Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1900-09-01
ON The AMERICAN RHINE


realization" remarked q sun-browned young
Washington matron. who recently returned
from her vacation, sis often dismal enough.
but can't remit nber that the contrast was
ever forced updn me so acutely as it was
last Sunday. fy husband and decided
to stop over IN New York on Sunday in
order to take a. boat ride up the Hudson.
Neither Of us had ever voyaged on the
Americap Rhir1a, so you can conceive with
what pleasurable anticipation we looked
forward ho th6Etrip. We found an ad In
the papers setting forth very rosily the
delights ef the trip to West Point on
beat that was booked to leave her pier at
the convenient hour Of 9:30 am, and to
return to-the city at 1880 pm. this giving
passengers, as the ad. stated, an oppor-
tunity to see the-cadets at dress parade at
the Point, and four or five hours OF leisure
In which to wander around the enyirons OF
the Military Academy. 1t all read beauti-
iuliy and my husband and l were on hand
to take the boat at $50 on Sunday morn
Ing. The boat was an hour late in arriving
from another pier the East river, and
when she did finally pull into the North
river pier where we waited she was loaded
down with as motley crew OF queer, quite
un-Amer1can persons as can be imagined.
We hung back a trifie before deciding to go
aboard, but as we had set out to make
the trip we at length went over the gang
OIL the surroundings on the boat.
1t did not take US long to find however,
that there was going to be no enjoyment
for us on that trip. The beer kegs had
boats trip, early in the day as 1t was. and
things began to happen on all decks fast
and furiously. 1t really seemed as If the
whole crowd on the boat had come straight
from the tenement districts. Incredible
1t may seem. we barely heard word OF
English spoken or calculated or even sworn
ON that boat from the time we boarded her
until We left her breathing fervent thanks
g1vings. Every known language, I verify
believe, was shouted and bawled except En-
glish. The boat had not proceeded as far
as fonkerS before there were half a dozen
tights on the saloon deck between drunken
rowdies. and the air was filed with bot
ties and glasses on the lower deck. Hun
dreds of babies-queer dwarfed dark-look-
ing babies-seemed to be yelling all at once.
After the boat left Yonkers the mothers
of these babies seemed to unanimously de-
eide to take A hand in the squabbles that
were constantly breaking out among the
men, and then ensued an fndescribable scene
OF tumult and scratching and hair-pulling,
such as I had often read about In connec-
ton with the Coney Island boats, but sure
ly never dreamed Of seeing on Hudson
river steamer. At one time 1t actually
seemed as II every man, woman and child
OF the 1000 and odd passengers on the boat
were pulling and hauling and banging away
at each other at once. My husband, when
he saw the drift Of things, went in search
Of the purser, whom he found with very
great difficulty, and engaged an unspeak-
ably hot, stuffy stateroOm. There was no
such thing as staying on deck with the
brawling crowd, however, and so the sti-
fling stateroom was the lesser Of the two
evils. So we saw the Hudson-one side of
1t, that is-through q little foot-and-a-half
window, and right glad we were to be shell
tered from the flying missiles even under
such dismal and uncomfortable circum-
stances.
Instead Of making the trip in three
hours. 1T took the boat six hours to reach
Its destination. I positively believe that the
boat was run at half-speed, in order that
the bar should have greater patronage
Then. after six weary hours in that awful
steaming stateroom, the boat didn't land
at West Point at all. The government, it
seems, doesn't permit excursion boats to
land at the West Point pier on Sundays
The landing was made at pier about two
miles below West Point, and we FASTENED
ashore. and the boat went on to another
landing place farther up. AS we stepped
off we we're warned by man at the gang
way that the boat would be back to pick
UP those who got off at West Point'-just
as II 1t was West Point where we got off,
in an hour. We just had time to be drag
ged up toffhe top Of hill in a ramshackle
bus andht get miserable. soggy apol-
ogy for meal1at wretched little frame
hotel. when my husband found, by con-
sulting l1fs watch, that 1t was time for us
to get back to tho boat landing. We didn't
get within two miles of the Military Acad-
envy, nor did we have 50 much as a view
through fieid glasses Of the cadets at dress
parade The trip back on the boat-which
also, for bar purposes took six hours-was
even worse than the trip up, and 1t looked
to me- on going aboard. as If half the men
on the boat had their bruised heads tied up
in soied handkerchiefs
"At IL o'clock at night. hot, tired and
thoroughly disguised, the boat pulled into
slip at Harlem, and my husband and 1
were glad indeed to get off. AS we passed
up the long pier to reach the cars we walk
ed alongside what surely must have been
one of the most beautiful steam yachts in
the world. It was tied up at the pier al
though we could that steam was being
gotten up for her departure. We could see
the magnificent furnishings of the yacht
through the open ports. In the after part
of her was the dining room, and through
the ports we saw about a dozen of the
yachts guests at dnner-the dining room
furnished In old rose and the table covered
with la France roses. The contrast between
all of that magnifcence and the miserable
filthy boat that we had just left was too
much for US, and We just stood on the pier
and laughed and held our sides. until. I
suppose. the other folks on the pier thought
We were insane"
A Careful TRAVELLER.