LATEST SPECIMEN OF BOZ.

Auckland Times, Volume 2, Issue 53, 16 January 1844, Page 4

LATEST SPECIMEN OF BOZ.

JUARTIN CHUZZLEWIT’S STEERAGE PASSAGE TO AMERICA. ([Concluded from oui latt number.) ®*NoW then,” said Mark, nodding’ to a woman who was dressing her thre6 children at no great distance from him—and the grin upon his face had by this time spread from ear to ear—Hand over one of them young uns according to custom.” “I wish you’d gfek breakfast, Mark, instead of worrying with people who don’t belong to you,” observed Martin* petulently. “ All right,” said Mark. ** She’ll do that. It’s a fair division of labour, sir. 1 wash her boys, and she makes out tea. 1 never could make tea, but any one can wash a boy.” The woman, who was delicate and ill, felt and understood his kindness, as well she might, for she had been covered every night with his great coat, while he had had for hia own bed the bare boards and a rug. But Martin, who seldom got up or looked about him, was quite incensed by the folly of this speech, and expressed dissatisfaction by an impatient groan. “ So it is, certainly,” said Mark, brushing the child’s hair as cooly as if he had been born aud bred a barber, “ What are you talking about, now?’’ asked Martin. ** What you said,” replied Mark ; “ or what you meant, when you gave that there dismal vent to your feelings. I quite go along with it, sir. It is very hard upon her.” “ What is?” “ Making the voyage by herself along with these young impediments here, and going such a way at such a time of year to join her husband. —lf you don’t want to be driven mad with yellow soap in your eye, young man,” said Mr. Tapley to the second urchin, who was by this time under his hands at the basin, “ you’d better shut it.” " Where does she join her husband ?” asked Martin, yawning. Why, I’m very much afraid,” said Mr, Tapley, in alow voice, “ that she don’t know, l hope she mayn’t miss him, But she sent her last letter by hand, and it don’t seem to have been very clearly understood between 'em without it, and if she don’t see him a waving his pockethandkerchief on the shore, like a picter out of a song hook luy opinion is she’ll break her heart,”

** Why, how, in Folly’s name, does the woman come to be on board ship on such a wild goose venture I” cried Martin, Mr. Tapley glanced at him for a moment as he lay prostrate iu his berlh, and then said, very quietly, “ Ah S Jblow, indeed ! I can’t think ! He’s been aWay from her (or two year ; she’s been very poor and lonely m her own country; and has always been a looking forward to meeting him. It’s veiy strange She should be here. Quite amazing 1 A little mad, perhaps 1 There can’t be no other way of accounting for it.’’ Martin was too far gone in the lassitude of sea-sickness to make any reply to these Words, or even to attend to them as they were spoken* And the subject of their discourse returning at this crisis with some hot tea, effectually put a stop to any resumption of the theme by Mr. Tapley; who, when the meal was over and he had adjusted Martin’s bed, went up on deck to wash the breakfast service, which consisted of two half pint tin mugs, and a shaving-pot of the same metal. It is due to Mark Tapley to state, that he suffered at least as much from seasickness a& any man, woman* or child, on board; and that he had a peculiar faculty of knocking himself about on the smallest provocation, and losing his legs at every lurch of the ship. But resolved, in his usual phrase, to “ come out strong” under disadvantageous circumstances, he was the life and soul of the Steerage, and made no more of stopping in the middle of a facetious Conversation to go away and be excessively ill by himself, &tid afterwards come back in the very best and gayest of tempers to resume it, than if such a course of proceeding had been the commonest in the World. It cannot be said that, as his illness wore off, hia cheerfulness aud good-nature increased, because they Would hardly admit of augmentation; but his usefulness among the weaker members of the party was rhuch enlarged ; and at all times and seasons there he Was exerting U. If a gleam of sun shone out of the dark sky, down Mark tumbled into the cabin, and presently up he came again with a woman in his arms, or half-a-dozen children, or a man, or a bed* ora saucepan, or a basket, br something animate or inanimate, that he thought would be the better for the air. If an hour or two of line weather in the middle of the day, tempted those who seldom or never came bn deck at other times, to Crawl into the long bbat, or lie down upon the spare Spars, and try to eat, there in the centre ot the group was Mr. Tapley* handing about salt beef and biscuit, or dispensing tastes of grog, or cutting up the children’s provisions with his pocket knife, for their greater ease and comfort, or reading aloud from a venerable newspaper, or singing some roaring old song to a select party, or writing the beginnings of letters to their friends at home for people who couldn’t write, or cracking jokes with the crew, or getting nearly blown over the side, or emerging half-drowned, from a shower ot sprav, or lending a hand somewhere or other: but always doing something for the general entertainment. At night when the cooking-fire was lighted on the deck, and the driving sparks that flew among the rigging, and the cloud cf sails, seemed to threaten the ship with -certain annihilation by fire, in case the elements of air and water failed to compass her destruction ; there again was Mr. Tapley, with his coat off and his shirt sleeves turned up to his elbows, doing all kinds of culinary offices; compounding the strangest dishes; recognised by every one as an established authority; and helpiug all parties to achieve something, which left to themselves, they never could have done, and never would have dreamed of. In short, there never Was a mote popular character than Maik Tapley became on board that noble and fast-sailing line-of-packet ship, the Screw ; and he attained at last to such a pitch of universal admiration, that he began to have grave, doubts within himself whether a man might reasonably claim any credit for being jolly under such exciting tircumstances. “ If this was going to last,” said Mr. Tapley, “ there’d be no great difference as I can perceive, between the Screw and the Dragon. I never am to get any credit 1 think, I begin to be afraid that the

