tting down their money as fast as they could get up to
the table. I was doing a land-office business, when all of a sudden
there was a terrific noise, followed by the hissing of escaping
steam, mingled with the screams and groans of the wounded and dying.
The boat had blown up, and was almost a total wreck. There was
but very little left, and that consisted mostly of the barber shop,
which was at the time full of gamblers, and not one of them was
hurt. The steamers _Peerless_ and _McRay_ came to our aid; one
boat looked after the dead and wounded, and the other took us lucky
fellows out of the barber shop. One hundred souls were landed
Into eternity without a moment's warning, and among them were the
fourteen preachers. It was a horrible sight; the bodies were so
mangled and scalded that one could not have recognized his own
brother or sister. Captain William Campbell (now of the Vicksburg
Packet line) was steward of the _Princess_ at the time of the
explosion, and there was not a man on the boat that worked harder
to save life and relieve the wounded. He richly deserved his
promotion, and is now one of the best captains on the river.

A WOMAN WITH A GUN.

I was on a boat coming from Memphis one night, when my partner beat
a man out of $600, playing poker. After the game broke up, the
man went into the ladies' cabin and told his wife. She ran into
his room and got his pistol, and said, "I will have that money
back, or kill the man." I saw her coming, pistol in hand, and
stepped up to the bar and told the barkeeper to hand me that old
gun he had in the drawer, which I knew had no loads in it. She
came on, frothing at the mouth, with blood in her eyes. I saw she
was very much excited, and I said to her: "Madame, you are perfectly
right. You would do right in shooting that fellow, for he is
nothing but a gambler. I don't believe your pistol will go off;
you had better take my pistol, for I am a government detective,
and have to keep the best of arms." So I handed her the pistol,
and took hers. Just a moment later out stepped the man who had
won the money, and she bolted up to him and said: "You won my
husband's money, and I will just give you one minute to hand it to
me, or I will blow your brains out in this cabin." Well, you ought
to have seen the passengers getting out of the cabin when she pulled
down on him; but he knew the joke and stood pat, and showed what
a game fellow he was. He told the