ms in the aggregate, and of which the people
are generally wholly ignorant. I allude to the items, and what may be
called "odds and ends." It is easily imaginable that a company has to
pay only the bills for wages, for fuel, and for provisions, and that
then the cash-drawer may be locked for the voyage. Indeed, it is
difficult for those accustomed to the marine steam service to sit down
and enumerate by memory in one day the thousand little treasury leaks,
the many wastages, the formidable bill of extras, and the items which
are necessary to keep every thing in its place, and to pay every body
for what he does. The oil-bill of a large steamer would be astonishing
to a novice, until he saw the urns and oil-cans which cling to every
journal, and jet a constant lubricating stream. The tools employed
about a steamer are legion in number, and cost cash. We hear a couple
of cannon fired two or three times as we enter and leave port, or pass
a steamer upon the ocean, and consider it all very fine and inspiring;
but we do not reflect that the guns cost money, and that pound after
pound of powder is not given to the company by the Government or the
public. The steamer carries many fine flags and signals, which cost
cash. An anchor with the chain is lost; another costs cash. Heavy
weather may be on, and it takes some hours to get into the dock. The
extra coal and the tow-boat cost cash. The wheel-house is torn to
pieces against the corner of the pier, and the bulwarks are carried
away by heavy seas; but no one will repair the damage for any thing
short of cash. A large number of lights are by law required to be kept
burning on the wheel-houses and in the rigging all night; but no one
reflects that it took money first to purchase them, and a constant
outlay to keep them trimmed and burning. People suppose that the
captain, or steward, or some body else can take a match and set the
lamp off, and have it burn very nicely; but there are only a few who
know that it takes one man all of his time to clean, fill, adjust,
light, and keep these lamps going, as well as have them extinguished
at the proper time.

I saw to-day a case in point as regards accidental expenses. The
splendid steamship Adriatic sailed at 12. The wind was very high from
the south, and almost blowing a gale. She was lying on the southern
side of the dock, while the Atlantic was lying with her stern at the
end of the dock, near where the Adriatic had to pass in going