Tuesday, June 10. Considerable rain fell during the morning. The thermometer thus far has averaged ten to twenty degrees lower at noon than during the same time last year. We are at times anxious about our summer's work, as the river has fallen very little.

Thursday, 12. Took a long tramp in pursuit of game, got lost, and walked about twelve miles. Our table expenses at present are about fifty cents apiece a day.

Wednesday, 25. Stopped the water at the head of our race on Saturday, and Monday began again the work which the rain interrupted two months ago.

Sunday afternoon, a quail led her young brood just before our door. We had been long desirous to secure some of these birds, in hopes of taming them; but though we had spent part of every day for weeks in rambling over the country, and had seen innumerable flocks, they had always eluded our pursuit. Now that our hunting days were over, and we had given up all hopes of accomplishing our object, it was a very agreeable surprise to see our prey thus throw itself into our hands. We made a sudden and impetuous sweep, and in a moment caught eight of these pretty creatures, no bigger than an English walnut, and covered with the same soft down that renders the chickens of our barnyards so engaging. We carried them into the tent, and having secured them in a small raisin box, I set about constructing what Reaumer calls an artificial mother, to keep them warm in the cold nights. This was nothing more than a low shed with a sloping roof of flannel—an old shirt supplied the material—and here I doubted not my young family would soon find themselves at home. But hardly had I got into bed when a faint peep from the raisin box, followed by another and another till the whole brood were in full chorus, called me to their side. There was no resisting that plaintive importunity; I put my hand into the box, like a scooching father-long-legs, and presently the tender nurselings crept under this warm shelter. I felt their little checkerberry hearts beating against my fingers, while they quietly composed themselves to sleep. My heart warmed to them amazingly on their giving me this proof of confidence, and I began to think seriously of sitting up all night, rather than disturb their slumbers; but fearful lest I should fall into a drowse, and perhaps squeeze them harder than might be convenient, I put them all safely back under the artificial mother, and left them with anxious concern.

The next morning they all lay apparently dead in the bottom of the box, but by warming them in our hands with our hot breath, we recovered all but one, and if we had known how to feed them, we should undoubtedly have succeeded in preserving their lives. We tried everything we could think of, and were almost in despair, when Jimmy, one of our company, who had been gamekeeper to an English nobleman, told us that they fed them on "hants' heggs" in his country. "Hants'" nests were plenty in our neighbourhood; we lost no time in digging one open, and soon presented our young starvelings with abundance of "heggs." They eat a few, but their strength was too far gone to be restored, and the second morning not one was left alive.

Our canal on which we were now working had been in great part excavated through a ledge of the hardest granite—it varied from twelve to twenty feet in width, and from five to ten in depth.—Half of these dimensions would have been sufficient if its course had been even moderately straight; but the frequent and sudden curves checked too much the rapidity of the current. As a little labor here would save a great deal on the dam, we bent our backs to the work with less reluctance, though nothing that we had yet done in California could be compared to it for a moment. If there is any thing in this world deserving the contempt of a rational being, it is a big stone. A pig is certainly as obstinate, but then he can be wheedled into going the way you wish. A fool is perhaps as stupid, but he can be beaten into reason. But a stone, especially if large enough to fancy itself a rock, is worse than a tortoise. It draws itself up into its shell deaf to all argument or entreaty, and insensible to blows. If we had only had Amphion's lyre; but we had not even a fiddle, only crowbars and gunpowder, and our poor fingers. And there was no wind to disturb the stagnant air—the sun streamed down into our granite prison till it became as hot as a Sandwich Island oven.

But at length the work was completed—the digging, the blasting, the rolling of stones, and piling them up into a firm smooth wall, were all over—the dike at the mouth of the canal was removed—the parched and thirsty channel seemed to swallow eagerly the inrushing river, and we entered upon the far more agreeable task of repairing the dam. A large flatboat had been already built by a ship carpenter belonging to our company, and the various operations of the preceding year were soon under full headway.

