wide at the other. In each of the wooden side walls rough doors fifteen feet apart. These lead into the sleeping-pens, each lit by a porthole, which is too near the water to be ever opened except in harbor, and which is completely submerged when the vessel lays over or rolls. The pens are about fifteen feet by twelve feet; a passage two feet wide runs down the middle from the door to the port, on each side of which are two deep shelves, one five feet and the other a few inches from the floor; each of these shelves is divided out into four divisions by planks some eight inches high, so that each pen contains sixteen bunks about six feet six inches by two feet nine inches. These are the single men's quarters, and communicating with them is a somewhat similar but wider place, further aft, reserved for females and married men; this looked even a more detestable region than the other, as it lacked altogether the modicum of air and light that came down the companion-ladder into the main portion. The Foam has no hurricane-deck, and, for the benefit of any readers who may not have been on board a liner, I will describe her a little more fully. There are three decks, known as the upper, main, and lower. The upper deck is the deck one sees and walks on what an unnautical person means when he speaks of the deck. The main deck, below this, is taken up with the saloon and cabins aft, with the intermediate cabins amidships, unpleasantly close to the engines, and forward with the sailors' quarters or fo'c's'le, and the various small cabins sacred to the quartermasters, bosuns, carpenters, etc., and their respective messes. The only part of the main deck available to be walked on is a long passage at each side of the vessel, about ten feet wide, extending the whole way from the saloon to the fo'c's'le. Further below, on the lower deck, live the steerage passengers, as already described, fore and aft, the centre being taken up with the engines and boilers, and cargo, if any. It sounds plenty for the money; but less than a minute after I had handed over my dollars, a steerage passenger who had made up her mind to go intermediate, and pay the difference, came to give back her lot, which she did not now require, and the utmost the vendor would allow her for them was one dollar; however, after waiting a few minutes she traded them to the next "steerage" for six shillings. Another of the Ocean fleet, the Wave, had come in that morning, and I walked across the quay to inspect her, as she looked about twice as big as we were; I found, as I had begun to expect, that the Foam was no greyhound, but one of the oldest and slowest of the company's fleet, while the Wave was one of the newest and speediest. But it was too late to change; indeed, when I got back on board the Foam she was already casting off her warps, and a few minutes later we were being towed out backwards into the river; then our screw began to thump, as no doubt did many a homeward-bound and outward-bound heart on board. Even to a casual spectator like myself, who knew no one either on the ship or on shore, there was something curiously affecting in watching the crowd on the quay, and on our deck, waving their handkerchiefs and straining their eyes to catch the last glimpse of their friends, henceforth, perhaps in many cases forever, to be separated from them by the broad Atlantic, that, like a type of the river of Death, lies between the old World and the New; there is, perhaps, only one leave-taking more touching than that which I was witnessing. But there was little time for sentiment, for all passengers were ordered below, in order that the vessel might be searched for stowaways. This is done very thoroughly, and then the passengers are sent By making friends with the steerage up again, one at a time, giving up their steward, as there were so few passengers, tickets, and are not allowed to return below I and one of my new acquaintances, who until their quarters have been inspected "knew the ropes " better than I did, man- in the same way. If any one is discovaged to secure a whole top shelf to our-ered, he is sent back by the pilot-boat, to selves i.e., double the accommodation be prosecuted for attempting to procure a to which we were entitled and so avoided passage without payment; but on this too close quarters, and obtained_ample room for our clothes and bags. Then I went ashore again to purchase my kit. This is what is sold for 10s., according to a printed list, and all perfectly new: occasion our pilot had to return emptyhanded. During the search I made friends with my shelf-mate, who turned out a very agreeable rattle; he was English, had been ten years in the States, and also in STEERAGE. Australia; had been at showman-work | mentioned for bedding and utensils, and most of the time, and was now on his way these poor fellows consequently had to "fake," as he called it, at the Edinburgh neither. This is not as it should be, Exhibition with a stall for glass engraving, somehow; surely it would be better to of which he showed me some very clever increase the fare by a few shillings, and and artistic specimens. "But it isn't include these necessaries, more especially those that pay," he told me; "it's writing as so huge a profit is made on them by the a fellow's or his girl's name on a tumbler company's agent. There were several (which I get at a half-dollar the gross), and other steerage passengers who had not selling at a shilling apiece. Get me a been able to afford the purchase, and their good holiday crowd, and that's the game condition during the voyage must have all the time." He had worked at most of been most miserable. However, in the the principal dime shows all through Amer- case of these boys, the ship's