62 WILD SPOETS IN THE FAR WEST. 



refuge in one of the uppermost of three rows of sleeping 

 berths, to be out of range of shot. 



It M'as dark when we arrived at Cleveland, and I 

 stood on the shore in some difficulty, not knowing 

 exactly where to look for shelter, when a young Ger- 

 man, who, by the light of a lantern, recognized me by 

 my costume for a fellow countr^Tnan, asked me if I 

 would like to pass the night in a German house : on 

 my quickly agreeing to it, he led me to one, some hun- 

 dred yards oiF, where I soon went to bed. The beds 

 in America are all double, that is to say, so wide as 

 easily to hold three, and indeed I have sometimes made 

 a fourth. I was shown into this abode of dreams by a 

 little hump-backed youth, and on my asking if I could 

 sleep alone there, he replied that perhaps some stranger 

 might come by the stage-coach. Towards midnight I 

 was disturbed by a noise, and thought to myself " Oh, 

 oh, here comes the stranger ; " and as I was not yet 

 accustomed to this American fashion, I took the trouble 

 to look up to see what my bedfellow was like, and had 

 the fehcity to see that a negro as black as pitch was 

 preparing his ebony members to occupy part of my bed. 

 I moved to the extreme edge, leaving at least two- 

 thirds of the space to this son of the night. I was at 

 this time but little acquainted with American habits, 

 and if this had happened to me later, the landlord 

 would not have had a whole bone in his skin ; for it is 

 the greatest insult to a white man in North America, 

 and more particularly in the slave states, to place a ne- 

 gro on equal terms with him. 



I was up before day, and, according to custom, went 

 out to have a look at the town. From Cleveland I 