The 4th of July came hot and scorching as the breath of the Sirocco. We had celebrated it the year before at Ford's Bar by firing guns and drinking lemonade; but we now slightly varied these amusements. Above our dam, and formed by the backing up of the water, lay a swelling pond winding away a mile among the hills. Every day, as we penned in the water, it stole noiselessly farther and farther up the shore, drowning one after another the little islands and blades of grass that vainly standing on tiptoe stretched their heads above the surface. Embarked in our flatboat with only one companion, a pleasant young fellow from Philadelphia, we paddled softly up this newborn lakelet to a point on the farther shore, where another party had already accumulated a pile of earth supposed to contain a slight admixture of clay, which it was our duty to transport to the head of the canal. Here it was taken by a third set of workmen, and carried two hundred yards in handbarrows, over a most difficult path, to a part of the canal where the island was so low that a short dike was necessary to prevent the water from finding its way back into the river. After making several trips, we yielded our situation to two of the unfortunates on the bank, and took their place in digging and carrying. The hillside where they had been excavating was several hundred feet from the water, and the earth must be carried down to the shore on handbarrows, of all inventions the most ingeniously fatiguing. Clouds of dust rose from the parched ground, covering us from head to foot in an undistinguishable suit of reddish grey. The whole company were thus occupied a week in constructing a low wall not more than twenty feet in length, and this being finished, again returned to work on the dam, which we pushed forward with the fiercest energy.

We had now to settle a very important question, how we should drain the hollows or ponds that would remain after the river had been entirely diverted from its channel. Man-power, horse-power, and water-power were all proposed; but the first was altogether inefficient, and the other two well nigh impracticable. Nothing then seemed left but steam. We were all of us at first rather frightened at the thought of employing so powerful an auxiliary, but it soon became familiar, and now our only anxiety was lest we should be unable to obtain an engine of suitable qualifications. Capt. Sampson was despatched to San Francisco on this errand, and in the mean time our work went on as usual.

Walking one morning along the dam, now presenting a level path for half its length. I found in the middle where the water still rushed through, a large salmon, who had leaped the fall, but being jammed in among the stones was unable to overcome the force of the current. Another was found soon after in the same predicament—the eyes of both were gone—their noses worn off, and their bodies gashed with frightful wounds. This is the condition to which nearly all are reduced before reaching the sources of those rapid rivers; and perhaps nothing else can show so clearly the force of what may here at least be fairly termed a blind instinct.

Capt. Sampson returned in less than a week, bringing with him a small steam-engine, and a heavy pump of cast-iron, of a very peculiar construction, without valves or boxes, and working by centrifugal force alone. The whole apparatus weighed about four thousand pounds, and cost fifteen hundred dollars.

In the mean time, our dam had rapidly advanced to completion. We had nothing better than partially decomposed granite to stop the leaks, and were obliged to pick the whole of that from the solid ledge; yet it answered the purpose so admirably that all the water that found its way through a dam two hundred and fifty feet long and ten feet high, could easily be carried in a canvass hose six inches in diameter. A sudden rise in the river, occasioned by rain in the mountains, filled us with uneasiness lest it should overflow our dam, but by making great exertions we raised a small mound five or six inches high along the whole extent, and this slight embankment was sufficient to avert the threatened calamity. The next day the river had again fallen, and after that continued steadily to abate, till the top of the dam was nearly three feet above the surface.

It was the close of the third week in July that our patient perseverance at length prevailed over the waters. The next day, being Sunday, we saw from our elevated eyrie different members of the company with pan and shovel wandering about in the bed of the river, stopping here and there to dig and wash a small quantity of earth and then shaking their heads in a very dolorous and unaccountable manner. This process was several times repeated, and on every occasion the head-shaking grew more decidedly melancholy. Monday morning, on going to work as usual, we found the whole company, from Capt. Sampson down to the merest halfshare of them all, in a state closely bordering on distraction, and radiating the blues as fast as ever a redhot cannon ball radiated caloric. "Well, Mr. Raven," said Jimmy almost ready to cry, "our work's all lost. I'd sell my share for a hundred dollars and glad o' the chance;" and with this the said radiators glowed colder than ever. On requesting an explanation of this extraordinary conduct, we learned that they had dug ever so many holes the day before and had found nothing—so they had at once concluded that there was nothing to find. As we had been the principal movers and originators of the whole undertaking, they regarded us as in some sort the authors of their misfortunes, and hence we had to bear not only our own share of the common disappointment, but also their ill-concealed displeasure. Our situation was indeed deplorable—most of us had expended not only our labour but the greater part of our previous earnings in purchasing the engine and other matters, and if the dam should prove a failure we were utterly ruined. But would it prove a failure? We did not believe it would. In the whole party there was hardly one who knew any more about prospecting, at least in the river, than a hen of average intelligence. Most of them had passed their apprenticeship in the southern mines, and not one had ever had any thing to do with damming. We ourselves had been very slow to learn the nicer mysteries of our craft, but we knew enough to satisfy us that a claim like that could not be explored in a day. We squeezed the gloom out of our companions like water out of a sponge, and the next morning went to work prospecting in earnest. St. John sunk the first hole between a snug family of rocks just on the edge of our upper hollow—the earth paid from twenty cents to ten dollars a bucket, and in two hours he took out with my assistance sixty dollars. There was no more grumbling that day—Jimmy raised his price from one hundred to ten thousand dollars, and doubted whether he would sell even for that.

