'Now most everybody goes by railroad, and the rest don't drink.' In the old times the barkeeper owned the bar himself, 'and was gay and smarty and talky and all jeweled up, and was the toniest aristocrat on the boat; used to make $2,000 on a trip.

A father who left his son a steamboat bar, left him a fortune.

Now he leaves him board and lodging; yes, and washing, if a shirt a trip will do.

Yes, indeedy, times are changed.

Why, do you know, on the principal line of boats on the Upper Mississippi, they don't have any bar at all! Sounds like poetry, but it's the petrified truth.'.