One day Joe Gilmore came to Lyle Saxon and told him that he needed a job. Joe got a job, and Lyle gained a friend for life. Joe Gilmore became the most trusted and reliable person in Lyle Saxon's life-Joe did everything, including mix drinks, drive the car, give massages, oversee construction, and anything else that was asked of him. Through it all he never stopped smiling. This book will introduce you to the people Joe knew, and the places he and Mr. Saxon went together, including Lyle Saxon's small eighteenth-century cabin on Melrose Plantation. We'll never know what impression Mr. Saxon really made on Joe Gilmore, but we know that Joe made a lasting impression on him. Lyle Saxon made the writing of this book his final act, even to the point of having to dictate the stories it contains. Lyle Saxon died in 1946. He had had many aquaintances, some of them very close, but the man who had left the most indelible mark of all had been both a servant and a friend. Also included in the book is a brief but fascinating group of stories about Lyle Saxon written by his friend Edward Dreyer.

JUST BEFORE THE WAR. I TURN in review to the years, so rife with interest, just preceding the war. In 1855 my husband went into business in New York City, and I, with my two eldest children, accompanied him. It seems but yesterday that we strolled together through the old historic precincts of New York. I used to sit in Trinity churchyard for hours while my children played among the tombs, scratching the moss from the letters, and I wrote or studied, surrounded by the noise and clamor of trade, but as much alone as if in the heart of a forest. There, during the earlier part of our residence, I wrote my press letters and read. Later we moved up town, in the very heart of the city, where we were living when the events preceding the war begun to shape them selves into such ominous foreshadowings. Our summers were spent in the city, our winters in the South. In 1858 we had for our companion much of the time a most beautiful Boston girl, whose father had spent all his life in Mexico. He had come on to Boston and was carrying his daughter to Mexico to make a trade in a silver mine, she to be a part of the stock in trade, as wife of Don Josie Patillo, 59 years old. The whole party was stopping at our hose. A gallant black-haired friend of ours fell desperately in love with her, and carried off this lily of loveliness right in the face of the swearing old pirate, her father, and Don Josie. The excitement over the matter in our hotel was about equal to two fires and a murder, and I was pounced upon for helping it on.

This is an EXACT reproduction of a book published before 1923. This IS NOT an OCR'd book with strange characters, introduced typographical errors, and jumbled words. This book may have occasional imperfections such as missing or blurred pages, poor pictures, errant marks, etc. that were either part of the original artifact, or were introduced by the scanning process. We believe this work is culturally important, and despite the imperfections, have elected to bring it back into print as part of our continuing commitment to the preservation of printed works worldwide. We appreciate your understanding of the imperfections in the preservation process, and hope you enjoy this valuable book.

Father Mississippi by Lyle Saxon The Century Co. New York London INTRODUCTION This book is not a history of the Mississippi River in the strict sense of the word, although I have outlined the dis covery, the exploration, and the settlement of the valley. A great many learned men have written weighty tomes dealing with the various phases of the Mississippi, but this volume is like a scrap-book in which I have collected mens thoughts, my own thoughts, and the thoughts and experiences of other men. These incidents seem to me informative, or amusing, or terrible, or tragic, or fantastic but they are all a part of the living pageant which moved down the great river through the changing years. Here you will find jottings from old diaries written by men and women who came down the river a century or more ago. In every instance where it was possible I have let these men and women speak for themselves. So here you will meet La Salle, Father Hennepin, Henri de Tonty, and the rest, and you will read their narratives, uncolored by comments of mine you will read the hitherto unpublished memoir of a woman pioneer who came down the river in 1 8 to you will read the journal of a flatboatman of 1817 you will meet heroes and gamblers, heroines and murderesses men and women who lived beside the Mississippi and whose adventures gave color to the times in which they lived Only twice do I speak directly to you in the beginning and in the end of this volume. At first, I try to let you see into the life of a Louisiana plantation as I remembered VI INTRODUCTION it at the end, because I wanted to try to picture for you the horror of the floods of 1927. Many people have given me assistance. The publications ofthe Louisiana, Mississippi, and Kentucky historical so cieties have been of great help and I wish particularly to thank Mr. Henry P. Dart, editor of the Louisiana Historical Society Quarterly, for permission to use the diary of J. G, Flugels, and the records of the case of Molly Glass, the mur deress. Other references will be found in the bibliography at the end of the volume. I wish to thank Mrs. Cammie Garrett Henry of Melrose plantation for the use of her library and for permission to read scrap-books pertaining to the Mississippi which she has been compiling for thirty years. I wish to thank Miss Gwen Bristow of the staff of The New Orleans Times-Picayune for her work in compiling data from current newspaj ers and magazines. And I am most grateful to Miss Mercedes Garig of the Louisiana State University for suggestions and assistance in collecting source material. But, perhaps most of all, I want to thank members of the United States Coast Guard Service, officers and sailors alike, who took me with them into the flooded areas in May and June, 1927. The three episodes, Down on the Levee, Acadians in the Flood, and And the Waters Receded have been printed in The Century Magazine, and 1 wish to thank the editor of The Century for permission to reprint them here, L. S. CONTENTS Part One PLANTATION CHAJPTSR FAGS I A CHILD LOOKS AT THE RIVER . 3 II PLANTATION LIFE AND A WEDDING . 6 III RIVER Music 19 IV AUNTS AND UNCLES 24 - V. TjTK, JkLuL, .. BOAT. 34 VI CREVASSE 44 Part Two IN THE BEGINNING VTI BEFORE THE WHITE MEN CAME 61 VIII THE NAME MISSISSIPPI 68 TX DISCOVERY 71 X EXPIRATION 83 XI IBKRVILLE ANI BIENVILLE .... 102 XII NEW ORLEANS 107 XIII A CAT LOOKS AT A KING 114 Part Three I HEARTHE TREAD OF THE PIONEERS XIV IN THE EIGHTEENTH CENTURY . . . 125 XV MOLLY GLASS, THE MURDERESS . . . 142 TO Vlli CONTENTS CHAPTER XVI A WOMAN PIONEER 159 XVII A VOYAGE DOWN THE RIVER IN 1817 . 176 Part Four LEVEES AND STEAMBOATS XVIII, OLD STEAMBOAT DAYS 209 XIX COMMERCE ON THE MISSISSIPPI . . . 235 XX LEVEES 253 Part Five THE 1927 FLOOD XXI THE RISING RIVER 279 XXII THE FLOOD SWEEPS ON 290 XXIII EPISODE DOWN THE LEVEE, . . . 301 XXIV WHAT HAPPENED AT NEW ORLEANS . 314 XXV DYNAMITE 330 XXVI REFUGEES 341 XXVII EPISODE ACADIANS IN THE FLOOD ...