Hose was still wanting to convey the water that leaked through the dam quite across the upper hollow, so that it might not increase too much the labours of the engine,—and Wednesday I rode in a wagon to Sacramento to obtain canvass sufficient for this purpose. On my return the next day by stage I found that my companions had already moved the engine and pump across the river by means of rollers, and had set them up on a stout frame at the foot of the upper hollow. A short trough was constructed to lead the water from the pump directly into the round deep pool below, and we were all ready to begin.

Our affairs were now in a highly prosperous condition,—a half share was sold before the engine had made a stroke, for nearly a thousand dollars, and every day members of other companies, none of which had "got into the river," came to look, and admire, and wonder they had not bought shares when they could have done it so easily. The American Damming stock was now among the best in the market, and was quoted in the Sacramento papers at ten thousand dollars a share.

All this could not but be highly gratifying even to men of that meek and modest temper for which, I do not say our whole company, but some of us were remarkable. In the pride of our heart we could not help glorying a little over our neighbours, as if our good fortune had been entirely owing to our superior sagacity—and I noticed that one or two who had been led into the scheme almost against their wills, were now the loudest in this self-laudation. We met, however, with almost innumerable delays—the wood was wet, or the boiler leaked, or the belt slipt from the whirling drums. It was some time, too, before we discovered the secret of the pump—after working finely several hours, and lowering the water as many feet, the stream suddenly ceased to flow. We took the pump to pieces, and spent nearly all the rest of the day in trying to detect the cause of this interruption, but gained no more by our scrutiny than the child who cut open the bellows to find where the wind came from. After puzzling over it all night, we resumed our examination in the morning, but with no better success, and were all ready to despair, when suddenly the Captain and St. John both cried out at once, "Suppose we put the pump nearer the water, and see how that will work." Sure enough, it flashed upon us all in a moment that it was not a suction but a force pump—we accordingly lowered the frame on which it rested, and in this position found that it would drain the hole in six hours.

The harvest had now commenced that was to repay us for months of toil—we had thrust aside with strong arm the guardian river, and its treasures only waited our touch to be laid open to the light. We hastened to secure them with trembling hand. Rocks were torn from their deep foundations, and the thick-skinned granite scraped even to its quivering nerves. The bed where the old South Fork had lain, reposing in quiet, or restlessly tossing, so many generations, was now to be well shaken and made up afresh. Parties set to work at different points, and everywhere the short puff of the engine and droning hum of the pump mingled with the harsher tones of the rocker and the cheerful sound of pick and shovel. Our gains were all put into one common receptacle, and every evening we assembled at the Captain's tent to see them weighed and divided.

There was a peculiar charm about those evening parties that is often wanting in more elegant assemblies. The scene thus presented would have made a fine subject for Hogarth. The flickering light of the fire burning in the huge chimney shone on a group of men with coarse woollen shirts and unshorn faces, leaning on their elbows round the rude table, and fixing their eyes with eager interest on the paunchy bags that lay before the Captain, and the gold which he was nicely adjusting in the scales by means of his forefinger and thumb, as if it had been so much genuine Irish Blackguard. A crowd of spectators stand looking on, either men hired by the company, or miners in the red bank. Hairy rheumatic Bill, the Captain's cook, with ladle in hand, alternates from the table to the fire, divided between a fierce avaricious love of his half share and a more tender solicitude for the soup simmering in the corner. "Well, Capting, how much has us got to-night?" says Jimmy, and "How much to a sheer?" cries a Missourian sitting on the lower end of the long table, and craning his neck and goggling his eyes after a most alarming fashion. Our three shares, as being the largest undivided portion, were first weighed out, and received in a wide-mouthed vial. Then the Captain, with peculiar satisfaction, set aside a double portion for himself—then as much more for Jimmy. The half shares, of which at one time there were six, came last. All that was scattered on the table was magnanimously left for old Bill. The same jokes were repeated regularly every evening, and never failed of a favourable reception. "Well, Mr. Raven, your bottle isn't full yet," says Jimmy, with a chuckle. The Captain laments the necessity of taking care of so much of the plaguey stuff; when instantly half a dozen disinterested individuals offer to relieve him of the trouble, to which his only reply is an abstracted laugh. The largest sum divided on these occasions was fourteen hundred dollars, or one hundred and forty to a share, which in those days was considered very tolerable mining.

