CHAPTER XV. ARRIVAL AT PITTSBURG, WITH REFLECTIONS.
The morning had come, and we were now approaching Pittsburg. It was just about sunrise when we came in view of its spires and buildings. The passengers were scrambling up, now, in every direction.
Some of the passengers were now at the end of their journey. Others had to go further; and some of us many hundred miles further. However, we were all alike glad to get on shore.
But our trunks—where were they? They had, for the greater part, been piled together in a certain place on the deck of the boat, under the care of the steward: they were safe, only it was difficult, at first, to find them.
Here is mine. It must be marked for the railroad across the Alleghany Mountains to Philadelphia. All this was easily disposed of. And now it is to go with a baggage-wagon, and to be taken to the railroad depot.
On removing the trunk to the baggage-wagon, the steward reminded me that it was his custom to receive a small sum of each traveler for taking care of his trunk while on board. I asked him how much. Anything, said he, you please to give.
I was not satisfied with the charge; for I supposed he had his pay by the month, or in some such way, and his regular compensation was sufficient for every purpose: but though a colored man, he was quite a gentleman, and I could not well refuse him.
How many little taxes one must pay, in a busy world like this! Well, an honest, Christian man has no very strong objection to paying them whenever, in so doing, he does not go contrary to the principles of right; and these little taxations, as you travel along, by servants and porters, and stewards, though they are annoyances, seem to me to be of this description.