The river was a real center of interest in those days. Some of the boats were palatial in their equipment, and the meals on them could hardly be surpassed, at least I thought so. River racing was prohibited, yet it was very common between boats of opposition lines. The passengers entered into the spirit of it most thoroughly. In order to giver greater speed many a cask of bacon sides were broken open and used for fuel. Occasionally explosions would occur. In one instance when the “Moselle” was blown up, three hundred passengers were killed. Two gentlemen met in New Orleans some years afterward. One greeted the other saying – “How are you.” The other gentleman said – “You have the advantage of me, sir.” “Well! yes! I did. You were on the “Moselle” when she blew up, were you not? “Yes, I was.” “Well, as you were going up I was on my way down, and I photographed you in my eye, that’s how I have the advantage of you!”

This was quick recognition. My! how I envy anyone who has that faculty! The lack of this quick recognition was once the cause of great embarrassment to me. A fine portly looking gentleman came into my store and spoke to me. I returned the salute, but could not remember him. Trying in a number of ways to discover who he was, first by one leading question, then another, finally, I asked him when he left Arrow Rock, a small town on the Missouri River, where I though he lived. “Do you not recognize me? You were at my house until eleven o’clock last night,” and so I was – courting his daughter, Sallie Camden, whose father was Mayor of the city! But all my time was lost, as Dr. Case was a little ahead of me, and won the prize.
Quick recognition is a great factor in business, and a great help to a salesman in any kind of business. My father once stopped at our Planter’ House and it was twenty years before he stopped there again. Registering he asked the clerk for a room. “Yes,” was the reply, “Mr. Matthews, you can have the same room you had before.” Father asked if there were anything peculiar about him that was very easy to remember. The clerk said that there was not, but that he remembered all guests.