DINING ROOMS OF THE — SEVENTY-FIRST REGIMENT UP STAIRS. The dinner was not bad by any means. There was chicken and roast beef, soup, vegetables, relishes, coffee and pies for the first meal, and the average was about the same during the stay. It is one The Robert E. Lee was an interesting boat. of the largest on the river. The cabins are very much like those of our large boats at home, except that everything is on one deck-that is everything concerning the passengers. Compared to our boats, it is what living in a flat is to living in a seven story and mansard house. Once on board the Lee, and on the saloon deck, no one ever thinks of going down on the lower deck any more than they would think of dropping over a museum tank, and into a cage of anacondas, because this lower deck is given up entirely to cotton and fifty or so deck hands, as wild and turbulent as men can be. No one ever goes down except the officers, and they invariably drag a gatling gun after them. Hardly a trip is completed unaccompanied by a stabbing afray among the deck hands, and in many instances, these affairs end fatally. These men are never allowed above and the saloon boys never go down to the main deck. When they do, they very frequently remain down in a "demition moist" state. This main deck is the same deck upon which the ladies cabin is situated, on our boats, and very frequently the dining rooms, retiring rooms, bars and clerk's and captain's rooms. In some instances, as on the North river and Sound boats, the dining-room is situated below this main deck. On the Lee all this was reversed. There was nothing on the main deck for a passenger; even his baggage was carried to the deck above. The place was reserved for the freight, the roaring fires and fighting crew. There was nothing below except a very shallow hold, in which a man could hardly stand upright, for the Lee, like many Mississippi boats, is flat bottomed and very broad of beam. It is hardly necessary to say that none but the saloon stewards remained on board when we took possession. Engineers, firemen and deck-hands took a holiday. The main deck was deserted. This deck was opened fore and aft, and the saloons and cabins looked as if they were only stuck up on posts, and removable at pleasure. The guard of heavy timber, running all around the deck, was only about two feet high. About amidship were the boilers and engines. The boilers were not enclosed but stood on the deck, open at both sides to the river, and covered above only by the saloon flooring. The space between decks was very great. The engines, there were two of them, were queer looking things, utterly different from anything seen in our waters. There was an engineer on each side of the boat. It looked as if there was an enormous waste of space, but there wasn't. The Lee ran between New Orleans and Vicksburg, and her principal carrying trade was cotton. Enormous quantities of this could be placed on the main deck. It would fill up the space, tier on tier, until the bales would rise several feet above even the guard rails of the saloon deck. At night this lower deck, with its long posts supporting the upper deck, its dark and dingy machinery, and its deserted look, was a gruesome place. Did you ever go into a deserted saw mill, near a wood, and an old mill pond, at night ?-a haunted mill? There is something of that sort in every country district. Well if you didnt, try it the first chance you get, and there analyze your feelings. The writer stood at midnight amid the deep shadows of the Lee's lower deck, and watched the weird shapes the flickering light of his lantern cast (there was some-one with him, you may depend) and saw in fancy the great fires roaring; heard the clanking of machinery, the scurrying here and there of the sixty or seventy black deck hands; heard the hoarse whistle sound in response to another, the quick jingle of the bell, to stop! to back! to go ahead! heard the sharp exclamation of the engineer we just grazed her!" saw a rush toward two fighting negroes; heard a dull thud and a cry of anguish, and, as they carried the body aft, the words "knew that cuss would get knifed this trip." Then the scene changed, and in the fitful light, he saw a procession of shades, who rolled the cotton, laughed and joked, and fought as they might have done in life, but there was no sound save the hollow echo of his foot falls as he hurried away to get a big drink, and go to bed. CHAPTER VII. SUNDAY NIGHT. "Why such impress of shipwrights, whose sore task -Shaks. It was Sunday night and no one seemed to know it, so busy had the hours been and so exciting was the situation. It is perhaps wrong to say no one, for it is claimed by some that Dr. Carlos Martyn, the Chaplain, did remember it, and even went so far as to suggest to one or two of the officers that a regimental service would be a proper and refreshing thing after so long a journey. Of course the officers agreed with him, but disappeared very suddenly immediately after. The Chaplain, however, was not to be humbugged in that fashion. If he could not have a service of his own, he would attend some one else's. So he went to church. At least he says he went to church, and as no one else even made that claim, no one dared dispute him. Besides all this, the Chaplain's record in the regiment is good, because there isn't an officer with whom he has not wrestled at some period, in the hope of reform. That was an eventful night for the Chaplain, and not entirely uneventful for many others. What he did and how he served is best told by himself, in his admirable lecture, delivered at the Thirty-fourth Street Reformed Church, after the return. The Chaplain says: "Remembering that it was Sunday night, the Chaplain resolved to attend church, especially as it had been found impossible, amid the tumultuous experiences of the day, to hold a regimental service. Making his way along the streets, he was pleased to see that the warehouses and shops were as closely shut as in New York, though he learned, to his regret, that in the evening the theatres were always open. In due season the First Presbyterian Church was sighted and entered. Though the streets were gay with uniforms and noisy with revelry, it gratified the Chaplain to find the house of God crowded with worshipers the finest evening congregation he had seen for |