Nor was the labour itself entirely devoid of excitement. Whenever a remarkably rich spot was discovered, or there was an unusual "show" in any of the rockers, nothing would do but all must come and see it. "Well, boys! I say, just look a here;" and presently half a score of eager heads are thrust together over the cradle, or down into some crevice among the rocks lighted up with a right fairy splendour with spangles of pure gold. When all other epithets have been exhausted, some one exclaims, "Well! that's real lousy! that is!" a most felicitous comparison, at least to the ears of a Californian.

But in the mean time trouble was brewing in a direction where none of us looked for it. Ours was the first of a long series of claims extending in unbroken succession some distance below Mormon Island. A gap had remained in this chain for several weeks, the second company below us not having finished their flume so soon as the others, and in the mean time a second dam had been erected by the South Fork company still farther down the river. But when the company first mentioned had completed their preparations, they insisted upon the removal of this dam, as it backed the water into their claim; and threatened, if their request were not complied with, to tear it down with their own hands. The South Fork finally yielded the point, and now our dam answered for a dozen companies, covering an extent of nearly two miles. The river ran for this distance sometimes in wooden flumes, and sometimes, as with us, in canals; and as considerable water escaped from these artificial channels, and as there were, besides, hollows of different dimensions requiring to be drained in every claim, it was necessary for the success of the whole that this water should all be pumped back into the flumes and not suffered to flow into those below. There were several reasons why we should not be required to enter into this arrangement. In the first place, our company being older than those next below, we had the undisputed right, according to the universal law of the mines, to work in the way most suited to our convenience. Furthermore, as only one of the other companies had built a dam, and that was a very slight affair, while we had laboured for weeks for the common advantage, we thought they could not reasonably object to so slight a leakage, especially as, if they had built one, they would still have had at least an equal quantity of water to contend with. But it is in vain to expect reason from envy and disappointed avarice. One day about the middle of August, Captain Sampson having been down to the village, returned in great excitement with the information that a large party of miners, consisting of members of the lower companies, were already on their march to destroy our engine. We heard no more of it, however, at that time, and members of the companies with whom we were acquainted assuring us that they had no such design, we hoped the storm had blown over. But less than a week after, a large party came upon us while we were at work in the river, "to make us," as they said, "take care of our leak water." Not one of them seemed to know exactly what he had to complain of—they had not yet succeeded according to their expectations, and in some way we were to blame. They evidently had an idea that a vast body of water was sent down upon them from our claim, either made by the engine or from some other mysterious source; but more than all, though we did not learn this till afterwards, they hated Captain Sampson and those Ravens, they were so stuck up. Still we had no fears they would proceed to actual violence, since one of our company could, by toppling a few stones into our race, raise the river sufficiently to flow over the top of our dam, when it would have been instantly washed away, and the whole accumulated flood precipitated bodily upon all below, involving them in one common destruction. After a long farrago of words, which it would be in vain to dignify by the name of argument, they proposed building a dam at the foot of our claim to catch the water then flowing from our engine. To this we made no objection, as our upper hollow would be exhausted in a few days, and we had already agreed with the company immediately below to pump the water from the lower one into their flume on condition of their providing a trough long enough for the purpose. Though this difficulty was thus disposed of, yet the impression it produced was so deep and lasting, and the idea of continuing in such a state of warfare was so repugnant to our feelings that we determined to hasten our departure as much as possible.

To avoid the troublesome task of moving the engine we drained the second hole, which was quite small, by means of an immense wooden pump requiring three men to work it. They were relieved every half hour by a second set, and thus the work went on day and night, till the water was low enough to admit of a thorough exploration, and we found there was hardly gold enough to pay us for the expense of pumping.

