freight on distant shores, fresh crowds awaited fresh
departures.
There is always something sad, and much that is solemn, and to an unconcerned eye-witness no little of the grotesque, in the embarkation of passengers for a long voyage. It is next to dying or being mar- ried ; the future of it is all uncertain. Friends linger over the farewell as though it were the last, as indeed it is to some. Mother and child, sister and brother, husband and wife cling to each other in yet more frantic embrace, as if their heart-strings would snap, and all unconscious thus offer themselves as a -spec- tacle for the amusement of the heartless and indiffer- ent, to say nothing of turning their pockets an easy prey to wicked professionals.
Midst the turmoil of passengers, the jostlings of porters with trunks, baskets, and boxes which they deposit by stateroom doors, the bundles of clothing, mining utensils, perhaps a new gold-washing ma- chine or a forcing-pump scattered about the deck; the rushing hither and thither of seamen makino; ready for a start, and the general confusion attending embarking, the deck of a steamer an hour before she sails IS the best place in the world wherein to study human nature, as mdeed is the whole trip. Especially if you are a passenger and alone, with a philosophic turn of mind, you may look upon the polyglot assem- blage and noisy medley as in it but not of it. Glanc- ing from one to another you attempt to read the character and purpose of each ; involuntarily you find yourself speculating as to their several relations, who goes and who remains, and the relations of one to another.
There is a melancholy young man, married but a week ; and there another who pales the mute agony of the first, for he has been married but a day, and their wives do not accompany them. Poor fellows! There is a conscious bride blushing her secret
