The evening telegraph. [volume] (Philadelphia [Pa.]) 1864-1918, 1867-12-02


though they formed small street, built
by the varying tastes OF dosen
menl the whole s supported on oeams and
above the water's edge; and IN the narr0 space
between this upper structure and this barge's
deck are the furnace fires and machinery, open
st the sides TO every wind that blows, and every
storm OF rain 1t drives along its path.
Passing one of these boats at night and
seeing the great body of fire, exposed as
beneath the frail pile of pointed wood :
the machinery, not warded of nor guarded
in any way, but doing its work in the midst
OF the crowd OF idlers and emigrants and
children who throng the lower deck, under
the management, too, Of reckless men whose
acquaintance with its mysteries may have
been OF six months standing-one feels
directly that the wonder is, not that there
should be GO 90, ,ao"y fatal accidents, but that
any journey should be safely made.
Within, there is one long, narrow cabin, the
whole length of the boat, from which the state
rooms open on both SIDES. A small portion of
1t at the stern Is partitoned off for the ladies;
and the bar is at the opposite extreme. There
is long table down the centre, and at either
end stove. The washing apparatus is forward,
on the deck. 1t is little better than on board
the canal-boat, but not much. In all modes of
travelling. the American customs with reference
TO the means OF personal cleanliness and whole
some ablution are extremely negligent and
filthy; and strongly incline to the belief that
considerable amount of illness is referable to
this cause
We are to be on board the Messenger three
days; arriving at Cincinnati (barrlng accidents)
on Monday morning. There are three meals
day. Breakfast at seven, dinner at halfpast
twelve, supper about six AT each there are
great many small dishes and plates upon the
table, with very little in them, so that although
there is every appearance of mighty spread
there is seldom really more than joint; except
Tor those who fancy slices of beet-root, shreds
OF dried beef complicated entauglements OF
yellow pickle, maize, Indian corn, apple-sauce,
and pumpkin.
Some people fancy all these little dainties to-
gether (and sweet preserves besides), by way of
relish TO their roast pig. They are generally
those ,dyspephc ladies. and gentlemen who
eat unheard.of quan titles of hot corn-bread
(almost as good for the digestion as o
kneaded pin-cushion) for breakfast and
serve this custom, and who help themselves
several times instead, usually suck their
knives and forks meditaLvely, until they
have decided what to take next; then pull
them out Of their months, put them In the
dish, help themselves, and fall to work
again. At dinner there is nothing to drink
upon the table, but great jugs full of cold
water. Nobody says anything at any meal
to anybody. All the passengers are very
dismal, and seem to have tremendous secrets
weighing on their minds. There is no con-
versation, no laughter, no cheerfalEess, no
sociality, except in splitting; and that is
done in silent fellowship round the stove
when the meal is over Every man sits
down, dull and languid, swallows his fare as
necessities of nature never to be coupled
with recreation or enjoyment; and having
bolted his food in a gloomy silence, bolts him
sell in the same state. But for these animal
obseryances, you might suppose the whole male
portion of the company to be the melancholy
ghosts Of departed book-keepers, who had
fallen dead at the desk, such is their weary air
of business and calculation. Undertakers on
duty would be sprlghtly beside them; and
collation. of funeral baked meats, ia comparison
with these meals, would be aSparkling testivity.
The people are all alike, too. There Is no
diversity OF character. They travel about on
the same errands, say and do the same things in
exactly the same manner, and follow in the same
dull, cherries round, All down the long table
there is scarcely man who is in anything diff
terent from his neighbor. 1t is quite a relief to
have sitting opposite that little girl of fifteen
with the loquactous chin; who, to do her justice,
acts up to IT, and fully identities natures hand
writing; for, of all the small chatter-boxes
that ever invaded the repose of droWsy ladies'
cabins she is the first and foremost. The beau
tiful girl who sits little beyond her-farther
down the table there-married the young man
with the dark whiskers, who sits beyond her,
only last month. They are going TO settle in the
very Far West, where he has lived four years,
but where she has never BEEN They were both
overturned in a stage coach the other day
Ia bad omen anywhere else where over
turns are not so common), and his head, which
bears the marks OF recent wound, is bound up
still. She was hurt too, at the same time, and
lay insenslble Tor some days, bright as her eyes
are now.
| some miles beyond their place of destination,
to Improve" newly discovered copper-mne.
| He carries the village-that is to be-with
| him. few frame cottages, and an appa-
ratus for smelling the copper. He carries its
| people, too. They are partly American, and
partly Irish, and herd together on the lower
| deck, where they amused themselves last
evening, till the night was pretty far advanced
| by alternately firing off pistols and singing
| hymns.
They, and the very few who have been left at
| table twenty minutes, rise and go away. We
| do so too; and, passing through our little
state-room, resume our seats in the quietgallery
| without,
A fine broad river always, but in some
parts much wider than In Others and then
| there is usually green island covered with
| trees, dividing 1t into two streams Occasion
| ally we stop for few minutes, maybe to take in
| wood, maybe for passengers, at some small town
or village Il ought to say city; every place Is a
city here); but the banks are for the most part
deep solitudes overgrown with grees, which
hereabouts are already in leaf and very green.
For miles and miles these sohtudes are unbroken
by any sign of human life or trace of human
footstep; nor is anything seen to move about
them but the bluejay, whose color is so bright
and vet SO delicate that il looks like a hyipg
flower. At heightened intervals a log cabin,
with its little space of cleared land about it,
nestles under rising ground, and sends its
thread OF blue smoke curling up into the sky It
stands IN the corner of the poor field of wheat,
which is full Of great unsightly stumps like
earthly butchers blocks. Sometimes the ground
is only just now cleared; the felled trees lying
yet upon the soil, and the log house only
this morning begun. As we pass this clearing,
the settler leans upon his axe or hammer, and
looks wistiully at the people from the world.
| The children creep out of the temporary hut,
which is like gypsy tent upon the ground, and