The
band, of course, we paid for; but so strong is the San
Franciscan passion for public masquerade, that the
asses (as I say) were all gratuitous, pranced for the
love of it, and cost us nothing but their luncheon.
The musicians formed up in the bows of my steamer, and
struck into a skittish polka; the asses mounted guard
upon the gangway and the ticket-office; and presently
after, in family parties of father, mother, and
children, in the form of duplicate lovers or in that of
solitary youth, the public began to descend upon us by
the carful at a time; four to six hundred perhaps, with
a strong German flavour, and all merry as children.
When these had been shepherded on board, and the
inevitable belated two or three had gained the deck
amidst the cheering of the public, the hawser was cast
off, and we plunged into the bay.
And now behold the honorary steward in hour of duty and
glory; see me circulate amid crowd, radiating
affability and laughter, liberal with my sweetmeats and
cigars. I say unblushing things to hobbledehoy girls,
tell shy young persons this is the married people's
boat, roguishly ask the abstracted if they are thinking
of their sweethearts, offer paterfamilias a cigar, am
struck with the beauty and grow curious about the age
of mamma's youngest, who (I assure her gaily) will be a
man before his mother; or perhaps it may occur to me,
from the sensible expression of her face, that she is a
person of good counsel, and I ask her earnestly if she
knows any particularly pleasant place on the Saucelito
or San Rafael coast--for the scene of our picnic is
always supposed to be uncertain.
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