The Cecil Whig. [volume] (Elkton, Md.) 1841-current, 1889-08-17
THE EDITOR ABROAD.
Random Notes of Foreign Travel
GLASGOW, SCOTLAND, July 80, 1889.

come to be SO ordinary and uninterestinl
except to the personal friends of those
who write them, that had some hesita
ton in sending you anything for publ
cltiop. The conditions under which let
tiers are usually written, are not generally
favorable, either for the formation or ex.
preston of opinions that can in any sense
be considered valuable, and | am sure
human nature as to make mine at all ex
ceptional. l can, however, hope to in
!, terest you as we'll as my readers gener.
ally by the story of my personal exper
fences during flying trip across the At
lantic, although | may not be able to
make any very valuable contribution to
the current literature of travel. Not
very many years ago, the educational
and other advantages of Foreign travel
were enjoyed almost exclusively by the
wealthy. But now, as the result of CON-
petition between different lines of For
eign steamers, people of only ordinary
means if they can spare the time, can
make short trip to Europe at a very
small comparative cost. Travelling by
steamers abroad is when cost is consid-
cred precisely like railroad travelling at
home. You can take Pullman car and
pay high price for the luxury of your
surroundings. or you can ride in an ordi-
| nary car with all ppoaSSarv coD, fort and
get to your destination just as swiftly
and quite as safely at very much less cost.
50 in ocean travel, you can take berth
on one of the greyhounds of the ocean,
the City of Paris. the Umbria, the City
of New York, the Serva, all fashionable
ocean steamers and OF necessity costly
because they are fashionable, and pay
from hundred to thousand dollars for
your State Room. Mr.. Blaine and Mr..
Carnegie | have understood paid about
the latter sum for their state rooms by
the City of New York on their recent
coaching trip abroad. But we who are
neither fashionable nor wealthy, can get
a good cabin passage from New York to
| Glasgow and return for the modest sum
of seventy five dollars. o. course we can't
"get there" as quickly, we emit dine as
luxuriously, but we can make the trip
just as safely, indeed more SO, by plain
steamer like the n .braska of the State
line. 1t takes little longer to do it of
course. We eat palmer food while max
isg the passage. and think get decidedly
more benefit by the trip. since if there be
any health advantages in seven days
spent on the ocean, more benefit should
| be derived by spending ten days at sea.
| Now when you come to consider this
thing of crossing the ocean, the dread of
| sea sickness, has more to do in the seec-
| tiou of a steamer by most persons parti-
cularly ladies than any other consldera-
ton. They want to be shot across the
ocean as meteor-like as possible, without
regard to manner of living, diet, or per-
soual habit. The fact is, that most per-
sons live better in the saloon o. good
steamer than they do at home. Ordinarily
at least this is the case. They eat richer
| food, and increased quantity. The first
days sea breezes beget fictitious sort
of appetite. You are not really as hungry
when you sit down to the table as you
feel yourself to be. A little common
sense at the very outset of your trip will
| save you lots OF subsequent trouble. In
deed common sense in diet and drink, is
even more essential and generally rarer,
on ship board than on shore. My own
experience proves this. On going aboard
the steamer | met accidentally and to me
very opportunely an old Navy officer,
Who very poiuted!y cautioned me against
the over eating habit INDUCED by most
persons ON their first ocean voyage.
Don't eat variety of foods, and what
you do eat, eat more sparingly than you
ordinarily do at home," said he. acted
on mis- advice and proved to my own sur
prise an ea cellent sailor, not having dur
ing the run of ten days from New York
to Glasgow, the slightest suggestion of
sea sickness, dizziness, or nausea.
But now to the story of my trip,
parted with Victor at the pier on
Thursday of last week amidst the usual
hustle and excitement attendant upon the
sailing of an ocean steamer. Mothers
with moistened eyes bad their sons and
daughters Good Bye" and wished them
"God Speed" across the boisterous At
lantic. An old gentleman evidently an
! Irishman was taking very affectionate
leave of bis son, bright young fellow,
to whom he gave all sorts OF good advice,
and looking down upon the pier where
my own son stood and unacquainted with
any one in the throng surrounding him,
there came unsought the unwelcome
thought, that possibly through the vicis-
STUDIES of long journey, l might never
| again see those who were near and dear
to me. But, however, painful such
passing reflection my attention was suf-
ficiently diverted by the novelty of my
surroundings. to change the current of my
thoughts, and as the good ship "Aebras-
ka" glided smoothly into mid stream,
| Victor and | exchanged signals as long
as mutual recognition was possible. The
day was simply perfect one. The bright
sunshine and mellow south wind were
full OF parting benedictions Two hours
later, when old Sol cast his shortest
shadow Oh the decks, we parted with our
pilot off Sandy Hook and with her PROV
pointing directly eastward, we began the
| run of twenty nine hundred miles (about)
to the mouth OF the Clyde. This course
we held for twenty four hours, sailing
due eastward during that time, two hun
bred and eighty six miles. Then we
changed our course, running more to the
northward. keeping within eighty to
hundred miles of the coast until Nan
tucket and Cape Cod were passed. Then
on until the coast of Nova Scotia, and
Cape Race were left on our lee. This
course is known by sailors as the ex-
treme Northern course. Our destination
being the North Channel, through which
we passed off the North coast of Ireland
into the Firth of Clyde. Steamers bound
| for Liverpool, take a more Southerly
course through the St. George Channel,
| Queenstown generally, then rounding
Holyhead, the extreme Northwest point
of Wales into the mouth of the Mersey
River on which Liverpool is located. This