The Cecil Whig. [volume] (Elkton, Md.) 1841-current, 1878-02-09
BROADBRIM'S NEW YORK LETTER.

ALONG TIE DoCKs-oUR OCEAN STEAMERS
ROMANCE OF TIE RIyER-LoRD's RE
TURN STRANGE FAMILY REVELATIONS
BUSINESS FAILURES, &C.
After year of intense excitement pass
ed among the swindlers of Wall street and
the robbers of the slums, among the Scribes
and the Pharisees, the sinners and saints
and don't take offense if ! mention sin
ners first, because there are more of them,
in the art galleries and the law courts, and
the churches and the streets, it is positive
relief to shake off the burthen of aesthetics,
of morals and finance, to get Il Whit Of saIr
air among the ships and along the docks
1t may net be very pure nor very invigor-
ating; it comes to yon, in a measure,
double distilled, with a sort of rbucket
flavor; it is loaded with the odor of rope
yarn and slush, still it smells like the
breath of the sea- and brings back a thous-
and OF the old-time memories, " in the
days when | went gypsying, long time
ago miss the old time sailor, the fellow
with bright tarpaulin, blue jacket and
snow white unmentionables, that were
twenty six inches around the bottom, the
chap who used to hitch up his breeches
with the backs of his hands, and who
constantly swore by his tarry toplights and
his o'gallant eyebrows, and who chewed
tobacco, and who could dance hornpipe
I,a han nf hn
is no more-he's a myth, a thing of the
past, and if L. p. Cook or George Jones
could come back from the grave, they
would have murdered some of these vii
Black Eyed William, if they hadn't COM
mitted suicide themselves. Poor Jack is
not the trim, dainty picture he was of yore
and though never considered an angel, he
may emphatically now be pronounced a
dirty devil; and say it with all respect to
that worthy and estimable character, of
whose existence at the present time there
seems to be very serious doubt. Steam
has transformed him from his exalted
normal condition, and left him all begrlmed
and black, so that his own mother would
scarcely know him. There are sailing
ships along our docks, and mighty ships
they are; but they look ancient and rusty
alongside of those great ocean kings and
queens which now claim the supremacy of
the seas.
Along these docks are monsters which
are little worlds in themselves, and it is
not till you 90 Gown into them and wander
about in the may labyrinth of their won
derful machinery, note the spendor of
their cabins, the marvellous taste and
knowledge which have called into requisi-
ton every modern appliance of our civil
cation that can add to the comfort or hap
piness of their patrons, that you begin to
appreciate what wonderful thing mod
ern ocean steamer is, and how these people
live who go down to the sea in ships.
Those who have only seen steamboats, on
our lakes and rivers have not the remotest
conception of what an ocean steamer
means. When the sailing ship "Great
miracle of naval architecture and SO it
was: but along the docks today are plenty
of steamers almost Il rival for this monster
ocean leviathan. While our sailing ships
lie comparatively idle, our wharves and
bays are filed with mighty steamers. Many
great ocean lines concentrate here. The
Cunards left Boston, finding it only Il pro-
vincial town; the White Star was started
by an English company; but by far the
most popular line at the present time is
the Inman, whose great steamships City
Of Berlin" City of Chester "City of
GLASGOW" " City of Richmond, '"C City of
Montreal and nine or ten others form
magnificent fleet, which has never
equaled, and cannot be surpassed This
is the line which has brought to our shores
nearly million of emigrants from foreign