Let us change the heading to “Piloting on the Miss in the Old Times”—or to “Steamboating on the M. in the Old Times”—or to “Personal Old Times on the Missi.” We Ⓐemendationcould change it for Feb. if now too late for Jan.

I Ⓐemendationsuggest it because the present heading is too pretentious, too broad & general. It seems to command me to deliver a Second Book of Revelation to the world, & cover all the Old Times the Misssissipi Ⓐemendation(dang that word, it is worse than type or Egypt) ever saw——whereas here I have finished Article No. III & am about to start on No. IV, & yet I have spoken of nothing but of piloting as a science so far; & I doubt if I ever get beyond that portion of my subject. And I don’t care to. Any muggins can write about Old Times on the Miss of 500 different kinds, but I am the only man alive that can scribble about the piloting of that day—& no man ever has tried to scribble about it yet. Its newness charms pleases me all the time—& it is about the only new subject I know of.

If I were to write fifty articles they would all be about pilots & piloting Ⓐemendation—therefore let’s get the word Piloting into the heading. There’s a sort of freshness about that, too.1explanatory note