me.

We did not carry our horses on this boat; but stopped at relay stations
for fresh teams, and after we had pulled out from one of these stations,
we went flying along at from six to eight miles an hour, with a cook
getting up nine meals; and we often had a "sing" as we called it when in
the evening the musical passengers got together and tuned up. Many of
them carried dulcimers, accordions, fiddles, flutes and various kinds of
brass horns, and in those days a great many people could sing the good
old hymns in the _Carmina Sacra_, and the glees and part-songs in the
old _Jubilee_, with the soprano, tenor, bass and alto, and the high
tenor and counter which made better music than any gathering of people
are likely to make nowadays. All they needed was a leader with a
tuning-fork, and off they would start, making the great canal a pretty
musical place on fine summer evenings. We traveled night and day, and at
night the boat, lighted up as well as we could do it then, with lanterns
and lamps burning whale-oil, and with candles in the cabin, looked like
a traveling banquet-hall or opera-house or tavern.

We were always crowded with immigrants when we went west; and on our
eastern voyages even, our passenger traffic was mostly related to the
West, its trade, and its people. Many of the men had been out west
"hunting country," and sat on the decks or in the cabins until late at
night, telling their fellow-travelers what they had found, exchanging
news, and sometimes altering their plans to take advantage of what
somebody else had found. Some had been looking for places where they
could establish stores or set up in some other business. Some had gone
to sell goods. Some were travelers for the purpose of preying on others.
I saw a good deal of the world, that summer, some of which I understood,
but not much. I understand it far better now as I look back upon it.

I noticed for the first time now that class of men with whom we became
so well acquainted later, the land speculators. These, and the bankers,
many of whom seemed to have a good deal of business in the West, formed
a class by themselves, and looked down from a far height on the working
people, the farmers, and the masses generally, who voyaged on the same
boats with them. They talked of development, and the growth of the
country, and the establishments of boats and the building of railways;
while the rest of us thought about homes and places to make our livings.