"Sure enough, sure enough!" a number of voices ejaculated
simultaneously.
"Truly, the dragons are to be let loose upon us," resumed Bright,
passing the schoolmaster his mug of ale. "An' here's now in New York,
that's got to be so wicked honest folks can't live in it, a lot o' crazy
men talking about building one of these here steamboats big enough to
cross the Atlantic."
"Der won't be much heerd of de mans nir de vomans vat goes in um,"
interrupted Hanz.
"Peoples is not sho crazy as t'too any un de sort. 'Tis all hombug;"
joined the doctor.
"So I say, doctor!" interposed the school-master.
"Here it is, gentlemen," resumed Bright; "all down in the newspaper. No
getting over that." Thus was this important subject discussed until a
late hour, the gossips going to their homes with serious faces and heavy
hearts.
It is a very well established fact that the question of building
steamships large enough and strong enough to cross the ocean was
discussed by a number of New York merchants who were ready to embark
capital in the project, several years before the keels of the Royal
William, the Savannah, the Sirius, or the Great Western were laid.
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