Part 1 (2/2)
Grace, _wife of Geo. F. Allen and daughter of James Brown, born Aug.
25th, 1821._
Herbert, _infant child of Geo. F. and Grace Allen, born Sept, 28th, 1853._
William B., _son of James Brown, born April 23rd, 1825._
Clara, _wife of Wm. B. Brown and daughter of Chas. Moulton, born June 30th, 1830._
Clara Alice Jane, _daughter of William B. and Clara Brown, born Aug. 30, 1852._
Maria Miller, _daughter of James Brown, born Sept. 30th, 1833._
What a sad story! As the s.h.i.+p wreck occurred in the fall, it is highly probable that the party was homeward bound and, had better fortune been with them, might in a very few days have again been safe and happy in their respective homes, relating stories of their strange but pleasant experiences in the Old World. How changed the tale! How their friends must have been looking and waiting for the ”Arctic!” One line told the whole story, and perhaps all that was ever heard of them, ”The 'Arctic' is wrecked!”
Not far away, on the crown of Locust Hill, sleeps Horace Greeley, America's great journalist and political economist. At the head of his grave stands a temporal memorial stone in the form of a simple marble slab, bearing the inscription, ”Horace Greeley, born February 3rd, 1811; died November 29th, 1872.” I left the Cemetery at 7:45 p.m., and returned to my quarters in New York.
Monday, June 21st. Having procured pa.s.sage with the ”Manhattan,” which was to sail on the morrow, I straightway went to Pier No. 46, North River, _to take a look at her_! At 12:45 p.m. I stood in the third story of A.T.
Stewart's great dry goods establishment, perhaps the largest of kind in the world. It is six stories high, and covers nearly two acres of ground.
My next point of destination was Brooklyn Court-House. The afternoon session opened at 2:00 o'clock, but I did not reach the place until half an hour later. The court-room was crowded as usual, and many had been turned away, who stood in knots about the halls and portico, holding the posts, and discussing politics and church matters. I entered hastily, like one behind time and in a hurry, and inquired where the court-room was. ”It is crowded to over-flowing, you can not enter,” was the reply; but I went for the reporter's door. A few raps, and it was opened. I offered my card and asked for a place in the audience as a reporter. The reply was that the room was already jammed full. But I retained my position in the door all the same! ”What paper do you represent?” asked the door-keeper. ”I am a correspondent of the _National Educator”_ was my response; whereupon he bid me step in. The court-room was a small one for the occasion, affording seats for about 400 on the floor, and for 125 more in the gallery. Some twenty-five or thirty ladies were scattered through the audience. Mr.
Beech, Tilton's senior lawyer, was summing up his closing speech. Tilton and Fullerton sat immediately behind him, but Mr. Beecher was not in court. Toward the close of the session there was a kind of ”clash of arms”
among the opposing lawyers. Fullerton repeated the challenge previously made by Beech, offering to prove that corrupt influences were made to bear upon the jury. The Judge appointed a time for hearing the complaint, and adjourned the Court.
Barnum's Hippodrome
was visited in the evening, where I saw for the first time on a grand scale, the charming features of the European _”cafe_” (p.r.o.nounced ca'f[=a]'). Here are combined the attractions of the pleasure garden or public square, with the ornaments and graces of the ball-room and the opera. It is a magnificent parlor abounding in trees, fountains, statuary and rustic retreats. Gilmore's large band of seventy-five to a hundred pieces, occupying an elevated platform in the centre, render excellent music. Fifteen hundred to two thousand gas jets, eveloped by globes of different colors (red, white, blue, yellow and green) and blazing from the curves of immense arches, spanning the Hippodrome in different directions, illuminate the entire building with the brilliancy of the noon-day sun. To the right of the entrance is an artificial water-fall about thirty feet in height. Two stationary engines supply the water, elevating 1,800 gallons per minute, which issues from beneath the arched roof of a subterranean cavern, and das.h.i.+ng down in broken sheets over a series of cascades and rapids, plunges into a basin below. From this basin it flows away into tanks in an other building, where four to five tons of ice are consumed daily to keep it at a low temperature, so that the vapor and breeze produced by this ice-water, at the foot of the cataract, refreshes the air and keeps it cool and pleasant during the warm summer evenings.
The admittance is fifty cents, and 5,000 to 10,000 persons enter every night, during the height of the season. Here meets ”youth and beauty,” and the wealth, gayety and fas.h.i.+on of New York is well represented,
Tuesday, June 22d. I spent the morning in writing farewell letters, and making the final preparations for leaving. At one o'clock I went on board the ”Manhattan,” which was still quite empty. In order to have something to do by which to while away the slow dull hours yet remaining, I commenced writing a letter. None of my friends or acquaintances being with me, I bid all my farewells by note. But such writing! Though the vessel was locked to the pier by immense cables, still she was anything but steady. As pa.s.sengers began to multiply, acquaintances were formed. By and by the stewart came around, and a.s.signed to us our berths. s.h.i.+p government is monarchic in form. The officers have almost absolute authority, and the pa.s.sengers, like bashful pupils, do their best to learn the new rules and regulations and adapt their conduct to them, as soon as possible, so that n.o.body may find occasion for making observations or pa.s.sing remarks.
All these things remind one very much of a first day at school. As
The Parting Hour
approaches, large numbers of the friends and relatives of some of our pa.s.sengers, came upon deck to bid good-by. Some cried, others laughed, and many more _tried_ to laugh. Some that seemed to relish repet.i.tion, or were carried away by enthusiasm and the excitement of the hour, shook hands over, and over again with the same person. At 3:00 o'clock p.m., the gangway was lowered and the cables were removed. A shock, a boom, and the vessel swung away and glided into the river! The die was cast, and our fate was sealed. Shouts and huzzas rent the air, as the steamer skimmed proudly over the waves, while clouds of handkerchiefs, on deck and upon the receding sh.o.r.e, waved in the air as long as we could see each other.
Down, down the river glided the steady ”Manhattan,” and our thoughts began to run in new channels. ”Good-by! dear, sweet America,” thought we a hundred times, while we watched the retreating sh.o.r.es; perhaps our thoughts were whispers! Europe with its innumerable attractions, its Alps, Appennines and Vesuvius, its castles, palaces, walled towns, fine cities, great battle fields, ancient ruins and a thousand other milestones of civilization, lay before us; but a wide Ocean, and all the dangers and perils of a long sea voyage lay between us and that other--longed for sh.o.r.e.
The question whether we would ever realize the pleasure of a visit to the Old World, was now reduced to the alternatives of _success_, or _failure by accident or disease_.
Sea-Sickness.
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