called him 'Baldy'--and the other was lumbering, getting
timber out of the cypress breaks and rafting it down. Almost all the
timber used from Vicksburg to New Orleans came out of there.

"One time a man came up the Yazoo to take up land and went to stop with
Baldy Parker. When they sat down to dinner Baldy took some flour and
sprinkled it all over his meat.

"'What's that?' asked the stranger.

"'Quinine,' says Baldy. 'Haven't you got any?'

"'No,' says the fellow; 'what would I want it for?'

"'You'll find out if you go out there in the swamps,' Baldy tells him.
'It's full of malaria. We eat quinine on everything.'

"The fellow was quiet through the rest of the meal.

"Pretty soon they got up to go out, and Baldy took up a pair of
stovepipes.

"'What do you do with them pipes?' asks the stranger.

"'Wear 'em, of course,' says Baldy. 'Haven't you got any?'

"'No,' says the fellow. 'What for?'

"'Why,' says Baldy, 'the rattlesnakes out there will bite the legs right
off of you.'

"With that the fellow had enough. He didn't go any farther, but turned
around and took the boat down the river."

In all his years as captain and line owner on the river, Captain Parisot
never lost a vessel. "I never insured against sinking," he told us.
"Just against fire. But I got the best pilots I could hire. In all I
built twenty-seven steamboats. I had $150,000 worth of boats when I sold
my line in 1880. After I sold they did lose some boats."

Later we saw Captain "Billy" Jones, a much younger man than Captain
Parisot, yet old enough to have known the river in its prime. Captain
Jones deserted the river years ago, and is now a golfer with a
prosperous banking business on the side.

"Captain Parisot was right when he said business on the river was done
largely on friendship," said Captain Jones. "Also business used to be
turned down for the opposite reason. There was a historic case of that
in this town.

"Captain Tom Leathers was in the habit of refusing to take freight on
the _Natchez_ if he didn't like the shipper or the consignee. For some
reason or other he had it in for the firm of Lamkin & Eggleston,
wholesale grocers here in Vicksburg, and declined their freight. They
sued him in the Circuit Court and got judgment. Leathers carried the
case to the Supreme Court, but the verdict was sustained and he had to
pay $2500 damages. He was furious.

"'What's the use,' he said, 'of being a steamboat captain if you can't