

'mjf^m^. 



XX. 



(JTomecoarc^ Si)ounc:|— ^o^tFicoarcl, 



^^HE time for my departure for the " States " had come 



c^ at last. For some days previous to this there had been 

 [i^ much unseemly canvassing among prospective pas- 

 sengers by the " runners " of the two opposition steamers which 

 were to sail on the same day for Panama. I thought the sub- 

 agents of the contending river boats were bad enough in the 

 free use of Billingsgate toward one another in their wordy 

 fighting over passengers ; but their more pretentious brethren 

 went beyond them by getting up blood-curdling posters, much 

 to the unsettling of the minds of intending travelers. One of 

 these would be headed-^over a cut of an old-time casket: — 



Bew^are of the Floating Coffin ! ! 



followed by some points in the decaying make-up of that ves- 

 sel. The other poster in a glaring headline would start with 

 something like 



Look out for the Ocean Death-trap ! ! 



with the words following similarly grim and savoring of the 

 King of Terrors. These hand-bills so unnerved me, that if I 

 had had a chance to work my passage home on an ox-train I 

 would have taken up with it. 



The steamers were the " Golden Gate " and the " Orizaba," 

 on which last I engaged passage. This was known as the 



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