In the 1850s railroads had not yet been built between Buffalo, NY, at the eastern end of Lake Erie and the cities at the western end. To circumvent this connection problem, railroad companies ran regularly scheduled steamers on Lake Erie. Two of those steamers - the "Northern Indiana" and the "Southern Michigan" - were operated by the Michigan Southern and Northern Indiana Railroad (MS&NIRR). Accidents were not uncommon as steamers fell foul of various hazards while traversing this most-shallow of the Great Lakes. Following one such accident, which put the "Northern Indiana" out of commission for a period, the two sister streamers participated in a schedule-correcting exercise involving an exchange of passengers at midnight on the lake. It is this event which is described by prominent Chicago writer Benjamin Franklin Taylor in his 1874 book THE WORLD ON WHEELS. (He segues into a recollection of the steamer "Nile" and a discussion of ministers who were aboard the steamers.) In addition to Taylor's vignette, the following material is provided: Well-illustrated title page from the original edition of the book; note about Lake Erie steamers; "Northern Indiana" image; and notes about the author, the publisher, and THE WORLD ON WHEELS - the book from which this 1600-word vignette is extracted.