登陆注册
5184500000117

第117章 Sugar and Postage(1)

ONE day,on the street,I encountered the man whom,of all men,I most wished to see--Horace Bixby;formerly pilot under me--or rather,over me--now captain of the great steamer 'City of Baton Rouge,'the latest and swiftest addition to the Anchor Line.

The same slender figure,the same tight curls,the same springy step,the same alertness,the same decision of eye and answering decision of hand,the same erect military bearing;not an inch gained or lost in girth,not an ounce gained or lost in weight,not a hair turned.

It is a curious thing,to leave a man thirty-five years old,and come back at the end of twenty-one years and find him still only thirty-five.

I have not had an experience of this kind before,I believe.

There were some crow's-feet,but they counted for next to nothing,since they were inconspicuous.

His boat was just in.I had been waiting several days for her,purposing to return to St.Louis in her.The captain and Ijoined a party of ladies and gentlemen,guests of Major Wood,and went down the river fifty-four miles,in a swift tug,to ex-Governor Warmouth's sugar plantation.Strung along below the city,were a number of decayed,ram-shackly,superannuated old steamboats,not one of which had I ever seen before.

They had all been built,and worn out,and thrown aside,since I was here last.This gives one a realizing sense of the frailness of a Mississippi boat and the briefness of its life.

Six miles below town a fat and battered brick chimney,sticking above the magnolias and live-oaks,was pointed out as the monument erected by an appreciative nation to celebrate the battle of New Orleans--Jackson's victory over the British,January 8,1815.The war had ended,the two nations were at peace,but the news had not yet reached New Orleans.

If we had had the cable telegraph in those days,this blood would not have been spilt,those lives would not have been wasted;and better still,Jackson would probably never have been president.

We have gotten over the harms done us by the war of 1812,but not over some of those done us by Jackson's presidency.

The Warmouth plantation covers a vast deal of ground,and the hospitality of the Warmouth mansion is graduated to the same large scale.

We saw steam-plows at work,here,for the first time.The traction engine travels about on its own wheels,till it reaches the required spot;then it stands still and by means of a wire rope pulls the huge plow toward itself two or three hundred yards across the field,between the rows of cane.

The thing cuts down into the black mold a foot and a half deep.

The plow looks like a fore-and-aft brace of a Hudson river steamer,inverted.

When the negro steersman sits on one end of it,that end tilts down near the ground,while the other sticks up high in air.This great see-saw goes rolling and pitching like a ship at sea,and it is not every circus rider that could stay on it.

The plantation contains two thousand six hundred acres;six hundred and fifty are in cane;and there is a fruitful orange grove of five thousand trees.The cane is cultivated after a modern and intricate scientific fashion,too elaborate and complex for me to attempt to describe;but it lost $40,000last year.I forget the other details.

However,this year's crop will reach ten or twelve hundred tons of sugar,consequently last year's loss will not matter.

These troublesome and expensive scientific methods achieve a yield of a ton and a half and from that to two tons,to the acre;which is three or four times what the yield of an acre was in my time.

The drainage-ditches were everywhere alive with little crabs--'fiddlers.'One saw them scampering sidewise in every direction whenever they heard a disturbing noise.

Expensive pests,these crabs;for they bore into the levees,and ruin them.

The great sugar-house was a wilderness of tubs and tanks and vats and filters,pumps,pipes,and machinery.

The process of making sugar is exceedingly interesting.

First,you heave your cane into the centrifugals and grind out the juice;then run it through the evaporating pan to extract the fiber;then through the bone-filter to remove the alcohol;then through the clarifying tanks to discharge the molasses;then through the granulating pipe to condense it;then through the vacuum pan to extract the vacuum.It is now ready for market.

I have jotted these particulars down from memory.

The thing looks simple and easy.Do not deceive yourself.

To make sugar is really one of the most difficult things in the world.And to make it right,is next to impossible.

If you will examine your own supply every now and then for a term of years,and tabulate the result,you will find that not two men in twenty can make sugar without getting sand into it.

We could have gone down to the mouth of the river and visited Captain Eads' great work,the 'jetties,'where the river has been compressed between walls,and thus deepened to twenty-six feet;but it was voted useless to go,since at this stage of the water everything would be covered up and invisible.

We could have visited that ancient and singular burg,'Pilot-town,'which stands on stilts in the water--so they say;where nearly all communication is by skiff and canoe,even to the attending of weddings and funerals;and where the littlest boys and girls are as handy with the oar as unamphibious children are with the velocipede.

