or children, and yet under the necessity of fishing out his ticket

by the way; but it ended at length for me, and I found myself on

deck under a flimsy awning and with a trifle of elbow-room to

stretch and breathe in. This was on the starboard; for the bulk of

the emigrants stuck hopelessly on the port side, by which we had

entered. In vain the seamen shouted to them to move on, and

threatened them with shipwreck. These poor people were under a

spell of stupor, and did not stir a foot. It rained as heavily as

ever, but the wind now came in sudden claps and capfuls, not

without danger to a boat so badly ballasted as ours; and we crept

over the river in the darkness, trailing one paddle in the water

like a wounded duck, and passed ever and again by huge, illuminated

steamers running many knots, and heralding their approach by

strains of music. The contrast between these pleasure embarkations

and our own grim vessel, with her list to port and her freight of

wet and silent emigrants, was of that glaring description which we

count too obvious for the purposes of art.

The landing at Jersey City was done in a stampede. I had a fixed

sense of calamity, and to judge by conduct, the same persuasion was

common to us all. A panic selfishness, like that produced by fear,

presided over the disorder of our landing. People pushed, and

elbowed, and ran, their families following how they could.

Children fell, and were picked up to be rewarded by a blow. One

child, who had lost her parents, screamed steadily and with

increasing shrillness, as though verging towards a fit; an official

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