Southport telegraph. [volume] (Southport, W.T. [i.e. Kenosha, Wis.]) 1840-1850, 1842-01-11
NJ | S C. f l. l. A N Y =.
INCIDENTS OF A VOYAGE ACROSS THE
ATLANTIC.


The foUo1oing extracts arc taken from Mrs. Sedg-
loick'S article tn the Democratic Rerieac:
awe have some 40 steerage passengers. Their
quarters divided from ours by sailcloth, which
snvidous barrier they may not pass. They are,
for the most part, malcontent English who hav-
lng been lured to the United States by dreams of
an ElDorado are disappointed to find that the uni
versal law is in force thcre-Provdence' stern de-
that prosperity must be paid tor In the old
fashioned coin of industry and It's kindred virtues
We have tried TO stir up spirit OF mutual kindness
with these people, making the first advances by
giving apples and raisns to their children, but they
do not meet us half way They are both shy and
surly and / observe in them what | have often
observed in the English people of their condition
an uncertainty as to their relative position, and
an unquieness that is ready to break forth into
presumption and insolence. The artificial dstinc-
tons in which they were bred have ceased-the
forms and words by which they expressed defer
ence are disused-the harness is taken off, the
binders are removed, and they are in possession
of liberty to which they are unaccustomed, and
are in the midst of objects which they have never
measured and do not understand Our people,
not fenced out with brlar hedges, not trained to
proscrptve and unmeaning civility, learn to mea-
sure themselves with others, and to respect natural
elevations and real distinctions. We all agree to
dispense with certain forms of European Civza-
ton, but doubt ifin your whole life you have been
half-a-dozen times treated with premeditated dis
respect by your interiors in condition. There is
one old pair among the steeragc passengers who
are quite an exception to the prevailing sulkness.
i have seen them whenever the weather has been
toerable, sitting placdly, and for the most part
silently, together, seeming like people who
have come to the last chapter OF the book, have
wound up its strong interests, and are but waiting
for toregonc conclusion
you are old, said to the good woman, who
had been telling me a dismal story of the dscom-
forts of the people in the stecrage 'yon are old to
be crossing the Atlantic.
All, indeed, ma am, if it any thing but
to go home
You are English7'
'Ah = interposed the husband good naturedly,
'who would be any thing else that could help it ?
You should not say that replied his wife meek
~, 'snce our children have chosen America for
them and theirs
Well, and to say the TRUTH he resumed, 1t Is
fine country for the young, but 1t is not old Eng
land
1t is not our home, you should say replied his
wife, in an apologize tone, and looking at me.
I'VE all allow, / said, there is no place like
home
True ma am we all say it, but to feel it,
must cross the seas Everybody wondered at us,
but we could not get contentcd teelng-the trees
did not look natural-the rain on those new houses
don't sound as it did the old matched roof-the
sun never seemed to rise nor set IN the right
place.
EYes-thev are good children and kind,-yes-
all but the voungest,-shc not 1cUng-nO,
not willing; but when she saw us pine she was
silent-poor Annie IL wonder if the pear tree Is
living YOU planted the day she was born, John =
The shade of killed the that you set out tor
our eldest girls birthday"
'Yes-God forgive me- remember replied
John, 'but indeed, ma am, the little place was so
stihed with shrubs and flowers, and the like, that
one could not set down tree without killing them
with the shade oft. There were more flowers
clustered under our windows than you can find
on all the bio farms in Ohio. 1t will be long
dav, ma am before your country will look like old
England
too had nav preferences, and my aching long
ings for home, and therefore more respected the
old mans. and less wondered that he was going
home in despite of all the reasons the political eco
nomist might have given him for remaining IN our
tlourishing land | should be very apt like them,
TO go home, if but to die amid old familiar things
While we were talking with the old PAIR, there
was a tall. haggard man, with uncombed hair and a
death.like paleness, stalking up and down in the
narrow and encountered space on the forward deck,
as if all the world over were indeed stage, and he
the only player. | could find out nothing from his
ellow-passengers, but that this had been the way
of his going on ever since we embarked, that he Is
muttering TO himself sleeping and waklng-and
that he drinks more than he eats.
sour gossip sewardess has given me some fur.
ther particulars of the man who excited my curlos
itv last evening. He is an Englishman and has
been a thriving carpenter in New York. lie came
on board in fit of madness, compounded of jeal
ousv and alcohol. This has, in degree, sub
sided but he is still necessarily murmurng some
thing of his wrongs at one moment swearing t
return and murder his wife and her lover, and her
remembering he has all his money with him, re
solving he will leave them, as the stewardess ele
cantlv expresses it, to starve II out together.
Their love or their life, stewardess p!
:, sThcir love-thcir love, ma am-such love
short-hved, any way;-but | think the poor maj
wrongs her and himself; it's the dehrlum tremen
the poor fellow has, and that makes HIM concel
everv thing His wife followed him TO the ship
begging him 10 90 home with her-an lnnocen
prettv woman, and she sat on an old box on tn
end of the wharf, with her baby in her arms, ant
tbe tears streaming down her cheeks, looking mos
desolate- ike-he swearing and stamping nil tn
mate stopped him. and shut him down below
well our Othello has finished has dream-no
thrown himself into the sea, but the means where
bv he lived. one hundred and twenty five sove
rcions. This our sewardess considers far NOR
UNREASONABLE proof of madness than elo-de Sc
The poor fellow threw the money overheard las
evening" and it has had the effect 10 sober HIM.
He awoke this morning TO a consciousness OF hi
pennyless condition, and he begins TO suspect II
has been in delusion about his wife. The pas
sengers are all astir with the incident. One NIGH
imagine a morning paper had come in. Nha
outside creatures most men and most women are
They live upon what is enacted the world within
with its ever-revolving and nscruable mysteries
has nothing novel or curious for them