The morning call., 1891-05-31
SENSATIONS OF A TRAVELLER.
Three Thousand Miles in a Week in a
Big Steamship.

Three thousand miles in a little over
seven days is pretty good ocean travelling.
We crossed the bar at New York at about
$50 o'clock on one Thursday evening and
anchored In Southampton water at about
the same hour on the following Thursday.
l cannot imagine how the Columbia could
have been made more comfortable during
the week / spent on her, except by placing
her very solid and fast long distance from
the water. 1t was all very fne when we
steamed down New York Bay, with several
flags flying, the German postal officer in full
uniform. sword and all, promenading up
and down the deck and the ships band play
ing joyously; that was lovely.
But later, when the flags were taken in
and the postal officer had gone to bed in his
uniform, and the Columbia seemed TO be di-
vided in her desires between standing on
her nose on the bottom and cutting holes in
the moOn-well, that was different. The
reference to the postal officer may require
word of explanation. This trip Of the Co
lumbia was the first 10 which our foreign
mails were sorted in transit There had
been an arrangement made between Ger
many and the United States by which the
mails carried by the Hamburger American line
are sorted on shipbOard on exactly the same
principle as used in our railway postal sys-
TEN. But this being partnership affair the
work is done by one German aud one Amer
lean mail clerk. The American wears the
unObtruSive blue uniform of our railway mail
service, but the German officer was quite
too gorgeous for everyday life. 10 start
with, the German postal uniform Is 6ecid-
edly military in appearance, and for some
occult reason the German postal officer
wears a sword. When he first flashed
upon the gaze of the a3miring passen-
gers there was much speculation as
10 what he could be; no one thought Of
guessing anything less than Grand Duke;
and when at last an enterprising SeaTcher for
the truth discovered the mission of the war
like representative of monarchical institu-
ton everybody was iDcredulOus.
If he's postman what does he carry
sword fOr?" queried an old lady.
. To open the envelopes with, of course"
responded the truth dispenser. The old
lady pondered. then objected.
% But he has his trousers strapped under
his boots like cavalryman?"
They always sort the mails on horse
back in Germany" was the answer.
But the two did good work when the uni
form was put away, and the new system
promises 10 save about twenty-four hours
on transatlantic mails for the West. If the
experiment continues to be successful on
the Columbia it will be extended TO other
lines.
Owing to the construction Of the Columbia
she rolls very little. but with a good head
wind on she can pitch most remarkably. /
fancy that she always pitches worse about
dinner time. You go into the gorgeously
decorated diDing-ro0m and absorb your
soup while your ears are delighted with the
strains of a Strauss waltz. Then, during
the silence preparatory to the next course,
you notice that the boat Is rising to ride over
wave. She goes up, up, up. aud then
pllnges down, down, down. You 90 with
her; but your liver flies up into your throat
so that you could bite scOllops in the edges
of 1t If you wanted to. Then you stagger
up on deck and lean over the rail-and the
band plays Annie Laurie"
Besides myself and nearly 400 other pas
SeDgeTs the Columbia carried a million dol
lars worth of gold bullion to Hamburg and
about half a million in silver to London.
The bricks of silver were piled up beside my
trunks on the deck of the little tender which
took US up 10 Southampton Pier. just as
was lifting" the end of one of them per-
son about eight feet high materialzed out of
the gloom and remarked
''Ili beg pardon. sir. but him Tot hallow9d
TO let any person NEEDLE with the bullion"
The tone was firm but apologize. and the
accent was impossible to reproduce in type.
Then | realized that was in England. The
man was Government employe and civil !;
if il had been in America l would have been
ordered of In very different terms.
That is one feature of English life that /
particularly admire. The policemen, rail
way officials CuSt0m-hOuSe inspectors, all
seem TO realize that they are the servants
of the public and they do not regard tho
casual wayfarer as if his continued exist
ence was annoying to them. At home we
address these functiouaries with a tacit
apology for living, and they answer US as
suits their imperial fancy. Over here
a : crnu r.1c
really appear to be pleased TO impart in for
nation, the hobbies" give directions with
true military precision and walters thank
you for a tip. 'Thankee, SIR" is an ex-
preston heard on every side. | was stand
ing In the Charlng Cross Station the other
night and an impOrtunate flower vender an
noyed an irascible old gentleman who was
standing near me-
go to the devilv snapped the old fellow.
''Yessir, thankee. sir" responded the
flower man, and there wasn't a trace of sar-
casm in his tone, either.
The first week a man is in London i'm.
pressi0ns crowd in upon him thick and
fast. Later he becomes used 10 the smoky
old town, its manners, customs and people,
and does not see so plainly the differences
between it and our American cities. Next
to the smoke in the air the two things which
strike the newly landed American most
fOrcibly in the course Of an afternoon walk
are the size Of the wemen'S feet and the alb
sence of what we call typical English
men," the types which our dudes try to
copy. The languid, feeble, loose coated and
weakened idiot who must have served as
model for our American Angomaniacs is
not here The young men are, as a class,
rather above middle height, well built, care
fully pTo0med, 1orcibe-looking young fell
lows. They may drawl in speech, for most
English people speak much more slowly
than we do, but there is no drawl in mOnner
or appearance.
The feet of the women are solid aetuali-
ties. II Is sort OF shock to see pretty,
rehned-looktng girl, and as one takes n
second glance to have the attention arrested
by pair Of mans feet protrudng from be-
| meath the hem of her gown. Hands are i'm
the same proportion Many English women
have beautifully shaped hands, but they are
large. A friend of mine who has an Ameri-
can wife went into three of the largest
gloVe-sh0ps on Regent street yesterday try
ing to get a pair of No 8 ladies' gloves.
When left him he had not succeeded: they
simply don't keep No. SIS, because there is
no call for them, yet know several Ameri-
threaten series of sociological studies, but
II has always seemed to me that Americans
look at London more specifically than upon
any other European city. The similarity of
language closes the eyes to differences in
other matters, and our newspaper CORE
spondents have been so busy chronicling
the doings of Parliament and the Land
League that they have had little time to
dive into the social0gc pond, which affords
some Instruction and considerable amuse-