The Newtown bee., 1895-02-22

REV O. w. BARKER WRITES OF HIS FIX | PERIENCEs.-THE CAPTAIN OF THI i FRIEsLAND DECLARES IT THE WORST STORM HE EVER FACED.
 If you wish to see commotion and hur. ly-burly at it's height, if you wish to hear truckmen swear-a thing you do not us. ually have to travel very far to hear-ii you wish to see sensible and sedate peo. pie say the oldest and do the funniest things, just, my friend, go down along the wharves of New York some day and witness big ocean steamer loose from her moorings. Four hundred and forty six was the number of passengers listed on the roll of the Friesland, but anoth. CT figure would have to be added to ex- press the number who came down to the pier to wish the 446 a bon voyage and to start them rejoicing CD their way. The Eoble ship Paris loosed from the same pier some 20 minutes before the Fries land, and the friends of the voyagers on | both steamers made mighty throng. Trunks trunks trunks they confront ed you in great heaps everywhere; you would say the passengers were carrying all their effects with them instead of the | short list of articles suggested in the printed itinerary as all that were neces- ! sary for the voyage. It would seem, too, as if roses were blooming everywhere in the open air instead of being sold by the florists at 10 cents and more apiece, when the display of floral mementos as farewell gifts to friends was seen in the cabin be- low.
 Well, at last,
 THE WORD TALL ASHORE"
 was given for the hundredth time, and the hawsers began to be loosened. The last sight remember on the dock was a gentleman (who I afterwards learned was minister) blowing a tin horn at least six feet long, young man crowd ing dangerously near the piers edge to say for the 50tn time "Good bye" to a charming young lady on the promenade deck (you can judge the relation between them), and another young man. looking very mournful, who kept saying to a group of"friends, ''Oh, how I would like to go! Oh, don't wish that could go .''
 But, my friends, you will soon begin to wish that I would go, really get start ed, if you are to follow me on my way. Well, we did go, just at II o'clock on "Wednesday morning, February 6, and as merry party, ween, as ever sailed the ocean blue. It was good time to be leaving the north and be making for the warm waters of the south, for in New I ork people were shivering in an atmos- phere six degrees below zero and every mile on our course showed a mercury creeping gradually up.
 Life is full of strange contrasts. It is nothing new to say that, but sometimes you see an old truth illustrated very viv- idly in new way. That is what we did. All day Wednesday and until Thursday noon even the merest tyro in navigation could not have asked for smoother sea. 1T have been on the ocean many times, and I never saw anything so calm as this," said one. 'This is 8 wonderfully smooth voyage for this coast" remarked another. The band Of young musicians who were now taking their first trans. atlantic trip,
 PLAYED YANKEE DOODLE AND oTHEF
 GAY TUNES;
 and all seemed going as merry as a mar riage bell. But now came the contrast When boy in school I learned of Cape Fear and Cape Lookout on the North Carolina coast, but their names might as well have been Cape Calm and Cape l Tranquility for any suggestion of storm to me. They are stormy points, though I'fl wager my honor on that statement hereafter. Yesterday mornings caln was followed by cyclone. Every body save the poor sailors and officers who had to weather it out, went to his berth and stayed there. One of the life boat: was staved in by the waves; the steamer chairs were smashed in a thousand pieces; one old gentleman, the president of New York bank, whose 10th birth day is to day learn, was so unfortunate as to be thrown down on the deck anG break his leg; young man was hurled against the rail and appeared tonight q the table with face wound with ban dages. All night long the groans of th sick and battered were heard. Some criet 70 I4ord,'' and some were not quite S reverent in their cry for help. Things il the racks in ones stateroom had a yer. queer fashion of getting out and takinI flying trips through the air. Most al night was spent in a
 WILD ENDEAyoR TO STAY IN ONES BERTE
 when old Neptune seemed determined t land every passenger on his back on tn floor. The captain, understand, de
 clares this is the worst experience he ha
 had at sea, and am quite willing not t
 repeat the experiment again. 1 ono
 used to wonder if a man in good healt
 and little disposed to melancholy coul
 ever come to the point where he woul
 declare that life is not worth living. am convinced now that the only cond , tion requisite to bring any man into tha despairing state is to give him a genuin , dose of nal de mer.
 But all life is not storm. Now ou good ship is riding at anchor in smoot ! waters of'the Bermuda Islands. Yonde over moonlit track of waters shines th |