Year: 1866

invitation to one or two friends he had with
him.


l told him certainly, with pleasure, and
| turned aud led the way to the bar. All Of


his one or two friends accepted the invita-


ton and went with US. The bar-keepeI
counted nine of them, and l think he made


a mistake Of at least three In my favor.
The young man and his friends took bran


dy cocktails. took a claret punch. Cla-


ret punches are two-hits Brandy cocktails


are four.


As soon as l could get clear of the young


man and his friends, l went round behind


the wheel-house and counted the money /


had left. There was hardly enough of it, if


l had charged anything, to pay ne for the


trouble As | wSdded it up and thrust it


into my vest pocket, / rubbed out the golden


rule of my social decalogue and substituted
therefor this wise maxim


Never invite a young man to drink with
you on a steamboat who d-ns the Fourth
of July"


The Reindeer has no tubular boilers, and
reached Point Clear without blowing up-if
she reached there at all, of which am not
quite sure. After paying for the brandy
drank by the young man and his zone or
two friends" l did not care a damaged
postage stamp whether the boilers were tu-
bular or not. / felt that there are some
crowds into which such boilers may be in
troduced to advantage. There are moments
IN our lives when we would cheerfully be
blown sky-high for the mere satisfaction of
seeing some others going up at the same
time.


But nothing Of that sort could dampen
my anticipations Of a glorious day at Point
Clear, where the sea-breezes are as cool as a
cucumber and the bathing delightful Such
Injuries, knew, were to be had there with
out money and without price. THANK heav-
en- for blessings chainless in the rich mans
keepingl" The bath and the breeze are
among them.


When in about FIVE miles of the Point
the white buildings Of which lay like a
bank Of snow between the green pine and
magnolia. forest and the Bay, 1 went down to
the lower deck to look at the machinery.
There were some enterprising girls on the
boat who had been selling oranges to some
body down there, and he had thrown the peel
ings upon the floor. While watching the
fireman punch the furnace with a long
iron poker, l trod on one Of these orange
peels, my heels few up, and | sat down in
bucket of very dirty water, which had been
used in scrubbing the pantry. arose amid
the well-merited applause of the deck hands,
slipped a second time, and seated myself on
a bank of coal dust. To a man in a bob
tailed coat and white linen trowsers, on his
way with a boat load of women, to fashion
able watering-place, this was disagreeable.
L was sorry l didn't postpone my examina-
tiOn of the machinery until l got back to
town.


L.retired to a secluded part of the boat,
somewhere in the ueighborhood of the rud-
der, and turned my pantaloons wrong-side
out This, however didn't mend the matter
much; but | determined to put bold front
on the matter and go back to the upper-deck.
l was in the act of doing so when flaw of
wind struck my hat and shot it about forty
feet into the water. Steamboats, never stop
to pick up hats and mine foated away in the
direction of Pascagoula.


$50 to everlasting thunder, you dirty,
doggoned son-of-a-gun," said /, shaking my
fist at it, for at that stage of the game
began to get mad. 1t had all come of ask
ing young man who had id the Fourth
of July to take a drink with Inc. This
thought inspired me with the determination
to 90 and take drink by myself / accord
ingly made my way to the bar by an obscure
route, and called for another elaret-punch.
then took three more, one right after the
other.