4 
MISSING TRUNKS. 829 
drawn for more, or borrowed or got trusted, perhaps. If we 
had even lost our reputation or character we might get along 
‘among strangers by leading a virtuous life in the future, and we 
knew that God forgives us if man docs not. Even the loss of 
reason may prove to be a temporary affair which the quiet and 
medicated air of the ocean has power to sometimes restore. But 
to lose one’s clothes—to leave behind one’s wardrobe, just as the 
ship that is to carry you to distant countries is getting up steam 
to take you away, is a calamity so crushing and overwhelming 
that one would hardly desire such a misfortune to befall his bit- 
terestenemy. Why, character and respectability, social position, 
civilization, everything that makes a man among men and a lady 
among women, is involved in one’s personal dry goods. When 
one begins to wear clothes he ceases to be a savage, and is indecd 
almost a Christian. It is true we were bound for the isles of 
perpetual summer, where clothes are not required to meet any 
physical want, and are only worn to indicate that man is not a 
brute beast; but still we, and especially the female half of us, 
were really horrified at the idea of leaving New York upon a long 
journey, almost as naked as we were born. 
A young and efficient officer of the New Haven Steamboat 
Company came to our relief, utilized the telegraph, and thus 
endeavored to secure for our trunks a place on board the Conti- 
nental, which was to leave New Haven for New York at 10 a. a1. 
A delay in the sailing time of the Western Texas was promised 
us, and we waited in a state of mingled hope and fear the slow 
creeping of the languid hours. O, how much depended on the 
result! Whether we should leave our native land decent, re- 
spectable people, or otherwise, all depended upon the arrival or 
non-arrival on time of those ill-starred and sad-fated trunks. 
We sat upon the deck of the Western Texas and closely scruti- 
nized every approaching steamer. How beautifully, like gigan- 
