A LONG TIME AGO – 4 November 1887

BY JOHN RAY, PELHAM

             In passing up Pearl street I saw a person of Friendly appearance on the opposite side, and I crossed over to meet him. I said, “Excuse me; I am a stranger in New York , having come into the city only yesterday, and seeing your appearance was that of a Friend, I wished to speak to you and ask your advice where I should likely to find lodgings for a week or two where I should not be annoyed with bed bugs.” He looked at me with a critical eye, wondering, I suppose, what new kind of a sharper he had met with. He asked where I came from. I said, England last year, had worked for a Friend on Young street, last summer, in Canada. I knew if he was a Friend, either Hicksite or Orthodox, he would know something about Friends up Young street, as that had been a seat of war between two bodies of Friends that year-1828. He said, “Did thee know Nicholas Brown?” “Yes.” “And Margaret Brown, his wife?” These two Friends were leading characters on the Hicksite side of the division, to which, as I afterwards found, he belonged. He appeared to be satisfied and said, “Walk along with me while I think.” After a little he said, “Stand here.” He crossed the street, rung a bell and entered. In a few minutes he beckoned me over, and led me into a little parlor where was sitting an elderly lady Friend and her daughter. The Friend said, “My Friend informs me thee wishes to obtain lodgings, and where thee won’t be annoyed with bed bugs; we can accommodate thee. For transient boarders we charge four dollars a week; for permanent boarders, three.” “I don’t object providing there is no bed bugs.” She said, “I guarantee there is not, and as thee had no sleep last night, perhaps thee would like to lay down and thee shall be called for dinner,” which was done.

             At dinner were some 15 or 20 boarders-men above my class-merchants, doctors, lawyers and writers, but all appeared to have a fair share of Yankee inquisitiveness to know as much about the new comer and in as little time as possible. I answered their questions in simple, honest truth, which went to show I was only a farmer boy, had worked in Canada for eight dollars a month &c., and was on my return trip to England. And let me say I seldom met with more social and kindly treatment than from most of these gentlemen, which was shown in various ways. When the day came that I should go on board the ship Florida for Liverpool, one gentleman said, “No!” I said the captain told me to be on board that afternoon or lose my passage. He said he knew all about that; the ship would anchor off Sandy Hook that evening; they would be all confusion; that a steamer would leave White Hall dock about 7 tomorrow morning, to take the cabin passengers and I should go then, and he would go and see me off, and if I did not go he would make good all damages, which he did, and I went with the cabin passengers. In this ship we steerage passengers had to find our own board. I had laid in a stock as I thought sufficient for five weeks for myself. Meeting a young man on the ship at New York who was a passenger by here to Liverpool, I proposed as we should have to berth two in a berth we had better join our stock of provisions together, which he approved of. When the voyage commenced he was sick to begin with, and I had to do the cooking. He lay in the berth, except when he saw me come down with the grub he was ready to do his share of the eating, after which he retired to his berth to moan and pray, for every time the ship struck a wave or made a lurch he (Moore) cried, “Oh Lord!” We had head winds and after three weeks sailing were not half way across the ocean, and my provisions nearly done, of which we had been using all this time. I asked him to fetch his out. He said he had none, as he did not have any money to buy with, so we had to go on short allowance the rest of the voyage,- the only time in my life I knew what it was to be hungry and have nothing to eat. There is no doubt but if had made our case known to the captain we should have been helped, but pride prevented my doing so. It was the practice at that time on that ship to allow the sailors a certain quantity of grog each day, and one old sailor (Jimmie) got drunk every day so as to be unfit for duty. They took his grog off. He still got drunk. They then took away his own private stock of liquor and made him stay down below; when one night about nine o’clock a passenger said there was a man overboard, which was not believed as all the sailors and passengers were there. The passenger insisted that he saw a man go over the ship’s side, that he heard a splash, that he then looked but could see nothing. The ship was sailing slowly. The captain ordered six men into the jolly boat to go back in the ship’s wake, which was done. In about an hour the boat returned. The ship’s speed had been slackened. “Did you see anything?” “Yes, sir.” “What was it? Old Jimmie. Have you got him?” “Yes, sir.” “What did he say?” “He said we need not have been at so much trouble, he should have come up with us tomorrow.” Jimmie had delirium tremens.

             Another curiosity we had on board in the shape of a little Irishman, whom we called Jimmie Ducks. Jimmie had hid himself away in some part of the ship when leaving New York, and three days after leaving New York showed himself upon deck. As there was no way for sending him back, he was installed in office to administer to the wants of the ducks, chickens, turkeys and a cow we had to give milk. The steward having cause to suspect Jimmie’s treachery in regard to the cow, watched him, and one morning caught him in the act of milking the cow into his mouth, and gave him such a toeplating as I never saw anyone get before or since. I asked Jimmie how he got to New York. His mother had given him £4 to pay the rent with, but instead of doing so he bought a ticket for America. “What will your mother say when she sees you?” “Indade, an she’ll be too pleased to see me to say anything about it.” Jimmie being the most likely object on board for the cabin passengers to bestow their charity upon, by giving away what they did not wish to take on shore, they gave him many old clothes and an old horse pistol, which he tied up in a big bundle. It so attracted the attention of the Liverpool police that they arrested him and placed him in the lockup until he proved how he came by them.

             We arrived in Liverpool after a passage of thirty-six days.

JOHN RAY

Welland Tribune

4 November 1887