precedent to guide him. "We took a boat once to Pittsburgh," he said,
"for twenty-five dollars, and yours should be charged the same." The
shipping-clerk of a mercantile house, who had overheard the
conversation, interrupted the agent with a loud laugh. "A charge of
twenty-five dollars freight on a little thing like that! WHY, MAN,
THAT SUM IS NEARLY HALF HER VALUE! How LARGE was the boat you shipped
last fall to Pittsburgh for twenty-five dollars?" "Oh, about twice the
size of this one," answered the agent; "but, size or no size, a boat's
a boat, and we handle so few of them that we have no special tariff on
them." "But," said the clerk, "you can easily and honestly establish a
tariff if you will treat a boat as you do all other freight of the
same class. Now, for instance, how do common boats rank, as first or
third class freight?" "Third class, I should think," slowly responded
the agent. "Ease your conscience, my friend," continued the clerk, "by
weighing the boat, and charging the usual tariff rate for third class
freight."

The boat, with its cargo still locked up inside, was put upon the
scales, and the total weight was three hundred and ten pounds, for
which a charge of seventy-two cents per one hundred pounds was made,
and the boat placed on some barrels in a car. Thus did the common-
sense and business-like arrangement of the friendly clerk secure for
me the freight charge of two dollars and twenty-three cents, instead
of twenty-five dollars, on a little boat for its carriage three
hundred and fifty-three miles to Pittsburgh, and saved me not only
from a pecuniary loss, but also from the uncomfortable feeling of
being imposed upon.

In these days of canoe and boat voyages, when portages by rail are a
necessary evil, a fixed tariff for such freight would save dollars and