LIFE ON THE MISSISSIPPI, Part 4.
BY MARK TWAIN
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TABLE OF CONTENTS
CHAPTER XVI. CHAPTER XVII. CHAPTER XVIII. CHAPTER XIX. CHAPTER XX. |
Chapter 16
Racing Days
IT was always the custom for the boats to leave New Orleansbetween four and five o'clock in the afternoon. From threeo'clock onward they would be burning rosin and pitch pine (thesign of preparation), and so one had the picturesque spectacle ofa rank, some two or three miles long, of tall, ascending columnsof coal-black smoke; a colonnade which supported a sable roof ofthe same smoke blended together and spreading abroad over thecity. Every outward-bound boat had its flag flying at thejack-staff, and sometimes a duplicate on the verge staff astern.Two or three miles of mates were commanding and swearing withmore than usual emphasis; countless processions of freightbarrels and boxes were spinning athwart the levee and flyingaboard the stage-planks, belated passengers were dodging andskipping among these frantic things, hoping to reach theforecastle companion way alive, but having their doubts about it;women with reticules and bandboxes were trying to keep up withhusbands freighted with carpet-sacks and crying babies, andmaking a failure of it by losing their heads in the whirl androar and general distraction; drays and baggage-vans wereclattering hither and thither in a wild hurry, every now and thengetting blocked and jammed together, and then during ten secondsone could no