The Hickman courier. [volume] (Hickman, Ky.) 1859-current, 1882-12-15
How Poor People Gross the AtIantlc.

How Poor People Cross the Atlantic.
Each steerager is required to furnish
himself with bed. blanket, plate, knife,
fork, spoon and tin can for holding
water, served out daily The total cost
of these articles in London is not more
than three or four dollars. Then, if he
has the wisdom of an old steerager, he
will provide himself with s'hook pot, "
to contain the tea and coffee served at
meals The hook attaches it to the rim
of the table and prevents it from being
rolled OFT If he is wiser still, he will
take with him tea, coffee, chocolate,
canned meats or fish, and a few spices
or condiments for helping out the ships
bill of fare. Many of my fellow passen-
gers had so provided themselves, and
we enjoyed many sociable private ''teas"
on the trip. The daily bill of fare, as
near as | can recollect, was as follows:
Breakfast at seVen-coffee, hot rolls and
butter. The so-called rolls were in
reality small loaves, of which each pas
senger was entitled to one at meal
Aer1O.3O-or4 eleven, soup or Cruel for
children, of which the older passengers,
through contrivance or good will, often
got a share. Dinner at twelve m.-soup.
roast beef and potatoes, or goldfish and
potatoes, rice or bread pudding. Tea
at six-cold bread and butter and what
was called tea. Often in the afternoon
at four plate of soup or cruel was
among the things possible. There was
certainly enough to eat-of the kind. [
venture to say that one-haf of our
steeragers were never on shore fed with
so much regularity, or even variety. The
beef tasted as though the life had been
taken out OF it by some process. 1t was
cut up before being brought to the table.
1t was brought in huge tin can. The
can was taken to the table by one of the
assistant stewards, and out of it he de-
posted the pieces on our plates with
long fork. The potatoes came next in
another huge pan. Another steward laid
the requisite number by urplates. Our
sOup-plates were filed in a similar fash
ion. The table service, as may be i'm
agined, was entirely practical in its
nature. There IS no formality.
The meal finished, each guest was
required to wash his or her own table
ware. For this purpose the cook. after
each meal, placed a large vessel of hot
water near the galley, on deck. To this
the passenger repaired with his own
soap and towel, plunged therein his tin
plate, cup. knife, fork and spoon.
N0NltI+ NAttEtA ANU ANAlAtAs AtA6 " tAo
no change of hot water for the company
OF course, at the latter end of this lava
tory process it became more and more
greasy, and as it cooled this grease took
on more and more solid consistency.
The guest is required also to clean that
part of the table allotted him; to gather
up all the scraps, especially the potato
peelings. These were generally fired
into the ''chute," from whence the Gin
ders and coal ashes were emptied into
the sea. When this chute was on the
leeward side of the vessel all went well,
and the debris slid readily into the ocean.
When the chute was TO windward things
did not 90 overheard so readily. Then
a large amount of the smaller scrappage
found its way to the general wash-pan
The trip from the steerage table with
this table furniture was on an even keel
a matter of one hundred aud odd feet,
involving the climbing OF the steerage
stairs to the main deck. BY the main
deck, l would inform the ultra lands
man, is not meant the upper deck, which
commands the view of the sea. 1t is the
enclosed deck on which are located all
the offices Of the little floating world,
such as the engine-room, cook-room,
stewards room, butcher-shop, pastry
cook, etc. Ours was one deck below
this. Having had some sea training,
all this dish-washing and other discipline
was for me no great hardship. l had
done it all before in the forecastle. But
some of the poor fellows went erratically
for many DAYS in this unaccustomed
service. There was often clangor of
pots and plates and precipitations of
human forms in ali shapes on deck, and
spilling of slops in all directions during
heavy weather.
The principal abuse of the modern
steerage lies in the contracted space oc-
cupied by the berths. There is no ne
cessity for so crowding twelve people in
a space not large enough for four. The
steamers take as a rule, full cargoes from
America, but they are not so loaded com
ing back. Nor is there any real neces-
sity that the steerage passenger be obliged
to furnish his table service. Cleanliness
would be far better regulated were the
tables set with the ships plates. knives,
forks and cups, and these removed,
washed and stored by the ships attend
ants. As it is, four-fifths of the people
are entirely inadequate to the proper
cleansing of their own tableware, even
in fair weather, and the result is the
storage in their hunks of greasy plates,
which are continually getting loose and
Gathering about under foot in rough
weather As for the fare, | would in the
mines of California have been very glad
to live as well as | did in the steerage. L
have seen worse fare on some vessels
when a sailor, and even worse in some
cheap boarding-houses on shore. We
had very calm passage until within four
days of New York. The steamer was
light, and such rolling for three days l
never deemed anything afioat capable of.
The oscillations were as regular and al
most as rapid as those of a common pen
dulum. 1t was one steady see-saw night
and day-the deck for ever so few sec
onds like Mansard roof up, and with
out the pause of a second it was the
Mansard roof down again. | was rolled
like a log to and fro in my bunk, and no
amount of self-choking would secure me.
At last hit upon a fashion of screwing
my head into one corner of the birth, and
somehow don't know howl could
m Ike that end of my body stay there, but
all below the waist, especially the legs,
thrashed about like pair of whiplashes.
| became so tired of this involuntary ex-
ercise that my whole body ached.-
Prentice MaJord, ip San Francisco
Chronicle. ]
A MnItifariOus Lover.
A Washington correspondent writes