The association attended its own funerals in state, and paid for them.

When occasion demanded, it sent members down the river upon searches for the bodies of brethren lost by steamboat accidents; a search of this kind sometimes cost a thousand dollars.
The association procured a charter and went into the insurance business, also.

It not only insured the lives of its members, but took risks on steamboats.
The organization seemed indestructible.

It was the tightest monopoly in the world.

By the United States law, no man could become a pilot unless two duly licensed pilots signed his application; and now there was nobody outside of the association competent to sign.