People's voice. [volume] (Wellington, Sumner County, Kansas) 1890-1917, 1894-09-14
Jennie HarIoWe.
BY ". CLARK RUSSELL.
CHAPTER |.


had felt poorly and low for some
time. Nobody could say what was
the matter with me, but no doubt
my general tone, as the doctors term
it, had been depressed to a greater
degree than | was conscious of, first
OF all by the anxieties of a tedious
lawsuit, and next by the death OF my
dear mother, whose only son | was
and with whom | had lived without
a days separation since the death of
my father ten years previously. |
emptied many bottles of tonic, but to
no purpose; | passed some weeks at
the seaside; | went on a holiday tour
through France aud Switzerland
for | was an idle man with means
sufficient to enable me to do as |
pleased and 90 where | chose but
nothing came of my search after
health; my spirits continued low,
and the feeling of poOrliness re-
NAMED with me.
At last one day the old doctor who
had attended my father and mother
throughout their married life adj
vised me to go a voyage round the
world.
"lOur little excursions, said he.
''are OF no use. In nv OpinlOn Won
want at least year of ocean life.
In voyage round the world
you are perpetually shift
ing the temperature, you are inces-
sanity breathing winds which blow
from all quarters of the globe; you
are carried into totally new sphere
of life where everything is fresh and
stirring, where every condition OF
shore existence wears new face.
My advice to you then, Christopher.
is to take ship and sail away"
What | am about to tell you hap
pened in the year 1918. Among the
vessels named in the shipping lists
of the day as bound to Sydney, New
South Wales, was a craft of 700 tons
called the Lady Charlotte. " Hcl
date suited me the best of all the
others contained in the list, and
chose her for that aud for no Othel
reason. | called upon her owner in
Fenchurch street, who told me that
the lady Charlotte was not adver-
tised as passenger vessel; that if
looked at the advertisement again
would see that it referred to hel
wholly as loading a freight for such
and such port; but that as there
were one or two spare cabins aft
Was welcome to sail in her at mod
crate charge, though | should GER
tainly be the only passenger on boar(
and must therefore not expect the
sort of table that was provided BY
the liners The very conuition o
my health made me seem TO fine
something agreeable in the prospec
of such privacy may say of sucf
isolatiOn-as was offered here.
A fortnight later | joined the shil
at Gravesend. The excitemen
raised in me by the prospect of ;
long voyage, coupled with the hurry
and business of preparing for my de
parture, which took me away from
thinking of myself, had already don,
me good, and when | stepped OF
board | already seemed to fee
stronger, as though there was a vir
tue in the very deck of the ship tina
penetrated the system with a quality
of life and healing | was mucl
charmed by the truly dainty picture
the vessel made as she la strainins
lightly at her cable upon the silve
surface OF the river that was fowins
softly from London to the sea- Tn,
white and gold of her side strucl
the reflection of delicate, marble
like form into the white CLEAN il
which she rested motiOnless a
though in an expanSe of quicksilver
The still, yet moving. waters CAV
back the image of her spars and rig
cling, with L streak OF red at the in
verted peak and sparkle as of golt
deep down where the gilded vane a
the main royalmasthead found
mirror for itself. The captain
name was William Christian; he wa
a little man of dry and comica
cast of cOuntenance. His lips con
tiLuouSly lay apart in an odd sort 0
twist that was funny, though mirth