Morning journal and courier. [volume] (New Haven [Conn.]) 1848-1894, 1892-12-31
wAKRmAN,s wANDKRINGs.

Odd Incidents OF Foreign Travel and
Obseryation-winso Walls From
wakeman,s Notebooks - Crossing
the channel From Dover to Calais
an ssInfernal Realization of a
wItch-wailed swaIpurgis Night:
valuable Points on dripping" In
England Burns Cottages and
Burns Descendants.
LONDON, Dec. 10.
Tothe Editor OF the JOURNAL AND COURIER:
pray all of you who are to follow after
in European jsunts never to cross the
English channel between Dover and Calais
save by day. 1t has always been my
grewsome fortune to make the passage by
night and in storm.
1t ia pleasant surely from, the time our
train leaves the grim London house tops,
all the way in the evening cleaning
through the lovely shire of Kent; but the
roar of the sea is always louder upon the
great stone quay than the din of our fast
night mail, as we rush in upon quaint old
Dover town.
A moment at the station, and then we
creep along the docks and come alongside
the royal mail steamer; hustled out of our
wheeled, half lighted cells and driven Lie
unwilling cattle down the slippery deacent
and up over the gangway which ,seesaws
with desperate suggestions of danger; land.
are finally hauled aboard the rocking craft
like the faint-hearted lsnd-lubbers weAareS
"First-class sftl second -elass for a Ia p
Sorting us like sheep, we sres at last
huddled aboard the tFoamn n-most ,approi
pirate name, for even here at the docks
the sea is so wild that It's sPume is daahsd
over us; the luggage and oontinentas insh
are somehow taken on; and, with great
| lurch from which the steel-ribbed though
dinsinntive and shelliIks craft nuIS recoy-
ers to bs hurled violently in another df-
reotiop, our steamer fairly began Its rico
| cheting across the channel.
Behind us, nestled in one of the most
charming ravines in all England, is an
cient Dover town, with its lights winding
| away to the westward and blinking from
| the sides of the cliff; while the great Do
yer light house flames out upon the chan
mel and brings into weird outlines tho stu
pendous castellated Notifications upon
mighty Dover Heights.
| You are instantly plunged into the plain,
| old-fashioned misery of sea-sickness. You
do not go in doors, for all those nice peo-
pie who must be quite IS used to chan
| mel boat as ferry would surely notice you
were becoming ill. On the other hand all
the terrors of the deep and of approach
ing physical helplessness are resultant
| fro,,, vour anforced anrohatic featR uDOI
deck.
Between humiliation and possible death
In sheer desperation you choose disgrace
Your hand is upon the cabin-dcor hu
seems palsied. No, you will seek the sec
| ond-eIass cabin, "for'd." They will b
less critical there. Its door is but fft.
feet away, but where is Drawer pilgrimsg
than tlis2 1t seems an age until you Law
been able to throw yourself down tn
winding stairway into the strange trisngu
lar cabin below.
Ugh!-the odor of the place, its subtl
dread and subtler qualms will always pos
sess you whenever your crossing OF tn
English channel returns as a hateful bic
upon your memory.
Under the stairway, from behind q cres
eent-shaped bar, two Tom Thumb hk
tiny old boys, attired like men-of-war
men, are dispensing liquors and ales at
| lively rate. Every male in the cabin
| smoking, some at the same time munchin
food at the sloppy lunch table, where tt
dishes click and slip with greasy grin
q with the lurching of the vessel Throug
: the noxious vapors, and as If far avs
and in an oppressive dream, you see,
| either side of the cabin and In tiers, esC
: beyond and slightly higher than anothe
6 in ampitheater form of arrangement, C
: pacious hunks. Each is provided with
: leather -encased cushion, q serge covers
9 pillow and sunken ouspidor; and near
9 all of these hunks are occupied by m'
. and women in every imaginable attitu
n of human suffering. or of preparati'
- against torturing experience.
. Over there is a party of Americans, e'
% IDENTIFY an entire family. They are cul
q ing everything outside of America, al
struggling with each other as their ply
. cal commissions increase. Beyond are Sc
! eral friars in brown aud gray, perhs
- - from some of the French cloisters beyol
= Ameins, sober and grave in their rou
~ habit and cowls, bearing their misery vi
. wonderful fortitude. Opposite are sto
= commercial travellers, silent Jews, a
70 Frenchmen full of antics in thsir tortul
with Frenchwomen, graceful and pref
even in this most remorseleesly leveling
all human ills, an English chanuel 81
sickness.
- The horrible air and scenes of this cal
: force you with others back upon de-
where the steamers rail at one side catci
you In It's banging grip to hurl you to
l. iron netting embrace of the other. IN
J. Is no escape. All bravery, resolution a
supreme will power are of no avail. \
n recall in an ecstacy of hopelessness q
J. no channel steamer was ever lost. W
this thought all possibility of relief
q. ! abandoned. For q good hour every as
- rstion and ambition of life Is swept sw'
You grovel and slide and slop as limp .
. strand of cold mscconi upon the nit
~ mail steamers deck; for utter exhaust
has come.
But at l,Sst the bracing storm which
Is whipped tiNs channel into foam poul
8. new life into you. The salt spray dss
y- into your face and teyives You.
crawl to whsys the four grim wheeln
o. 4 are. for in the cutting wind there is 70
10 odor Of the land. The chfsf wheeln
as comforts you with; 4.
"Doan,t mil a 10, mon, The best u
ae be doan't be a2la ia stand on their
I'd ! hereaboutl" :,
ng Away to the Eight IL now seen the Y
I at the French, cape Of Gfiz Nee. 5
=, vour steamer begins skirtang the ce
II Here and theres are glintineB and glttnI
~ ipgs of light rem the ooastwise vtllt
- where the late Fevel or vigil 10 being Z
The pier-head light at Calais grows
q, CLOVIS. Over NE looming quay where
rs sea plays m @ havoc is contin'
ne vreathing of flashing phosphoresct
90 Speedily now ysur steamer literally 60
into port.
sf Here At one eide ere the fenssatle