The Somerset herald. [volume] (Somerset, Pa.) 1870-1936, 1878-06-05
BY Our Special Correspondent.
OUR PARIS LETTER.
CHERRouRG. FRANcE NJ

CHERB9uRG, FRANCE, May i6.
For an hour before the steamer
Suevia" left the pier at New York,
her broad deck and splendid main
saloon were filed with the hundreds
that had come to see their friends and
relations of. There were congratu-
%lations and tender partings, laughter
and tears. At 4 p. m. the whistle
blew the signal for departure, aud
those who wished to remain on the
western hemisphere went ashore.
The immense steamer began to move,
almost imperceptibly at first, but with
increasing speed at every turn of the
screw, and we left the wharf amid
acclamations, waving handkerchiefs,
and q shower of bouquets and or
anges.
For two days the weather Was de-
lightful. The ancient amateur mar
liners. of whom we had many on
board, those who had crossed six or
ten times, said they 'had never seen
anything like it ;" but next evening
we were in the gulf stream, and while
we were at dinner, the whistle blew
the signal for "down brakes" and
those who had travelled much on
southern railroads thought for an In
slant that a COW was on the track
but the ancient mariner said fog"
When we went on deck we saw the
fog, and for two days we saw nothing
else. The fog whistle blew inces-
sanity, the deck was wet and disa-
greeable, the sea of an oily ink color;
and only two degrees Of the freezing
point. We were off the banks OF
New Foundland. On the second ev-
ening a breeze sprung up and lifted
the fog. The sea was rolling, and
the ancient mariner said we were
passing through the vestiges of an
old storm. Before morning the old
storm was reinforced by a young me-
We had anticipated something OF the
kind, for the sailors had been going
about qaietly flashing chairs TO the
deck, and securing things generally (;
the steward had also liked a walnut
frame to the table, which divided 1t
into small fenced sections, which ait
erwards proved q curb to the dishes
in their eccentric antics as the vessel
was tossed like an egg shell by tp'
waves.
The fine weather of the hrs' TWO
days had spoiled the passengers ol
the "Suevia; :" the fog rat them out
of bumor: and the stefm made them
sick Sea-siekIess is q most melan-
cbolv c,oditioa of the human stom-
acb a ~rfcsfal instruction for which
no sHsying specific has been found;
It's Yfemonitory symptoms are dis
gust of food, yellow complexion, and
q woe-begone visage; and these are
followed by vile and violent eructa-
tons, without respect of or to age,
sex, condition, or refined society. Bat
the recovery from sea sickness, as the
convalescent catches glimpses of new
horizons Of health and physical valid.
ity is delicious. Like Colonel Sell
lers, the Hamburger line never econ
omizes on its nourishment and fresh
straw berries, asparagus. green peas
everything that the market of New
York or the vintages of Europe af-
ford reeled on the restless table, or
were sent to the cabin of every pas
senger that imagined himself indis-
posel; no dainty that the sea.siek
soul conceived was the steward un-
able to furnish.
Ruskin says that ship
should never he painted
majestic and defiant, but only as war
like and enduring; and no one can
have been at sea in a storm without
realizing the truth of his dictum, and
feeling how entirely at the mercy Of
the waves is seen the best OF ships.
For sixty hours the Suevia strug'
gled with the tremendous energy Of
the sea, and when she came into
port, the top Of her s~moke-stack, -
fee. above her deck was white iron
the salt with which the vsultlne
snow-crested waves had wreathed it