Perrysburg journal. (Perrysburg, Wood Co., O. [Ohio]) 186?-1965, 1896-03-21
FROM OVER THE SEA.
SCHOBNEBERG. GERMANY,
MARCH Z lSuR

MARCH 3, 1876
In my last letter | left off with "sight
seeing in New York; I did not how
ever get to see much except some Of
the great public buildings. Fulton
Market which comprises II whole block
and where all kinds of meat, game and
fish can be seen; then we took walk
oyer the big Brooklyn bridge which
gives a good birdseye view OF the city
of New York.
SatNrday, Feb. Is, I left on the Mas
dam. a fine steel steamer 425 feet long,
with 5000 horse power, triple engine
and capacity for 500 first and second
and 900 third class passengers.
Leaving the dock at HobolSen at 8 u.
m. we passed Sandy Hook at 1880 and
at 3 p. m. were out of sight OF land, the
weather was fine and cool south wind
blowing hard enough to set the ship to
rolling so we could not walk the deck
very we'll and enough to make some of
the passengers dispose of their dinner
through their teeth" singing "N-e-w
York" BY night the sea had in
creased enough to give the decks an
occasional wash, thus we rolled along
until Wednesday, Feb 10, when it
rained all day and the wind increased
to a storm so we were obliged to re-
main below, thus it blew all day Thurs.
day, and Friday it was little better but
by Sunday we had fine weather so that
we could be on deck all day.
Feb. "a, at $3.50 a. m. we passed the
big light tower at the Scilly islands
which was the first land we had seen in
eight days.
Feb. %, at 6 p. m, we were abreast
Holland Hook and cast achor and wait
ed for the tide to come in, here the Off.
GERS came aboard and examined our
luggage.
Feb. 90, q. m. we entered the dock at
Rotterdam and at $50 they gave us
breakfast and at o'clock were taken
to the railroad depot, it was about FIVE
minutes ride free of charge, one OF the
Company's officers going with us and
and also acting as interpreter, which was
very kind as it did not leave US at the
mercy of sbarpers aud swindlers. The
Maasdam carried Holland crew OF So
men and 103 passengers, among them
was one of the eleven survivors of the
second rescuing party who went in
search of the Greedy explorers. He
tells OF being frozen in the ice three
months and nearly starving until they
were rescued. One OF the party was
caught stealing food three different
times for which he was shot and his
flesh was consumed by the rest of the
party to keep from starving. We also
had on board shipment" of Russian
Poles and Russian Polish Jews that
were not allowed to land in New York
but were sent back to their native land.
Some OF them had with them some of
the finest bred "live stock" 1 ever saw.
have secured pair of them and will
bring them with me when l return
and put them on exhibition at the farm.
I have always heard that the steerage
passengers being obliged to go to the
kitchen on deck for their meals and
get wet and all that, which was not the
case with us, our meals were brought
to us and we got good food and plenty
of it. The beds however were rather
mlserly, the mattress (?l was about 10
inches wide, made of Burlap coffee
sacking) and filled with marsh hay, the
Feather" pillows were made of the
same material aud as big as a lady's
muff. The officers and crew were very
civil and all was we'll. In my next let
ter l will tell what l haye seen here.
There has been but very little snow
here this winter and the weather is
cold and damp now.
Yours truly,
j. j. KLEEBERGER.