day last month Professor Sharpe, of the Somerville, Tenn., Female College, “a quiet and gentlemanly man,” was told that his brother-in-law, a Captain Burton, had threatened to kill him. Burton, it seems, had already killed one man and driven his knife into another. The Professor armed himself with a double-barrelled shot gun, started out in search of his brother-in-law, found him playing billiards in a saloon, and blew his brains out. The Memphis
Avalanche
reports that the Professor’s course met with pretty general approval in the community; knowing that the law was powerless, in the actual condition of public sentiment, to protect him, he protected himself.

About the same time, two young men in North Carolina quarrelled about a girl, and “hostile messages” were exchanged. Friends tried to reconcile them, but had their labor for their pains. On the 24th the young men met in the public highway. One of them had a heavy club in his hand, the other an ax. The man with the club fought desperately for his life, but it was a hopeless fight from the first. A well-directed blow sent his club whirling out of his grasp, and the next moment he was a dead man.

About the same time, two “highly connected” young Virginians, clerks in a hardware store at Charlottesville, while “skylarking” came to blows. Peter Dick threw pepper in Charles Roads’s eyes; Roads demanded an apology; Dick refused to give it, and it was agreed that a duel was inevitable, but a difficulty arose; the parties had no pistols, and it was too late at night to procure them. One of them suggested that butcher knives would answer the purpose, and the other accepted the suggestion; the result was that Roads fell to the floor with a gash in his abdomen that may or may not prove fatal. If Dick has been arrested, the news has not reached us. He “expressed deep regret,” and we are told by a Staunton correspondent of the Philadelphia
Press
that “every effort has been made to hush the matter up.” —
Extracts from the Public Journals.

See Appendix C.

The Israelites are buried in graves—by permission, I take it, not requirement; but none else, except the destitute, who are buried at public expense. The graves are but three or four feet deep.

Four or five dollars is the minimum cost.

Figures taken from memory, and probably incorrect. Think it was more.

The original ms. of it, in the captain’s own hand, has been sent to me from New Orleans. It reads as follows:

“VICKSBURG, May 4, 1859.

“My opinion for the benefit of the citizens of New Orleans: The water is higher this far up than it has been since 1815. My opinion is that the water will be 4 feet deep in Canal street before the first of next June. Mrs. Turner’s plantation at the head of Big Black Island is all under water, and it has not been since 1815.

“I. Sellers.”

Winter.

The
trailing arbutus.

See Appendix D.

War whoop.