The herald., 1895-03-20
THE FREAK
OF A MASTER IN FICTION,
STEVENSON
He Crossed the Atlantic With the
Steerage Passengers and Shared
Their Mess and Quarters

It was freak of Robert Louis Steven
son in the summer of 1879 to cross the At
lantic from Glasgow to New York in the
steeragc. His friends tried to dissuade
him, and succeeded so far that he finally
took passage in the second cabin, from
which he had easy access to the foulest
quarters of the steerage, and was soon
cumming with the poor emigrants. A
brass plate on door in an obscure place
proclai med that he was still gentle
man, - instead Of mere male and he
ate his meals from dishes of earthcnware
belonging to the ship; otherwise there
was no difference between him and the
lowliest person in the Storage.
An account of his experiences was early
published and it included not only a
description of his sea voyage, but much
other matter relating to his overland
Journey and the trials and prvations of
an immigrant in the far West. Only the
sea voyage, however, is republished in
this attractive little volume, and, while it
is all written in the ever-fresh and virid
manner of Stevenson, and is certainly
worth preserving among his works, it is
difficult to see what purpose it ever served
or what moral end could possibly have
been gained by the writer's self-inflicted
privations. $ born artist, Stevenson
was, in one sense, democratic. He heart
lily despised the pride of wealth and
materialism in every form As student
of character he could view with com
placency, if not always with sympathy
the foibes and weaknesses of his fellow
travellers. No doubt he was honest in his
expression of contempt for the supercil-
liousness of the SALON passengers, who
smiled and drew their dainty garments
closer around them if by chance they
passed Mr.. Stevenson and his companions
on deck but to be addressed as my
! H. ,Ir1
his chosen cronies for mechanic, in spite
of his soft white hands, which they never
seemed to notice, could not have been joy
Gus experiences.
AS matter of fact few men were more
poorly equipped by nature for the task of
pathetically reporting to the world
the misery the emigrant must endure.
His pictures of the steerage are not paint
ed nearly as black as they might be by
| one who had set out to make good story,
without unjustifiable eXaggeration, for the
| very first impression Stevenson obtained
was not that the farm laborers and ruined
mechanics and others who were going out
to seek new lives in strange land, were
so badly fed, but that they denounced, in
violent terms, the quality of food which
! he found palatable and wholesome. The
wonder was not that the steerage proven
der was SO poor but that the British
workingman was used to such good liv-
ing Most of the complaints, he felt,
were perfectly sincere. Good pea soup
| and porridge were things that these stout
| fellows could not stomach, while the deli
cately nurtured poet asked for nothing
! better.
| His shipmates, almost to a man, were
convinced that all was up with the old
,untry. The one cause OF their poverty
WIS the Government, and the only relief
possible was a complete revolution with
| the abolition OF the peerage, the church
| Al L.. n,,,1
view, though not man on board had
any clear idea of how it could be brought
about.
sAs far as saw, drink, idleness and in
competency were the three great causes of
emigration. and for all of them, and
drink first and foremost, this trick OF
: citing transported over seas appears to
me the silliest meaus of cure. You can
not run away from weakness; you must
some time fight it out or perish, and if
that be SO, why not now, and where you
stand?'
| freely with his w-passengers.
The Storage conquered me; | con-
| formed more and more to the type of the
! place, not only in manner, but at heart,
| growing hostile to the officers and cabin
passengers. who looked down upon me,
and day by day greedier for small delca-
ces. Such was the result, as fancy, of a
diet of bread and butter, soup and por-
ridge. We think we have no sweet tooth
as long as we are full to the brm of mo-
| lasses but man must have sojourned in
the workhouse before he boasts himself
indifferent to dainties. Every evening,
| for instance, | was more and more preoc-
! cupied about our doubtful fare at tea. If
it was delicate, my heart was much light
ened; if it was but broken fish, | was pro-
portionately downcast. The offer of a
little jelly from a fellowpassenger, more
! provident than myself, caused a marked
elevation in my spirits. And l would
have gone to the ships end and back
and back again for an oyster or Clipped
! fruit
| He describes with much felicity of
| phrase and the quick, nervous forming of
words into pictures, characteristic of his
! STYLE the daily routine on board, the dis
comforts, the sicknesses, the pastimes,
which seem to have been vigorous but
almost joyless. He portraits member of
| his felow-passengers SO that we feel that
we know them well, and less agreeable
set of personages is to be found in no
other book of Stevenson's. There is not
| one, not even the authors closest friend,
| Jones, for whom we can have any real
, liking, excepting ragged young stow
away, who is willing to work.
| Mr. Stevenson S freak carried him to a
"hotel" in New York on West street,
where he stopped for thirty six hours be-
! author of Treasure Island" sharing a
room over bar on that unpleasant thor
oughfare! The night after his arrival he
! determined to eat with Jones the best
! dinner to be had in New York. They
| stopped people on the street to ask about
dining places, and were always sent to
cheap restaurants. Finally they found a
French table 'hote somewhere down town
and Jared sumptuously.