Page:California Inter Pocula.djvu/209

 women,

and sets  would  be  formed  which  would  vie  with  each other in  rendering  themselves  disagreeably  conspicuous.

To the  refined  and  sensitive,  such  an  infliction, from which  there  was  no  escape  for  days  and  weeks, was torture. Of all  the  miseries  I  ever  experienced on shipboard,  sea-sickness,  tempest,  filth,  and  fever included, by  far  the  worst  has  been  the  crowd,  among whom were  always  some  supremely  disgusting  per- sons whose presence  one  could  not  escape. Many a hateful  face  haunted  me  long  after  I  had  left  the ship. But such  of  course  were  exceptions ;  b}^  far  the greater part  of  the  emigrants  were  quiet,  orderly,  and well behaved,  and  many  of  them  courteous,  gentle- manly, and self-sacrificing  under  the  most  trying circumstances.

To cite  one  example. When the  steamer  Central America went  down  off  Cape  Hatteras,  with  five  or six  hundred  homeward  bound  Californians,  it  was  the theme of  thousands  throughout  Christendom  how nobly they  behaved,  how  they  chivalrously  filled  the boats with  women  and  children,  and  then  how  bravely and unflinchingly  they  died. No company  of  cour- tiers, no band  of  martyrs,  no  regiment  of  soldiers trained to  look  indifferently  on  death,  could  have more calmly  faced  an  awful  fate  than  did  these  young and ardent  adventurers  picked  from  every  nationality. They were  men!

No man  knows  himself,  much  less  his  neighbor, until he  has  made  a  voyage  in  an  over-crowded  ship in hot  weather. One is  hungry  without  an  appetite, oppressed with  thirst  that  water  will  not  quench  ;  one is stimulated  by  ocean  oxygen,  nauseated  by  steamer smells ; a  prickly  heat  breaks  out  over  the  body,  and the mind  becomes  feverish  and  fretful. Hence it  is that  latent  characteristics,  of  which  the  possessor himself was  not  conscious,  are  developed. General traits are  intensified  or  obliterated;  the  mean  man becomes meaner,  the  hitherto  ofood-hearted  and  frank may become  angelic,  or  fall  into  the  de