The lowest, and by far the largest, hollow still remained, and to this we now directed all our energies. As there was no place on the bank sufficiently level to set up our engine, and as we had already experienced the inconvenience of a stationary support, we determined to build a flatboat large enough to contain the engine, pump, and all its appendages. The boat was christened by Capt. Sampson the Hoosier or Who za? and was, I believe, the first steamboat ever built on the American River, if not in California. It answered the purpose admirably, falling with the water and thus keeping the pump always level with the surface. We had need of every advantage, for besides the great extent of the hole, we were obliged, in order to comply with our agreement, to raise the water some fifteen feet above its average level; and it was nearly a week before we were able to resume our mining operations. The untiring engine was kept at work day and night; but as our engineer, though a very clever fellow, was not made of the same material, it was necessary to provide him with an assistant.

I occupied this responsible situation for a few hours, and must confess I felt no slight degree of elation at my preferment. I always had an infinite respect for one of your mammoth steam-engines, which seem to me to furnish the best instance of magnanimity that can anywhere be found; and our little spitfire, though it could claim no such distinction, yet attracted me by its patient indefatigable industry and honesty of purpose, so that I fairly loved it as if a man's heart were beating under its closely-buttoned iron jacket.

It is the fashion to talk of the present century as in the highest degree unromantic and prosaic; yet there is more real romance and poetry in the engines of the Baltic than in all the barbaric pomp of the middle ages. While I was not occupied in attending to the simple wants of my humble work-fellow, I amused myself with watching the dragon-flies riding tandem over the water, or balancing with wonderful rigidity on the little twigs that rose above the surface. In the evening the funnel sent forth a swarm of ephemera that returned no more to the parent hive, but went dancing away over the black water till they disappeared beneath it. They seemed like a wedding troop of fairies in torchlight procession, escorting one of their number to espouse a spirit of the wave. As they approached the water, a second troop appeared coming to meet then; and each in turn, some with a sudden plunge, others with a coquettish, sidling motion, rushed into the arms of their partners, blowing out their torches at the moment of their embrace to hide their burning blushes.

While I indulged in these idle fancies, the homely little engine by my side still worked on, though wondering perhaps at my long silence; twelve o'clock soon came, and with it the one who was to relieve me. I picked my way darkling across the rocky channel—ran rapidly up the river, and in a few minutes was fast asleep.

Wednesday, Sept. 3. Our claim being by this time nearly worked out, St. John sold his share for a few hundred dollars, and the next day I disposed of mine for the same price. Soon after we struck a rich streak, and I was extremely vexed at having sold. The purchaser, on learning that the company was in debt to a trifling amount, felt equally indisposed to the bargain, and the share returned into my possession.

Two o'clock, p. m. St. John sorry he sold—evening cloudy, night, a slight shower—Friday morning, more rain—very dismal—sorry I did not sell. The man who bought St. John's share comes to our tent in positive agony, and offers fifty dollars to be released from his bargain. Eleven a. m. brighter—ten p. m. water low—shares high—rich dirt—offered the same for my share as yesterday—refused.

It again rained during the night, and I had ample time to repent my indiscretion, but the next day the sun shone with unusual brilliancy, and I finally disposed of my share for the same price as before.

We had now nothing to keep us any longer in California—we sold our tent with all its furniture for fifty dollars, and then began the most successful mining we had yet had any thing to do with. We closed the door of our tent, still ours until we had left it, and commenced digging in the floor in places whose position we discovered by certain marks upon the wooden framework of the walls. I first brought to light a mustard bottle, now full, however, of a far brighter and more pungent dust—St. John at the same moment displayed an ancient vinegar cruet without a neck, so that it gave up all the more readily its precious contents. I then produced from a third place of deposit a vial that once contained, as the words blown into its sides declared, a vegetable elixir of wonderful virtues; but few, I believe, who would not have found the mineral panacea far more agreeable, unless indeed administered on homoeopathic principles. In no long time a whole apothecary's shop was arrayed on our little table, every vial, however different in shape, containing the same grand catholicon, that if it cannot cure all, will cure as many of the ills that flesh is heir to as all others put together.

We emptied the contents of these vials into The New York Tribune, and having transferred the shining heap into sundry leathern bags and belts, we carried our well-filled trunk, containing a variety of curiosities, out on to the bank before the tent,—came back to look once more at the table, the beds, the stove, that had so wrought themselves into our being—then softly closing the door for the last time, walked swiftly down the well known path, not daring to look behind us, and with a feeling of melancholy it was impossible to resist.

