36S

LIFE ON THE MISSISSIPPI.

country has got to take it—can't get around it you see. Butter don't
stand any show—there ain't any chance for competition. Butter's
had its day—and from this out, butter goes to the wall. There's
more money in oleomargarine than—why, you can't imagine the
business we do. I've stopped in every town from Cincinnati to
Natchez; and I've sent home big orders from every one of them/

And so-forth and so-on,for ten minutes longer, in the same fervid
strain. Then New Orleans piped up and said—

4 Yes, it's a first-
rate imitation, that's
a certainty; but it
ain't the only one
around that's first-
rate. For instance,
they make olive-oil
out of cotton-seed oil,
nowadays, so that
you can't tell them
apart.'

'Yes, that's so,'
responded Cincinnati,
' and it was a tip-top
business for a while.
They sent it over and
brought it back from
France and Italy,
with the United
States custom-house
mark on it to indorse

it for genuine, and there was no end of cash in it; but France and
Italy broke up the game—of course they naturally would. Cracked
on such a rattling impost that cotton-seed olive-oil couldn't stand
i&e raise; had to hang up and quit.'

* Oh, it did, did it ? You wait here a minute.'
Goes to his state-room, brings back a couple of long bottles, and
takes out the corks—says :

*Therenow, smell them, taste them, examine tho bottles,inspect the

DETJMMEBS.