A little observation will show you your mistake, and the cause of it; which is merely that the free and enlightened are taking their morning drink at the bar.

Truly they are a wonderful race; or, as they themselves sometimes express it, "We are a tall nation, sir; a big people." Though they drink on all occasions, whether from sociability or self-indulgence, and at all times, from rosy morn to dewy eve, and long after;--though breath and clothes are "alive" with the odour of alcohol, you will scarcely ever see a passenger drunk.
Cards are also going all day long, and there is generally a Fancy-man--or blackleg--ready to oblige a friend.

These card-playings are conducted quietly enough at present; but an old traveller told me he remembered, some fifteen years ago, when things were very different, and when every player came armed with a pistol and bowie-knife, by which all little difficulties as to an odd trick or a bet were speedily settled on the spot.

In those days the sun never rose and set without witnessing one or more of these exciting little adjustments of difficulties, with which the bystanders were too good judges ever to interfere.

In fact, they seem to have been considered as merely pleasing little breaks in the monotony of the trip.
As it may interest some of _my_ readers, I will endeavour to retail for their amusement a sketch which was given me of a scene of boat-racing in the olden time.