The Uncommercial Traveller

by Dickens, Charles

yes'day, from Liverpool.

  UNCOMMERCIAL. You are not going with these emigrants?

  MORMON AGENT. No, sir. I remain.

  UNCOMMERCIAL. But you have been in the Mormon Territory?

  MORMON AGENT. Yes; I left Utah about three years ago.

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  UNCOMMERCIAL. It is surprising to me that these people are all so

  cheery, and make so little of the immense distance before them.

  MORMON AGENT. Well, you see; many of 'em have friends out at Utah,

  and many of 'em look forward to meeting friends on the way.

  UNCOMMERCIAL. On the way?

  MORMON AGENT. This way 'tis. This ship lands 'em in New York

  City. Then they go on by rail right away beyond St. Louis, to that

  part of the Banks of the Missouri where they strike the Plains.

  There, waggons from the settlement meet 'em to bear 'em company on

  their journey 'cross-twelve hundred miles about. Industrious

  people who come out to the settlement soon get waggons of their

  own, and so the friends of some of these will come down in their

  own waggons to meet 'em. They look forward to that, greatly.

  UNCOMMERCIAL. On their long journey across the Desert, do you arm

  them?

  MORMON AGENT. Mostly you would find they have arms of some kind or

  another already with them. Such as had not arms we should arm

  across the Plains, for the general protection and defence.

  UNCOMMERCIAL. Will these waggons bring down any produce to the

  Missouri?

  MORMON AGENT. Well, since the war broke out, we've taken to

  growing cotton, and they'll likely bring down cotton to be

  exchanged for machinery. We want machinery. Also we have taken to

  growing indigo, which is a fine commodity for profit. It has been

  found that the climate on the further side of the Great Salt Lake

  suits well for raising indigo.

  UNCOMMERCIAL. I am told that these people now on board are

  principally from the South of England?

  MORMON AGENT. And from Wales. That's true.

  UNCOMMERCIAL. Do you get many Scotch?

  MORMON AGENT. Not many.

  UNCOMMERCIAL. Highlanders, for instance?

  MORMON AGENT. No, not Highlanders. They ain't interested enough

  in universal brotherhood and peace and good will.

  UNCOMMERCIAL. The old fighting blood is strong in them?

  MORMON AGENT. Well, yes. And besides; they've no faith.

  UNCOMMERCIAL (who has been burning to get at the Prophet Joe Smith,

  and seems to discover an opening). Faith in - !

  MORMON AGENT (far too many for Uncommercial). Well. - In anything!

  Similarly on this same head, the Uncommercial underwent

  discomfiture from a Wiltshire labourer: a simple, fresh-coloured

  farm-labourer, of eight-and-thirty, who at one time stood beside

  him looking on at new arrivals, and with whom he held this

  dialogue:

  UNCOMMERCIAL. Would you mind my asking you what part of the

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  country you come from?

  WILTSHIRE. Not a bit. Theer! (exultingly) I've worked all my life

  o' Salisbury Plain, right under the shadder o' Stonehenge. You

  mightn't think it, but I haive.

  UNCOMMERCIAL. And a pleasant country too.

  WILTSHIRE. Ah! 'Tis a pleasant country.

  UNCOMMERCIAL. Have you any family on board?

  WILTSHIRE. Two children, boy and gal. I am a widderer, I am, and

  I'm going out alonger my boy and gal. That's my gal, and she's a

  fine gal o' sixteen (pointing out the girl who is writing by the

  boat). I'll go and fetch my boy. I'd like to show you my boy.

  (Here Wiltshire disappears, and presently comes back with a big,

  shy boy of twelve, in a superabundance of boots, who is not at all

  glad to be presented.) He is a fine boy too, and a boy fur to

  work! (Boy having undutifully bolted, Wiltshire drops him.)

  UNCOMMERCIAL. It must cost you a great deal of money to go so far,

  three strong.

  WILTSHIRE. A power of money. Theer! Eight shillen a week, eight

  shillen a week, eight shillen a week, put by out of the week's

  wages for ever so long.

  UNCOMMERCIAL. I wonder how you did it.

  WILTSHIRE (recognising in this a kindred spirit). See theer now!

  I wonder how I done it! But what with a bit o' subscription heer,

  and what with a bit o' help theer, it were done at last, though I

  don't hardly know how. Then it were unfort'net for us, you see, as

  we got kep' in Bristol so long - nigh a fortnight, it were - on

  accounts of a mistake wi' Brother Halliday. Swaller'd up money, it

  did, when we might have come straight on.

  UNCOMMERCIAL (delicately approaching Joe Smith). You are of the

  Mormon religion, of course?

  WILTSHIRE (confidently). O yes, I'm a Mormon. (Then

  reflectively.) I'm a Mormon. (Then, looking round the ship,

  feigns to descry a particular friend in an empty spot, and evades

  the Uncommercial for evermore.)

