DICKEN’S AMERICAN NOTES.

New Zealand Colonist and Port Nicholson Advertiser, Volume I, Issue 92, 16 June 1843, Page 4

DICKEN’S AMERICAN NOTES.

WESTERN STEAMERS. , (From, the Colonial Observer.) “ If the native packets I have already de-. scribed be unlike anything we are in the habit: of seeing on water, these Western vessels are still more foreign to all the ideas we are accustomed to entertain of boats. I hardly know what to liken them to, nr howto describe them. “ In the first place, they have no mast, cordage, tackle, rigging, or other such boat-like gear; nor have they anything in their shape at all calculated to remind one of a boat’s head, stern, sides, or keel. Except that they are in the water, and display a couple of paddle-boxes, they might be intended, for any thing that appears to the contrary, to perform some unlcnbwn service, high and dry, upon a mountain-top. There is no visible deck, even ; nothing but a long, black, ! ugly roof, with burnt-out feathery sparks : above which tower two iron chimneys, and a hoarse escape-Valve, with a glass steerage house. Then, in order as the eye descends towards the water, are. the sides,, and doors and windows of the state-rooms, jumbled as oddly together as though they formed la small street built by the varying taste's bf a dozen men : the whole is supported on beams and pillars resting oh a diHy barge, but a feW/inctijes aßoyb 'tnfe.'’v?;a|feV , and; in the narrow sjiaice between, this upper structure Sand {his barge’s deck' are fKe ifurnace-fires and; machinery, open at'the sides io, every wind tlmt blows ail'd every storm of. rain it drive’s aldng its paths. , 1 ** Passing one of these boats at night, and } Seeing the great body of fire,, exposed |ust described, fbat khd rpars,bene^b ; xhe. frail-pile of pointed wdoa-Hwie macbihery not’, warded off or. guarded; in any way, but doing it;s wofk.ih fhe midst, jof the crowd, 6f idlprs aiid' !ernigfants, and children, who throng, the lower ’deck—under the management, too,'‘of reckless men, whose d^dain't'andeits ih^f^rifesTnay

, have been of six months’ feels ; directly that the wonder is, not that, there Should he so many fatal accidents, but that any journey should be:safely*made.” ; AMERICAN RAILROADS. . -‘‘-I made acquaintance with an American railroad, on this occasion, for tire first time. As these works are,pretty much alike all through the'States, their general characteristics are Warily described., , ■ I “ There arc no firsthand second class carriages as with us ; but there is a gentlemen’s car and, a ladies’ car ; the main distinction, between is, that in the first every body smokes, and in the second nobody does. As a black man never travels with a white one, there is. also a negro car, which is a great blundering clumsy chest, such ,as Gulliver went to sea in from the kingdom of, Brobdignag. There is a great deal of jolting, a great deal of wall, not much window, a locomotive engine, a shriek, and a bell. “ The cars are like shabby omnibuses, but larger—Holding 30, 40, 50 people. The seats, instead of stretching from end to end, are placed crosswise. Each seat holds two.persons. There is along row of them on each side of the caravan, a narrow passage, up the middle, and a door at both ends. In the centre of the carriage there is usually a stove, filled with charcoal or anthracite coal, which is for the most part red hot. It is unsufferably close, and you see the hot air fluttering between yourself and any other object you may happen to look at, like the ghost' of smoke. " In the ladies' car there are a great deal of gentlemen who have ladies with them. There are also, a great many ladies who have nobody with them ; for any lady may travel alone from one end of the United States to the other, and be certain of the most courteous and considerate treatment everywhere. The conductor,or checktalker; or guard, or whatever he may be, wears no uniform. He walks up and down the car, and in and out of it, as his fancy dictates, leans against the door with his hands in his pockets, and stares at you, if you chance to be a stranger; or enters into conversation with the passengers about him. A great many newspapers are pulled out, and a few of them are read. Everybody 'talks to you, or to any body else who hits his fancy. If you are an Englishman, he expects that that railroad is pretty much like an English railroad. If you say * No/ he says ' Yes ?’ (interrogatively,) and asks in what respect they differ. You enumerate the heads of difference one by one, and he sayfe ‘Yes?’ (still interrogatively,) and, it: is quite evident, don’t believe it. After a long pause, lie remarks, partly to you, and partly to the knob on the top of his stick, that ‘Yankees are reckoned a considerable of a go-ahead people too; upon which you say ‘ Yes/ and then he says ‘ Yes’ again (affirmatively this time,) and upon your looking out of the window tells you that behind that hill, and some three miles from the next station, there is a clever town in a smart 10-ca-tion, where he expects you have concluded to stop. Your answer in the negative naturally leads to more questions in reference to your intended route (always pronounced rout;) and wherever you are going, you invariably learn that you can’t get there without immense difficulty and danger, and that ; all the great sights are somewhere else. “ If a lady take a fancy to any male passenger’s seat, the gentleman who accompanies her gives him notice of the fact, and he immediately vacates it with great politeness; Politics are much discussed, so are banks, so is cotton. Quiet people avoid the question of the Presidency, for there will be a new election in three years and a half, and party feeling runs very high ; the great constitutional feature of this institution being, that* directly the acrimony of the last election is over, the acrimony of the -next one begins; which is an unspeakable comfort to all strong politicians and true lovers of their country —that is to sav, to 99 men and boys out of every 99£.”