Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1902-12-18
VOYAGE OF FIVE DAYS
Enlivened by the Company Of
French Officers.
NEAR CONSTANTINOPLE
EXPLOITING KNOWLEDGE OF THE
ENGLISH LANGUAGE.
Amusing Blunders Made With the
Best of Good Inten-
tionS.
NEAR CONSTANTINOPLE
Written for The Evening Star.

Written for The Evening Star
There are several lines which regularly
run from Batoum to Constantinople by the
Black sea and also ships of other lines
which touch there on their way to Eng
land Germany and America. We preferred
very much to take a German, Russian or
Austrian steamer but one of the Mes
sageries Maritimes fell to our lot, as its
date of sailing suited plans and
voyage of five days in her proved to us
how very attentive and obliging French
officers can be when two women with
courier find themselves stranded on their
decks.
We were much disappointed to find that
the only stopping before Constantinople ex-
cept Novorissisk which we had already
seen and did not admire. was Sansoum,
small ancient town in Asiatic Turkey. and
that we were not to see Trebizond, which
we had been told was a very old walled
town of great interest. After leaving
Novorissisk and finding that the passenger
list had been increased from there only by
four French captains, we made up our
minds to make the best of 1t and we had
the greater part of the deck to ourselves,
brought out a lot of books and our writing
materials and turned the stern deck Into
sitting room. The captain very kindly
dered the maitre d'hotel to bring us two
deck chairs. which added greatly to our
II
present the four French officers saying that
they were very interesting and he hoped
would prevent our feeling that we were
leading a lonely life One of them proved
to be a very intellectual man. interested In
all the questions of the day, and his theories
in regard to the punishment of crime agree
ing in general with those of the celebrated
italian writer, interested greatly. His
definition of socialism the universal In
tereSt of man in men seemed to me very fine.
He and indeed they all laughed amiably at
m in moi "a
and they told us the story Of the English
men who on listening to some very beauti-
ful sacred music, exclaimed Que Jaime lie
sacre musiquei' When | asked one of them
II he had the real love for the sea, he said
Mails oui, Jaime la mer mais pas de tout
la belle mere"
room one day when the youngest of the
four came up and turning to me said quiet
ly, You are very good chap. CONNIE vous
dites en- Angaisi" l was rather astonished
for a moment may be ina gined-and then
looking at him saw that he had a perfect
~ serious expression of countenance. He
smiled and said a once in French, That is
what you say in English. is it metz
l was tremendously amused and it was a
long time before that young man heard the
last of his expedition into the English Ian
guage. The ships doctor prided himself on
his knowledge of English, but l found it
almost impossible to understand word
that he said.
One day they had all been making sug-
gestions for additions to my collection of
watch charms. made in many lands and
climes, and he was saying that l must sure
ly get at Constantinople the autograph of
the sultan, done in silver; that they were
to be found in the baZaars and made
very pretty charm. Then he added. in
French, II have the autograph as sigma
ture to my 'beel of ell at which he looked
proudly and at the same time inquiringly
at me, as who should say: Could the &C.
cert of that be equaled?' and then. 'Of
course you understands
His Bill of Health.
Alas. did not even know it was intended
TO be English and my face told that unwel-
come truth, | fear.
1T ees Eenglees" he said. You under
stand it not? Bee of el?' / had to con-
fess, but tried to soften the bitter blow by
saying. II dare say that l do not know
what it means, even in English" He, poor
little man. looked embarrassed and sug
gested that he would get it for me if l
cared TO it, at which | hastily and ear
nestly declared that nothing would or could
give me greater pleasure and a moment
later he presented me with huge sheet of
parchment on which l behed in large let
tiers, bill of health"
After that | think the nice little man
allied his deficiencies. and our few CONVEX
SationS carried in his native
tongue. There were two very funny char
acters aboard the ship, the maitre d'hotel
butler, and the stewardess, the former
huge. portly being with the appearance of
robust health, but who at odd times and
moments was taken violently i'll and upset
the whole ship. He appeared TO be the eve
lamb of both officers and crew, and when II
was reported that the maitre d'hotel was
low a cloud overspread the horizon of
our lives. The captain had always a twin
kle in his keen gray eyes when informed of
the miseres of his trusty servant but de-
CARED that the illness was not feigned,
though not OF a serious nature.
The stewardess was equally amusing.
very large person with shining counte-
nance. stayless figure and hoarse voice. She
was of an intensely curious nature, and re-
garded all of our possessions with the
greatest interest and ourselves with the
most open and whole-souled admiration,
which greatly amused us. / had brought
with me a rubber tub, which when folded
took up very little room in my luggage, but
opened out into a very satisfactory size. so
that | was able to take 81 daily cold bath
Of Black sea water. The first morning that
called her in to empty 1t for me she duly
did so. but did not at once return, so, as we
heard her strident tones outside our win
dow, our curiosity was aroused and we
looked out between the Stats of our shut
ter.
There sat one of the French captains. the
one we had had most to do with, and there
bv fore him stood the portly stewardeSs,
hands on hips. with my tub spread out In
front of her on deck. She was regarding II
with unbounded admiration, as she said In
raucous tones, "Chque ca. Ell! Those Eng
Nsh ladies must be very rich to own such an
article; and to take bath each morning
Cold, too, Mon Dleu!" and she shook her
head, and murmuring again. "Chque ca,
chr she seized the article in question and
entered the cabin.
A Study of Dialects.
We were taught phrases in the various
dialects of France, such as "Puyo eu terre,'
which means. in the language of Catalonia.
81 would like to go ashore" and we were
taught French conundrums, such as "Quelle
est lie difference entire un tigri at une POM
me cutie? L'un est conel, pautre nest pas
con elle"' and to conjugate the verb to sleep
-je doris. tn proice II voup!lle. nous pignons
une romance. vous etes sur lie flame. lis
tapent de loeiul.
More amusing than elegant. l dare say.
and we never. on any occasion, omitted TO
bring in. in some way, the Russian word for
no. "Nnnyet," they pronounce il. which
Is amusing when pronounced In Russian
fashion. and always caused laugM.
Finally we became very sangy. and /
was shocked to hear my staid and gentle
q. repeating after of the officers,
''Vous travaillez en- chapeau de paille.'"
Sansoum. which we reached on the morn
ing OF our last day at sea, has one of the
loveliest OF harbors. backed by low hills
and shaped like a shell.
she town Is very old and very Turkish
living N a grove Of slender white minar re.