Essays of Travel

Essays of Travel

The Project Gutenberg EBook of Essays of Travel, by Robert Louis Stevenson (#30 in our series by Robert Louis Stevenson)
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Title: Essays of Travel
Author: Robert Louis Stevenson
Release Date: August, 1996 [EBook #627] [This file was first posted on July 3, 1996] [Most recently updated: September 2, 2002]
Edition: 10
Language: English
Character set encoding: ASCII
*** START OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK, ESSAYS OF TRAVEL ***

Transcribed from the 1905 Chatto & Windus edition by David Price, email [email protected]

ESSAYS OF TRAVEL

Contents
THE AMATEUR EMIGRANT: FROM THE CLYDE TO SANDY HOOK THE SECOND CABIN EARLY IMPRESSION STEERAGE IMPRESSIONS STEERAGE TYPES THE SICK MAN THE STOWAWAYS PERSONAL EXPERIENCE AND REVIEW NEW YORK COCKERMOUTH AND KESWICK COCKERMOUTH AN EVANGELIST ANOTHER LAST OF SMETHURST AN AUTUMN EFFECT A WINTER'S WALK IN CARRICK AND GALLOWAY FOREST NOTES - ON THE PLAINS IN THE SEASON IDLE HOURS A PLEASURE-PARTY THE WOODS IN SPRING MORALITY A MOUNTAIN TOWN IN FRANCE RANDOM MEMORIES: ROSA QUO LOCORUM THE IDEAL HOUSE DAVOS IN WINTER HEALTH AND MOUNTAINS ALPINE DIVERSION THE STUMULATION OF THE ALPS ROADS ON THE ENJOYMENT OF UNPLEASANT PLACES

CHAPTER I
--THE AMATEUR EMIGRANT

THE SECOND CABIN
I first encountered my fellow-passengers on the Broomielaw in Glasgow. Thence we descended the Clyde in no familiar spirit, but looking askance on each other as on possible enemies. A few Scandinavians, who had already grown acquainted on the North Sea, were friendly and voluble over their long pipes; but among English speakers distance and suspicion reigned supreme. The sun was soon overclouded, the wind freshened and grew sharp as we continued to descend the widening estuary; and with the falling temperature the gloom among the passengers increased. Two of the women wept. Any one who had come aboard might have supposed we were all absconding from the law. There was scarce a word interchanged, and no common sentiment but that of cold united us, until at length, having touched at Greenock, a pointing arm and a rush to the starboard now announced that our ocean steamer was in sight. There she lay in mid-river, at the Tail of the Bank, her sea-signal flying: a wall of bulwark, a street of white deck-houses, an aspiring forest of spars, larger than a church, and soon to be as populous as many an incorporated town in the land to which she was to bear us.
I was not, in truth, a steerage passenger. Although anxious to see the worst of emigrant life, I had some work to finish on the voyage, and was advised to go by the second cabin, where at least I should have a table at command. The advice was excellent; but to understand the choice, and what I gained, some outline of the internal disposition of the ship will first be necessary. In her very nose is Steerage No. 1, down two pair of stairs. A little abaft, another companion, labelled Steerage No. 2 and 3, gives admission to three galleries, two running forward towards Steerage No. 1, and the third aft towards the engines. The starboard forward gallery is the second cabin. Away abaft the engines and below the officers' cabins, to complete our survey of the vessel, there is yet a third nest of steerages, labelled 4 and 5. The second cabin, to return, is thus a modified oasis in the very heart of the steerages. Through the thin partition you can hear the steerage passengers being sick, the rattle of tin dishes as they sit at meals, the varied accents in which they converse, the crying of their children terrified by this new experience, or the clean flat smack of the parental hand in chastisement.
There are, however, many advantages for the inhabitant of this strip. He does not require to bring his own bedding or dishes, but finds berths and a table completely if somewhat roughly furnished. He enjoys a distinct superiority in diet; but this, strange to say, differs not only on different ships, but on the same ship according as her head is to the east or