A DISAGREEABLE INCIDENT.
Upon this trip a disagreeable incident happened which led Captain La Barge to leave the Company’s service for good. He had as clerk of the boat a son of one of the partners. The young man’s wife was also on board, going up for the pleasure of the voyage. La Barge had been particularly requested by the clerk’s father to use his best offices for her protection, comfort, and pleasure in the wild and lawless country to which she was going, and he promised to do so. Everything passed off pleasantly until Fort Clark was reached, when one of the partners of the Upper Missouri Outfit, the bourgeois of the post at Fort Clark, came on board to accompany the boat to Fort Union. He was naturally a rough, arrogant, blustering character, disposed to override everyone, and on two previous occasions La Barge had been compelled to deal pretty severely with him. He was, nevertheless, a man of great energy, well versed in the business of the fur trade, and a good man for the Company. He was therefore tolerated where a less capable man with his faults would have been gotten rid of.
INSULTING INSINUATIONS.
“When he came on board,” said Captain La Barge, “he went to the office and told the clerk to assign him a stateroom so that he could have his baggage sent to it. The clerk promised to attend to it and the bourgeois withdrew. The clerk and myself then looked over the register to see what we could do for him. There was only one room that could be made available except by causing passengers who had secured and paid for their rooms to vacate them. This room was occupied by two clerks, who were compelled to give it up and sleep on cots outside. It was a forward stateroom, and hence not so desirable as those further aft, but still a good room, and the only one that was available. I directed the clerk to have the bourgeois’ baggage put in, and to show him the room when he should request it. About 9 P. M., when the boat was tied up for the night, and I was in the office writing up the journal, the bourgeois came in and asked the clerk for his room. The clerk took him out and showed him his room and told him that two of the clerks had given it up for him. The bourgeois turned up his nose and exclaimed, ‘What! that room for ——, a member of the firm? Can’t I have a room in the after cabin, where the bourgeois are usually assigned?’ He was told that it was impossible without ousting others who could not reasonably be disturbed. He did not ask me, for he knew I would not grant it. Then drawing himself up in a pompous fashion, he said to the clerk, calling him by name: ‘I will occupy your room to-night and you may occupy this,’ and added other suggestions not calculated to mollify the feelings of the young husband.
SEVERE DISCIPLINE.
“The clerk came into the room deathly pale, but made no response to the bourgeois’ insulting insinuations. I overheard the whole conversation, and determined to remain up and see the affair out. After a while the bourgeois came to the door of the office and said to the clerk: ‘Good-night, Mr. ——.’ ‘Good night, Mr. ——,’ replied the clerk, and the bourgeois withdrew and started for the ladies’ cabin. I immediately stepped out and followed him. He walked directly back to the clerk’s stateroom and was about to take hold of the door knob, when I seized him by the collar, jerked him around, gave him a smart kick in the direction of the forward cabin, followed it up by two or three others, and in short order landed him in front of the boat yelling ‘Murder!’ and calling for help. Culbertson and others came out, but I told them not to interfere, as I was simply protecting a lady from insult. The bourgeois would not be quiet, and I ordered my mate Hooper to put him on the bank. This was promptly done, the boat was held off shore by a spar, the gang plank drawn in, and the bourgeois could not get back on board. The weather was so warm that he would not suffer from the cold, and the pestering mosquitoes, which swarmed in the willows, kept him active all night.
“When I returned to St. Louis I made no report of this affair, leaving it to the clerk, whose wife’s honor had been protected, to lay the matter before his father. Instead of reporting the facts he represented that I had treated the bourgeois with uncalled-for severity, and that such things ought not to be allowed to go on. He said nothing of the real cause of the trouble, although his wife, a refined, cultured, and beautiful woman, drove to my house as soon as she returned, and told my wife how thankful she was for what I had done.
“A few days after my return from Union I was summoned to the office, and was there informed that the men in the upper country thought me altogether too hard on them, and that, to avoid future difficulty, it was best to terminate our relations. I replied that I felt so fully justified in my action that I should retire from their service with the utmost willingness if such was their view of the affair. This was in the fall of 1856, and was the last time that I worked for the Company.
THE TRUTH DISCLOSED.
“Three years later I was again called to the office and thus addressed by the father of my ungrateful clerk: