Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1900-06-07
OFF FOR EUROPE
Scenes on the Dock When a Big
Liner SAILS.
INCIDENTS 'DROLL AND PATHETIC
Plenty Of Amusement for People
Who Stay Behind.
A SIG HIT WORTH SEEM
A SIGH ORTIZ SEEM


Special Correspondence of The Evening Star.
NEW YORK, June &. 1900
Notwithstanding the reports which re-
turned travellers bring that the Paris eX
position is a frost and that it is not to be
mentioned in the same breath with the in
comparable worlds fair at Chicago in '9:i.
every liner that pulls out of her slip here
aboutS is packed to the gunls these days.
Even the freight steamships and the
tramp vessels bound for English or
French ports are giving passage across the
Atlantic to merry parties who only made
up their minds to take in the French fair
when it was too late for them to secure
passage on the greyhounds. A jolly stag
party of club men from Philadelphia even
took passage the other day on one of the
cattle steamers bound for Glasgow The
cattle steamers deck works We're over
hauled for them. a chef as is a chef was
shipped for the voyage, divers and sundry
dozens of boxes of damp. cheering goods
We're deposited in the hold and away went
the cattle steamer with several thousands
of much-perturbed steers booing at each
other down in the hold and some sixty of
the jeunesse doree of the Quaker town sky
larkins on the main deck.
A magnificent English full-rigged ship in
the China trade dropped in here in ballast
about two weeks ago to overhaul before
and party of neatly hundred New York
ers, composed largely of yachtsmen from
up around Larchmont way. are going to
Hull in her, en- route to Paris, when she
gets under way next week. A couple of
weeks ago one of the big. slow liners-a
pretty comfortable old craft even if she
is classed as Il ten-day boat'-took away
from here a party of nearly 500 farmers
and their families from Minnesota, Wiscon-
sin and the two Dakotas, all bound for
Paris-which. by the way. seems to spell
agricultural prosperity with capital Z.
does it not?
A Great Oversight.
Through some dismal oversight or mis-
apprehension, or something. the New York
green goods men and bunco artists and
gold brick purveyors and confidence viz
tuosi did not hear that the northwestern
farmers We're in this neighborhood until
the tillers of the soil were all safely en-
barked on the steamer, and the lamenta-
tons of the cheerful workers over this
golden opportunity lost have been sorrow
full to listen unto ever since.
The scenes and incidents on the pier
when one Of the great liners is about to de-
part are SO diverting that lot of persons
who have little or no hope of ever raising
the price of ride to the other side them
selves commonly go down to the docks to
partake of the general air of excitement
and to study, more or less enviously, the
voyagers about to embark. For several
hours De1DTe the departure OF one OF the
big liners the piers are full of life. move
ment, fun: comedy enough, and pathos,
too. The general types of ocean voyagers
do not vary from year to year.
The Experienced Traveller.
The finished, blase voyager, who strolls
down to the pier in morning suit,
swinging a walking stick, gets lot of at
tention from the dock spectators. He APP
pears to think no more of trip across the
big water than the ordinary, workaday
citizen does of a ride on a ferry boat. He
is in no hurry. He has had his luggage in
stalled on board the boat in good season,
and he doesn't step over the gangplank
until all hands not passengers. have been
ordered ashore. He spends his time walk
ing around and chatting with the folks he
knows on the pier who are down to see
friends off.
few minutes before the lines are to he
cast off he yawns behind his hand, shakes
hands all around in a weary sort of way,
and slowly climbs the gangplank. 1t is al.
an old. old story to him. and his whole
manner is that of a man who would prefer
to be sitting in some cozy club corner, away
from all the hustle and excitement that
mark the departure of an ocean liner.
There are imitation blase men a-plenty,
but the chap who is able to exhibit genuine
yawns twenty minutes before embarking on
a boat that is to take him overseas is the
bona fide article. and one cannot help but
wonder. In watching him. if he really gets
enough fun out of life to make it all worth
while.
\ Serious Matter.
In singular contrast to this type is the
fussy husband and father, who darts
around the pier in a perspiration of fear
lest his family's baggage hasn't been prop
erly bestowed. runs back and forth from
the ship to the dock twenty times in the
course of half an hour questions all of the
vessels officers on the dock as to the exact
instant of sailing, shakes hands with every
body he knows on the pier half dozen
times over mops his forehead, gaZes appre-
hensively at the skies for signs of bad
weather, tells everybody he knows that ne
knows he's going to be sick for three days
he always is, you know-and makes a
general figure of fun of himself. If his wife
is as fussy himself the Indebtedness
the pair are able to cause in the boSomS of
all the ships officers, not to speak of all
the lines employees on the dock, Is not to be
depicted in words.
A Hilarious Farewell.
The rich young collegian, who is setting
out to do his grand tour upon graduation,
is nearly always on hand at this season.
He is generally accompanied to the pier by
a score or so of his classmates, who have
been dining him unremittingly for a week
or more, and the noise they make in see
ing him off right is a caution. They sur
round him on the pier every three or Tour
minutes and cast up to him little incidents
connected with his university career, and
then they dance ring-around-rosy and give
him three and tiger under the director
ship of the master of ceremonies whenever
they are consumed by an imperative long
Ing to yell-which is often enough to keep
the pier rafters ringing. Then they rush
him almost into the water and rescue him
from the danger with victorious shouts.
Then they all solemnly warn him of the
dangers and pitfalls Of the Moulin Rouge
and cheer him some more. Then they all
Chamber up the gangplank with him in or
der to watch his face when he goes to his
cabin and finds that it has been ornately
decorated with carrots and turnips and
spinach and cabbages in place of the flow
ers affected upon such occasions by persons
less light of spirit When the vessel pulls
out of the pier they are all aligned on the
very edge of the dock, and the roar they
set up when their departing classmate ap-
pears on the steamers rail and makes faces
at them browns all other sounds Not in
frequently they throw their hats and their
canes into the water in the wake of the
slowly moving steamer, which renders 1t
necessary for such enthusiasts to go across
the street when 1t is all over and purchase
atrocious headpieces Of the 'longshoremen
sort and wear the same until they reach
their rooms or district where civilized
hats are sold.
SILK Hats and Diamonds.
The Tammany man about to embark gets
-f--Vr AVID fIl