Barbour County index. [volume] (Medicine Lodge, Kan.) 1880-current, 1894-12-12
STEAMSHIP STATISTICS.
The Enormous Profits Made Dur
ing the Summer Months.
Immense Quantities of Delicacies and
Necessaries Consumed on an Ocean
Passage Disagreeable News
for Prohibitionists.

There IS an enormous profit in the steam
ship business during the spring and sum-
mer months, the gross receipts, according
to the Boston Herald, from a single VOYAGE
frequently rising above 100000. When the
Etruria, the Umbria, the City of New York
or any other of the great liners leave their
docks with from 500 to 600 passengers, as
they do regularly every week between the
middle of April and the middle of July, re-
ceipts from the cabins average more than
500 for each person, and represent in the
aggregate 100000 The other sources of in
come from the ship, such as freight, the
mails, the Storage and the bar, amount to
almost as much again. There is not q yes
sci on the ocean that can seat more than $50
people In the main dining-r For this
reason there are two dinners served when
the passenger list runs above that number,
and you are asked at the Office whether YOU
prefer the first or second dinner-one at
$50 the other at land this, with the num-
Der OF your room, is put on the purser's list
with the number OF your place at table, and
when 1t IS once fixed no change will be
made. An officer presides at each of the
main tables and the highest honor is to sit
at the captains table-if possible on his
right or left-and great tact is required to
arrange the seats satisfactorily and give no
cause for jealousy among the passengers.
The perishaole food only is bought in this
country and such things as melons, oysters,
peaches, cigars, tomatoes and other articles
that are cheaper and better here than
abroad, together with the necessary supply
OF coal to carry the ship across the Allan
tic All of the groceries and wines are
purchased on the other side, the supply be-
ing laid in for the round trip.
When vessel of the first class is living
at her dock IN New York in the spring
months, with nearly a thousand people to
iced for seven or eight days, she lays in an
enormous amount of provisions, which are
put in the ice-room. OF fresh beef the usual
amount is IL, 500 pounds, with 760 pounds of
corned beef, $3.50 pounds of mutton $50
pounds Of lamb, $50 pounds Of veal and the
same amountof pork, and about 1000 pounds
OF fresh fish. These figures may wel make
the thrifty housewife stare in open-eyed
wonder. What could she do with the fifteen
tons OF potatoes put aboard every ten days.
These ocean greyhounds are well supplied
with game, as the list of the head cook.
which was recently seen by the writer,
showed 200 brace of grouse as being put
aboard for single voyage, with 600 fowls,
300 chickens, 100 ducks, SO geese and so
turkeys, besides thirty hampers of vegeta-
bles, 200 quarts of ice-cream, 1000 quarts Of
milk and II, 500 eggs. 1t is said that if the
ocean dried up you could trace the route of
the transatlantic steamers by rows of
empty champagne bottles between here
and Europe, which is not surprising, seeing
that the Cunard line alone use about $4,000
bottles OF champagne per year. The bar is
most important department on a large
passenger ship, and the profit from this
source is said to often exceed S. 900 from
one trip. All of its goods are put on at
Liverpool for the round trip, or at Havre or
Bremen.
The consumption for one voyage includes
LOO bottles of champagne, $50 bottles of
claret, 5000 bottles of ale, $500 of porter,
1850 of mineral water and $50 bottles of
various spirits. Lemons are used on an
average of III per head per day, apples %.
per head per day and oranges at the rate of
8 per head per day. The groceries for the
round trip include $50 pounds of tea, 1000
OF coffee, 1000 of white sugar, 1850 of
moist sugar and $50 of pulverized sugar.
The round trip takes % days, during only
one-half OF which are the passengers
aboard; yet it consumes on one ship 1900
pounds of cheese, 1000 pounds of butter,
$500 pounds of ham and l 200 pounds of ba-
con. Rough weather is expensive to the
steamship company in the large breakage of
crockery which it entails among cabin pas
sengers and stewards, and the record of q
recent voyage showed among the broken
articles 900 plates, $50 cups, 43S saucers,
1913 tumblers, 200 wine glasses, 81 decan-
tiers and 63 water bottles. The steamers of
one line running between New York and
Liverpool sell $1,000 cigars per year, 81, 900
cigarettes and $1,000 pounds of tobacco.
Among the other items of the yearly sup
ply which appear in the annual report, COW
ering the entire fleet of 16 ships, are TX
tons of mustard and tons of pepper, 1900
bottles of pickles, 5000 tins of sardines, Is
tons OF marmalade, % tons of raisins and
currants, ID tons of split peas and Is tons of
barley, $1,000 loaves of bread of pounds
each, 81 tons of ham, 80 tons of salt, 81 tons
Of oatmeal and 10 tons of yellow SOAP Over
100000 pounds of meat are consumed
every year by this one line, and nearly
1.OOO.O 900 eggs.