River Queen Read Online Free PDF Page B

would be saloon girls, card room hostesses, and prostitutes attending.
    “I hadn’t heard such,” Archie replied to her observation with interest, “but I’m not at all surprised. All of their money was from Winifred Tannehill’s family. When the Married Women’s Property Act passed, old Ambrose Tannehill made Mr. Moak put everything in his daughter’s name. And Winnie Moak rules that money with an iron hand.”
    Archie Leggett’s father, in addition to having one of the biggest and most profitable cotton plantations in the South, was on the Board of Directors of Planter’s Bank, so Archie often had inside information about people’s finances, which he gleefully shared with all and sundry.
    “I can’t believe this line of carriages,” Julienne said impatiently. “It looks like everyone in Natchez is going to the Columbia Lady tonight.”
    They were crawling down the crazily crooked old path, now named Silver Street, that went from the high bluffs of Natchez proper down to the docks, and Natchez-Under-the-Hill. Ahead of the long lines of carriages Julienne could see the steamer, a grand mountain lined with red and green lanterns. It took several minutes for them to reach the Columbia Lady , but at last Archie was handing her out as she stared, her dark eyes wide and glowing.
    The Columbia Lady was indeed a grande dame. She had four decks instead of the more prosaic three, and all four decks were brightly lit with lanterns every three or so feet. Her black smokestacks were sky-high, and topped with elaborate floral wrought-iron crowns. As Julienne and Archie walked across the landing stages to board the boat, they saw that the main doors of the main deck were wide open, and the cargo hold had been emptied and cleaned and turned into a ballroom, though it more properly might be called a dance hall. The only instruments were a loud piano and a shrill trumpet. Obviously this deck was for the lower classes, for tough-looking men in rough clothing were dancing with underdressed women with garish makeup and wild hair.
    Meanwhile, a steady stream of people were mounting the mahogany and brass stairwell up to the second deck, in river parlance called the boiler deck because it was above the boilers, but when the steamers had started carrying well-to-do passengers, the owners changed the name of this somewhat superfluous deck to the Ballroom Deck. The people mounting the stairs were dressed in evening dress, the women in every shade of silks and satins, the men in tailed coats with starched white shirts, neat white bow ties, slender-cut black breeches, white gloves, and tall black satin hats. Archie and Julienne followed them, greeting acquaintances and admiring the boat. “It’s so luxurious,” Julienne said. “Like a home of royalty.”
    “I’ve heard it said that the best steamers are sometimes called floating palaces,” Archie told her. “Personally, this is the first one I’ve seen that would qualify.”
    They reached the double doors of the enormous room that was alternately a dining room or a ballroom. Two tall sturdy Negroes stood on both sides of the door. The Columbia Lady ’s colors were red, blue, and gold, and they were dressed in a sort of matching livery, with blue coats and trousers and red waistcoats. One of the men took all of the gentlemen’s hats and gloves, and placed them precisely in lines on a long table with a white tablecloth. The other Negro man bowed and offered each lady a fan, a lovely cream-colored silk with a design worked in it in gold thread with a gold tassel. Along one edge was printed in gold thread Columbia Lady .
    “Come on, Archie, let’s go find our seats,” Julienne urged him. He was already starting to head off toward a group of men standing at one wide window, all of them dressed in evening clothes and talking with animation. Julienne never had to worry about Archie being over-attentive at parties; he always found a group of men to talk about his favorite topic,