220 LIF£ 6LV THE MISSISSIPPI,

a wide and soundless vacancy, where the serried hosts of commerce
used to contend .' l Here was desolation, indeed.

* The old, old sea, as one in tears,

Comes murmuring, with foamy lips,
And knocking at the vacant piers,

Calls for Ms long-lost multitude of ships.'

DEAD PAST BESUBBECTION.

The towboat and the rail-
road had done their work, and
done it well and completely.
The mighty bridge, stretching
along over our heads, had done
its share in the slaughter and
spoliation. Remains of former
steamboatmen told me, with wan satisfaction, that the bridge doesn't
pay. Still, it can be no sufficient compensation to a corpse, to know
1 Capt. Maaryat, writing forty-five years ago, says: * St. Louis has
2O,000 inhabitants. The river abreast of the tem» is crowded with steamboats*
lying in t#o or tivree tiers.1