"Business in those times was done largely on friendship. It used to be said that I 'owned' the Yazoo River when I was running my line. I knew everybody up there. They were my friends, and they gave me their business for that reason, and also because I brought the cotton down here to Vicksburg, and reshipped it from here on, down the river. It was considered an advantage to reship cotton because moving it from one boat to another knocked the mud off the bales. "There used to be some enormous cargoes of cotton carried. The largest boat on the river was the _Henry Frank_, owned by Frank Hicks of Memphis. She ran between Memphis and New Orleans, and on one trip carried 9226 bales. Those were the old-style bales, of course. They weighed 425 to 450 pounds each, as against 550 to 600 pounds, which is the weight of a bale to-day, now that powerful machinery is used to make them. The heavy bale came into use partly to beat transportation charges, as rates were not made by weight, but at so much per bale. "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."