ueen's English, to become such another as Dean Swift; a kind of leering
human goat, leaping and wagging your scut on mountains of offence. I do
my best to keep my head the other way, and look for the human rather
than the bestial in this Yahoo-like business of the emigrant train. But
one thing I must say, the car of the Chinese was notably the least
offensive.

The cars on the Central Pacific were nearly twice as high, and so
proportionally airier; they were freshly varnished, which gave us all a
sense of cleanliness as though we had bathed; the seats drew out and
joined in the centre, so that there was no more need for bed-boards; and
there was an upper tier of berths which could be closed by day and
opened at night.

I had by this time some opportunity of seeing the people whom I was
among. They were in rather marked contrast to the emigrants I had met on
board ship while crossing the Atlantic. They were mostly lumpish
fellows, silent and noisy, a common combination; somewhat sad, I should
say, with an extraordinary poor taste in humour, and little interest in
their fellow-creatures beyond that of a cheap and merely external
curiosity. If they heard a man's name and business, they seemed to think
they had the heart of that mystery; but they were as eager to know that
much as they were indifferent to the rest. Some of them were on nettles
till they learned your name was Dickson and you a journeyman baker; but
beyond that, whether you were Catholic or Mormon, dull or clever, fierce
or friendly, was all one to them. Others who were not so stupid,
gossiped a little, and, I am bound to say, unkindly. A favourite
witticism was for some lout to raise the alarm of "All aboard!" while
the rest of us were dining, thus contributing his mite to the general
discomfort. Such a one was always much applauded for his high spirits.
When I was ill coming through Wyoming, I was astonished--fresh from the
eager humanity on board ship--to meet with little but laughter. One of
the young men even amused himself by incommoding me, as was then very
easy; and that not from ill-nature, but mere clodlike incapacity to
think, for he expected me to join the laugh. I did so, but it was
phantom merriment. Later on, a man from Kansas had three violent
epileptic fits, and though, of course, there were not wanting some to
help him, it was rather superstitious terror than sympathy that his case
evoked among his fellow-passengers. "Oh, I hope he's not go