one's head go round and round, in following its dreadful
motions. Round and round went my head. It was nothing but
trains, depots, crowds,--crowds, depots, trains,--again and
again, with no beginning, no end, only a mad dance! Faster and
faster we go, faster still, and the noise increases with the
speed. Bells, whistles, hammers, locomotives shrieking madly,
men's voices, peddlers' cries, horses' hoofs, dogs'
barkings--all united in doing their best to drown every other
sound but their own, and made such a deafening uproar in the
attempt that nothing could keep it out.

The plight of the bewildered emigrant on the way to foreign parts is
always pitiful enough, but for us who came from plague-ridden Russia
the terrors of the way were doubled.

In a great lonely field, opposite a solitary house within a
large yard, our train pulled up at last, and a conductor
commanded the passengers to make haste and get out. He need not
have told us to hurry; we were glad enough to be free again
after such a long imprisonment in the uncomfortable car. All
rushed to the door. We breathed more freely in the open field,
but the conductor did not wait for us to enjoy our freedom. He
hurried us into the one large room which made up the house, and
then into the yard. Here a great many men and women, dressed in
white, received us, the women attending to the women and girls
of the passengers, and the men to the others.

This was another scene of bewildering confusion, parents losing
their children, and little ones crying; baggage being thrown
together in one corner of the yard, heedless of contents, which
suffered in consequence; those white-clad Germans shouting
commands, always accompanied with "Quick! Quick!"--the confused
passengers obeying all orders like meek children, only
questioning now and then what was going to be done with them.

And no wonder if in some minds stories arose of people being
captured by robbers, murderers, and the like. Here we had been
taken to a lonely place where only that house was to be seen;
our things were taken away, our friends separated from us; a man
came to inspect us, as if to ascertain our full value;
strange-looking people driving us about like dumb animals,
helpless and unresisting; children we could not see crying in a
way that suggested terrible things; our