CAR-DRIVERS AN IRISH FUNERAL. 33 



miles in half an hour. There was too much to sec, ami 

 too much that was quite new, for the eye to dwell long 

 enough on any one object to receive a deep impres- 

 sion, and I hardly knew that the boat had started, 

 when she stopped at the landing-place, and the immense 

 sea of houses of New York, begirt by a forest of masts, 

 lay before us. 



The steamer had hardly landed, when we were sur- 

 rounded by a number of car-drivers, offering to carry 

 our luggage to our destined abode ; we chose two, 

 which took all our things, and for which we had to pay 

 altogether one dollar but they had a tolerable distance 

 to go. Zellner, who had already been in New York, 

 recommended Schw z's boarding-house, whither we all 

 went. In all my life I never saw such a dirty establish- 

 ment as old Madame Schw z's : it makes me sick now 

 to think of it. Of course I did not remain much in the 

 house, but for some days lounged through the fine broad 

 streets, admiring several handsome buildings. I was 

 much struck by the immense amount of shipping 

 ranged thickly side by side all round the town, and by 

 the superfluity of southern fruits; in every street were 

 carts full of pine-apples, oranges, cocoa-nuts, &c. The 

 finest [tines were to be had lor from sixpence to a 

 shilling. 



I had wandered about for a couple of hours, and was 

 about to return to the boarding house, when turning the, 

 corner of a street 1 came upon one of the most extra- 

 ordinary cavalcades 1 ever saw. .It was the funeral of 

 a poor Irishman, which I will briefly describe, us it is 

 well worth it. First came a hearse, covered with dirty 

 cloth that once had been black. The driver was seated 



