STEAMSHIPS AND SUBSIDIES 221 



must have looked incredulous, for Larkin con- 

 tinued in the same droning tone: 



"Don't s'pose you remember how I helped you 

 forrad to the pilot house that time we burned 

 sugar on the Morro?" 



I wondered then, half a lifetime after the 

 Missouri tragedy, if the key had been thrust in 

 my hand up there on the crest of the continent, 

 two thousand miles away. For it was a demi- 

 john of aguardiente stowed away above the fire- 

 room of the Missouri, broken as that craft was 

 tossed about in a storm, that caused the calamity. 

 So quickly did the flames spread that men were 

 burned to death in attempting to launch boats on 

 the leeward side as the steamer wallowed in the 

 trough of the sea, while those that were launched 

 on the windward side were dashed to pieces while 

 being lowered. Just a few of those on board 

 were saved by clinging to a small raft that was 

 being carried on deck as freight. Among the 

 lost were two brothers of Grover Cleveland, the 

 elder of whom, Lewis, was on his way to Nassau, 