Fates is determined to make the world easy to me.” “Well, Mark,’’said Martin, near whose berth he had ruminated to this effect. “ When will this be over?” “ Another week, they say, sir,” returned Mark, wiil most likely bring us iuto port. The ship’s going along at present, as sensible as a ship can, sir; though 1 don’t mean to say as that’s any very high praise.” “ f don’t think it is* indeed,” groaned Martin. “ You ; d fee! all the better for it, sir, if you was to turn out,” observed Mark, “ And be seen by the ladies and gentlemen on the after-deck,” returned Martin, with a scornful emphasis npon the words, “ mingling with the beggarly crowd that are stowed away in this vile hole. 1 should be greatly the better for that, no doubt !” “ I'm thankful that I can’t say from my own experience what the feelings ot a gentleman might he,” said Mark, “ but I should have thought, sir, as a gentleman would feel a deal more uncomfortable down here, than up in the fresh air, especially wdien the ladies and gentlemen in the after-cabin know just as much about him, as he does about them, and are likely to trouble their heads about him iu the same proportion. I should have thought that certainly.” “ I tell you, then,” rejoined Martin, “ you would have thought w-rong, and do think wrong,” “ Very likely, sir,” said Mark, with imperturable good temper. “ I often do.” “As to lying here,” cried Martin, raising himself on his elbow, and looking angrily at his follower. “ Do you suppose it’s a pleasure to lie here ?” “ All the madhouses in the world,” said Mr. Tapley, “ couldn’t produce such a maniac as the man must be who could think that.” “Then why Are you for ever goading me to get up?” asked Martin. “ I lie here because I don’t Wish to oe recog nised in the better days to which I aspire, by any purse-proud citizen, as the man who came over with him among the steerage passengers, 1 lie here, because I wish to conceal my circumstances and myself, and not to arrive in A new World badged and ticketed as an utterly povertystricken man. If I could have afforded a passage iu the after-cabin, I should have held up my head with the rest. As I could’nt I hide it. Do yon understand that f” “ I am very sorry* sir,” said Mark. “ I didn’t know you took it so much to heart as this comes to.” “ Of course you did’nt know,” returned his master.” “ How should you know, unless I told you? It's no trial to you , Mark, to make yourself comfortable and to bustle about. It’s as natural for yoii to do so under circumstances as it is for me not to do so. Why you don’t suppose there is a living creature in this ship who can by possibility have half so much to undergo on board of her as / have ? Do you ?” he asked, sitting upright in his berth and looking at Mark, with an expression of great earnestness not unmixed with wonder. Mark twisted hi s face into a fight knot, and with his head very much on one side pondered upon this question as if he felt it an extremely difficult one to answer. He was relieved from his embarrassment by Martin himself, who said, as he stretched himself upon his back again and resumed the book he had been reading: ° 9 “But what is the use of my putting such a case to you, when the very essence of what I have been saying, is, that you cannot by possibility understand it ! Make me a little brandv-and-water— cold and very weak—and give me a biscuit, and tell your friend, who is a nearer neighbour of ours than l could wish, to try and keep her chil dren a little quieter to-night than she did last night, that's a good fellow.” Mr. Tapley set himself to obey these orders with great alacrity, and pending their execution, it may be presumed his flagging spirits revived : inasmnch as he several times observed, below his

