Golden Dreams and Leaden Realities

by George Payson

But now the anxious question arose, would they be able to lower the water in the hold or even to prevent its rising higher. For a long time the scale hung in doubtful balance, but at last the cheerful news was shouted up to us that the water was lowered about an inch. It was now suggested to draw the supply for the boilers from within the ship instead of taking that without. The pump used for this purpose was accordingly set in operation, and by the united powers of men and steam all fear of immediate danger was at length removed. The storm had spent its violence, the sea became smooth, and in a few days we arrived at Acapulco, where the Panama had gone in just before us. Like her we will also improve the opportunity, and gladly escaping from these boisterous scenes of alarm and confusion, take refuge in the quiet haven of more serene and peaceful meditations. Wars and battles, though occupying so large a space in history, are after all far less deserving of our sober study than the more domestic narrative of private firesides; and I trust the reader will turn with equal satisfaction from storm and shipwreck to the individual interests of our little community.

I take it for granted that all will agree with me in considering the subject on which we are about entering, of paramount importance; and this conviction, while it inflames my desire, at the same time heightens my sense of my inability to do justice to a question of such universality of interest.

The clerk of whom we bought our tickets was a remarkably handsome man, and when he assured us with an air of sincerity an angel might have envied, that the steerage passengers would have the same fare as that provided for the cabin, though in a little different shape, I was simple enough to believe that it was at least one-half true. This was the more inexcusable, as I had already been once deceived in a similar manner, and had had the lesson, one would suppose, pretty effectually ground into my stomach during our never-to-be-forgotten voyage in the Leucothea. But as some one, I think it is the amiable Pecksniff, feelingly observes, it is my nature to be deceived, and a hundred voyages would probably have had no more effect. However, when the handsome clerk had received our money, and had turned us over to the tender mercies of a captain who knew nothing, and a parcel of blacks who cared nothing what the steerage had to eat, we found that the agent, who was probably a pleasant fellow, or a philosopher, had, to say the least, indulged in a figure of speech when he made use of the expression quoted above.

Chemically and philosophically he was undoubtedly correct, and a chemist or a philosopher might have understood him; but a common man, or any one taking his words in their every day meaning, would have been wofully deceived. The cabin fare took the shape of roast beef, and pork, and chickens—of pies and puddings—of soft tack and butter—of nuts and fruit. By the time it reached the steerage, the fresh had become salt—the soft tack had grown hard as the heart of its owners—the puddings had degenerated into boiled rice, sometimes raw, sometimes burnt, often both at once—while the pies and other articles of the dessert were not there at all, either in their own shape or any other.

There was another sense however in which the agent, who I never will believe wilfully intended to deceive us, might have expected his promise to be interpreted. All these various luxuries were prepared in a single galley half sunk below the level of the deck and covered by a grating and an open skylight. Around this grating the steerage passengers were permitted to assemble, and snuff up as much of the fragrant odours as mixed with other and less inviting exhalations, found their way into the upper air. Sometimes, if one waited long enough and humbled himself sufficiently, one of the black cooks would extend to him graciously the royal favour, and bestow upon him a pickle or a bit of bread, or even leave to him the superfluity of his own repast. In addition to this inestimable privilege we dwellers in the middle of the ship, half way between the aristocracy of the cabin and the democracy of the forecastle, were allowed to feast our eyes on the savoury messes carried past our quarters in tin pans of vast circumference, and even to look on at a respectful distance while the different watches ate and drank with the most sublime indifference. The scene constantly reminded me of a huge mastiff gnawing a bone, while a troop of curs and puppies walk about him, wistfully eyeing the fragments as they disappear one after another in his capacious jaws, and after he has finished carefully lick up every particle too small for his magnanimous appetite.

But it would be necessary to descend still lower in the scale of creation to find a fit illustration of the manner in which our meals were conducted. Two narrow tables were suspended from the ceiling in the upper cabin, capable of seating about seventy persons. As there were nearly three hundred passengers, of course only one-fourth could be accommodated at once, and the tables had to be set four times in succession; so that each meal commonly occupied several hours. Out of these three hundred at least two hundred and fifty were possessed with an insane desire to sit down at the first table; either because they fancied there would be a greater abundance, or from that abhorrence of being last, which has come to be considered an American characteristic.

Long before the usual hour, a little knot of the more hungry, or more determined sort, had collected round the hatch opening into the steerage. At the same time various symptoms began to show that all were in expectation of some important event. The readers shut up their books and put them into their pockets—the card players swept up their cards from the deck—the talkers stopped talking and pricked up their ears—every thing foretold the impending dinner. The crowd around the hatchway has grown larger and denser, and only waits the steward's signal to precipitate itself almost bodily into the steerage below. Those in the centre sit with their legs dangling down the hatch, and from this elevated position eye the sluggish movements of the waiters with ravenous impatience.

"What they got for dinner?" cries some unfortunate on the skirts of the throng vainly striving to look over the shoulders of the circle.

"Roast turkey and plum pudding," answer half a dozen voices, "don't you wish you could get some?" and this well-worn jest never fails to be received with shouts of laughter. At last all the preparations are completed—the step ladder is reared against the deck, and in an instant eighty hungry bipeds drop, like apples from a tree when violently shaken, down into the steerage. But at the same moment a second party, who have lain all the while perdu in their berths, suddenly emerge from their hiding-places and appropriate without ceremony all the seats on one side of the tables, and half of the eighty are obliged to return grumbling and swearing to the deck.

And now begins a scene of confusion such as fortunately is witnessed nowhere except at sea. Half-a-dozen hands are at once stretched out for the salt beef, but the dish is of tin and will bear hard pulling. The one who prevails in the contest cuts off the choicest bit for himself, and pushes the dish to his next neighbour. "Hand along them pertaters"—"pass up that bread"—"here waiter! steward! the soup is all gone"—"can't help it; it's all there is"—"give me a mug, I say"—"what the d—— do you call this?"—"I haven't had a potato these three days"—"faugh! the rice's burnt again"—"that feller's got 'em all"—"let me out o' this, I say"—such are the cries that, larded with a plentiful sprinkling of oaths, go to make up the conversation at this elegant repast.