STEAMSHIPS AND SUBSIDIES 219 



chalked the trunks and it was not until many 

 months thereafter that my friend told me that 

 the trunks which had been passed at my request 

 contained four thousand costly cigars. When I 

 upbraided him he replied that he paid all his debts 

 and his honest taxes and had never wronged any 

 man, but that he wouldn't let even the Govern- 

 ment rob him. He argued that he had bought 

 the cigars for his own use and had a right to 

 smoke them either abroad or at home. He knew 

 that I was an enemy of the tariff, but he failed to 

 consider what my position would have been if his 

 smuggling had been discovered. 



As that excursion of friends on the Morro 

 Castle stands out in my memory glistening with 

 sunshine, so is the tragedy of the ill-fated Mis- 

 souri shrouded with gloom. It was soon after 

 our excursion that the Atlantic Mail steamship 

 Missouri was burned at sea and of more than a 

 hundred on board only half a dozen or so were 

 saved. 



It was fourteen years later in the Rocky 

 Mountains that the probable cause of that hor- 



