It was easy to discover the reason of this.

Too many pilots were being 'made.' It was nice to have a 'cub,' a steersman, to do all the hard work for a couple of years, gratis, while his master sat on a high bench and smoked; all pilots and captains had sons or nephews who wanted to be pilots.

By and by it came to pass that nearly every pilot on the river had a steersman.

When a steersman had made an amount of progress that was satisfactory to any two pilots in the trade, they could get a pilot's license for him by signing an application directed to the United States Inspector.

Nothing further was needed; usually no questions were asked, no proofs of capacity required.
Very well, this growing swarm of new pilots presently began to undermine the wages, in order to get berths.