The Gilded Age: A Tale of Today

oyage, and to keep him from danger, and, if he be 'sui juris' he should make his last will, and wisely order all his affairs, since many that go far abr

ldren and the slaves were not much more at ease after finding out that this monster was a creature of human contrivance than they were the night before when they thought it the Lord of heaven and earth. They start

a high "bluff" sand-bar in the middle of the stream, and occasionally followed it up a little too far and touched upon the shoal water at its head-and then the intelligent craft refused to run herself aground, but "smelt" the bar, and straightway the foamy streak that streamed away from her bows vanished, a great foamless wave rolled forward and passed her under way, and in this instant she leaned far over on her side, shied from the bar and fled square away from the danger like a frightened thing-and the pilot was lucky if he managed to "straighten her up" before she drove her nose into the opposite bank; sometimes she approached a solid wall of tall trees as if she meant to break through it, but all of a sudden a little crack would open just enough to admit her, and away she would go plowing through the "chute" with just barely room enough between the island on one side and the main land on the other

s of gold and purple and crimson; and in time these glories faded out in the twilight and left

to a human presence-mile after mile and league after league the vast bends were guarded by unbroken walls of for

realm of enchantment. They ran races up and down the deck; climbed about the bell; made friends with the passenger-dogs ch

y ventured up there, followed diffidently by Washington. The pilot turned presently to "get his stern-marks," saw the lads and invited them in. Now their happiness was complete. This

nd reveal the bends beyond; and they looked miles to the rear and saw the silvery highway dimi

onder comes t

wn the river. The pilot took his glass and looked at i

he couldn't pick us up this w

a speaking

watch do

ice rumbled up throu

econd en

Harry-the Amaranth's just turned the poi

ward, jerked it twice, and two mellow strokes of the

there, with that

want you. Roust out the old man-tell him the A

aye,

other pilot. Within two minutes both of these men were flying up the pilothouse stairway, thr

rning in. Wher

it and

ht-hawk on the jack-staff-i

a good long loo

nati

on watch, shouted to the

she l

s by the h

n't en

ain shou

s and get a lot of that sugar forrard-put

aye,

low, presently, and the uneasy steering of the boat

As their excitement rose, their voices went down. As fast as one of them put down the spy-g

a gai

spoke thro

m are you

ir! But she's getting hotte

e of the wheel, with their coats and vests off, their bosoms and collars wide open and the perspiration flowing down he

!" whispe

said Jim, und

her c

iagonal toward the other shore. She closed in again and thrashed her f

ks up on us! I do

e slightest yawing of the boat and promptly meeting it

s the cottonwood stump on the false poi

t touching

rderer's Chute. We can just barely rub through if we hit it exactly right

shadows and two of them spun the wheel back and forth with anxious watchfulness while the steamer tore along. The chute seemed to come to an end every fifty yards, but always opened out in time. Now the head o

o bo

e-p

f th

ter t

er wa-a-t

f tw

er twa

all bells far below, the boat's speed slackened, and the

e mark

-her-er-l

and a

ht f

n-ana

turning altogether. The whistling of the steam was some

by to m

l hard down and was

rea

s did the captain and pilots-and then she began

t her! meet he

okes blended into a spider-web-the swing o

en f

x and a

eet! S

ottom! George shout

ide open! Wha

y pillars of steam aloft, the boat ground a

r-k t

ter-h

(to signify "La

hore, with the whole silver sea of the Mi

anth in

couple of tricks that

ppeared in the head of the chute and

, I s

is the mean

Wash Hastings, wanting to come to Cairo-and we didn't stop. He's in that

's Wash Hastings-well, what he don't know about the river ain't worth knowing-a regular gold-leaf,

stopped for hi

yards of the Boreas, and still gaining

she-carry

and sixty

your

half gone-eating up

the main deck-pile it in

creaming more madly than ever. But the Amarant

r steam, n

nd eighty-

old! Pile it in! Levy on that turpentine in t

moving earthqua

is sh

r, below the middle gauge-cocks!-carrying every poun

ow's you

a stick of wood into the furnace

onlight! A roar and a hurrah went up from the crowded decks of both steamers-all hands rushed to the guards to look and shout and gesticulate-the weight careened the vessels over toward each other-officers flew hither and thither cursing and storming, trying to drive the people amidships-both captains were leaning over their railings sha

ng crash, and the riddled Amaranth dropped lo

gan dashing buckets of water into the furnaces-for it would have been

hole forward half of the boat was a shapeless ruin, with the great chimneys lying crossed on top of it, and underneath were a dozen victims imprisoned alive and

xes. But it was of no use. The fire ate its way steadily, despising the bucket brigade that fought it. It scorched the clothes, it singed the hair of the axemen-it drove

on't desert us! Do

poor fel

I was killed in an instant and never knew what hurt me-though God knows I've neither scratch nor bruise this moment! It's har

from time to time, and glared more fiercely and sent its luminous tongues higher and higher after each emission. A shriek at intervals told of a captive that h

lay moaning, or pleading or screaming, while a score of Good Samaritans moved among them doing what they could to relieve their sufferings; bathing their chinless fac

ly injured, but never uttered a sound till a physician

You need not be a

afraid yo

r time with me-help th

ut

for me to be a girl. I carry the blood of

service in the navy in his time-touched h

manhood, struggled to his feet a ghastly spectacle and strode

team. Take that!-take it to my wife and tell her it comes from me by the hand of my murderer! Ta

er, stripping flesh and skin wit

a multitude of eager hands and warm southern hearts-a cargo amounting by this time to 39 wounded persons and 22 dead bodies.

uiry they returned the inevitable American verdict which has been s

are not invented. They happened ju