Morning journal and courier., 1890-07-26

rates from the combined trans Atlantic lines,
as well as at the same moment to md all
other of their own steamships dead loss on
their own hands. None of the British COM
panies will do this. An American company
with a capital Of Fifty million dollars lof
course, building ON the Clyde and flying the
British Hag) could do 30; and could instantly
command the cream of the ocean traffic.
There Is an important element in the matter
not usually considered. That is the already
established fact that the class of Americans
who are most desirable passengers to the
steamship lines, and indeed who aggregate
the great bulk Of ocean travel, are positively
Independent of any consideration 90 to fares. L
The fast and luxurious steamers now get,
without question or objection, from two i
hundred to one thousand dollars per trip for L
choice accommodations; and these very
steamships nave, every trip, proportionately |
larger number of passengers at these fig
ures than for their ordinary, and still luxuri-
ous, accommodations at from eighty to 1--WE
hundred dollars. Only this season a leading
line nearly doubled its rates for its two crack
six day boats, expecting to thus give their
higher priced passengers little more elbow
room. but there has 30 far been scarcely any
perceptible diminution in the numbers car
ried.
When the four day ship arrives In New
York hsrbor, and I believe good while be-
fore that time, there will come q revolution
in the manner of serving food on the ATTAIN
tic. At present there is enough wasted to
provide for twice the number served. And
yet with very messer exception the ocean
cuisine Is an abominsble travesty on delicate
dining. There is no excuse on shipboard for
| lily served food. The catering is bountiful,
extraordinary, superb. But the system Of
compelling five hundred ladies and gentle
men to psrtake Of cold and clammy courses
/ at given hours, whether or no, 10 unqusli-
| iedly repulsive and besstly. If there Is one
\ spot, OF time, In the fndividusl's life when
| captivating dishes should be served in q cap
tivating manner, it is when that individual
| is perhaps first realizing what q horrible in
| strument of torture the stomach may be-
| come. At best, at sea the average person is
in an overwhelmingly captious and vsgsrous
i mood about food. At one hour of one day
he may be rayenously hungry; at the same
hour of the next wholly untitled for even the
| contemplation of food. 1t is bArbarsus to
force repletion or starvation upon one after
this sntiqusted fashion. This is entirely
outside of the manner In which ships food
| is cooked. The long waits at the pantriee
| and the long, cold drafts in the passages,
chill your soups, cuts and roasts until they
are simply cold swill and cold grease and
flesh. OF all the great ocean passenger lines,
| but one serves food any other way; and this
line makes celerity and sauce do what reme-
dy is done. Its system ia quite as faulty as
the rest. Within the past few years I have
suggested the change I would substitute to
| between two and three hundred of the mill
lionsire frequent ocean travellers, and to
chief stewards and managers of q few of the
larger vessels of the more enterprising lines.
The passengers have universally asserted
that the first new steamships to adopt such
plan should have their own and their friends
patronage; while stewards and managers
have admitted that the system was not only
feasible, but that the constant demand for
improvement in ocean steamship service
would compel its near adoption. Briefly, il
is the substitution of the ironclad, unvary-
ing, remorselessly regular, and ever nausea.
ting three meals and two lanches per day
system for a regular, but lesser, table d. hote
service for those who wish passage to include
/, | meals, and Delmonico Ia carte service, in
dependent of passage money, for those whose
taste, convenience and disposition Tor indis-
position) would make this form of eating
, through a weeks imprisonment q real god
send. We Americans pay from fifteen t.
fifty dollars per day for what little We &c
| from New York to Liverpool. If ordinar,
passage money were fixed at from seventy
ave to one hundred and fifty dollars tn
steamship companies could well afford al
. 1 LQ6Y now give. 1uc shlno Recommendations
without meals, should be secured for fror
| fifty to one hundred dollars. The rich coul
= | pay their two to five hundred dollars for luz
d urious suites. Then with half dozen CON
. l rartments, similar to those provided on th
4 lstast built liners for childrens' and servant
| mess rooms, and make them gorgeous Q
| you please, one could eat, as desire promp.
t | ed, In peace and comfort, and it would be
- sorry wight who would not be willing to pa
handsomely for the change. These ocea
restaurants, ordinaries, snuggeries, or what
: ever you might wish to call them, shoul
i never be closed until midnight, and any sea
}. sonable food or fruits procurable in the bes
=. | restaurants In New York, London or Pari
u should be securable. to order, at any hour Q
y | the day by any cabin passenger on ship
l. | board. Il must soon dawn upon the mind
d of those engaged in ocean trausportatio
= that while the question of speed is an in
portant one to q few, the question of con
ie fort is q more vital one TO many. Gre
o speed IL being secured. Almost absolu
, safety is already assured through the icon
psrtment" plan of steamship building. II
y problem of perfee. ventilation has been
ID thoroughly solved that one can sleep In
,e pure air three decks below as upon the hu
p ricane deck. And now the great steamship
; must serve food TO passengers as IL to ladi
l and gentlemen entitled TO gracious and ho
ie pitable attention; and not as though the 9
N hundred souls in their charge were SO maj
y cattle destined for the Birkenhead slsught
houses.
Sc There is another evil, great and growil
curse in ocean travel, that American pub
il | sentiment should put an end to. That
: | gambling and other forms of swindling
'e sea. 1t is an undeniable fact tha. the smo
en ing room of every passenger vessel M
q aHost, the emily place on steamship wher'
es gentleman may enjoy his customary cigar,
- from port to port, no less than a yerital
VI gambling hell of the most pernicious and
re cious cert. 1t Is all very well for the huns
nd ous weeklies, and the wit columns of o
Is great dsilies, to have their occasional skits
IL gambling in general, as though the vice we
ed | a national weakness of the most inimitst
ls. funny character. or for the telegraph q
les umus of our dsilies to now and then give
IT. quarter column account OF how the brillis
zee editor of brilliant journal has hsd q sittIi
ell with some brilliant senator from a grs
a American commonwealth state, with intt
,e. es.ing details OF the results of "hluff
N, "raises" and the seductive '.iack pot" B
ng in sober truth a gambler il a gambl
oh whether he be an Honorable" or otherwi
vi an editor or a shilling shocker; and 1 mt
'on estly venture the statement that there
ce. fifty or sixty millions of American peo
1er who like neither gambling nor gamblers
IL land or sea One IL therefore at loss to
The derstsnd why ninety five per cent. of
sdi passengers of an Atlantic liner are compel
ION what is simply a huge floating gambling b
ich conducted, as far as the rspaciousness, o
by city and persistency of swindling 10 o
m. cerned, on quite the same principles as
lowest bum boat of the Ohio aud Hississi
nal rivers. The bland agents and blander c
san GERS of these vessels will point with Pc
.as. sniffiaa unction to the little plscards In
of smoking rooms which read: ''No gsmbl
XII allowed" and assert solemnly that all {
Test sort of work il q thing of the past.
ten they know better. Every passenger kns
)ne better. have instances, and proof, VIII
ou- scores of men have been all but ruined
Iow these steamships. also have over O de
ty- letters from ships captains and sx-cc
aan mauders deploring the evil and profess
ing that any movement for it's abolition wo
the meet with their hearty support. But thi
wal all nonsense. Any one with common se
300 knows that any ships commander co
lips abolish Ii on his ship in an instant wit
ZEN, single sentence. But he does not. One
In hardly believe he profits from 1t. The cc
.om pany itself is in small business to PERI