Robert
Louis
Stevenson
(1850
–
1894)
Born
in
Edinburgh,
Scotland,
UK.
He
studied
at
Edinburgh,
dropped
the
profession
of
lawyer
and
began
to
write
travel
sketches
and
short
stories.
He
wrote
Treasure
Island
(1883),
Kidnapped
(1886),
The
Strange
Case
of Dr
Jekyll
and
Mr
Hyde
(1886),
The
Master
of
Ballantrae
(1889),
the
unfinished
Weir
of
Hermiston
(1896),
others.
Monday. — It was, if I remember rightly, five o’clock when we were all signalled to be present at the Ferry Depot of the railroad. An emigrant ship had arrived at New York on the Saturday night, another on the Sunday morning, our own on Sunday afternoon, a fourth early on Monday; and as there is no emigrant train on Sunday a great part of the passengers from these four ships was concentrated on the train by which I was to travel. There was a babel of bewildered men, women, and children. The wretched little booking-office, and the baggage-room, which was not much larger, were crowded thick with emigrants, and were heavy and rank with the atmosphere of dripping clothes. Open carts full of bedding stood by the half-hour in the rain. The officials loaded each other with recriminations. A bearded, mildewed little man, whom I take to have been an emigrant agent, was all over the place, his mouth full of brimstone, blustering and interfering. It was plain that the whole system, if system there was, had utterly broken down under the strain of so many passengers.
