Omaha daily bee., 1889-05-12
STORIES OF THE SEA.
"Reminiscences of the Veteran Trans
Atlantic Traveller.

oAohIFo VT ocFs
"Reminiscences of the Veteran Trans
Atlantic Traveller
''That man has crossed the Atlantic ocean
eighty-six times"
It was Mr. Thomas Swobe who made the
remark, yesterday, in a conversation having
reference to Emil Haas, guest at the Mil
lard hotel. "Aud he travels without being
compelled to buy his way through. You
know" continued Mr.. Swobe, ''that It is
customary with the Cunard steamship COM
pany to award prizes in the shape of life
passes on the fftieth voyage made by any
person. Mr. Haas earned his prize several
years ago. He travels so much that they
extended exceptional courtesies to him"
The occasion for so much travel between
the old and new world on his part IS due to
the fact that MIR. Haas represents very
large Partisan wine house which, through
his efforts, has an immense trade
among hotels and large wholesale
concerns in this country. He is German
considerably Americanized, but French in
mannerisms, very Intelligent and a great
talker. Nothing delights him so much as
to sit down with four or five friends and en-
terrain them with stories Of his extensive eX
perience on the high seas. Yesterday he re-
lated two or three very interesting occur
rences. One exceedingly amusing incident
happened in 1868, while coming to New York
from Liverpool on the Algiers. Billy Flor
once and Dion Boucicault were among tho
passengers.
"About that time" said he, "the hospital
for sick and disabled sailors-a very worthy
charitable institution-had been completed
1t was maintained then, and is yet, largely by
collections taken from passengers aboard both
the outgoing and incoming vessels. There
was an old man on our vessel doing the col
lecting. Florence, Bouccicault and 1 were
plunged deeply in the vascilating run of no.
lt,,,;t hac cNIin taI ,h.a
tious. proposed at once that all the win
nings of the game be given to the hospital
fund, but Florence protested, and suggested
as better scheme that we get up an enter
talnmenJ of some kind and charge the pas
sengers (there were about three hundred of
them) 81 admission and turn over the pro-
ceeds.
'Boucicault and 1 readily consented and
entered heartily into the enterprise. There
were two well dressed, fine looking Irish
men on board who persisted in wearing
plug hats, and unusual thing at sea. 1t is
customary for men to wear scull caps.
Every day these fellows strutted around,
much to the annoyance of everybody
After discussing the kind of performance
best calculated to produce the most fun,
Florance finally exclaimed: Il have it. We
will hold mock court and try those two
Irishmen for wearing their silk tiles and
thus mourning the wrath of the gods to visit
us OH our journey with these ill-winds and
| angry waves The suggestion struck us
favorably and we proceeded to carry it out.
Bouccicault was appointed to act as
sheriff and we got Cincinnati
lawyer, who was extremely bright, aud
drunk half the time to prepare and file an
information against the two offenders. They
erected dais in the cabin for the Judge to
sit on, empanneled jury, and when every
thing was ready, his honor ordered me to 90
on deck, arrest the accused and bring
them in. -~ '---'.'' g. -4'7+' -.- -
"Well, you ought to have seen me. Some
| ladies had tied IL blue ribbon around my neck
| and decked me with the insignia Of Office [
Strutted forth as proud as any bantam, went
| on deck, and there spled the objects of my
| quiet chat. boldly approached, tapped each
one on the shoulder, and exclaimed
| gentlemen, you are my prisoner From
| that day to this have been profoundly i'm
pressed with The conviction that they were
| not the sort of men so constituted as to take
! joke, for no sooner had the words left my
| lips than one of them knocked me down.
| Then got up the other initiated his exam
pie, and they gave me an unmerciful pound
| ing.
"As a result of my efforts I went back
| to the cabin badly used up individual.
This so disappointed the court and lawyers
Florence was representing the prisoners
that they arraigned and tried me. l was
! convicted and sentenced to treat Judge, jury
| and everybody else to champaign the next
! day. 1t cost me my summers wages.
l III
| We sailed from New York June IL on the
| Galiia but instead of landing five days later
| on English SOIL we were adrift in the middle
| of the ocean with a broken shaft, and stayed
| five weeks. That time ex-Attorney General
| Benjamin f. Brewster and Hon. Roscoe
| Conklng were on board. We celebrated the
| Fourth of July thousand miles from land
| Believe me, or not, but it was the greatest
| day / ever saw. Brewster and Conkling
| both entered into the spirit of the occasion,
| ana such speeches as they made l don't
| think were ever equaled on land. We had
| PROFESSIONS lots of singing, big dinner,
| and more fun than you can imagine y
| 'But the real sport of that trip was fur
| nished by minister, who was all the time
| arguing and preaching prohibition. We
made him the butt of our jokes. He devoted
| much of his time inducing the passengers
| and boat hands to sign a temperance pledge.
| One day the old fellow announced that he
! had succeeded In getting all the sail
| ors to join his army and take an
| oath that never again would they
| touch the flowing bowl. l offered
| then to post wager that l could go among
| the crew, with protfers of beer and cigars,
| letting each man select which he wonld have,
| and that one-half of them would break their
| pledges and take beer. He hooted at the
| proposition, thought it absurd and declared it
| impossible for men to thus violate their oath.
"The next day was Sunday. 1 went into
| the steerage room, called in all the sailors
| and offered them the treat Thirty.fve out
| of the thirJy-siX took beer.