doctor, when ica, and was personally acquainted with he made his rounds the first night, very all the "freaks," and knew how far each properly ordered them bedding and blanwas natural, and in what manner nature kets out of the hospital; and in the day. had been assisted. On the shelf under- time they made friends with the sailors, neath were two decent lads, both cabin- and messed with them. Twice a day does boys off English merchant vessels, who the captain, accompanied by the doctor, had left their ships because of illness. visit the steerage, in order to see that it Opposite these were four atop and three is reasonably clean, and to hear any combelow, mostly of the operative class; at plaints. least two of these lay in their bunks without going on deck during the whole voyage whether seasick or not. The contiguity of these filthy folk was by far the worst feature of the whole business. Smoking was strictly prohibited below, but it was difficult of detection, and when I turned in at night (the only time I put in an appearance in my pen after the first evening's experience) I found it necessary to regularly evade this regulation. It was, of course, far too cold at that time of year to sleep on deck, especially as I had just come up from the Tropics. The food was very fair: fresh bread baked every day, fresh meat well cooked, tolerable butter, and sometimes marmalade; tea and coffee ready mixed out of urns, reminding one of the old days at one's preparatory school; and everything ad lib. Beer and stout could be purchased at sixpence a bottle, but no spirits or wine. The steerage steward, a German, was a very worthy fellow, and did all in his power to make us comfortable, even to lending us his little box of a store-room in which to consume our provisions. Meals concluded, each passenger was supposed to wash his utensils in large tubs provided for that purpose; but we of the upper shelf made an arrangement with the two cabin-boys below that they should do this for us. Of these boys, one was convalescent from Russian influenza, and the other was ill with dropsy, and both were being sent home by the English government, under the Distressed British Seamen Act. The Consulate, however, had not troubled to pay the extra ten shillings I have already | British and American subjects were about equally balanced in numbers, and endless discussions went on night and day as to the relative merits of the two countries; most of the arguments were very crude, and savored strongly of the familiar clap-trap talked by the uneducated Hyde Park Socialist. But now and again one heard very sensible opinions put forward, my shelf-mate, by reason of his wide experience, being listened to with especial attention, even by the most blatant of the whole lot, an individual who stated he was a delegate from some Irish-American brotherhood. The men far outnumbered the women, and there were but few children; some of the husbands, while going "steerage themselves, brought their wives "intermediate." It must, indeed, be a pitiable ordeal for a decent woman to travel in the steerage; there is no one to wait on her when seasick, there is no stewardess, she has absolutely no accommodation below, except her quarter of a shelf; the washing-places are all on the main deck above, some little distance along the passages which I have described, and to make her way there she has also to scale the steep companion-ladder - no easy matter when the steamer is rolling scuppers under in the full Atlantic swell, and even the sailors have to use a man-line between decks. The washing-places are not crowded, even in calm weather; they contain a row of small fixed basins, reminding one of those in a cricket pavilion; there is no cold water, only the warm, oily-smelling, con. densed water from the engines; no look ing-glass, so that my habit of shaving turned these visits, and inspected us with well-bred curiosity. myself caused great amazement. Here I used sometimes to meet a bright little Lancashire lad of about twelve years old, Throughout the whole passage it was who had been taught to wash himself miserably cold, with a fine east wind dead properly, and not in the fashionable way against us hence the few sheltered at sea, with his shirt on. His was a curi- places on deck were in great demand; ous experience: his mother had died, and when these were all occupied there was his father, who had some work in New nothing for it but to walk up and down, York, had written for him to come out; for below was unendurable. Fortunately on his arrival, his father was not to be for myself, who was well hardened to the found, so the authorities, after keeping sea, we had rather a rough passage, which him a close prisoner for six weeks at Castle kept many in their bunks for days toGarden, were now sending him home again. gether, and so I was able to make the time Some of my readers may not know what pass pretty well, especially as I had laid Castle Garden means; it is an American in a small library of the pirated five-cent notion, that we could very well endure in editions of all the newest English books London. Every steerage passenger or before leaving New York. But the voyage emigrant who arrives in New York has to was a long and dreary business notwithland at Castle Garden, and if he is not standing; in the morning one wished it thought a desirable acquisition —¿.e., un- were evening, and at night one's sleep less he can clearly show he has means to was constantly disturbed. Owing to headsupport himself he gets no further, but seas, and fog on the banks (during which is promptly sent back whence he came. the Ocean Company are content to err on We had two or three of these unfortunate the side of caution and go half-speed, folk on