The Iola register., 1891-07-24
OVER LAND AND SEA.
Safely on Board Ship-Scenes and Incident
The Daily Record-"Life On The Ocenn
Wave" Not What 10 is Tracked Up
to be-Concerts and Other Things.
s.Land-Ho!"
FIRST DAY AT Sc

'.Land-He"'
FIRST DAY AT SEA.
The boat was to sail at $50 a. M,
and after narrowly escaping being ta-
ken away over on the east side when
1 wanted to go to the Jersey Shore
through the stupidity of an ignorant
cabman,-I reached about $50 the
dock at which was moored the "City
Of Chester" Depositing my luggage
i'm State Room IL, to which my ticket
assigned me, went out on deck to see
whatwas to be seen Nothing more than
what might be easily imagined by one
who had never seen a ship,-trunks
being brought aboard and lowered in-
to that apparently bottomless pit, the
hold. friends who are to remain at
home talking eagerly to friends who
are to sail away, the hurried good
byes at last when the bell strikes and
the Captain cries "All Off," The
gang planks are hauled back, waiting
q moment to let aboard the man who
comes tearing down the dock at the
last second d,-the same man who keeps
his dinner waiting, and comes into
church after service has begun, and
rushes to the barber shop on Saturday
night just as the last lamp is extin-
guished, the great ship backs out in
to the stream and then swings about
and heads outward, past a thousand
craft of all descriptions, past the great
Liberty statue, whose uplifted arm
seems to signal farewell and a bene-
diction, past Staten Island, with its
clustered groves and villages, past
Sandy Hook, where the pilot leaves
us, and the long voyage is begun. The
towers and spires of the city have fad
ed lcng ago, and after an hour or two
even the outlines of the Jersey coast
can no longer be discerned, and we
are alone with the winds and the sea
and the sky.
There is a strange fascination about
it, this first day at sea, and. an exhil-
aration as if the draughts of salt air
were like draughts of wine. The long
swinging roll of the great vessel, the
ceaseless murmur and motion of the
blue waves, calling, calling, lifting,
falling. You do not think now of the
things you thought of yesterday. The
business and the cares that have occu-
pied your mind so long that they have
seemed a part of you, fall away from
you as easily as garment, and you
think of nothing but the sea, the sea,
the sea!
SECOND DAY.
The dining room wa g crowded las
night at dinner, and there was happy
talk and light laughter. This morn
ing at breakfast the tables are nearly
deserted, and the few who venture in
give short orders and hurry away,
1.-THE first morning tells the story,
Sir" says the waiter in explanation
Out on deck the picture is disconsolate
enough. Disguised looking men and
wan, pale, empty-looking women
wrapped in shawls and rugs, and
huddled in sheltered corners, and sick
Oh so sick! The sky is overcast, and
the winds are abroad, and the sea has
lost its alluring blue, and is black and
angry, the yawning white-capped
waves looking like great mouths with
froth on the lips. 1t is Sunday and al
eleven O'Clock the dozen or so who
have not yet succumbed, 60 below and
listen to the English Church service
read by the Captain, and sing familiar
hymns, and think of home. All day
long the sea is rough, a great, gray
melancholy desolation, with no cheer
ing or pretty or alluring thing about
1t. A wild beast, to fear. And all
day long the men and women get sick
er and sicker, and when night comes
they creep down shuddering to their
berths, wondering why they ever left
the solid land, wondering how they
can ever leave it again, even to return
home.
-
THIRD DAY.
The sun il shining, the wind is
southerly, and the sea is blue again.
There is better showing at the break
fast table and most of yesterdays in.
valids are feeling better and beginning
to talk and eat little. There is a
young girl, though, who has TO be car.
ried up from her state room because
the ship surgeon says she will die il
she stays there. And poor woman
in the steerage, thinking swift death
easier to bear than five mere days OF
torture, tried to throw herself over the
rail and was caught only just i'm time.
Such episodes are not exactly calculat-
ed to promote eheerfulness. So when