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Her size, as well as the loud reports of her 'scape-pipe, told that she was a boat of the first-class. She was the "Magnolia." She was moving with great velocity, and I had not watched her long, before I perceived that she was fast gaining upon us. At this moment my ears were assailed by a variety of sounds coming from below.
Fancy a two-story house some two hundred feet in length, built of plank, and painted to the whiteness of snow; fancy along the upper story a row of green-latticed windows, or rather doors, thickly set, and opening out upon a narrow balcony; fancy a flattish or slightly rounded roof covered with tarred canvas, and in the centre a range of sky-lights like glass forcing-pits; fancy, towering above all, two enormous black cylinders of sheet-iron, each ten feet in diameter, and nearly ten times as high, the "funnels" of the boat; a smaller cylinder to one side, the "'scape-pipe;" a tall flag-staff standing up from the extreme end of the bow, with the "star-spangled banner" flying from its peak; fancy all these, and you may form some idea of the characteristic features of a steamboat on the Mississippi.
Loring stood alone at the taffrail, listening in thoughtful silence to the sound of revelry within the brightly-lighted cabin, while the hoarse screeching of the 'scape-pipe drowned all other voices and proclaimed the impatient haste of the skipper to be off.
I had not much longer to remain on the wharf-boat. The hoarse barking of a 'scape-pipe fell upon my ear and shortly after the fires of a steamboat furnace appeared, glittering red upon the stream.
The last bell rings the "can't-get-away" folks rush ashore the staging-plank is drawn in some heedless wight has to jump for it the cable is pulled aboard and coiled the engineer's bell tinkles the great wheels revolve, lashing the brown water into foam the steam "whistles" and screams at the boilers, and booms from the 'scape-pipe in regular repetitions neighbouring boats are pressed out of their places their planks cringe and crackle guards are broken, or the slight timbers of wheel-houses, causing a cross-fire of curses between the crews and after some minutes of this pandemoniac confusion, the huge craft clears herself, and rides out upon the broad bosom of the river.
Dreading the contact of this, I rushed aft; but by a fortunate chance the lurch of the boat had brought her stern to windward, and the breeze blew the dangerous element away. The engine was now silent the wheels had ceased to move the 'scape-pipe no longer gave out its booming notes; but instead of these sounds, others of terrible import fell upon the ear.
The very absence of those sounds that one is accustomed to hear in such a place the grinding of the machinery the hoarse detonations of the 'scape-pipe the voices of men the busy hum of conversation, or the ringing laugh the absence of the sights, too the brilliant chandeliers the long tables sparkling with crystal the absence of these, and yet the presence of the scene associated with such sights and sounds gave to the place an air of indescribable desolation.
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