“The land up the Yazoo belonged to the State, and the State sold it for $1.25 per acre.  The fellows that got up there first weren’t any too anxious to see new folks coming in and entering land.  Used to try all kinds of schemes to get them out.

“There were two brothers up there named Parker.  One of them was a surveyor—­we 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 tell people to go to hell?’”