Waterbury evening Democrat., 1895-05-23
SEEING PEOPLE OFF.
GOING DOWN TO SEA IN SHIPS AND
 COMING IN.
The Speed For the Parting Friend and the Welcome For the Coming Ons-The Over due vesseI-GIad to Go and Glad to Get Back.
Especial Correspoudence.l l

Especial Correspondence.l
 NEW YORK, May 21-"From seeing people of to Europe or elsewhere-good Lord deliver us!'
 The remark came from a most mild and reverent little woman. Who could blame herr The thermometer was high, and the pier was like wooden oven, the sun was in her eyes, the sickly swish of the muddy looking water against the pier was in her ears, and she was left behind.
 wonder if the fortunate holiday taker appreciates to the full the self sacrifice of the friend who goes down to the wharf in summers heat or in winters storms to say "goodby."
 It is such a sad, unsatisfying task. You may like the friend very much and hate to see him go; that's one draw back. If the voyager is a woman, you arc laden down with flowers, and you take many messages you never can attend to, and make many promises you never can keep. Moro than this, you want very much to go away your self. The sight Cf the hurrying officers in their blue and brass, the chatter of life aboard ship, the natty looking middy caps and fore and afts on tho passengers, all in spire you with n sudden desire, or make an old longing moro potent, to go down to tho sea in a ship.
 Life at homo in the old, familiar chan ncls seems grubhy thing at best-a pros poet of Broadway before you when your soul thirsts for Piccadilly, and Manhattan Beach when you want to hear how the pret- ty speech of Franco sounds at Trouville.
 And then when the big hulk glldes out of the haven into the sunlit narrows, and you wave your handkerchief until your arm achcs what Is there left? Why, you must steal away, one of a crowd of discon- tented people, hot, half angry, uncomfort able, burning tears on your heart if not in your eyes, if tho departed is loved one, and the query, "What if amid the strange chances of life this should have been the last goodby?'
 Somehow tho cars seem moro stuffy on that day than on any other More people step on your toes, New York looks ugly, unintcrcsting, sordid, and not until you have had n good cry does relief come.
 Very different is the meeting of a ship carrying precious cargo.
 People who arc scarcely friends, or who have but negative fondncss for you, go down to sce you sail, but only those bound by tho secure ties of relationship or love bother to watch for tho ships arrival and get up, perhaps in tho chill dawn, to wei come you back.
 An, there is happiness in this! There is joy! Who cares if the matutinal cup of coffee must De forcgonc? Who cares if one has to hustle into ones clothes while clccp is still heavy in the eyes?
 "She is coming home today. Today I'll ! sec her n. ain, the young man says, or the old man either for that matter. Why, t,Eit ride down town in the gray light. when VHly rurisrtmCn in jumpers arc ahroa|, i' El,rifir,l for you. You get | to the pi-r;nd find your.a If, as you think, | first thyrr. Tilr old tl,ckmastcr smiles iuwardly at your impatirnco as you ask:
 "Ias shc been sighted really? I got q telegram last night, but you never can be | sure of the CTa"t time
 "Oh, yrs; she's lying off quarantine. 1 she'll hr lIp an hour "r sn from now, I | guess, .Eo says carrr~>ly.
 Do yul. mind waiting hu hourY Why, | bless you, not in tho least! You take pO- sition well out on the wharf, surprised to | find that thrrc arc others like you in the world-20 others maybc-all looking to- ward tho bluo perspective with that sOf- tened expression of happy waiting on their | faces,
 And what comradcShip there is between you all! You awkwardly knock n wom- | ans paraSol out of her hand. Sho smiles, and as you pick it up asks who you arc | expecting? Shes waiting for her husband, | and he's been gone six weeks. Another a | littlo mother in mourning stands very | quietly, her arm around a little girl. She is waiting for an elder daughter who has been absent a year. who was i'll for two months in Paris, and whom she had hard l ly dared hopc to sec again.
 And then the ship turns tho corner, pass ing under big Libcrty's gracious shadow. l As it comes on, stately and slow, every eye 1 is strained to mako out the familiar face among the crowd on deck. You hear little shricks all around you: "Thcrc she is!'' II know his bald head" "Oh, mother, how arc you? Glad to get hack?"
 Tho conversation, passionatcly eager md sometimes hystcrical, takes place from deck to wharf long before the gangplank is thrown.
 Ah, very sweet is the welcoming of the rover,
 II think the most tragic sight in life, '' said a ships agent to mo, lis watching the faces of tho crowd hcsicging m office | when a vessel is incxplicably overdue. Why, it would break your heart if you didn't harden it to brass! I've seen women faint when news of disaster arrived; I've l seen them shrick and question Gods mcr. l cy oh, tho horror of thinking of a dear ono lost in the black, cold ocean! But | with good nCwS-with the anxiety relieved --ah, well, it's worth living to sec the smile upon human lips I saw on an old woInan's facr only two months ago.
 "'GOd bless you for thOSO words" she said to mo in q quiet. trembling voice Somehow Two felt d better man ever since. '
 EVELYN MALCOLM