For Instance, An Agent, Or, If You
Please, A Runner Of A Boat Called Lucy Not Long Made The Assertion
On the levee with great zeal and perfect impunity that no other boat
but the said Lucy would leave for
St. Paul within twenty-four hours;
when it must have been known to him that another boat on the mail line
would start that same evening, as was actually the fact. But the
activity of the runners was needless; for each boat had more
passengers than it could well accommodate. I myself went aboard the "
Lady Franklin," one of the mail boats, and was accommodated with a
state-room. But what a scene is witnessed for the first two hours
after the passengers begin to come aboard! The cabin is almost filled,
and a dense crowd surrounds the clerk's office, just as the ticket
office of a theatre is crowded on a benefit night. Of course not more
than half can get state-rooms and the rest must sleep on the cabin
floor. Over two hundred cabin passengers came up on the Lady Franklin.
The beds which are made on the floor are tolerably comfortable, as
each boat is supplied with an extra number of single mattresses. The
Lady Franklin is an old boat, and this is said to be its last season.1
Two years ago it was one of the excursion fleet to St. Paul, and was
then in its prime. But steamboats are short lived. We had three tables
set, and those who couldn't get a seat at the first or second sat at
the third. There was a choice you may believe, for such was the havoc
made with the provisions at the first table that the second and third
were not the most inviting. It was amusing to see gentlemen seat
themselves in range of the plates as soon as they were laid, and an
hour before the table was ready. But the officers were polite as is
generally the case on steamboats till you get down to the second
mate and in the course of a day or two, when the passengers begin to
be acquainted, the time wears away pleasantly. We were nearly four
days in making the trip. The line of boats of which the Lady Franklin
is one, carries the mail at fifty dollars a trip. During the boating
season I believe the fare varies from seven to ten dollars to St.
Paul.2 This season there have been two lines of boats running to
Minnesota. All of them have made money fast; and next season many more
boats will run. The "Northern Belle" is the best boat this season, and
usually makes the trip up in two days. The advertised time is thirty
hours.
[1 Three weeks after this trip the Lady Franklin was snagged, and
became a total toss.]
[2 The following is a table of distances from Galena to St. Paul:
Dubuque,
24
Dunleith,
1
25
Potosi Landing,
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