board, who, like Moses, had only which in the case of the Foam was safety been allowed to view the promised land indeed), we were thirteen days in reaching from a distance; but they were sufficiently Liverpool, with nothing to break the moindignant with America and its institutions notony except now and then a passing to be quite reconciled to their lot. But vessel. We sighted one solitary iceberg, however undesirable you are, you can or rather ice-floe, and this caused the swagger in gaily, without any questions being asked, if you can afford the few extra pounds for an intermediate passage. The mighty liner in one respect resembles the tiny excursion-boat-no steerage passengers are allowed abaft the funnel; a cord is tied across, on each side of the upper deck, as a line of demarcation, and a very short distance astern of this another line shows the superior limits by which the well-named "intermediate is bound. At night these strings were re moved, probably for fear of accident, and then the steerage gentlemen would make furtive visits to the other end of the deck, and even peer into the smoking-room to watch the poker-playing. The ladies of the steerage do not enjoy this privilege, for at nightfall ancient Argus-eyed mariners sought them out, and drove them below, there to be closely guarded by a sleepless sentinel until daylight should again give them their liberty. The female "intermediate " suffers the same fate; it is only the damsel, or, for that matter, the aged dame of the saloon who can be trusted to realize Mr. Clark Russell's pic-feet and bending the davits. tures of the moonlit ocean, or to watch the gay fireworks with which passing steamers indicate to each other at night the line to which they belong. During the day the saloon passengers sometimes re greatest excitement, especially when we We had two Sundays, on which the passengers don't bother to put on their best clothes; but the sailors turn out very smart, all the Naval Reserve men-of whom we had a large number — appearing in their man-of-war uniforms; there is a service, read by the captain in the absence of a Church of England parson, at II A.M., in the saloon, when all are invited to attend, even the pariah "steerage." The Foam appeared to me very fortunate in her crew; they all seemed cheery and contented - a great contrast to the dirty, idle, and mutinous seamen one finds on an ordinary merchant-vessel. All the pulling and hauling is done by the men, the steampower being only used for the anchor; to see the crew of the Foam lay out on the yard to furl a topsail made one feel one might be on a training-ship. Generally, in mid-passage the saloon passengers manage to break the monotony by getting up a concert or some theatricals, a small charge being made for admission, which is given to some sailors' institution at Liverpool; but on this occasion they were not sufficiently numerous or energetic. They had, however, the advantage of a little music among themselves every evening, while we forward had to put up with the unmelodious strains of two accordions, which were not in tune with each other, or indeed with themselves; the owner of one knew as many as five airs, but the owner of the other only two, and one of those rather tentative, but clearly intended for "Wait | till the Clouds roll by." These performers no doubt meant very well, and when one was playing a few feet off, the other would come and sit beside you, and begin right away with the utmost calm ness. I was much amused by the exaggerated interest which was taken in a mild flirtation in which I indulged with the belle of the steerage. She was an Irish girl, but had been employed for some years, she told me, as salelady in a dry goods store in New York (by which I fancy she meant that she worked in a milliner's shop), and was now off on a visit to her relations in Dublin. She was a good sailor, and shared my repugnance to "below;" she was also very glad to share a large travelling-rug, which I was fortunate enough to have with me. My rivals, who were numerous, looked on with ill-concealed jealousy, the while I regarded them with equanimity, for I felt confident that, however great their other attractions might be, in that icy wind my rug would prevail. It was from her I gleaned scraps of information as to the mysterious portion of the steerage reserved for females; how there was no stewardess, and not even a looking-glass; and how the majority of the women, as well as the men, had decided to have noth ing to do with the washing arrangements; and as discouragement to sleep when shut up below at night, how she had, among the company in her pen, an old lady with a secret rum bottle and a tendency to delirium tremens (which caused her removal to the ship's hospital after a few days), and three mothers whose babies indulged periodically in squalling matches; these, apparently, were conducted on the same lines as those linnet competitions in which one bird sings against the others, all against all, until one only is left, who takes the prize for endurance. Many times a day did my fair friend assure me that, come what may, she was not going back to New York steerage; and I don't think she did. In the early morning of the twelfth day out (it seemed like the fiftieth) the screw suddenly stopped, and every one hurried on deck, to find we were in a thick, driz zling fog, which gradually lifted, and showed the Irish coast. A few hours more, and the tender was alongside receiving our mails, and the passengers who were to disembark at Queenstown, among them the Irish girl, who had smartened herself up to a wonderful extent. Our farewell was very unromantic; the whole steerage was assembled to witness it, my rivals even indulging in a derisive