278 MR HAMILTON S ACCOUNT OF MEN 



city of Cincinnati, and tolerably tired of the poison called 

 brandy, I sent for a bottle of champagne from the inn. The 

 bottle came, but on being opened, the contents were much 

 more like sour cider than champagne. In short, the stuff was 

 decidedly too bad for drinking, and was accordingly pushed 

 aside. But the appearance of this anomalous-looking flask 

 evidently caused -some commotion among the passengers. The 

 wine was probably one which few of them had tasted, and 

 many of them were evidently determined to seize the earliest 

 opportunity of enlarging their experience. I should like a 

 glass of your wine, sir, if you have no objections ? said my old 

 enemy the Virginian doctor. I immediately pushed the bottle 

 to him, and he filled his tumbler to the brim. Observing this, 

 the persons about him, without ceremony of any kind, seized 

 the bottle, and its contents incontinently disappeared. 



&quot; In regard to the passengers, truth compells me to say that 

 any thing so disgusting in human shape I had never seen. 

 Their morals and their manners were alike detestable. A cold 

 and callous selfishness, a disregard of all the decencies of 

 society, were so apparent in feature, word, and action, that I 

 found it impossible not to wish that their catalogue of sins had 

 been enlarged by one more hypocrisy. Of hypocrisy, how 

 ever, they were not guilty. The conversation in the cabin 

 was interlarded with the vilest blasphemy, not uttered in a 

 state of mental excitement, but with a coolness and delibera 

 tion truly fiendlike. 



&quot; There was a Baptist clergyman on board, but his presence 

 did not seem to operate as a restraint. The scene of drink 

 ing and gambling had no intermission. It continued day and 

 night. The captain of the vessel, so far from discouraging 

 either vice, was one of the most flagrant offenders in both. 

 He was decidedly the greatest gambler on board, and was 

 often so drunk as to be utterly incapable of taking command 

 of the vessel. There were few female passengers ; but with 

 their presence we were only honoured at meals. At all other 

 times they prudently confined themselves to their own cabin. 



&quot; One circumstance may be mentioned, which is tolerably 

 illustrative of the general habits of the people. In every 

 steam-boat there is a public comb and hair-brush suspended 



