"A Chamber Pot and Cabbage"
(Story about Dr. Jim Worrel)
One wishes that Mark Twain could have met Dr. Jim Worrel (1911-2000). Like Mark Twain, Jim loved
to reminisce about his days on the Mississippi River where he had spent twenty years. And like Mark
Twain, Dr. Jim enjoyed the tall story, the frontier humor, and the local color of the towns and people along
the Mississippi. Jim was the nephew of the legendary Clat Adams who owned and operated the famous
Mississippi river store from 1900 until 1947. Jim became a pilot of Mississippi River steamboats and in
that way was able to pay for his medical school.
Jim had a wealth of stories from his Mississippi River days and loved to share those stories with friends
and audiences. Jim always chuckled when he was asked about his jobs went on his first steamboat trip. He
recalled that he was about eleven years old but it seemed that he had already learned a few things from his
Uncle Clat. He was a crumb boy which meant that he did everything that no one else wanted to do. That
meant washing dishes, cleaning pots, mopping the floor and any other kind of disagreeable job that might
come along. His story on how he used a chamber pot to serve rancid cabbage to the steamboat crew was
recalled with a lot of enthusiasm and many chuckles.
Well, I had to do all those jobs nobody else wanted to do. I even helped to prepare meals. Now I
didn't know anything about that! I was told to cut up the cabbage and get it ready. Now it was getting
a little old but the cook told me to go ahead. When I got it ready I couldn't find a pot to serve it in. I
rummage around and found a chamber pot---now it was clean! Well, when I brought out the cabbage
some of the guys on the crew were too finicky to eat from the chamber pot. Even after that they still
kept me in the kitchen.
Jim worked on the towboats and on the ferry that docked right near the Clat Adams store. The job on
the ferry was very demanding and not too exciting and it interfered with Jim's social life. While he was
going to Quincy High School he always had a job on the river during the summer months. He remembered
working on the ferry and how the adults took advantage of a ten year old kid. Clat Adams gave him some
helpful advice on the occasion,
The ferry paid one dollar a day. I think it was a dollar a day. They had tickets and they were
numbered. When I first started working over on the Quincy side, the ticket officer warned me that
there would be people who would cheat me. I was a young kid and adults will cheat you. So they'd
say something like, "I'll give you a five." Well, at the end of the day when I'd check in I never made
any money for a while. I was always having to make up what somebody cheated me. I was about two
or three dollars short and I had to work to make it up. My uncle Clat said, "I don't want you cheating
no one, but if there is any cheating going on you'd better do it." Now that stopped that! Now if you
want to cheat them, instead of showing, if they give you a half dollar, you show them a quarter, give
them change for a quarter. Uncle Clat also showed me how to have nickels in one hand and quarters
in the other. If a man said he had give you a quarter you pointed out the nickel. My Uncle Clat was
pretty smart even though he only had a couple of years of education.
"The Day Before the Judge"
(Story by Bus Downs)
Bus Downs (born in 1914) was probably the number one commercial fisherman on the Mississippi when he
was a young man. During the Depression he also guided duck hunters from Chicago, Peoria, Kansas City
and other places. These were men who could afford the expense of the trip and the guide. Buz was probably
making more money by his hunting, fishing, trapping and guiding than other people who did not have his
skills. When fishermen and hunters gather they often tell tall stories of their encounters with the game
wardens and the police. Buz, during his more than 70 years on the Mississippi, also had had his encounters
with the law. When Buz was hunting and fishing in the 20's and 30's wild game were so plentiful that no one
could see a problem with taking more game than the law allowed. It was also true of other regulations
regarding the use of such things as boats and life jackets. Buz remembers that when he was about 16 years
old he was caught by the Coast Guard.
I was the first to get arrested for not having a life jacket. Me and Alan and another guy, we all got
arrested for not having them life jackets. We got arrested without them life jackets and for this and
that. The Coast Guard got us, that's when they first came down the river. They picked me up and
then they got Alan when he first came up on the ferry boat. He didn't have no life jackets. Then they
got this other guy, I think he was a lawyer, he was out on a pleasure boat when they picked him up.
Bus' explanation was that the Coast Guard was going to make an example of him and the others by taking
them to Springfield and having their case heard in the State Capital. When one remembers that this was
during the Depression, one can appreciate Bus wearing his bib overalls at the hearing. The three Quincyans
went together to Springfield and it is not difficult to visualize the three culprits , one in overalls and the
other two in good looking suits. Bus laughed when he recalled the incident.
So they took us to Springfield because they were going to take us over there to register, had to go to
Springfield.(Springfield is about 100 miles from Quincy). Alan said, "Come and go with us."Me and
Alan and this other guy went together in a car.
Bus never explained how he was able to figure out the judge, but as it turned out, he was somehow able to
know what the judge was thinking.
On my little ticket they said that they were going to fine me a hundred dollars for no life jacket, a
hundred dollars for this, and a hundred dollars for that...well, my whole fine was four hundred and
ten dollars. Their fines were about the same. So I told Alan,. "These are hard time." Why you'd
work for six bits or a dollar a day. I said, "I'm going to wear my bib overalls over there." The rest of
them...this one guy got a new set of clothes and Al, he had some fancy clothes on. I go over there in
my overalls. Well, they got me up there first. Got my hand up there...The judge said, "Well, your
fine will be four hundred and ten dollars." It come down to that because there was a hundred dollars
for this and hundred dollars for that. "Hell," I said to myself, "I'm not going to pay it." I said to the
judge, "I'm not going to pay it. I'll set it out." Well, this little old judge looked at me for a minute
and then he said, "Sonny, could you pay the ten?" Now I had the money. I had enough in my back
pocket [to pay the fine]. But I said, "Yeah, I can pay the ten." So let me loose and I paid the ten.
Then he got the other guy and I'll never forget it! He got him up there and his fine came to a little
more than mine...four hundred dollars and something...maybe close to five hundred dollars. And
boy, that little old judge put it right to him. He was rough! And the same with Alan. He got him too.
We got in the car and came home and Alan said, "Never again...if I ever go over there again, I'm
going to wear a pair of overalls." I was the only one to get out of it. I got out of it for ten dollars.
That was about 1930 or '31. I guess I was about sixteen years old at the time.
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