ropics--Finns
and Swedes, Norwegians and Danes, Tartars and Russians, Poles and
Germans, Frenchmen and Englishmen, South Americans, and--I was going
to say North Americans, of which, however, I was the sole
representative.

It was a motley assemblage--a hodge-podge of humanity, a kind of
living pot-pourri of dirty faces and dirty shirts, military uniforms,
slouched hats, blowses, and big boots. There was a Russian general,
who always stood at the cabin door to show himself to the rest of the
passengers. I don't know for the life of me what he was angry about,
but his face wore a perpetual frown of indignation, scorn, and
contempt; his black brows were constitutionally knit; his eyes seemed
to be always trying to overpower and knock somebody under; his lips
were firmly compressed, and his mustaches stood out like a dagger on
each side, with the handles wrapped in a bundle of dirty hair under
his nose. So tight was his uniform around the body and neck that it
forced all the blood up into his face, and wouldn't let it get back
again; and it seemed a miracle that the veins in his forehead did not
burst and carry away the top of his head, brains and all. Opposite to
this great man, in an attitude of profound humility, stood his
liveried servant--a very gentlemanly-looking person, with an
intellectual baldness covering the entire top of his cranium. This
deferential individual wore a coat beautifully variegated before and
behind with gold lace; a pair of plush knee-breeches, white stockings,
and white kid gloves; and was continually engaged in bowing to the
great man, and otherwise anticipating his wants. When the great man
looked at a trunk, or a carpet sack, or any thing else in the line of
baggage or traveling equipments, the liveried servant bowed very low,
looked nervously about him, and then darted off and seized hold of the
article in question, gave it a pull or a push, put it down again,
looked nervously around him, hurried back and bowed again to his
august master, who by that time was generally looking in some other
direction with an air of great indifference--as much as to say that he
was accustomed to that species of homage, and did not attach any
particular value to it. The passengers regarded him with profound awe
and admiration, and seemed to be very much afraid he would, upon some
trifling provocation, draw his sword and attack them. I was
determined, if ever he undertook such a demonstration of authority as