Missouri Valley times. [volume] (Missouri Valley, Iowa) 1874-1931, 1901-07-11

very warm, with th. wind blowing
straight down, ii there was any wind
ut all on this point. w"nld not take
!: my oath. After leaving 'rangs abou
twelve hours one of our passengers
who has been very sick died. This
sent wave of curiosity through the
entire populace, the crew excepted. a
man To be buried at sea. This was
something new to the majority, can
assure you to us it was brand new.
We had never seen anything of the
kind and only had very faint idea of
how such performance would be
conducted. My curiosity was aroused
80 asked the ilicer in charge tor
permission to go into the hospital aud
see the corpse prepared for interment
My request was granted so will give
you description of how they went
about it. They had piece of heavy
canvas about twelve feet long and
four feet wide. which they laid out on
the floor. On this piece of canvas
they put two bars of iron weighing
about $50 pounds each. They placed
these bars of iron about twelve inches
apart on one end of the canvas then
placed the body between them. The
other end of the canvas is then pulled
over the irons and the body and sewed
together on the sides and bottom with
twme. They then take about 100 feet
of small rope and tie around this and
and everything is ready for the cere-
mony which Is very brief and then
over board. This man that died was
an Italian with no friends on board, so
1t seems by the rules of steamboat
companies that he was not entitled to
the plunge part of the ceremony. AT
least this man got none, but then he
was an Italian and this German
boat, therefore the German language
predOmlnates and he would not have
understood the ceremony had he re-
ceived it.
After leaving Tanga our next port
of call was Alden, which took us five
days from Tanga. Things progressed
smoothly until the 3Oth of April
when another of our passengers died
and we were once more called upon to
witness burial at sea. This time it
was German that died so he received
all of the above ceremony with the
plunge part thrown in. OF course, he
being q German could appreciate the
ceremony more than the Italian would
have done, so presume this is the
reason he received the additional part,
but ever with all the ceremony it is
far from being popular in my opinion.
About the only ones on board that
seemed to recognize this as proper
were the sailors who acted as under
taker. pallbearers, etc. Another thing
l noticed among the passengers was
"class." AS soon as the words passed
along, Passenger dead" the next was
"what class?" Of course this decided
whether or not we should put on our
mask of hypocracy. If first class the
mask must be doned Immediately.
If second, the mask can be worn par
TALLY or otherwise. If third class, no
mask required. / wondered at the
time this was going on if the sequel
was being played likewise at the other
end. l wonder when the departed one
knocked on the pearly gates above and
st. Peter has opened the wicket and
ascertained the name of the person in
waiting and what he required, did he
put tie question, "class, please?" But
such Is life.
We arrived at Alden on the lst of
May without any more deaths on
board. It was just about this time
that our little boy was taken i'll and
showed symptoms of fever. You can
imagine our feelings. Seeing others
die around us and knowing what be-
came of them was bad enough, but
when you bring it home to yourself
and yours it is quite different thing.
We took the child to the boats doctor
who spoke as good English as spoke
German. So we thought to facilitate
matters we would get an interpreter,
which we did, but the doctor told this
Interpreter that he spoke English as
we'll as he did. 1t is wonderful how
conceited these foreigners are. So we
we're left to fight it out with the doc
tor ourselves; that is, we were to talk
German and he English. Well, we
finally settled the thing. The doctor
tried his 18th century thermometer on
our darling and pronounced it fever
We had been hoping that it would be
nothing serious, but this dispelled
such hopes. l explained that the
child had been troubled with diarrhoea
and asked him ii he did not think hard
boiled eggs would be beneficial and he
said, "Oh yes, think he haf aches in
de stomach" l repeated eggs, not
aches, several times but he would have
1t aches, so we just let HIM play that
suit out. We then asked for new
deal which we got. but between him
talking English and me German we
made misdeal but we finally com.
promised on his decision that we
should return to our cabin and get
some hot water and battle his stomach
and feed him nestles food for tho rast