  After a noontide pause for dinner, during which my Emigrants were

  nearly all between-decks, and the Amazon looked deserted, a general

  muster took place. The muster was for the ceremony of passing the

  Government Inspector and the Doctor. Those authorities held their

  temporary state amidships, by a cask or two; and, knowing that the

  whole Eight hundred emigrants must come face to face with them, I

  took my station behind the two. They knew nothing whatever of me,

  I believe, and my testimony to the unpretending gentleness and good

  nature with which they discharged their duty, may be of the greater

  worth. There was not the slightest flavour of the Circumlocution

  Office about their proceedings.

  The emigrants were now all on deck. They were densely crowded aft,

  and swarmed upon the poop-deck like bees. Two or three Mormon

  agents stood ready to hand them on to the Inspector, and to hand

  them forward when they had passed. By what successful means, a

  special aptitude for organisation had been infused into these

  people, I am, of course, unable to report. But I know that, even

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  now, there was no disorder, hurry, or difficulty.

  All being ready, the first group are handed on. That member of the

  party who is entrusted with the passenger-ticket for the whole, has

  been warned by one of the agents to have it ready, and here it is

  in his hand. In every instance through the whole eight hundred,

  without an exception, this paper is always ready.

  INSPECTOR (reading the ticket). Jessie Jobson, Sophronia Jobson,

  Jessie Jobson again, Matilda Jobson, William Jobson, Jane Jobson,

  Matilda Jobson again, Brigham Jobson, Leonardo Jobson, and Orson

  Jobson. Are you all here? (glancing at the party, over his

  spectacles).

  JESSIE JOBSON NUMBER TWO. All here, sir.

  This group is composed of an old grandfather and grandmother, their

  married son and his wife, and THEIR family of children. Orson

  Jobson is a little child asleep in his mother's arms. The Doctor,

  with a kind word or so, lifts up the corner of the mother's shawl, />
  looks at the child's face, and touches the little clenched hand.

  If we were all as well as Orson Jobson, doctoring would be a poor

  profession.

  INSPECTOR. Quite right, Jessie Jobson. Take your ticket, Jessie,

  and pass on.

  And away they go. Mormon agent, skilful and quiet, hands them on.

  Mormon agent, skilful and quiet, hands next party up.

  INSPECTOR (reading ticket again). Susannah Cleverly and William

  Cleverly. Brother and sister, eh?

  SISTER (young woman of business, hustling slow brother). Yes, sir.

  INSPECTOR. Very good, Susannah Cleverly. Take your ticket,

  Susannah, and take care of it.

  And away they go.

  INSPECTOR (taking ticket again). Sampson Dibble and Dorothy Dibble

  (surveying a very old couple over his spectacles, with some

  surprise). Your husband quite blind, Mrs. Dibble?

  MRS. DIBBLE. Yes, sir, he be stone-blind.

  MR. DIBBLE (addressing the mast). Yes, sir, I be stone-blind.

  INSPECTOR. That's a bad job. Take your ticket, Mrs. Dibble, and

  don't lose it, and pass on.

  Doctor taps Mr. Dibble on the eyebrow with his forefinger, and away

  they go.

  INSPECTOR (taking ticket again). Anastatia Weedle.

  ANASTATIA (a pretty girl, in a bright Garibaldi, this morning

  elected by universal suffrage the Beauty of the Ship). That is me,

  sir.

  INSPECTOR. Going alone, Anastatia?

  ANASTATIA (shaking her curls). I am with Mrs. Jobson, sir, but

  I've got separated for the moment.

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  INSPECTOR. Oh! You are with the Jobsons? Quite right. That'll

  do, Miss Weedle. Don't lose your ticket.

  Away she goes, and joins the Jobsons who are waiting for her, and

  stoops and kisses Brigham Jobson - who appears to be considered too

  young for the purpose, by several Mormons rising twenty, who are

  looking on. Before her extensive skirts have departed from the

  casks, a decent widow stands there with four children, and so the

  roll goes.

  The faces of some of the Welsh people, among whom there were many

  old persons, were certainly the least intelligent. Some of these

  emigrants would have bungled sorely, but for the directing hand

  that was always ready. The intelligence here was unquestionably of

  a low order, and the heads were of a poor type. Generally the case

  was the reverse. There were many worn faces bearing traces of

  patient poverty and hard work, and there was great steadiness of

  purpose and much undemonstrative self-respect among this class. A

  few young men were going singly. Several girls were going, two or

  three together. These latter I found it very difficult to refer

  back, in my mind, to their relinquished homes and pursuits.

  Perhaps they were more like country milliners, and pupil teachers

  rather tawdrily dressed, than any other classes of young women. I

  noticed, among many little ornaments worn, more than one

  photograph-brooch of the Princess of Wales, and also of the late

  Prince Consort. Some single women of from thirty to forty, whom

  one might suppose to be embroiderers, or straw-bonnet-makers, were

  obviously going out in quest of husbands, as finer ladies go to

  India. That they had any distinct notions of a plurality of

  husbands or wives, I do not believe. To suppose the family groups

  of whom the majority of emigrants were composed, polygamically

  possessed, would be to suppose an absurdity, manifest to any one

  who saw the fathers and mothers.

