CHAPTER XVI
Mississippi River, 1882
In preparation for the writing of the second
part of Life on the Mississippi, he had come
from St. Louis to New Orleans, and was now
starting the return trip. (See Mark Twain—a
Biography, chapter CXL.)
people talk only about the war. Other subjects are
started but they soon fade and die and the war is
taken up.
Left New Orleans 5:10, May 6. Reached Natchez (300
miles) at 3:40 May 7. First time I ever went to Natchez
inside of 24 hours I believe.
May 8. Got up at 4 A.M., in a roasting room—some
idiot had closed the transom and I was over the boilers—
and went on watch. Fog—George Ritchie steered the
watch out by compass, using his and Bixby's patented
chart for the crossings and occasionally blowing the
whistle. The chart is a great thing—many pilots use it,
now.
The Biblical absurdity of the Almighty's being only six
days building the universe and then fooling away 25 years
building a towhead in the Mississippi. "Towhead" means
infant, an infant island, a growing island, so it is said.
Pilot said some French camped on the hills at Baton
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