It is now time to continue our journey, and as the water is high enough, we will embark on the “Ohio,” and steam away to Louisville.  The place you embark from is called the levee:  and as all the large towns on the river have a levee, I may as well explain the term at once.  It is nothing more nor less than the sloping off of the banks of a river, and then paving them, by which operation two objects are gained:—­first, the banks are secured from the inroads of the stream; secondly, the boats are thereby enabled at all times to land passengers and cargo with perfect facility.  These levees extend the whole length of the town, and are lined with steamers of all kinds and classes, but all built on a similar plan; and the number of them gives sure indication of the commercial activity of Cincinnati.  When a steamer is about to start, book-pedlers crowd on board with baskets full of their—­generally speaking—­trashy ware.  Sometimes these pedlers are grown-up men, but generally boys about twelve or fourteen years of age.  On going up to one of these latter, what was my astonishment to find in his basket, volume after volume of publications such as Holywell-street scarce ever dared to exhibit; these he offered and commended with the most unblushing effrontery.  The first lad having such a collection, I thought I would look at the others, to see if their baskets were similarly supplied; I found them all alike without exception, I then became curious to know if these debauched little urchins found any purchasers, and, to ascertain the fact, I ensconced myself among some of the freight, and watched one of them.  Presently a passenger came up, and these books were brought to his notice:  he looked cautiously round, and, thinking himself unobserved, he began to examine them.  The lad, finding the bait had taken, then looked cautiously round on his side, and stealthily drew two more books from his breast, evidently of the same kind, and it is reasonable to suppose infinitely worse.  After a careful examination of the various volumes, the passenger pulled out his purse, paid his money, and walked off with eight of these Holywell-street publications, taking them immediately into his cabin.  I saw one or two more purchasers, before I left my concealment.  And now I may as well observe, that the sale of those works is not confined to one place; wherever I went on board a steamer, I was sure to find boys with baskets of books, and among them many of the kind above alluded to.  In talking to an American gentleman on this subject, he told me that it was indeed but too common a practice, although by law nominally prohibited; and he further added, that once asking a vendor why he had such blackguard books which nobody would buy, he took up one of the worst, and said, “Why, sir, this book is so eagerly sought after, that I have the utmost difficulty in keeping up the requisite supply.”  It is a melancholy reflection, that in a country where education is at every one’s door, and poverty at no one’s, such unblushing exhibitions of immorality should exist.