BY JOHN H. GOULD. THE FIRST OCEAN RACE—PASSENGER TRAFFIC IN THE OLD CLIPPER DAYS—STATE-ROOMS AND TABLE FARE IN EARLY DAYS—THE FIRST OCEAN MAIL CONTRACT—DISCOMFORTS FIFTY YEARS AGO—AMERICAN TRANSATLANTIC LINES—GOVERNMENT SUBSIDIES—NOVELTIES ON THE COLLINS LINE—WHEN STEERAGE PASSENGERS WERE ALLOWED ON OCEAN STEAMSHIPS—IMPORTANT CHANGES IN THE COMFORT OF PASSENGERS WROUGHT BY THE OCEANIC IN 1870—THE PRESENT ERA OF TWIN-SCREW SHIPS—THEIR ADVANTAGES—THE FASTEST VOYAGES EAST AND WEST—RECORDS OF THE GREAT RACERS—MODERN CONVENIENCES AND LUXURIES—THE INCREASE IN THE NUMBER OF CABIN PASSENGERS FROM 1881 TO 1890—HOW THE LARDER IS SUPPLIED—ELECTRIC LIGHTS, LIBRARIES, AND MUSIC-ROOMS—CUSTOMS PECULIAR TO THE FRENCH, GERMAN, AND BRITISH LINES—LIFE IN THE STEERAGE—IMMIGRATION STATISTICS—GOVERNMENT REGULATIONS. There are, undoubtedly, many men and women in New York to-day who went down to the Battery and cheered and waved their hands in greeting to the first steamship that entered this port from Europe. This important event took place on April 23, 1838, and it was doubly interesting and significant because not only the first transatlantic steamship came to anchor in the harbor on that day, but the second also; steam travel across the sea thus beginning with a race that was earnestly contested and brilliantly won. Furthermore, it was a race that attracted infinitely more attention than any of the contests that have succeeded it. Two steam-vessels had crossed the Atlantic in years previous, both having started from this side; the Savannah, from Savannah, in 1819;[16] and the Royal William from Quebec, in 1831; but neither of these voyages had demonstrated the feasibility of abandoning the fine sailing packets and clippers for steamers when it came to a long voyage. The Savannah used both steam and sail during eighteen of the twenty-five days required for a passage to Liverpool, and more than one clipper overtook and passed her during the voyage. The Royal William had to utilize all her hold for coal in order to carry sufficient fuel to insure a completion of the voyage. The reasons for the commercial failure of such craft are, therefore, apparent; but they proved to be available and profitable for coastwise traffic, and meantime inventive genius was at work on plans and models and theories, all intended for the construction of a steamship capable of carrying goods and passengers between Europe and America, and of outrunning the packets. Public interest, accordingly, was deeply stirred on both sides of the ocean when, in 1837, it was learned that two steam-vessels were on the stocks, building for the American service. These were the Sirius, at London, and the Great Western, at Bristol. It was these vessels that made the first race; the Sirius making the trip, measured from Queenstown, in eighteen and a half days, and the Great Western in fourteen and a half days. The Sirius, having had nearly four days’