but accept patiently and cynically his brother Californian's method of
increasing his profits. As it was generally understood that any one
who came from California by that route had some dark design, the victim
received little sympathy. Thatcher's equable temperament and indomitable
will stood him in good stead, and helped him cheerfully in this
emergency. He ate his scant meals, and otherwise took care of the
functions of his weak human nature, when and where he could, without
grumbling, and at times earned even the praise of his driver by his
ability to "rough it." Which "roughing it," by the way, meant the
ability of the passengers to accept the incompetency of the Company.
It is true there were times when he regretted that he had not taken the
steamer; but then he reflected that he was one of a Vigilance Committee,
sworn to hang that admirable man, the late Commodore Cornelius
Vanderbilt, for certain practices and cruelties done upon the bodies of
certain steerage passengers by his line, and for divers irregularities
in their transportation. I mention this fact merely to show how so
practical and stout a voyager as Thatcher might have confounded the
perplexities attending the administration of a great steamship company
with selfish greed and brutality; and that he, with other Californians,
may not have known the fact, since recorded by the Commodore's family
clergyman, that the great millionaire was always true to the hymns of
his childhood.
Nevertheless, Thatcher found time to be cheerful and helpful to his
fellow passengers, and even to be so far interesting to "Yuba Bill,"
the driver, as to have the box seat placed at his disposal. "But," said
Thatcher, in some concern, "the box seat was purchased by that other
gentleman in Sacramento. He paid extra for it, and his name's on your
way-bill!" "That," said Yuba Bill, scornfully, "don't fetch me even ef
he'd chartered the whole shebang. Look yar, do you reckon I'm goin' to
spile my temper by setting next to a man with a game eye? And such an
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