Identifier: landunitmynative00coxjrich (find matches)
Title: My native land : the United States: its wonders, its beauties, & its people; with descriptive notes, character sketches, folk lore, traditions, legends & history, for the amusement of the old & the instruction of the young
Year: 1903 (1900s)
Authors: Cox, James, 1851-1901
Subjects: United States -- Description and travel San Francisco (Calif.) -- Description and travel United States -- Social life and customs
Publisher: Philadelphia : Blair Pub. Co.
Contributing Library: University of California Libraries
Digitizing Sponsor: MSN

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re and health-seekers are also carried in large numbers. Everything was not prosaic in river life in the old days.All of us have heard of the great races on the Mississippi River between magnificent steamers, and of the excitement on deck as first one and then the other gained a slight advantage. Stories, more or less reliable, have been told again and again of the immense sums of money made and lost by speculators who backed their own boats against all comers. Tricks and jokes also prevailed and continue up to the present time. The passenger on a Tennessee Riverboat is almost sure to be told how a very popular first mate escaped arrest by disguising himself as a cook. The story is amusing enough to bear repetition, and bereft of corroborative detail, evidently designed to lend artistic verisimilitude to the narrative, it is as follows: The boat was detained at a landing at a small Kentucky town where the laws against gambling were supposed to be very strict. Some of the officers of the boat were
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Image: Passenger Whaleback Columbus - McDougal Whaleback - A Lake Steam Ship - OUR GREAT WATERWAYS. 361 determined to kill time by staking a few dollars at poker, faro or something worse, and inquiries were made in con-sequence as to where a game could be found. These resulted satisfactorily from the gamblers standpoint, and the crowd took themselves to the appointed spot, taking with them the very stout, good-natured, but not very speculative first mate. The game was played in a small room at the rear of an almost equally small restaurant. Everything went well for awhile, and those who were winning thought they had everything the heart could possibly desire. All at once one of the colored help came rushing in with a notification that the place was being raided. It was a case of every man for himself. As is usual in cases of this kind, one or two got under the table, where of course they were promptly found and arrested. Two others jumped out of the window, into the arms of two deputies,who were standing there to receive them. The mate, caught for the first

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