Coming As They Did From A
Country In So Low A State As Great Britain, Many Of Them From
Glasgow, Which Commercially Speaking Was As Good As Dead, And Many
Having Long Been Out Of Work, I Was Surprised To Find Them So
Dainty In Their Notions.
I myself lived almost exclusively on
bread, porridge, and soup, precisely as it was supplied to them,
and found it, if not luxurious, at least sufficient.
But these
working men were loud in their outcries. It was not 'food for
human beings,' it was 'only fit for pigs,' it was 'a disgrace.'
Many of them lived almost entirely upon biscuit, others on their
own private supplies, and some paid extra for better rations from
the ship. This marvellously changed my notion of the degree of
luxury habitual to the artisan. I was prepared to hear him
grumble, for grumbling is the traveller's pastime; but I was not
prepared to find him turn away from a diet which was palatable to
myself. Words I should have disregarded, or taken with a liberal
allowance; but when a man prefers dry biscuit there can be no
question of the sincerity of his disgust.
With one of their complaints I could most heartily sympathise. A
single night of the steerage had filled them with horror. I had
myself suffered, even in my decent-second-cabin berth, from the
lack of air; and as the night promised to be fine and quiet, I
determined to sleep on deck, and advised all who complained of
their quarters to follow my example. I dare say a dozen of others
agreed to do so, and I thought we should have been quite a party.
Yet, when I brought up my rug about seven bells, there was no one
to be seen but the watch. That chimerical terror of good night-
air, which makes men close their windows, list their doors, and
seal themselves up with their own poisonous exhalations, had sent
all these healthy workmen down below. One would think we had been
brought up in a fever country; yet in England the most malarious
districts are in the bedchambers.
I felt saddened at this defection, and yet half-pleased to have the
night so quietly to myself. The wind had hauled a little ahead on
the starboard bow, and was dry but chilly. I found a shelter near
the fire-hole, and made myself snug for the night.
The ship moved over the uneven sea with a gentle and cradling
movement. The ponderous, organic labours of the engine in her
bowels occupied the mind, and prepared it for slumber. From time
to time a heavier lurch would disturb me as I lay, and recall me to
the obscure borders of consciousness; or I heard, as it were
through a veil, the clear note of the clapper on the brass and the
beautiful sea-cry, 'All's well!' I know nothing, whether for
poetry or music, that can surpass the effect of these two syllables
in the darkness of a night at sea.
The day dawned fairly enough, and during the early part we had some
pleasant hours to improve acquaintance in the open air; but towards
nightfall the wind freshened, the rain began to fall, and the sea
rose so high that it was difficult to keep ones footing on the
deck. I have spoken of our concerts. We were indeed a musical
ship's company, and cheered our way into exile with the fiddle, the
accordion, and the songs of all nations. Good, bad, or
indifferent - Scottish, English, Irish, Russian, German or Norse, -
the songs were received with generous applause. Once or twice, a
recitation, very spiritedly rendered in a powerful Scottish accent,
varied the proceedings; and once we sought in vain to dance a
quadrille, eight men of us together, to the music of the violin.
The performers were all humorous, frisky fellows, who loved to cut
capers in private life; but as soon as they were arranged for the
dance, they conducted themselves like so many mutes at a funeral.
I have never seen decorum pushed so far; and as this was not
expected, the quadrille was soon whistled down, and the dancers
departed under a cloud. Eight Frenchmen, even eight Englishmen
from another rank of society, would have dared to make some fun for
themselves and the spectators; but the working man, when sober,
takes an extreme and even melancholy view of personal deportment.
A fifth-form schoolboy is not more careful of dignity. He dares
not be comical; his fun must escape from him unprepared, and above
all, it must be unaccompanied by any physical demonstration. I
like his society under most circumstances, but let me never again
join with him in public gambols.
But the impulse to sing was strong, and triumphed over modesty and
even the inclemencies of sea and sky. On this rough Saturday
night, we got together by the main deck-house, in a place sheltered
from the wind and rain. Some clinging to a ladder which led to the
hurricane deck, and the rest knitting arms or taking hands, we made
a ring to support the women in the violent lurching of the ship;
and when we were thus disposed, sang to our hearts' content. Some
of the songs were appropriate to the scene; others strikingly the
reverse. Bastard doggrel of the music-hall, such as, 'Around her
splendid form, I weaved the magic circle,' sounded bald, bleak, and
pitifully silly. 'We don't want to fight, but, by Jingo, if we
do,' was in some measure saved by the vigour and unanimity with
which the chorus was thrown forth into the night. I observed a
Platt-Deutsch mason, entirely innocent of English, adding heartily
to the general effect. And perhaps the German mason is but a fair
example of the sincerity with which the song was rendered; for
nearly all with whom I conversed upon the subject were bitterly
opposed to war, and attributed their own misfortunes, and
frequently their own taste for whisky, to the campaigns in Zululand
and Afghanistan.
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