e
reluctant provision-dealer to go away with his pockets filled with
"I.O.U.'s" instead of cash, and about midnight on the verge of
starvation we fully appreciated an abundant feast. We soon found that
our, enthusiastic friend was trying to do a million dollar business
on a one dollar capital. He was building two railroads, running a
steamboat line, a hotel, a sawmill, building a town and a fifty
thousand dollar opera house for a one hundred population town, with
not a dollar in his pocket.

[Illustration: Flight of the Governor and Staff.]

The next day we sailed on his steamer to meet the governor of the
state, and his staff who were invited to attend a ball in his honor.
The crew was mutinous on account of receiving no pay, the antiquated
machinery broke down every few minutes, and the Major had a fierce
quarrel with a negro minister who had paid first-class fare and
refused to take second-class quarters, to which all colored folks were
forced at the muzzle of the revolver, and a bloody race battle was
only avoided by the fact that the negroes were entirely unarmed.

At length, loading the deck with wild ducks, and fish that fairly
jumped into the little boat to avoid their enemies, the ferocious
gar-fish, we took the governor and staff on board, and floundered back
at a snail's pace to T----. At the landing, we boarded a dilapidated
street car drawn by mules, for the hotel.

Soon--crash! bang, a rail gave way, sending the dignified
governor,--stove-pipe hat flying in the air, coat-tails covering his
head,--into a ditch, his long legs kicking frantically to extricate
his head from the mud. We rescued him and staff with difficulty from
the filth, looking like a bedraggled pack of half-drowned rats.

Finally we reached the hotel, when the colored orchestra from
Jacksonville rushed upon our host demanding their pay in advance,
with furious oaths and unclassical imprecations. In some way, the
embarrassed diplomat silenced their clamors; then the colored waiters
struck for their pay, and "razors were flying in the air." The furious
landlord at last quieted their clamor with a shotgun, and at about
midnight the grand march was sounded, and a nearly famished crowd made
desperate efforts to look cheerful and "trip the light fantastic toe."
All earthly horrors have an end, and in the wee small hours a starving
multitude was treated to a barbacue by our half-crazed host.

Almost every white man in this town sold chain-l