We slept that night at Number Four's, and the next morning started in a wagon for Sacramento, not without a sensation of regret at our final abandonment of a life that with all its hardships had yet yielded us so much enjoyment. We arrived at Sacramento only a few minutes before the boat started, and at 2 p. m. bid that city a final farewell, precisely two years to a day, and almost to an hour, since I first landed from the Patuxent. The contrast between the diminutive schooner and the spacious decks of the Senator was hardly greater than that between the squalid miners huddled together like a flock of sheep in the one, and the well dressed crowd of comfortable tradesmen in the other; and but for a single incident I might have supposed myself in one of the floating palaces of the Hudson. A handsome young man, who came out of the saloon while we were sitting on the quarter deck, attracted my attention by what I set down as the most ridiculous affectation. He was drest in the height of the fashion, with a superabundance of jewelry, and a pair of the very smallest boots, which I thought partially accounted for his peculiar mincing gait. I had begun to regard him with even painful aversion, when some one whispered to me that it was a woman, and my feelings underwent a sudden change. Whatever I might think of her moral character, I could no longer accuse her of inconsistency or affectation—her mincing gait became a swimming walk—her love of ornament, her little simpering ways, her downcast lids, were her hereditary, inalienable right, with which I had no more reason nor inclination to find fault than with her slight figure and delicate complexion. She promenaded the deck for hours in all the independence of her masculine assumed attire; but when the bell rang for supper, she slunk down with the petticoats, thus adroitly, like other apostles of woman's rights, reserving her own peculiar privileges while insisting upon her claim to ours.

On arriving at San Francisco we took lodgings at a hotel, where we remained until the sailing of the next steamer, in which we hastened to secure a passage. We spent the time pleasantly enough in walking about the city, visiting the various places of public amusement, and the magnificent clippers lying at the wharves, among which the Flying Cloud, lately arrived from the quickest passage on record, most attracted our attention.

Being now about to leave the shores of California, I wished to signalize the event by some deed of high emprise, or, in the words of the great captain, finish the campaign by a clap of thunder. My acquaintance in the city were constantly making fortunes by lucky speculations, and I saw no reason why I should not follow their example. Opportunities were not wanting—nearly every other building in San Francisco was occupied as a commission and auction store, where the most incredible bargains were offered every day and every hour.

I entered one of the largest of these establishments just as the auctioneer was bidding off some kind of under garment; and as he whirled them dexterously around, I observed that they had sleeves, and asked to know no more. Here was the opportunity for which I had panted. I pressed forward among the bidders, and the next moment, such was the rapidity of my conclusion and the prompt energy of my action, I found myself the happy owner of eight dozen ladies' undershirts. "What name?" says the auctioneer. "Mr. Cash." "Please step into the back part of the store, Mr. Cash, and receive your goods." While I stood, like Atlas or Teneriffe, unremoved, and the whole crowd of wondering bidders stared at me as who should say, "What under the canopy do you want of eight dozen ladies' undershirts?" St. John, who had hitherto stood a silent and bewildered spectator of the scene, the suddenness of the whole proceeding having given him no time to interfere, now recovered from his torpor, and taking me all unresisting by the arm he quietly led me to the back of the shop, and then, making a skilful detour round a counter, out into the street, where we never once stopped to look behind us till we had left the danger far behind, and I was able to thank St. John for my deliverance. When in answer to his very natural inquiries I gave him an explanation of what he had just witnessed, though he highly approved of my design, that is of making a fortune, he thought the manner in which I set about the execution of it hardly justified any very sanguine notions of success, and discouraged me to that degree that I had no heart for any farther experiment; and thus ended my first and last speculation. I have been since inclined to regret this result when I have considered that Wellington was defeated in his first battle, and that Frederick the Great even fled from the field; and in the same manner I, though my first essay terminated so disastrously, might have come in time to be the greatest merchant since Jacob Astor. But whatever business talent I possessed was then and there crushed in the bud—I have ever since shrunk from the sight of an auctioneer as a thief from the sight of an officer, and the merest glimpse of a lady's undershirt is enough to disturb my equanimity for a whole day—while I regard the mention of such an article in my hearing as an offence beyond the reach of forgiveness.