River Falls journal. [volume] (River Falls, Pierce County, Wis.) 1872-2019, 1879-09-11
BURDETTE ON THE OCEAN.
Aerobatie Performances of Funny Man on
Shipboard.

We are here and | am glad OF il. want |
to stay here several months, too.
We left Portland in the evening and |
bit of storm. There was heavy sea,
with its usual depressing influences. be- |
fore we were aell outside the port made |
up my mind that the best thing I could |
do for my unhappy country was to lay |
her little serene highness away in her
peaceful ber!h, that I might have the |
hours of gathering twilight to undis-
turbed reflection. | think laid her
away with some haste. | will confess, |
indeed, that the customary devotional |
exercises were dispensed with, owing TO |
the pressure of business. remember that |
| was glad when she was snugly STOW ed
away for the night, and I can recall the
peaceful look that played over her face
as she remarked, referring to the rolling
and pitching of the vessel, "Isn't il nicel"
For her little serene highness is good
sailor, and was disposed TO make merry
over the eager but somewhat spasmodic
haste with which tucked her away
''isn'. this niceg' she repeated, with
ridiculous feminine emphasis.
AWFUL NICE.
1t was rather nice, believe, but |
hadn't time TO observe it just then. /
wanted To think about something And
then, to nv great annoyance, | couldn
remember Nhat il was wanted to think
about. 1t was something beautiful and
sad, know, but couldn't exactly catch
On. Somehow or other it seemed to run
by.
The sea grew rougher, and, as the
pitching aud rolling of the good steamer
New York increased, my spirits did not
rise. Your spirits are not apt to rise,
find. They are the only things about
you that don't rise, however.
My subject of reflection having eluded
my rather inactive mind, became sensl.
bic of sort of languor that suggested
repose. / did not feel like standing up
and singing. | wanted repose. wasn't
particular hat kind of repose. The re-
pose of the grave would have suited me
perfectly well.
But there was no grave handy. And
when went out and looked out to sea-
ward and gazed at the landless expanse
of angry, tossing waters, didn't see any
material to make grave. And then,
when / returned to the state-room, it be-
gan to dawn upon me very dimly, that
tie repose was about as seldom as the
grave.
SYMPATHY.
ROBBIE" placidly spoke her little Sc
rene highness, i'll tones marked with a
shade of atfecuonate apprehension, ''Rob-
bic, are you feeling quite welle'
said was somewhat oppressed by the
grand magniticence OF the boundless ocean,
and wiped the icy Precipitation from my
marble brow.
Does an intense appreciation of the
magnificent in nature usually excite pro-
fuse perspiration In you?" she asked in
nocently. "The ocean doesn't make me
feel So
| replied that Just at present the ocean
made me feel as though had swallowed
it whole, and was afraid | would have
10 spread little to hold it,
believed | would retire and abandon
the struggle with my feelings, for
felt that was on the verge of quoting
poetry.
DIsRoBING.
my things; then leaned up against the
door and took off few; then | stood or
my head and got off one or two; then lay
down on my back and kicked off the rest
OF them.
GOING TO BED.
Then l looked up at my berth.
1t was six hundred feet from the floor,
and was still going
cast an anxious, despairing glance
at it, reached out and dragged travelling
shawl over me, and tried to MARBLE 8
merry stave of a rollicking sea song.
"What are you crying tor2" asked her
little serene highness. Are you home
SICK, or are you sorry you were SO
crosse
] ceased my song and started to say
something IN reply, but it was too much
exertion to talk, SO lay still and looked
at my rapidly disappearing berth, climb
ing away like balloon.
"Aren't you going to bed 2" came a
cheerful voice from the lower berth
said that when bought my passage
OF the International Steamship Company
| did not contract to sleep IN sky-rock
ct, and that / should not get INTO my
berth until ii came down close enough
for me TO grab al it. And then relapsed
into state OF comparative apathy, as II
were.
LYING Low.
" / never saw YOU he down so fiat, "
came the cheerful voice again; " you are
closer to the floor than the carpet. How
do Won do If Robbie @"
There was really nothing remarkable in
1t. 1t required no effort whatever to get
down. The only trouble was to get fiat
enough, and the next greatest trouble
was to get up. / said | would like to
lie dormant till the damp waves were at
rest. And on hearing that remark, her
little serene highness, IN tones of rebuke,
said such language from junior of the
Baptist Church and IN the midst of
storm was as uniting IS it was presump
tuous, and had better saw nothing if /
could not frame my thoughts to better
uIterances.
CARELESS RHETORIC.
am willing to admit that my Ian
guage was not polished nor, in every in
stance, refined. 1t was even in one or
two cases ungrammatical, aid in one
particular instance, when | was looking
over the side Of the vessel for a pin / had
dropped, my remarks may have been
and were, confess. positively
rude. But last Wednesday night was
not conducting rhetorical exercise.
CONSULTATIONS.
The sense Of utter forlornness, the feel
ing OF desolation and goneness; the i'm
preston, generally correct, that every
' ell percon in the ship is laughing you:
the saddening thought that there is no
chance of dying, and the depressing
knowledge that there is no help for 1t,
anyhow; the confidence that nobody
is going to do any thing for
you and the philosophical resolution
that YOU don't care constitutional red
cent If they don't; the hope that you will
be over it by morning, the fear that II
will last week: the forlorn hope, now
and then, that the pilot will get fright
ened and tie the ship up to tree some
place, If only for little while, the de
spairing sense of disappointment, that
steals over you as it becomes evident that
the pilot hasn't thought of doing any
hing of the kind; and at last the tervent
earnest, despairing wish that the boiler
will blow up, the ship strike rock, catch |
IN FIRE, capsize, be run down by an iron
steamship, get struck by lightning and
INK in 600 fathoms of water, and 90 II
f.xi f51rE tsaEt l