The pioneer express. [volume] (Pembina, Dakota [N.D.]) 1883-1928, 1883-07-06
AN OCEAN FREE Ian {, i,
Crohat Writes Of People he Meets at Sea
Grumbles ~ His Accommodation, 4
f!ss and Drops Into Poetry Y
Plans ofSHenry & Abbey and the Artists ii,
VIII Bring from England The New
York Opera House.
Americans and High -Meissohier's Pic.
tures and Promises-Ihe Review of
Napoleon's Army.
AGlanoe at liverpool British PARLIAMENT
Its Oratory Gladstone and Northcote
Lady Wilde and Nj. Lowell. /.

STEAMSHIP ALASKA, at Sea, Special Core
spondence, May 23.-Here Tam, on the swift
eat ocean steamer, . few Leagues from the coast
OF much-troubled Ireland, which lies far of
In the sun, like piece OF blue flannel in par
ticulsrly large and serene tub What to write
about now is the question. We have had
rather rough passage for this season-head
winds and choppy sea all the way-but you
don't care much about that To say that one
OF the Virgins storms prevails-that is, the
ocean Is like mirror, shimmering with ripples
OF light-but you don't care red cent about
that The last passenger with greasy stom-
aoh has crept on deck and Is now reclining and
summing himself on one of those wooden grass
hoppers called q steamer chair" Of the
careful interbreeding Of rocking-c hair and
saw-horse. am writing, in the great dining
room, on one Of the five seventy-five feet long
tables, en- bright red spread that dazzles my
eyes And every few minutes. all day. stew
ard comes along and says to the writers that
he really must have the tables now, to set
: them for coffee, or breakfast or lunch, or din
ner, or supper, or some of the other speci-
mems in the everlasting monotony Of
feeding lOnly three things are ever
done on steaIaer-eating, uneating, and
betting. So we are remorselessly swept
away, to collect our shattered ambitions again
after awhile. A vessel like this ought to have
room where quiet people can write letters
and read undisturbed. And the state-rooms
ought to be larger; they are fearfully cramped
and uncomfortable. But then, one can't e1-
pect everything. We have seen four other
steamers going the same way, that left three
days before We did, and have passed them
all as If they were tied to posts; and
for this blessing suppose we ought
to be willing to write in an anarchy of bread
and butter, and sleep in collins on the hot side
Of stuffy vaults. The Alaska is a great steam.
err, and as she has tremendous engines whose
fires are famed by q head wind. and as from
her build she is capable Of enormous displace-
ment Of water, she goes like deer; but when
build my steamer it will be an improvement
on the Guion racers to some extent Now I
about the passage; let us 8 zee about the passen-
gers:
MR. ABBEY's PLANS.
Among the passengers is Henry E. Abbey,
the impressario Langtry's sponsor, Col. Maple
sons vis-a-vis, and heir apparent to the big
new Opera house in New York. He moves
about amid the sympathy of all, as you may
guess, for he came from the funeral of his wife
direct to the ship the day we sailed He is not
more than FIVE feet nine, but he is
what the discriminating Mrs. Ponsonby
would call 'a fine fgger of q
man." and he must be firmly and stoutly knit,
for he hos not had an overcoat on him since we
started, and he is the only passenger who has
no deck-chair and no rug or other wrap. In an
olive cutaway suit, close-ftting. he walks Wig
orously up and down the long hurricane deck.
never sitting for a moment, talking only with
those who will walk with him. He tells ma
there is nothing new about his plans for next
winter, but that he can probably give me some
thing new next week. He will return in
September, bringing Nilsson, Lembricht
and various other eminent prime donne, con-
traltos, tenors, etc., with him, and will be fol-
lowed in October by irving. Miss Terry and
their select company Of fifty. shall meet
Mr.. irving next week, and will got his pre-im-
pressions of America, which like Bolger's
pocket-knife, will be mot valuable but Gurus"
Mr. Abbey thinks the new Opera house. which
tbe Vanderbilts, D. o. Mills and other
millionaires Of New York are building
for him, and will finish by September, will
lay over anything else in America by q great
ways. He insists that the brick facade on
Broadway is going to be beautiful and i'm
pressive bit Of architecture, but don't see how
itever can be. The stage will be the largest in
America-1OO feet square! 1t will have
nearly 100 feet Of practicable depth, and the
drops, Mr.: Abbey says, will have fall Of
forty-fve feet aud with of seventy-one
feet He doesn't know what the Drop
curtain is going to be- that is
left to the taste of the owners
but Mr.. Abbey will furnish all the scenery.
The new Opera house will seat 8, 200 people,
and will have three tiers of all-around boxes,
1925 in number, and every box will have
salon or private vestibule of its own. The
house will be lighted by Edison, and will be
equipped, furnished and finished in the most
modern atyle. The auditorium will be mainly
lighted by crown Of electric bulbs over the
center, but gas will probably be retained for
the present in the dressing rooms, ante-rooms,
etc. Within, have no doubt this house will
be very magnificent, quite overlapping the
old'Academy on Irving place.
AMERICANS AND HIGH ATT.
There is on board q noted counoisseur of
Vorce, whom knew in the treasury depart
ment at Washington twenty odd years ago, q
gentleman ofculture, but not Of leisure, for he
could never be still ten minutes
at time ln,,. if ne were worth a
with q view to seeing the best purchasab1e
pictures and buving here and there. OF course
this is the yerr Ne to come to see everything
there is. In. IN the exhibition of the ROYAL
Academy is now open during these seven weeks,
galleries, to say nothing OF the galleries of sale
and exhibition ct Wallace & sais', Arthur
Tooths, Colnaghi's. etc.. and the visitor to Paris
finds the Salon presenting to the lover of art q
view of its treasures from May to June 20
There are, as is we'll known, two distinctive
schools Of painting-the school of the close
filling in Of details, Of which B. @, Koekkoek
in Germany is an eminent master, and the
broad, suggestive school Of Diaz Rousseau
and Corot, which has had q striking modern
against the Dutch masters Of minutis. Both
Of these have their devotees in America, but
thereis especially in our country, growing
taste for the moderate middle school AS to
English painting, it is scarcely represented ut
all among US, probably because our people
monizes more with our spirit and tendencies,
and partly because tho best English paintings
arc held very high. Mr.. NORGE says:
..There are not more than three drst-class Eng
lish paintings sold to America in year. Sir Fred
that Is what Disraeii and Gladstone paid him but
h1were New York OF Chicago millionaire would
have one Of Sir Frederick Leighton's great mytho-
logical paintings. have seen some Of them in tho
Royal Academy that would make you hold your
breath. Like all English art they are somewhat
panty and heavy, but they are real creations"
A PAINTERS PROMISE.
do you know the history of that superb picture
-NaDoeon's Reyiew-by Msissonier, in Mrs. A. T.
Stewards gallery?"
:, I answered in the negative, and he went on:
"French and German artists have, a. rule. no
consciences-no financial moral sense of any sort.
They do not scruple to break their engagements II
they can get more money by doing SO. That paint
ing Of Napoeon's Review was begun good many
years ago for Mr.. Probasco. Of Cincinnati, and was
ordered through Mr.. Knoedler Of New. York.
Probasco said to Knoedler II want something
daAM LIZ n.