SAMPSON IX S'EW VOim CITY. 163 



Xerer before had he left the peaceful quiet of this little island 

 world. Passing over nearly a thousand miles of a solitude such 

 as only the immense, pathless, treeless wastes of the ocean can 

 produce, he landed at last in that immense, seething, boiling, 

 noisy whirlpool of intensified human life — the great city of New 

 York. Afraid of being cheated — afraid of being robbed — afraid 

 of being run over — afraid of l)eing, in a hundred Avays new to 

 him, killed — not merely a stranger in a new land, but an ignorant, 

 semi-tropical, Bahama African in a babel and pandemonium far 

 surpassing anything his imagination had ever conceived, he seemed 

 for a time to have every particle of life taken out of him. The 

 ferryboats, constantly passing and repassing loaded with passen- 

 gers — the immense labyrinth of streets and avenues, stretching 

 away in every direction farther than he could see — the great, 

 elaborate and expensive buildings of every description — the street 

 railroads, and particularly the vast crowds that made it necessary 

 to carry people on elevated railroads over the heads of those rush- 

 ing in a ceaseless tide below — and the loud, harsh, deafening and 

 infernal mingling of noises that ever ascended day and night — 

 all wonderfully impressed him, and revealed a much more new 

 and strange world to him than his own Bahamas did to Columbus 

 nearly four hundred years ago. He got lost in New York seven 

 times the first day after his arrival; paid ten cents to go to Cen- 

 tral Park, and, after a long ride, he was astonished (and almost 

 scared at the seeming witchcraft) to find himself at the precise 

 place he started from. " Why,'' said he, "der ting had turned 

 round and I know'd nothing 'bout it, and I had to pay my ten 

 cents over agin." He still retains a vivid impression of the de- 

 licious flavor of northern strawberries, but ate so many he de- 

 clared that at night '' dey confused " his stomach. His sea voyage 

 seasoned to his taste everything he ate. " Why," said he, "Pd 

 give more for jess wun mutton chop like as dat I had in New 



