who demanded a dollar, upon the receipt of which he permitted me to pass in. As I entered, another gentleman of the same persuasion took my ticket and escorted me to a seat at the table. The table was resplendent with chinaware, glassware, and silver casters. I was taken all aback with so much grandeur, and felt myself quite out of place, so different was it from what I had been accustomed to before on shipboard. The waiter, observing my embarrassment, took me in hand and brought me a number of wellfilled plates. My hunger overcame my bashfulness and I began to eat, and continued my gustatory occupation until my stomach admonished me that it was time to stop.

When I went out on deck we were abreast of the Newport breakwater. Soon we came up with Fort Adams, and, passing it, we came up with Brenton's Reef. Then Beavertail Lighthouse on the starboard side; then came up with Point Judith, and next Watch Hill light, and entered the Long Island Sound.

I now turned into my berth and dreamed that I was in the mines and had already dug up and washed out a barrelful of shining gold dust. In the height of my rejoicing at my success I was awakened by the tramping of many feet and I arose and dressed myself and went out on deck to find that it was five o'clock A. M. and that we were just passing Blackwell's Island and heading for the North River side of New York City. We reached the wharf about six o'clock and I engaged a vehicle to take my baggage to a respectable boarding house on Roosevelt street.

After I took my breakfast I sallied out to find the office of the Pacific Mail Company, which I accomplished without any difficulty. Although I had been in New York many times before I had always belonged to some vessel and was therefore a stranger on shore. When I reached the place I found the sidewalk in front occupied by a crowd of men, and all of them conversing about California and the latest news from there. The office was on the second floor, and as I went up the stairs I found them crowded with men going up and others coming down. After I reached the office I had to

wait for my turn to approach the counter. When I had accomplished this feat, sore indeed was my disappointment to learn from the agent that he could not sell me a through ticket to California. All that he could do was to sell a ticket to Chagres, from whence I could make my way to Panama, through swamps and over mountains, a distance of more than fifty miles, after which I could trust to luck to obtain passage for San Francisco, as all the tickets for cabin and steerage on the Pacific side were already sold as far off as the following December. I turned sadly from the counter and went down stairs.

When I reached the street a very respectable looking gentlemen spoke to me and asked me if I had bought my ticket. I answered that I had not. "Then," said he, "I advise you not to do so, for the reason that the Isthmus is crowded with people that can't get away. I have a fine ship that is now loading in Philadelphia for San Francisco, and I am the master and part owner of her. She will have finished loading within ten days, and we shall sail for San Francisco within two days thereafter. I am going to take my wife and only daughter with me, and that is a guarantee that the ship is sound and seaworthy. Now I will tell you: I saw you come out of the steamship office, and I like your appearance, and although I have nearly all my cabin passengers engaged, and I will take no others, I want you to go with me, and I will make a deduction in the price of passage in your favor."

He was a man of fine presence, standing six feet or over, of a florid complexion, and of an address so pleasant and friendly that he won my confidence. I, like a simpleton that I was, accepted all that he told me as honest truth. He directed me to call that evening at the Merchants' Hotel and inquire of the clerk for Capt. Blanchard. He then left me and I strolled around the wharves and saw many ships. with signs out: "First vessel for California; cargo all engaged; will leave in five days. For passage only apply to so and so, Maiden Lane."

