But What A Scene Is Witnessed For The First Two Hours
After The Passengers Begin To Come Aboard!
The cabin is almost filled,
and a dense crowd surrounds the clerk's office, just as the ticket
office of a theatre is crowded on a benefit night.
Of course not more
than half can get state-rooms and the rest must sleep on the cabin
floor. Over two hundred cabin passengers came up on the Lady Franklin.
The beds which are made on the floor are tolerably comfortable, as
each boat is supplied with an extra number of single mattresses. The
Lady Franklin is an old boat, and this is said to be its last season.1
Two years ago it was one of the excursion fleet to St. Paul, and was
then in its prime. But steamboats are short lived. We had three tables
set, and those who couldn't get a seat at the first or second sat at
the third. There was a choice you may believe, for such was the havoc
made with the provisions at the first table that the second and third
were not the most inviting. It was amusing to see gentlemen seat
themselves in range of the plates as soon as they were laid, and an
hour before the table was ready. But the officers were polite as is
generally the case on steamboats till you get down to the second
mate and in the course of a day or two, when the passengers begin to
be acquainted, the time wears away pleasantly.
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