cheer. But little did she mind, for was not her brother going to meet her now when she landed? and was there not an hotel at Queenstown, where, sure, she could get a bath? The same night we sighted the lights off the coast of North Wales; and again, in the early dawn, the cessation of the screw, this time accompanied by the roar of the chain, brought us on deck, to find we had arrived at Liverpool. The river at Liverpool is certainly not particularly beautiful; but in order not to disappoint American visitors, or perhaps to show them at once how we can lick the Yankee in one of his pet spécialités, both banks are adorned with the most hideous and gi gantic advertisements to be seen anywhere in the world. We had some hours given us in which to contemplate these wonders, before the tender arrived; then came the Custom house, which ordeal my little library managed somehow to survive; then a bath and breakfast, and then four hours in the train; but after the dreary thirteen days of steamer it seemed but a few minutes before I was on the platform at Euston, receiving that cheeriest of all greetings, the welcome home of the prod. igal son. The steerage is not a comfortable way of travelling, and no doubt the companies do not wish to make it so, or perchance every one would go "steerage," just as every one goes third class nowadays, owing to the vast improvement made during the last few years in third-class accommodation. But "steerage ” is not to be compared with third class, but rather with tramping and the casual-ward. Still, it must be remembered that the boat in which I learnt my experience is twentyfive years old, and no doubt in many respects old-fashioned. In the modern boats personal cleanliness is probably made more easy, and possibly insisted on when necessary; it is also conceivable that it is exceptional for there to be no stewardess for the female portion of the steerage. Personally, I had a much better time, as Americans say, than I deserved. This is not the place to specify the many acts of personal kindness which I received from the various officers of the ship, who offered me far greater hospitality than that which I thought it becoming to accept; but I cannot conclude this paper without again expressing my thanks to these gentlemen for their many efforts to make my passage as agreeable as possible. From Murray's Magazine. there was something peculiarly low and thoroughly bad in the face of Prince Napoleon, which recalled the stamp of the worst Roman Cæsars in a striking manner. His will was despotic, his temper violent and brutal, his tastes were cynically gross, and his language coarse beyond what could be imagined. While affecting Republican tendencies of the most radical type, so as to be called "Le Prince de la Montagne,' he was essentially a tyrant, and could brook no opposition to his will, always brutally expressed. He was jealous of the emperor's pre-eminent position as of something stolen from himself; but though in a state of chronic rebellion, he never hesitated to accept all the worldly advantages that the title of "cousin" could obtain for him. The poor emperor, always kind, always gentle, always generous, was overpowered by the unpleasant relations coming to him as a legacy from his great predecessor; so that he might well answer, as he did on one occasion, when reproached by the aged Prince Jérome* with having "nothing" of his brother the emperor "I have his family!" Not one of that uncomfortable family but caused him trouble in some way, and all clung to him with the cry of the leech: "Give, give!" And he gave, never refusing even when he knew that he was favoring his enemies. He really liked Prince Napoleon, and if the latter had chosen to make use of his undeniable talents in accordance with the duties of his position, he might, during the empire, have played an important political part, and have gathered the emperor's inheritance after the death of the prince impérial. THE last illness and death of Prince Napoleon have necessarily constituted the most important event of the last month, without, however, having produced any great sensation in general society. "Plonplon" had fallen into oblivion, and when any circumstance recalled the fact that he was still alive, the remarks which followed But never were natural gifts so misapwere far from flattering. plied or so wasted. He could bear no Outside of a narrow circle of Bonapart-restraint, no interruption in his life of ists and private friends he was intensely sensual pleasures, and more from unwilldisliked and despised by all classes and ingness to be "bored" (if such an expresall political opinions. And yet he had sion may be permitted to us) than from the brilliant faculties which, had he chosen to cowardice which was (unjustly) imputed to develop them, might have recalled some- him, he never persevered in anything that thing of the Napoleonic genius, whereas, he undertook when the smallest sacrifice in fact, he only caricatured the worst points was required to carry it out. Everything of the Corsican adventurer, without show-that he attempted bore the stamp of sud ing any of the grand redeeming gifts of the great emperor. The physical likeness was wonderful, but the expression of the two faces was totally different. In the good portraits of Napoleon the First the clear eyes have a singularly piercing glance, at once conveying the impression of a commanding genius. With the same cast of features He den impulse, never followed up. seemed to delight in outraging public opinion, and so constantly acted the proverbial part of the "bull in the china shop," that the emperor was kept in a state of constant anxiety as to what "Napoleon would choose to do next. The father of Prince Napoleon. |