The Scranton tribune. [volume] (Scranton, Pa.) 1891-1910, 1894-09-11
Special Correspond dence.
On BOARD THE

On BOARD THE A., ar
U. S. NJ. S. BERLIN, aug Z"
Vn0E have now been six days out,
WAWI and are becoming accustomed
VIM to the ocean None of us has
wv been sea.sick 80 far. as we have
had beautiful weather all the way out,
except for little roughuess which we
encountered last evening l am get
ting very tired of the sameness of the
horizon, and long for the land. not
withstanding the fact that we have
ship full of jolly and interesting passen-
gers. We have passed several sailing
boats, and q large but rather slow sail
ing steamer, the Westernland, which
sails to Antwerp. How swift we all
felt as we steamed up to it, passed, and
left it numbering along in our rear
But today we can appreciate the feel
Jugs of the Westernland passengers, as
there is an unmistakable ocean grey
hound which has overtakeu us this
morning. and is now showing us her
heels, as she passes us. We are upon
deck Watching it. Everything inter
ests us out here. The ocean is 80 mo-
notonous that the whole saloon Just
flies to the vessels railing when any
thing is reported as seen on the hori-
zon. Even porpoises playing in the
water are interesting to us.
Steamer life is rather interesting,
and again sometimes very dull. We
rise from our berths in the morning,
dress, run up on deck to breath the
fresh air, seamper down to the saloon
again to breakfast, then, armed with
our trash novels, shawls. pillow, rugs,
up we 60 on deck and pass the time
reading, gossiping. promenading and
wondering what we will have for din
ner. We make a mad rush for the
saloon upon the ringing Of the dinner
bell, and after dinner the routine is
the same, with the variation of an after
noon nap, and some little mild excite
ment in the way of watching the var.
ious fiirtations going on about the
ship.
HUMAN CURIosITIEs.
The passengers are very interesting.
We have with us almost all the Euro
pean nationalities and, of course, young
America is holding his own with the
rest of the world. There is young
Californian and his sister on board who
are on their way to South Africa and
who are already dead tired of travelling,
poor things! We have plenty of Ger.
mans with us and very nice ones they
are, too. One Of them is an entertain.
ing young man, something of a physi.
ognomist who did me the kindness the
other day to tell my fortune from a
chronological point of view. His anal
ysis of character was not so bad, either.
He read the head of another Of our
party for me and hit the nail on the
head exactly. / was much amused at
his success. as tho young mans appear
ance bellies his Bowery tendencies
with respect both to his speech and
manner of judging other people.
We have quite social time in the
evening. AT present we are scattered
around the saloon at the tables, some
playing cards, some talking, others
writing home. A picaninny band, go
ing to England by this ship, are maxi
ing night hideous with the strains of
their music, as it floats up to us from
the steerage, somewhere in the bowels
Of the earth, or ship, rather. This
band is made up of ten or twelve &C
tual boys, colored ones, from the age of
s or up to young manhood, and they
play like imps of darkness. Their
loader is man of rather impressive
appearance and stands iu the center of
the group when they play and waves
his hand around in the air as he directs
them. From tho results obtained il
seems to be very poor guidance indeed
They have stopped playing now and are
singing negro melodies instead, very
pleasing change. They are oa their
way to London to join some theatrical
troupe like "Across the Sea" or "Old
Kentucky Home"
EXPLORING THE STEAMSHIP.
Today young friend of mine, an
American boy. took me on an explor-
ing tour out in the front OF this huge
boat. We stopped and watched the
furnaces, and the stroker shoveling
coal and culm into the big red holes,
That was too hot to look at long, and
we went on and visited the baker in his
little marble-fnished bake-room. We
talked with him awhile in very con-
fiding manner and at last succeeded in
caJoling him out of some delicious
small pastry, which we put in our
pockets while we went to see the
butcher and the other baker, with both
of whom we struck up an acquaintance
with well considered view to the
benefits which might arise therefrom
After 'jollying" these personages
rather Systematically we left with our
spoils and rejoined our party, causing
many mouths to water as we exhibited
our delicacies.
AS matter of fact we are all always
hungry. The perfect weather which
We have had has sharpened our
appetites, and we all wonder, when
one meal is done. what we shall have
for the next. At present we are wait
for our 0 o'clock p, m. lunch and are all
scattered about the saloon engaged in
various occupations. or in none at all
in most cases. before it comes on the
table. Our mild.syed French musical
critic is reading Herbert Spencer, every
once in while looking up to ask the
meaning of some English word like
'parson," or draw backs, which we
painstakingly explain to him, mostly