CHAPTER X 



America Letters to his Wife, and Extracts from Journal. 

 AGE 47. 



"'GERMANIC,' 1449 MILES FROM IRELAND, 



Monday, 1 2th May 1890. 



As we are now about half-way across, I begin 

 my letter, and will finish before getting to New York 

 on the 1 6th. We have had a glorious passage so 

 far, and as usual I am as right as a trivet. The 

 captain is a capital fellow. I went this morning 

 all over the emigrant part of the ship with him. It 

 was most interesting. They bring several hundreds 

 over Irish, Scandinavians, at 4 apiece with food 

 from Norway to New York. On arrival they are taken 

 in charge by agents and sent off in trains straight to 

 their destinations. I saw one poor woman with her 

 little baby, born last night, like a little starved cat, 

 beside her. She, of course, thought it lovely, and so I 

 had to admire it to please her. The men and women 

 are in separate parts of the steerage, and there is a 

 married quarter apart also. The unmarried girls all 

 sleep like bottles in a cellar in ' bunks,' only separated 

 by a lath from each other. They bring their own bed- 

 clothes, so some of the bunks are much neater than 

 others, and look quite respectable. I take my jolly 

 sea-bath at 8.15, and breakfast at 9.30. The food is 

 very good, and nothing can exceed the civility of all 



