g the passage, and which may be
appropriately classed under the head of steamboat crimes.

At the hour for retiring, the ladies' cabin was filled with the feminine
portion of the passengers, who began to divest themselves of their
garments in order to court the embraces of the drowsy god. There was the
simpering boarding-school miss of sixteen; the fat wife of a citizen
with a baby in her arms, and another in anticipation; the lady of
fashion, attended by her maid; the buxom widow, attended by a lap-dog,
musical with silver bells, and there, too, was the elderly dame,
attended by a host of grandchildren, to the horror of an old maid, who
declares she 'can't BEAR young ones,' which is true enough, literally.

Now it is a fact beyond dispute, that ladies, among themselves, when no
males are present, act and converse with more freedom from restraint,
than a company of men; and the fact was never more forcibly illustrated
than upon this occasion. The boarding-school miss, _en chemise_, romped
with the buxom widow, who was herself in similar costume. The citizen's
fat wife lent her baby to the old maid, who wanted to know how it
seemed; and was rewarded for her kindness by a token of gratitude on the
baby's part, which caused the aforesaid old maid to drop the little
innocent like a hot potato. The fashionable lady, who dressed for bed as
for a ball, was arrayed in a very costly and becoming night-dress,
ornamented with a profusion of lace and ruffles; and standing before a
mirror, was admiring her own charms; yet she painted, and had false
teeth--defects which were atoned for by a fine bust and magnificent
ankle. Her maid, a stout, well-looking girl, was toying with a very
pretty boy of eight or nine years of age, and when unobserved, embraced
and kissed him with an ardor which betokened a good share of amative
sensibility on her part.

'The men are such odious creatures, I positively cannot endure them,'
remarked the old maid.

'And yet they are very _useful_, and sometimes agreeable,' said the
buxom widow, with an arch smile, (she was handsome, if she _was_ a
widow,) and glancing significantly at the citizen's fat wife.

'Pooh!' exclaimed the old maid, climbing into her berth, and privately
taking off her wig, (she was bald,)--'I can take my pick of ten thousand
men, yet I wouldn't have one of them.' (She had been pining for an offer
twenty years!)

The buxom widow got into her berth, which she shared with her lapdo