Pittsburg dispatch. [volume] (Pittsburg [Pa.]) 1880-1923, 1889-10-06

BILE dish as at first-class hotel. You have
to make some allowance for the cooking on
| shipboard; but ii you are not an inveterate
| grumbler you will be satisfied. The stewards
are very attentive, though all the dishes
NAV not suit your American palate. If you
are gourmand, you can have supper from
s to 10-tea and toast, Welch rarebit, ham
and poached eggs, etc., but advise you to
treat your digestive organs with proper re-
spect.
BAsHFUL MEN MUST STAND.
When you go on deck you find your chair
occupied by a stranger, busily discussing
Mrs. Maybrlck's case with another stranger.
You walk the deck for couple of hours,
onlv to find that your chair is still occupied
and YOU are too bashful 70 interrupt tine dis
cussion. You learn that if you want to use
your chair you must occupy it; and you
have not 'cheek" enough to take possession
of another.
Early or late you "turn in, and when
YOU wake in the morning the ship is at rest.
and YOU find that you are in the harbor of
Queenstown. 1t is Sunday, but it seems
lust like any other day. Several boats are
alopRside in which are some OF the finest
peasantry in the world" selling Irish lace,
bogwood canes and ornaments of all sorts.
A tug comes of, and with a crowd of others
you go on shore for couple of hours. The
mail from London arrives about 1, and
alter eight hours delay the Umbria sails
again at 2.
No service on board that day, though it
is generally held in the cabin on the Cunard
steamers, when the service is read by the
captain. the purser, or some clergyman.
Before night the steamer is out of sight of
land, and your sea life really begins. You
sit in your chair (if you can obtain the use
of it) and watch the "lonely ocean," For
whole day, or even two days, you may not
see a single sail. The ship is the whole
world to you. You will occasionally see a
whale or school of porpoises, and perhaps
a shark or two The Umbria is so large
that the ordinary pulsations of the ocean
have no effect upon her. No one is seasick
yet.
In the evening you visit the smoking
room again. The cards and chips are still
actively employed, and you find that
"pools" are great Institution. Ten men
put their names on a paper and pay in
dollar apiece. Then they draw for numbers
up to ten. The pool, or bet, is on the last
figure of the run of the steamer for the day,
ending at noon. Smith has 0, Jones has B,
and Jones has the last figure and puts the
$40 in his pocket. Many parties get up
pool OF this sort At noon, or soon after, the
latitude, longitude and the number of miles
run is posted in the smoking room.
Pools are made up on the number of the
pilot boat, as the steamer comes near her
port. Sometimes score or more of num-
bers are sold for certain sum each. Then
these numbers are sold again at auction,
and they are valued according to the bid
der's estimate OF the ships run. Some num-
bers bring from 500 to $50. But, of course,
my boy, you do not take part in any such
amusements.
A STORM AT SEA.
If you are fond of reading and have no
books in your bag, you find a library of
standard works in the cabin. You get ac-
quainted with some of the passengers, you
walk the deck, you eat and sleep, and one
day is very much like another. When you
got up Tuesday morning you found it some
what difficult to stand up in your state
room. The steamer is, pitching little, but
before noon it is blowing a gale. The water
is decidedly "humpy," and it is not easy for
you to walk about. You would like to see
a storm at sea, and you seat yourself in your
chair to see IL.
1t is not much of a storm, but the water
slops over the upper deck, and you see the
spray carried nearly to the top OF the smoke
stacks. The lofty bridge of the officers is in
a cloud of spray, and the lookout men are
sent into the foretop to keep them from be-
ing washed from the forward bridge. 1t is
too wet for you on the upper deck and you
retreat to the music room, where you hear
the water stopping on the skyllghtover you,
though it is covered with canvas to save the
glass.
When you 60 down to lunch the guards
are on the tables to keep the dishes from
sliding of, and not half the usual number
are present Your soup is inclined to slide
out OF your plate, but you are not sick, and
you soon put it "where it will do the most
good" Once In a while the big ship seems
to stagger and almost stop as she runs
against a heavy wave. You 90 to your
room, and lying in your berth you listen to
the roar all around you, and hear the big
seas crash against the iron sides of the
ship.
Then you 60 on deck again. The officers
in oil-cloth garments keep behind their
canvas screens on the bridge. They are
frequently ducked. but they seem to be
quite at home. and you are reconciled to
the situation. There are plenty OF seasick
ones around you, even ladies crouching
under their wraps in utter despair. But by
dinner time the gale Mas abated. When
you retire it is comparatively quiet, and
you sleep like top.
AT noon on Saturday pilot is taken on
board, 200 miles from New York. Later
you see the land, and at 10 in the evening
you turn in, the ship at anchor. The next
morning you land, pass the customs, and go
your way rejoicing that you are on shore,
and have not been seasick
OLIVER OPTIC.