One must not start with the preconception that a steerage passage across the ocean has the nature of an open-air cure, but a woman traveller can still reach the end of her voyage with some (not excess) energy left to help in the empire-building of Britain beyond the seas. The Briton has an inveterate dislike of third-class travel by sea, even on short trips. This has always deterred middle-class emigration, and the deterrent has always been more powerful in the case of women. The heavy initial expense of a voyage as a second-class passenger is not, of course, a bar to those really anxious to go, but very often it does form the one extra objection to others less palpable which weighs the hesitant mind to the side of staying at home. The deterrent, therefore, I determined to ignore.
The American is particular about the people he admits as emigrants. A long interrogation paper has to be signed by an applicant for an emigrant╒s ticket. Having certified that I had never been insane or in gaol, nor was suffering from any of sundry other misfortunes, I was permitted to buy for two sovereigns a passage from London to New York, a journey that has heretofore cost five, at least. From Waterloo at 7.30 a.m. on Friday, 4th June, most of the 750 passengers who had booked by the Philadelphia at that phenomenal rate went without a stop by special train right down to the ship╒s side. Having possessed myself there of a ╥handy man╙ to carry my baggage, I joined at Southampton the rush for red tickets and yellow tickets, which the said handy man informed me I must procure. The red voucher proved to be a vaccination certificate, the yellow one a section ticket allotting the exact place of each passenger between decks. Luckily, the other handy men were gallant, and whenever they espied a woman seeking to get to the ticket office they valiantly cleared paths through the mass of English, French, German, Russian and Italian emigrants who were shouldering to get first to the office. Secure in the possession of both red and yellow, I got on board quickly and found my cabin.
It was a roomy four-berthed cabin, painted all in white. Had I not been assured that it was the right one I would have believed it to be a second-class cabin. That I found it had been till quite lately, but further search revealed, naturally, that it did not contain all the luxuries one is accustomed to look for in the other classes. Making the best of my early arrival, I chose the upper berth, opposite the port-hole. However, my careful choice was not required, for I had no cabin mate. From the wharf the stream was still unabated of men, women, and children, and I watched them pass the doctor╒s scrutiny of whites of eyes and state of skin. Till 12.30 the baggage was carried on board in a continuous procession on the backs of sailors, for none was bulky enough to need a crane; most of the passengers could, at a pinch, carry all their worldly goods themselves. The Continental Jew had a liking for a pillow-case as a portmanteau; it held all his modest wants in the way of clean linen, and provided the maximum of adjustability to contents. Just then I fell into conversation with a young Jewish woman, who but for her bad teeth could have been called very handsome. She was eager to impart her history; how she worked in a cigarette factory and earned from 20s. to 25s. a week, lived at home, and had, as she declared emphatically, the best of everything. She admitted, with a sly look, that she had saved some money. It was only a desire for more, and possibly the glamour of the unknown future, that was drawing her West. She was equally anxious to have my family history in return, and ventured half-a-dozen conjectures as to my status, varying from lady stewardess to a lady clerk, the latter guess being the one that she appeared to back as the likeliest.
Our stewardess turned out to be one of the best. A hard row to hoe was her, with over a hundred women and children in her charge. I never saw her in her flying rounds without her wand of office ╤ a bottle of the best ╥cold drawn,╙ which a beneficent company placed liberally on tap for the children. Her hardest task after the first day╒s sea-sickness had been got over was on vaccination afternoon. Every woman and child was brought into the dining-room. Then they passed their arms in review under the strong electric light of the doctor╒s assistant. The well marked were passed quickly on to have their certificates signed, the doubtful were given a second more careful scrutiny, while the unvaccinated were relegated to a corner. One big woman who had been inoculated in her babyhood confided to me that she was horribly afraid of being vaccinated. She apparently had not the intelligence to understand that she would not be subjected to it again. A surprisingly small number needed vaccination, however. One stalwart little Italian flatly refused to be done, and kicked and howled and squirmed right out of his mother╒s arms. When the men╒s turn came they filed past the doctor with their coats off. To my surprise, the unvaccinated were mostly the respectably dressed section of our company, and there was no conscientious objector among them.
As a judge of menus I was out of court for a few days. But when at last I was able to take a serious interest in life and its most important episodes I was quite taken by surprise by the quality of the food and the cooking. Hors d╒oeuvres and savouries were not in the bill of fare, but what we did get were three good courses of soup, meat, and pudding. I had no sympathy with one lady to whom a man ╤ not her husband, he sat stolidly by ╤ hurriedly called the stewardess╒s aid. The woman was dying, averred the sympathetic other man. To the stewardess the dying woman declared with all the emphasis of which she was capable that a herring was the one thing without which she would surely die. Then to the steerage cook╒s credit must also be placed the oatmeal porridge which formed my daily delight at breakfast. Out of Scotland I have not tasted better, and I found it an unfailing resource when other more highly flavoured dishes misliked a palate rendered very picksome by sea motions.
I should like to say a word of the courtesy and good-nature of the ship╒s crew in all ranks. In some boats I have known the purser to be unknown by sight even to his second-class passengers. On the Philadelphia, however, the purser and chief steward spent part of the mid-day meal hour between decks, themselves tasting the food that was to be set before their 750 passengers. One day I saw a steward snatch up two babies and good-naturedly nurse them both for the mother engrossed in settling straight the woes of others of her brood. That so many people of so many races should with safety have been penned up between decks for a whole week seems surprising on reflection, yet only the most friendly rivalry in their nightly ╥sing-songs╙ was to be seen. There was one old flautist whose repertoire of Russian airs delighted a large audience.
Everyone is anticipating to-morrow╒s run. Shall we be in time to be passed through the severe overhauling which American officials give the immigrant? We must be at Sandy Hook at least by twelve o╒clock, else on Saturday we shall be refused a landing. Those bound for Canada ╤ and there is a goodly number ╤ are studying their guide-books and the numerous hand-books issued by its energetic Emigration Bureau. As the fare to Toronto amounts only to one pound odd from New York, the ╥two-pounder╙ has made a bit by taking this route. The women among us, even those who suffered most in the crossing, are up and about by six o╒clock on Saturday morning. Whatever have been the sufferings of our crossing, there is the blessed future now before us, and ╤ who knows? ╤ a clear call to fortune.
