so short, that, except of one or two of the leading
places, I could not hope to have more than literally a flying sight, and
should therefore be insensibly compelled to receive many impressions
from the travelling society among which the Fates threw me.

Eight o'clock in the morning found us both at the Jersey ferry, where
our tickets for Baltimore--both for man and luggage--were to be
obtained. It was a pelting snow-storm, and the luggage-ticketing had to
be performed _al fresco_, which, combined with the total want of order
so prevalent in the railway establishments in this country, made it
anything but an agreeable operation. Our individual tickets were
obtained under shelter, but in an office of such Lilliputian dimensions,
that the ordinary press of passengers made it like a theatrical squeeze
on a Jenny Lind night; only with this lamentable difference--that the
theatrical squeeze was a prelude to all that could charm the senses,
whereas the ticket squeeze was, I knew but too well, the precursor of a
day of most uncomfortable travelling.

Having our tickets, we crossed the ever-glorious Hudson, and, landing at
Jersey City, had the pleasure of "puddling it up" through the snow to
the railway carriages. There they were, with the red-hot stove and
poisonous atmosphere, as usual; so my friend and I, selecting a
cushionless "smoking-car," where the windows would at all events be
open, seated ourselves on the hard boards of resignation, lit the tapery
weed of consolation, and shrouded ourselves in its fragrant clouds. On
we went, hissing through the snow-storm, till the waters of the Delaware
brought us to a stand-still; then, changing to a steamer, we crossed the
broad stream, on which to save time, they served dinner, and almost
before it was ended we had reached Philadelphia, where 'busses were in
waiting to take us to the railway. I may as well mention here, that one
of the various ways in which the glorious liberty of the country shows
itself, is the deliberate manner in which 'busses and stages stop in the
middle of the muddiest roads, in the worst weather, so that you may get
thoroughly well muddied and soaked in effecting your entry. Equality, I
suppose, requires that if the coachman is to be wet and uncomfortable,
the passengers should be brought as near as possible to the same state.

The 'busses being all ready, off we started, and just reached the train
in time; for, being a mail-train, it could not wait, t