At six o'clock I went to my boarding house and ate my

supper, after which I made my way to the Merchants' Hotel and asked the clerk for Capt. Blanchard of the ship "Samson." He told me that the captain was then taking his dinner and would soon come into the reading-room. I stood around awhile and heard the gentlemen talking about ships and quick passages and so on, and I inferred that the place was the headquarters of sea captains. I stood around awhile and after a time I saw the captain enter the room. When he saw me he greeted me cordially and invited me to his room. Then he began by saying, "When I saw you this morning I was favorably impressed by your appearance, and I like your modest and manly manner. Now I'll tell you what I'll do for you. The price of passage on my ship is fixed at two hundred dollars for cabin, and there will be no steerage passengers on board, so that we may not be crowded on such a long voyage. I'll deduct one-quarter of the price in your favor, which you can pay to the ship's agent in Philadelphia, to whom you can hand the note which I will now give you. After you have paid your passage you can go aboard the ship at South street wharf and hand this note to Mr. Cranston, the mate, who will then let you pick your berth in the upper cabin, as the lower cabin is to be devoted to the use of families, who have already engaged all the staterooms." "I suppose we shall live pretty well in the cabin, Captain," I ventured to remark. "Live pretty well!" said he. "On that you may depend. As you are an old shell-back like myself I don't mind telling you all about it. I am determined that we shall live like fighting cocks. I have already engaged a half dozen coops of chickens, a large lot of ducks and a dozen of half-grown pigs, for I myself am fond of sea pie made with good fresh pig. The tables of the upper and lower cabins shall be identical. There shall be no difference. Every day for dinner there shall be plum duff, with raisins or Zante currants, and wine sauce. For a change there will be rice pudding with eggs, and I am sorry we can't carry a cow, for then we could use milk also. Also we shall have mince or dried apple pies. Why, sir, by the time that we arrive in California, in place of being as lean as a dolphin, as you are now, you'll be as fat as a porpoise."

After this pleasant interview I left the captain, feeling highly elated with my good luck, and that indeed "my lines had fallen in pleasant places." But, alas for the truth, I saw neither chickens, ducks nor half-grown pigs on board the ship "Samson" while I was on board of her, only in my mind's eye.

I returned to my boarding house and to bed, being determined to take the first train for Philadelphia the next day. I arose the next morning, walked down to the Battery and viewed the harbor with innumerable vessels moving hither and yon. I saw a Liverpool packet of the black ball line that had arrived the evening before. Her decks were black with immigrants, there were so many. At that time the only steamships that crossed the Atlantic made their port in Boston, and they took only cabin passengers, therefore the packet ships of that day were of great importance.

After looking around awhile I returned to the boarding house and ate my breakfast, after which I went to the railroad office and there learned that by taking the night slow train that the cost of passage would be much less and still I would arrive in Philadelphia quite early the following morning. I bought my ticket and walked around; went up Chatham street, the Bowery and other places that sailors used to talk about when we were at sea. At one o'clock I returned to my boarding house, ate my dinner, paid my bill and then engaged a dray to take my baggage to the Jersey City ferry.

At five o'clock we left the ferry landing and crossed to Jersey City. There we got on board the cars and about six o'clock started for Philadelphia. In the same seat with me sat an old gentleman, who asked me where I was from and where I was going. After I had answered these questions, apparently to his satisfaction, he took me into his confidence and told me that he was from Boston, where he had been engaged in business for many years and had by his industry and frugality accumulated a sum equal to seventy thousand dollars, the most of which he had invested in real

estate, and he had retired from business because he felt that he had money enough. That was many years ago, and I will say that he is the only man that I ever heard make such a declaration.

He further told me that his son, who had gone to New Orleans some years ago and was now established in business, had sent him an urgent invitation to come and pass the winter with him in the genial climate of the South. He said he was then on his way by way of Cincinnati, to which place he was going by rail, and from thence by river on one of the floating palaces down the Ohio river into the great Mississippi, and down to New Orleans. After passing the winter in the company of his son and family, and spring was well advanced, he would embark on board of one of the numerous vessels that sail from New Orleans to Boston, and go home by the way of the Gulf of Mexico and the Florida Straits, until he would again reach his New England homethan which there is no sweeter spot on earth to him.

By this time it had become dark, and the lamps in the car had been lighted. The passengers, one after the other, were dropping asleep. I had the inside seat, and in the seat opposite mine sat a lady holding a child, about eighteen months' old, that had been crowing, talking baby-talk, and kicking from the time we had started, and now from sheer exhaustion it had fallen asleep in its mother's arms. The old gentleman beside me was now in the land of nod.

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I was ruminating in my mind over my novel situation—so different from my usual one of a life on shipboard. I was roused from my reverie by the lady on the opposite seat saying to me: 'Young man, I see that you don't seem to be either tired or sleepy, while I am both, and feel all worn out with taking care of my baby. Now will you, like a good young man as I see that you are, just hold my baby while I take a half hour of rest?" What could I say, only to answer in the affirmative, and took the child from her arms for half an hour. The mother settled herself in her seat, and for two successive hours she slept and snored at the rate of ten knots an hour.