breath, that in respect of its power of imparting a credit to jollity, the Screw unquestionably had some decided advantages over the Dragon. He also remarked, that it was a high gratification to him to reflect that he would carry its main excellence ashore with him, and ha'e it constantly beside him wherever lie went; but what he meant by these consolatory thoughts he did not explain. And now a general excitement to prevail on hoard ; and various predictions relative to the precise day, and even the precise hour at which they would arrive at New York, were f,eely broached. There was infinitely more crowding on deck and looking over the ship’s side than there had been before; and an epidemic broke out for packing up things every morning, which required unpacking again every night. Those who had auy letters to deliver, or any friends to meet, or any settled plans of going anywhere or doing anything, discussed their prospects a hundred times a day ; and as this class of passengers was very small, and the number of those who had no prospects at all was very large, Vere were plenty ot listeners and few T takers. Those who had been ill all along got well now, and those who had been wed got better. An American gentleman in the after-cabin who had been wrapped in fur and oilskin the whole passage, unexpectedly appeared in a very suiny, tall, black hat, and constantly overhauled a very little valise of pa ! e leather, w ich con tained his clothes, linen, brushes, shaving aparatu?, books, trinkets, and other baggage. He likewise stuck his hands deep into his pockets, and walked the deck with his nostrils dilated, as a ready inhaling the air of Freedom which car. ries death to all tyrants, and can never (under any circumstances worth men. tioning) be breathed by slaves. An English gentleman who was strongly suspected of having run away from a bank, xvith something in his possession belonging to its strong box besides the key, grew eloquent upon the subject o the rights of man, and hummed the Marseillaise Hymn constantly. In a word, one great sensation pervaded the whole ship, and the soil of America lay close before them: so close at last, that, upon a certain starlight night, they took a pilot on board, and within a few hours afterwards lay to until the morning, awaiting the arrival of a steam boat in w hich the passengers were to be conveyed ashore. Off she came, soon after it w'as light next morning, and, lying alongside an hour or more—during which period her very firemen were objects of hardly less interest and curiosity, than if they had been so many angeis, good or bad took all her living freight aboard. Among them, Mark, who still had his friend and her three children under his close protection; and Martin, who had once more .dressed himself in Ins-usual attire, but wore a soiled, old cloak above his ordinary clothes, until such time as he should separate for ever from his late companions. The steamer—which, with its machinery on deck, looked, as it Worked its long slim legs, like some enormously magnified insect or antediluvian monster—dashed at great speed up a beautiful bay ; and presently they saw some heights, and i»lands, and a long, flat, stiaggling city. “ And this,” said Mr. Tapley, looking far ahead, “ is the Land of Liberty, is it ? Very well. I‘m agreeable. Any laud will do for me, after so much water.”