The Wichita daily eagle. [volume] (Wichita, Kan.) 1890-1906, 1891-05-24

laSses, brown, nankeen and straw col
ored natives, thrusting skinny arms in
at the windows, and at the end of those
arms parrots, large and small, in cages
and out, monkeys, shells, oranges, ban
anas, carved work, and pearls in vari-
Gus kinds of gold setting; all Of which
were sorely tempting to some Of the
ladies, but ere many bargains were cor
cluded the train clattefed off, and we
were crossing the continent.
The Isthmus is a panorama Of tropi
cal jungle; it seems an excess, a
dissipation of vegetation. It is a place
favorable also for the study of external
black anatomy. The natives kept I'M
dressing more and more as we rolled on.
For mile or two after leaving Panama
they did affect the shirt. Beyond this
that garment seemed to have become I'M
fashionable, and they stood at their open
doors with the same unclothed dignity
that characterized Adam in the Garden
of Eden before his matrimonial troubles
commenced. Several young ladies in our
care first looked up, then down, then
across, then sideways; then they looked
very grave, and finally all looked at each
other and unanimously Uttered.
Aspinwall! The cars stop; black
and-tan battalion charge among US, Of
fering to carry baggage. They pursue
us to the gate of the P. II. S. S. depot;
there they stop; we pass through one
more cluster of orange, banana and cigar
nd 20 JpfN
the depot, show our tickets and are on
board the Ocean Queen. We are ON the
Atlantic side
We cross the Caribbean. It is stormy
sea. Our second day thereon was one Of
general nausea and depression. You
have perhaps heard the air, "Sister, what
are the wild waves saying?" On that
black Friday many of our passengers
seemed to be earnestly saying something
over the Ocean Queens side to the wild,
wild waves" The Grinder went down
with the rest.
gazed triumphantly over his pros
trate form, laid out at full length on a
cabin settee. Seward, Bancroft, poll
tics, metaphysics, poetry and philosophy
were hushed at last. Both enthusiasm
and patriotism find an uneasy perch on
nauseated stomach.
But steam has not robbed navigation Of
all its romance. We find some poetry
in smoke, smokestacks, pipes, tunnels
and paddles, as well as in the "bellying
sails" and the white winged messen-
gers of commerce." / have a sort of
worship for our ponderous walking
beam, which swings its many tons of
iron upon its axis as lightly as lady's
parasol held 'twixt thumb and finger.
1t is an embodiment of strength, grace
and faithfulness. Night and day, mid
rain and sunshine, be the sea smooth or
tempestuous, still that giant arm is at
work, not swerving the fractional part
of an inch from its appointed sphere Of
revolution.
It is no dead metallic thing; it is
something rejoicing in power and USE
It crunches the ocean meath its wheels
with that pride and pleasure of power
which strong man feels when he fights
his way through some ignoble crowd.
The milder powers Of upper air more
feebly impel yon ship; in our hold are the
powers of earth, the gnomes and COLLINS,
the subjects of Pluto and Vulcan, be-
grimed with SCOT and sweat, and the ele-
ments for millions and millions of years
imprisoned in the coal are being steadily
set free. Every shovelful generates a
monster born of fame. AS he flies,
signing and grooming, through the wide
mouthed smokestacks into the upper air
he gives our hull a parting shove for
ward.
A death in the steerage-a passenger
taken on board sick at Aspinwall. All
day long an inanimate shape wrapped in
the American flag lies near the gang
way. At p. IN. an assemblage from
cabin and steerage gather with uncov-
cred heads. The surgeon reads the serv-
ice for the dead; plank is lifted up;
with last shrill whirl that which was
once man is shot into the blue waters;
in an instant it is out OF sight and far
behind, and we retire to our staterooms
thinking and solemnly wondering about
that body sinking, sinking, sinking in
the depths of the Caribbean; of the sea
monsters that curiously approach and
examine it; of the gradual decay of the
corpses canvas envelope; and far into
the night, as the Ocean Queen shoots
ahead, our thoughts wander back in the
blackness to the buried yet unburied
dead.
The torrid zone is no more. This morn
ing blast from the north sweeps down
upon u.s. Cold, brassy clouds are in the
sky; the oceans blue has turned to a
dark, angry brown, fiecked with white
caps and swept by blasts fresh from the
home of the northern foe and iceberg.
The majority of the passengers gather
about the cabin registers like the house
flies benumbed by the first cold snap Of
autumn in our northern kitchens. Light
coats, pumps and other summer apparel
have given way to heavy boots ,overcoats,
fur caps and pea jackets. A home look
settles on the faces of the North Ameri-
cans. They snuff their native atmos-
phere; they feel its bracing influence.
But the tawny skinned Central Amerl-
cans, who have gradually accumulated
on board from the Pacific ports and As
pinwall, settle inactively into corners or
remain e~oned in their berths. The
air which kindles our energies willis
theirs. The hurricane deck IS shorn OF
its awnings. Only a few old ''shellback"
passengers maintain their place upon it,
and yet FIVE days ago we sat there IL mid
summer moonht evenings.
We are now about one hundred miles
from Cape Hatteras. Old Mr.. Poodle
and his wife are travelling for pleasure