I Had Found It Necessary To Study Physiognomy
Since Leaving England, And Was Horrified By The Appearance Of My Next
Neighbour.
His forehead was low, his deep-set and restless eyes
significant of cunning, and I at once set him down as a swindler or
pickpocket.
My convictions of the truth of my inferences were so strong,
that I removed my purse, in which, however, acting by advice, I never
carried more than five dollars, from my pocket, leaving in it only my
handkerchief and the checks for my baggage, knowing that I could not
possibly keep awake the whole morning. In spite of my endeavours to the
contrary, I soon sank into an oblivious state, from which I awoke to the
consciousness that my companion was withdrawing his hand from my pocket.
My first impulse was to make an exclamation, my second, which I carried
into execution, to ascertain my loss; which I found to be the very
alarming one of my baggage-checks; my whole property being thereby placed
at this vagabond's disposal, for I knew perfectly well, that if I claimed
my trunks without my checks, the acute baggage-master would have set me
down as a bold swindler. The keen-eyed conductor was not in the car, and,
had he been there, the necessity for habitual suspicion, incidental to his
position, would so far have removed his original sentiments of generosity
as to make him turn a deaf ear to my request, and there was not one of my
fellow-travellers whose physiognomy would have warranted me in appealing
to him. So, recollecting that my checks were marked Chicago, and seeing
that the thief's ticket bore the same name, I resolved to wait the chapter
of accidents, or the re-appearance of my friends. I was scarcely able to
decide whether this proof of the reliance to be placed upon physiognomy
was not an adequate compensation for the annoyance I was experiencing, at
the probability of my hoarded treasures falling into the hands of an
adventurer.
During the morning we crossed some prairie-country, and stopped at several
stations, patches of successful cultivation showing that there must be
cultivators, though I rarely saw their habitations. The cars still
continued so full that my friends could not join me, and I began to be
seriously anxious about the fate of my luggage. At mid-day, spires and
trees, and lofty blocks of building, rising from a grass-prairie on one
side, and from the blue waters of Lake Michigan on the other, showed that
we were approaching Chicago. Along beaten tracks through the grass,
waggons with white tilts drawn by oxen were proceeding west, sometimes
accompanied by armed horsemen.
With a whoop like an Indian war-whoop the cars ran into a shed - they
stopped - the pickpocket got up - I got up too - the baggage-master came to
the door: "This gentleman has the checks for my baggage," said I, pointing
to the thief. Bewildered, he took them from his waistcoat-pocket, gave
them to the baggage-master, and went hastily away. I had no inclination to
cry "Stop thief!" and had barely time to congratulate myself on the
fortunate impulse which had led me to say what I did, when my friends
appeared from the next car. They were too highly amused with my recital to
sympathise at all with my feelings of annoyance, and one of them, a
gentleman filling a high situation in the East, laughed heartily, saying,
in a thoroughly American tone, "The English ladies must be 'cute
customers, if they can outwit Yankee pickpockets."
Meaning to stay all night at Chicago, we drove to the two best hotels,
but, finding them full, were induced to betake ourselves to an advertising
house, the name of which it is unnecessary to give, though it will never
be effaced from my memory. The charge advertised was a dollar a day, and
for this every comfort and advantage were promised.
The inn was a large brick building at the corner of a street, with nothing
very unprepossessing in its external appearance. The wooden stairs were
dirty enough, and, on ascending them to the so-called "ladies' parlour," I
found a large, meanly-furnished apartment, garnished with six spittoons,
which, however, to my disgust, did not prevent the floor from receiving a
large quantity of tobacco-juice.
There were two rifles, a pistol, and a powder-flask on the table; two
Irish emigrant women were seated on the floor (which swarmed with black
beetles and ants), undressing a screaming child; a woman evidently in a
fever was tossing restlessly on the sofa; two females in tarnished Bloomer
habiliments were looking out of the window; and other extraordinary-
looking human beings filled the room. I asked for accommodation for the
night, hoping that I should find a room where I could sit quietly. A dirty
chambermaid took me to a room or dormitory containing four beds. In one
part of it three women were affectionately and assiduously nursing a sick
child; in another, two were combing tangled black hair; upon which I
declared that I must have a room to myself.
The chambermaid then took me down a long, darkish passage, and showed me a
small room without a fireplace, and only lighted by a pane of glass in the
door; consequently, it was nearly dark. There was a small bed with a dirty
buffalo-skin upon it; I took it up, and swarms of living creatures fell
out of it, and the floor was literally alive with them. The sight of such
a room made me feel quite ill, and it was with the greatest reluctance
that I deposited my bonnet and shawl in it.
Outside the door were some medicine-bottles and other suspicious signs of
illness, and, after making some cautious inquiries, we found that there
was a case of typhus fever in the house, also one of Asiatic cholera, and
three of ague! My friends were extremely shocked with the aspect of
affairs.
Enter page number
PreviousNext
Page 41 of 128
Words from 40961 to 41969
of 129941