  I should say (I had no means of ascertaining the fact) that most

  familiar kinds of handicraft trades were represented here. Farmlabourers,

  shepherds, and the like, had their full share of

  representation, but I doubt if they preponderated. It was

  interesting to see how the leading spirit in the family circle

  never failed to show itself, even in the simple process of

  answering to the names as they were called, and checking off the

  owners of the names. Sometimes it was the father, much oftener the

  mother, sometimes a quick little girl second or third in order of

  seniority. It seemed to occur for the first time to some heavy

  fathers, what large families they had; and their eyes rolled about,

  during the calling of the list, as if they half misdoubted some

  other family to have been smuggled into their own. Among all the

  fine handsome children, I observed but two with marks upon their

  necks that were probably scrofulous. Out of the whole number of

  emigrants, but one old woman was temporarily set aside by the

  doctor, on suspicion of fever; but even she afterwards obtained a

  clean bill of health.

  When all had 'passed,' and the afternoon began to wear on, a black

  box became visible on deck, which box was in charge of certain

  personages also in black, of whom only one had the conventional air

  of an itinerant preacher. This box contained a supply of hymnbooks,

  neatly printed and got up, published at Liverpool, and also

  in London at the 'Latter-Day Saints' Book Depot, 30, Florencestreet.'

  Some copies were handsomely bound; the plainer were the

  more in request, and many were bought. The title ran: 'Sacred

  Hymns and Spiritual Songs for the Church of Jesus Church of Latter-

  Day Saints.' The Preface, dated Manchester, 1840, ran thus:- 'The

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  Saints in this country have been very desirous for a Hymn Book

  adapted to their faith and worship, that they might sing the truth

  with an understanding heart, and express their praise, joy, and

  gratitude in songs adapted to the New and Everlasting Covenant. In

  accordance with their wishes, we have selected the following

  volume, which we hope will prove acceptable until a greater variety

  can be added. With sentiments of high consideration and esteem, we

  subscribe ourselves your brethren in the New and Everlasting

  Covenant, BRIGHAM YOUNG, PARLEY P. PRATT, JOHN TAYLOR.' From this

  book - by no means explanatory to myself of the New and Everlasting

  Covenant, and not at all making my heart an understanding one on

  the subject of that mystery - a hymn was sung, which did not

  attract any great amount of attention, and was supported by a

  rather select circle. But the choir in the boat was very popular

  and pleasant; and there was to have been a Band, only the Cornet

  was late in coming on board. In the course of the afternoon, a

  mother appeared from shore, in search of her daughter, 'who had run

  away with the Mormons.' She received every assistance from the

  Inspector, but her daughter was not found to be on board. The

  saints did not seem to me, particularly interested in finding her.

  Towards five o'clock, the galley became full of tea-kettles, and an

  agreeable fragrance of tea pervaded the ship. There was no

  scrambling or jostling for the hot water, no ill humour, no

  quarrelling. As the Amazon was to sail with the next tide, and as

  it would not be high water before two o'clock in the morning, I

  left her with h
er tea in full action, and her idle Steam Tug lying

  by, deputing steam and smoke for the time being to the Tea-kettles.

  I afterwards learned that a Despatch was sent home by the captain

  before he struck out into the wide Atlantic, highly extolling the

  behaviour of these Emigrants, and the perfect order and propriety

  of all their social arrangements. What is in store for the poor

  people on the shores of the Great Salt Lake, what happy delusions

  they are labouring under now, on what miserable blindness their

  eyes may be opened then, I do not pretend to say. But I went on

  board their ship to bear testimony against them if they deserved

  it, as I fully believed they would; to my great astonishment they

  did not deserve it; and my predispositions and tendencies must not

  affect me as an honest witness. I went over the Amazon's side,

  feeling it impossible to deny that, so far, some remarkable

  influence had produced a remarkable result, which better known

  influences have often missed. *

  * After this Uncommercial Journey was printed, I happened to

  mention the experience it describes to Lord Houghton. That

  gentleman then showed me an article of his writing, in THE

  EDINBURGH REVIEW for January, 1862, which is highly remarkable for

  its philosophical and literary research concerning these Latter-Day

  Saints. I find in it the following sentences:- 'The Select

  Committee of the House of Commons on emigrant ships for 1854

  summoned the Mormon agent and passenger-broker before it, and came

  to the conclusion that no ships under the provisions of the

  "Passengers Act" could be depended upon for comfort and security in

  the same degree as those under his administration. The Mormon ship

  is a Family under strong and accepted discipline, with every

  provision for comfort, decorum and internal peace.'

  CHAPTER XXIII - THE CITY OF THE ABSENT

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  When I think I deserve particularly well of myself, and have earned

  the right to enjoy a little treat, I stroll from Covent-garden into

  the City of London, after business-hours there, on a Saturday, or -

  better yet - on a Sunday, and roam about its deserted nooks and

  corners. It is necessary to the full enjoyment of these journeys

  that they should be made in summer-time, for then the retired spots

  that I love to haunt, are at their idlest and dullest. A gentle

  fall of rain is not objectionable, and a warm mist sets off my