speaker was old Mrs. Simmons, boarding-house keeper, and resident of
a certain town on the Ohio River. The prime cause of her remark was
Captain Sam Toppie, of the steamboat Queen Ann.

Captain Sam had stopped with Mrs. Simmons every time the Queen Ann laid
up for repairs, and he was so genial, frank and manly, that he had found
a warm spot in the good old lady's heart.

But one thing marred the otherwise perfect happiness of Mrs. Simmons
when in Captain Sam's society, and that was what she styled his "lost
condition." For Mrs. Simmons was a consistent, conscientious Methodist,
while Captain Sam was--well, he was a Western steamboat captain.

This useful class of gentlemen are in high repute among shippers and
barkeepers, and receive many handsome compliments from the daily papers
along the line of the Western rivers; but, somehow, the religious Press
is entirely silent about them, nor have we ever seen of any special
mission having been sent to them.

Captain Sam was a good specimen of the fraternity--good-looking,
good-natured, quick-witted, prompt, and faithful, as well as
quick-tempered, profane, and perpetually thirsty. To carry a full load,
put his boat through in time, and always drink up to his peg, were his
cardinal principles, and he faithfully lived up to them.

Of the fair sex he was a most devoted admirer, and if he had not
possessed a great deal of modesty, for a steamboat captain, he could
have named two or three score of young women who thought almost as much
of him as the worthy boarding-house keeper did.

Good Mrs. Simmons had, to use her own language, "kerried him before the
Lord, and wrastled for him;" but it was very evident, from Sam's walk
and conversation, that his case had not yet been adjudicated according
to Mrs. Simmons's liking.

He still had occasional difficulties with the hat-stand and stairway
after coming home late at night; his breath, though generally odorous,
seemed to grieve Mrs. Simmons's olfactories, and his conversation, as
heard through his open door in Summer, was thickly seasoned with
expressions far more Scriptural than reverential.

One Christmas, the old lady presented to the captain a handsome Bible,
with his name stamped in large gilt letters on the cover. He was so
delighted and so proud of his present, that he straightway wrapped it in
many folds of paper to prevent its being soiled, and then stowed it
neatly away in the Queen Ann's safe, for secure keeping.