同类推荐
  • 大方广圆觉修多罗了义经

    大方广圆觉修多罗了义经

    本书为公版书,为不受著作权法限制的作家、艺术家及其它人士发布的作品,供广大读者阅读交流。汇聚授权电子版权。
  • 宝悉地成佛陀罗尼经

    宝悉地成佛陀罗尼经

    本书为公版书,为不受著作权法限制的作家、艺术家及其它人士发布的作品,供广大读者阅读交流。汇聚授权电子版权。
  • 释迦如来降生礼赞文

    释迦如来降生礼赞文

    本书为公版书,为不受著作权法限制的作家、艺术家及其它人士发布的作品,供广大读者阅读交流。汇聚授权电子版权。
  • 玉台新案

    玉台新案

    本书为公版书,为不受著作权法限制的作家、艺术家及其它人士发布的作品,供广大读者阅读交流。汇聚授权电子版权。
  • 女科旨要

    女科旨要

    本书为公版书,为不受著作权法限制的作家、艺术家及其它人士发布的作品,供广大读者阅读交流。汇聚授权电子版权。
热门推荐
  • 我的创业哲学:马云献给年轻人的12堂人生经营课

    我的创业哲学:马云献给年轻人的12堂人生经营课

    这是一本成功励志书,也是一本创业教辅书。本书将理论与实践相结合,从马云的创业经历出发,向人们讲述了他是如何从一个 名不见经传的大学老师摇身一变成为最具影响力的企业家。本书针对创业中的关键问题,如管理、经营、营销、融资、竞争、用人等,进行了深入细致的解析。读者可以从中体验最真实的领袖魅力、人生理想和处事技巧,而最重要的还是获取宝贵的创业经验。
  • 趣味知识竞赛题库

    趣味知识竞赛题库

    读者实现了这个期待已久的愿望。本书的编辑们耗时几年,在浩如烟海的知识宝库中,犹如海滩拾贝,精心筛选了几千道题,编成了此书。它收录的是那些人们应该懂得而又易于掌握的各门各类知识,向读者展现了一个知识的大千世界,为渴求知识的人们搭起了一座简便、快捷地获取知识的桥梁。
  • 婚后的平淡生活

    婚后的平淡生活

    一场巨大的商界联姻,新郎却在婚礼进行时拥着别的女人。
  • 空间灵泉有点田

    空间灵泉有点田

    刺耳的咒骂声,混着公鸡的打鸣声,唐心甜是被这吵闹声吵醒的,睁开眼就看见数根木头横梁,深灰的瓦……
  • 跆拳道(奥林匹克百科知识丛书)

    跆拳道(奥林匹克百科知识丛书)

    本套丛书将多种武术训练项目经过研究筛选后汇集起来,涵盖了太极拳、散打、少林拳、截拳道、擒拿反擒拿、高级格斗、跆拳道、长拳、泰国拳、拳击等十种武术,为武术和运动爱好者的锻炼提供了方法上的指导和技术上的支持。
  • 草岚风雨

    草岚风雨

    本书以30年代北平军人反省院里的一场殊死斗争为背景,着意塑造了尹坚、詹英等共产党人和爱国青年的英雄群像。他们舍生取义的浩然正气感天地泣鬼神,斗争艺术的高妙超卓又使人击节解颐。同时塑造的敌军法处长、法官、看守等也都颇有个性,不落俗套。
  • 偏脸子的“捷尔任斯基”

    偏脸子的“捷尔任斯基”

    雪覆盖的荒草甸子净白净白的。找不着食的家雀落在十字街的水楼子上,缩着脖子夹夹着翅膀。要是当时,我有了火药枪,也许就能救下捷尔任斯基老兄,他就不会被当成精神病,一直到死关在跟监狱一样有铁窗棂子的精神病院里。我始终不相信捷尔任斯基老兄是精神病人。捷尔任斯基老兄说置人死地最好的办法是让那个人疯了。有人想置捷尔任斯基老兄于死地。过去了老长时间,我也没把捷尔任斯基老兄忘了。老胡头儿说过,有许多事儿是这辈子都忘不了的。老挂钟“咣当咣当”地敲打着。我家的老挂钟一直慢着,也拐带着我落在时间的后面……
  • 李军红说新妇科千金方

    李军红说新妇科千金方

    1条轴决定女人体质:肾—天癸—冲任—胞宫,掌握轴心,身体不虚;2大液体判断女人健康:月经、白带……
  • 商女不翻身:爷,求放手!

    商女不翻身:爷,求放手!

    陪吃陪喝陪聊,伊一花费大半个月终于拿下了手头的项目,却在签合同的时候倒下了……软绵绵倒下之前,伊一哀嚎——老天爷,你丫的玩儿我呢!于是伊一穿越了,从21世纪的和平世界,直奔千年前的战乱年代——战火纷飞,吃了上顿没下顿,时不时还来上一波土匪强盗,最后干脆被人贩子拐走……伊一肠子都悔青了,跪地痛哭:老天爷,我错了,我真的错了……于是,和平的曙光降临人间,从天而降的贵人,相互扶持的伙伴,日子越来越好了……只是谁来告诉她,那些个什么生意伙伴怎么一个个都成了皇子太子王爷?伊一拔腿就跑,我还想笑傲江湖呢?王妃太子妃什么的都是囚笼……
  • 四川图书馆百年馆庆纪念文集

    四川图书馆百年馆庆纪念文集

    值百年华诞之际,四川省图书馆编辑出版《四川省图书馆百年馆庆纪念文集》,以彰显历史,缅怀前贤,昭示未来,意义深远。《四川省图书馆百年馆庆纪念文集》荟萃了一批优秀图书馆专业工作者在长期的图书馆学理论研究与工作实践中积累的成果,凝结了四川省图书馆人的集体智慧,生动再现了四川省图书馆事业发展的精彩画卷,将为未来我国图书馆事业的发展提供参考和借鉴。