American River Steamers.

Cromwell Argus, Volume 2, Issue 90, 1 August 1871, Page 3

American River Steamers.

A writer in the ' People's Magazine * savs : —Let me try to describe the St. John, which plies on the Hudson. It is 417 feet long, 80 feet wide, and has three decks. It is larger than the largest ocean Cunard steamship. Its saloons are furnished as sumptuously as any drawing-room, having prints, expensive photographs, stereoscopes, &c. on the tables' It has bedroom accommodation for fiOO persons, and will carry, they say, 3000. One saloon, surrounded with cabins, that I looked into, was about 150 feet long, 20 feet high, and lit with magnificent clustered gas chandeliers. The dining-rooms are elaborately provided with everything seen in a first-class hotel. Crowds of civil negroes, in spotless white jackets, wait at the tables, which are ornamented with artificial flowers. There arc, of course, extensive kitchens, cellars, and ice houses. Ornamental fountains or taps of iced water are dispersed through the ship. There are bars, where you can order •any kind of drink you please, hairdressers' shops, bookstalls, &c, in these vessels. Large mirrors, soft-piled carpets, the most exquisite cleanliness (even the door of the was of white panel, with white and quite clean), entirely remove the idea of your being on board a fiver steamer. Other appliances for comfort and convenience are perfect. The washing apparatus is aa good as that in a London clubhouse. Smoking is strictly prohibited, except in certain portions of the ship. The arrangements for tickets, baggage, &c, are admirable. There is no noise or bustle. I ascended the Hudson to Albany in one of these floating hotels. The pace at whicli they move through the water is prodigious. With the tide, the one I was in would go 25 miles an hour.