d a little out-house erected for his especial convenience;
and there, well provided with towels, and armed with plenty of razors,
a brush of extraordinary size, and a foaming sea of lather, Jose
shaved the new-comers. The rivalry to get within reach of his huge
brush was very great; and the threats used by the neglected, when the
grinning black was considered guilty of any interested partiality,
were of the fiercest description.

This duty over, they and their coarser female companions--many of them
well known to us, for they travelled backwards and forwards across the
Isthmus, hanging on to the foolish gold-finders--attacked the dinner,
very often with great lack of decency. It was no use giving them
carving-knives and forks, for very often they laid their own down to
insert a dirty hairy hand into a full dish; while the floor soon bore
evidences of the great national American habit of expectoration. Very
often quarrels would arise during the progress of dinner; and more
than once I thought the knives, which they nearly swallowed at every
mouthful, would have been turned against one another. It was, I always
thought, extremely fortunate that the reckless men rarely stimulated
their excitable passions with strong drink. Tea and coffee were the
common beverages of the Americans; Englishmen, and men of other
nations, being generally distinguishable by their demand for wine and
spirits. But the Yankee's capacity for swilling tea and coffee was
prodigious. I saw one man drink ten cups of coffee; and finding his
appetite still unsatisfied, I ran across to my brother for advice.
There was a merry twinkle in his eyes as he whispered, "I always put
in a good spoonful of salt after the sixth cup. It chokes them off
admirably."

It was no easy thing to avoid being robbed and cheated by the less
scrupulous travellers; although I think it was only the 'cutest Yankee
who stood any fair chance of outwitting me. I remember an instance of
the biter bit, which I will narrate, hoping it may make my reader
laugh as heartily as its recollection makes me. He was a tall, thin
Yankee, with a furtive glance of the eyes, and an amazing appetite,
which he seemed nothing loath to indulge: his appetite for eggs
especially seemed unbounded. Now, I have more than once said how
expensive eggs were; and this day they happened to be eightpence
apiece. Our plan was to charge every diner according to the number of
shells found upon his plate. Now, I no