The morning news. [volume] (Savannah, Ga.) 1887-1900, 1893-01-01
TAKEMAN'SWANDERINGS
IN INCIDENTS OF FOREIGN
W. TaAvEL AND OBSERVATION.

r9AVEL AND OBSERVATION.
.one Waifs From Wakeman's
re Books-Crossing the Channel
r-om Dover to Calais, an Internal
o.o1izstion of Witch Walled Wal
.nres Night '-ValusOlo Points on
sr,nning' In England Burns Cot
..1as and Burns Descendants.
CCopwt0ht)
LONDON. Dec l9.-I pray all Of you who
n follow after IN European jaunts,
,.r TO cross the English channel between
,.ysr and Calais save by day. 1t has al
20. been my grewsome fortune to make
!. rassage by night and in storm.
:, ia pleasant, surely, from the time our
-, leaves the grim London housetops, all
4. wav in the evening cleaning through
~ lovely shire of Kent; but the rear Of
AZ sea Is always louder upon the great
%,,s ousys than the din of our fast night
ali as We rush in upon quaint old Dover
pWn.
moment at the station, and then we
.,.sn along the docks and come alongside
~ Yoval mail steamer; hustled out of our
r5aeled, half-lighted cells and driven like
'nuilling cattle down the slippery descent
ND up over the gangway, which see saws
rth desperate suggestions OF danger; and
y finally hauled aboard the rocking craft
"a the faint hearted land lubbers that We
SFirstclass aft second-class for'd''
Sorting as like sheep, we are at last hud-
ssd aboard the Foam-most appropriate
rsns. for even here at the docks the sea is
1Wid that the spure is dashed over us
he luggage and continental mail are some
how taken on and, with great lurch from
which the steel-ribbcd, though diminutive
and shell-like, craft only RECEIVERS to be
hurled violently in another direction. our
rssmer fairly began it's ricocheting across
heohannel.
Behind u.s. nestled In one Of the most
,bsrming ravines in all England liz ancient
Dover town, with its lights winding away
ID the westward and blinking from the
Tdss of the cliff; while the great Dover
leht house flames out upon the channel and
brings into weird outlines the stupendous
csstellated Notifications upon mighty Dover
| Heights
You are instantly plunged into the plain,
Old fashioned misery of seasickness. You
10 not go indoors, for all those nice people
who must be quite as used to a channel boat
e ferry would surely notice you were
becoming Ill. On the other hand all the
Rrrors of the deep and of approaching
obysical helpless ness, are resultant from
your enforced acrobatic teats upon deck.
Between humiliation and possible death,
n sheer desperation you choose disgrace
Your hand is upon the cabin door but
seems palsied. No. you will seek the second
class cabin, ford" They will be less
critical there. Its door is but fifty feet
hint rh 10 N Mill tbav
this II seems an age until you have been
able to throw yourself down the winding
stairway into the strange triangular cabin
below.
Ughl-the odor Of the place, It's subtle
dread and subtler qualms will always pos
seSs you whenever your crossing OF the
English channel returns az a hateful blot
upon your memory.
Under the stairway, from behind a eres-
csnt-shaped bar, two Tom Thumb-like tiny
old boys, attired like men-of-war's men, are
dispensing liquors and ales at lively rate.
Every male in the cabin is smoking, some
at the same time munching food at the
sloppy lunch table, where the dishes click
and slip with greasy grind with the lurch-
ing Of the vessel. Through the noxious
yapors, and as If far away and in an oppres-
are dream, you see, at either side of the
cabin a row of tiers, each beyond and slightly
u
Of arrangement, capacious hunks. Each is
provided with a leather-incased cushion, q
serge-covered pillow and a sunken cuspi-
dore; and nearly all of these hunks are
occupied by men and women in every i'm
sginable attitude of human suffering, or of
PREPARATION against torturing experience.
Over there is a party of Americans, evil
IDENTIFY an entire family. They are cursing
everything outside OF America, and strug-
Cling with each other as their physical con-
vulsions increase. Beyond are several frtars
IN brown and gray, perhaps from some of
the French cloisters beyond Amiens, sober
and grave 10 their rough habit and cowls,
bearing their misery with wonderful forth
tude. Opposite are stolid commercial
travellers, silent Jews, and Frenchmen full
Of antics in their torture, with French
women. graceful and pretty even in this
most remorselessly leveling of all huma n
Ills, an English channel seasickness.
The horrible air aud scenes Of this cabin
force you with Others back upon deck,
where the steamers rail at one side catches
you in its banging grip to hurl you to the
ron netting embrace Of the other. There is
10 escape. All bravery, resolution and SUI
preme will power are of no avail You re-
call in an ecstacy of hopelessness that no
channel steamer was ever lost. With this
thought all possibility Of relief is abandoned.
For good hour every aspiration and ambi-
ton Of life Is swept away. You grovel and
slide and slop as limp as strand Of cold
rnacconi upon the night mail steamer deck
for utter exhaustion has come.
But at last the braciug storm which has
whipped the channel into foam pounds new
Life into you The salt spray dashes into
your face and revives you. You crawl to
where the four grim wheelmen are, for in
the cutting wind there is faint odor Of
and. The chief wheelmsn comforts you
with
Doan't mind it. mon. The best there
% doan't be able to stand on their legs
hereaboutn
Away to the right is now seen the light
It the French cape Of Griz Nez. Soon
your steamer begins skirting the coast.
mere and there are glintings and glimmer-
mgs OF light from the coastwise villages,
where the late revel or vigil is being kept.
Inc pier-head light at Calais grows and
gioWs. Over the looming quay where the
sSa plays mad havoc Is q continuous wreath
ing OF flashing phosphorescence. Speedily
gov your steamer literally gallops into
Here at one side are the fantastic fishing
craft and the bellying Fighters" At the
eeIner, as the bedraggled passengers crowd
otoe gangway opening are rows Of French
pN1ers, bowling and scraping and chatter
.lg gholy. The weird cressets fare over
S es picture strangely; and q flavor of
Saying, salty things, of half-digested
"suac and Of penetrating garlic is over all.
ana what din Is therei
with swash and bumb the storm" is
aa;aS1liy made fast. Then the perilous mid