My own ticket was given me at once, and an oldish man, who

preserved his head in the midst of this turmoil, got my baggage

registered, and counselled me to stay quietly where I was till he

should give me the word to move. I had taken along with me a small

valise, a knapsack, which I carried on my shoulders, and in the bag

of my railway rug the whole of BANCROFT'S HISTORY OF THE UNITED

STATES, in six fat volumes. It was as much as I could carry with

convenience even for short distances, but it insured me plenty of

clothing, and the valise was at that moment, and often after,

useful for a stool. I am sure I sat for an hour in the baggage-

room, and wretched enough it was; yet, when at last the word was

passed to me and I picked up my bundles and got under way, it was

only to exchange discomfort for downright misery and danger.

I followed the porters into a long shed reaching downhill from West

Street to the river. It was dark, the wind blew clean through it

from end to end; and here I found a great block of passengers and

baggage, hundreds of one and tons of the other. I feel I shall

have a difficulty to make myself believed; and certainly the scene

must have been exceptional, for it was too dangerous for daily

repetition. It was a tight jam; there was no fair way through the

mingled mass of brute and living obstruction. Into the upper

skirts of the crowd porters, infuriated by hurry and overwork,

clove their way with shouts. I may say that we stood like sheep,

and that the porters charged among us like so many maddened sheep-

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