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Updated: June 13, 2025
A short time after the occurrence narrated in the preceding story, Canada Bill said to me, "George, don't you think we could make big money on the wharf-boat at the mouth of the Red River, out of those Texas boys that get off there to take the Red River boats?" I replied, "Yes, there is plenty of money there, Bill. When do you want to go up?"
You must make a row with him at the gang-plank, er do somethin' to kinder hold him back. The wind's down stream to-day and the boat's shore to swing in a little aft. I'll jump for it and you keep him back." To this Gray assented. As the shabby young fellow had predicted, the boat did swing around in the wind, and have some trouble in bringing her bow to the wharf-boat.
There was no house; but an old steamboat, long since condemned as not "river-worthy," lay at the landing. This hulk, moored by strong cables to the bank, formed an excellent floating wharf; while its spacious deck, cabins, and saloons, served as a storehouse for all sorts of merchandise. It was, in fact, used both as a landing and warehouse, and was known as the "wharf-boat."
She ast is you as bright in yo' books as you is in yo' color." The old negress gave a pleased abdominal chuckle as she admired her broad-shouldered brown son. "But I saw Ida May standing on the wharf-boat the day I came home," protested Peter, still bewildered. "No you ain't. I reckon you seen Cissie. Dey looks kind o' like when you is fur off." "Cissie?" repeated Peter.
But just then somebody yelled "Monte!" and the mate coming up, the facts of the case were stated to him, and he said, "Everybody must keep quiet." Bill of course cleaned the crowd out, and reached the wharf-boat with a large roll of the good green stuff; but he did not keep it long, for Jack Armstrong, of Louisville, was lying there in wait for him to play casino at $50 a game.
Maroney might leave at any hour of the night, as, on the Mississippi it is not an uncommon occurrence for an unexpected boat to land or take off passengers with little or no delay, even at the dead of night. So he got some lunch, and lay around the wharf-boat, as many poor people do while travelling.
The mishap occasioned much delay to the boat, as it was very inconvenient to deliver freight at that day and at that stage of water without the intervention of the wharf-boat. A full hour was consumed in finding a landing, and in rigging the double-staging and temporary planks necessary to get the molasses and coffee and household "plunder" ashore.
The alarm-bell rang in the engine-room, and Wehle stood by his engine. Then the bell rang to stop the starboard engine, and August obeyed it. The pilot of a Western steamboat depends much upon his engines for steerage in making a landing, and the larboard engine was kept running a while longer in order to bring the deeply-loaded boat round to her landing at the primitive wharf-boat of that day.
He made a great show of writing it, and even read it to his father in a tone loud enough for the operator to hear it. "'Will start for St. Louis by first steamer, and shall be glad to have you meet me at the wharf-boat," was what he wrote in the dispatch. "Of course Mr. Graham can easily find out what boats are due in the city, and will know about what time to expect me. How much?"
At the first glance one would suppose that when it came to forbidding information about the river these two parties could play equally at that game; but this was not so. At every good-sized town from one end of the river to the other, there was a 'wharf-boat' to land at, instead of a wharf or a pier. Freight was stored in it for transportation; waiting passengers slept in its cabins.
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