Year: 1877

| AeeLllSs InaI Is SeIJlng IN the nODIe DeIOre
the crew, for if the crew get in first, noble
is ssforever lost so, as l said our noble crew
thatmanned our craft, q say craft because
for the pun, )were a crafty lot ofs.colored gen
tlemen, " Git is not proper to say niggers. J
They are DUBBED roustabouts, but for wbv.
it is impossible to say. have watched the
mate and heard him call, shout, shrek and
swear, and thsn only get up the most mis-
cradle kind of a roustabout in any OF them.
1t must be an hereditary disease with them.
Their laziness, or in the slavery days they
must have been worked until all work
had left them, they and their progeny for
ever. Each one seemed possessed of par
tieulsr ambition, but it always merges into
one point, and that is their DRESS 1t would
defeat the je'cisbest kind of clother to at
tempt to apparel one of them. l will try
to describe what they cover themselves
with, or rather give an idea. 1t is a diff
cult matter to know where to commence,
as mostly neither head nor foot are adorned,
but when they are, Sanitary Commissioners
can take lessons from the pedal adorn-
ments, as they are matters of science in
ventilation; and engineers would be non
| plusSed with the ease and facility mig
| roustabout can macadamise, what he calls
his hat and with the sof5est Of soil. Then
pants, bags, or what other historic name
one can apply to their neither garments, are
of cut and style tailor would die Of con-
vulsions in endeavoring to perfect fitting
las novelists say to every joint with grace,
room and bulge, and TO every
other part as if there was a
] joint, they are comdious, stiff and
thick. Each leg shows tendency to swing,
wrinkle and hang lower than the other,
and the accumulations Of ages, gives heavy
and fine geological structures around the
ankle, ami continually depending on a slim
piece of string at the waist, or the sole sur
viying member Of the hereditary Suspen-
ders, causes a constant hitch of the ''slacks"
and puts the wearer in constant fear of
| falling over his own trousers. The goods,
cloth or material of which they are made
differs in each individual ones capricious
taste may cOvet healthy combination Of
bed ticking, canvass. blue jeans, and shirt
ing; another whose organ of colour pre-
| dominates arrays himself in much used red
flannel with green edging and white filing
in the rear. while modest taste proclaims
itself in simply open worked cotton baling
for the tops artistically jointed to stocking
bottoms, stockings whose toes and heels are
always away visiting, or serving a better
cause. Such thing as a vest or coat is an
| object of scOrn and that which comes
next, shirt, it depends upon what is a
shirt, to determine if they have any. If a
small bag, carefully gussetted front and
rear, opened at the corners and at the toy.
carelessly fitting at neck and arms. and
| gathered in at the waist in d solid fiuted
manner, can approximate it, thenI will call
it shirt. Others think rep. with all its
glories faded hung on their backs in mys-
teriOus way, battles down conventiOnalism,
and makes shirt. Be that as it may.
They all have them, and the whole world
supplies the fabrics that compose them, IA
brics that little dreamed where their resur-
rection would find them. The being that
inhabits it is the much abused q negro,
and in describing what | have, the best is
done, for the more human portion of the
institution is nothing but


MERE ANIMAL


living and sleeping as such. What money
a rouStahout may earn on a Mississippi
boat is never of benefit te him; he CANDLES
it away with dice, at game called ''Creps,
and such is the hold of this passion upon
the black, that he will steal and even mur-
der to provide himself with means to in
dulge in it. Should fortune favor him
with luck at the game, then all the wicked
ness of his nature is brought into the play
in devising means to spend his winning.
Let us hope time will evolute roustabout
and future ages may not be dismayed at
what will then be prehistoric facts


There are other things time should change,
and l refer to another color, and that is
the whites. Among our fellow passengers
we had some Of the choice specimens of the
qenas homo. Of course, in a Journey from
Cincinnati TO New Orleans, a distance Of
nearly 1, 800 miles, passengers are apt to be-
come somewhat acquainted, and our com
munity followed the rule, and indeed, so
much so, as to reach that point where
peace and quietude become montonous, and


GOSSIP AND RUMoR


were invented to give an excitement to the
time and with the usual result. Among
themale portion of this small world, was
the man who kne@ everything and every
body, who with remarkable sincerity
would ask of the captain a question, and
come back with that officials answer as his
individual experience. There was the
slick and oily man, always dressed just so,
one whose golden q jewellery must always
be bright and lavishly exposed. This in
dividual, in good DrOad-clOth suit, cane
and plug hat, would, on every occasion,
make you aware of his Importance, and
that he was lecturer, a man of superior
intellect. and unrivalled elOquence; that
every soul on this continent knew him and
had read his work; and at New Orleans we
saw this person, street hawker of wood
varnishes, pursuing his superior" vOca-
ton. There was the young man of family
and wealth, whose father owned millions,
himself as much. There was he strutting
around in all his supposed opulence, yet i'll
reality, full of perplexity as to how he can
redeem his fiddle, pawned to the captain
for his fare: for without it ''his occupation
is gone" There was the man who had met
with more adventures, killed more ferocious
animals, of antedeiuvian size, and owned
more courage than dime novel would dare
relate, and in himself the only courage he
had was to lie. There were all kinds, min
i isters, gamblers, actors, drummers gipseys,
and gentlemen, and all with their usual
constituent qualities.


/ am supposed to deal gentler with


THE OTHER SEX,


l but we nave living llluSiralIOn OF UnaU
fearful line, "Hell hath no fury like wo-
mans scorn." party Of two ladies and
two gentlemen, professional people, sup
piled the drdmGtes persOHllee. The wife OF
the younger possessed attractions which
nature had bestowed more Iavishly than on
the wife of the elder, apds with the adVan-
tage of some education, proved decidedly
more attractive than the latter. On every
evening, when dancing helped to make
gayety, and pass time, wife of the younger
made all the conquestS and with graceful
skill elected admiration of her terpsichor-
can ability. Wife of the elder resented her
chagrin and modification, at the defeat of
her own vaunted superiority by secret com
munications and open slander. Once
opened, charges, counter charges and re-
examinations followed speedily and numerl-
eally strong, and | assure You we had as
choice scandal asany society could wish
for, the only thing to regret was not having
sufficient number of those gOssipy DANES
whose real existence is with SUCH IL was
too much for our little community, but 1t
had the effect of splitting up passengers
into two parties. 1t WAS rea ity, for one
day one party would be eXultant in their
supposed victory, victory in charges
made supposed to be capable Of no contra
diction; but next day the eXultation was
changed to tears and wailing, as counter
charges would be of such a nature as 10
completely PROSTATE them. 1t was "a war
of woman's subtletY and to be Just it was