e hands of new proprietors. The
most gorgeous preparations were made for celebrating the _two_ events.
The bar was retrimmed with red calico, the bowling-alley had a new
lining of the coarsest and whitest cotton cloth, and the broken
lamp-shades were replaced by whole ones. All day long, patient mules
could be seen descending the hill, bending beneath casks of brandy and
baskets of champagne, and, for the first time in the history of that
celebrated building, the floor (wonderful to relate, it _has_ a floor)
was _washed_, at a lavish expenditure of some fifty pails of water, the
using up of one entire broom, and the melting away of sundry bars of
the best yellow soap, after which I am told that the enterprising and
benevolent individuals who had undertaken the herculean task succeeded
in washing the boards through the hopeless load of dirt which had
accumulated upon them during the summer and autumn. All these
interesting particulars were communicated to me by Ned when he brought
up dinner. That distinguished individual himself was in his element,
and in a most intense state of perspiration and excitement at the same
time.

About dark we were startled by the loudest hurrahs, which arose at the
sight of an army of india-rubber coats (the rain was falling in
riverfuls), each one enshrouding a Rich Barian, which was rapidly
descending the hill. This troop was headed by the "General," who, lucky
man that he is, waved on high, instead of a banner, a _live_ lantern,
actually composed of tin and window-glass, and evidently intended by
its maker to act in no capacity but that _of_ a lantern. The General is
the largest and tallest, and with one exception I think the oldest, man
upon the river. He is about fifty, I should fancy, and wears a
snow-white beard of such immense dimensions, in both length and
thickness, that any elderly Turk would expire with envy at the mere
sight of it. Don't imagine that _he_ is a reveler. By no means. The gay
crowd followed _him_, for the same reason that the king followed Madam
Blaize,--because she went before.

At nine o'clock in the evening they had an oyster-and-champagne supper
in the Humboldt, which was very gay with toasts, songs, speeches, etc.
I believe that the company danced all night. At any rate, they were
dancing when I went to sleep, and they were dancing when I woke the
next morning. The revel was kept up in this mad way for three days,
growing wilder every hour. Some never slept