In Days Gone By
The man who best described the now extinct life aboard a steamer on 
Mississippi river is Mark Twain. Having actually worked aboard the river
boats, his writing captures the tranquil and turbulent events of those days.
In his book about life on the Mississippi, Twain recalls the idyllic times
when people were not in such a great rush to get from one place to another.
One chapter deals with the races conducted between the swiftest of the boats.
When the race was set, the excitement would galvanize activity along the river.
Politics and weather were forgotten, and people talked with gusto only of
the coming race. The two steamers "stripped" and got ready; every encumbrance
that might slow the passage was removed. Captains went to extremes to lighten
their boats. Twain writes of one captain who scraped the paint from the gaudy
figure which hung between the chimneys of his steamer.

forty winks--During the night before the big test, he studied continuously
catching forty winks now and then.
(a short nap.)