CHAPTER XI 



STEAMSHIPS AND SUBSIDIES 



Something must be done to boom trade with 

 the tropics. We carried most of the sugar and 

 tobacco, the oranges and lemons that came to the 

 country, but the passenger traffic needed develop- 

 ing. I filled the Morro Castle, our best steamer, 

 on one trip with personal friends of my own. 

 There were newspaper editors and magazine 

 men, poets and politicians, artists and bank of- 

 ficials, senators and clergymen. We left our 

 dock on the 25th of January, 1872. After two 

 or three days of storm the weather became good 

 to us and it was one happy family that overflowed 

 the quarterdeck. There was music and dancing, 

 song and recitation, with an occasional bit of 

 flirtation, for there were some amazingly pretty 

 girls on board, and excepting myself most of the 

 men were in susceptible mood. 



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