man on shore takes off hat and says–
‘ “Got twenty-eight tons of wheat, cap’n–be great favor if you
can take them.”
‘Captain says–
‘ ” ‘ll take two of them”–and don’t even condescend to look at him.
‘But nowadays the captain takes off his old slouch, and smiles
all the way around to the back of his ears, and gets off a bow
which he hasn’t got any ramrod to interfere with, and says–
‘ “Glad to see you, Smith, glad to see you–you’re looking well–
haven’t seen you looking so well for years–what you got for us?”
‘ “Nuth’n”, says Smith; and keeps his hat on, and just turns
his back and goes to talking with somebody else.
‘Oh, yes, eight years ago, the captain was on top; but it’s Smith’s turn now.
Eight years ago a boat used to go up the river with every stateroom full,
and people piled five and six deep on the cabin floor; and a solid
deck-load of immigrants and harvesters down below, into the bargain.
To get a first-class stateroom, you’d got to prove sixteen quarterings
of nobility and four hundred years of descent, or be personally
acquainted with the nigger that blacked the captain’s boots.
But it’s all changed now; plenty staterooms above, no harvesters below–
there’s a patent self-binder now, and they don’t have harvesters
any more; they’ve gone where the woodbine twineth–and they didn’t go
by steamboat, either; went by the train.’
Up in this region we met massed acres of lumber rafts coming down–
but not floating leisurely along, in the old-fashioned way,
manned with joyous and reckless crews of fiddling,
song-singing, whiskey-drinking, breakdown-dancing rapscallions;
no, the whole thing was shoved swiftly along by a powerful
stern-wheeler, modern fashion, and the small crews were quiet,
orderly men, of a sedate business aspect, with not a suggestion
of romance about them anywhere.
Along here, somewhere, on a black night, we ran some exceedingly
narrow and intricate island-chutes by aid of the electric light.
Behind was solid blackness–a crackless bank of it; ahead, a narrow
elbow of water, curving between dense walls of foliage that almost
touched our bows on both sides; and here every individual leaf,
and every individual ripple stood out in its natural color,
and flooded with a glare as of noonday intensified.
The effect was strange, and fine, and very striking.
We passed Prairie du Chien, another of Father Marquette’s camping-places;
and after some hours of progress through varied and beautiful scenery,
reached La Crosse. Here is a town of twelve or thirteen thousand population,
with electric lighted streets, and with blocks of buildings which are stately
enough, and also architecturally fine enough, to command respect in any city.
It is a choice town, and we made satisfactory use of the hour allowed us,
in roaming it over, though the weather was rainier than necessary.
Chapter 59
Legends and Scenery
WE added several passengers to our list, at La Crosse; among others
an old gentleman who had come to this north-western region
with the early settlers, and was familiar with every part of it.
Pardonably proud of it, too. He said–
‘You’ll find scenery between here and St. Paul that can give
the Hudson points. You’ll have the Queen’s Bluff–seven hundred
feet high, and just as imposing a spectacle as you can find anywheres;
and Trempeleau Island, which isn’t like any other island in America,
I believe, for it is a gigantic mountain, with precipitous sides,
and is full of Indian traditions, and used to be full of rattlesnakes;
if you catch the sun just right there, you will have a picture that
will stay with you. And above Winona you’ll have lovely prairies;
and then come the Thousand Islands, too beautiful for anything;
green? why you never saw foliage so green, nor packed so thick;
it’s like a thousand plush cushions afloat on a looking-glass–
when the water ‘s still; and then the monstrous bluffs on both sides of
the river–ragged, rugged, dark-complected–just the frame that’s wanted;
you always want a strong frame, you know, to throw up the nice points
of a delicate picture and make them stand out.’
The old gentleman also told us a touching Indian legend or two–